“Well, putting that bit aside… let’s see what Adler has to say, shall we?”

“... Yeah. That Eye is gone to the systems knows where. For now, they are the only information-oriented Heart Mirror user we know, if that bickering is to go by,” Valerie said. “That being said, I think we should ask both if we have the chance to.”

“Right, let’s do what we can for now,” Claire nodded, then, with the other two following behind her, she approached Adler’s silhouette. Their body language suggested that Eye’s remarks hit close to where it hurts.

“Hey, uh, Adler, right?”

Adler stayed silent; however, they were focused on another silhouette next to them. It seems they were in the middle of a conversation.

“You three are…?” The figure with the dignified aura asked.

“Ah right, call me Hunter, these two are my teammates. Sorry, I just saw what happened earlier, and yeah, we need information. If that Eye was correct, Adler is one of the information specialists here. You can call me Hunter, and these two behind me are Pestilence and Barnett,” Claire explained. “We just want to know what information we have on the spires mentioned in the mission.”

“All of you seem sincere,” the figure replied. “I guess there’s no harm done. Well then…”

The distortion surrounding them started to part, revealing a tall, elegant woman. Her black hair reached down to her lower back, and by its appearance, it was well taken care of. Her blue eyes almost shine with life, her gaze intense, with strength to pin those against her if she deigned to do so. Next to her, there was a red-haired woman, the true owner of the name “Baskerville” – The upper half of her face was hidden by a canine skull, but her golden-slitted eyes shone through the skull’s eye holes with the intensity of a capricious ruler. Finery adorns her red hair, her dark purple dress reaching down her feet, contrasting the macabre accessory hiding half of her visage.

“You can call me Baskerville of team 4E, the sole team with four members, as you have heard.”

Baskerville then turned to look at the other three, “Hey, you three, we have work, especially you, Adler,” she added the last part with a bemused voice. “Come on, it’s time to be serious.”

“Ah! I, yeah, sorry, Miss Baskerville,” the short one known as Adler replied. “I was just discussing something,”

“Fair enough – hey, you two! This includes you both, you know,” Baskerville said, looking at the direction where two people were leaning against the wall, their body language suggesting that they would rather be anywhere else.

“I’d rather go alone for now. You two can go and discuss it among yourselves,” a tired voice replied, their form fading out before anyone else could get a word in edgewise.

“Same here, I have better things to do,” another voice added. Distorted as their voice may be, there was a tinge of haughtiness that stood out.

“Desolation, I swear to the systems, can you put down your feud with that Verdant for a second? I don’t know your history with them, but at least, don’t pull us all into that mess,” Baskerville sighed. “Don’t you think this whole matter with the Primeras is a bigger fish to fry?”

“Heh, be that as it may, I have my own priorities. If you want to play pretend heroes, go ahead, I’m not stopping you. It looks fun, but alas! If only I don’t have anything better to do!”

Without waiting for a reply, Desolation sauntered off, followed by the silhouette of their Mirror Avatar. From what they could see of their body language, the Mirror Avatar agreed with the idea of pursuing this Verdant at the very least.

“That useless Desolation…” Adler muttered, “Eh, fine, no point in getting mad about it. As you’ve heard, I’m Adler,” as they spoke, the darkness surrounding them parted, revealing a young girl with stark white hair and red eyes. Next to her, her Mirror Avatar was floating, observing, her purple eyes and red hair, along with her neatly pressed elegant lavender dress made her seem like a quick-witted aristocratic lady that walked out straight from one of those virtual entertainment stories, usually featuring a person going back in time to fix the wrongs of the world.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

In response to Izabel’s stare, the Mirror Avatar looked away.

“Okay, back to the matter at hand…” Adler said.

“Wait,” Izabel asked, how did you two reveal your form without, you know, divulging your real name?

Baskerville and Adler went silent at the same time, their stares incredulous.

“You three revealed your real name? Seriously? Did you all realize that we’re given fake names, to encompass both Mirror Avatar and us, so we don’t get tracked? What if we have a snitch here?” Adler started first. “This is only the first day!”

“Calm down, Adler,” Baskerville chided. “You’re making assumptions again. There should be some level of trust between people of the same goal, at least, when that goal is involved. Anyway, you should really have asked your Mirror Avatar for that. They are the ones most familiar with the Heart Mirror.”

“Hunter?” Izabel asked in her mind. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I see no harm in telling a name to teammates, but Baskerville is right, the essential thing you need to do to dispel the illusion is think about unveiling yourself for the system to register it and allow the targets to see your appearance. It does work under the same principle as revealing your real name, as the intention, to the system, registers in a similar manner,” Hunter explained. “As a reminder, you five are perfectly visible to each other right now.”

Izabel glanced at Pestilence and Barnett. She has no idea what the other two said to their partners, but one thing was clear, Pestilence was still as relaxed as usual, while Barnett only smiled, causing her host to regard the witch with barely concealed exasperation.

That was certainly useful to learn, but they were here for something else.

“Alright, uh, where were we?” Izabel coughed a little, a signal for the other two.

“Yes, about the spires. One thing is clear, the spire of area E isn’t located somewhere open in public,” Adler explained. “Yes, I get it, that sounds as if I’m talking out of the waste disposal, but… Hey, Adler? Can I?”

In response to the question, the aristocratic-looking girl nodded.

“Alright, let me just tweak the numbers, and… Back to the matter at hand, look at the areas A, B, C, D, and E with your Mirror device maps. Each area has something I’ll refer to as a prominent point, with area A’s being the Tower of Human Distraction. It’s off-limits to everyone except the Primeras, but according to the system, that place is where the Primeras research new ways to improve Happiness coefficients based of historical and current trends in entertainment. As it stands, this is the most prominent structure here.”

“Right, it stands out, considering the color, the tools linked to it, and the fact that it’s a spot where the Primeras tend to hang out” Valerie nodded, “Some people get rather hyped whenever one of them are seen around.”

“Next, area B, there’s a few conspicuous places here, considering that area is close to the Primera-exclusive transportation facilities, but the Energy Transference Center stands out among all those. From this point on, I believe you can conclude the rest, so we’ll skip to E. Area E, from the map, is clearly some sort of mix between work and residence area. Unlike the others, there is no prominent facility or a particular place where Primeras gather with no special occasions. If it weren’t for Baskerville’s information, we won’t know this, but…”

“… The shattered skies incident’s first hole and crack occured in Area E,” Baskerville finished. “I saw it happen while I was heading out

“Shattered skies? Apt name, is that what we’re calling the whole black things’ invasion now?” Pestilence piped up.

“Sure, for convenience’s sake,” Baskerville replied. “For now, we are moving under the assumption that only those who have the Heart Mirror remembers it.”

“Makes sense, memory manipulation is one of the Primeras’ favored tactics,” Hunter said. “They can erase memory thoroughly enough that trauma is a negligible consequence. There’s almost nothing they can’t fix with all that technology.”

“Whatever the name is, if everyone gets it, that’s enough. My proposal is, we find out more about the crack. They may be able to hide traces of the incident and remove most people’s memories of it, but I heard some talks about the Primeras coming here more frequently, so that supports the theory at least…”

Adler’s voice trailed off into a low whisper; her eyes focused on her Mirror Avatar.

“… I get it, but I don’t think they’ll like how that sounds like.” “… What in the- Whatever, I’m not getting labeled a lunatic for you. We’ll discuss this later.”

Adler turned back to look at Izabel and the others. “Sorry about that, anyway, our first step should be gathering information. We’ll have a perfect opportunity for this.”

“The Coronam Vitae system upgrade announcement, coming in ten system day cycles,” Baskerville finished.

“Wasn’t that thing announced quite a while ago?” Barnett, who was silent the whole time, finally spoke up. “Always from the same Primeras, happens whenever the system gets new features that you’d get a tutorial for anyway, and for that, the Primeras would usually send a broadcast to all the habitation units. Good background noise if you want to sleep.”

“Pfft, try saying that in the hearing range of the system, I want to know their reaction,” Pestilence snickered.

“They’re meant to be non-mandatory, actually, the way there is no one specific mandated entertainment, even with all the micromanagement,” Izabel reminded. “I never watched any, not my thing, and the system will just tell me with a tutorial about it the day after anyway.”

“Yeah, about that, here’s where I need you three to trust me,” Adler admitted.

The shorter girl walked to the front of the others. With each step she took, her aura was shifting, changing with the clicks on her slender fingers on the Heart Mirror’s device strapped to her wrist. Purple enveloped the tips of her white hair, her gaze now sharper, as a light lavender color bled into her right eye, covering the original vivid red color. With the changes, the Mirror Avatar that floated next to her has faded, putting the focus all on the little girl, whose voice exudes an otherworldly authority, filled with power even though her smaller stature suggested otherwise.

“We believe that soon, one of the Primeras will arrive in the area.”