Chapter 78 (Patreon)

We returned to Crownhill the following morning. Terrance’s police and the guards had heeded my warning and my instructions to be on the lookout for the dangerous woman, so guards were posted everywhere scanning for Lisette. Now that the sun was up and the night’s monsters gobbled up by Sharky, my companions and I returned to the city center to search for her once again.

“Sharky, you know the drill. Patrol the area around the city and eat any monsters you see coming our way.”

Sharky soon split off from us, while Sakura, Bridget and I continued on our way. I greeted the militia on the walls and Terrance’s policeman in the streets as I entered settlement. Everyone seemed a little more on their guard than usual. Perhaps word was getting around that Lisette was on the loose and what she could do. A few men eyed Bridget and Sakura warily as we entered the settlement.

Bridget turned to me and whispered. “Why are they all looking at us like that?”

I shrugged. “They are probably wondering if you are Lisette. Be flattered, she was quite beautiful. And based on what Myrina said, her high Charisma has made her impossibly so. She likely has skills that allow her to appear as whatever is most desirable to the man looking at her.”

“But not you, right?” Bridget eyed me out of the corner of her eye.

I chuckled. “You’ve always been beautiful, Bridget… in a very different way from Lisette. Hers is a raw, System-enhanced sexuality. Yours is the beauty of a lovely soul.” I brushed her hair aside while she tried to hide her blushing cheeks behind it.

I certainly wasn’t about to admit that Lisette had appeared to me looking a lot like Myrina.

That mollified Bridget a little, though she still stuck close to me. I figured I would step in and clarify to our voyeurs that Bridget was not Lisette. Nor was Sakura.

The next man I caught eyeing them warily, I stepped up to and confronted. “These are my companions, Bridget and Sakura. They’ve been with me since the start, and are helping me hunt down Lisette.”

“Yes, that would make sense, Sir.” The militia man nodded sagely. “The woman we’re hunting is apparently an exhibitionist. She would be running around naked—or at least as near to naked as she could get.”

I frowned. “I’m not so sure that’s right. She probably would’ve found clothes by now.”

Then again, I’d never seen her wearing much of anything. Perhaps that wasn’t a coincidence. If her abilities revolved around lust, odds were good that she intentionally kept her outfits as revealing as possible. The provocative outfits probably gave her some sort of bonus.

“Forgive my presumption, Sir, but the militia had several encounters with a naked woman late last night offering to fulfill their hearts’ greatest desires in exchange for somewhere to hide. It’s why so many men are wary, or out looking for her right now.”

The dumb goofy smile on the militia man’s face told me I hadn’t been as thorough with my explanation as I would need to be. People were out looking for Lisette—but for all the wrong reasons.

I sighed, suddenly realizing that perhaps I hadn’t done quite so good a job at clarifying the foe we faced after all. “All right, send me all of the spare people in both the militia and the police force that are not currently on duty. I think I need to brief you guys about what we are facing.”

A few minutes later, I stood in the center of a large group of men. We were the first problem, really. We didn’t know whether or not women were immune to Lisette’s abilities, but we knew for certain that men were vulnerable.

“Okay, everybody. Listen up! When I passed along word yesterday that the naked woman you all saw running through the streets was dangerous, I wasn’t kidding. Yes, she is very pretty. Yes, she may offer to do things with you that sound like a lot of fun… but you do not want to agree to them. If you do, she will turn you into a mindless zombie.”

There was a chorus of groans and boos around me.

“Do you remember the mindless, crazy people we fought yesterday? Everybody at the prison who fought like a madman—ignoring pain and mortal wounds to keep on fighting? The reason they did that is her. As far as we can tell, Caesar was just a puppet—or rather, this woman was the real Caesar all along.”

I shook my head. “Maybe that was the case for the other two Kings, as well… though to a lesser extent until recently.”

“Those guys were pretty crazy. More than just regular prison crazy,” Frank agreed.

Those who hadn’t gone with us to conquer Crownhill County prison were still skeptical. But even they had heard stories about the intense fighting there. They’d heard about the unflinching madmen who would keep on fighting, despite debilitating injuries—like getting limbs chopped off left and right.

A few still voiced their disbelief, despite the sounds of agreement their comrades in arms made. I let them say their piece. It would be best to get this out in the open ahead of time. Pointing to those who seemed most skeptical, I asked them to speak.

“A skill that can mind control a man through his dick? I find it hard to believe such a thing could happen,” one older man said. “It sounds like some sort of pervert skill. So far, I haven’t seen anything of the sort! If this System thing that’s taken over the world is like some sort of game, it’s only a PG-13 game as far as I can tell.”

This geezer must have holed up somewhere and only come out recently, when we’d restored a modicum of order. He certainly hadn’t participated in the wolfmen raid. The only monsters he’d probably seen were the bugs and squirrels.

A few people who had been raising their hands, lowered them at his PG-13 comment. I suppressed a chuckle. Apparently, I was not the only one who had—completely and entirely accidentally—chosen a skill like Fabulous Phallus.

A couple of people, both men and women, quietly edged away from the man’s curious gaze until they were out of his line of sight.

“Well, the only thing I can say to that, is that your confidence is misplaced,” I replied. “Ask around. Find someone amongst your friends who went on the wolfmen raid, or participated in the attack on the prison—this System is far from PG-13.”

“So how does this mind control work?” a policeman standing near Terrance asked. “Does she suck your brain out of your cock or something?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know for certain, but I did spend some of last night researching what little we do know. It seems to be some sort of extreme personality manipulation. Like your lust for the Charisma specialist grows so deep, that you can’t imagine anything you wouldn’t do for her.”

“Oh. So, she’s like those video game streamers…” More murmurs of agreement passed through the crowd.

After I clarified the danger Lisette posed—once again reminding everyone that she was not just a beautiful exhibitionist offering to relieve men of their sexual tension out of the goodness of her heart—we went into the details of how this search would continue. The fact that we had not found her yet meant that she was far better at hiding herself than I’d expected. Perhaps she’d already seduced and acquired help. We would need to escalate our search efforts, if we wanted to turn up her trail.

“Is it possible she fled into the wilderness?” Terrance asked.

“Possible but unlikely,” I replied. “Her class is very much a social one. Fighting off monsters in the wilderness would not be her strong suit. What we know about her does not indicate any real fighting abilities; she seems completely dependent on recruiting minions to keep herself safe.”

“What makes you so sure?” someone hollered out.

I raised my voice. “The fact that she came to Crownhill after we defeated Crownhill County Prison makes me certain of this. Here, in the heart of our settlement, is probably the most dangerous place she could be. And yet she chose to come here, instead of fleeing somewhere else. She isn’t confident that she can survive on her own.”

I shook my head. “No, she fled to the heart of our power as soon as her existing power base collapsed.”

“It sounds like we’ve got ourselves a deadly social schemer.” Terrance sighed. “Don’t worry, I will keep a careful eye on all my men. We’ll let you know if any of them start acting… simp-ish.”

“Me as well,” Frank added. “Although, I do have to say that I’m feeling a bit understaffed at the moment. With both Kyle and Marcus out of the picture, the militia has lost much of its top-level leadership.”

I grimaced. “That is another thing I wanted to talk to you about. Rick… Kerrie…”

I looked through the crowd until I spotted them. “Both of you are promoted on a provisional basis. Our militia’s leadership is understaffed, so the two of you will be taking Marcus’ and Kyle’s positions… for the time being.”

They both looked surprised. Kerrie even pointed to herself, as if to say… ‘Who, me?’

“You are both powerful and respected by the others. Kerrie, you especially will have a significant burden on your shoulders—since it appears women are not as susceptible to Lisette’s… ah… charms. I want you leading from the front on this, even more so than Frank, Rick, Terrance or any of the others. You and Margaret in particular are going to have to work together.”

Kerrie nodded. “I won’t let you down.”

I turned back to Terrance and Frank. “As for the two of you, I want you recruiting more militia and policewomen from all the ladies we rescued from the Three Kings.”

Someone groaned. “Aww. Gender quotas? Don’t tell me we’re going to start having those workplace meetings again…”

“We don’t know if women are immune to Lisette’s abilities, but we do know men are susceptible to them. We should be using every tool in our arsenal.” As I spoke, I eyed the women in the police force and the militia.

If anyone was going to catch Lisette, it would probably be one of them.

***

Things seemed to be working well at first. But since the current situation was something of an emergency, I ended up taking a lot more direct control than I liked to. While the daily governance of Crownhill was left to the Council, major threats like this required a firmer and more decisive touch. That meant the responsibility fell to me.

Not long ago, I would’ve hated it. The feeling of being the deciding factor in life and death for so many would have been too much for the former office worker I’d once been. But the person I had been before the integration was well and truly gone.

I had seen what poor leadership could do. And I knew that I could do better. I was no Lord or Prince raised from birth for this task. Nor had I grown up in a culture where wielding absolute power was thought to be a good thing. But right now, I was certain I could do a better job than anyone else on this shard.

It was my responsibility to put that power into action.

With most of the other factions on the shard wiped out, and Sharky diligently patrolling our surroundings, I felt this was important enough for me to risk spending the night in Crownhill. I probably would have stayed last night, as well, if I hadn’t needed to consult with Myrina through the teleportation array.

Our patrols went out in force as the sun began to set. We had not had this many people on the walls and patrolling the streets since the Wolfmen’s attack. Most people who had joined our settlement after that climactic siege had never seen us out in force, and it was disconcerting to them.

Word continued to spread about Lisette. And it was spreading faster than I’d like. Perhaps not all of the rumors were our doing. Was she trying to rebuild her own powerbase right under my nose?

Unfortunately, I could not round up the craftsmen and townsfolk to force them to treat Lisette like the dangerous threat she was. Hopefully word would spread through official channels like Margaret’s radio show. On Myrina’s world, a Lord of my level might have managed it, but my fellow Earthlings were quick to remember that they had rights.

While I got us organized again, Bridget and Sakura were busy recruiting. Both the militia and the police force needed more women on their teams to catch Lisette. So, the two of them were busy hiring as many firm-minded ladies as they could—on either a temporary or permanent basis.

I was just starting to feel confident in our approach when a scream echoed through the night. It was less a scream of pain and more the scream of someone having a damn good time. I was about to ignore it, since Sakura, Bridget, and I were probably just as loud—if not louder—back at the farmhouse.

But then I remembered what the woman we were hunting could do. This wasn’t the sort of thing we could ignore. Apparently, several other people had the same thought.

I saw Margaret sticking her head out the window of her office, peering down into the long shadows of the streets below. When I waved to her, she rushed down the stairs to join me, jumping down them three or four at a time.

“That sounded like a guy having the time of his life,” Margaret said as she looked around, her face full of worry.

“I know. Did you hear where it came from?” I asked.

Margaret didn’t know, but we started asking around the militia and policemen stationed on the wall or guarding the entrances to buildings. By asking those who had heard it most loudly, we quickly zeroed in on its point of origin—the new police station.

“No…” Margaret whispered.

I grabbed the nearest officer by his uniform. “Who is in the office? Who spent the night there?”

“Uh.. Captain Terrance, Sir,” the officer answered. “He stayed late with a few people, straightening out priorities and doing paperwork. Taking on the new recruits will require a lot of administrative work, so he figured he’d stay up late and get as much of it done as he could. But the Captain isn’t stupid. He would have had other people in there with him.”

The officer looked over at the police station nervously.

“Radio for backup,” I told him, “we’re going in.” I led the way into the new police station.

Like most of the other buildings in the area, it hadn’t been used for its current function until recently. The old station had been completely ransacked—destroyed during the last Wolfman attack. We’d had to rebuild from the ashes. Terrance and his subordinates had salvaged what they could, including the armory and some old badges and uniforms.

But the building they were operating in now had never been designed to hold prisoners. Nor was it designed to be well patrolled or lit at all hours. The place had previously been a furniture store, complete with wide, glass windows. Surprisingly, they were still intact.

I would’ve thought someone trying to sneak in would have shattered them. Lisette could have made her way straight through them to her target. But this was no monster we were hunting.

“Looks fine to me. Perhaps we are overthinking this?” Margaret suggested hopefully.

I shook my head. “The scream came from here. Prepare for the worst.”

Mere moments after I issued my warning, someone lunged for us. His blue collared shirt and his armored vest were a telltale giveaway. This was one of Terrance’s policemen. As for what he was now…

“Stop right there!” the cop behind us yelled at his comrade.

The officer drew his Taser and, when his fellow cop made no attempt to stop, he pulled the trigger. Electricity zipped along the thin wire to the two electrodes embedded in the lunging cop’s nose. It was no use. Taser or not, this man didn’t care in the slightest.

He was just like the living flesh zombies we’d fought at the Crownhill County prison.

“Restrain him! Use his handcuffs!” I rushed forward and grabbed both of the mind-controlled cop’s wrists. Flaring Eldritch Augmentation gave me the strength to shove his hands behind his back. He tried to bite me, but I head butted him and probably broke his jaw.

My companions soon had him on the ground and handcuffed. The officer with us used his own handcuffs to attach his deranged and mindless former colleague to a heavy table, nearby. Just to be sure, I thumped him behind the ear with the hilt of my short sword.

That knocked him on his ass and took him out of the fight for good.

More reinforcements arrived by the moment. And they were just in time, too, because more of Lisette’s puppets came pounding down the hall from the rear of the furniture store we’d turned into a police station.