Jason goes back and forth with the man in between bites but eventually all good things have to come to an end. Though with strategic breaks between dishes, what gives out in the end isn’t Jason’s appetite but rather the man’s patience. As they leave the restaurant, Jason flashes the two men a cheeky smile, “Boy, maybe just a bit more food and I might have quote unquote remembered something.”
With a raised eyebrow, the man snorts, “As if at this point we could trust anything you said. Your mother didn’t tell you anything important and yet you managed to dodge around all my questions. So either you know something or your mother has coached you in the past in how to answer. Either way, we aren’t going to get a straight answer out of you.”
Jason laughs, “Okay, you got me. I’m actually a reincarnated cultivator. The gods themselves placed me here to make up for having to die for the hero.”
Jenny and the men start to laugh with him. Though as they reach the transport, the man shakes his head, “At least you have interesting taste in literature. Cultivation novels are more of a niche genre around here. Anyway, me and my partner need to get back to the office to make a report so this is where we separate. Have a good night.”
From there, it takes a bit of time for Jason and Jenny to get back to their house, mostly because it isn’t like they can really talk about much. Even their apartment should be bugged by this point, let alone the transport that was picked out for them. Though as they split up to go to their own rooms, with a double thumbs up, Jenny congratulates Jason and tells him, “I’ll meet you in VR.” Then cheekily turns towards one of the newly added hidden cameras and gives it an exaggerated wink.
Jason just shakes his head at her antics. Once in his VR room, though, he invites her right away. There is still a couple hours before the ratio is back to 5x and so now is the best time for them to touch base.
Jenny can’t just show up through a door like a normal person. At some point, she must have spent a good chunk of change because her entrance is a showy display of special effects. She bursts up through the floor like some kind of infernal being with cracked ground and spurts of fire. Of course, after such a bombastic entrance she can’t not ruin the mood it set by twirling around and throwing out a peace sign like some kind of stellar based anime sailor girl.
Jason facepalms, “Heh, well, that’s a thing. So where do you want to start?”
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Jenny throws her head back and laughs, “With you admitting how stylish I am!”
Jason sighs, “I’m not exactly the best person to judge that. Though going by the fact you’re imitating a show that the most recent remake, let alone the original, are so far in the past that you need three digits for the number of years.”
Jenny laughs some more, “Fair enough. I guess I shouldn’t really be asking my own son, you’re going to be biased one way or another after all. Anyway, you’ve managed to get yourself into the middle of something pretty hush-hush. They’re going the extra mile with this. All that aside though, I’m not going to make you say anything. I’m mostly here to grind their gears as while they can tell I’ve visited, they obviously can’t learn anything except how long I was here.”
Jason nods, “Well, I’m going to of course keep some things to myself. Though mostly because I have other people working on it right now. To start, I guess we need to go into how I wasn’t lying quite as much as most would believe with that parting quip.
“I am a cultivator, as it were. More specifically, through an unspecified manner, I came into possession of knowledge that led down that path and have cultivated to the first step. After a number of misadventures, this led to my ability to detect the milieu of energies present in the air, most of which I assume are foreign. To cultivate, I ended up causing a chain reaction that forced elements of that mix away from me, which is what I assume was detected.
“On the other side of things, I accidentally teamed up with someone important in NeoRealm. I don’t know who they are irl, but they do live in this arcology. From there I ended up telling her maid who ended up also joining our party after our original third member turned out to be a cult member who promptly ditched us. That maid should currently be in the middle of reorganizing her spy network but has also been testing what I told her about cultivation.”
Jenny just stands there for a moment with an eyebrow raised. “I did tell you to lay it on me, but that is going a bit further. Do you plan to keep this whole cultivation thing, and yes I did have to query my assistant about it, a secret?”
Jason sticks out his tongue, “Meh, too much effort at this point. Enough people know something has gone down in this area that, at the very least I’ve set them down a path that would lead to it. Plus, there are those people who the maid has set up to test what I shared before trying it herself.
“This is going to get out one way or another. Though even if I didn’t, something would have happened soon enough, anyway. From what I can tell, most of the powers mixed in aren’t natural, so someone must be playing with the fabric of reality and opening up holes.
“Either I spread cultivation or someone else figures out how to throw a fireball and at least my method mostly involves self improvement of the body at the early stages. The concept of mages is fun to play around with but I wouldn’t want to live it. That or superheroes and their ilk. Uncontrolled power manifestations are too much of a dice roll.”