Chapter 024 – A Lie

In track #10 where Alice training was taking place, there was not anyone else but she and Karla.

[Karla]: “I will ask again, why don’t you tell me what it is inside that head of yours that is bothering so much?”

[Alice]: “…”

Alice could only turn her head away; even so, Karla would not let it go.

[Karla]: “Well, you didn’t need to tell, I can guess on my own, you know?”

Karla crouched down in front of Alice and looked her into the eyes.

[Alice]: “Senior… there is…”

Before Alice could say anything else, Karla interrupted her.

[Karla]: “It is because you think your growth speed is too slow?”

Alice body trembled.

[Karla]: “Oh so it really was that then”

Instead of answering, Alice just nodded with her head.

Even though Karla could read a person expression like a book, she still needs information about the target for making a precise guess, however, it was still a guess.

[Karla]: “You are worrying over nothing”

[Alice]: “…”

Alice could only look to the ground, even though she already knew that she could not help but worry, about her own growth speed.

[Karla]: “Would I help you, if I tell you that the newbie is cheating?”

[Alice]: “Huh?”

Alice could only put a confused face as she turned her gaze to look at Karla.

[Karla]: “Actually it is not just him, you are quite the cheater yourself, you know?”

That only made Alice feel even more confused,

[Alice]: “Senior that’s…”

However, before Alice could continue, Karla interrupted her again.

[Karla]: “Not true?”

Karla could only let a sigh escaped from her mouth; this is why she hated being a babysitter.

[Karla]: “Sigh, instead of comparing yourself against a cheater, why don’t you compare yourself against me”

[Alice]: “But Senior stats are…”

[Karla]: “Much higher than yours? Yes they indeed are, however, most of my points came from [Midas] Quests rewards by doing a repetitive Quest, and even when my highest initial stat was bordering 20’s points, I didn’t start to grow my stats until the last day of my second week, you know?”

Karla could only try to explain the difference between her and Alice growth, if she compared Alice against her own progress then without any doubt, Alice will let her on the dust in the near future.

Alice could only think of something else different, why Karla was saying she got her points from doing a repetitive Quest, while they were training in the track to grow their stats that way.

[Alice]: “Then why are we…”

[Karla]: “Training, when instead, you could be doing a Quest to increase your stats that way?”

Alice nodded.

[Karla]: “That’s because you two little cheaters don’t need to do Quests yet to increase your stats at all”

Karla could only let out another sigh, maybe of frustration, or relief.

[Karla]: “I can only think that my own growth potential is already capped, however, your stats are still growing each day are they not?”

[Alice]: “Yes they are but…”

[Kara]: “It doesn’t matter if it is slow; the important part is if they will stop growing before reaching to the very top of the Tier or not”

Alice thought for a moment before asking.

[Alice]: “Senior, you think I can reach to the top like this, with my own potential, even if is slow?”

Karla could only shake her head as if saying “no”, making Alice feel depressed.

[Karla]: “Alice, not everyone growth potential is the same, nor all Players would grow at the same rate or speed, and not everyone will be able to get the top, however, I have the belief that you will be able to go beyond us, even beyond than Boss”

[Alice]: “Senior I…”

[Karla]: “I know that you will reach to the very end, however, laying down in the ground like this, you wouldn’t be able to even take the very first step”

Alice expression stiffened with Karla encouraging words, “Senior is right” There was no way that lay down in the floor like that she would be able to keep going, Alice thought to herself.

In the end, Alice stood on her feet again and dusted off her clothes.

[Karla]: “Oh ready to give it a go again?”

Alice nodded and went back to her training.

Karla could see that this time, Alice's eyes shined with life once more, she thought for a second that maybe being a babysitter was not so bad.

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Cyan and Alice returned to the [Food Area] and dropped into a pair of chairs, in the other hand, Karga and Karla were quite happy with today’s training and the progress of the kids, as showed by their expressions, or maybe it was because they were able to skip today’s training in Floor 8 with Boss.

Whatever it was, because they were in a good mood they ordered food for Cyan and Alice, however, two more people had shown up to the table at that time, one was Boss but the other man was an unknown person for the twins.

[Boss]: “…”

[Unknown]: “Hello, mind if I join you?”

Karla and Karga did not say anything and offered a chair for the man to sit down; after all, this person had arrived with Boss.

[Unknown]: “Let me introduce myself, I am Cale, I belong to the third unit of the GP, I arrived here on Monday, and I have been training on the Floor 6 [Gym Area] since I arrived, I met with Boss when I went to investigate the Floor 8”

Karla nodded, each Monday new Players will arrive at the Tower in the [Lobby Area], however, they all not arrived at the same time, and wasting a day waiting for people to show up was not a good option for them, not to mention the probability of arriving at the same Tower was low.

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[Karla]: “Is there anyone else from your unit?”

[Cale]: “It is only me”

[Karla]: “I understand do you mind if we check your identity first?”

Karla took out her phone, her phone has a fingerprint scanner capable of scanning very accurately and together with a GP database, she could confirm a person identity all around the world.

After unlocking her phone, Karla presents it before Cale.

[Karla]: “Put your fingers through here”

Cale put each of his fingers throughout the fingerprint scanner, and answered a few key code questions, after that, Karla has confirmed that this person was indeed an agent for the GP.

Even though they worked in the very same place that did not mean everyone knew each other, even more so, if they worked in different areas around the GP center building or in the field.

[Karla]: “Boss the data matches, there is no problem”

Boss nodded

[Boss]: “Continue”

[Cale]: “Wait, before that, these two civilians here are?”

The hidden meaning from Cale question was that these two kids should not be here.

[Karla]: “These two are Players recruits for our unit, Alice, and Cyan, we have been working with them since they arrived at the Tower”

This was something Karla wanted for Alice and Cyan to hear, the meaning being, recruiting them as Players for their unit.

[Cale]: “Then I guess it is ok, with your unit reputation I will not have any issue, let me introduce myself again”

Unlike Karla that had to verify Cale identity, Cale did not has to, after all, unit one was the most famous unit of the GP, which the GP direction commanded himself, they have a 0% casualty rate, and a 99% success rate on their missions. Everyone knew them inside the GP, however, they only knew about Boss and his unit achievements, more than the composition of its members.

[Cale]: “I am Cale leader of the third unit, because special reasons our unit deployment was delayed, I have lost contact with my entire unit and with the GP director, and like I have said I found the leader of the first unit while exploring the Floor 8 Arena”

[Karla]: “I am Karla second in command of the first unit, form the intelligence department”

[Karga]: “I am Karga third in command of the first unit, explosives department”

[Karla]: “I guess Boss doesn’t need any introduction, as for these two, this one is Alice, and this one is Cyan code name newbie, they are our new unit recruits”

Cyan wanted to retort back but he was too tired from today's training to saying anything.

[Karla]: “Anyway, can you tell us what it is the status in the outside?”

Cale nodded.

[Cale]: “… in one word… hell”

The atmosphere in the table turned heavy.

[Boss]: “…”

[Karla]: “Boss says to please explain in more detail”

[Cale]: “The monsters that started showing one by one at the beginning stopped appearing all of the sudden, but then, they have come back in the hundreds, and then in the thousands, I was ordered by the GP director to help to evacuate as many people as possible of the GP center that was under attack by the monsters”

[Karla]: “That’s why your unit deployment was delayed, because of the evacuation order?”

Cale nodded and let out a sigh.

[Cale]: “In the end, while evacuating the GP center, our group was attacked by a group of ten monsters, after getting badly hurt, I managed to reach out for my phone and [accept], then I was transported here, my injuries also had faded away, I would have died otherwise”

Cale could only shake his head as a sign of regret, because in a way he has abandoned his unit to save himself, however, the GP director orders were to [accept] if they were about to die, and being a monster dinner plate was not in Cale’s top ten ways of dying.

Karla in the other hand could read Cale thoughts, and feelings, by reading his expressions, and gestures, in her opinion he was saying the truth, of course, as a leader unit he would feel horrible for his actions. Even so, having the wits to [accept] when you are about to die only showed that Cale has the will to keep on living.

[Cale]: “I don’t know how many of my unit could make it after I gave the order to withdraw over the radio”

Karla turned her head to look at Boss and nodded, indicating that Cale was probably and most likely saying the truth here.

[Karla]: “Can you tell us where your group was heading to?”

Cale nodded.

[Cale]: “Yes, it was in the evacuation order, major cities all around the world have already fallen into the hands of the monsters after the army defensive line was breached, however, an all-out evacuation to seven core cities that had not fallen because were like fortress and a map in how to reach them was given”

Cale then took out a map from his pocket, and showed to Karla, together with the mission briefing.

Karla in the other hand started to take pictures of the map with her phone, to put it together later on in her navigation app, as for the mission briefing, there was a list of the name of the seven fortress cities.

Cale paused for a moment as he recounted the incidents of that day.

[Boss]: “…”

[Karla]: “Please continue”

[Cale]: “The thing is, we don’t know from where the monsters invasion was coming from, they all appeared around the world without a pattern, there wasn’t an effective defense we could put out”

[Karla]: “…”

[Karga]: “…”

[Boss]: “…”

Karla thought for a moment as she turned to look at Alice, she was also a third gen Player, “but then why”… something felt off for Karla, but nobody else around the table seems to have noticed it. Is only had been three weeks and the world was already in a total mess, however, Karla could only brush off the incongruity feeling she was having right now but she could not say what it was.

[Boss]: “…”

Karla nodded, as she understood Boss order.

[Karla]: “Our status it is as follows…”

Karla then started to explain to Cale almost everything they knew about the [Training Tower] leaving behind a few key info that they could not share so easily with everyone even with another GP member.

[Cale]: “So it was like that, this an installation designed to fight against those monsters, however, how could a human fight against those monsters bare handed, they are too fast, and our weapons are so useless”

Even when Cale had been training inside the Tower for 5 days already, he could not believe a human could actually fight and win barehanded against those monsters. The twins in the other hand could only smile bitterly to Cale’s comment as they looked at Boss.

Cyan took the chance to check on Alice status while the twins were explaining to Cale the things he may not know about the Tower.

[Cyan]: “How are you feeling?”

[Alice]: “I am ok, and I know my parents are also ok, you don’t have to worry about it”

Alice that had been quietly listening to Cale history was obviously worried sick, however, Cyan couldn’t say anything more about the subject, as an orphan, he didn’t have a family or friends to worry about, even so, looking Alice like that, Cyan could only a feel an empty void inside him.

[Cyan]: “Right, there something I wanted to give you”

Cyan then took out a [Basic Grow Potion] from his inventory; he had spent the 10.000 Credits from his Quest reward and bought another one for Alice.

[Alice]: “this is?”

[Cyan]: “It is a grow potion, it would help you to grow your stats faster”

[Alice]: “How much did it cost you?”

[Cyan]: “You don’t have to pay me back”

Alice could only shake her head, in the past, she could have received items for free in a game, but this is not a game where she could still do that.

[Alice]: “How much”

Cyan could let out a sigh and answer.

[Cyan]: “5.000 Credits”

However

[Alice]: “Lier”

Cyan could only give up trying.

[Cyan]: “10.000 Credits”

Alice took out her phone and opened her [Inventory]

[Inventory]

* Credits: 8.650

[Items]

* Ticket for any Floor x10

* Ticket for Floor 5 to 7 x19

* Energy Drink x20

* Energy Food x20

[Equipment]

* School Uniform

She could bite her own lips, as she did not have enough Credits to pay it back as she had been expending her Credits in Food and [Energy] items, not to mention, she did not have a steady income of Credits yet as Cyan, and just running around the track could give her 2000 Credits per day. Moreover, even though it was a nice gesture from Cyan, she could not take it for free, there was not a guaranteed that her stats would keep growing, meaning, there was a real possibility of just wasting 10.000 Credits, in the end, she has to refuse it.

However, Karla that was right beside her took notice of the potion in Alice’s hands.

[Karla]: “Ah what it is this? Are you asking her to be your girlfriend with a gift?”

[Cyan]: “Senior, it is nothing like that”

[Karla]: “Oh but this is a very expensive [Item] even though it is the Basic one, you should drink it right away Alice”

Before Alice could say anything, Karla took the potion and empty out the contents of the bottle in her throat, thanks to Karla’s superior stats, Alice could not resist at all, Karla then turned her head around and give a wink to Cyan and released Alice from her grasp.

Alice coughed a few times before being able to talk again.

[Alice]: “Cyan… I definitely pay it back tomorrow”

After that, Alice left the table without saying anything else.

[Cyan]: “Senior you…”

[Karla]: “No need for thanking me, newbie, now, why don’t you go after your girlfriend, are you leaving her alone at this moment?”

Cyan could only stand up and go after Alice, not because Karla had told him to do so, but because Alice had been acting all weird lately.

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Back in the table after Cyan had left.

[Karla]: “I am sorry, but I have something to do, please continue without me”

Everyone left in the table nodded and Karla left the area.