The App 13 (Patreon)

The App

Chapter 13

-VB-

The following were the established facts that everyone came to accept about Mel, her Tavern, and whoever created them both.

To say that governments around the world were losing control of their own institutions to an unknown entity was an understatement because more than a few governments have already been dissolved due to Mel.

The idea that someone could do that scared many, including USA, Britain, France, and CUI. Mel’s seductive tactics - no tariff and taxes on goods and services going back and forth on her “Tavern” - ensured that even the most law-abiding businesses used them to some degree. Libertarians loved her Taverns the most, which was also why there were now resistances out in the rural countryside.

Countrysides have always been the ones to suffer the most unmitigated damage because of how far they were from any central government hero agencies. Villains and cultists roamed freely. One only needed to look at Liberia to see how far unchecked parahuman effects can go. After all, there was no Liberia left anymore.

Was Mel some alternate Earth’s attempt to conquer Earth Bet? Was she an actor from another country?

Such questions weren’t answered by Mel nor did she care to even deign them with her attention.

What she did, however, was give out bigger rewards. Better rewards.

Crown of Rain made American Midwest never have to worry about rain for it could control the very weather itself. Charity and relief came and went without government input. Russian Urals and east formally declared independence from those that had showed themselves to be selfish and incompetent. If Moscow and St. Petersburg weren’t fighting a civil war, then they might have done something about it, but between the civil war and dozen plus gangs that had as much firepower as the government, there was no chance.

Texas and California were getting into political fights on the news media, on the internet, and in the Taverns, too. Texas demanded to be freed from the union while California told the union to go and do something about the secessionists in Texas.

And then it happened.

Someone moved fissile material through one of the Tavern channels.

-VB-

The world was on high alert.

Someone had moved nuke through unofficial channels, and everyone was expecting their city to get blown up.

Taylor didn’t think Brockton Bay would get blown up. There was no reason for anyone in the city or outside of it to want to destroy this place. Who blew up garbage dumps? Pyromaniacs, maybe, but there were better cities and even better national parks to burn.

Personally, she didn’t care. She had bigger issues she had to face.

“Hey Mel,” she whispered. “Which corridor should I take?”

“{Take the left,}” Mel replied in equally quiet voice.

Taylor nodded to herself as she hid her smartphone, a necessity that she went against dad to get, and avoided the Trio.

To her, Mel was a godsend. She knew exactly how to avoid the Trio as long as she kept Mel on hand.

… But she was unnerved. She didn’t have the money to pay Mel, but Mel had given her “special privilege” that came at the cost of favors, one favor accumulating per month. She didn’t know what kind of favors Mel would call in, but Taylor had seen enough on the Taverns and the news what happened to people who decided welch on her.

Everyone talked about Greece, and yeah, it was pretty bad that they were suffering because of few assholes in the government. She understood that people hated what they couldn’t control, and Mel was the peak of what they couldn’t control.

What did Greg call them? Virgin Mel haters and Chad Mel enjoyers?

It was immature as hell and she didn’t know what “chad” meant, but she understood the gist of what he said.

What most people didn’t talk about was the kind of effect Mel had on regular people. Greg was one of those people.

It was kind of hard to ignore Greg these days when he went from being a regular, bowl-cut, short, and nerdy chubby guy to a noticeably muscle-building and no-longer bowl cut guy who’d shot up in height. He didn’t look like he was going to run out of breath after fifty yards. He looked like he could tackle the entire football team himself! Greg also got a few hanger-ons, all of them girls, but he didn’t seem to notice them or their glares when he kept talking to her about games or videos that she had little to no interest in.

He’s also become something of a shield for her. Taylor saw how Sophia avoided Greg and knew that the girl knew more about Greg than she did. She wasn’t sure what it could be, but it must have to do with Mel’s Tavern and tournaments.

She shook her head to get her head away from thoughts about Greg and walked into the left corridor.

She didn’t meet the Trio until the beginning of lunch, and that was fine by her.

-VB-

Greg sighed as Taylor ignored him again.

It was easier to understand people these days thanks to Mel, but it was … a little bit of a curse for her.

It’s hard to not call it a curse when he kept on being reminded that the one girl who he thought was his female-friend didn’t think of him the same?

Sparky was still the same, thankfully.

… But something stopped him from stopping his interactions with Taylor. Even if she didn’t like him as much as he did, she was maybe the only person who didn’t tell him to stop or fall asleep when he talked about games and videos.

It was pathetic and he knew it, but he kept at it. Maybe she would actually get interested?

He also wasn’t dumb or dense enough to not notice the girls following him everywhere when they could, but he didn’t like them. Some of them were just there and made doe-eyes at him like fluffy-zard in Mel’s Wild Dino Hunt tournament because the Two Bitches plus One wanted to make Taylor feel bad. The others just liked how he looked and ignored what he liked.

There was maybe one girl who actually cared but she was also a Nazi.

Greg sighed as he popped open his lunchbox on the rooftop, which was ridiculously easy to climb onto after he’s gone through two dozen of Mel’s tournaments.

He looked down at the Lunchbox of Swole and felt his lips watering. Inside the lunchbox was curry rice, slabs of well-done beef, and an assortment of orange, apple, pear, and peach slices.

This was his true treasure these days. Yes, the Pouch of Snacks used to be his treasure before he donated it for the Greeks, but when he had $50 meal every lunch for free?

Yes, this was his treasure.

“You.”

He stopped and turned to look over his shoulder.

“Oh. Hi, Sophia. What do you want?” he asked her.

She glared at him with a hand on her hip and the other hanging loosely by her side. She looked sexy, but he knew not to hang out with crazy.

He’s seen quite the number of crazies during the tournaments. One of the crucial lessons he learned in those fights was that just as he became what he ate (rich food made him better), he became what he surrounded himself with.

He did not want to become Hess-brand crazy.

“Why are you helping the weakling?”

Helping?

He frowned, trying to remember who he helped recently. “I don’t follow. I didn’t help anyone.” She couldn’t know that he was Void Cowboy… right?

“You’re with her everyday! Don’t fucking lie!”

He winced. “Bruh, I got like a dozen girls who keep hanging around me. Gotta be more specific-”

She rushed at him and threw a punch.

And it was slow.

He pushed her fist aside and let her run forward on her own momentum. She stumbled forward as she lost her balance, but quickly caught herself and whirled around. She glared at him, her fists balling quickly and tightly, and then jumped him again.

He sighed as he closed the lid on his Lunchbox of Swole and set it down before he slid his hand under her kick and pushed her along with her momentum. She went with the flow and tried to punch him.

But his hand was still on her leg, and he grabbed her shin and spun her clockwise, the opposite direction of her kick. The sudden stop and reverse of motion broke her balance, and Sophia’s punch went wide in the wrong direction before she fell to her hands.

Growling, she -.

She froze when she saw a fist in front of her face. It didn’t move.

“You make your movements too loud, and that’s fine,” he grunted as he pulled his fist back. “Maybe you should go and do some of Mel’s tournaments, too. You learn a lot when you keep dying in the most horrible way possible.”

He went back to eat and Sophia left wordlessly after watching him for a minute.

Good, he could enjoy his lunch now.

Oh, the steak sauce on the well-done beef was exequisite~!

-VB-

A/N: in which Greg shows how much of a chad he became after dying a lot, improving, and succeeding in Mel’s tournaments.