Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

2.20 Stake Out

When Dave Lupe contacted Flora, she had finished her first cleaning cabinet. With the help of the rune-scheme provided by the church, she pushed the rating to S, even with only A-rated materials. She ordered Aidan to print twelve of them for the Soup Kitchen and logged out.

"We have all the information the two Ophree's can provide, Ma'am," Dave said.

"Honestly, I'm astonished that it really was the Dull Spoons. They even wrote their own name on the wall in the shrine." Flora said.

"Yes, it took me a while to get used to this world as well. The batches and Loggys make it hard to keep your identity secret, so many smalltime criminals won't even try but go in the other direction and flaunt their names."

"So, what do we do now?" Flora asked.

"We have access to the communication system the Dull Spoons used to contact Sulfur Lyon and the location for the drop of point for captured clergy. We'll use it as a trap."

"How do we handle the situation if he is a player? We can do nothing to him... not that we would." Flora asked.

"Abducting people is a crime in the Cradle. If we rat him out to the guards, he will get jail time." Dave said patiently.

"We just killed a bunch of people. That's kind of worse, isn't it? And now we are pressuring the Ophrees to go along with our plan. My AI might even have tortured one of them."

"Criminals are free for all. The nice thing about the Cetviwos is that you get always notified if you break any laws. Did you get a system message about breaking the Code of Civilisation?"

"I don't think so." To be sure, Flora asked Aidan, who agreed. "However, I wasn't warned before I had to pay fines for speeding and ... let's call it improper scientific experimentation... no, that sounds worse than what I've done... I just tested the walls of a water dome."

"You got ripped off, Ma'am." Dave grinned wrily.

Flora groaned. While she got a kick out of playing along with cons, she didn't enjoy being a victim.

"I don't think that is what happened, Milady." Aidan transmitted to Flora. "The speed limit does exist, and the police officers were legit. Nonetheless, Dave Lupe is right about that you should have received a speed warning. I'll check your configuration."

Dave gave Flora more details of the plan, but after he said that they would start in four hours, she was too happy to care about the minutia. She needed her beauty sleep!

Flora went back to her lair and logged from the simulation ground into Riverstone Island. She had no patience left for dealing with her clan members, so she hid in the grotto again.

It was only the first day of Aidan's plan, and Flora already couldn't adhere to it. The plan for raising all her stats until Saturday demanded from her to spend from 22:00 to 10:00 in the simulation grounds. It was 23:00 now, and she and Dave arranged to meet up at 2:30.

At least she would have eight hours of sleep, thanks to the time dilation.

Aidan woke up Flora at 2:00. Even though that meant she slept nine hours, she didn't feel like it. Dreams of dead Firelings who promised to carve her up with dull spoons had haunted her sleep.

"Five more minutes!" she mumbled bleary-eyed and turned around.

Because she laid in a pool, Flora's face entered the water. On her next inhale, she choked and thrashed in the pool. Coughing, she straightened up.

"Now, I'm awake," Flora said bitingly. "Burned toast and stale jam, why am I feeling so shitty?"

On the one hand, yesterday was brutal−she built a whole training facility, taught a bunch of blockheads spells, and then killed some poor punks. Therefore, a higher need for sleep was understandable. On the other hand, she didn't fully trust that rest in time dilation worked as well as regular sleep.