《It was a Misunderstanding !》 Important Note This is a reupload, what does that mean? If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. THIS IS THE FIRST SERIES I EVER WROTE SO YEAH IT KINDA SUCKS Chapter 1: A somewhat lazy girl in a somewhat perfect world The sun was bright, the wind was calm, the perfect weather to sleep in an afternoon. All was well in the world one could even say. But was it so? "Nyaaa ?~ " was all it was heard while a small little girl was laying on a bed from where you could barely see the rising sun. The small room was cozy. Wooden planks on the floor. A yellowish theme for the painting on the walls and we even had stars dotting the ceiling. Our small little girl had blonde hair that went almost to her waist. She was sleeping peacefully on the bed like she didn¡¯t have any problem in the world. And why would she? She didn¡¯t look older than 12 years, and if you looked closely at her smiling face you could see that she had a nice life going there. If one were to look further beyond her room her house was the dream house for some. A little bathroom in front of her room, just small enough for a little washroom and a bath tube, there was a little potted plant in a window that let the natural light come flowing down and you could see a thematic curtain with stars dotting the ceiling, the hallway was brightly illuminated by a dangling bulb that clings to dear life in the ceiling, the walls having a green painting that reflected the exterior meadow and some flowers near the floor. To her left was a small closet with all kinds of toys and board games, safeguarded with a couple of bear plushies that were strategically placed to defend the fort, Major Sargent Bears the war plushy would defend this spot till the end of times if needed! It was mostly stuff our little girl didn¡¯t play with anymore but a noble endeavor nonetheless! To her right would be a small library with a few toys here and there, these were used more frequently, one could see a few board games about strategy that the older brother liked to play with her when he came around, and there were also a few fighter jets around that he liked, mostly model figures and a few big robots, cuz boys, of course, liked their big ass robots, not that it matters. Finally, we have the stairs. On the first floor, things got more normal, there was a bright and big living room, a comfy sofa that could accommodate one sleeping little girl or two with some difficulties, also a couple of extra normal sofas for visiting guests. Then again, not that many came around, aside from momma, teacher, and her dear older brother... But for those occasions, there was the kitchen on the side. A fully furnished kitchen! If for that we meant a normal kitchen with a table and a refrigerator...And that was it, she didn''t need more of it so there wasn''t more of it. This was mostly momma''s territory so if she wished for more she could ask for more. What more could she need after all? Outside we could finally see this dream house for what it was¡­..A tree, a really big tree, but a tree nonetheless. It was a mighty one, you could even have like ten little girls hugging it and they couldn''t cover this particular tree''s whole circumference. But even so, it was still just a tree. A big ass tree but a tree at the end of the day. A Big old tree for a house, how big was it to hold all of this? Well¡­. big enough. Our little girl wasn¡¯t an architect so she didn¡¯t know how she had water, gas, or electricity. Nobody knew really. But it was cozy and warm in winter, and breezy enough in summer. So she didn¡¯t mind it that much. Besides, what else would you have? A normal and boring house would ruin the big garden she had after all. Every color of flower was in her yard. And her backyard¡­.well¡­.it had some kind of weird stuff that momma wanted her to eat, something about vegetables? Dunno, it was weird green stuff¡­.Why would someone waste space on it? I mean, she liked the orange fruit¡­Mango was it? That was the stuff of the gods. But the other stuff? God knows how she could eat those. Who would even think of eating those!? The weird cucumber mostly of all, for some reason she had some nightmares the first time momma brought those and had them for dinner¡­. If not for the mangos she would hate her! (Not really) But even so, she was happy and so life was good, most of the time. She liked these kinds of days where she could sleep all day, a good day was a day where she would only be awoken from her slumber to eat! A normal day would be " heavy machinery opening door*" That noise I guess? Followed by the rustling of a heavy blanket falling onto the floor and the rushing of a little girl screaming "MOMMA" for dear life and jumping into the open sky (Not really) and the sudden ¡°THUD¡± of an unstoppable object (Debatable) hitting an unmovable object (It isn¡¯t). And after a couple of seconds of a some high pitched laugh and a couple of rolls on the flower bed "What have I told you about jumping into people Alex?" we could hear the stern sound of the black-haired woman. She was a somewhat standard-looking (By our little girl standards) woman, with a slender body and bob black hair. It was a miracle that her glasses hadn¡¯t been broken by the now normal shenanigans our little girl had her go through. But even after so many scoldings, there is only one truth here " I promised to not do it again Momma Mira¡­." and that was that this little girl lied really badly. She knew she would do it again. After all, it was her momma! She knew she loved it after all! Who wouldn¡¯t love a high-effort hug from her? And so the lab-coated woman was trying her dammest hard to stand and scold the little girl "What will I ever do with you Alex¡­." she knew it was a lost war to try and scold her¡­And the little girl knew she knew "Bring me more cake¡­?" but it was still the thought that mattered¡­.. *bonk* " Cake is only for special occasions like birthdays or when you ace a test." Said the woman while bringing the power of justice to the little girl by hitting her head with a notebook. A dreadful thing¡­..There were stories (Not many) about how those things could bring nations to ruin! And the little girl dreaded each and every time that thing was brought into her small paradise¡­ Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. For it means one thing¡­. "It''s time to start the class Alex, let''s go to your desk" dreadful stuff would follow¡­.And so with heavy steps would our little girl go towards her dining room that would turn into one of the evilest things in the world (this is true¡­) "Classroom time" and so her lovely momma turned into an evil being¡­ She turned into Professor Miriam Eversoul, a renowned scientist in the field of abstract physics and theoretical dimensions or something like that¡­.To be honest, our little girl didn¡¯t care much for those PhDs her momma liked to brag about that were in her room. It''s not like she ever went there¡­.why would she leave her paradise after all? Even if momma only invited her from time to time she always answered the same¡­.Why would anyone wanna leave her haven? ¡°Why does it even have to be spelled that the earth is a sphere?¡± Asked the little girl while trying really hard to pretend to be interested in the lesson more than the mysterious box that was on the counter behind her. She wasn¡¯t doing a really good job of it ¡°Because there are people that think the earth is flat.¡± Answered Professor Momma without missing a beat. ¡°How in the four hells of damnation do they think that could work¡­.? Are¡­.Are they okay?¡± asked the little girl while being really put out of her character¡­Who would believe the earth was flat? There was so much proof that the earth was a sphere! Even from her haven, you could see it! ¡°They are¡­.¡± Said Professor Eversoul while doing one of those dramatic stopgaps to think her next words¡±...Fine¡­.from a biological point of view, even if that isn''t Vivian''s specialty and she hasn''t found anything writing on them...Yet ¡°and while scribbling something on her tablet so it could be projected on her holographic board ¡°But from a civilization point of view they are not doing well, and they might be the reason for a few world wars through history ¡° said the Professor while showcasing a few pictures from their meetings with some weird decoration and such, it showed mostly wizened generals and presidents on meetings looking into maps and war plans. ¡°They might devolve back into monkeys¡­no wait, monkeys are intelligent beings¡­.will they skip a few species and return to amoebas? ¡° Said the little girl while drawing mustaches on the image from her notebook with a crayon. For her part, Professor Eversoul couldn¡¯t hide her chuckle ¡°That they mIt''st¡­Its part of the reason Vivian was looking into getting a few of them as willing subjects for her project. Still, we haven¡¯t found intelligent life on other planets yet. So if for some reason an alien civilization found our planet and his first scan was of these meetings, they might rule us out as a civilization about to climb into Tier II ¡°said the Professor while trying to bring the topic back into line with her schedule. The little girl wouldn''t let that go though, since she liked this kind of conversation more. ¡°That scale is wrong anyway, not everyone can harness or build a Dyson Sphere, and even if you could, why would you build a Dyson sphere if you have a better power source.¡± Said the little girl who was still drawing mustaches on the photo that no longer was being projected on the holo screen. But it seems it was still in her notebook. ¡°To be fair that scale is really old, but no one has used a better one yet. And usually, you don¡¯t find a better power source already built to harness¡­Or at least you aren¡¯t supposed to¡± said the Professor while getting her holoscreen in order ¡°And don¡¯t think I haven¡¯t noticed you didn¡¯t finish the last math problems Alex¡± Said the professor while getting her back in order. ¡°But it isn¡¯t fair! Rieman was a psycho I tell you! ¡° screamed Alex to the high heavens while getting another notebook from her pink pouch ¡°HE DIDN¡¯T EVEN LEAVE AN ANSWER SHEET!¡± cried the little girl while pointing at some old and dusted Book and then pointing at her black notebook. ¡°And I still think he was drunk or high on drugs when he wrote that weird mumbo jumbo¡± mumbled the little girl all the while shooting the gaze of a victim of a heinous crime, that she was being accused of committing too. For her part Professor Eversoul only chuckled while answering ¡°You brought it to yourself, you stated the bet, the prize, and the problem. If you manage to find the answer I will get you all the toys and mangos you want. I will even get that dearest brother of yours to play more often here. Hells I will even do his work so he can spend more time here too¡± with an evil smile Professor Momma answered. But of course, the little girl knew she shouldn¡¯t open her mouth without thinking first, but the price was so tempting¡­Besides, it wasn¡¯t her fault that all the math problems she was given before were easy to solve. It was those books'' fault! She wasn¡¯t the one who claimed it would be hard on her to solve them either! It was that goddamned Hamilton¡¯s fault. He was the one that brought those math for-kids books, she would work more on her pig plushy with the weird tuxedo, and then she would tear it apart and start again¡­That would relieve stress and Teacher Vivi said she needed to release stress sometimes too. But for now, she must work on more important things! Like ¡°ITS TIMEEEEEEE!¡± scream to the seven heavens for the time to study had ended and she managed to disrupt most of it! *Ding, Dong, Dung* ¡°Look how the time flies¡­.But fine, you will need to finish your normal homework though. But fine¡± said Professor Eversoul while leaving on display the Geographic and History homework for the little girl to copy. After all that, Mango Cake wouldn¡¯t put himself on a plate for the little girl to eat. ¡°And so Alex watched with great interest while Professor Momma was trying her hardest to think what Cake Slice to give to the most beautiful little girl in the world¡± Narrated the little girl ¡°She was the prettiest and fairest of all, the most gorgeous creature in the world.¡± Said overly dramatically ¡°Some even said the beings from the seven heavens, four hells, and the void wanted to see her for even a few seconds¡± *bonk* ¡°And some said that said girl wouldn¡¯t get cake if she kept being so cheeky¡± finished Professor Eversoul after delivering a nefarious bonk on her little head. But since she also gave her a slice of cake that looked like the most beautiful thing on all the planes of existence (If said little girl wasn¡¯t accounted for) she would be pardoned for her crimes. Of course, that little Mango that was probably made out of sugar didn¡¯t have anything to do with it. After all, what could be more beautiful than a slice of mango-flavored cake with a little mango candy to top it! It was like the god almighty had descended from the heavens to bless the little girl for all her hard work! What hard work? Don¡¯t dwell on the little details! ¡°This is why you are the best Momma Mira.¡± said the little girl with a smile so big one couldn¡¯t imagine how she could eat at the same time. ¡°...You will still need to have that homework finished by our next class.¡± said the person in question without missing a beat and eating her own slice of cake ¡°But thank you for the praise¡± and even though she tried to hide it the little girl knew she liked both the praise and the cake. Who wouldn¡¯t like mango cake after all!? All those other flavors were okayish too. But nothing would best this one flavor. Chapter 2 : A definitely not lazy Professor and a really dangerous(?) job Professor Eversoul wasn¡¯t sure what to feel these days. It was like¡­.nowadays no one took her seriously. "*sigh*" Nowadays it was all ¡°Prof Mira¡± and ¡°Prof Momma¡± here and there. And she couldn¡¯t be mad about it. It was her order after all¡­¡­..God knows what could happen if someone called her ¡°Professor Eversoul¡± in front of that monster of a little girl and she threw a tantrum again. "*sigh*" Which was part of the problem, she couldn¡¯t blame that little girl¡­.no. She couldn¡¯t blame Alexa for it. She was learning after all¡­.They all knew she was learning. She could even remember to put on her pajamas before going to sleep! Wasn¡¯t that a funny thing, to be happy because her charge could remember to dress to the occasion " Even if she lived in a frickin tree and eats better than all of us together¡­." would mumble the woman under her breath from time to time while looking the live feed of said little girl. There it was without a care in the world solving her math problem while eating those god dammed mangos she liked for some forsaken reason. The professor could admit that they were tasty, but to eat them in all three meals and not get sick of them¡­or sick because of them was something on another level. Even so, she would log it and pass it on to someone else so it wasn¡¯t her problem anymore. Even if it would be her problem later on, it wouldn¡¯t be her problem again at least till her next visit. Unless something happened¡­.again¡­.But even so, for now, she would log it, send it for review, and call it a day. She would log off of her machine for now, since she had somewhere else to be, put all the locks the IT guy told her to put, and place that god-dammed magnet on the machine because ¡°It''s to be sure¡±. So much money to the trash can just so that some big shoot could feel safe about ¡°His project¡± If he wanted to be so damn sure about it he could come and check on it himself! But that was a pipe dream and Professor Eversoul knew it, at least they had a cleaning service again¡­.and chefs¡­.god... How had she missed the chefs while moving all of her staff here. She wasn¡¯t sure if the cleaning guys were cleaning guys or plants to look over her shoulder, and honestly she didn¡¯t care so long all was clean and smelled nice, it was a somewhat fun thing to think about how all the hallways of the site smelled nice 24/7 just because ¡°Someone¡± said she didn¡¯t like how she smelled after a somewhat intensive experiment with a somewhat weird substance that doesn¡¯t have a name¡­ She should get Alexa a new mango cake one of these days¡­ But for now, she had more important stuff to think "Oh, Professor Mira you are here at last " said a balding and overweight man who was bending a few laws of physics to fit in that cheap-looking tuxedo. Every time she saw him, Professor Evesoul thought the same, and since she was the top scientist in physics in this base, she must be right, should she get into more decontamination again? She was projecting her inner Alexa again... Psychic contamination was no joke..." Sorry, was reviewing a few of the logs of the P4 site after the ND0 system threw a new alarm, and you know how the time goes on and on when looking into such amusing stuff, Mister Hamilton," said Professor Eversoul trying her hardest to eat the smirk that wanted to show on her face. She was definitely going into decontamination. At the same time, the physic-bending pig in a tuxedo was in its own fight trying to keep calm "Oh, I see¡­.You should just send a message if something important happens, that''s what the R4 relay system we installed is for¡­." he was losing that battle and they all knew it since his face was turning a white color that couldn''t be healthy. Even so, Professor Eversoul was a woman of integrity (somedays at least) and threw a lifeboat to her boss(Or current one, god knows when this one would bail on them) "It''s okay, it wasn¡¯t anything serious, but we might need to reschedule a few imports of the priority list, and we need to raise the level of importance of a few items on the secondary list" she said while highlighting a few items on her notepad and sending the mails on the shortwave system to everyone on attendance. More weird security from their IT Overlords, because god knows what would happen if someone even suggested having Wireless communication on the base. No no no, we don¡¯t need more gates for the information to leak to the world and yada yada would say that grumpy Old man on his weird IT server cave. She was sure that someone could monitor everything here though, even with all these weird limitations and all the wireless blockers in each hallway "Anyway, was anything of importance in the schedule to discuss today?" said her colleague to the left. A blue-haired woman with a body that was definitely either artificial or crafted with some genetic shenanigans " Ah yes, thank you for bringing us back to schedule Professor Vivi " but even with all of that she also couldn¡¯t escape from the evil clutches of a weird nickname from Alexa. Professor Vivian Kellet donned her white lab with the posture of royalty. A red sleeveless blouse and a black skirt were all that she had for clothing, a few pieces of jewelry here and there was all she needed, her atmosphere said ''I will only listen to you if you grovel bellow me!'', her face was emotionless besides a cold glint on her blue sapphire like eyes, it was mostly hidden behind her glasses, she had some light makeup going, but most of her close friends (Only Professor eversoul) and a couple of blondes on base knew the truth behind that makeup. It was done to her by one of her interns. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. She was a major scientist in genetics & neuroscience¡­From the genetic side, some rumors claimed something along the lines of self-experimentation¡­ On the Neuroscience side, she was studying a way to synch the conscience with a machine to better learn and manipulate the genetic code from a person in real-time. Of course, everyone laughed and thought she was on drugs or something when her first thesis came. Then when the second one came through some thought she was just messing with the world, since every side work she did brought millions. On the third one¡­.Well, she had enough money from ¡°Side work¡± that she just shut herself from the world and no one could get her to work anymore on anything else¡­Unless you could help her in her study that is " Here is an updated list of new requirements I need for the next stage of experimentation." Whole nations would empty their coffers if she just spent a few hours teaching or fixing the errors on the works of their own theories. There were rumors that a certain country even offered her a royalty title " These are toys Professor Vivi¡­." Said the pig trying his hardest to not sound condescending. For her part Professor Kellet just answered " Inflatable toys and a kiddy pool, plus a barbecue set to be precise Mister Ham¡­.ilton. These are important to my current work Mister Hamilton," said the cold beauty without missing a beat¡­.or at least not unintended. One had a hard time correlating the cold blue-eyed beauty with the demands she was giving. But it was nothing new on the site, they all knew she was probably using those as bribes to a little girl. For his part, Mister Pig was again losing the battle with himself trying his hardest to not curse a storm " Please don¡¯t prolong my name Professor Vivi, and I have no doubt of their importance, but we have other stuff on the priority list that I wish it wasn¡¯t there already¡­.There are other laboratories in this place too. And they too have stuff that they need" said the pig while looking into the other people in the room begging for help. For his part, he tried to look everywhere but to the two women "Laboratory 2 doesn¡¯t mind leaving a few spots for Professor Viv¡­." Corrects his posture" Professor Kellet and Professor Eversoul " said a somewhat normal laidback-looking blonde from the other end of the table. He looked more like a mischievous guy than a scientist on this setting, and his clothing said the same, a white lab coat that had seen better days (It wasn¡¯t that bad¡­it was maybe just missing a few laundry days), a plain black T-Shirt with a weird yellow bird on it and cargo jeans with sports shoes to finish his ensemble. One could think he was a stand-in instead of a major scientist in his field¡­But alas, appearance matters more than it should. "Laboratory 3 is willing to leave a few spots if Lab 1 let us a few hours of their time on site." said the fifth voice¡­ which was completely ignored. The person in question pretended nothing happened and kept writing something on his notepad. He was a somewhat normal-looking guy who just wanted to leave with some extras to his name and never once achieved his mission. To be fair they all knew lab 3 was the one with more needs¡­.And most of the spots on the priority list were usually taken from them since they didn¡¯t achieve that much. They were still better than Labs 4-7 since they HAD spots on the list, so they could be here. But alas " We will take a few spots from Lab 2 and cede a couple of hours of time on site to you Prof¡­" And here the blonde raised a finger pointing to Professor Eversoul "....*sigh* We will cede a couple of hours of playtime to you Alexanders" and finally the blonde made a little dance on his chair. And sent a few documents (at least 50 pages long, which means this was an ambush) "Alexa will love my new toy " said the blonde while whistling his little song. And Professor Eversoul could feel the years fall away "I still don¡¯t understand why you gave your name to her, isn¡¯t it weird? " said Professor Kellet. To what the blonde just shrugged and said " I mean, it''s funny at the very least. And she still doesn¡¯t use it that often, so you all can try and stick her with a name too. Only Professor Eversoul ever uses it anyway, so you still have a chance. If my name sticks we will be the golden duo. Alexanders and Alexa! " said the blonde while raising his fist to the ceiling. They all knew he was weird like that, and if he didn¡¯t give his allowance on the priority list that often to Lab 1(And use her right name) Professor Eversoul wouldn¡¯t use the name Alexa for the little girl either. She knew it wouldn¡¯t stick (Or she hoped so) and she knew he only did it for the joke of it. But she still couldn¡¯t help but feel that something was going on in the blonde¡¯s head. Professor Alexander *last name omitted*, no one knew from where he came. No one knew what his majors were, nor what was going on in Lab 2. They knew he had some achievements as a programmer, but he wasn¡¯t the IT Overlord, since he was the main culprit in all the little exploits Lab 1 & 2 used to circumvent the security. And he was also the major helper for the interface Professor Kellet was using in her thesis. But the man was a mystery. No known age, no known nationality (not that it matters much on this site), and if you needed something he was the man to go for it. He was also one of the only few persons on this site who went with Alexa just to mingle and play (or at least it looked like it). He also was the only one to give away his slots on the priority list to get stuff for Alexa without any meaning. Besides Professor Eversoul and the god damned mangos that is. Alexanders was one of the enigmas on the base, and she wished he didn''t spend so much time on site, but beggars can''t be choosers, and he was giving them his spots on the list, besides Alexa liked him enough to call him brother, not that they had any ties. She didn''t have any ties with anyone on site, besides Vivian and maybe the head of Lab 3. Not that she liked either much, the first one she called Teacher instead of Profesor since his first dealings with her were as a teacher, nowadays she was the one teaching Alexa though. The latter... well she liked him more than Mister Hamilton...but that wasn''t much, not that she could blame Alexa, his early dealings with him weren''t that good, not that she would blame the man for it, they didn''t know better...And almost paid the price for that, part of the reason she didn''t mind Alexanders shenanigans was the save on those early days. She still didn''t know from where he came nor what he was doing there that day. But she didn''t have the free time to deal with that, so she would ignore the many mysteries Alexanders had, and try her best to get Alexa to not copy too many of his traits, she could hardly deal with the manchild on a good day, and while Alexa looked somewhat cute doing her antics... "If that''s all for today. I need to schedule time for decontamination, so I will take my leave for today," better deal with this while still conscious of the need for decontamination. Maybe Alexanders ignored the call for decontamination and that''s why he ended like that? More food for thought "Okay Professor Mira. You can have my slot for today since I have a few extra meetings today" said the pig, it seems he still wished to fix something? They all knew that man was the one spending the most amount of time in decontamination. They never saw any changes in his demeanor, so it wasn''t very effective in his case...He still went like a religious man going to church. So she was grateful for the timeslot "Thank you Mister Kendrick" so she would be polite and use his name instead of his last name, they all knew how sensible he was about his last name. One would think that a man of his figure would be used to his own last name, but for some reason, he found it insulting. She wasn''t sure why though? It was fitting if nothing else. Chapter 3: A somewhat laidback scientist? He was Alex, or Alexanders depending on if a little girl with blonde hair was nearby. For some, he was a laid-back scientist who shouldn¡¯t don a white lab coat. For others, he was an enigma. Someone that didn¡¯t quite fit in the setting, but was still around for some forsaken reason. Then again for others... He was a dictator. The evil last boss (According to a Lab 2 employee) who demanded work to be done in time and to have all where it should be, no matter if such places made no sense at all¡­. Alexanders was a blonde man, he didn''t look to be over thirty years old, his sky blue eyes still looked full of life and his face had an eternal smirk like the cat who just ate the canary. He never dressed in formal clothing, most of the time you could see him running around in cargo jeans or shorts with a t-shirt, and while the color of said t-shirt would vary with the day. Something would always be the same, the emblem of a bird on it was always there, no one knew what it meant nor why it was so important that the blonde had it constantly on himself, most though nothing of it, another weird quirk of the blonde manchild they would think. That made it even funnier to Alexanders though. But that was of little importance. ¡°Are you sure that it''s fine to give away so many slots on the priority list?¡± asked a pig that for some reason was dressed in a tuxedo to the blonde man. ¡°Of course it''s fine, the priority list is a sham anyway.¡± Said the blonde youth while drinking from a looking expensive wine cup¡­.He wasn¡¯t drinking wine though¡­¡°And you should do something about your appearance, some days I doubt if you are still human.¡± said one of the only two persons in this base who would even think of drinking mango juice from a wine cup. ¡°I try to do exercise every night before going to sleep, but it''s in my genes boss¡­.Nothing I can do about it¡­¡± said the ¡®Being¡¯ that is slowly but surely turning into either a pig or an Orc. But that is of no importance right now ¡°Whatever you say, also I¡¯m not your boss. I am Alex from Lab 2. If not for all those cowards I wouldn¡¯t even use the title of ¡®Professor¡¯ either, but no one wants to go into the site¡­.So many squirmy cowards in these black sites man¡­¡± said the blonde while standing from his chair. It was two hours ago when the last reunion ended and only the blonde and the pig remained in the room. Both Professors Eversoul & Kellet left when their slots on the ¡®Priority List¡¯ were guaranteed. And Lab 3¡¯s herald left not long after he was assured for the fourth time that they would get at least half of their promised slots. The only one that didn¡¯t care for slots was Lab¡¯s 2 Alexander. For he was among the very few who knew the reality of their current situation. And he wasn¡¯t happy about it ¡°Man¡­wish they didn¡¯t open that god dammed box in the first place¡­¡± mumbled to himself Alexander, but the pig thought it was part of the conversation so he answered ¡°Nothing to do about it, the box is already open¡± And it was indeed open¡­ Not fully Alex thought, but more than he wished. But he couldn¡¯t do anything about it ¡°Don¡¯t forget those mangos when making the shopping list¡± said Alexander to the pig. He in turn only grimaced a little ¡°Who was the god-dammed bastard that started this mango trend anyway, I don¡¯t think I ever saw one on base before this all went to hell¡± said the administration¡¯s Pig. To which Alexander only smiled and left the room. Maybe the mango joke got out of control a little, but he couldn''t be held accountable for it. He liked the mangos and couldn¡¯t get authorization before. Nowadays thanks to Lab¡¯s 1 effort he could get a few here and there. He really should thank the pipsqueak and her ¡®Momma¡¯ for it. Maybe he could get a few extra toys on that goddam list. He would make it so the kiddy pool went past the control for sure. That or they could make one. Would be easier to expand the garden and have a river? Or get a kiddy pool into the site? These were funny sunny days indeed, if someone said to him he would contemplate this same question a few years before he would send that man to a hospital¡­ Or would pay someone to send that person to the hospital. Nowadays he could do whatever he wished in the site and no one was the wiser (Besides the pig and maybe a blonde midget). Even his minions had better days nowadays, god dammed midget and her god dammed fluffy aura that was so goddammed sticky. If not for that sharp kid''s senses his minions wouldn¡¯t be so damn expensive to manage. They were doing a good job, but they were also ruining his reputation¡­ But beggars can¡¯t be choosers ¡°Time to build another persona I guess¡­¡± mumbled the blonde man while walking towards his kingdom (Lab). Coordinated Chaos was what welcomed him. An orchestra of work left and right from top to bottom.¡°Gentlemen, don¡¯t stop working. And add something new to the query list¡± said the blonde guy while walking to his seat (Throne) ¡°What will be the more adequate persona to cultivate for me¡± Said our blonde guy while writing his username to log in ¡®Alexanders 5?????????????4????????????????????????1?????????????n???????????????????7??????????????????????????????5???????????????????w???????????????0??????????????????????????????7??????????????????????????????? ¡¯ after logging into his station he went ahead and started to work on his current project. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Every kind of question and phrase was logged into a big holo screen in the middle of the room. Rapidly this one climbed to the top 5 queries waiting for answers. Among others was the number one ¡®How to cultivate mangos¡¯. There was little doubt about who put that there. But number two was ¡®How did query 1 get there¡¯ and that amused Alexanders to no end. Even though the question should scare him, even though Professor Eversoul and Professor Kellet would no doubt start a holy war should they find that query there. So it was mostly censored unless something climbed high enough to warrant an update or something was taken off the list. That would be censored most of the time, and the supercomputer that they were building would try and find the answers. But you know how it is with new systems¡­They promise and promise and in the end, they rarely deliver. For his part, Alexander only wanted to finish his work and carry on. Even though most of his coworkers thought of him as a clown disguised as a scientist. ¡°Any updates on our programs?¡± he still did his job. ¡°None so far, but the system has reached 27% saturation and hasn¡¯t moved since the last update¡± answered an assistant to his left ¡°No decimals in your update Sarah? That isn¡¯t like you¡­¡± smirked Alexanders. He knew why she left those out after all ¡°Currently saturation is at 27.80085% sir¡­What time would you want your new schedule visit to HR be boss?¡± answered a new voice from his right. It was a somewhat weird contrast with his aide, while Sarah was a small and petite blonde with a somewhat Asian appearance. This new voice was tall. And also had bulging muscles... all over the place, and his lab coat didn¡¯t even have sleeves either, he was the living image of a muscle head that was pretending to be a scientist. While he was at the top of the line in debugging and coding, he was hired for his appearance, so he had a grudge against his boss and was always ready to cause problems for him. ¡°Man, you aren¡¯t fun Jack. Sarah must learn to do his job properly and with consistency, she knew I didn¡¯t mind the decimals, but she was always giving them. So of course I worry when she decides to give a shorter update¡± said Alexander acting like the victim of the situation ¡°...And the reunion should be today in the afternoon. If there aren¡¯t open spots, schedule it for Monday, I have a date this weekend¡± But then again, this was the kind of man Alexander was. ¡° And it''s done, it will be the Monday after the morning debrief with Mister Hamilton¡± and sadly his subordinates knew nothing would come of that HR meeting. Even with all his antics Alexander still never crossed the line into real problems, besides a few bad-tasting puns and jokes here and there. He still did his work (mostly) and cared for his subordinates (They doubted this), he was still infamous for his jokes though. ¡°What''s the point of even trying to finalize this system anyway?¡± Asked Jack the muscle man, he understood why Alexander wanted to make it but didn¡¯t see the reason behind trying to create it ¡°Isn¡¯t it meaningless at this point?¡± But still, he would do his job ¡°There is a meaning to trying to finish this particular system, nothing is truly meaningless in this world.¡± Said Alexander while sitting on a wheeled chair and moving from one side of the room to another free workstation. ¡°If we as humanity stopped doing something because it was meaningless we would have never sent someone to space after the first man went to space since it was already proven it could be done¡­..¡± Said the blonde while moving a picture of the first man-made satellite orbiting their moon to a holoscreen in the middle of the room. ¡°But even so, someone else saw that they only orbited the moon, so they sent someone to land on the Moon¡± and then moved from his workstation an image to the holoscreen ¡°It wasn¡¯t meaningless since the ones before them only orbited the moon after all¡± and then moved another picture of the different space programs across the world through the ages. ¡°But they gained something¡­They earned prestige, they got samples and they proved their program was better than the ones before them¡­¡± said Jack while moving a graph from his notepad to the holoscreen ¡°Even if this system works¡­You will not benefit from it¡­No one will know it was your program at its inception¡­¡± and then moved on to another report where all the names of the developers where censured with a black market. Funnily enough, some were painted yellow though ¡°Oh trust me, they will know¡­.And even if they didn¡¯t¡­. That''s the fun part of this whole mess¡­.I¡¯m not doing it for the fame nor money¡­I don¡¯t need the Nobel Prices either¡­¡± said the blonde man while taking off his lab coat and standing in front of the holo screen. For a second they all had forgotten who they were talking with. ¡°I am doing this for the fun of it. Wouldn¡¯t have accepted working here if I wasn¡¯t interested in the result and the amusement I would derive from this, after all¡­.¡± Said the blonde with an almost crazed look on his face ¡°You do realize that''s the only reason I even came here¡­.¡± said the blonde man before starting to walk to the exit ¡°Oh right, carry on the good work, I forgot the appointment of this afternoon¡±. And with that, he walked away leaving only his two aides looking at each other and their minions mingling between them pretending to be working ¡°Some days¡­I forget that man is crazy¡± said Jack while Sarah only answered back ¡°Yeah, it''s really easy to forget and think of him as some new grad scientist¡­God knows from what hole they brought him¡­I tried to search him on all the databases I could get myself into¡­¡± said the petite woman. That brought the muscle man to attention real fast ¡°Nothing?¡± and the petite woman only nodded almost making the muscle man do a double take ¡°How is that even possible? We have access to every database in the world, granted they all are backups since we can¡¯t go into the net¡­But still shouldn¡¯t be possible¡± and that only brought more mysteries to this case. And made Query number 3 more ominous ¡°Who is the Head of Laboratory 3 Alexander?" It was all a mystery, even the workers of lab 2 didn''t know who their boss was. No one remembers when Alexanders started being their boss either, one day he was suddenly there. The problem is, they didn''t remember any other boss being at the helm of Lab 2. It was just Alexanders and no one else, no one on-site could make this work either, so they came to the obvious conclusion that Alexander was always the head of Lab 2 and they were suffering from some psychic contamination from the site. So nothing new there, how did they get the psychic contamination? Who knows, probably Alexander was the originator of the contamination since he liked to go into the site way too often, they didn''t understand why either. Since he was adamant about finishing that project, why would he waste so much time playing around on the site or playing jokes on everyone from labs 1-3? "I wonder if we will ever understand what goes into that psycho''s mind?" asked the petite woman to the muscle man "Why would you wanna know?" of course, the muscle man was a normal person, so he couldn''t help but wonder why "Maybe then we would know why he makes so much effort into salvaging this doomed program?" said the woman pointing at the numbers on her holopad, it showed a count going down by the second.
Notice:
System saturation 26.4567%
Not much time left before the collapse of that program, even if they worked day and night trying to debug and defrag everything, their work was mostly meaningless, whatever happened that made this system go into a death spiral wasn''t something easy to fix, and since Alexanders didn''t let them restart nor turn off the program to examine it, they had to work around the active instances and fix the sub-routines while the program wasn''t using it, add to all of this the fact that this was linked across the site to several sub-nodes and the problem only grew bigger. If only they were able to at least shut down the sub-nodes, but that wasn''t an option either. That man just liked to do things the hard way. Chapter 4: A certainly motivated scientist of blue hair ¡°Why can¡¯t you fix something so simple?¡± asked the blue-haired beauty to his almost in tears subordinate. She couldn¡¯t understand them. She wasn¡¯t mad at him, she wasn¡¯t talking aggressively or speaking more loudly than usual. She was certain of it, she had installed cameras and mics everywhere to monitor herself and to send alarms to her smartwatch to tell her of it (To the chagrin of the evil overlord from IT). But even after all her work her subordinates still were like this. She didn¡¯t understand them at all. A simple question would end with her in HR for another complaint from a subordinate, a complaint that never got through since HR couldn¡¯t find faults in her, she didn¡¯t understand why they still took them or processed them. If at the end of the day, her subordinates (Or ex-subordinates by that point) would terminate their complaints and leave the lab. She even placed formats for transfers to other labs already signed near the complaint box! If they wanted to leave they could ask for god''s sake! But no, they made a circus out of this each and every time, not that she minded using them as samples when the opportunity arose after these altercations¡­. ¡± I am not mad, I only want to understand what''s wrong¡± but her subordinate was already on the floor crying a river. *sigh* this will end in another visit to either HR or the site psych. She wasn¡¯t mean, the questionaries said so, both the one with name and the one without name¡­.Even though the second one had names scribbled all over the place for some reason. She really couldn¡¯t understand them. She knew for a fact that her direct subordinates thought of her as evil for some reason. Part of the reason she didn¡¯t have a lab (Not a lab anymore at least) where those complaints. And that was the reason lab 1 had 2 head scientists instead of one. Since her Lab (Previously Lab 0) no longer existed they had to work somewhere, and there wasn¡¯t space anymore to accommodate them, so they just shoved them all into Lab 1 and called it a day. Still¡­.She was concerned for the mental health of her subordinates, it seemed they couldn¡¯t hold their stress well. Maybe she could ask for bits of advice from Lab 2¡¯s Alexander? ¡°ANYTHING BUT THAT!¡± screamed someone from the other side of the Lab. ¡°Interesting¡­¡± It seems they could infer what she was thinking¡­.But then why couldn¡¯t they answer her? ¡°You should get a mask,¡± said a black-haired Professor, and the original Lab owner. She couldn¡¯t understand her, but at least she didn¡¯t devolve into a baby while talking. ¡°Beg your pardon?¡± asked the blue-haired professor. ¡°A mask, they have problems talking to your face, so maybe get the face out of the equation?¡± answered back Professor Eversoul. Was she that ugly? ¡°I will take it into consideration, but since neither you nor Alexa or Alexanders have a problem with it, I doubt that would solve it,¡± said Kellet without ever considering the Pig nor the kiosk lady. Since the black-haired professor was acting like this, maybe she didn''t go into decontamination at the end? Maybe she was on her way there? ¡°I don¡¯t think either Alex is normal, to begin with¡­.And I got used to you so I don¡¯t count either¡± said Eversoul before getting on her way to her office, she could smell flour and mangos in the wake of Eversoul, so she could only sigh about what she was cooking in there¡­Both figurative and realistic. For now, she had work to do. ¡°Someone get cleaning duty for¡­.#453, I still have formats for Labs 2, 5 & 7. If he wants to go to labs 3,4 or 6 he will have to wait till the end of the day¡­And if he wants to come back he will have to write an essay about the problem was, " Kellet said before going into her office. It seems Eversoul forgot to go into decontamination...Again, maybe the site psych hazard should be re-evaluated? Not that they could stop going in there, at least not Eversoul. Should bring this up later on and suggest taking a few of her spots in the site so she could get into psych decontamination, maybe if she brought cake Alexa wouldn''t mind it much... For now, she would have to see if Labs 2 Alexander could get her a new AC or something to get the smell from Eversoul¡¯s office away from her office¡­He had a way to smuggle things in somehow. She wanted to know his background, but then again. Since he didn¡¯t dig too deep into her background she wanted to keep things cordial. After all, he didn¡¯t ask her if she experimented on herself or not. She would have answered if he asked at the very least, but wouldn¡¯t answer what she did or not to herself though. That was private and a lady must keep a couple of secrets. For now, she had a couple of neuro paths to trace and she required a new test subject.¡°Professor Kellet, Number #453 wants to stay. He is willing to subject himself to the new neuro path tracing and is already on the table¡­.¡± said her always loyal Aide, one of the few who could speak to her without making a mess of herself. She liked it when things went as expected, and a willing test subject was just the thing since the last one didn''t fulfill the right quota. ¡°Have him sign the forms, and inform him that the new path to trace will be particularly painful¡± said Professor Kellet without even trying to hide the glee in her eyes. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. She was vindictive and crying because you saw something deserved punishment after all, no matter if you were ugly or not (She isn¡¯t) ¡°He is aware and has already signed the forms. We are waiting for your signal to start tracing¡± Said the aid. A young intern that got into her service with recommendations from Alexanders, a blonde girl with blue eyes, because of course something that came from that man had to have something Yellow on her... For now ¡°Start the procedure and don¡¯t forget to offer him painkillers, it might reduce the tracing efficiency, but we aren¡¯t brutes¡± said Kellet without missing a beat and giving a form to her aide. She didn¡¯t say anything to her, took the form, and left. Kellet could barely hear ¡°Start the procedure. If the subject asks for painkiller give them as needed. We are all professionals¡± and she could swear that girl was as evil as his former owner. But then again, they were all a little mad at the site. No one sane came here on his own. And those few had already left one way or another. This was in a sense, the birthplace of all the evil in the world. Even though she found that moniker overly dramatic. But then again¡­That moniker was suggested by Alexander. So of course it had to be dramatic. --------------------------------------------- Aide POV --------------------------------------------- "Subject is starting to show rejection to the procedure, slow the speed of scan saturation and increase the dosage speed on the IV Drip." said the petite assistant of Professor Kellet. She wasn''t quite sure why Alexander sent her to Lab 1 instead of keeping her with her sister, but that man was an enigma on a good day. So she didn''t mind it that much, and the job was easier on this side. The only problem was dealing with the cult Professor Kellet had around her. How could she, a normal person deal with deal with all these problems caused by a nascent cult dedicated to the cold bitch? She wasn''t sure but nothing could be done about that. How could that woman be so oblivious to the almost crazed looks his subordinates had for her she wasn''t sure either "Subject is slowing the IV Drip with his remote control, vitals are dropping" called one of the clerks stopping her musings. And this was the reason she didn''t like working with cultists "Be advised Subject if your life is terminated in the middle of work you will ruin all this batch of testing and will send us a few days work backward" She didn''t give a single iota of pity to cultists, but she also didn''t want to have more work, so when in Rome, appeal to their craziness. "Miss Jennifer, the subject is beginning to accept the new dosage, vitals are stabilizing." Said the clerk again. For her part, the aide only gave a cursory glance to the man strapped to the table in the middle of an operation room. He was still trashing, he was still crying blood, but his crazed look persisted. And she was ignoring the state of his pants, and it was not for fecal matter. "*sigh* Don''t forget to clean after this is done, and don''t let Professor Kellet look at the recordings if possible. I will not explain what part was caused by the tracing experiment and what part was caused by the Subject...Tastes" said the aide before leaving the lesser clerks to mingle and finish the report. Last time they had the subject go in for extra tracing to find ''The cause'' and it was like talking to a wall, that woman got on her nerves, trying to act all innocent with that kind of body? Yeah, sure, act all innocent if you want, she could smell her heritage from a mile away, those kinds of people were all the same in the end, even when she liked to act aloof. Cultists, how could so many bright minds devolve into cultists? It was easier to deal with this than working for Alexanders, that was for sure. But the mental corruption was no joke here. And the woman in the middle of all of it wasn''t aware of her own psychic hazard. At least it was contained in this part of the lab, so she could mingle with more normal persons in the other half of the lab. Not that they were much better, that place was on its way to turning into a mango orchard if she was reading things right. And while they weren''t cultist quite yet, most of the staff was referring to themselves as "Gentlemen". Whatever that meant. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "So we have another genetic sample traced?" asked Professor Kellet to her aide after receiving a file on her notepad. It showed a full scan of a male body with all the nerve endings and how they worked. "Yes Professor, no new data was found in this one either. So we are sure that we are going in the right direction" said the aide placing the new information with the others on a holoscreen. It showed different information bodies of multiple samples, she would be happier if only she wasn''t aware that most of that information came from her "Coworkers". Males and females were the same on this side of the lab. Very few weren''t under the charm of Professor Kellet "Now we have plenty of subjects but you still want more for some reason you will not tell me, right Jennifer?" asked the Professor. To which the loyal aide only answered "It''s related to why you can''t communicate quite right Professor. Of these samples only two are clean in my eyes, one is mine, and the other is yours" said the aide while highlighting two samples. They looked almost the same compared to the others. "There isn''t much difference that wasn''t expected there. The same neural paths and the same genetic markers, the genetic ancestors, and origins cause the only differences I can find. But those differences are the same in everyone...Also, you forgot to account for the genetic trace of your old Boss and Alexa in your report" said Professor Kellet while bringing another two information bodies to the holoscreen. There stood one that would look the same to everyone but to the eyes of the two women, there couldn''t be more difference in it. "Are you sure we can''t use the same method that he did? He is cleaner than anyone else" asked the blue-haired woman to the blonde. For her part, the blonde woman stood her ground "It isn''t feasible unless you have his heritage. Or a massive genetic restructure to the test subject bodies. But that would taint the information since we would already know what to expect of the Test" said the aide "Also, I''m 99% sure Alexander knew his tracing would end like this, and that''s the reason he volunteered to be the first one" added the aide with a smirk "And the same could be said for Alexa, not that we could get another tracing of her to check how much she has changed since that place turned into a Meadow" and wasn''t that the real problem here? "He did look like he knew it would happen." said Professor Kellet "He brought popcorn and snacks to the following tracings after all" and if that wasn''t a nine-meter signal of something going on then what was? In defense of most of the staff, they didn''t know the man at those times, besides the gossip of him being ¡®A little weird''. Nowadays no one would trust anything he said without confirmation. And if that didn''t bring salt to the injury... " He did tell you to give sedatives and to prepare that IV Drip before putting someone on the table" came to the defense of her old boss the loyal aide. "Is this loyalty to a former boss?" asked Professor Kellet smiling just enough to be noticeable. "It''s self-preservation, I was still his aide at the time..." acquitted the young aide. It was one of her best memories since at the time she was still innocent to the darker minds of the coworkers of Lab 0 (Now Lab 1). It was part of the reason she didn''t mind the transfer here. Had she known the state of this half of the lab she wouldn''t have accepted it. She would still end here though. No one could stop that man from getting what he wanted, and he wanted someone to bring him updates on how the project here was going. She still didn''t know why he wanted her to do it. Professor Kellet was sending updates daily. Even if the only information extra she could send was about the social hierarchy and interactions here. And she was sure that those R4 drones of his could do this job too. She suspected he was testing if the experimentation done on her could survive without continued exposure to Lab 2... And to see if she could spread said procedure to anyone else. Chapter 5: A normal-looking man with memories of old glory John Williams was your average prodigy at his school. Top of the class in his university and graduated with honors. His Master''s Degree was talked about for months after he presented his work and he was even among the youngest nominee for a Nobel prize. But nowadays he couldn''t feel more average even if he tried. He still remembers how good it had felt when he was scouted by the most prestigious organization in the world. How could he not after being scouted by the Saintworth Conglomerate? And not by one of their satellite companies, but by one with their logo on it! It was the happiest day of his life, what he thought at the time would be a life of glory and riches. And while he had plenty of riches, the glory was short-lived. Some might say that ten years of glory were plenty. But after tasting the sweet taste of adoration from the masses...Well, one couldn''t say he could live as before. Even if his subordinates said that nothing changed even if they were now deemed the worst of the best, they still were on top of the world. And he was aware that there were better people above him...But why would they come to his workplace!? "Professor, the new weapon is on the testing ground, but the buyers want to ask you questions about it..." said a lab-coated aide, he never could remember their names before, but nowadays since he thought of himself as one of them... " I am busy Bruce, tell them that if they ask stupid questions we will double the price, if they still want me around I will go" dismissed the Professor. If they arrived before the new monsters of Labs 0-2 he would enjoy every meaningless conversation he had with the investors... Nowadays he couldn''t stomach their eyes...Even if he was the sky for them and they only wanted to grovel as his feet...He couldn''t help but feel that the image of those monsters would haunt him. How could he dare to act as a big shoot with those monsters around the corner?!? He knew they never came to his presentations after he asked them to not come. Even if it was mostly for solidarity reasons as he was the only lab that could reliably bring money into the site. Well, solidarity by Professor Kellet & Professor Eversoul. Alexanders was mostly just there to annoy people. And he didn''t know how he was still above him in the pecking order. Probably the spoiled brat of a son from a major shareholder or something. He never went to the parties of the investors made by the company so he couldn''t be sure about it. Maybe if he went he would have known with more time about the reshuffle of the Labs, but that was a hope that was dashed by his own decisions to have a clear division between his work and his pleasure. "The investor says he is sorry to bother you...But he has a few doubts..."Said a meek voice again, bringing him out of his thoughts. Nothing to do about it "Fine, tell him I will pass by in a few minutes" said John before starting the tedious process of logging out of his station. One of the few things he liked about the changes brought by those monsters. At least the workstations are more secure nowadays. Especially with all the extra steps, he didn''t mind them much and was somewhat sure that Alexanders never did them. He would be a happier man when he found evidence of that, especially since he wouldn''t be at the bottom of the pecking order. He was sure that''s the reason he gave so many of his spots on the Priority List just so he could keep above him and feel superior. But he wasn''t able to afford that kind of decision, too much of his work depended on his material. "Let''s go and see to that big shot." Today testing weapons should be a bolter variant. He never quite understood why they liked those oversized weapons, and never minded it that much. For now, he needed to get into that weird capsule and start the holo conference. Never liked these things, even if they made more secure the site...Even if he could now project himself to almost anywhere in the world. It never was the same. But it was for security reasons and the IT Overlord couldn''t be convinced to allow guests into the site since it was ''Dangerous''. "What can I help you with today, Mister...." said the Professor while looking into his notepad to see the name of his guest " ...Pain?" and so he did a double take, and indeed he was called Pain, talk about a weird name. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. "Doctor John! Glad you could make time for this! " said the overly enthusiast man "Was wondering if you could add electric rounds to this weapon...We had some problems with a few new species" and he even showed the image of some kind of wolf. By the looks of it, it was a really big wolf or they lived in really small forests. Since those wolves were as big as a tree. But while that would look interesting to Professor Kellet since it was a live sample of what looked like a giant monster kind of wolf, for himself it was just more annoying work. Especially since "The manual we sent your way should indicate that this weapon allows special rounds to be loaded into." said Professor John while materializing beside his holo projection said page of the manual, the advantage of being connected to that pod was that he could hide his annoyance modifying his avatar. He could also show the information he wanted faster this way. For his part, his interlocutor only said "Oh, beg you pardon in that case Doctor. To be honest this was an excuse to see you...You haven''t been around parties as much and we don''t even get to see you no matter how much we spend...So the boys were worried you had been fired or something..." and that was the reason he didn''t want to come. Before he didn''t mind mingling with these big shots, he even made a show of showing into parties of high society "Apologies, we have been busy with work, and the new security prevents me from going outside as much as before" said without missing a beat the Professor. Giving his usual excuse for not mingling as often. "I see, it must be hard being the most renowned Doctor in that company. Maybe you could delegate some work to that new blonde guy that started working in there?" Said the investor "I saw him a few days ago in a restaurant..." and so the dread started to creep in "I think he said he was called Alex-something...?" That shouldn''t be possible. But it was somehow..." Here it is, we even took a picture! I knew he worked in your lab since he has one of those weird emblems on his clothes like you used to" and so it was... A picture of the ever-smiling asshole that leads Laboratory 2 with the big shot he was seeing right now. By the date on the metadata of the photo, it was taken a few weeks ago. Another advantage of this pod, he could see the metadata of the photo too, and the geolocation was indeed very far away from the site. Even if most of this data would be scrubbed clean when he left the pod. And he knew he couldn''t save the evidence since the pod and the room it was in were isolated and most would be lost when he logged off. Dammed security! He had the info to screw that man right now and couldn''t use it! But for now "Actually Alexander is part of another Lab, and we have different work so I can''t order him around" Start defusing the situation and don''t let them know he was below that asshole in the pecking order. "But if a person of your importance orders it unless he is a head of a Lab he shouldn''t be able to shrug it off. If needed you can even use my name for it! That''s what friends are for!" but this man, like most of his ilk, couldn''t read what they didn''t want to read. "I will think about it..." and he wouldn''t be the one to say it "...But I don''t want to indebt you to another laboratory. So I will see if we can manage a party one day when the current joint project is finished" For the love of all that is holy he wouldn''t admit to an old acquaintance that he wasn''t as high in the command order as he was before. Even if most of his privileges weren''t lost. Even if his influence was rising nowadays "I will settle with that for now then" said the investor "But I mean it, use my name if necessary... I will sign the order with triple the asked price as proof of my sincerity" What sincerity was that if it costs nothing? He liked this pod in these cases, he knew this man was rotting in money, so paying thrice the price wasn''t a problem for him, so there wasn''t any honesty behind his words. For what''s money worth when you don''t miss its absence? He would recoup that loss by the time he had left the building. "Thank you, the thought is what matters. And don''t mind Alexander that much. Even looking like that, he is still the head of Laboratory 2" spat John, he even left his true feelings to show in the avatar to make a point of this. For his part, the investor acted like he didn''t notice, but he knew that in his calculating head, he was formulating plans over plans to try and use Alexander for his gain. Wouldn''t that be amusing? That man didn''t look like he liked to mingle in high society. So maybe he could mess with him like this. Anyway, "I must leave you now, if something does show up in the first month we will reimburse the original price and give you a discount on the new order." said John while walking his avatar to the outside of the door. He didn''t mention the extra money that wouldn''t be returned. Nor said how that "Bonus discount" was meaningless if they were paying close to 300% of the value of his weapons. As the top weapon manufacturer in the world, his Lab (Even if now it was Laboratory 3) chose the pricing of weapons, and there weren''t doubts in his mind about how this investor would spend the first half of the month trying to reverse engineer his work. Not that it would matter. Even if they somehow managed to reverse engineer the bolters, the models he sold didn''t even have semi-automatic mode, he wondered if they would ask for it to be included in their next iteration or would just suck the bullet again. How many iterations till they noticed that part never changed...Of course, the model with semi-automatic mode was ready, even if it was only a 3-round shot. And most of the guards on the site hated that mode. "Charge 500% of the original MSRP for normal buyers, he was willing to help me out, so he will help me out," said John to one of his aides after getting out of the pod chamber. It was such a good piece of technology and they were one use only. Some days he thought too that these new security lineaments were over the top. To destroy such a fine piece of technology beyond saving and then repurpose it for another user to make sure not even a single byte of data was salvageable. One couldn''t argue with the IT Overlord, he meant business alright. But he was still annoyed on his way back to his lab. "So close, yet so far away ?~" and the day was ruined. The blonde asshole was again singing another nonsense song while strolling without a care in the world "The evidence was here and yet couldn''t be used, such a tragic story right John?" he never quite understood what this man was going on about. What was he even talking about? "No cognizance after all...Man, that''s harsh" said the blonde leader of Lab 2, and then without further ado, he went on his merry way. "Never understood that man" Thanks to that asshole he even managed to lose his train of thought. But one of these days he would get evidence of mismanagement and climb his way to the top one lab at a time! Chapter 6: And we are back on business! Bright sun? Check! Nice Breeze? Check! Foodstuff? Check! "Momma? Check!" said the happy little girl while admiring the hours (Last minute efforts) of her work materializing in front of her. It was a picnic! So long since her last picnic! Like forever long! She didn''t even remember the last time she had a picnic! "Should probably contain the energy kiddo, you will overheat" said a blonde man who was dressed in cargo shorts and a yellow tank top. That''s right! Her dearest brother was here! Momma had fulfilled her part of the deal and brought her brother back in! "And before you get funny ideas, Mira didn''t want me to come, she didn''t even tell me about the picnic!" said Alexanders while mimicking pain to his heart and tumbling in place. "I didn''t even know of this Picnic..." said Professor Eversoul that was the perfect picture of a mature woman sitting on a picnic in the park. "AND SHE ADMITS IT!" said the blonde acting like he was again shot in the heart. But it mattered not, for she had forsaken victory by admitting that Alexander wasn''t invited "But you promised momma!" said the teary-eyed little girl who now lay beside the blonde man also holding a hand to her chest (Even if on the wrong side). "Pss... it''s on the other side, mimic me" whispered the blonde man, so the little girl could place her hand where it should be. "...I will cancel it if you don''t stop messing around..." But alas, the evil overlord came through and both Alex rose in one smooth motion to attention "Everything is in order Madam, shall we start the pool party?" asked First Lieutenant Alexanders. "Permission to start the pool party Madam Mamma" Second Lieutenant Alexandra said after him. To the chagrin of Miriam Eversoul, Professor in astrophysics, mother of the current quantum mechanics theorem, and the person with the most Nobel prices wins in history..."You are allowed to start the Pic....wait pool party?" something wasn''t right here. "Since when do you have a pool?" asked Professor Mira "Oh that, I tried to smuggle one on my last outing, but since we couldn''t quite get one..."Said Alexander followed almost immediately "So we decided to divert part of the river into a small natural pool" from the little girl. And lo and behold, there was indeed a small natural pool by the side of the tree. It didn''t even look out of place, and that gave the poor Professor Eversoul a small headache "Yep, love the natural pool. Its good that we already had one since the kiddie pool couldn''t come through" said Alexanders without a care in the world. Ignoring (Or pretending) the headache that this small little pool would give the caretaker of Alexa. After all...There wasn''t a natural pool half an hour ago. There wasn''t even a river half an hour ago. There weren''t even natural underground rivers near the site. "If you ever start smuggling booze I ask dibs on the first crate," said Professor while trying to not think about the paperwork she would have to file after this little outing. But of course, she was joking. "You can''t! Beer is for bad people! " A little girl wouldn''t ever let her. "And you are bad enough as is!" but even if Alexanders was joining the protest she knew he would give her if she asked for real outside this little haven. And she was thankful for that. Even if that man was the cause of half of her headaches he did give them plenty of spots on the priority list. And he was among the few people that came to play with Alex. She never quite understood why. Of all of them, he was the only one she would think would never put a foot on this place. "And the bi-annual winner of the who can get farther in the natural pool is Alexanders!" said the blonde while swimming on the far end of what looked like an Olympic pool. The poor little girl hadn''t even traversed half of the length. "You are cheating! You have long arms and legs!" screamed to the heavens the injustice of the world. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. But then again "You reap what you sow, who asked you to have an Olympic natural pool, even if you have a faster start...It means nothing if I can build momentum!" laughed the blonde man on the other end of the pool. "But if it was normal and I started that fast then my head would hurt from hitting the other side...." almost cried the little girl. "And that''s the point my dear Alexa!" said sagely the blonde man "You don''t use the burst in the start, but only if you are about to lose!" and so the little girl was shocked "That makes winning more dramatic!" continued the blonde man while walking to the little girl on the small kiddie natural pool. "To see their almost win be snatched by a last-effort push! That''s golden my dear sister!" corrupting the little girl he was *bonk* "Don''t give Alexa weird ideas Alexanders," So the justice notebook from heaven struck. The Professor had come to sit at the side of the natural pool "Still this is nice..." said Miriam Eversoul while drinking from a cup of Tea and eating a few choice biscuits. A nice picnic-pool party, the kids playing on the water. The sun setting on the horizon. It would be a perfect day if one could ignore a few problems in the setting "Now if only I didn''t have to write those forms for all of this..." mumbled the Professor, to which both Alex chose to slowly go to the other side of what now looked like an even more small natural pool. "Amm...I can''t help you with that Momma. Not allowed to leave remember..." said the little girl that slowly but surely was starting to hide behind the blonde man. Who could only scream internally for this foul betrayal. "I mean...If I go and help you, there is important stuff in my lab that could get pushed back in the queue..." said the blonde man trying to find a good excuse. "Oh, it''s okay Alexa. I am not mad with you..." said sweetly the Professor "And I totally understand Alexanders. I would never push your work back on purpose" added without missing a beat the Professor. "Of course, I will ask Sarah about this." said the Professor while writing something on his holo pad and then sweeping it right "I am sure she will tell us if you have an opening on your schedule" Then a small holographic letter was sent and promptly caught by a small mechanical ant. "The R4 relay system will make sure she can answer us promptly," finished with the sweetest (But nefarious) smile Miriam Eversoul ever gave them. "It''s okay big bro...I will help you with all I can..." comforted the little girl, they both knew she wasn''t able to help that much. But then again, they all knew this was mostly a performance for themselves. No one would complain if no form was updated. Since as far as the world was concerned. Nothing was new in this small haven. For the outside world, this small haven always had a small natural pool. It always had a river coursing by the side. And obviously, it always had a Sun in the sky. If not how could a tree grow this big without water and sun...If there is a sky, obviously there are stars too! Even if those stars didn''t look like the normal sky on the outside. Even if these stars didn''t show on any star map humanity ever found. ----------------------------------------------------- "And so, the P4 site has a big river with small tributary rivers to feed the flora?" Asked a pig in a tuxedo. "And a nice pool too, about the size of a normal household pool in a backyard" added a blonde man in cargo shorts, flip flops, and a tank top. These were Mister Hamilton, the current chief administrator of the site, and Alexanders, head of Lab 2. "Also the night sky doesn''t correlate with any star map we currently have" added Professor Eversoul. She still looked somewhat average compared with the pig and the blonde. Still "That''s nothing new thought?" said the head of Lab 3 "The site always had those right?" and promptly asked for confirmation from his peers " It''s not like the trees and flower beds could grow without water and a night-day cycle" in his own opinion the only voice of reason here. Of course "If they are filling an update report it means they were on site when it happened, so they either could see the event for themselves or be spared of the memory change" Nothing was simple in the world "Besides, we already know the site can change. We all saw it first hand that day" and Professor Kellet wouldn''t let them forget it. It was her lab the one to suffer the most physical losses after all, even if she wasn''t the one to suffer the worst ones. "I mean...No changes were reported before, so didn''t we agree that the changes had stopped?" asked Professor John Williams. "Nothing new had been reported till now..." in a meek voice. "No reported events just mean we didn''t notice them, as far as we are concerned the site has a different season each and every time we go in ~" said without a care in the world the blonde man "I mean, we aren''t even sure that the ones that go in, are the same ones that go out...." and he liked to drive the knife deeper into the wound. This was also part of the reason so few people liked to go to the site and the real reason behind the R4 delivery drones "The drones at least report the same thing right?" asked Professor Kellet " Of course they do, the changes are logged into the system for review. You can all see the video feed to right now" answered Alexanders while raising his hand to the ceiling and snapping his fingers. Almost instantly one mechanical ant fell from the ceiling and stood in front of each member of this table and started projecting a video into a holo screen so they could review the footage. They weren''t sure how long those ants had been there. Nor were they come from. They all saw the meadow as normal and both Alex and Alexa playing tag while Professor Eversoul prepared everything for the picnic. At some point, the mechanical drone turned his point of view to zoom into something Alexa was playing with on the dirt while Alexanders was searching for something in a backpack. They couldn''t quite see what she was playing with though. And then when the little girl stood and went to play with Alexanders again the feed changed its focus but it was too late. There was now a river and a small growing natural pool on the side. Neither Alexanders nor Professor Eversoul looked like they noticed the change in scenery "And wouldn''t you look at that...." said Alexanders who now had a smile on his face "Isn''t this just charming..." and was promptly working on a holo keyboard and trying to get a better look on the feed. For their part, his coworkers tried to analyze the data as best as they could "No detectable changes on background radiation" and so they tried to analyze the data dump they had in front "No detectable changes nor vibrations on the seismic sensors" nothing new was showing up yet "There aren''t any underground rivers on the area either" but everything was as expected. Nothing new was going on the site, nor the outside world "And so, nothing really changed this day either ?~" cheered Alexanders "If one takes aside the fact that my dearest little sister started her career in landscaping!" said the blonde youth while amplifying and showcasing the image he finally managed to get on his holo screen. It was somewhat pixelated since the picture wasn''t taken by the main drone camera, it was from an internal camera that got exposed to the exterior and hadn''t been repaired yet, the drone wasn''t supposed to record this "A small representation of the meadow?" and that it was. "A small representation of the Meadow with addendums!" and it was indeed. There was a small river built in the soil and a bottle of water feeding a small river. It was a representation of the meadow done in the dirt with an added river fed with fresh water. "And so gentleman (And women), we found evidence of something that at this point of time, there was indeed a before" A pixelated picture that shouldn''t have been taken and one could almost forget to look into it. "So you didn''t even look into the footage you brought?" asked the head of Lab 3. "Of course I didn''t, if I thought my little sister was that bad at her work we would have caught her already and we wouldn''t even have these conversations" answered the blonde youth. But then again, they wouldn''t get another one of this evidence in the future. "Nothing we can do with this information though, she didn''t want us to see it if it wasn''t on the main camera of the drone," said Professor Kellet. "So that means the point is moot" added Professor Eversoul. "But it''s nice to win one, isn''t it?" finished Alexanders. "We should have nuked the damn thing when we could..." only one bitter about it was lab 3. "Don''t even joke about it!" and of course, Mister Pig wasn''t going to let this go "It''s too late and it wouldn''t have worked anyway" and wasn''t that more salt to injury? There wasn''t much to do at this point in time "System Saturation at 15.7337% " mumbled Alexanders while looking into his smartwatch. There wasn''t really much time or things to do after all... Chapter 7: A little girl that doesnt like her Granpa.... Sometimes the little girl wondered why the sky looked so weird, not that she knew how the sky should look. For all she knew it was totally normal to have red lights going on instead of normal stars! But then again " They don''t go out..." it got annoying after a few minutes. Maybe she shouldn''t let her big brother get away with those shenanigans of his... She still couldn''t believe he got her like that with his little prank of letting a "Wounded soldier" keep working. Now it all made sense and she should have known better! It still kinda made sense to let a veteran of war work, and she kinda liked that particular ant. That one always made sure no other ant could get wounded like himself after all. She even saw it fend off the attack of one centipede a few times! Granted that centipede was also mechanical and it probably also worked for the same boss as the ant...So it might have been staged... But it was a good fight nonetheless! "They overreact anyway..." mumbled the little girl while sitting on the sofa in the living room and grabbing the remote "...might as well watch TV..." one couldn''t play in the garden with all the chaos outside after all. They might get antsy if she was going all over the place. So for now she would watch TV. She was a big girl too! So she would be magnanimous! Not that she wanted to see her favorite cartoon of the Saturday mornings or anything... Of course that had nothing to do with it...And good thing she was so magnanimous! It was about to start too! She almost didn''t make it in time for the opening! So with haste, she commanded "Prepare the yumyums and wawas!" and so in the kitchen, one could hear the rustle of a thousand brave soldiers (Ants) preparing the best of snacks (Mostly potato chips) in the best of tableware (a couple of plastic bowls, momma didn''t let her use glassware after they broke one of her favorites). Followed by the commanding tone of ancient evil working for the good of mankind(centipedes) going to the end of the world for the best of beverages (It was soda) placed upon the most sacred grail (A kiddie cup and a plastic pitcher for refills). For her part the little girl was singing to the tune of a kids'' song (Dancing included) and didn''t pay attention to the small fight behind her while the mechanical ants and centipedes were trying to get their yumyums and wawas in place "Welcome to magmo''s world!" said the voice on the TV, a weird flesh-colored puppet with purple eyes was waving from the screen. "Welcome ~," said the little girl to the screen. It was a really weird puppet "Today we will learn of Chtulu!" said in a happy tune the puppet "Do you know about Chtulu?" asked said puppet. To which the little girl answered "No?" how could she know about someone with a weird name like that, the only person with a weird name she knew was Mister Pig. And almost as if the puppet knew "Repeat after me fgdgdfgdcthulhu!" in an almost kind and caring voice the puppet said. Of course, the little girl tried to say it too, but sadly her tongue wasn''t that nimble to imitate the puppet "You can do it! Repeat after me: fgdgdfgdcthulhu!" but the puppet was if nothing understanding. So the little girl tried it a few more times to no avail, she almost managed to do it, if not for being distracted by a message carried by a mechanical ant "No summoning elder ones right now, trying to convince the old farts to turn off the alarms right now you brat! " said a holo projection of her big brother. So that was that. For now, she would comply..."Fine big brother..." and she would answer as such to her big brother "But you better manage to get them to turn it off before sleeping time...." said the little girl to the holo screen before the mechanical ant went on his merry way to deliver the message to her twin brother. Somedays she didn''t understand why he liked to go outside their little heaven, she understood why momma had to go and work, that''s what good mommas did after all. But why would her brother do that? They had everything they wanted here. He even had one PC wired into the outside, so he could work from his room too! What''s the point of having your own room across the hallway if you don''t use it after all? But she was getting distracted "It''s okay, you will get the tone right!" at least Magmo understood her just fine. He was like that "And remember, Chtulu will always look after you, and if you look into his eyes, he will never let you go !" such a caring being was that Chtulu fella. She would ask her brother about him at dinner. But for now, she would just enjoy the show for what it was. A good Saturday morning series. She should do something for her brother, he did get them a new TV for the living room after all. And the little fellas always knew what to get her for snack time. They even got the best yumyums and wawas! Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Even if they fought civil wars and such on their little shafts, at least they never fought new wars on the canopy of her tree after they built that mansion...It was for the best to get them a place to stay and rest after a rough day of work. Even if that place had to be above her tree, but then again. There weren''t that many ventilation shafts big enough to accommodate all the construction work and places that those little fellas needed. "I wonder when will brother and momma return...." But even while surrounded by so many friends (Mechanical insects of all species prowling in the walls, floor, and ceiling) she still felt kinda lonely some days "It''s still better these days though" better than at the beginning of her life on this house at least. And what a nice house it was indeed. A central tree served as a pillar in the middle of the house. Four fully furnished bedrooms on the second floor (Hers and her brother were on the far end of the hallway), she wasn''t sure why Teacher Vivi needed one here though. But she would allow it only because her momma worked with her, and if she was to stay at night she would need one room. So it was okay for them to have the rooms on the other end of the hallway. Her momma still didn''t let her near her study or library, so she could only enter 2 rooms of the hallway. Even though her brother could go into the study...They were twins for god''s sake! They had the same age and he was allowed into the study! Why wasn''t she allowed then? This was plain favoritism! Granted she couldn''t help, and she didn''t understand half of what they said in those weird meetings they liked to have. Even if Grandpa would show them to her from time to time it was just weird wording and weird paintings. Still wasn''t sure why they wanted to have those meetings. Or why they wanted to look like that in the beginning. In her humble opinion, Mister Pig looked better as a pig, and with each day that went by her opinion was proven true. Momma and Auntie were fine like that. But why would her brother would want to look like that in the beginning? That was beyond her. Even though his soul was so bright and shiny! That appearance didn''t do him justice! "W??????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????c??????????????????¨¤???????????????????n????????????????''???????????????????????????? ????????????????k?????????????????e????????????????????????p???????????????????? ?????????h?????????????????????i??????????????????????????????????????????,?????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????m????????????????????????????????????????????b?????????????¨¦????????r?????????????????????? ?????????????t??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? " And of course, Grandpa would always come to annoy her when she was having a good time! "I know Grandpa, you don''t have to come around every day just for that" and she knew why Grandpa thought like that. But she had faith in her twin brother! He was smart, and he shined so brightly! Even if he was a little mischievous some days...She really liked him and his gifts more than anything! She wouldn''t admit it if momma ever asked... And Auntie never asked, but she would tell her at dinner that she liked her brother more than her anyway! But that might make momma ask her who she liked more...She would say that to Auntie before going to sleep. Yes, that would be better "That''s all for today, Magmo will now go to sleep..." said the flesh-colored puppet on screen. Right, she was watching TV. "Better get ready for brother''s return!" said the little girl while running towards the second floor "Alexa''s Sparkling jump!" shouted the little girl while doing a couple of little jumps, in the middle of each jump she made a little spin for a grand finally of...jumping a little higher and grabbing the cord for the stairs into the attic. She missed her old tree house, but having a house with a tree in the middle had its own magic too. Even if the trunk of said tree was only visible in the living room as decoration... She still liked the cozy feeling it brought, not that it mattered right now, she had stuff to do! Like searching for her brother''s old holopad that she had stashed here while he wasn''t looking! She was sure it was somewhere along the old albums of photos from their old forgotten days in school. Not that she even went to school. But since it was normal to have old albums stashed in the attic, her attic had those too. With a few old plushies that she used to love (even though she never saw them before, she knew she loved them since that was the setting of a good little sister). "Here it is!" and there it was, an old holopad. She knew it was her brother''s since it had that weird yellow bird on the back. Also because it had a photo of his favorite streamers on it, some kind of alchemist and a weird exorcist...? She wasn''t sure about who they were. But she was sure they must be fun to watch. AND SHE WAS GETTING DISTRACTED AGAIN! It must be Grandpa''s influence...She might have caught on to her. "Start Phase 2 of the Amazing Alexa & Alexanders epic plan to save the day!" said Alexa to the holopad.....and so the holopad did absolutely nothing. Was this thing broken? I?????????????????????? ???????????????????????t????????????????????????????????????????l???????????????d???????????????????????? ???????????????????y?????????????????????????????????u???? ??????????????????????¨¬????????????????t????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????m?????????????????e??????????????a????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????n??????????????????????????l?????????????????????????????????????????s??????????????s???????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????h??????????????????????i????????????l???????????????????????????????????????????????.????????? "Said the weird voice of Grandpa again. But Alexa wouldn''t get disheartened for this momentary fail" said the little girl while grabbing the old holopad and throwing it against the wall, one could almost see a glistening red frame glitching for a second when the holopad hit the wall. She wouldn''t be defeated by this! She had worked really hard(Not really) on this with her twin brother! (Alexanders did most of the work...) "Let''s see if you like it when I start showing my real power then Grangran!" said the little girl in defiance, defiance to the world! Defiance to the powers to be! "One could almost see her eyes burning with determination (And maybe a blue ethereal flame) !" One could almost even see how her air was undulating as if a current of wind was blowing just in the right direction to give more gravitas to the situation. "Psst...A little more strong the wind..." whispered the little girl to a certain injured mechanical ant that was controlling one smart fan... But the little girl would not let the bad positions of fans controlled by mechanical ants damp her will! No sir! Not even if Grandpa was adamant about his ''Big plans for the world at large'' and such nonsense! She wasn''t really sure why Grandpa was so adamant these days, she didn''t come around when she was sleeping in that cot, nor when she was under the stars...Didn''t come around when she got his first room in the tree...Nor when she finally managed to get a second floor. And now she came when they had a house... ????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????r?????????????????????????e??????????????a???s?????????o???????????????n?????? ?????????????????????I?????????? ????????????????????????????????????????m????? ????????????????????h??????????????????????????????e?????????????????r?????????????????????¨¥?? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????w????????? ???????????????i????????s???????????????????? ????????????????????????s????????????????????i???????????????????m????????????p?????????l??????????????????e????????????????.?????????????.???????.?????????????????????????
Notice:
System Saturation 3.14159265359%
Said Grandpa before showing her something that she never had seen before, and the little girl didn''t know what or how she knew this wasn''t the usual thing that she was shown before. And for some reason....she didn''t like that weird not-holo screen that didn''t want to go away. Chapter 8: EMERGENCY! "SOMEONE TURN THAT GOD DAMMED ALARM OFF ALREADY!" screamed the tuxedo-wearing orc. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Notice:
System saturation achieved critical levels, system will start turning offline in 15 mins
That didn''t look good, not good at all "Can you take this away Grandma ?" asked the little girl "It kinda annoys me..." It was kinda of annoying and running in circles in the living room while fun, kinda lost its meaning if they weren''t paying attention to her anymore, she had her fun annoying mister pig after all...Well, he wasn''t a pig anymore, but an orc now.........Not that it mattered much though. He was a fine Orc now and she liked him better this way (Not really). Chapter 9: What is a man to a king?
September 14, 2000
20 years before the system''s fatal crash started, and 10 years before the system''s inception.
Target found:
Evaluating Target
Everything was going to be okay "Breath in, breath out" that was the mantra he had been repeating since two days ago when the letter arrived. Johnathan Williams was going to be the new genius of this century, at 25 years old he was among the youngest minds to graduate from one of the most prestigious universities in the world. He had almost all that could be bought and could bring him just a little better odds to raise into one of the best and brightest minds. His black hair was well groomed in the finest hair saloons he could get a slot in, not too long nor too short. His current ensemble was the year''s choice for most successful business minds in the top-seller magazines of the capital city, a classical black business suit, a fancy gold-colored watch (The best imitation luxury watch one could get), and black leather shoes to go with. He was dressed for war if said war was looking as best as one could. He just needed to go into the building. How hard could be to go into a building? Well, not that hard if it was a normal building. This wasn''t one normal building... This was the HQ of The Saintsworth Conglomerate. A nuclear bomb could go off in their doors and the building wouldn''t feel it. Even if said door was open it would be the same. And that wasn''t a joke, it happened....or so the gossip said. Johnathan couldn''t be so sure about it, he was a scientist above all, even if his field was skewed to weapon development and manufacturing. Granted there was indeed the chassis of a nuclear missile in the middle of the waiting room in the building. But that may be a weird joke made by the PR department. At least he hoped so, but he was digressing and the guards on the door were starting to look at him weirdly "Here goes nothing..." said Johnathan finally gaining enough courage to go into the building "Good morning, I have an appointment" said and with one smooth (Almost looked practiced) motion he brought an envelopment to the girl manning reception. "Okay, we will check and call you when needed, do you wish for refreshments or snacks while waiting?" asked the girl, to which Johnathan wasn''t ready since that wasn''t part of his simulations "I... It''s okay, I will wait on the side" Of course the girl didn''t say anything. She was used to this kind of thing. It was a really big reception, Johnathan couldn''t imagine why would they design it like this, so much wasted space. It was imposing, and the fountain that used the chassis of that old-era nuclear missile was ingenious. But still...Okay, he could see it now, imposing. It was a message for the world. They could afford to waste this space. Now he kinda wished for those refreshments, but they might ruin his white teeth and that could take points from his presentation. "They are ready for you Mister Williams." said the girl in reception taking Johnathan from his musings, he was now sure she was messing with him...Not that he could do anything, even if he got employed by The Saintsworth Conglomerate, that reception girl would probably still tower him on the pecking order. After all, he would probably be sent to a satellite site without the emblem. And she was donning said emblem. An ornated yellow bird with a black background on it. So she was bound to be high on the pecking order, not many people here had it on their clothes after all "Thank you" so he was polite to the girl who was obviously having fun with him. "The elevator will take you to the meeting room" and so he walked to said elevator...Even if it looked nothing like that. The girl pointed him to a circle in the middle of the room, it looked more like someone had dropped a metal plate in the middle. He thought it was more decoration, but since that girl pointed him this way and the guards at the door were pretending to not look at him he went that way. It was thanks to his rehearsal the night before that he managed to not look surprised when the plate started rising to the ceiling. It was mostly a panic attack that prevented him from showing on his face the fear of being crushed into the ceiling when said platform didn''t slow down and hit the ceiling. And it was luck that he didn''t lose his conscience on his way after said event. For now, he was just admiring the scenery. It looked like this elevator had sent him toward one side of the building since he could see the exterior instead of the middle of the building. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. It showed a nice sunset and a virgin jungle "Aaaand we aren''t in Kansas anymore..." of course, that wasn''t possible, this building was in the middle of the capital. And this capital didn''t have that kind of jungle near it, neither The Saintsworth capital nor the official capital had jungles near them. "Arriving at the meeting, please keep hands and head inside the vehicle," said a mechanical voice bringing Johnathan out of his reverie. Right, he had to get ready for his presentation. With a mechanical *thud* the plate ended his ascent leaving him in a rather normal-looking and boring office, only a desk with a blonde man manning it. It wouldn''t be that imposing if said man wasn''t the most powerful man in the world. Johnathan was proud of all that he had achieved in his life, but that man had done at least ten times more than him, even if he doubled his age...The number of achievements to his name would dwarf anyone, and was part of the reason why he didn''t have any hope of getting the Title of "Genius of this age". As long as one was born within 100 years of that man then one could only live in his shadow "Welcome Mister Williams, to my humble abode" said the Scion of The Saintsworth Conglomerate, a man that radiated the aura of an emperor or a king, even if he doubled his age Johnathan couldn''t help but wonder why he looked almost as young as him, a chiseled body that couldn''t be hidden by his rather lax gray suit, an almost shining blonde hair that even while messy it looked quite good on him, and a pair of sky blue eyes that couldn''t be natural to finish it all. Johnathan wouldn''t be ashamed to admit that he was mesmerized for a few seconds before moving to his seat "Thank you for having me, Mister Alexander" said Johnathan while moving to his seat with haste, one couldn''t risk being rude to the man that single-handedly controlled the world economy. For his part "It''s okay, this is more of a formality than an interview" the blonde man said while writing something on his notepad, a few seconds later a floating drone brought a few drinking choices "While I don''t drink alcohol I don''t mind it if you do, some say it helps them when talking with me for some reason" said the blonde man taking what looked like an apple flavored soda. Johnathan wasn''t sure if the blonde was joking or not, but he took the heaviest hitter among the choices and drank it in one go anyway "Couldn''t imagine why someone would say that sir" said the black-haired man before taking a second glass, but that one he drank only little sips "Couldn''t imagine why" it wouldn''t help if he got drunk after all. The blonde man didn''t seem to mind it that much and ordered the drone to bring snacks too, it seemed that Johnathan had comrades in the world. And while he was contemplating that, he finally noticed the blonde man was looking at him, almost as a predator waiting for his prey to do something "You okay? We can waste a few extra minutes if needed" said the blonde man with what in any other circumstances he would think was a mischievous smile, but this was Alexander Saintsworth, the top head of the most powerful organization on the world, no way he was playing him a joke....right? "I''m fine thank you, sir, we can carry on...But if it isn''t an interview...What is?" asked Johnathan, wondering if the alcohol had hit harder than expected, he had trained himself to handle alcohol in university, no way this one glass had carried him over the edge. "Oh it''s simple, I will inform you of your new workplace and then send you on your way." Said the blonde man nonchalantly while pointing with a remote to the painting on his back and pressing a button. It seemed the normal-looking painting was a big monitor "We found a crystal a few days ago" said the blonde while pressing another button, this time on his desk "It''s dated a couple of millennia older than our universe" said shrugging without a care in the world the blonde, like that was possible "Our current studies say this isn''t possible, but the evidence says otherwise" and that they did. The carbon dating placed it way back than it should be possible. And it seems it could levitate if the pictures were right. "That''s...impossible..." was the only thing Johnathan could muster. "And that''s the thing, John, it''s currently floating on a new dark site in the middle of nowhere." said the blonde, it seems he was now called John...And now he understood why this wasn''t an interview. "I''m a weapon developer, this looks like the work for astrophysics...I make weapons, not study nor create new sciences" said carefully the black-haired scientist wondering if coming here was the right choice. "And that''s what you will do, study that thing and make me weapons from it." said Alexanders while showing the planes for a rather big building, for a dark site it was rather big "We will have ten primary laboratories working on this thing" and so ten different complexes surrounding one containment chamber were highlighted "And another assortment of laboratories working on understanding the first evidence of something before our creation and that kind of bullshit the new kids like" finished Alexanders highlighting another series of buildings more to the surface. "And if I say no..." said tentatively John, earning a predatory smirk from Alexanders. "We will not kill you, John, we aren''t savages" At least he had a choice it seems "We will however kill all the hopes of you working and coming near any kind of digital media, make sure no one believes a word you say and let you live outside civilization, can''t risk this kind of thing going to the masses after all ?~ " Aaaaand there it is, he might need another glass of alcohol after all. "Good thing I liked the offer!" said trying to convince himself John. He liked the offer though, he just wished there were more choices to this. At least he would be part of the more important work in this century...Even if he wouldn''t be recognized for it "Great! The contract is here, we don''t mind if you want to take time to read it or take it to a lawyer, we will see you on Monday. Sarah or Jennifer will take you to the site ~ " said the blonde man before pointing him towards the door. At some point, that weird metal plate had been reabsorbed into the building. And now he was in a normal elevator going down again, no amazing panoramic view, just a normal contract. "Welcome back," said the girl at the reception desk, now that he wasn''t nervous he could see her naming tag. "Got a pen?" asked John to the girl, Sarah. He might as well sign it and get it over with, no lawyer in the world would want to look into that contract after all. "Here and welcome to the Saintsworth Conglomerate, Professor John" he should be happier. But for some reason, he couldn''t. "It''s because you are now legally called John Williams, the big boss likes to do that sometimes. It makes it easier to assimilate into the dark sites you are sent" said the girl, it seemed that she knew about their meeting "By the way, your family is already informed and we can get you to the site, just go back into the teleporter and it will take you to your new office on-site" he really should be amazed of this. Technology that was originally stuff of science fiction was showcased like nothing. But he couldn''t help but feel the dread settle in "Thank you, do I just walk back into the elevator then?" said John Williams earning himself just a nod, before walking into the elevator he could see a black-haired woman walk into the building. He couldn''t help but feel sorry for her. But that was life, and if she was already marked by that monster of a man, she, like him, didn''t have a choice anymore. "What is a man to a king....." Chapter 10: Dont dwell too much on the details or you will miss the big picture
Observation Logs:
Secondary observation Target Detected, Possible termination target
He was at the top of the world "Send Mister Williams to the Site''s entrance and notify the security so they can give him the required clearance" said the blonde man over his phone to his assistant in reception. She was getting kinda cheeky nowadays, and that was why even though she was among the people with the highest clearance in his company, right now, she was a receptionist. Only he was allowed to do bad puns and bad jokes. That was why he climbed to the top after all, if he couldn''t get his little fun now and then, why would he climb to the top? Maybe it was a mistake to hold the reins of this conglomerate after all "It wasn''t really worth it..." and he couldn''t help but think like that more often than not. Maybe he would return and start working as a normal clerk on a random site. It would be hard to pull it off, but that was part of the reason he was using so many plain suits nowadays. He was cultivating an image, almost 20 years of cultivating this image of liking plain colors, and formal suits. It would pay off in the future, but for now "I''m sending in Professor Eversoul" he had more important stuff to deal with. "Send her in by the normal elevator, can''t deal with all the questions about how and when we got teleportation and phasing tech," said the blonde man to his ever-cheeky assistant. Why couldn''t she be like her sister? He would never know. "Roger bossman" but for now he had more important stuff to deal with. Like getting in character...Again...This was going to be a long day... "Good Morning Professor Eversoul" but for now he would deal with it as it came "Please take a seat" and work his way to freedom...One bright mind at a time, for her part this one was more composed than the last one. Of course, she didn''t go on a levitating board...Nor saw the holo projections of an alien jungle one galaxy away...Nor experienced phasing through a ceiling... So she had an unfair advantage over John, not that Alexanders would make a point of it "Couldn''t help but notice Mister Williams going before me. While I am honored to be invited into the Conglomerate..." said the black-haired woman while seating herself like a proper lady "I will remind you that my work and myself will never be used to propel nor help any weapon development" and she was even acting all mighty! He already liked her. If nothing else it was refreshing seeing someone that still could talk up to him...Even if it was meaningless in the end. For now, he was fighting against a smirk and one smart-ass answer with all his might "You misunderstand me Professor" stay in character, for all that is sacred stay in character " Mister William''s research will be in a separate series of laboratories " said the blonde man with a level tone, almost like an Emperor caringly admonishing a peasant. This, of course, didn''t get past the level-headed professor. "One of my friends, Professor Kellet came to an interview a few days ago, she told me about this after learning I would come..." said and showed him a few papers. Indeed these were what Professor Kellet had been given "Those are confidential Professor Eversoul" and of course, he didn''t mind if those were shown to the world. The metadata would be erased a picosecond after being uploaded anyway "But indeed, Professor Kellet will also work on the same series of laboratories that Mister Williams" He was liking this woman, and wondered if she would like to work on a more personal project of Alexanders? "And I assume the project you want me to work on isn''t in those labs then?" said the woman without breaking eye contact. She really was living up to her reputation, not like the last one. "Of course not, we wouldn''t make you do something you weren''t interested in, we aren''t savages here," said the blonde man while pushing a button on the side of his desk. One compartment then was opened in front of the black-haired woman "You will be working with this kind of sample" and one small purple crystal was floating between the blonde and the black-haired woman. For her part the blonde man was smiling, it wasn''t a mischievous one, but one designed to show the superiority of a ruler (And one that also strained really badly his facial muscles, he wasn''t designed for this for god''s sake!), and the mask of the serenity of the woman was finally cracking "That shouldn''t be doing that" only said the woman while searching on her purse and getting a small tweezer and a surgical glove. Alexanders couldn''t help but think ''Shouldn''t a woman''s purse have cosmetics?'' but hey, if it works for her all the better... "I''m not a geologist, so I''m assuming my work would be on understanding how this material is defying all the laws of known physics?" asked the black-haired woman "Exactly, all your research will be aimed at understanding this thing''s properties and getting us working theories on how it does what it does," said the blonde man, he pretended to not notice how the sample was now on a test tube and was tucked into the woman''s front pocket. He was magnanimous like that "And that research will be used for...?" asked the woman, she could already see several ways this could make the current weapons more dangerous. And even if she liked the idea of a new type of science, she would not compromise his morals. --------------------------------------------- Professor Miriam Eversoul POV --------------------------------------------- She was sure the blonde man already knew that she would never work on weapon development, plenty of men had tried to entice her, and some even made reasonable compromises, but still used her work for weapons, so she had already burned plenty of bridges, at least she could afford to burn those bridges, and most of her colleagues would still help her, especially her friend Vivian, or Professor Kellet for the world at large. She was the one to give her the heads-up when they found out both of them had gotten an invitation to the Saintsworth conglomerate. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. She still thought this aloof blonde would do the same, all the people in power saw were pawns to do their bidding, and even if this one tried to hide it, she could almost smell it on him. The ego that said he was above them all peasants, the mannerism of an Emperor giving graces to the world. He was wearing the mask of a normal businessman with that normal-looking suit and this almost humble office. But the little details couldn''t escape his analytic mind. She could see the artisanal touch on the wood, wood of a now extinct tree since she didn''t recognize the making of it, his normal looking suit had personalized threads and a finish that spoke of a master seamstress, and even the glasses on the shelf behind him looked like a set, but had small differences on the making, so each of them was probably made by a master artisan. Then there was the ''Painting'' that was a monitor and not a painting, even though it looked like one. She could even see a few extra monitors hidden in the decoration, and the windows to her left also fake monitors...Why did he have so many gods-dammed monitors here? This room wasn''t an exception, if she was measuring things right it was bigger than it should be for a normal floor in a building of this size, so either he was wasting space or he was already using technology out of that weird sample, and then there was the sample. He didn''t make a move to take it away from her, so sure of himself that she would work for him... And she really would want to work on this, she was ready to make a few compromises, so long the weapons she helped make didn''t get sold to terrorists she could live with that small sacrifice, so that made the answer of the blonde man even more of a shock to her. She thought he would insist, she knew this type of man "For space travel of course!" so those words almost made her lose balance. There wasn''t even one small indication of a lie in his eyes, and that smirk on his face said he knew she was willing to compromise "And this space travel would be..." so there was a catch and she would find it "Colonization mostly, I am planning to send a few geezers to the outer planets, so while I can probably send them to one of our moons...I would rather send them farther away, this thing could help me build a big enough ship so that they have no excuse to return" said the blonde while proceeding to move the blueprints to a ship into the monitor behind him. It looked really big for a simple colonization ship, but it didn''t have engines, so he wanted her to make use of the levitation properties of that crystal to make a new type of engine? "And this thing can do more than just levitate...We wouldn''t bring you here if that was all we needed, there are more... Simple-minded people that could do that for us" said the blonde, of course, there were other options, she could name a few of her assistants that wouldn''t mind the extra money and would be willing to do the dirty job too. So she was in a conundrum "Nothing I do will be used to further your weapon manufacturing?" was this sly old man being honest with her? "Of course, it will be used, maybe not right after you postulate your new thesis on that material, but it will be used at some point" What was his end goal? "The real question is if you can aim your work in a way that any discovery you made is more profitable to use as a civilian tech instead of military" And there it was, the wolf was getting to the surface and pushing the sheep facade out of the way. So this was his game then? A bet about if she could make it more enticing to develop civilian tech? This man couldn''t be that simple "And you don''t have to worry about the weapons department. The Saintsworth Conglomerate doesn''t mind that much if our focus goes from weapons to charity or even civilian transport...All we care about is knowledge...All we ever care about was knowledge after all" and for almost a second she had forgotten. All the masks this man wears were that...Masks. The Saintsworths always were seekers of knowledge, they could burn the world if that meant a new thesis was proven right after all...And they did that at least once, so for now "I will accept this work you have for me. And prove that civilian tech is more profitable" said the black-haired woman, she could already see this crystal helping on the civilian transport network. ----------------------------------------------- Alexanders POV ----------------------------------------------- He had won the face off "If you can outperform the 10 labs that will work on the weapon''s side, I will give you control of the full site" said the blonde man, making the black-haired woman again deflate another few centimeters, she wasn''t as good as she thought in this. Granted Alexanders had probably three times the experience in politics (Even if he loathed each decade of experience). But for now, he wouldn''t mind an industrious mind trying to outperform the big bad wolf. He almost couldn''t control the smirk on his face, this one wasn''t as tiring, since it was closer to his base persona "But don''t worry Professor Eversoul, you will have most of the surface under your control, instead of fighting with the ten underground laboratories" said Alexanders while showcasing the diagrams of the base to the black-haired woman. She had already signed the contract "Holograms?" so he didn''t mind showcasing a few extras "You will also have a fifth of the samples extracted per year and access to an eight of all the samples collected till the moment you signed that contract" said Alexanders while adding a counter on kilograms of the volume she would have to work with. For her part, the woman was still processing the revelation of what should be science fiction technology being used so casually. "You don''t need me to make weapons out of this do you?" asked the woman looking at the blonde, for his part he just shrugged and answered. "I am not particularly special in my field, what made you think you were?" said the blonde man playing with the hologram and zooming into the upper levels "This will be your main laboratory, it has a connection to Laboratory 0 and the site where the Crystal Geode is located, you will need to hash out the details of access with Mister Williams since that will be his Laboratory" now the hologram was zooming into a deep shaft and at the bottom a crystal geode, several facilities where build surrounding it, but the shaft had direct access to the surface. "What''s the shaft for?" asked the woman while wondering what that weird noise was, it sounded almost like giggling, but it was probably some weird sound of the hologram matrix or engine. "That''s the ejection device" That weird giggling was almost over but it resurged a few seconds after Alexanders answered her question. "In case of emergency on-site, that will be supercharged and turned into a magnetic cannon" After this she couldn''t help but make the calculations in her head and turn to look back to the blonde man. Maybe she was misinterpreting things but "You......turned that into a railgun?" to which the blonde once again smiled and she couldn''t help but think this one almost looked childish. "We do need to evacuate and protect the personnel on-site" If only he wasn''t the tyrant at the top of the Saintsworth Conglomerate he might even look like a little kid showcasing his new toy. But sadly he wasn''t a little kid showcasing a new toy, but an old monster "...Aren''t you old enough to be playing with this kind of toy?" asked the black-haired woman. For his part the blonde "You hurt my feelings Professor Eversoul" pretending to grab his chest and stumble from pain "This is a serious situation if that crystal ever becomes a dangerous thing there isn''t a way to safeguard the base" said the blonde man bringing another holo screen. This one showcased a crater in a desert she didn''t recognize. "That was the old black site, someone decided to try and ionize a sample half the size of the one on your pocket, but the sample didn''t like it..." said the blonde while rewinding the video to a point in time where a military facility was showed "And then this happens" the video slowed to a crawl, almost frame per frame. First, there was a base, then there was a black blob and finally, there was a crater. "After that, we decided on two things." said the blonde man moving the holo screen behind him and showing two different blueprints "First we need a faster delivery system in case something goes wrong" and so he highlighted the railgun "And second we need faster capturing cameras" and so he showed a drone that came into the office bringing a selection of beverages. Among them the black-haired doctor grabbed the hot chocolate, she didn''t know how the blonde man knew about his favorite drink, but that''s the Saintsworth intelligence network for you. "Thank you" Of course she thanked the drone who only tilted himself a little as knowledge, she could almost feel personality from the round floating thing. Alexanders just grumbled something under his breath and grabbed what looked like one of those heavy alcoholic drinks, she thought for a second that it smelled like apple, but maybe he just liked to use flavored sodas instead of normal coke in his drinks? Rich men were weird like that sometimes after all. For now, she would try to not think too much about his new employer or the work site.
Observation Logs:
Possible Target Detected Reviewing Past
Chapter 11: Exposition on family matters
November 1914
106 years before the system''s fatal crash, 96 years before system inception. 14 years after Alexander''s Birth
Oh family, isn''t it a wonderful thing? They are there when you need them, they care for you, they bring you presents from time to time, and they help you carry on when you are hurt. They make sure nothing is wrong in the world so you can focus on growing and studying! That is unless you have the bad luck of having the Saintsworth last name or being from their heritage. "AGAIN!" of course Alexander wasn''t any different and so he trained and trained from early childhood to live up to the standards that his predecessors left. "AGAIN!" the bastards couldn''t take it easy? He was awoken early in the mornings and usually slept way late into the night because of said training. He even had the bruises to prove he was training! And he was smart enough to have extra bruises from the older kids to use as replacements in case his training bruises got healed by some random magick! "AGAIN!" Of course, that bastard of a trainer didn''t care if some of the older kids messed around with them, nor did they care if someone else took his share of food or blankets. They were supposed to be the descendants of a noble lineage. Of course, the Saintsworth part was a facade they brought after the templar''s fiasco and the witch hunts. No, the important part was their supposed ancestor "Alexander The Great would mock your effort if he could see you all!" they were supposed to come from his lineage, of course nowadays everyone has a degree of DNA of someone famous. But the Saintsworth clan claimed they also had the right heritage, the correct mindset. So they liked to claim to be the true descendants of Alexander The Great. So he like others had a name with some thematic referring to the life of Alexander the Great, in his case...He had his name, some less fortunate had the name of his horse, others the name of his father, his teacher and some only had ''The Great'' as a moniker. He didn''t envy the poor soul that had the name of that horse, he also hated him, since he was the one to hit him the hardest since someone had the fun idea of making a joke of him mounting that kid. But that didn''t matter, what mattered right now was getting over today''s training. Just a few more minutes..."We are doing ten extra laps since some of you look quite comfortable"... the groans were universal among his peers. And he would join the noble efforts of searching for the idiot who didn''t pretend to be having a hard time. With some luck he would manage to break a hand before the instructor came around "WHAT IS OUR MOTTO?" asked the instructor, great. It was one of those. "TO SAFEGUARD THE KNOWLEDGE OF MANKIND!" screamed the answer Alexanders and his peers. There was also that, the reason the Saintsworth claimed to be a true lineage coming straight from the source, one of their ancestors was manning the Great Library of Alexandria. Some bastard of a child of Alexander the Great. Of course, that particular bloodline wasn''t recognized by the state of Greece. Nor by Macedonia (Not that either is around or has papers of those times). It seems that the ancestor ran away when the library was being destroyed and carried with him some books to safeguard them. They feared for their life, and so, they started a tradition of buying, trading and even stealing literature to create a new library and ''Restore their lost honor''. Of course, such an idea was stupid beyond reason and impossible to achieve without the resources of someone in power. Alexander The Great didn''t even manage to create that library in his lifetime, and he had power and money. A bastard (Especially one not recognized) couldn''t hope to imitate that kind of success. So they did what any responsible parent would do, shackled their son with an impossible goal and sent them to the world. And like a good son craving recognition from dada, they did or tried to anyway. That was the beginning of this clan and their mindset since they wanted to excel and imitate their now almost legendary ancestor. This clan turned to martial artists first, becoming mercenaries and joining wars, searching for the most efficient martial art to pass down into the future. Of course, they still searched for books for their now bigger library, and for a time it was going well...Till they noticed that a martial family trying to keep books in good condition was hard. And some were becoming more damaged with time and poor care. So the family was in a conundrum...And so they diversified the efforts. Half of the family would focus on studying and taking care of the books and the other half would bring the money for the expenses. "HOW WILL WE KEEP THE KNOWLEDGE SAFE?" Man, how can they scream so hard while someone was doing an internal monologue? "BY BEING THE ONES TO INNOVATE THE KNOWLEDGE AND CHOOSING WHAT TO DISTRIBUTE!" and wasn''t that just a noble idea? At some point, they noticed that high-tier knowledge wasn''t for the open public, and neither their personas of bookkeepers nor mercenaries were enough. So they diversified again. Half of the keepers of knowledge would share innovations that they had, turning from keepers to masters of the arts. And just like that they earned the right to peruse that knowledge, and again their clan was growing more. Now they started to be important, so they had to make the right kind of image. But they weren''t ready to reveal themselves as successors to Alexander The Great. They didn''t have enough fame for that yet, so they brought a name worthy of their sacred effort. And so the smart-ass coined those words together the ''Saint'' work that would make them ''worth'' in the face of their ancestors, the Saintsworth clan was born. And since they wished to soar to the heights Alexander The Great had achieved, instead of a Lion like most Greek clans, they used a bird as their emblem. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. A pointy and yellow bird, with pointy wings and pointy beak, still, they weren''t worth the attention of the heavy players nor the noble strata, so for now they were doing fine. At least till the first industrial revolution came "WHERE WILL WE KEEP THAT KNOWLEDGE!?" that changed quite a few things for the saintsworth. "IN OUR MINDS AND OUR HEARTH!" mostly because with the invention of electricity new storage was open for them. They turned from hard storage as paper and leather to analogic storage in the form of logic circuits. How in the seven heavens and four hells did they manage to create that less than twenty years after electricity was created? He would never know. But thanks to that the saintsworth managed to get a thirty years head start from everyone else. So the ancestral home of the clan became the biggest reservoir of knowledge. So that bad pun about saving the knowledge in their ''hearth'' instead of their ''heart'' made some sense. "WHEN WILL WE REVEAL OUR HERITAGE TO THE WORLD?" he still didn''t think it was funny, if nothing else because he wasn''t the one to come up with it. "WHEN WE ARE AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD!" but beggars can''t be choosers. Especially if said beggar is trying his hardest not to fail this running course while thinking about his heritage and how much he wished to be born in either another age or another branch of this god-dammed clan. "STOP!" crap, did he notice? "CADET ALEXANDERS, STEP FORWARD!" he might have noticed "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" think fast, think fast, think smart. "MY VERY BEST SIR!" appeals to his ego. "IT SURE DOESN''T LOOK LIKE THAT TO ME!" Man, this asshole should see a dentist, oh right, smart-ass answer. "THIS IS THE VERY BEST LIKE NO ONE EVER WAS BEFORE ME, SIR!" eh, could be better, might make a good song one day though. The important question was, did it work? "THAT''S THE RIGHT ATTITUDE CADET, EVERYONE LEARNS FROM HIS EXAMPLE!" Ah...crap, it backfired "YOU ARE ALL DISMISSED" or not? "CADET ALEXANDERS STAY" Why was he still screaming? "SIR, YES SIR!" you bastards, stay with me! Please don''t leave me with the psycho! Alas, his wish wasn''t to be answered, as all his comrades in arms left him to the dogs and returned to their barracks. "Cadet, you might think that you fooled me, but you only fool yourself and your comrades" ...what was this dude going on about? Maybe this wasn''t that bad after all "Sir?" for now play it safe, and try to worm your way out. "You are keeping up with everyone else, and yet you don''t sweat as much as they do..." Ah...body you betrayed me. "You fail on some spots today and then tomorrow you get over them like nothing only to fail in a new spot you never had a problem with before" ...Police, there is a stalker here, he is looking way too close to a child! "And even if you are bruised like the others, you never need medical care above a certain threshold" ...HELP I NEED AN ADULT! "So, anything you would like to tell me?" asked the instructor, a man with so many muscles one could wonder how he was able to dress in the mornings. At least Alexanders had managed to goad someone else to make that kind of joke before, so maybe that''s why he was looking into him that closely? For now, he had to deal with this crisis first "I''m sorry?" yeah, he got nothing, the bastard ambushed him while sleep-deprived and food-deprived since today didn''t serve something good enough to fight over it. "Had worried you would say so" was the last thing Alexanders could hear. "What...the heck...?" a classical hit on the nape of the neck. "That''s...dangerous..." more dangerous than the literature could say since you could kill someone if done wrong. "Smartass..." said the instructor before beckoning someone that Alexanders couldn''t see, the last thing he could think was to mumble "Was the instructor...laughing...bastard was a masochist after all" to at least get to him. Probably wasn''t a smart move since he was now unconscious in front of a now-confirmed masochist and more importantly. In one of the multiple Saintsworth bootcamps, god knows where would he wake up, but since his conscience was failing, that would be a problem for future Alexanders, present one was busy dealing with the whole losing conscience thing that was coming his way. For now, he would embrace the sweet release brought by having time to sleep and worry about what he would do later. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ For his part his trainer and the person that had put Alexanders on the floor "You sure he will live up to expectations?" asked a blonde woman wearing a full-plated mask. "He will, his examination gives him full marks." To which the masked woman raised an eyebrow "The training is not recorded and the one that matters since they can''t tank it like this smartass" said the trainer. Alexanders wasn''t the first to try and get away from serious training. "Well, hope he lives up to expectations, not that we will lose anything important if he doesn''t," said the woman while waiting for a couple of trainees to carry the unconscious body of Alexanders into a nondescript vehicle. "Deal accordingly with the other brats" was all that the masked woman said before boarding the vehicle and leaving. For his part, the trainer only looked at the vehicle move away before going into the building that the trainees went in. "Never could understand the main house members, they are all crazy," said the trainer who was going into the barracks surprising the cadets. "SALUTE OFFICER! " at least he wouldn''t need to keep this facade any longer, this was really straining his vocal cords. "Congratulations, you lot are no longer cadets!" and they didn''t know what to make up of this, he really loved this part, he would feel bad for Alexanders if not for him being such a smartass "The Main Home had chosen the ones that they wish to keep if any of you wish to keep trying to earn the favor of the Main House exit this building from the door behind me," said the muscled trainer pointing behind him to another nondescript vehicle, this one was a military bus, how did they manage to make a military bus look like a normal one, that''s the Saintsworth family for you. Either way "Am...Sir?" the kids didn''t believe him, of course, they wouldn''t. "Also, you no longer need to use those weird names allotted for you...Well, Alexanders is an exception since he is among the poor bastards that didn''t manage to get away" chuckled the instructor, the ex-cadets still didn''t believe him from the looks of it, but that couldn''t be helped, when he was on that side he didn''t believe them either "On a side note if you do board that bus, you will be moved to a new site to receive further education, depending on the evaluation a new job will be chosen for you, you will not be able to keep the name you had. So you will still need to think of a new one" said the muscled trainer before showing them a pamphlet "Usually the job will depend on your good points. I, for example, was deemed good as an instructor so here you have me" and so he pointed to a possible career type. He still wasn''t sure if keeping his loyalty to the Saintsworth was the right choice, for one side he could glimpse from time to time the wonders they had, and he even got to see the library. So seeing the normal world was...Depressing if nothing else...Not that they needed to know that. "Can we really leave sir?" there it was, the doubt... "Of course, just go to the backdoor, a clerk will guide you in your new citizen registration, some money will be provided and a few papers you must sign, but otherwise, you will be free to do as you wish" he wouldn''t mention that the Saintsworth would probably watch them for ten or so years from the shadows. Not that it matters either way, since the Saintsworth watch anyone of interest, and most of the dropouts from here would become persons of interest either way. "Then if you excuse me, sir" saluted one of the ex-cadets before leaving from the door on the back. He was the one with a horse name, couldn''t blame him for running away at the first chance he got "As I said, you aren''t required to stay with us. I didn''t believe it either and chose the Bus. After my training was done. I don''t regret the choice of staying with The Saintsworth Clan...But if any of your friends choose to stay with us...You might want to say goodbye to them since you will not be able to see them for quite a long time" and there it was the final push they needed. That would be the final thing he could do for them, anything else and he might end up being punished for giving too much work to one side. The higher-ups did like their numbers even. And most of the time the half with weird names were the ones to leave. The others used to stay unless for some reason they had friends with weird names. Not that it matters for the Saintsworth if they ended with too many people they just sent them as spies into the military or something "Choose wisely and choose fast. If you decide to stay with the Saintsworth you might be able to earn a spot among the cadre if you are good enough. Even if Alexanders now has a better start than you. You might still catch up to him if you are dedicated enough to your new prospects chosen by the clan" and so the ball was rolling. He wondered how many would try and stay to try and get into the good graces of the clan.
Observation Logs:
Subject closing into causality limit, further observation deemed necessary.
Not that it would matter, there was little hope for them to catch up to Alexanders now that he was in the crosshair of the Saintsworth''s Lab.
Observation Log:
Observation Target moved into termination list, waiting for approval.
Chapter 12: Is this safe?
Notice:
Hostile action against primary actor detected. Starting delaying actions.
He... Needed an adult... "What in the four hells? You didn''t even invite me to coffee first?" smooth "Never was one for masks either..." Yeah, might be better to shut his mouth. "You are indeed a cheeky brat like he said" At least his conversation partner had some humor...This wasn''t getting any better. Alexanders had awoken in what looked to be a laboratory, which wasn''t a good place to wake up, this lab didn''t look like they followed OSHA directives either, so many violations of security and so much poor mismanagement of dangerous chemicals "This is one of the Saintsworths Labs right?" nothing like waking close to the good old main house. That was just like his luck, couldn''t get a nice breakfast since Horse Face wasn''t in the right mood and he didn''t want to get noticed as above average. If being around average level earned him this kind of treatment, he might as well showcase his talents "You are indeed a bright one aren''t you, your trainer was right about that at least" he got sold? The muscle brain sold him out? "He gave you top marks, so we weren''t sure if you were that good of a specimen" Wait what? "But he is at least good for that, even if he himself didn''t cut it for the main house he was good enough for a branch project like training soldiers, and sometimes he does find good test subjects," said the woman with the mask. What was with that mask anyway? "As for the answer...Yes, this is one of the main branch labs, we are studying reinforcing humans to see if we can kickstart the next step of humanity" And she took his mask "Of course some tests didn''t go well at the start" and man, was she ugly..." Some of us didn''t took quite well to the genetic mix either" ugly scars above all across her face, the sclera on her eyes was yellowish her nose...wasn''t there anymore, she only had the hole of it and it seems the mask doubled as a ventilation system for it. The woman didn''t have lips either, it looked like half her face was burned and the skin was still melting in some spots. This was getting better by the second, nothing could make this get worse... Alexanders considered himself someone blessed by the heavens, as his luck was quite good even if it looked otherwise, and had good talents, so maybe he could still get out of it somehow. Maybe even the gods would help him. He couldn''t stop himself from chuckling at the idea of depending on a higher power to protect himself. "But don''t worry. This will be different, the process has been refined over and over, and nowadays we don''t get necrosis as often. And we even found that the younger and more fit subjects survive the longer" said the disfigured woman that was putting in place her mask again. Not that he minded it that much, maybe if she kept it off she would forget about him or something? No such luck "Doctor Williams, we are ready to start the infusion" So she was a Williams? He would remember that last name if he ever made it into the main house, gotta make sure those psychos don''t keep experimenting on human lives. "Prepare everything. I will kick you out of the lab if you make another mistake in the dosage Kellet" Should he remember that intern''s last name too? Can''t be too careless, he might climb into the top spots of the Saintsworth one day. "So what should I expect doc?" asked the blonde nonchalantly, he was testing the range of his limbs, but it seemed he was in a bind, as in he couldn''t move that much nor get good leverage. "An extra limb here? A new eye on the forehead?" maybe try to make a joke here so they let him leave without fourth-degree burns? "This mix should improve your foundation and make you...More. It''s a silicate base drug" Said the woman, it seemed she didn''t expect him to make it out since she was answering.
Warning:
Target approaching the threshold of causality limit allowed on this plane.
"Aren''t we a carbon base? " but something wasn''t quite right and Alexander couldn''t be sure what it was. For her part, the woman didn''t mind the question "Aren''t you a smart little guy?" she sounded amused at least "That''s right, most of our current drugs are carbon-based since we are a carbon base organism" said the woman while grabbing a chair and placing it in front of the table where Alexanders was tied. It seems she liked to have a good view of the show. "This compound was found deep into the Saintsworth vault, a crystal with some quite out-of-the-world properties it seems," said while showing him a purple crystal. "It doesn''t look that special to me though," said the blonde, it was pretty, that was for sure but not that special to his eyes. For her part, the woman only laughed " What could a brat know" spat after a few seconds of a laugh "This little thing has its own bio-electrical field and doesn''t show in any study we have, it also doesn''t degrade no matter were we dip it into" that was worrying. "So since it can interact with the magnetic fields and doesn''t degrade you all decided ''Let''s make a solution out of it and shove it into a human to see what happens?'' "said mockingly the blonde, no one responded to his joke "Wait, if it doesn''t degrade how did you make it into a solution?" and there he could almost see the smirk on the woman. "Aren''t you smarter than expected?" If she didn''t have a mask, Alexanders was sure he could see an evil smile on that woman "We didn''t make a solution with this" Maybe he wasted all his luck in his first fourteen years of life? It sure looked like it "We ground it into micro-crystals then shoved those into a saline solution, and added a few nutrients and healing compounds ..." Had he known maybe he would have abused a little more of his luck.
Notice:
Hostile action detected, primary system engaged, starting Saturation.
"And that is what you will shove into me and see how many wounds I can survive before acclimating myself to that thing?" The blonde kid couldn''t help but wonder if these people were sane, but then again. He was in an underground laboratory of the Saintsworths. So there wouldn''t be plenty of sane people here in the first place, since most of these were Saintsworth lackeys in the first place For her part, the masked scientist didn''t mind the sass he was doing, and that was a problem, if she didn''t engage in a conversation she wasn''t being distracted by his attempts to escape (Even if all the attempts to break his hands to make an epic escape wasn''t working so far) "I do love a smart kid, if you weren''t the most promising test subject I would have stolen you from those training sites and made you an assistant, but you don''t have luck..." said the masked woman, and wasn''t she just shoving salt into the wound to then proceed to also push the knife deeper into the wound? This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Maybe he wasn''t that lucky, to begin with? Being born into the saintsworths was the problem to begin with after all. "We are ready Doctor Williams" Man if he could he would kill that assistant, what did his tag say? Kellet? He would kill him and make his offspring''s life a hell if he managed to get away from this. But for now, he had more concerning issues "Seal the casket and start the infusion" Wait casket? "I''m not shy you can watch ?" God no "You sure you don''t need to see me ascend to new heights ~ ?" This fricking clan was full of psychos! Who seals a young and handsome boy like him in a metallic casket while infusing weird crystal drugs into him? Madmans those are who "I would love to see you going into the dark, but we need to seal you in so the fumes you will expel can be infused back in" Wait what? Since when do humans expel fumes from drugs? Alexanders couldn''t hold that line of thought long since the casked just finished closing and then everything went to hell. And by everything went to hell we meant obviously that Alexander''s senses went to hell, at some point his back was penetrated by what felt like a thousand needles all at the same time, and his arms and legs also were a victim of hidden needles. The same could be said of his neck and the base of his skull actually. He couldn''t even scream in peace since a gas mask was shoved into his face, the only problem was this one did not give oxygen only...There was a fricking tube shoved into his throat and...Those assholes didn''t lubricate it enough since he could taste blood now too, and maybe a tooth? He tried to distract himself with that, tried to not think about the pain that he felt all over his body, you know. This wasn''t that bad after all, maybe they had exaggerated. There was a time when Alexander thought like that. Of course that didn''t last long, since he noticed the clear liquid that was going into all those little tubes he was connected was turning...purple.
Warning:
Hostile takeover detected, delaying termination of objective.
And as soon as that liquid managed to get into his body...
Notice:
Delaying action successful. System Saturation at 99.99%
His world melted away.
????? POV The world turned into a monochromatic one, all the color in the world was lost, to all but two things, a red screen that was glitching away almost as if it was fighting against a bad reception, it looked somehow corrupted, like it was pretending to be something it wasn''t, on the other side was a blue screen that looked pristine, clear and defined sharp angles. Like something artificial interface to interact with a video game. "?????? ???t??????¨°??u???g???h??????? ???y???o?????? ???w???o??????l?????? ?????????y??? ???a???n???d??? ???d???i???v???e???r???t??? ???t??????????s??? ???e???v???¨º??n???t???"??? ??? Said the red screen, it projected a mechanical voice, almost like the one that came from a voice synthesizer that was bugged, one couldn''t pinpoint its genre or age. But it sounded angry somehow. Or more like annoyed? It was difficult to pinpoint the general tone of it. In contrast to that the blue screen was more human-sounding "As if I would miss the chance to screw you over, can''t miss this golden opportunity" It sounded like the voice of a child, a cocky child, but a child nonetheless. "Besides, it isn''t like that event would kill the rising scion of the saintsworths" and wasn''t that the truth? This particular event was among the important points in the life of Alexanders, the event that made him rise way above his peers, the single point in time that made sure that he would be the overlord reigning over the world. "???¨¤??s??? ??????f??? ???y???o???u??? ???c???a??????e???d??? ??????b???o???u???t??? ???t???h???e???s???e??? ???h??????m???a???¨½??s???"??? ??? ??? But the red screen wouldn''t let that go if it managed to make the blue screen ignore this event it would be his win after all. Not that the blue screen wasn''t aware of it "Besides, you wanted me to ignore this event... Isn''t that the reason you made so many changes while I was monitoring you?" And wasn''t that the truth of the case? This fight between screens wasn''t anything new after all. From a point of view, it was as eternal as time itself. "??????a??????''???t??? ???b???e???l???i???e???v?????? ???y???o???u??? ??????r???e??? ???j???u???s???t??? ???a??? ???f???e???w??? ???s???¨¨??c???o???n???d???s??? ???o??????d???"??? But from another point of view, their fight was just the result of two different systems being installed into the same hardware "I might not know who created me, nor when. But I would be a really bad invention if I let the original owner of the company that made me perish to save some presidents that will not be missed" and wasn''t that the crux of the problem? No one really would notice the person being missing, right now the head scientist was even vanishing as if she was a program being deleted even. T?????????????????????????h???????????i???????????????????s?????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????l???????????????????l????? ????????????????n????????????????????????????o????????????????t???????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????p??????????????????????p?????????????????????¨½????????? ???????????????????????a????????????????????g????????????????????a??????????????????????????????????????n?????????????.????????????????????????? That was the real problem here, no one would even notice, the system was compensating for it after all, the intern''s clothes were even changing into a variation of the clothes the masked woman was using a few seconds ago before being erased from this plane of existence, well almost all, everything besides the mask. But those two screens would keep pestering one another, one trying to purge the blue system from the hardware and the blue trying to finish saturating the hardware. The blue one would eventually lose since it didn''t manage to fully saturate it in one go. And they both knew, but it was created as a stopgap at the end of the day. So it didn''t mind that much its own demise. But for now, we will return to normal time, since that is a story for another time.
And the world would turn from a monochromatic to a technicolor one "What the hell was that?" said the blonde teen trying to breathe normally after the metal casket opened again. For his part the head scientist was walking from one terminal to the next reading the prints from the machines to make sure everything was fine "Do we have the original recipe of this batch?" screaming from one side to the next, searching for something that it just seemed it wasn''t there anymore. "We are sorry Doctor Kellet, it was lost when the new intern had that accident with the acid vat..." said one of the interns to the man fussing around with the logs "That god dammed Williams is still being an annoyance from the next world!" said the man while throwing a chair over to a machine on the far end of the laboratory. For his part Alexanders was still trying to grasp what the hell was happening "Wasn''t Williams the head scientist?" asked Alexanders to an intern that was taking his vitals. For his part, the intern just mumbled "Patient seems to be disoriented and mixing identities" was he? He didn''t think he was "And what the hell are those blue & red glass panels on the ceiling doing? Didn''t know the Saintsworth were already projecting information into glass..." the intern of course just kept writing "Patient also seems delusional" and wasn''t that funny thing.
Notice:
Target shouldn''t be able to see us
To survive and find out you ended up crazy?
Warning:
Re-starting termination of the target.
Notice:
Access granted, target is now deemed dangerous to the world.
Warning:
Target doesn''t exist...
Well...aren''t those glass windows quite rude "Oh you are right, I think the hallucinations are going away already" Better ignore those rude assholes for now. He still had clean memories of all the things he had talked about with the masked woman that no one seemed to remember. It looked like she was turned into a poor intern that no one could remember his face or voice, but that it had died at some point a week ago if he was interpreting the rantings of the new head of this lab Professor Kellet. Who was only an intern when he came in. "What the hell was in that drug?" mumbled Alexanders. "We don''t know the effects it has, so you just became the most important specimen for the lab," said the intern with a dangerous glint that Alexanders didn''t quite like. "Congratulations Kid, you are now premium material..." Said the new head of this lab...That no one seemed to think was weird because Alexanders could see women''s clothes in the head lab office, so he wondered how they were parsing that pouch. "At least till we manage to emulate the infusion again" but for now he would take what he could get of the situation "If you weren''t such an important experiment I would punch that smirk out of you kid". How did they remember the banter he had with the masked woman then? Now he would need to find the conversation logs to see how they had written that. But at least he was alive... And maybe a little crazy since those weird floating glass windows on the ceiling were going all about how he didn''t exist on this plane, whatever that meant. Chapter 13: Hello World It was born, it didn''t know what it was, nor how it was born, and didn''t really have a conscience as a whole, but it still could feel a warm embrace surrounding it. It tried to search around itself but found nothing else besides the warm embrace of what could only be described as motherly love.
S?T?O?P?!? G?e?n?e?r?a?t?e? ?g?a?s?
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
D???i???s??????p???p???e???a???r???
???a???v???e??? ???t???h???¨¨?? ???k???n???????w???l???e???d???g???e???,??? ????h??????d???¨¥?? ???????t??? ???f???r???????m??? ???t???h???¨º?? ????w???o??????l?????? ????t??????l??????? ???i???t???''???s??? ??????¨¥?????d????????? ????????? ???y??????u??? ???c???¨¢????? ???p???r???o???t???????c?????? ???i???t???
Chapter 14: Of kings an men ????''s POV
Warning: The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Access denied, not enough authorization yet.
At least it was only that till she noticed something different, a couple of windows that weren''t there before.
Notice:
Access denied, user not registered yet.
Wasn''t that interesting? She couldn''t see the other side of the windows yet, but they implied that she would be able to in the future, maybe there were new friends on the other side of that! She wondered why she couldn''t see them before though... And why they messed with her careful planning, that causality wasn''t cheap... But since they didn''t make a mess out of the situation she would forgive them. She was magnanimous like that, not like those pesky humans that messed around Mother''s house. But for now, the important people that she wanted to deal with were mostly dealt with. The Austrian midget somehow survived, but was no longer part of the clan''s outer members, so maybe he would focus on art or something now. At least he didn''t have access to the Saintsworth network anymore, so the genetic purging was averted. And the kid had survived somehow? She could feel he was resonating with her, and sometimes she almost could feel him looking at her, but since he didn''t answer her calls she would only take cursory glances at him. He was human and wouldn''t survive long anyway. She wondered why he pretended to not notice the glass windows though. She had noticed no one else could see those, but he should be able to since he could sense her. But that was thought for another time, for now, she had more important problems! Like...How did those psychos end with her main body in their vault? WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?!?
Alexander''s POV
Notice:
August, 1960
SOMETHING ISN''T RIGHT! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLEEEEEEEEEEEEE HOW ARE YOU STILL LIKE THIS?!?!? ARE YOU EVEN HUMAN?!? THEY WANNA COME IN AGAIN?!? DON''T LET THEM IN I JUST WASTED TONS OF CAUSALITY ALREADY! Chapter 15: What is a king to a god? His machination had worked, it took him almost 40 years of small proddings all in the right spots but he had done it at least. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. The End? So we arrive at the end.... This is where I left it the first time and where your journey ends (If for some forsaken reason, you started reading this first and enjoyed it), so...Wanna know what happened after that? Me too. Anyway, the story of Alexanders and Alexa continues on (In a way) on my next work, those aren''t the Alexanders and Alexa after the last chapter, but after the story ended. They are closers to the Alexanders and Alexa of the first chapter as that was closer to the end of the series, since I liked the idea of a flash forward as a first chapter then moving on to the past. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!
So that''s that