Micah met Rego right at the entrance to the town. However, he could already see the other side after a short walk. Rego wasn’t lying when he said that Vanitapolis wasn’t a place one wanted to end up in after dying. He also wasn’t joking when he said that it was a boring town.
Vanitapolis was so exciting that people fell asleep in the middle of the streets without having to worry about getting stepped on or even run over by one of the carriages that Micah saw standing next to the road. He hadn’t seen any horses or animals that could pull the carriage, but the carriage also lacked a wheel and looked like it was on the verge of collapse. Maybe getting something to draw the carriage around wasn’t that urgent.
“Right. Did you get any information, or did someone tell you anything about Hell when you arrived?”
Micah looked at Rego as he thought about how to answer. His mind flashed to the four-winged eyeball. But that thing hadn’t really told him anything useful.
“No, not really. I kind of just appeared on the ground outside the town. Don’t tell me it’s different for everyone?”
Micah was worried that he would reveal that something was different about himself due to the Hell Restoration Project. But it didn’t look like there was any problem. Rego looked hesitant, but not because he didn’t know what to make of Micah’s answer. It was more like he was hesitating about how to break the bad news.
“I don’t really know how to tell you this, but based on the treatment you get as you enter Hell, you can tell what Hell has in store for you.”
“And…?”
Rego’s words were a little ominous, especially due to the way he said them. Micah knew that his circumstances were probably a little different from other sinners due to his promotion to Project Manager of the Hell Restoration Project. But he was still curious about what Rego was going to say.
“I’m going to keep it short, but ask me if there’s anything you don’t know.”
Rego took a breath before continuing.
“The better the treatment you get after arriving in Hell, the more likely it is for you to get out. And if you get close to no treatment, Hell basically doesn’t think you will ever repent. In other words, you’re trapped to suffer in Hell for eternity.”
“Hmm, that certainly doesn’t sound promising.”
Micah was hoping it was because of the HRP that he didn’t get any treatment. But simply entertaining the notion of being stuck in Hell for eternity caused his skin to crawl.
“About repenting? What happens if you do repent for your sins?”
“Oh, if you actually manage to do it, you get to reincarnate and eventually be reborn on Earth as a completely new being.”
Rego answered Micah’s question with surprising cheer before he looked at Micah again.
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“Well, if you didn’t get any kind of treatment, we’ll probably get to know each other quite well. And I guess you can count your lucky stars for having met me. I might not know as much as some, but I know more than most.”
Rego thumped his chest with a fist as he boasted about his knowledge.
“How reliable.”
Micah smiled and responded, which only made Rego tilt his head back and look even more prideful.
Rego eventually returned to his less boastful attitude.
“First things first, from your attire, I’m guessing that you’re from modern society?”
“That’s right.”
Micah wondered where Rego was going with this, so he indulged and answered his question truthfully.
“Great, that means you know about magic. Not sleight of hand or tricks, I mean fantasy magic.”
“I do?”
“Here in Hell, it's no longer mere fantasy.”
Micah raised an eyebrow in doubt. Rego noticed it and continued his explanation.
“I don’t know how the universe is built and how all of that works. But I can tell you that there is a power source unlike anything on Earth that allows for miracles to happen. According to rumors, it existed on Earth long ago as well.”
Rego spoke with a frantic voice and waited a few moments before continuing to let Micah process his words and to build a little suspense. When it looked like Micah accepted his words, Rego opened his mouth again.
“The power source is what drives Hell and allows the demons to use what we would call magic. This energy source, pol, is also what keeps our existence intact. But that’s not all it does. The inhabitants of Hell can accumulate pol in our bodies. If we die, our pol is what brings us back. And there’s more. If you can get your hands on enough pol, it’s possible you will awaken an innate ability. Something that allows us humans to use magic, just like demons can.”
Rego looked at Micah with nearly frantic eyes. Micah had a hard time keeping up with Rego’s overly excited speech. But he heard enough to realize that the forced awakening of his innate ability mentioned by the eyeball was probably a guarantee that Micah would get his ability. That solved one of his many questions. And Micah wanted to get an answer to another that had just popped up, so he left his thoughts and looked at Rego again.
Rego had seen the light in Micah’s eyes and naturally thought that Micah was excited to hear about the innate abilities. Unfortunately, he was bound to be disappointed.
“Is the power source really called ‘pol’?”
The unexpectedly mundane nature of Micah’s question helped Rego calm down, and he subconsciously patted the front of his jacket to smoothen it out before he answered.
“Yeah. Its name is a little underwhelming compared to its effects. I think it stands for ‘Power Of Life’ or something like that.”
As he answered, Rego rummaged through a pocket until he found a bronze coin. He held up the bronze coin and showed it to Micah. The bronze coin was larger than Rego’s thumb, but not by much, and both sides had an hourglass on them.
“For ease of use, pol is given material form in the shape of coins. There are three kinds, bronze, silver, and gold. Pretty simple, right?”
Micah nodded.
As they began walking again, Rego continued his explanation.
“You get ten bronze coins simply by waking up every day. But you can also get them by performing tasks or enduring punishment of some kind. If you get a hundred and hold onto them without using them, they turn into silver coins. In larger cities, there are ways to use pol that require silver coins, but there’s nothing like that here. Nor are there any ways to get that many bronze coins.”
Rego sighed with a despondent look on his face. But he glanced at Micah as he looked at him.
“You should check your pockets, by the way. You might not have gotten any information, but you should at least have gotten some pol.”
Micah listened to Rego’s advice and began looking through the pockets of his suit and of his pants, eventually finding what he was looking for.