Faust only got around twenty minutes of sleep before a soft knock on the door woke him up. He hadn’t been sleeping deeply, keeping track of everything moving around him.

Still, he felt decently refreshed.

He got up, stretching and yawning. "I love Constitution."

He manipulated the screen beside his bed to open the door, and Nirvana stared back at him in disbelief.

"How did you get a room before us?" she asked, walking in with Zen and Thalia. "You didn’t even come to the compound with us."

"Rank one privileges," Thalia said, searching the bookshelf beside the desk. She picked out a comic and raised an eyebrow. "How do they know what we like to see?"

"Internet evidence never goes away," Zen muttered dramatically. "Did you get your favourite smut?"

Thalia threw the comic at his head, but didn’t deny what was said.

Zen caught it and threw it to Faust. "We’re supposed to be getting to the auditorium right now. They are going to pick their government enforcers soon."

"Olympic Knights," Thalia corrected.

Zen covered his mouth, pretending to whisper to Faust, even though his voice was audible. "She’s hoping she’ll get chosen."

Thalia gritted her teeth a little. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Obviously. We’re already hostages, you want to work for your kidnappers too? Keep the rest of us in line so they can give you a cookie?"

Thalia glared at him for a moment before just leaving the room. "Let’s just get to the auditorium. Greg and Spider are keeping our seats."

Nirvana sent a fierce look at Zen before running after Thalia.

Faust got up, sighing. "Did you have to be so mean?"

Zen looked at him. Really looked at him. Past the facade of friendliness they kept between them. His large dark eyes narrowed.

"Why do you care?"

"You’re trying to help your friend," Faust said calmly. "Have you considered that this is what she wants? She is the weakest among you."

Zen kept his distance not out of fear, but a cautious calculation. He looked Faust up and down. "Sorry, I didn’t know you knew Thalia that well."

"My point stands. You could have done that with more tact."

"There’s no time for tact," Zen sneered. "The ceremony is in minutes."

"Or maybe you just don’t have the skill to convince her?" Faust suggested. "Or maybe you know you’re wrong so you result in being an asshole. Oh. I like that one."

Zen rolled his eyes and turned. "Fuck you. You aren’t baiting me."

As they walked out of the room, Faust grabbed his ID card and locked it behind him. A screen popped up with a few texts.

One from Kye, showing some options for when he could have a consultation with a renowned martial artist. He’d have to pay, though. Three thousand credits.

Flinching, he decided to wait until he knew his schedule in Compound Zeta to choose. This guy was recommended by Narad, and the dwarf giant had been a legendary player in his time.

’Strange how ridiculous my life has gotten recently.’

Another text was from Diego, who he had added as a friend before they returned to Earth. He was in another compound. There were ten thousand compounds built around the ring-shaped landmass that was now Earth.

Diego wasn’t too far from him and was asking if Faust wanted him to talk to one of the fourteen New Gods for a Knight position.

Apparently, as the leader of a Novice Village, he had an audience with the New Gods before the selection. And he was planning on recommending some people.

But there were only a few spots.

Only ten of the fourteen gods were selecting Knights, and this was out of almost one hundred million people. The other gods were not aligned with the main group.

The selection would be narrowed to the top ten of each Novice Village, meaning around seven thousand people.

Faust studied the text for a while, thinking before he finally answered.

[Red God: No, thanks though.]

Choosing to cooperate with the government was one thing, but Faust wasn’t willing to give himself any responsibility he didn’t need.

All that power would come at a steep price.

Faust grinned. Why pay when he could just beat them and take it for himself.

◇◇◇

The levels of Compound Zeta were expansive. Faust’s room was on Level -25, which he hoped didn’t mean he was that deep underground.

Player residences were at the lowest floors. From Level twenty to ten were training grounds with multiple different biomes and structures for practicing in all kinds of situations.

Faust actually stopped to admire Level fifteen, which was a massive desert with underground buildings and outposts meant for raids.

He even met some of his instructors there. Men and women that had trained for many years in multiple martial arts or participated in combat sports. Nirvana had to drag him away from them.

"Man, you guys have it good," Faust remarked as they took another elevator up to Level Zero.

That was the ground floor of the grand white building Faust had seen when Larson brought him here. Level one to ten were recreational and study areas.

There were many elevators on each level, but even this one was still a bit cramped with almost thirty people. The box was sleek grey with a blue touchpad and leather backrests on the walls.

A pneumatic hiss filled the air as the elevator shot up at high speeds without even a tremble.

Nirvana raised her eyebrows. "To have the instructors? Aren’t they like... just human?"

"Booooo," Zen said from behind.

Beside him, Thalia touched her chest in dramatic shock. "So proud of yourself. Must be nice being superior to humans. To not have anything you could learn from them."

"You know what I mean," Nirvana grumbled.

"They’re teasing you," Faust said with a chuckle. "But what you said was incredibly short-sighted and kind of prideful."

Nirvana turned white with shame, stuttering, "S-ssorry..."

Thalia punched Faust, glaring. "Don’t bully Nirvana."

"She was just asking a question," Zen added.

What a confusing set of people. Faust sighed. "Weren’t you guys just making fun of her? What I mean is that none of you are good at fighting. They’ve gathered some of the best teachers in the world—people that took me YEARS to find, mind you—so you should take advantage of this."

Nirvana nodded frantically. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I knew that. I was just asking for... everyone else."

Faust put an arm around her shoulder. "You should always be ready to learn from everyone. Underestimating someone is the quickest way to lose a fight. We have to maintain our Undefeated title, after all."