What?

“Wait a minute, let me get the hang of it,” I rubbed my left temple, “We only introduced ourselves to one another, and you’re asking me to follow your lead and participate in what could possibly cause my death? Not to mention that dangerous people might be spying on our conversation!”

And I don’t trust you yet, though I kept those words to myself.

I was already on a steady path to save Ratska, and even though I didn’t want for meaningless casualties to occur, I still valued my life. If she wanted my cooperation, then she had a lot of convincing to do.

“Don’t worry about anyone eavesdropping, I have an ability that can counteract such things. Anyway, can you please hurry up and make your final decision?” she spoke softly, “The hostages might be suffering right now, waiting for anyone’s arrival. But here you are, a perfect chance for you to save all the hostages, not just one, and you’re being skeptical.”

“Because it seems too good to be true! Even if you found where they took the hostages, what are we supposed to do? I am not entirely sure how many people you have on your side, but the fact you asked for my help implies that you’re all alone, and I don’t think I’d be of much help against an enemy of unknown power.”

The Intergalactic Troopers were still a mystery to me, but I knew that they had to have great power. That in addition to the support of people that were too dangerous for me to deal with at my current level.

“That’s fine. I know it’s too much to ask you to trust a stranger, but I can hold my own against whatever’s going to face us,” she said in a soft voice, with no irritation in her tone of speech, “In fact, I could probably get the job done on my own, but I want to maximize my chances. Even if the big shots gained awareness of our little mission, I can get away safely and save you at the very least.”

Now that’s a strong claim.

I crossed my arms, and tilted my head to the side.

“Really? You can do all of that by yourself?” I asked skeptically, “I get it that your strong; I’ve seen the highlights of your first fight and I was impressed to say the least. However, you’re claiming to be strong enough to mess with a big trafficking organization on your own, and get away with it on top of that! You should have some form of proof to back up such a claim.”

I knew for sure that she was a great fighter, and that she could hold her own against mighty foes. However, I needed more details to assess our chances of achieving what she proposed.

She smiled without replying, and kept steady eye-contact with me.

All of a sudden, her eyes turned completely white. Her hazel iris and black pupil just disappeared, completely.

Having to look at her eyes made me slightly uncomfortable, so I tried to move my gaze away. However, I couldn’t.

As if my eyes were stuck at their current position, and I couldn’t even close my eyelids or move my head drastically.

She has me trapped… Though I wonder, why didn’t she get punished for using such an ability here? I thought Karflel said that using system abilities was forbidden inside the lobby.

“Try opening your status window, or using any system feature.” Vivian spoke with a slightly deeper voice than before.

I tried using multiple system features, but none of them worked. I even felt like my strength left my body, and I returned to being a regular human.

Even though my body was still physically the same from what I could tell, but it felt heavier, slower, and overall weaker. I wasn’t sure whether Vivian’s ability affected my mental faculties as well, but the sure thing was that now I had a brain fog that I didn’t use to have.

On the other hand, I felt like I had better control of my fingers and hands. The numbness was nearly gone, and the convulsions stopped happening.

However, I knew for sure that defending myself in my current state would be a challenge, the negative aspect of my current state far outweighed the positive.

So, I can’t access the system, can’t think clearly, and can’t even look away from her eyes…

I even tried to conjure some flames, but my attempts were futile.

Thankfully, I could still speak coherently, so I asked her politely to turn off her ability.

She obliged instantly, and her eyes returned to their natural lovely form. She seemed concerned for my wellbeing, so she apologized for using her ability on me abruptly.

“I’m sorry, Jason, but this is the best way for me to demonstrate my ability.”

I was completely powerless under her ability’s effect, so I was more confident in our chances if we agreed to save the hostages on our own.

However, there was a small problem.

It was true that the ability worked on me, but I was merely a human with a level of one hundred and five. Sure, my class was of legendary grade, but I knew for sure that many people with greater skillsets than mine were members of the Intergalactic Troopers.

“It seems incredible indeed, and I’d be lying if I said I could do anything about it. I’d be frightened if I had to face you in combat,” I was genuinely surprised, “What does it do? And how can you use it here without being punished by that Warhoog?”

Karflel made sure to dissuade us from using our system abilities in the lobby, and I didn’t doubt that he could tell when someone used his abilities even if they tried to be discreet about it.

Out of nowhere, she giggled, then beckoned for me to bring my ear closer to her lips.

When I was close enough, she started whispering.

“To keep things simple, I can disable the system when the conditions are right. For example, I can prevent someone from using his abilities as long as we held eye-contact.”

Oh?

My eyebrows shot up, and I quickly moved my head away from her.

“Wait, is that for real?” I was perplexed, “So basically you’d be facing a regular person with no system skills to back himself up, and that’s the closest thing to cheating that I’ve seen in a while!”

“Oh, it’s not that impressive,” she seemed elated after seeing my reaction, “It has many merits, but onn the other hand, I can only disable system access for one sentient being at a time, and when it comes to inanimate object, they need to be close if not in direct contact with me. I can also cut-off an entire area from the access of the system, but the radius isn’t big at all.”

My expression turned serious quickly, and I was already seeing the possibility of her plan working.

“Is that your ‘latent ability’?” I doubted for there to be a class that allowed its user to disable the system in a certain area, and I already knew that this person was a Glitcher. It doesn’t take a genius to figure such a thing out.

Besides, I know from personal experience that latent abilities can be crazy… Though I hope she can control it at the very least.

“Yes, it is. Quite a special one, right?” she crossed her arms, closed her eyes and nodded with a smile on her face, “How about you? What does your latent ability do?”

“In fact, I was hoping to learn from you guys more about it,” I said as I raised my left eyebrow, “It won’t be of much use anyway, so we’d be wasting precious time discussing it right now.”

“Alright then, I guess we’ll have to rely on your class,” she seemed deflated, “I was actually hoping to see what your latent ability did, our leader Albert seemed especially interested in it.”

Too bad, I guess.

I still wasn’t sure whether our success was guaranteed or not, so I gave Vivian some ideas.

“What about the other fighters? Shouldn’t we approach some of the more trustworthy ones? I am sure the mission will be easier with numbers on our side.”

“It would be easier if we were going to launch a frontal assault, but we’re doing a sneak attack,” she said, “The commotion caused by a huge crowd of fighters isn’t worth the trouble.”

Suddenly, a loud voice interrupted our conversation.

“Alright everyone, you’ve had enough rest and joy for today,” it was Karflel speaking through a voice magnifier, “As a reward for surviving thus, we’ll give you twelve hours to prepare for the next fight inside your personal rooms. Use this time freely and carefully, and make sure to give the fans a good show later!”

With that, he concluded the speech and clapped his hands multiple times.

Vivian leaned in and whispered in my ear.

“When you get back to your room, keep tapping the wall opposite to the door gently, I’ll find you.”

I nodded, then each one of us walked in a different direction. When I was a fair distance away from Vivian, I closed my eyes as I waited for the Warhoog to teleport me to my personal room.

As usual, the process gave me slight dizziness, but it was improving.

When I opened my eyes, I was inside the cramped room that was assigned to me on my first day here.

A system screen appeared.

I hope Vivian finds my room soon…

I sighed, and threw myself on its bed.

I was already lamenting the fact that despite my current strength, life was still throwing me curve balls all the time. My life would’ve been incredibly smooth if Ratska wasn’t smooth, and we would’ve made a lot of money from his potions.

It is what it is, I guess…

I moved closer to the wall opposite to the room’s door, and started tapping gently.

After five minutes of continuously repeating the same motion again and again, I was bored.

However, Vivian was nowhere to be seen. I had no choice in the matter, so I kept going.

Many hours passed by, and I was bored as hell.

Suddenly, I’ve heard a loud thud coming from the wall that I’ve been tapping.

I tried tapping it once more, but my hand went through. When I looked at the ‘wall’, I realized that it was no longer there.

Pale white light filled the room, and a refreshing breeze of cold air passed by. I was glad to find out that I could breathe just fine, but I wasn’t sure if it was safe.

Standing outside the room was a humanoid figure covered in a black hooded robe that covered all of her features.

“Vivian?” I prodded.

She took off her hood, and it was indeed her. A wide smile was covering her face, and she placed her hands on her lips.

“Impressive, isn’t it? I demolished the wall, and it was an easy feat after disabling the protective spells that were preserving it. From here on, follow me and don’t make unnecessary commotion,” she said, “Actually wait a minute, can you do something about your face? We don’t want them to find out who’s doing this operation.”

Actually, it might be possible…

I asked her to wait as I played around with my special suit’s settings, until I found out how to use its camouflage feature.

All of a sudden, my whole body turned invisible, as if my body was made of glass that allowed light to pass through seamlessly.

“How about this?”

“It’s wonderful, but I don’t think your suit prevents sounds and smells from leaking out,” she pointed out, “Here, wear this on top of it.”

She pulled out a robe from her storage ring, and it seemed to be identical to the one she currently wore.

It’s the same robe that the Glitchers in my dream wore too…

It seemed to be of a smaller size, but it readjusted to my physique when I put it on.

It covered all of my body except for my hands, which were invisible thanks to my suit anyway.

She said that the robe muffled any noises that I made, any smells, and made it harder for inexperienced people to track me.

I thanked her for the free gift, to which she smiled and said that it was the least she could do to a junior.

“It suits you perfectly,” Vivian gave me a thumbs up, “You’re now a member of the family, congrats!”

“Even though it’s a bit abrupt to accept me as a member so fast, but I appreciate the sentiment,” I smiled and gave her a high-five, “Now, where should we go?”

She nodded silently, put her hood back on, then led the way.

I examined the area around us, and realized that my room was one of many, and they were cluttered in an area reminiscent of a labyrinth.

More than hundreds of rooms; I wonder how they keep them all connected to their respective arenas at all times?

I didn’t give it much thought, because magic seemed to be the explanation of all weird phenomena in this new world.

“Hey, Vivian,” I wanted to ask her something, but I didn’t know whether it’d be appropriate, “What would happen to the hostages whose fighters died in combat? And why didn’t you approach me to save them before the fights started in the first place?”

We could’ve saved a lot more people, and many fighters wouldn’t have needed to die needlessly…

“It’s true, but I’ve only managed to find the place where they hide the hostages. Vivaldium is a big place, and I didn’t have much time on my hands,” her voice seemed apologetic, so I didn’t press for further details.

Vivaldium was a large and beautiful planet, but this side of it seemed like an industrial area straight out of a dystopian futuristic world.

When we got close to a large building that stood out from the rest, Vivian stopped.

She approached a random area in the wall, and touched it. Suddenly, a large part of it collapsed and what was left was a rectangular hole in its place.

“This is a useful tip to keep in mind,” she raised her finger as if lecturing a student, “When you try to rob an armored place, go for the walls. They usually have weaker defenses than doors ahahah!”

I chuckled at her joke, but she giggled even harder.

It seems like this isn’t her first time doing a mission of such scale…

Suddenly, my expression got serious when I saw what was inside the room.

Many people were lying on the ground, either unconscious or restlessly sweating as their eyes darted around the place.

There were hundreds of hostages, but I checked them one by one as Vivian eased the ropes that bound them and calmed them down.

There were almost no gnomes among the hostages, and the ones that I found didn’t resemble Ratska.

I made sure to double check everyone, but to no avail.

I was starting to have a bad feeling about this whole thing, as I couldn’t find the hostage that I’ve come to this wretched planet to save.

Where the hell is Ratska?