As soon as the bullet left the chamber, John pried the card from the twitching, dead hand of the man he had just killed.

  Knowing that he would be placed in stasis not to awake until the start of the final, he hurriedly shoved the card into his solar plexus. He had to make sure he had it inside of him before the purple light came back.

  There was no way he was going to lose out by hesitating.

  Never look a gift card in the mouth, he thought as he felt a pleasant, yet simultaneously overwhelming, burning sensation in the spot where he’d shoved the card.

  Card Acquired:

  Adamantite-Lite

  This card makes you hard.

  John furrowed his brow as he read the description, Baz had told him it was a magnetism power. He’d expected to become gunslinging Magneto and instead his new power was more likely to make him Wolverine’s clawless half-brother.

  “What the-”

  ***

  Truffle followed Kesh through the back alleys of the space arena, it was a Star Wars esq rat run of open pipes, metal prefabs and dirty, hidden streets full of robots and weird aliens.

  Moreover, the tannoy never stopped going off. The Jovial Announcer’s voice rang out across the entire stadium and it was so loud he could barely think.

  They’d left shortly after John’s first victory and had been squeezing through tight alleyways and avoiding patrols of armour-clad guards ever since.

  Truffle had hoped to be back in his box in time for Boss’ second match, but at least he got to listen to the play by play as they snuck around the dirty underbelly of the arena ship.

  Aaaannnndd we have a winnnneeerr! In a dramatic twist John Doe has secured his spot in the final, besting BazzleDazzle69 and putting an end to his tom foolery with a nice, neat bullet to the head. What a show folks, we can only hope that the finals are even more enjoyable.

  Kesh looked back at Truffle with a discerning glance, “human take first blood.”

  “I can’t believe we missed it,” the pig sulked, “he’s going to be so hurt when he finds out I didn’t watch his match.”

  “Fight important, levelling up more important,” Kesh replied.

  She really has a way with words, Truffle sighed internally.

  “How long is this going to take? I want to be back in time for the finals and we’ve been gone ages.”

  “Almost there now, had to sneak, outside help not allowed till second round… usually,” she turned back and winked. “Our little secret.”

  Continuing through the cluttered, steamy back alley, Truffle trotted easily through the hidden parts of the ship which reminded him of one of those old platform games he’d seen John play. Meanwhile Kesh had to clamber and squeeze through everything. The orc looked comically awkward attempting to sneak through passages, yet she handled it masterfully.

  I wonder if she’s done this before.

  Kesh dipped to the side and Truffle followed as she squeezed past one last protruding metal pipe with ominous steam leaking from its shaft and they found themselves on a still cramped, but much wider, street.

  “Contact meet us here,” Kesh said, “I activate message device, just a moment.”

  “Cool, so why is levelling up so secretive?” Truffle asked, passing the dirty street awkwardly as he looked around through shifty eyes.

  “Levelling not taboo, outside help taboo. Against rules.”

  “Until round two I know, but if we have to come back to a spaceship every time we want to level isn’t that going to get a bit awkward?”

  Kesh raised her eyebrows, or more accurately: the skin above her eyelids as she didn’t actually have eyebrows. “Level up usually happen planet side, this just one off.”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “How does it even work?” Truffle asked, irritation creeping into his voice, he hated trapsing through the metal jungle with Kesh.

  Adventure was his middle name, but not without John. It felt wrong that Boss was fighting for his life and Truffle was off somewhere scheming with Kesh. He hated it, though he knew it would be helpful in the end. He couldn’t help Boss from his VIP box, but a level increase would help later.

  “Need levelling stone, can be bought with shards, gifted from sponsor, stolen, won, or found in wild planet side. Much harder to get on spaceship. Very illegal.”

  “Are you sure it’s ok that you’re helping me?” Truffle asked, suddenly forgetting his concerns for John and gaining new ones for Kesh. “Won’t you get in trouble?”

  “Only if caught,” she said with a playful wink.

  “But won’t that Chairman guy know, won’t the show runners notice when I return from the arena at a higher level?”

  “System no care, showrunners no proof, victimless crime little one, you no need to worry.”

  With a deep sigh Truffle relented and a hooded creature popped its head out from a nearby building. The building itself was a jumble of mixed metals and clangy piping. All the buildings around the stadium were. Truffle was surprised at first to find out that the arena ship was home to over 200,000 residents.

  Kesh had explained that it took so much work to man the place that it was basically a floating city centred around a stadium.

  Apparently it was common across the galaxy for employees to live on corporate ships, especially those working in retail and hospitality.

  Alien races took the phrase the customer is always right to a whole other level. Most stores and facilities were twenty-four hours with employees on hand at all times. The arena ship was no exception and its inhabitants mostly lived in shanty prefabs, eating astronaut food from toothpaste tubes. Or at least that was Truffle’s interpretation.

  “Kesh?” The hooded creature said, its cloak covering a distinctly nonhuman shape. “You got the shards?”

  She nodded, “you got merchandise?”

  The hooded fellow nodded as well.

  Watching them make the exchange reminded Truffle of a movie he’d watched with Mistress Anne once. Except for the part where the hooded figure poked a tentacle out from under his cloak, that definitely didn’t happen in the movie – at least not in that movie.

  He had seen Boss watch a tentacle movie on his laptop once which he slammed shut when Mistress Anne came home, she was never a big fan of seafood.

  Once the transaction was complete Kesh turned back to Truffle and opened her three-pronged trotter to reveal an amber gemstone that glimmered enticingly even in the low light of the back passages.

  “Ooh pretty,” he said, eyes transfixed on the shining jewel in an otherwise dreary place. “How do I do it?”

  “Do back in VIP box, messy process.”

  ***

  Opening his eyes to the fading violet light, John woke with a start and instinctively drew his twin revolvers.

  Looking around frantically, he was somewhat perturbed by what he saw in front of him. He had been expecting the finals to start as soon as he awoke from stasis but instead he found himself back in Truffle’s VIP box. Did he finally have some down time? That was useful.

  I guess I didn’t need to shove the card in so carelessly after all, he thought as he walked up the short flight of stairs which led to the main viewing room.

  Having some time to work out how his new card worked would be useful. Joanna had a while to master her skills and if he had any chance of beating her he’d need to understand Adamantite-Lite almost as well as he did Frontier Justice.

  Two cards in his deck meant that he was halfway to being able to cross the threshold to the next level of the game, he sighed in relief upon realising that.

  It felt like so long since he’d arrived in Battle Royale’s version of Earth and found his first card that he was beginning to wonder if he’d ever actually find a second one.

  Of course in reality it had only been four days and he’d been in stasis for a lot of that, but so much had happened. Maybe the stress was getting to him, it was a shame that he hadn’t unlocked a stress management skill, now that would be a welcome addition to his collection of cheat skills that no one else had.

  He still wondered about that, why did he have a skills section on his stat sheet when Buck had told him that mode of the game was changed eons ago?

  More pressingly, what was he going to do with a skin hardening card? Magnetism would have been useful, he could have guided his own bullets to their targets, he could have accurately shot people from behind cover, he would have become immune to any metal weapons or projectiles.

  Now I think about it, that power would be way too OP. No wonder Baz lied to me about it.

  The worst thing was that by tricking him into thinking it was a magnetism power, he’d almost won. If John had continued to open fire he would have eventually realised it was a skin hardening trick. John had to assume that Baz literally caught his bullet, which was an impressive feat in its own right.

  Lies and deceit cost nothing I guess, well played. I wonder how he fired it back at me though.

  Thankfully, once a card entered the solar plexus the recipient gained some innate knowledge on how to activate the power. Though that was a far cry from an in-depth explanation or instruction manual, it was better than nothing.

  Perhaps Kesh had more insight into the card, Buck had mentioned that most of them had been seen before in previous games.

  Trapsing up the stairs, he decided to ask her. Truffle would be glad to see him, it had only been ten minutes of fighting for John, but his teacup pig had watched multiple fights and been awake during the change overs as well.

  He was probably worried.

  “Truffle, guess who’s back,” he called as he reached the top of the stairs, “Truffle?”

  Exiting onto the viewing floor he realised that no one was around. Food was laid out, empty drinking bowls were strewn all over the place and the sofa was off centre, but there was no one there.

  “You’d better not be in any trouble,” John said to himself.

  Where was Kesh? She was supposed to be watching him.

  Kesh!

  The meddlesome orc had expressed an interest in Truffle. She wanted to help him; she thought he was one of her people. Though she’d told John that she couldn’t kidnap him and he had to survive the game.

  She wouldn’t have lied when he’d been willing to help her. If Kesh could have gotten Truffle far away from Battle Royale to live a happy life John would have jumped at the chance to help her. He told her as much.

  I would have helped her wouldn’t I?

  No, something else was going on.

  The question was: should he go looking for them or wait until they came back?

  It’s more important for me to practice with this new card. Truffle is with Kesh, he’ll be alright… I hope.