Travis stared at the insane man, doubting his own perception despite his crystal-clear hearing.

They’d been doing so well. The outsider had been so polite and cooperative. He hadn’t even complained about the testing.

Even Travis found that uncomfortable; it reeked too much of the old abuses by those more powerful. Still, you only needed one rampant death curse or rampaging dragon to understand why it was necessary.

He’d let himself believe he had an easy one for his first case, only for the heavens to throw his complacency in his face; as they so often did. Once his disk had docked with the support ship, he’d taken a few minutes to review the stored case files for the worst options.

Outsiders who thought they were the focus of ancient prophecies or chosen by deities. Even those monsters who claimed they were ‘just in it for the LOLs’ as they ran around, ruining everything in sight.

Not one of them had prepared him for a mere mortal to say, with all apparent seriousness, that he planned to surmount all under heaven.

“I hope you understand that’s a very… ambitious goal,” he said, keeping his tone even.

“Oh, totally,” the man responded. Like all outsiders, his mouth moved wrong, jarring the mind as it tried to focus on his words. “But if you aim for the stars, you might make it, and if not, you can always hit the moon.”

This was far from his first experience with strange outsider sayings, his time shadowing Susan had been full of them. Instead of musing on the origins — a sure trap — he focused on deconstructing the meaning.

“You’re saying that aiming for an unlikely goal will push your results higher even if you fail?” He asked, nodding his approval at the idea. Delusional, the man might be, but you couldn’t argue with his work ethic.

“That’s the gist of it, yeah. I understand that the better you get at cultivation, the longer your lifespan is, so aiming as high as possible just makes sense. Also, you’re never going to make it unless you try.”

There was a pause as the outsider hesitated, before rushing on, the words tumbling over each other, “It is possible though, right? Immortality I mean.”

Travis scratched at his chin, trying to find the words to explain without pushing the man into desperation. “The short answer is yes, it’s possible. The longer answer is it's rare, maybe one or two a year in all the mid-western countries we get data from.”

Perhaps he’d been too worried. Far from discouraging the madman in front of him, the explanation brought a bright smile to his face. “Sweet, a chance is all I need.”

Almost opening his mouth to argue, to explain that those were a couple of people out of over three hundred million, Travis instead shook his head and moved on. It wasn’t his business to give the man good life advice.

Well, it was his business, but not until after the outsider had signed the agreement. A little duplicitous perhaps, but they’d be here all day if they didn’t get started. The OIM’s budget wasn’t unlimited, he had to wrap this up so they could send the response and support teams back.

“What I can I can say is that plenty of outsiders end up in various sects. They tend not to take complete beginners, but once we’ve finished the initial agreement, I can get you started. And once you’ve met the minimum requirements, we can help you find a sect.”

“Does that sound acceptable?” He asked. It had better be, he was running out of things to offer.

“Awesome,” the outsider said, giving an eager nod. “Then I guess all I need is the specifics before I can agree. You know, the interest rate on this loan and all the things I’m not supposed to say. A rundown of the major laws I’m supposed to follow would also be great.”

Travis gritted his teeth but forced himself to smile in response. Why did the man have to be so deluded in one aspect, while savvy as hell in another? So many outsiders signed without listening to the details, let alone negotiating them.

“Of course,” he said, flipping two-thirds of the way through his stacked form. “I’ll take you through them, but at least give me your name first.”

The outsider blinked, then gave a little shake of his head. “I never introduced myself, did I? Sorry about that. I’m Kevin, what’s your name?”

“Travis,” he said, reacting to the social cue before he could think better of it. Smart again, he would need to watch this one.

“Cool,” Kevin said, grinning at him. “Can I call you Travis, then?

“No,” Travis responded, keeping his tone flat. “I’m a government agent and a higher-realm cultivator.” Susan had always advised him not to grow too familiar with their charges.

Kevin held his hands up, “Agent Travis, it is then. Now, about those agreements?”

----------------------------------------

“So we’re agreed then?” Travis asked, resisting the urge to snap at the other man. Taking a deep breath, he rattled off the list they’d finally settled on.

“There will be a nine percent interest rate on any money we loan you, and the courts will show leniency for any accidental, minor crimes in the next. In exchange, you will agree to the full list of banned talking points.”

The gag order was the key issue, and he’d had to reduce the interest more than usual to convince Kevin. The court leniency was more for his sake than anything, as it had become clear Kevin would make him go through every law that existed otherwise.

“Still a little higher on the interest than I’d have liked,” Kevin shrugged, “But I guess it makes sense for a personal loan; they were murder on your finances back home as well. So yes, I agree.”

Travis brought his hands up to massage his temples. “At last,” he sighed. “Though you can’t keep talking about ‘back home’ like that. Do you remember the list?”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Politics, ideology, philosophy, technology, history, and just about everything else you could think of.” Kevin ticked each item off on his fingers as he spoke, throwing his hands up when he finished.

“Though I still don’t see the problem. Aren’t you guys interested in learning anything you can?”

“The point,” Travis said, “is that we don’t need you running around getting everyone worked up about things we can’t even verify. You would not believe the bizarre cults or philosophical movements that have shown up and half the time the outsider was lying or wrong.”

Shaking his head at the arrogance every outsider seemed to come with, he continued. “You’re just not that important in the grand scheme of things. You aren’t the first outsider we’ve had, nor the thousandth. If we add the data we get from allied countries, it goes even higher.”

“If we went around digging through all of your back stories looking for useful data, we’d never finish. Beyond that, consider the differences between worlds; whatever advancement or technology was so great back in your world has little chance of working here.”

Kevin held his hands up, waving them in surrender. “Got it, got it. I can see how that might become overwhelming. Back home wouldn’t have liked it… sorry I did it again. I’ll get better at that.”

“Thank you for noticing,” Travis made sure to smile at the man. Some progress at last, “now if we can just finish the agreement,” he tapped the form, “the binding contract will warn you if you’re about to make a mistake.”

“So let’s get back to filling out the details,” Travis continued, pushing onward before anything else could come up. Returning to the first page, he gave it a brief scan.

“I’ve got a lot of this information already,” he said as he wrote all the little pieces he’d extracted during the negotiation. For ‘Incursion Reason’ he decided on ‘Advanced cultivation training’ so his boss wouldn’t have a fit reading it.

“I just need your name, age, and who it was that sent you here,” Travis continued, glossing over one of the most important questions as if it were unimportant.

Kevin nodded, “Right. It’s Kevin Matthew Blake, and I’m 34 years old.”

His pen scratched across the page as Travis noted the information, raising an eye at the man’s age. He would have placed the man at perhaps twenty-eight or twenty-nine, such a gap was odd given he lacked any hint of advancement.

Perhaps that explained the temporal manipulation.

“And the guy who sent me here told me to call him Max,” Kevin finished.

Travis froze, a chill going down his spine. That wasn't a name he recognized; sweet heavens, he hoped his first case didn’t involve an unknown threat.

“I see,” he said, trying to keep the shock off his face. “It’s good you got a name, some outsiders don’t even have that much information.” Removing the last twenty pages, he continued, “Please look through these and pick the ‘guy’ out.”

“Got it,” Kevin responded, sounding far too blase about the situation as he flicked through the pages. Nineteen of the worst interdimensional menaces they were tracking, and one blank page in the event Travis had to note down something new.

Kevin rushed through the pages, only raising his eyebrows at a few more gruesome specimens. Travis’ tension grew with every discarded photo. If this Max wasn’t in there, the case was going to get complicated.

“Yep, that’s the guy. No mistaking it,” Kevin said, waving a picture. “You’ve even got a good view of that extra-dimensional mist fort thingy of his.

Holding back his relief, Travis reached out and intercepted the page out of mid-air. “This is the… man who sent you?” he said, his tone flat as he looked it over.

“Yep,” Kevin nodded, leaning back in his chair as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

Did he even know what deal he’d made? Travis licked his lips, trying to piece together a response as he stared at the picture.

It was of a pale, human-looking man, standing at the front gates of a looming castle of twisting clouds. Like all the major threats, Travis had memorized his name and the deal he offered.

Maxaeon, lord of the fell mists, archduke of the seventh layer of hell on some blighted world halfway across the universe. And the outsider called him Max, of all things; just how insane was this man?

“You’re… aware of the cost he asks for?” The words came out weak as Travis tried to understand how anyone could make such a deal. It was even worse that Kevin wasn’t the first; how did the demon keep snaring people?

“Oh, that,” Kevin said, a cloud crossing his face.

The man hadn’t looked so worried since he’d woken from the cleansing ritual; perhaps he had some sense.

Then the cloud passed, that annoying look of optimism returning. “The whole eating my soul when I die thing? Yeah, he was totally upfront about that, talked me through the entire process.”

“Nasty business, but then I was going to be dead in the next few days, anyway. At least this way I get a lot more time. Besides,” Kevin winked, a knowing look in his eyes. “There’s a massive loophole, right? He doesn’t get my soul until I die, so all I need to do is prevent that. Indefinitely.”

Travis’ jaw dropped open, his practiced composure shattering. Was this man’s actual plan based on reaching the peak in a single lifetime? Not just as a goal, but as the basis for risking his entire reincarnation cycle?

How he’d thought Kevin was a savvy negotiator was beyond him; that was a deal no one in their right mind would ever take.

A choice so stupid he didn’t even know how to respond.

----------------------------------------

Kevin had to hold back a chuckle at the shocked look on the fussy agent’s face. It was more than a little heartwarming after the long hour negotiating the terms of his surrender.

Or at least that was how it felt. The list of things these people were worried about him saying was unbelievable. How the rules of a sports game or the details of his childhood could cause an issue was beyond him.

Sure, some of it made sense; he could see why a government wouldn’t want you spreading ideological movements from another world around. Not when, as Travis had brought up, they couldn’t confirm if he was speaking the truth.

That was just asking for someone to set up a cult.

But in the end, they’d come to a deal he was more than happy with. It wasn’t like he cared about the details when cultivation was on the line. He’d have agreed to almost anything for that.

However, he’d learned long ago to never stop pushing when the other party was still willing to give, and this agent seemed rather green. Good at his job but desperate for this case to be a success. Perhaps it was his first?

Besides, it was a nice bit of petty revenge for that business with the testing.

“You can’t seriously think that’s going to work!” Agent Travis snapped, his face twitching as if trying to return to its usual blank smile. “Why bet everything on a one-in-million chance?”

The man didn’t get it, Kevin had even told him he was dying before this started and yet it hadn’t changed a thing. “Look, it’s not that big a deal,” he shrugged, waving a hand in front of his face.

“Max and I talked it through. Yes, it’s going to hurt a lot when it happens, but only for a minute, and then it’ll all be over.” And hadn’t that been an experience; chatting with a demon in his crazy cloud fortress?

It should have been terrifying, but the guy was so personable it had been quite pleasant. The guy would have made a great big bad on a TV show; he had the affably evil part down pat.

“It’s not… that… do you even know how reincarnation works?” Agent Travis sputtered, face turning an odd shade of purple. “Every life working towards the ultimate goal; together, even though they don’t know it.”

“Some falling backward, some making a little progress, some a lot. Life after life in a beautiful chain for as long as it takes. Unless,” the man snorted, “A single life throws it all away on an impossible bet.”

Ah, he was one of those religious types. “Look, no offense to any of those potential future lives, but they didn’t do me any good when I was dying,” Kevin shrugged. “Anyway,” he hurried to continue before the agent got any more worked up, “let’s just agree to disagree here.”

“It’s in the past and we can’t change it, so let’s get through the rest of those pages and sign the contract,” he finished.

Mentioning the agent’s precious form seemed to pull him back from the edge, though Kevin doubted he’d gotten any understanding from the guy. Then again, he didn’t need it.

He wasn’t stupid, he knew the deal with Max was more serious than he was making it out to be. But he still wouldn’t change a thing if he had the chance. Getting more time now, in exchange for a future consequence that might not even happen was a good deal in his books.

Besides, it was great motivation. Who wouldn’t work harder at cultivation when their soul was on the line?