Chapter 57: Life Has No Epilogues

Weeks later, Rick was back to work at the House of the Cosmic Fist, staring out over the crappy little strip mall.

Walking into the gym and quitting dramatically was a nice fantasy, but not one he entertained for very long. He had bills to pay and a sister to support. One day he would definitely move on to better things, but he would do it when the time was right, not on a whim. Life didn't give him miracles, after all, so it paid to be cautious.

Part of him had been worried that he was slipping back into old ruts, but many elements of his life reminded him that wasn't the case. He continued training privately with Lisa, and he'd received an invitation to meet with Emily the day before. When he went home, he and his sister were working on strengthening her void flame, not weakening it. And now that the constant threats had passed, he was enjoying developing his lucrima even more.

Not only that, the ratings agencies had caught up to his progress and he'd been raised to the 15^th tier. That took him out of the lowest quarter - he didn't think anyone in their family had ever done that other than Uncle Frank. But given his good mood these days, he expected that to be just the start.

After standing on the sidewalk for a while, Rick decided to go back inside and train on his own. Compared to the rewards he'd received for matches in the Underground, a tiny bonus for bringing in a new client didn't seem to matter much. He sat down in the center of the gym and began to meditate, satisfied that he was being paid for training he intended to do anyway.

"You know we always need more clients." Jimmy looked up from his magazine and gave him a skeptical look. "Don't start slacking off, now."

"I think I'll do more to bring in clients by demonstrating our discipline, don't you?" Rick smiled back at him, keeping his face neutral.

Though Jimmy stared at him in mild annoyance, he also disliked putting effort into things, so he might just drop the argument altogether. Before it could go anywhere, the doorbell rang again. Not a client: instead it was Henry, marching in with a confident look on his face.

At first glance he seemed better, without signs of having overdrawn his demonic bonds. Yet when Rick sensed his lucrima portfolio, as had become his habit, he felt that something else was wrong. It was actually nothing he'd ever felt before, so despite his coworker's cheerful expression, Rick got to his feet, preparing just in case something was wrong.

"Have you guys seen those Advanced Lucrim stations?" Henry flexed his arms, apparently enjoying his strength, though it didn't look impressive compared now that Rick's standards for physical size had been set so much higher. "God, just one loan and I feel incredible! I knocked all three demonic bonds way down and I'm even better than before!"

Rick's first instinct was to get out his phone and check, but he held it back. There wasn't a need for it, not really. He could feel that Henry was being overoptimistic: his bonds were still draining his strength, and whatever this "Advanced Lucrim" was, it was only a temporary boost to his power, not an investment. Strong as he seemed, that appearance was hiding a weak foundation.

"That's a great story," Jimmy said. "Now get to work."

"Nope. That's actually the opposite of why I'm here." Henry slapped Jimmy's magazine out of his hands and pinned it to the table. "I quit! I can make way more money fighting in the Underground, anyway."

Jimmy stared at him, then jerked his magazine out from under his hand. "Suit yourself."

"Wait, that's it?" Henry leaned forward on the desk, the wind leaving his sails. "Come on, man, I worked here for like three years. You don't have anything else to say?"

"If you want to hire one of our trainers, you can see our programs on the paper there. Otherwise, get out."

Henry stalked away, muttering curses. Rick decided to go after him - even if he wasn't truly friends with his coworker, he didn't want to let him leave that easily. Also... he was curious about this new method that had given him so much confidence.

Rick caught up to his coworker and matched pace with him. "Hey, man. Are there that many good fights in the Underground?"

"New events are happening." Henry grinned over at him as they walked. "If you're willing to take a few risks, you can do pretty well for yourself. And that's just for me! Since you were part of the tournament, you could probably make even more."

"Nah, I think I'm done with that, at least for now." Something about the offer bugged him, anyway. They wouldn't start offering more money for no reason, so there had to be a catch. "What was that you were saying about Advanced Lucrim stations, though?"

"Oh, those are fantastic! They set up one not far from here, we can check it out."

Several blocks away, down a street Rick usually didn't go, they found it. A building that had once been an abandoned gas station had been refurbished. The sign declared "Advanced Lucrim" in bold letters and there were a few flashing lights welcoming people in. A woman with a disturbingly white smile greeted them from behind the counter as they entered, but Rick looked in the other direction. The aisles of food and drinks had been replaced with several large circular machines he couldn't quite figure out.

"Yeah, those are the main event." Henry moved up to one of the machines, stepping into the circle. "You put your hands in here, run through the process, and bam! Sudden burst of strength. It somehow reaches forward and grants you strength that you're going to earn. Isn't that incredible?"

Rick didn't answer, but he thought that "incredible" was exactly the right word. All around the store, he saw flashy posters declaring the store's services. Money for nothing, it pretended to offer. Families waving bundles of cash. The money of tomorrow, today. He had to search a long time to find the fine print that made it clear the boost was effectively just a loan.

Though the machine hid the lucrim mechanisms deep within, he knew exactly what he'd feel: the same model as the Golden Lucore he had carried so long ago. This was what they had been designing: a way to harvest lucrim from those who had none. Desperate people would come in here and receive immediate lucrim, most selling it for cash. Thus squeezing even more profit from them.

Looking around the side of the machine, Rick soon found it: the logo of Maguire Incorporated. He smiled down at it oddly.

"You okay, man? You're spacing out on me." Henry waved a hand in front of his face.

"Sorry, I was just looking at the machine."

"I get it, this is fun new stuff. Anyway, you want to give them a try? You'd probably see a pretty big benefit, given how lucky you've been lately."

Rick shook his head and began walking out of the store. "No thank you."

"Are you sure, man? This really-"

"Do you get a bonus if you bring someone in?"

Henry started to object, but when Rick looked back at him, his words petered out. The silence stretched awkwardly between them, yet Rick found that it didn't touch him. He wasn't the one who had set it up and he had more important things to think about.

Eventually Henry walked in a slightly different direction and gave him a half-wave. "I guess we won't be seeing each other at the gym anymore, huh? But I'll see you around, alright, man?"

"Sure. See you around."

As they walked in separate directions, Rick thought back to what he had seen. It wasn't exactly an evil scheme, since everything Maguire Incorporated had done was perfectly legal. His involvement in the new technology had been incidental, for all the conflict that it ended up spawning. Yet it still felt strange to learn that all of this had developed in the background while he was absorbed in his own problems.

But wasn't that always the way the world went? Granny Whitney had been playing her own games, competing with Alger and the American Basilisk and probably others. All of that passed on above him... or at least it had once. Now, he found himself wondering.

Obviously he wasn't going to take on a corporation, just like he wasn't going to go challenge everyone in a combat university to a fight. But all of those ideas no longer seemed so far above him.

When he walked back into the gym, his boss looked up and grunted. "He's gone for good, huh?"

"Looks like it." Rick walked over to the counter and smiled at Jimmy. "It seems to me that you're going to be a bit shorthanded here."

Another grunt.

"I think I would like a raise."

That got his boss to slap his magazine down. "Absolutely not. You think I'm made of money?"

"No. But I think you recognize that I'm capable of working with a wider variety of clients now. If you want me to take on extra shifts and abandoned clients, I think I deserve additional compensation."

Though Jimmy obviously hated that idea, he remained silent, not having a direct way to rebut the argument. Rick just smiled and headed back to train, but before he could get to his place, the door opened again.

Darin, one of Henry's old clients. The gruff man scowled and looked around. "Where's the kid? Isn't he supposed to get here about now?"

"He quit." Jimmy grunted and looked down, though he gestured at Rick. "Take over."

"What have I always said?" Darin shook his head. "That's the problem with kids these days. And you... I remember you, arrogant little prick. Trying to tell people how to conduct their business even though you've never made anything of yourself. You think you can train me?"

Rick just smiled at him. "You said I was just a human practice dummy, right? If that's all you need, I'll do my best."

"Heh. You'd better not regret that, kid." Darin pulled off his jacket and moved out onto the mats.

Following at a slow pace, Rick considered if he was really going to do this. But as he analyzed Darin, he realized that he could. The man had stockpiled a great deal of lucrim over the years, but he just used it as money, didn't invest it into power. In fact, his generation rate was exactly the same as it had been at the beginning of all this: 55,000 lucrim. That was more than Rick, but numbers like that weren't exactly intimidating anymore.

"Let's see how long you can last when the going gets tough." Darin began to hop back and forth in a boxer's stance, shadowboxing the air. "If you keep wasting what little you've got and folding when life gets hard, you'll never make anything of yourself."

With that, he launched a wild haymaker. Rick took it directly on the face.

And didn't move.

Darin's eyes widened and he pulled his hand back slowly, shaking it subconsciously. Rick smiled at him, then raised his hands to start sparring.

Even though Rick didn't actually attack, their sparring session didn't last for very long. Darin soon left the gym in a huff, grabbing his jacket and storming out without making eye contact. Jimmy watched him go and let out a low groan, while Rick just walked up to the counter.

"So, how about that raise?"

X X X

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to all my alpha and beta readers for their feedback.

Thanks to GameLit Society and LitRPG Books for the community.