The person waiting for me was a girl, maybe twenty, with desperate eyes and hands that wouldn't stop shaking.
"Please," she said the moment she saw me. "You have to help. People are dying in the slums, and no one cares."
[EMERGENCY QUEST AVAILABLE][THE SILENT PLAGUE][MYSTERIOUS ILLNESS KILLING SLUM RESIDENTS][ESTIMATED DEATHS SO FAR: 23][CITY GUARD REFUSES TO INVESTIGATE][ACCEPT?]
"Tell me everything," I said.
Her name was Nina. She was a healer's apprentice working in the slum district. For the past two weeks, people had been getting sick—fever, weakness, then death within days. The city guard wouldn't investigate because "slum rats die all the time." The Healer's Guild claimed it wasn't their problem.
Twenty-three people dead. More getting sick every day.
"Why come to me?" I asked.
"Because word on the street is you actually care. You saved that kid from the fire. You helped those merchants. You're the guy who helps people everyone else ignores." Her eyes welled up. "Please. I've tried everything else."
[REPUTATION CHECK: "THE GUY WHO HELPS"][PEOPLE IN NEED WILL SEEK YOU OUT][CONSEQUENCE: YOU'LL NEVER HAVE A QUIET LIFE]
I looked at Frost. He nodded. "Go. This is exactly the kind of thing you should be doing."
[QUEST ACCEPTED: THE SILENT PLAGUE][WARNING: RISK OF INFECTION][RECOMMENDED: FIND CAUSE, STOP SPREAD, SAVE LIVES]
The slums were worse than I expected. Cramped buildings, open sewage, desperation in every face. This was where the city's forgotten lived.
Nina led me to a makeshift clinic—basically a converted warehouse where the sick lay on bedrolls.
[SCANNING AREA...][DETECTING... ANOMALY][THIS IS NOT A NATURAL PLAGUE]
I froze. "System, what do you mean not natural?"
[ANALYZING SYMPTOMS...][MAGICAL CONTAMINATION DETECTED][SOURCE: WATER SUPPLY][SOMEONE IS POISONING THE SLUM'S WATER]
"It's not a plague," I said aloud. "It's poison. Someone's contaminating the water."
Nina went pale. "Who would do that?"
Good question. I activated my new Strategic Planning skill, thinking through possibilities.
The slums were on valuable land near the river. If the residents died or fled, someone could buy it cheap. Classic gentrification through murder.
[INVESTIGATION QUEST ADDED][FIND WHO'S POISONING THE WATER][STOP THEM][BRING THEM TO JUSTICE]
"I need to see the water source," I said.
The slum's water came from a communal well, fed by an underground spring. When we reached it, I saw what the system had detected—a faint magical shimmer in the water.
[ANALYZING POISON...][SHADOW ESSENCE - EXPENSIVE, ILLEGAL, MAGICAL][REQUIRES SIGNIFICANT RESOURCES TO ACQUIRE][CONCLUSION: WEALTHY PERPETRATOR]
"This isn't some random act. Someone with money and access to illegal magic is doing this." I turned to Nina. "Who owns the land around the slums?"
"The Whitmore Corporation. They've been trying to buy out the slum residents for months, but no one will sell. This is our home."
Whitmore Corporation. I'd heard Frost mention them—major real estate developers with connections to the city council.
[NEW OBJECTIVE: GATHER EVIDENCE][CURRENT EVIDENCE: CIRCUMSTANTIAL][NEED: CONCRETE PROOF OF WHITMORE INVOLVEMENT]
"Can you treat the people who are sick?" I asked Nina.
"If I knew what poison it was, maybe. But Shadow Essence? That requires an antidote I can't afford."
"How much?"
"Fifty gold suns. Per dose. We have forty sick people."
Two thousand gold. I had fifty from the bandit job.
[DILEMMA DETECTED][OPTION 1: USE YOUR GOLD TO SAVE SOME PEOPLE][OPTION 2: FIND ANOTHER WAY TO GET ANTIDOTES][OPTION 3: STOP THE POISONING FIRST, THEN TREAT]
I chose option 3. Stop the source, then deal with treatment.
"I'll handle the Whitmore Corporation," I said. "Can you keep people alive for a few days?"
"I'll try."
[QUEST CHAIN ACTIVE][STEP 1: INFILTRATE WHITMORE CORPORATION][STEP 2: FIND EVIDENCE][STEP 3: EXPOSE THEM]