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I didn't say a word. What else did I want? The game ended the moment the logout button stopped working. This was life now. AndDan was no cute and cuddly character but a professional secret agent working for a major military organization. When was I supposed to get used to the fact that AlterWorld had two sides to it: one that was a game and the other which was perma reality. The world kept changing, offering you one side, then the other, making you play, then rubbing your nose into your own gullibility as you lost touch with life. Now I knew why veteran permas often couldn't tell game sequences from reality.

"I see. Thank you, man. Then you probably know what I meant to ask you about?"

He shrugged, evasive, as if saying, 
I might, but you're the one who needs this conversation so it's up to you to speak
. He wasn't the one to show his cards first.

"Taali wants to make it even," I said. "She wants to do it herself. To both scumbags and the police bitch. She needs help and advice, probably weapons, and she will need cover. And once it's over, she'll need to buy some time to go perma."

Dan pursed his lips and fell silent. Seeing his hesitation, I pulled a ring out of my pocket. The clan's ring. I lay it on the table.

He picked up the item and gave me a long look. Then he handed it back to me.

"You don't flash this kind of thing like that. Very well. I have the right men and connections in real life. But they won't work for nothing. It'll cost you."

"How much?"

"They'll need to tail each target for a couple weeks. They'll have to work out a plan, find a position for a hitman, decide on his control, cover and withdrawal. Then it's entirely up to her. They're not going to risk first degree charges for her. We can help her collect and analyze all information and present her with our recommendations. And we'll help her with the gun, of course. Plenty of that crap around. Basically, you're looking at ten grand USD."

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. That was a lot. Having said that, I still had all the pickings from the tobacco business to take. I could try to raise at least some of it before the news of the mass tobacco production hit the media. Taali, too, had some savings. If push came to shove, I could borrow some from the Vets. I had a funny feeling my credit with them was going through the roof at the moment.

Another question. How sure was I that I should get into it in the first place? Apart from risking a serious sum of money, there was also a slim chance of me dropping myself in it and another, albeit infinitesimal, danger of framing Mom for it. These were the only arguments against the whole idea.

Now for the arguments in its favor. First, I had given her my word. Secondly, this was my woman asking me for help. Thirdly, I'd had the real world's leniency and corruption up to my ears. Now I had a perfect opportunity to give the bad guys what for and see them collapse and croak. It didn't matter who the bad guys were: a couple of self-indulgent Muslim kids or our own cops who'd lost perspective of their power. No, I had to have the right.

Dan was watching my face and probably had no problem reading my thoughts. He nodded. "I can see you've made up your mind. Can you raise the money?"

"I think so. I'll need a couple of days. I also need to discuss it with Taali. You think you trust your new alliance partner enough to lend him some cash if needed?"

"We'll think of something."

He rose, making it clear he was finished with me. "You discuss it. Keep me posted."

I showed him to the door, nodded to the bodyguards outside and walked back into the room. A slight movement caught my eye; I swung round, suppressing a shriek of surprise.

A white Winnie the Pooh sat by the table. Casting malicious glances at me, he was hurriedly finishing off the ham out of my sandwiches.

Taali liked our new home. She even managed to befriend the vicious Winnie. Before she arrived, I'd been doing my best to get rid of him. Winnie had taken the most comfortable soft chair by the fireplace, the one I'd been looking forward to myself. But the monster hissed and bared his teeth, slipping out of my grip and stubbornly staying put. Finally I gave up and dragged his chair aside, then brought a new one for myself and put it closer to the fire. For a while, Winnie cussed like a trucker. Then he fell quiet... and a second later, I heard the sounds of a chair being dragged across the floor as the monster pushed it back to the fire. This was how Taali found us: two moody figures sitting on both sides of the fireplace.

With her, Winnie turned all cute and cuddly. He allowed her to take him onto her lap and purred as she stroked him. The moment she'd turn away, he'd cast me unfriendly glances, growling.

Predictably, Taali was overjoyed to hear about specialist help and especially the gun. She said she had about three grand stashed away but if she was going perma, then she could sell some stuff for another thousand. At eighteen, she hadn't had enough time to amass much. I had to tell her that she was doing just fine. Especially compared to some other people who had nothing but a bunch of loans to show for their lives.

We spent the rest of the day rolling cigarettes. I worked my way through the overflowing auto buy inbox and flagged messages from those willing to buy in bulk. I immediately wrote back and got a few responses allowing me to place a few dozen private auction lots for a fixed price. Not everyone put their money where their mouth was, but a good half of all offers went through. By the evening, we'd raised over fifteen grand, plus another six from the auction which was still in full swing. The feeding frenzy had started to flag; the prices were going down: apparently, the first rumors about our alliance had already leaked out.

A bit later, Lieutenant Brown brought armfuls of my stuff from the inn. He still had access to my room there. Almost immediately, I received a letter from the inn owners apologizing for the incident and offering a free month's stay as compensation. No, thank you. They were very welcome to their mousetrap.

All in all, we had two thirds of the required sum, enough for a deposit. I was almost sure it would take
 
Dan and his men a good couple of weeks to get their act together—enough time for us to raise the rest.

As we toiled, we discussed my future clan. Apparently, I already had my first volunteer. No one doubted that Taali would join me. But when we came to the clan's name, she showed her responsible side, rejecting my suggestions. Finally, she made up her mind.

"This is your clan," she said. "You're its patriarch. Its father, in other words. Your Elven name means Child of Night. So this is what you should call your clan: Children of Night."

"And how do you suggest we exist in the Lands of Light with this kind of name?"

"Who forces you to reveal it? You can hide it somewhere in the settings. Lots of people do that. You'll still be Laith to everybody, and that's it."

The next day we met
 
Dan again. He accepted the deposit and spent some quality time speaking to Taali, instructing her and asking her for more details. Things got rolling. The countdown had begun.

We decided to turn the signing of the agreement into a promotional opportunity. A new alliance was coming into the world, whether someone liked it or not. We were guaranteed some conflict, anyway, even if no one dared to challenge us—which was unlikely. The mere feeling of their own latent power could drive other clans to solve their difference of opinions by force. This could be a new clan war in the making.

We issued invitations to the media, including the insistent journalist who'd cadged an interview from me. I had to move it if I didn't want to lose the three grand he'd promised. We spent two hours over some coffee and cigarettes, discussing the main points of his future article. I especially insisted on stressing the existence of the exclusive license, to convince whoever it might concern that they shouldn't waste their breath trying to kidnap me in order to get their share of the pie. The clans had decided against splitting production. Instead, we wanted to build large premises, hire some NPC alchemists and gain momentum gradually, in accordance with the Admins' guidelines. Everyone invested an equal share. Each clan also delegated their members to an observers group which was supposed to oversee all production stages from purchase to crafting and sales.

Soon we had a formal signing of the coalition formation memorandum. I did my bit writing out a five-year license in the name of the Alliance, granting them the right to sub-license it to NPCs. That was a huge load off my mind. Despite its promise of prosperity, the whole tobacco saga had bowled me over like a steam roller, leaving dents and black marks. I had to be grateful it hadn't killed me. I wanted to escape it all, to forget all this business speak and politics and just take my time exploring this little-known world. I still had lots of quests in my log. Forbidden Lands were calling my name.

I spent three more days at the castle, just to make sure I was safe. The hype started to settle. Fewer people now bothered me with stupid questions. The story was getting stale; the media had turned their attention to other things. What made headlines now was the new ambitious Inferno raid performed by a group of West European clans. The idea interesting in itself, but what raised it to sensation was the loot from the Inferno Archdemon: the group had returned with the Captured Heart of
 
a God of Light. An artifact this powerful would allow the building of a new temple dedicated to one of the Gods of the Pantheon of Light. Each god promised all sorts of bells and whistles in exchange for a certain percent of experience, mana or gold. I still had no idea whether you could get anything off the Fallen One and whether his pantheon had other deities. I'd failed to get to the Dark Altar when I'd had the chance. As the saying went, if you want something done properly, you'd better do it yourself. And the fragments I'd so painstakingly obtained were proof enough.

I spent evenings playing with the calculator trying to suss out an ideal model of character growth now that I had this Splitting skill. In the end, I decided to set aside every third Talent point and every five days drink the Elixir of Wisdom which gave me another point. Trust me it cost: two grand and a five-day cooldown. But the result was worth it. In a couple of months, I was looking at level 100 with at least 25 spare points, which would give me two level-100 pets. True, it wouldn't double my power: one level-130 pet would be almost as strong as those two. Add to it the leveling gap caused by squirreling extra points, but that was only the beginning...

At the moment, this was the state of my characteristics—not counting the items:

Class: Death Knight

Level: 52

Strength: 32

Intellect: 209 (Mana=2090)

Agility: 0

Spirit: 110

Constitution: 61 (Hits=610)

1 Talent point available. 0 Characteristic points available.

I took the occasion to have a couple dozen fights in the arena. The Vets were curious to see what the Dark class was made of. It wasn't very often that their students could cross swords with a Necro or a Death Knight. In such arena-set friendlies, pure casters were an easy win. Not so if they caught you unawares, in the heat of a fight or just after it when you were low on life. You'd miss their first spell due to the surprise effect, then miss the second one as you looked for the attacker and finally, miss the third one as you attempted to do something about it. So in the field, all these PK wizards with their DpS going through the roof could be a force to be reckoned with. Same went for rogues. Absolutely mad DpS multiplied by stealth and some very nasty combos. Many people believed Thief to be the best PvP class. I tended to agree, at least if you looked at PvP as the need to steal close to someone and drown them in their own blood double quick. But where survival was concerned, whether under attack or against groups, they weren't really up to much.

Surprisingly, paladins proved the toughest opponents. In many respects they were the opposite of me with their buffed-up stats, armor and some serious magic support geared against the Forces of the Dark.

Like in other things, having lots of dough definitely helped. Three times I'd met that guy ten levels below myself, and three times I'd failed miserably. The guy had invested over a hundred grand gold in some unique gear raising his combat potential to at least level 70.

We definitely had fun there. The cadets and fighters proved to be a fearless and easygoing bunch. Most of them were
 
perma players, still euphoric about their new life and the opportunities it brought them.

The arena amazed me with its potential. The commandant apparently hoped for a much needed upgrade from the spoils of the cigarette business. Apart from other odds and sods, the level 7 arena allowed us to generate all sorts of monsters. True, they didn't give you level or experience but that wasn't the idea.

The younger crowd had this thing of fighting till death in the full reality mode, complete with having their graves generated in the castle graveyard. In that case, the beaten party had to resurrect right there in the arena and, accompanied by catcalls, hurry across the courtyard to pick up his stuff. Even I had to do that kind of corpse run a couple times. It was funny. The grave stayed there for three hours and was then teleported to town. The Vets had the option of upgrading their graveyard to cemetery status but were apparently too stingy to go for it, even despite its obvious advantages.

By the end, I was totally fed up with sitting within four walls. The Russian salad was already coming out of my ears. The sight of cigarettes gave me a nervous tick. It was time to come out into the open. Logically, the first thing I needed to do was visit Grym and find out whether I was entitled to anything for freeing the Liches. Also, I hoped to hear something about the First Temple.

Dan granted me permission to bind in the portal hall. I did so happily. I raised Teddy, summoned an average pet to chaperone us and off we went to the city. For me it was a forty-minute walk, but a mount's speed is three times that of a human. Unfortunately, it didn't apply to the pet. Finally, we decided to sacrifice our safety and let the pet's poor soul go. Then we crossed our fingers and trotted toward the city. Once we reached the inhabited zone though, the chat filled with underage killers' cussing so I decided to play it safe and summoned another pet. A five-minute walk wouldn't cost me my crown. Actually, I
 
was
 
wearing a crown—and I wouldn't lose it even if someone lifted me by my feet and tipped me upside down.