My Infinite Investment System

The warehouse gate smelled like wet cardboard, ammonia, and the cinnamon gum chewed by the clerk who registered Ryan as a provisional analyst.

He read the plastic badge twice.

**Ryan Keller | Field role: Route analyst | Combat authority: None**

’Excellent,’ he thought, clipping it beside his empty company slot, ’official recognition that I should not be punched.’

She leaned across the folding table and said, "He comes inside with us."

The clerk kept chewing while she pointed at the last line of the contract.

"He has no combat authority."

"Neither do rats."

Nia rested the cracked tower shield flat across an equipment cart and said, "The rule means he cannot engage, not that he cannot enter."

The clerk looked at all three of them, paused on Northstar’s mismatched clothing, then stamped the waiver with visible regret.

"If the gate exceeds E-rank behavior, withdraw and trigger the red seal," she said, circling a switch beside the entrance, "the contract fails, but you remain alive."

Ryan checked the countdown showing fifty-three minutes until midnight.

"We clear before midnight and keep the building," he said, making the objective small enough to carry, "everything else is optional."

The striker rolled her left wrist, where the repaired pathway held a narrow ring of pink current.

"Staying alive feels emotionally mandatory."

The shieldsmith adjusted the cart strap by one notch and replied, "Then do not stand in front of me."

The striker’s camera smile appeared even though no phone was recording.

"You’re borrowing my ruined building for a forge bench, maybe soften the commands."

"Please do not stand in front of me."

Ryan opened the gate before leadership became a contact sport.

Cold blue light swallowed the loading bay, replacing city rain with a warehouse aisle that extended farther than the real building could contain.

Steel shelving rose twelve meters on both sides, loaded with blank cartons, broken pallets, and nests made from shredded packing foam.

Something small scratched behind the nearest stack.

’Harmless rats, simple contract, one hour,’ he thought, watching a cardboard flap tremble, ’the universe has heard all three claims and is preparing a response.’

A gate rat emerged with translucent ears and a tail bright enough to cast a blue line across the floor.

Mika lifted two fingers.

Ryan touched her wrist before the spark formed, then removed his hand as she looked at him.

"Nest count," he said, pointing to six pairs of eyes behind it, "burning one at a time wastes the pathway."

Her mouth tightened, but the current vanished.

"I was warning it."

The shieldsmith pushed the cart past them and said, "It appeared devastated."

The first nest occupied a broken refrigerator box.

Ryan watched gold routes gather around the rats when they moved, each line showing a leap before muscle and bone committed to it.

Spark Sense had never drawn intention this clearly outside machinery.

’That route ends at my ankle,’ he thought, stepping aside before the nearest rat jumped, ’which is information I would have preferred before owning the ankle.’

The creature crossed the empty space he had abandoned.

Mika trapped it beneath a plastic bin while Nia tilted the box and poured the remaining rats into a containment cage.

"You moved before it did," the striker said, watching him instead of the cage.

He pointed toward the next aisle and answered, "Its attack had a route."

The shieldsmith secured the latch and asked, "Can you see all of them?"

Gold threads multiplied through the shelving until six nests appeared as tangled knots.

"I can see where they intend to move, not why."

"Useful."

The striker put both hands on her hips and asked, "That is all he gets?"

Nia checked the cage lock before answering, "Would you like me to clap?"

The owner walked ahead before her expression became a weapon.

They cleared the second and third nests in eleven minutes.

Ryan called the routes, Mika used controlled flashes to herd the animals, and Nia moved cages while keeping the cracked shield flat.

At the fourth nest, a rack of cartons shifted overhead.

"Left," he said, seeing two gold lines cross behind the striker.

She moved right.

The shieldsmith caught the falling carton against one forearm and set it down rather than throw it.

"His left," she said.

The striker stared at both of them while a rat escaped between her boots, then said, "We need team vocabulary."

The shieldsmith brushed carton dust from her forearm and replied, "We need you to use the direction provided."

One pink spark snapped between the striker’s fingers as she said, "You told me not to stand in front of you, now you’re editing my feet."

He closed the cage on the escaped rat and said, "My call means warehouse east, hers means the nearest safe place, yours appears philosophical."

Both women looked at him.

’I have misjudged the available allies,’ he thought, keeping one hand on the latch, ’the rats were quieter.’

Mika caught the next animal with a spark no wider than thread, then held the cage door for Nia without being asked.

The shieldsmith slid it inside and said, "Warehouse east from now on."

The striker pushed the cage toward her and said, "Fine."

The shieldsmith tested the latch and replied, "That sounded painful."

She pointed toward the next aisle without looking at either man and said, "Please enjoy the historic moment privately."

The fifth nest had been built beneath a collapsed conveyor.

Spark Sense showed twenty animals, plus one red route pulsing inside the concrete wall behind them.

He crouched near the crack and said, "Something larger used this passage."

The shieldsmith finished fastening the cage, came closer, and asked, "How large?"

He spread his hands one meter apart, and the striker stopped smiling.

The contract screen still identified the gate as low-rank, and the red emergency seal remained visible two aisles behind them.

The shieldsmith set both feet behind the cart and said, "We withdraw."

Twelve minutes remained before midnight on her screen.

She held up the countdown and said, "If we leave, the city seals Northstar."

The shieldsmith kept her hands on the cart and replied, "Buildings can be recovered."

The phone lowered as the striker said, "Not that one."

The shieldsmith’s jaw shifted, but she pulled the cart around instead of arguing.

Ryan studied the red route, which remained motionless beyond the wall.

’One unknown creature or one guaranteed condemnation,’ he thought, hearing his pulse above the rats, ’this is why contracts have warning language.’

He looked at the gate seal and said, "We take the final nest on our way out, no delay, no split formation."

The shieldsmith placed both hands on the cart and asked, "If the red route moves?"

He pointed toward the emergency seal and answered, "We run."

Mika touched the regulator beneath her jacket before saying, "Warehouse west, since apparently directions have become a constitutional issue."

The final nest sat beneath the loading office, surrounded by bones too large to belong to rats.

Blue tails disappeared into packing foam as the trio approached.

He saw the red route move straight toward them.

"Out," he said.

The warehouse gate sealed behind them with a sound like a steel shutter dropping.

Every blue rat flattened itself against the floor as the concrete wall burst outward.

A butcher beast crawled through on four jointed arms, its shaved white body stitched with old gate scars and its cleaver-shaped skull scraping sparks from the ceiling.

The contract display flashed crimson across the loading office.

**Unexpected entity: C-rank | Emergency exit unavailable during predator cycle**

Nia unfastened the tower shield while Mika’s repaired pathway ignited from wrist to ribs.

Ryan watched a red attack route pass through both women and end at his heart.