There was a pair of guards blocking my way to the inner sanctum of Ryan’s guild as I walked towards the building. Normally I would just ignore these two men and force my way through, but Noe did have a point. Making too much noise, no matter how preoccupied Central was at the moment, wouldn’t be a good idea in the long run.

Instead, I walked up as slowly as possible, making sure that every gesture I made showed that I was innocent and meek.

“What are you doing?” the one on the left said as he pointed a sharp sword toward me, “Recruitment's on pause until the training’s done; the boss’ won’t be back until then, so come back in a few weeks.”

I frowned. I didn’t recall Ryan being a part of the Aspirants in the training at all, and I was monitoring all of them. But from the microexpressions of this guard, he doesn’t appear to be lying. Well, there could be a lot of reasons to lie to these goons, and only an idiot would tell their underlings everything, but I’ll find out the truth soon in any case, one way or another.

"Remember what we just discussed, my Creator." I could almost feel Noe glare at me when I thought that.

... I meant in a non-intrusive, non-violent way of course.

“Are you sure that the other leaders can’t see me?” I asked with a lopsided smile, “I came across some interesting news about the Abyss guild…”

That caught the guard’s attention, “Interesting news? Explain.”

“Well…” I started, eyes darting around, “This should be stuff that only the higher-ups hear about... it's sensitive information.”

The guard on the right grunted, “And we’ll be the judge of whether that information is worth anyone else hearing. So spit it out.”

I winced and took a deliberate step back. The other guard noticed and gave his coworker a dismissive stare.

"Hey, no need to scare the guy." The other man shook his head. “You don’t have to say everything, but we need to judge how valuable this info is. There's been a lot of Aspirants who are trying to get into our good graces lately, so this is a necessary procedure. I apologize for the hassle.”

“No, it's okay, I understand. And... my information is about the Abyss Guild and their Leader, Jae-Hyun.”

Both guards perked up and subconsciously nodded their heads. Good, I had their attention now.

I continued conspiratorially, “I heard something went really bad in the last Trial… Apparently, he had a special version of the hospital and the doctors there did something awful to him. Heard he’s trying to cover up how badly he's hurt, and that he’s even suffered some kind of permanent injury. I was there in that same Trial, and I think I know what really went on.”

The right guard raised an eyebrow, “So a weakness, you say? That is interesting information, but you do know the penalty for spreading false information, especially of this nature, right?”

I nodded quickly, “Of course! I’m willing to bet my life on it! Uh, I’m sure you already have information about the Third Trial for people who were outside Pandora, you can double-check the information I told you!”

He thought for a moment before nodding, it was perfectly clear that he already knew about the nature of Jae-Hyun's trial, no doubt how he got that information would be dubious at best. “Fine, I’ll let someone know; stay here for a moment, and if your story holds, we’ll let you in and you can get your reward.”

“Thank you, sir!”

I waited by the side of the building for the men to communicate through the Trash Matrix’s chat, and it didn’t take too long for me to get my audience with the people in charge. Five minutes later, a few well-dressed Aspirants came and gestured to me to follow them inside.

“Remember,” the grumpy guard said one last time as I went in, “You better not be lying about this information. It won’t end well if you’re trying to cheat us.”

I just shrugged and waved him goodbye. I’m sure he’ll be a lot more amiable when I see him the second time around.

My new friends led me up some stairs and down a tastefully adorned hallway. They were going rather fast for me to enjoy the artwork and masonry that adorned the room, which was a pity. I think they were used to something like this happening and were not too happy about their given assignments as glorified babysitters. At the end was a huge double door and they nodded for me to go in. They didn’t join me.

The interior chamber was quite spacious, with a large red carpet that led from the exit towards a row of intricately decorated chairs that sat on an elevated platform. There was a total of 10 seats, but only the middle three were occupied at the moment, although calling those huge golden seats a chair might be stretching it. I think it would be more accurate to call them thrones.

Aside from the seats that made up most of the room, there was another set of doors at the back, and a little podium for me to address the gathered people. I walked up to the seated figures and gave a friendly wave. I could almost see the sneers building on their faces. Yup, they thought I was beneath them.

“Welcome,” the woman sitting on the left-most throne said, “I apologize that the Guild Master is away at the moment, but we of the Upper Council are more than willing to hear the information that you bring.”

The man to her right nodded, “If what you say is true, then you will be rewarded greatly. Perhaps even allow you a spot in our guild.”

The last man remained silent, still staring at me with an obvious air of malice. They didn’t quite believe me, not that it mattered.

“Speak,” the woman said again.

“Are there just the three of you here?” I asked as I glanced around the room, “Surely there would be more people in charge of this guild.”

The woman frowned at the unexpected question, but my sheer charisma stats caused her to answer anyway, “The rest are away in training, we three are enough.”

Hmm, that’s interesting. Once again, it looked like the woman was telling the truth, but there was a discrepancy between what was being told to me and what I knew. Ryan and his people were definitely not in the training, which meant that he must be somewhere else. With how thorough the Overseer was, my best bet was that he arranged for some alternate training or trial for these people, so they’d be away from Pandora when I returned. Most likely he was afraid of what I could do to his peons and didn’t want to take any chances with his plans not working.

“And we are the ones who are asking the questions!” the middle man interrupted, “Speak out of turn again and you will know the consequences.”

Well, it looks like I was with everyone worth bothering with already. I will give it to the Overseer, he does make my job harder since I didn’t have access to all the members of Ryan’s guild. But that didn’t mean that I couldn’t make a little bit of mischief here though, and I’m sure that I can get some useful information out of these three, even if they weren’t too high on the totem pole.

I snapped my finger and sealed this room from the outside world. No need to alarm the others in the building about what I was about to do. They won't die... but I can't guarantee that it will be pleasant for them.

The middle man frowned, “What are you doing? You are testing our patience!”

“Oh, don’t worry,” I said as I approached the three seated Aspirants, “I’ll be testing a bit more than just your patience. Bare with me, it’s been a very long time since I’ve had a chance to experiment with a mortal body.”

The man was the first to get up, “You have lost your mind! Guards, take this idiot away!”

They waited with a smirk on their faces, but all three of them were puzzled when nothing happened. The other two started to get up as well, but a gentle mental nudge on my end made them slump back on their chairs, their will to even move a single muscle taken away from them as extreme lethargy assaulted their bodies.

“Wha- what did you do?” the first man asked as he saw his colleagues fall. “Who are you? You are making a mistake thinking you can assault us here in our own base!”

He tried to fight back then, taking out an antique pistol from his inventory, but before he could even think about pulling the trigger, I sent his emotions spiraling out of control. Faced with so much sensation, the man could only spasm in place before slumping down on the chair like the other two before him.

“Now then,” I muttered mainly to myself, “Normally I wouldn’t resort to such base tactics, but I can’t take chances when I’m dealing with the Overseer, so like I said, please bear with me. I have to make some slight changes to your brain chemistry. Let’s see if I still remember how to do so, it’s been a very, very long time since I’ve practiced.”

A look of horror appeared in the man’s eyes, but I quickly stifled that emotion with Noe’s skill. No need to have them fully aware of what’s going on, it’ll be easier for both of us if they were more pliable when I did my work.

“Now no need to worry,” I said again, “I’m not going to lobotomize you or anything. I just need you to understand where your loyalties lie. Just some minor changes, I promise!”

I don’t think that did much to plicate the man’s fears, but it was too late now. I placed one finger on his forehead and gently inserted a tendril of Darkness into his brain. I felt his memories, thoughts, and feelings flow through to my cortex. I closed my eyes to concentrate on the feeling, and using my own human body as a guide, I started to make the necessary changes to his mind. I think I still had it in me to make these types of delicate procedures! I was on a roll!

Five minutes later, I was left with a corpse with a liquefied brain oozing out of his ears…

“You’re using your own body as a reference point, right?”

I nodded absentmindedly, “Yeah, everything should have lined up. I changed the parts that needed, and I was gentle as well. Not quite sure where I messed up here…”

A chuckle. “Well, if I’m not mistaken, your new human shell’s starting to incorporate more of your Xollon body since I last saw it. Especially the mind.”

I cursed, “Damn, of course! That was stupid of me! Thanks…”

I frowned and turned to face the speaker, I hadn’t even noticed anyone entering my bubble of privacy. I was ready to face one of the Overseer’s men before I eased up and saw the smiling face of my old friend. Standing beside him was another welcoming face.

“Shit!” I laughed, “You almost scared me to half to death, Big Bob! You should have told me if you were going to visit!”

My friend laughed as he went up to embrace me in a big bear hug.

I returned the gesture with glee before breaking off to embrace the other familiar face beside him, “And you have no idea how good it is to see you again, Xalla!”

“Careful, Walter,” she answered with a toothy grin, “You’re still in that human form.”

I ignored her warning and hugged her anyway; it was the first time I had seen her since my partial awakening after all, and I needed the contact after everything I’d gone through. I liked the Xollon girl, much more than I thought I would, there was something about her enthusiastic attitude that was just infectious. True to her words, the serrations on her feelers pierced through my body, and she quickly stepped back before she could rip the rest of me to pieces. I willed my broken form together again and winced when I saw the blood on Xalla’s uniform.

“Sorry,” I muttered, “I got your uniform dirty.”

I heard an audible gasp of horror from the other two Aspirants as they helplessly watched on in terror. I ignored them for now.

“It’s fine,” she answered with a light chuckle, “All security uniforms are made to be extra durable and waterproof.”

With a shake of her feelers, all of the liquid splattered away, and her dress looked as good as new.

“What brings you two here?” I asked finally, “I’m pretty sure it’s not normal for a Sponsor and the Head of Security to be wandering the Main Stage like this.”

Big Bob arched an eyebrow, “Just like it’s not normal to be in two places at once? You should be a little more careful with the stand-in, Walter. Your little charms may fool the Origin Matrix, but there are other monitoring systems in place.”

He pointed towards an inconspicuous spot on the wall, and I had to really concentrate to see that there was a very tiny sensor embedded there. It seemed that Big Bob’s inventions had gotten even better since the last time I had seen him.

“It’s also a good thing,” he added with a big grin, and with a swipe of the finger, the soft buzzing sound of static erupted everywhere around us. "That these beautiful monitoring systems have all mysteriously failed. Unfortunate coincidence."

I returned the smile. I knew I could depend on my old friend.

“And before you ask again,” he continued, “I am here to check up on my surveillance devices after I got a call from Site 1102.”

“Yes…” Xalla added with a barely continued chuckle, “It seems that something went horribly wrong with the new Admin team, and now the entire command center’s in chaos. It couldn’t possibly be the work of the Lord Arbiter, since he’s still in his office dealing with the aftermath, and his behaviors are all well documented. I even went to double-check that it was indeed W there. Lord Babylon is here in his official capacity to find out the cause of this disturbance, and I am here to supervise his maintenance work.”

“Right, and I’m sure that Big Bob here will be busy for a while, what with all his creations malfunctioning,” I said as I finally clued on to what was going on, “So you’re here to make sure that the Lord Babylon does not abuse his power to mess with the Main Stage since Central Regulations stipulate that any Sponsor or Higher Lifeform visiting must be accompanied by a Site representative.”

“Precisely, my friend,” Bob answered, “It’s to ensure that something like, say, messing with the brain structures of the Aspirants, doesn’t happen. Hypothetically, of course.”

I laughed at his blatant disregard for regulations, “Indeed!”

“Now speaking of brain structures, I think you should do it like this…”

 

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