“That one is ours!” Bee exclaimed as she ran over to the tower.

  The dark ever-hungry shape of Billee turned to look at her with her white-glowing eyes. Two legs poked out from the middle of her body where a white bottomless pit of a mouth was located.

  Chris reluctantly followed me over to them.

  “Heyyyy,” Billee said, waving a hand. “You can have the other one. They’re too dry and flaky for my taste.”

  She turned to look at me.

  “Can I have a glass of the champagne you’re carrying?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “Sure,” I replied, pulling one of the Victory Champagne glasses from my inventory and handing it to her.

  The moment she tossed it back and let out a sigh of relief, I had an epiphany.

  “Gambit!” Panda exclaimed, coming to the same revelation.

  “Holy shit, the champagne works inside the event!” I said.

  “What champagne?” Chris asked.

  I pulled out another glass and showed it to him.

  [‘Victory Champagne’ x ]

  Consumable

  Truly the drink of champions. Savor its delectable flavor sourced directly from the Champagne region of France!

  Consuming this drink will reset the cooldowns on all of your Skills and fully recover your injuries & fatigue.

  Weight: Approximately zero

  “I knew there was a good reason we were hoarding it!” I said excitedly.

  “Be honest, you forgot it existed,” Panda remarked.

  I ignored him and looked at Billee. “Thanks for helping me realize that.”

  “Realize what?” she asked, playing coy.

  Bee was busy wrapping the dead orderly in a mushroom net, the other collected Monstrosity Materials placed in a separate net next to her.

  “I thought you wanted us to meet you at the top of the tower,” I told Billee.

  “Since the Game Makers aren’t playing fair, I figured there was no point in me abiding by the rules either,” she replied.

  “Since when have you followed the rules?” Panda accused her.

  “Zip it, Pandamonium,” she said.

  Panda stiffened on my shoulder where he sat.

  “I came to inform you that there’s a Demon Duchess trying to break into the Singing City. They’re holding the most powerful entities back for now, but in Phase Two they’ll relax those restrictions, so I figured I should warn you, since she’s been screaming your name for a while.”

  “Miranda…” Panda muttered.

  “I guess Lust Demons just don’t know when to quit,” I remarked. “And I mean, I already killed one powerful demon, so what’s another one going to do?”

  “A duchess is orders of magnitude stronger than a squire-lord,” Panda said. “It’s like comparing the power of the sun to a desk lamp.”

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  Billee nodded. “You should find a good place to hide during Phase Two,” she said. “There are many good places to escape to in the Singing City. I would recommend Balloonia though.”

  Bee and Chris jerked their heads in her direction and I blinked in surprise.

  “Balloonia is real!?” all three of us asked simultaneously.

  “Of course it’s real,” Billee said.

  “I’ll be honest, I had no idea,” Panda commented.

  “Do you think John the looner guy went there?” Bee asked.

  “A world of balloons!? Sign me up, cap’n!” Brock squeaked loudly.

  “Before we do any of that, we need to finish building Lordie’s flesh mech,” Bee said decisively.

  “Me-ow,” Lordie agreed from where he sat atop her head.

  “Hey, you come back here,” I told him, jabbing my index finger into my scalp.

  “Meow…” he replied in disgust.

  “Well, forgive me for not being able to find any shampoo!” I exclaimed.

  “I can give you some of mine,” Bee said.

  “What’s shampoo?” Billee asked. “Is it edible? Does it scream when you bite into it?”

  Bee pulled out two pink pear-shaped and porous walnuts each the size of a tennis ball. She handed one to me and the other to Billee.

  [‘Sham Poo Nut’ x ]

  Consumable

  The droppings of the Sham tree that grows in the deepest forest of the All-Mother’s bountiful realm.

  Squeezing this nut produces a sudsy foam that cleans away any grease and oil, leaving a pleasant aroma behind.

  Weight: Approximately half of one

  “That feels wrong to give to a child,” I muttered.

  “I’m not a child,” Bee said.

  “The description and name are vile,” Panda agreed.

  “Stop! All-Mommy swore it wasn’t some weird inuendo!” Bee exclaimed.

  “It seems pretty weird,” Chris argued after reading the description.

  Billee was busy chewing hers, soapy foam spilling out of her white bottomless maw. “This is not what I expected,” she said. “The flavor is alright though.”

  I squeezed the Sham Poo over my head and the soap foam exploded out of it, covering Panda, Chris, and myself all at once. Within mere seconds, it had run down our bodies and cleaned our skin, hair, and clothes.

  It left behind the smell of a lavender air freshener.

  Lordie immediately leapt from Bee’s head and back onto mine.

  “Meow!” he exclaimed and started licking my hair while purring like a chainsaw.

  “I’m filled with regret,” Billee said. “The Sham Poo cleaned the insides of my stomach, and now all of the delectable leftovers no longer exude the stench I’ve cultivated for years.”

  “I’m sure you’ll survive,” Panda said with a grimace.

  “Can we head back to base now?” Chris asked impatiently. For some reason, the soap had combed his hair and given him a middle partition.

  “I think we should,” Bee said. “We’ve collected a lot of materials.”

  Chris frowned at the orderly’s monstrous body wrapped up in the net.

  “I guess it would be a good idea,” I said.

  “I’ll tag along!” Billee decided.

  I looked to Panda. “Is she allowed to do that?” I asked.

  “I have no idea,” he said.

  Billee bounced along beside us as we tore through the city. I was once again holding Chris while I rode the longboard, and Bee flew above us in the air.

  After maybe twenty minutes, we reached the outer wall of the Singing City and continued through one of the holes to reach our base. However, Billee just suddenly veered down a side alley and vanished. I was sure we’d see her again soon enough.

  “Are we not going to talk about how Gambit turned into a weird black-and-white creature?” Panda asked.

  “What’s there to talk about?” I replied. “It’s not a permanent transformation, so it’s probably fine.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “I didn’t really get a good look at it,” Bee said.

  Although Chris could once again not see or hear Panda, since he’d been injected with the sanity serum too, he had become quite proficient in picking up topics from the context of what we said. “I had to turn away because it made my insanity gauge fill up when I looked directly at it,” he explained. “So I didn’t see much either.”

  “I’m pretty sure Gambit briefly became as powerful as an Absolute’s spawn,” Panda said.

  “That explains the sprinkles and ash the orderlies turned into when I hit them,” I replied.

  “The System must’ve had a good reason for gifting you that ability,” he went on.

  “Oh, that reminds me,” I said. “I have to find something in the city. I’m not really sure where it is though, but it’s related to the System and my role as its prophet.”

  Panda sighed loudly. “Now you’re telling us!? It chose the worst person to be its mouthpiece…”

  Just then we reached the top of our base hill, and Chris jumped out of my arms and hurried down the steps to where his brother was waiting. I got off the board as well and dumped the two nets of materials onto the ashy ground in front of the stairwell.

  “It’s just like Christmas,” Bee said excitedly as she landed next to me.

  “Would that make me Santa?” I replied.

  Cooper poked his head out at the top of the stairwell. “Welcome back.” Then he saw the dead body wrapped in the net. “Uh… I see you brought more materials.”

  “How far have you gotten on the crafting?” Bee asked him.

  “Uh…” he muttered.

  “Fine, I’ll do it,” she said, pretending that she was upset, but the grin on her face made it clear that she’d been wanting to get her hands dirty with some Fleshcrafting.

  “What happened to the sweet and innocent young girl we once knew?” Panda remarked wistfully with a sigh.

  “Who?” I asked. “Bee has always been that way.”

  Panda bapped me on the side of the head. “Lies! Don’t ruin my nostalgia!”

  I lifted up the two nets and went down the steps.

  “We should have enough materials to complete most of the mech now,” I realized.

  “Me-ow!” Lordie exclaimed.

  “What’s he saying?” Panda asked.

  “He wants to take it for a test ride when it’s done,” I translated.

  Panda frowned. “There’s no way that’ll end well.”