Someone actually did come by to check on the disturbance, but with the window fixed and no signs of anything else, they left not long after. After they left, Andrew sat down with Quinn and explained everything, from Beast World to the others, even his time as a goblin, showing her the form as proof. "No wonder you're so against joining the Raiders." Quinn commented with a frown, before letting out a sigh. "You realize how ridiculous this all sounds, right?"

Andrew nodded. "I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't actually experienced it all. I honestly thought I was dreaming for a while, until I woke up in my other body. Hard to say you're dreaming when you're awake."

Quinn grunted in agreement, frowning as she considered everything. "Okay, call them out." She nodded firmly after a moment.

"Are you sure?" Andrew asked hesitantly.

"Just do it, Drew." Quinn rolled her eyes. A moment later a portal opened and the three others stepped out. "Which one of you is Thomas?" She asked, standing to her feet.

"That'd be me." Thomas replied, raising his hand slightly in a small wave.

"Give me this other system of yours and a single point." Quinn demanded. "If it works, I'll believe everything Andrew said. If not, I'm reporting you all to the authorities."

Thomas blinked, before turning to Andrew. "Dude, how much did you tell her?"

"It kinda just all came out." Andrew explained with an embarrassed expression. "She's scary when she's mad."

Thomas rolled his eyes, before turning to Quinn. "Alright, deal." He agreed, holding out his hand.

Quinn was about to take it, when she hesitated. "Wait. What if you're using mind magic to make people believe this system of your works?" She asked suspiciously.

Thomas frowned at her. "Look, if we're talking mind magic, it's going to be hard to convince you of anything, because everything could all be in your head. Your entire life could simply be an illusion created through mind magic. This entire World could be a construct of mind magic!"

Greg cocked his head. "You know, if you think about it-"

"Do not go there." Thomas warned, before turning back to Quinn. "I'm not saying you shouldn't be careful, but after a certain point, worrying about it becomes pointless."

Quinn nodded slowly, before letting out a sigh. "You have a point, but I still think it's too risky."

"What if Andrew gave you the system and a point?" Thomas offered. "You don't think he's a mind mage, do you?"

Quinn blinked, before turning to Andrew. "You can give me the system?"

"Maybe?" Andrew frowned.

"Go to settings." Thomas explained.

"Okay… ah, there it is." Andrew nodded as he found it. "Ready?" He asked Quinn, holding out his hand.

Quinn was still looking between him and Thomas suspiciously, but at this point, she had to admit she was being a bit paranoid. Drew had been with her for months, even sharing the secret of her Living Dungeon trait with her! If this was some sort of trap, it was too elaborate for her to escape. "Okay." She nodded, taking Andrew's hand. The change was subtle, but her status page suddenly gained a few new options, and once she received the point from Andrew and increased her Energy by one, it was hard to continue arguing. "Holy shit." She muttered, her eyes widening in shock. She'd been keeping it together under the assumption that Drew was being manipulated or lied to somehow, but if everything was true… a level's worth of attributes everyday… Quinn let out a small whine, bringing her knees to her chest and beginning to rock slightly as the implications rushed through her mind.

"I think you broke her." Greg commented, leaning closer to Thomas.

"Eh, give her a minute." Thomas waved. "Everyone freaks out at first, but they adjust."

As Thomas said, after a few minutes and a few final deep breaths, Quinn got herself under control. "Okay, so, everything you said was-" She closed her eyes and took another deep breath. "It's all real." She turned to Chris. "Which means he really can make me immortal."

Andrew nodded. "He can. You'll come back just like he did."

"But in exchange, he can go through my memories and has some sort of authority over me." Quinn muttered, before raising an eyebrow at Andrew. "You do realize how much this sounds like a demon's deal, right? Power at a price. Admittedly, I've never heard of something this powerful… and the price isn't terrible. Not comfortable, I'll admit, but… not unpayable considering what's offered."

Andrew blinked. "Does that mean…?"

Quinn let out another breath. "Yes, I'll do it. It's worth it. If I don't have to worry about dying, I can push myself further, explore higher level dungeons… Fuck, adding in this new system, I could be the most famous Dungeon Streamer in the world!"

Andrew frowned. "Well… if you're sure, just step through the portal and accept whatever happens."

Quinn nodded, getting up and walking confidently towards the portal. She hesitated slightly at the cusp, before steeling herself with yet another deep breath and stepping through. Suddenly a screen appeared in front of her.

[Would you like to form a connection with the Immortal World?] [Yes][No]

Quinn blinked, before selecting yes. The Immortal World, huh? She barely had time to appreciate the name before a deluge of memories hit her and she let out a gasp. Just like Jade, she experienced the totality of Chris's life in a moment, stumbling out of the portal and staring at Chris, wide-eyed.

"Here we go again." Thomas muttered under his breath.

"You- you- you're a monster!" Quinn cried, backing away from him with a horrified expression.

Thomas blinked. "Huh."

Chris frowned at Quinn. "How am I a monster?" Not that he believed she was wrong, but he at least wanted to see her reasoning.

Quinn shuddered. "You're empty! Completely uncaring!"

Chris cocked his head. "People keep saying that… but I don't feel empty? I think I enjoy my life just fine. And I do care about Beth, so I can't be completely uncaring."

"Caring about one person doesn't compensate for the millions of people you don't care about!" Quinn retorted. "Would you even be trying to save the City if not for her?!?"

Chris paused to consider the question for a moment. Without Beth… he'd probably grab his friends, possibly his parents, and leave. Which, in a way, would be trying to save the City. The Elf King was only interested in it because of him. Maybe he'd go to Earth, since there was essentially no one who could actually bother him there. Plus the food was better. Of course, without Beth, the City would probably never have been in danger in the first place, because he never would have joined the Scouts or explored his ability. He would have just gone to college, gotten a job somewhere, and coasted, no one even aware of how powerful he was, not even himself.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Yes and no." Chris eventually replied. "Yes, because the City is in danger because of me and removing me from the situation would remove the reason for the conflict. No, because it wouldn't be about saving the City, or anyone else. I just wouldn't want to deal with it. However, I posit that caring about one person is enough, because by caring about her, I care enough to not only work to save the City, but also everyone else suffering under the Elf King's rule."

Quinn paused, before shuddering again. "You're still a monster."

"Noted." Chris nodded.

"Well, that seems like definitive proof that Chris's world doesn't brainwash people in my opinion." Greg announced with a shrug.

"Can we talk about the fact that Chris doesn't care for a moment?" Andrew interjected.

"Did you ever get the impression that Chris did care?" Greg retorted. "Besides, you already heard his reasoning, and it's clearly working out for him. Arguably I'd say I'm worse than he is, because I actually enjoy causing suffering and barely restrain myself due to a constructed morality and the fact that Tessa wouldn't be happy. Though, admittedly, even without her I would only visit suffering on those I believe deserve it…" Greg sighed. "That constructed morality is a real bitch."

Andrew blinked, before turning to Thomas. "Don't look at me." He shrugged. "I turned a dude into a woman and gave her to a bear as a sex slave. Admittedly, he did try to rape me and I do try to be a good person, but clearly I have issues and at least these two have a handle on theirs that I clearly don't."

"A bear?!?" Andrew exclaimed incredulously.

"Bear turned human, but yeah." Thomas sighed.

"See, this is proof I'm fucked up." Greg pointed at Thomas. "That didn't sound awful to me at all. Actually sounded kind of interesting… though with the understanding that it's absolutely a fucked up thing to do to someone and I would make sure they deserved it before doing anything. Though if I'm going that far, why would I give them to anyone else?" He muttered, coughing awkwardly as everyone but Chris turned to give him incredulous looks. "How about you Chris, what would you do?" He quickly tried to change the subject.

Chris frowned. "I would stop them and make sure they stayed stopped. Anything more than that is unnecessary."

"See?" Greg continued. "Being uncaring goes both ways. Arguably Chris might be the least fucked up-" Greg paused. "Okay no, he's fucked up, but not in a bad way. Caring is a motivation and that motivation isn't always good. Sometimes caring can motivate you to do horrible, horrible things."

Thomas sighed. "Don't I know it."

"This isn't making me any more comfortable associating with you guys, you know that, right?" Andrew pointed out.

"Hey, we're all working towards the same goals, right?" Greg pointed out. "Does it really matter how we got there?"

Andrew frowned. "I guess not… plus, it isn't like we can exactly get away from each other."

"Though that does beg the question of what to do if our goals do diverge, or even conflict." Thomas commented thoughtfully. "I think we can all agree that fighting each other would be pointless and needlessly destructive."

"Unless we make it more of duel type thing?" Greg offered. "Not to kill, obviously, but we each send in an incarnation, and whoever wins… wins."

"I feel like that should be a last resort." Andrew commented. "Only if things are completely irreconcilable and there's no other way to settle things."

"Second to last resort, because if we're being honest, the odds are we'll tie." Chris countered. "Last resort is a coin flip."

"Okay, but what do we do before we fight?" Thomas rolled his eyes.

"Talk it out like we're doing now?" Chris shrugged. "Not that hard."

"We do talk a lot." Greg muttered. "And we can always take things to the room."

"I think there should be a step where we address the people involved in the decision." Andrew added. "Like we did with Jade and Quinn."

"Isn't that just assumed?" Chris frowned. "You don't do things to people without talking to them."

"Well, yeah, I'm just- we should make it official, right? So we don't forget." Andrew replied.

"So we're just making rules for things we're already doing?" Greg pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "Seems a bit redundant. Besides, if we change to the point of forgetting to consider people, I doubt some rules we made up during a five-minute conversation are going to hold us back."

"True…" Andrew muttered with a frown.

"So our system is argue, fight, then flip a coin?" Thomas asked, skeptically.

"Do you have any better ideas?" Greg replied.

"Maybe a vote?" Thomas offered.

"I think that's part of arguing." Chris pointed out.

Thomas frowned, before shrugging. "Fuck it, I'll take it. Hardly the worst system I've encountered."

"Great, now, can we get back to how connecting to Chris's World affected Quinn here?" Greg asked, looking between them. "Because I have people I'd really prefer not to die, and if his world isn't mindfucking people, I'd like to take advantage of it."

"I wouldn't mind knowing that myself." Chris agreed. "It's hard to tell how much of my subordinates' behavior is because of the connection sometimes."

"So Quinn." Greg turned to her. "You've made it clear you think Chris is a monster." She nodded. "However, if Chris needed you for something, let's say… he was fighting some dangerous beast and you could take a hit to defend him or run away, what would you do?"

"I would-" Quinn began, before pausing with a frown. "Take the hit?" Why- would she put herself in danger for this man who clearly didn't care about her, or anything? Except, because of his world, she wouldn't be in danger… was that it?

Greg frowned. "Okay, bit of a hitch there… fuck it, let's just go for it. What if he wanted to sleep with you?"

"Gross, no!" Quinn immediately protested, shaking her head.

"Gross?" Chris frowned. How was he gross?

"Okay, that's better." Greg let out a sigh of relief. "But where's the line?" He muttered with a frown. "Why is there a line…" He considered the problem for a moment, before his eyes widened. "Wait… okay, I think I got this! Quinn, you wouldn't sleep with Chris because you would never sleep with Chris, correct?" Quinn nodded hesitantly. "However, you'd be fine taking a hit for him, because that's actually something you could see yourself doing, right?" Quinn frowned, before nodding again. Isn't that essentially what she'd just said? "Okay, so anything that is possible for you to do, you'd do, but if it's outside the bounds of what you find acceptable, it's off limits."

"What are you getting at?" Andrew frowned. "Cause it sounds like you're just talking in circles."

"Guys, Chris is a World!" Greg explained. "His connection lets him influence people the same way Worlds do! He can't control them, he just makes them more likely to do the things he wants them to do, and less likely to do the things he doesn't want them to do! But it's still always within the bounds of things they're willing to do!"

"So… it just makes people have a more favorable attitude towards me?" Chris asked, cocking his head.

"I think it's a bit more extreme than that, but essentially." Greg nodded. "The question is how serious the influence is…"

"I think- I think the biggest difference is that when it comes to him, the question shifts from why would I, to why wouldn't I." Quinn spoke up. "When it comes to you three, if I don't have a good reason to help you, I won't, but for him, I need a good reason not to help, even if I don't particularly want to." She frowned. "It's a strange feeling."

"So, that's the rub." Greg nodded. "Anyone connected to Chris's world will be more inclined to do things for him. However, it doesn't change their feelings towards him, obviously, since otherwise Quinn wouldn't feel comfortable calling him a monster. So it's predominantly action based?" Greg paused, before nodding again. "I think we can work with that."

"So I can get subordinates?" Chris asked, sounding slightly hopeful.

Greg frowned. "Well… it still looks evil, so no giant armies, but I don't see why you can't have a few. At least until we get your ability situation figured out."

"Oh, that reminds me." Chris turned to Thomas. "I think I figured out what your system did. When I connected Quinn to my world, she didn't feel any pressure, she got a system prompt. It's like you made the system a part of-" Chris paused. "Oh, I get it now. Major structure. I decide what's possible, and since there are no abilities in my structure, no abilities are possible. Unless they're described by the minor structure…" Chris frowned. "I'm still missing something."

"We'll figure it out, man." Greg assured him, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "It isn't like we don't have the time."

Chris nodded. "I need to spend some more time studying the changes the system made to my world."

Andrew sighed. "I still need to hit level twenty-five and figure out this Essence Master Class."

"We should probably work on leveling as well." Thomas added, gesturing to Greg as well. "I need to study more of these traits."

"I- need to edit my next video." Quinn muttered, shaking her head. It felt wrong somehow, just getting back to work after learning so much. She shot a frown at Andrew. Just what had she gotten herself into when she took in this Uplift?