On the way back from Farmer Bell’s, Max barely paid any attention to his surroundings as his gaze was focused on the only prompt presented by the system. There was so much redacted from the prompt, leaving almost no wiggle room. Working with only the starting method meant there were two ways he could think of to avoid this one. Either Cy dies or the sun didn’t rise… ever, or at least until he could figure out a way to get the prompt to disappear.
“Anyone home?” Max asked, as he let himself into Darius’s home. There was no reply. It wasn’t the time to panic, he reassured himself as he changed his muddy clothes. At least the system had given him until morning to figure out a way around it.
The house was cold and vacant. Max made his way into the abandoned kitchen. It was a little odd, usually Cy or Darius would be home by now. What time was it? Eight? Nine at night? Darius must be busy if he hadn’t even nipped home to lay out their dinner for today. Considering Lux’s recent death, then perhaps it wasn’t too odd that an Elder and a witness would be busy. Elder Ji-min probably had mounds of paperwork for them to complete.
Max began raiding the cupboard for something to eat. On cue, he heard a noise in the other part of the house. “I’m not cooking!” He shouted nonchalantly, while he looked for something to satiate his hunger.
There was a couple of beeps in reply causing him to turn in surprise.
“What the? Ah, Lurch.” He greeted the familiar robot, who was carrying a stack of papers. It must be Cy’s report of their experiments today. As part of the agreement between him and Elder Nova, Max was given the opportunity to read and alter the reports so he could ensure Elder Ji-min or anyone else who read them couldn’t learn more about runes. “Just dump them in my room like normal.” Max turned back to the cupboard. “Hey, do you know where Darius or Cy are at-”
“DANGER.”
Max looked at the little robot, who had disobeyed and thrown the report all over the floor. Another thing was off about the situation. Where was the prompt warning him not to teach other people runes? No one else could take on that story about from Cy. Did he tell others? Or had it been cancelled? The prompt calling for Cy to live weighed heavy on his mind. “Lurch, where’s Cy at?”
“DANGER.”
“… That’s not helpful.” Max felt irritated. He turned back to the cupboard. Surprised by Lux’s death, Cy had been too on edge for Max to slip another tracking rune into his pocket filled with trash. He still didn’t know Cy’s runic name or the name of his unique magic either. Fuck. Nothing else to do but go looking for him. “Let me just get a couple of snacks then-”
There were heavier movements coming from the dark corridor. Finally, some good news. “I’m not cooking!” Max repeated, as he reached up for some dried fruit. “By the way, have you seen Cy?”
“Why would I give a shit about you cooking?”
Suddenly, Max understood the little robot’s message from Elder Nova. Looking down, Lurch was cowering by his feet next to the bags of flour causing them to spill on the floor. “Sorry, I thought you were Darius,” Max turned to see a furious Elder Aris in the kitchen. He offered out the jar of dried fruit to him. “Want some?”
“Has it been fun?”
“Fun?”
“Playing an amnesiac? I know for sure now that you’re a disgusting Nnita.” Max frowned as he took out one of the dried apricots. It had been a hot minute since he was last directly accused. Despite his words, Elder Aris must still have some reservations. Otherwise why were they talking? “What did you do to Lux?”
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“I didn’t do anything to him.”
“Fucking lair-”
“Then what did I do?” Max provoked him, as he leaned against the kitchen top. Lurch was still shaking at the bottom of the cupboard. The spilled flour was spreading. “I didn’t touch him. Nor did I use any runes. What exactly are you accusing me of doing?”
“You knew about the Yggdrasil tree being in bloom! You told him-”
“So? That doesn’t mean I knew he wasn’t going to be able to handle the divine power. Wasn’t he your model pupil? Shouldn’t you be the one at fault if he wasn’t disciplined enough in handling raw magic?” Elder Aris looked like he was going to pop a vein in anger. “So, tell me. Why is this my fault?”
“Because Elder Darius said it was your fault.”
… What?
Darius sold him out?
Max was about to respond when he suddenly heard a grainy radio starting. Elder Aris also looked confused. “What’s going-”
“Shut your goddamn mouth. It’s an emergency broadcast.”
Max complied, as his foot began to trace a rune in the spilt flour. Why was there suddenly an emergency broadcast? It made sense for the community to have some kind of spell like this in place. But the lack of prompts from the system unsettled him. Why was only Cy’s story appearing before him?
“Is it working this time?” Darius’s voice was clear. They could hear someone else talking away from the microphone, but Max couldn’t pinpoint who. “This is an emergency broadcast. Repeat, this is an emergency. Tsujuma has been infiltrated by a Nnita called Max-”
It was good enough for Elder Aris, who launched an explosive attack in Max’s direction. Prepared by a few seconds, Max completed the rune causing the flour in the bags to erupt and scatter through the air. The cloud of flour ignited the moment Elder Aris’s spell hit it, while Max dodged the sudden explosion as much as he could.
Thank goodness for all of the protective runes he had written around the house. Giving the local people slim chances to succeed against the system was one thing, but outright murder was distasteful. Elder Aris would’ve been killed if those runes weren’t there. Too bad the runes didn’t protect robots.
Taking advantage of the confusion, Max took a shard of glass from a broken Lurch’s face to cut his hand. His blood dripped onto the kitchen floor causing the walls and floors of the home to ignite in a series of different shaped runes and colours. It was a pretty sight. This was the power of runes if given enough time to harvest magic from strong sources. Darius’s home had become one of the many batteries now activating all of the once hidden runes around the community.
“What did you do?” A charred Elder Aris struggled to move but found his limbs were frozen in place. As a precaution, Max hadn’t used the same method as he had demonstrated in the magic assessment. The source of this one was a singular mandala of runes drawn under Darius’s garbage bin. It was specifically in case Elder Aris came looking.
“Shhh-” Max focused on the broadcast.
“That’s what a system is,” Darius continued.
He explained the system?! If it were broadcasted to the whole community, then he was doomed to get a severe penalty from the number of listeners. What was the point?
“It persuades people, who remember being reincarnated, into doing its bidding for the sake of a ‘story.’ There is no reward for their compliance, but heavy deterrents are in place in case they disobey. Remember all, we need to keep this to ourselves otherwise we’ll be afflicted by a penalty too.”
There was a cough. A harsh cough. Could it be a penalty already coming into place?
“What’s he doing?” Max asked Elder Aris, who seemed equally perplexed by their situation.
“I don’t know!”
“Now, the system is asking for Cyrus’s death. And Max intends to deliver.” There was another cough.
Max couldn’t hide his shock from Elder Aris. Darius, Cy or Elder Ji-min must’ve realised Cy’s fate had changed. Which also made Max realise he had made up his mind about what to do if he couldn’t find the wiggle room.
Still, why tell everyone about the system? Sure, send the dogs after Max being responsible for Cy’s potential death. Fine. Fair enough. But why give a shout out for the system? Was the father-son duo planning on going down together?
“You motherfucker, is he right?” There was a strange amount of disappointment in his face. Had he actually been softening to Max’s good behaviour?
“But we mustn’t let this happen. Tsujuma is now in emergency mode. Follow your protocols.”
The transmission was suddenly cut.