Chapter 32: George: Down the Rabbit Hole

"I thought you understood that I would be the one asking questions," Noritz said in a gentle, but slightly sharp manner. The mystery of what or who a Zero was was not something the goddess was willing to answer at the moment.

It looked like I would have to deduce things on my own.

“I should first organize everything I had just experienced,” My inner narrator in a James Bond voice wrote down everything in my memory.

Observations:

1. She is emotional, anthropomorphic to the point where there are almost no differences between her and a normal, though divinely beautiful, human. The so-called dragon was also humanoid but way less so. Not enough information to state for sure, I need to check if she is indeed a human.

1. The stars move relative to each other in the sky; either we are in a space where time flies very fast, or, what is more possible - the sky is not real, but either a ceiling, a hologram. It must be something so high-tech I can't understand it.

1. When she said that she wanted to kill Aki whatever his family name was, her facial expressions correlated with her stated intentions. For one reason or another, she is participating in this human trafficking operation but doesn't have full control over it, or can't kill for a reason I am unaware of.

1. There is something about her and Ryu that I don't see, and they expect to see. The Aki kid didn't see her face, and Ryu thought that I should feel something. My current assumption is that I am, for one reason or another, immune to some illusions or magical effects. My assumption - is that Ryu expected me to feel something specific, thus - most people see and feel whatever I don't.

1. She made this freak boy disappear and gave him vampiric fangs. A crystal appeared before the summoning. When she gave the boon, she put her hand into the fold where she put the crystal. She controls the rules of the world in this space, but her control is limited.

She is not omnipotent here; she could have just fixed the brain issues of the guy, but she didn't, most likely it's not about the power of the effect, but its complexity. Growing fangs or making him disappear - which I assume was some kind of a wormhole thing from sci-fi shows - didn't strain her.

1. The crystal and this whole place evoke familiarity.

1. Ryu the Dragon said that he is moving me to a better world; he was speaking literally.

1. Her and Ryu's attitudes indicate that whatever I know shouldn't lead to me getting killed. It's more like there's too much of a power difference between us for her to care. I am an ant here, and unlike Aki, there seems to be no contractual obligation towards me, as she said I am not qualified to be sent instead of the pervert kid."

I wanted to arrange all my thoughts nicely and neatly in my mind, hyperfocusing on each detail, but I was out of time and my mental strain was growing.

She wanted to listen to my story and all I know. I was recalling my training.

‘Lying 101 a comprehensive guide to deception’ Page 15: "Live the lie, but know that a lie is just what it is a lie."

I told my story to Noritz. I was friendly; I convinced myself I was telling a story to a friend.

I made myself believe that we were friends and acted like one. If she was human, there was a big chance she would get infected by my act and act according to it.

Lying 101, Page 4: "The strongest lie is the one that the person comes up with himself." In other words, omit things you want people to build theories on, the theory I was given is that I wasn't investigating human trafficking she was participating in, and in case she could talk with Ryu there shouldn't be anything he could use against the people I care about.

It omitted names; family members or friends were not mentioned; a strange AI tool Josh had was changed to a social media post. I was investigating what I assumed to be murder cases and met the assumed murderer head-on.

I didn't voice my assumption that she was getting a cut from what I saw before. I skipped the unethical parts of things I did; in that story, I never spiked people's drinks nor broke into inhabited houses. I skipped each detail which would indicate that I was a trained spy at some point.

Every detail I gave was something the so-called dragon would be able to gather using his vast resources anyway.

It took me around ten minutes to tell the gist and another five for the interaction with Ryu, on which I went into great detail, omitting the part where I knocked out one of his foot soldiers. This was something Ryu should be able to tell her, so there were no risks involved there.

"So you are indeed a Zero," Noritz hummed.

"That's what this Ryu guy told me. What's the deal with being a zero?" I gently inquired, pretending that we were having a conversation, not an interrogation.

"The magical power of someone who comes from your world to the world of the arcane is dependent on belief," I think at some moment she forgot that she was planning to interrogate me. "Living on earth while believing is like high altitude training on the tallest mountain, and those who believe and visualize their beliefs through magic are able to turn it into reality when they get here."

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"So why am I a zero?" I inquired.

Observation 9: Noritz got emotionally infected, which means that most likely she has a human-like brain with mirror neurons; all other explanations are less reasonable.

"It looks like you never believed in gods or magic, you never fantasized about something that's impossible, and your mind never trained, so you are 'disconnected' from magic. You will be the second one on the whole Terra Arcana who is a zero."

"And on Earth?" I acted like I was very interested in whatever Noritz would say.

I didn't believe her explanation, all people fantasize and believe. 'Magical' thinking was a universal human trait. I reflected on my disbelief in her words for a brief second, but I had to keep track of what she was saying.

"Don't know, shouldn't be uncommon among non-believers, after all, Earth is mostly disconnected from Gods and Magic." Noritz looked uninterested in Earth and admitted that she doesn't know how exactly things work.

"Oh, What about the other one, why would Ryu summon him?" I shifted the discussion, the second person could be a good source of information.

"He wasn't summoned, broke in, using a path only Vishaps knew. Not sure if he is zero for the same reason you are." She became tense when answering this one, the illusion of our friendship was about to crumble so I skipped the topic.

I have heard of vishaps; those were dragons in Armenian mythology my father would tell bedtime stories about. I'd have to recall all I know about them later.

She continued.

"Aside from being unable to use magic or getting their attributes enhanced when getting here, zeros are immune to magic targeting any living beings, as for most magic in this world you are an item, not a person. Even magic which allows us to teach local languages to people who arrive here doesn't work on you. Moreover, you haven’t created a blessing that comes with coming to this world, so it will be a harsh ride."

It clicked. I looked up into the fake sky, into a goddess who was neither omnipotent nor omniscient. I had a grin appearing on my face. I noticed it too late, so I threw a distraction.

"So I can rest free knowing magic won't hurt me?" My grin had to be explained, so I feigned slight ignorance.

"And won't heal you either. But an explosion will still kill you." Noritz stated something strange. I was healed when I got here, my chest wound and bruises are no longer present. But when she tried to talk to me her magic didn't work. Neither did language translation on me.

"So what's the point of all these accidents and fake reincarnations?" I asked the goddess in a neutral tone.

"That's none of your business." Our friendship was over. But it still wasn't an investigation.

"I have to learn local languages on my own as I understand, while others don't."

"Yes."

"And I don't get any boons like that perv kid." I did the oldest trick in the universe one can call 'Let's hate someone together'.

"There was a man who declined his; you can take his," She showed me a crystal looking like salt, and my head throbbed. I for a second remembered something I forgot.

There was a spectral image of a crying girl asking me to investigate her death, afraid to be forgotten. I shuddered with goosebumps covering my whole body.

Observation 10: I perceived and ignored a magical encounter with Misaki Arashi at the same time, despite it giving me a sense of urgency.

Observation 11: Some targeted magic sees me as a person, while others don't. It's most likely not about the power of said magic. This so-called magic follows strict rules, and has to, and the goddess's explanation of how otherworlders get power is most likely wrong.

"Where is Misaki Arashi? I saw a ghost of a girl; she called me with a stone like this one." I felt like this memory was always with me, but distant at the same time.

"I thought she just squandered her boon," The goddess stopped her work and started treating me as the content on her second monitor. I had her full interest now. She shouted something into the floor, making clouds part. "Michael, Arashiin ո՞վ եր կանչել?" The tone of a boss talking with a secretary was unmistakable.

"Zarat," a man shouted back from under the clouds.

"Capital of Zarat," she reiterated.

"I guess I'll pay her a visit; it's not like I have a direction, aside from looking for a way back."

"What can this thing do?" I looked at the crystal she offered me.

"A lot." Noritz almost lost interest in the conversation, so I took the crystal.

"It was nice meeting you," I tried to close the conversation, as the longer it went, the more tired and prone to mistakes I was. I wasn’t in the greatest shape after all that happened anyway.

She didn't respond, just waved her hand for a goodbye.

My body felt like it was getting squeezed and stretched again. I was not in the cherry cloudy space. I was five meters long, and my head felt like it was rolling inside a washing machine, bumping on each ridge inside.

All I saw were lines of light, distorted and bent. My vestibular system was all over the place, and when I tried to make sense of things, I had the worst headache in my life. If I would have had dinner, I would have lost it. I closed my eyes and allowed the ride to proceed. My vestibular system completely shut off in a few minutes as I lost sense of the weight in my body.

I opened my eyes again. This journey wasn't something others could see. I was flying quite high in the sky over an endless ocean in a tight tube which was deforming my body and zigzaging from time to time. Everything was blurred and distorted.

I wrote down all the observations I had kept to myself and the results:

Result of Observations: Highly speculative. Do not use them as facts!

1. Noritz is an altered human, and Ryu is too. How exactly - don't know.

2. Magic power is not about belief, it's about readiness to accept another world and/or its magic. That is why Ryu was using trucks and publishing portal fantasy books. It's a trope in Japanese novels and comics. Ryu’s people hit me with a truck. Me and the other zero came while conscious, that’s probably what made the difference.

3. Misaki. I read the article on the day when she was 'cremated', considering the hour, it was around 4-5 AM in Japan. Her request was to not be forgotten. How did she and the crystal find me? Magic is not a good enough answer.

4. The crystal could interpret her will and look for me in the real world. I might have been the only person who read the article at that moment or thought about her. That means computing power on a supercomputer level or higher with either access to the internet, or at least temporary omniscience.

5. I am an item in the eyes of this world and even gods. Dragon's spells don't work on me!

I chuckled when I jotted the last point and put my notebook back into the inner pocket.

I flew over swaths of the ocean for hours. It eventually changed into blurry landscapes I couldn’t recognise, but I felt drained and hungry. I wanted to wake up and learn that everything was a strange dream.

I reflected on last week.

I lost connection to my family, my home, and my world. In the end, I got lost so far away that I won't be found by normal means.

I knew why I acted the way I did. I tried to get back my small leverage of changing the world, I tried to help a crying kid.

And at that moment, I hated myself for not taking the dull MI6 office job.