Zane, the black hat wearing soldier, looked at me and then turned to Bell, who in turn stared back at him with cold eyes. His smile widened in response to her silent threats, or so I perceived her frowning silence. A subtle signal for him to keep his mouth shut.

I kept a friendly smile on my face while acting oblivious to their quiet interaction. Which is ample enough to confirm my intuition; I am the one kept in the dark.

Not that unexpected, frankly. From her perspective, I am just a country bumpkin, a kid with no experience of the world, or its hardship. No matter how smart I acted. And to some extent, it's the truth.

I am new to this world. My knowledge gap is enormous. To the extent that I considered using long-term memory loss as the justification for this blinding shortcoming. But decided against it after a quick calculation using my abilities' hyper-focused state. Since the people I'm dealing with aren't amateurs but trained soldiers. The chances of such a lie deceiving them weren't optimistic.

And now, that I got a relatively yet small gasp of this team' members skills, I am glad I didn't follow such a half-hearted lie. Otherwise, I wouldn't have lasted with such a lie while having this crazily perspective woman always monitoring my every say and deed.

I was, however, prepared for when I fail to one of her tests. Fortunately, though, she attributed my lack of knowledge to the isolation of the village and the people surrounding it.

Regardless, the fact is; I am well aware of my shortcoming, while she is not.

... and it wasn't luck.

I tried to divert her attention away from it using the few options available to me. One of these is playing the uninterested. And since I am not confident in my acting skills, I had to be genuinely uninterested in anything they said or did. And how would you do that? Well, by not thinking about it, of course. Anything unusual I see or heard, I try to drive it to the back of my mind, and not think about it at the moment, at all costs.

But such a plan has two major flaws. The first flaw being it leaves me with a bunch of terms and motives I need to learn of, adding further questions to my ever growing list. The second flaw is that it is suspicious, not asking questions about anything. After all, there is knowledge someone from another world doesn't know while there is knowledge a guy from a secluded village doesn't know.

While the lack of knowledge of someone not from this world is vast. A secluded villager's knowledge isn't much either, or at least shouldn't, from their perspective. In simple words, I, Victor a kid from a secluded village in this world lack some type of knowledge.

...military drugs are one such knowledge.

And Bell knows this. And want to take advantage of it.

Now the issue lies on Zane, and which side he will choose. Any sane man will be on his teammate's side than someone they meet for less than a day. Yet the military cowboy doesn't strike me as a sane person. In fact, I don't believe he sees any difference, sure sometimes he acts as if he had a crush on Bell but it is just a way to irritate her.

So, to be more specific, the question isn't which reasonable side Zane will choose, but which of Bell and me will be more enjoyable for him to irritate.

Then again these are just unfounded suppositions made after less than a day of observation, I would be unwise to put all my eggs in it.

"Right! Coffee, I recall friend Vic was interested in it, right?" Zane suddenly turned back to me, his smile the same creepy one; not the smile per se but the fact he is always smiling as if he doesn't have any other expression is quite spooky.

"Are you sure you could afford to waste your time here," Bell said before I could open my mouth, she looked at Zane and then at the room where the others are, "Captain will need your help. Right now."

Zane turned his head back at the room before turning back "He will probably need your help too, Ms Mira."

"Oh, but I am helping," Bell shrugged "did you forget? He ordered me to take care of this kid."

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"Yes of course, then I will help the captain," He trailed "by helping you take care of friend Vic."

"Your help is not needed."

"It alright, isn't Bell?" a smile still on my face as I decide to end their directionless conversation "the others don't seem to be doing anything warranting help, and It is not a bad idea to take a break from time to time, right friend Zane."

I said, and since he didn't remove the 'friend' word every time he addressed me I decided to mirror his ways.

"As expected, only a friend understands one's hardships," While he seems to be lamenting, Bell shot me an annoyed glare... which I find admittedly with a great reluctance to be enjoyable.

...I may have started to understand why Zane likes to irritate people.

"Friend Bell here offered her help for getting me one Coffee," the annoyance in Bell's eyes intensified causing my smile to equally grow, "Unfortunately I didn't have anything to thank her with."

"I see," Zane nodded, reaching out to his backpack and pulling out a black cylindrical object, and handing it to me. The black cylindrical object had the height of a pen and the width of a candle.

Raising my eyebrow and looking at him in confusion. Not that I don't understand what he handed to me, it is clear this is the drug we are talking about. But what I don't understand, though, is what he wants in exchange. The first favor with Bell may be acceptable but a second one with the same price is not.

Owing something to anyone is irksome, and I would rather eat with my hand than owing a spoon to someone. Well, that is a bit of an exaggeration but it is not wrong. Favors are inconvenient; I only enjoy them when it's others owe me.

Getting two of the same drugs for the same price when I don't even know if the said drug has any beneficial effect on my ability is foolish, wasteful, and unjustified.

"Isn't it only right for friends to help each other." Zane said at my inquiring gazes, dissipating my suspicions. The angelic smile on his face blinded my eyes, his beautiful soul illuminating my darker ones.

I am sure of it. He is giving it to me for free.

He doesn't want anything.

I understand that by his expression and gesture. People always insinuate that something is not free the moment they offer you a 'favor'. I worked with that type of people, I was one of those people. That is why I am confident, while I will not guarantee the purity of his intentions, he isn't asking for anything in return.

... he isn't asking for anything in return.

Something is not right.

Somehow that feels sourer than owing something.

"Friend Vic must have misunderstood something."

"Did I?"

"Yes, but it is understandable," Zane nodded, he looked back at the room, where Eric is standing beside the Captain "the officer was a bit jesty in his words early, and..." he trailed off as he looked back at Bell "some people forget to clear the misunderstanding."

I heard a snort coming from Bell.

"What misunderstanding we are talking about?" I asked. He chooses my side, he indeed is a friend after all. I almost felt a shred of guilty for doubting our friendship, we may have not known each other for long but this creepy bastard is a good creepy bastard.

"You see when Officer Kelliv said we have three TS3 is not false, but not right either. At the base, almost everyone is entitled to three supplies of TS3 monthly."

I see.

It is not as precious as they made it seems.

As I tried to understand more Zane continued "but not really convenient to use in most situations, and the side effect is not nonexistent either, so most wh-"

"What are they?" I interrupted him when I felt he wasn't going to elaborate on the most important issue "the side effects I mean."

"The same as your everyday coffee really, giving it that name isn't a coincidence. While it gives you a great deal of energy when the effect is gone from your system fatigue will hit, and believe me it hit really hard."

Not different from my gift's toll. The question, though, will both the side effects of the stimulant and my superpower sum up into a more negative impact?

I looked at the cylinder-shaped object in my hand; it is a transparent glass tube with a screw cap that reveals the liquid inside, which is also transparent but denser than water. I want to consume it right now, to find out, but I hold myself, this is not the time nor the place for doing so.

Zane goes on to explain more about the drug, giving some important information on how they use it, or where. He also talked about some of his experiences. And without a doubt, not all of it was relevant or even remotely necessary. But I let him talk since beggars can't be choosers, and any type of information to me right now is important. Even bullshit.

"Shut your trap, you are making my ears bleed." However, Bell didn't have the same concerns as I do and interrupted him once he started talking about his more intimate experiences in bed.

And I somewhat agree with her, not that I am not interested in its usage or even bed activities. But first I am not interested in other bed practices, and two using this type of drug for bed reasons seems impractical and to a lesser extent pathetic. But hey, who am I to judge anyone?

"Alright team, let's start moving."

Just as Zane opened his mouth to give some of his insights to Bell. The team leader got out of the room after presumably analyzing the notebook found and storing it in his backpack.

"We will give it a last tour," He said, using his finger to make a rotation movement "then investigate the other side."

Exchanging a look, Zane shrugged before moving into position. While Bell snorted once more but didn't look me in the eyes as she usually does.

And with that, we got into formation again and checked the room. This time though we did it using just the door's small window. It took us approximately ten minutes to go through the remaining rooms, but we found nothing.

So we traced our steps back and went to explore the other side.