Brian

"Hi, there! My name is Brian," I replied. "I sent you the communication device. I hope you're interested in stimulating my probe into higher beings and the like!"." Oh, Hi! Librarian 777 is just my professional title. My name is actually Mike! This isn't a trap, is it? Is this thing secure?" "Hi! Oh, no trap; yes, it's the most secure form of communication I know about. Is your room secure?" "Yes, I put up a rune ward preventing the acoustics from sending my voice all over. Still, there were people following me earlier. I don't know how safe I am here."

I grinned. Obviously, Mike was on to something if he was being spied on. I notified the Armageddon, who issued a quest for the Strange. "Well, if you can make it outside the city, I can send a Strange to pick you up and bring you over here!" "What! A Strange actually works for you! That's so crazy!" "Yeah, I recommend bringing it some juicy meat so it doesn't teleport you into a lake. If you walk straight out the South gate and start running as fast as possible, it will know who you are and teleport you here. Just throw the meat to the side and start running. It will get the message."

"Well, I'll pack my bags. Strange! I can't believe I'm doing this! Ah well, it's probably safer than staying here at this point. I probably can't take much if I have to run. Still probably better than getting caught." "Alright! I'll get another room for you here at the inn I'm staying at. I hope you make it out of there safely! I'm disconnecting now."

I went downstairs and paid the innkeeper for another room for the week. I figured it would take a few hours for Mike to show up, so I took a quick walk around the neighborhood, looking for anything suspicious.

I stepped outside the inn. Dozens of shops lined the streets. I started browsing the goods while looking around to determine if any undue interest pointed in my direction. I had long since donned the garb one might expect a craven traveler to wear, so I didn't think I stood out exceptionally. I scouted around the inn's backside and found a nearby building rooftop that could be low enough to jump to if I climbed up to the roof from my room window and crossed onto the inn's Eastside. I figured that I could cross the roof for a quick escape route if people started following me around once Mike showed up.

As I checked out the surrounding area, I noticed a foul smell from a manhole at the dead-end of one particular ally way. I lifted the lid and peered into the darkness. This could serve as a hiding place in the event that a quick disappearance was required. I noted how I could easily cross up from my window, across the roof, and then jump down on some creates to make it to the sewer.

Just as I was finishing up my scouting attempts, my com chirped, "Armageddon here. Your princess is about to arrive!" I rolled my eyes and went back up to my room at the inn.

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'Oomph" Mike appeared in the room with a pop and promptly ran into the wall. Thankfully the Strange hadn't come along for the ride. I pulled up a chair while he picked himself off the ground. "Hi, Mike! I'm Brian! You look a bit out of sorts. Have a seat and rest a bit."

"Whew! Man, thanks for the hook-up with the teleport! When I started walking out of the city, the guards moved to stop me. I chucked that bag of meat and sprinted, just like you said. I thought I wasn't going to make it!"

"Well, I'm glad you called me in time! We just made friends with that little Strange too. Your fortunate indeed, my friend!" Mike frowned. "Yes, the timing is quite peculiar. It's almost as if, ah, never mind. May I ask, did you say you had a partner?"

"Oh, yes. His name is Armageddon. He is an advanced machine. You could think of him like complex manna runes, except these runes talk back to you. He is housed in an even greater machine, but we can talk about that later. I am deeply interested in your research, by the way. I am so excited to see you here! When can we get started discussing everything?"

Mike rubbed the burse on his arm that he had gotten from running into the wall. "I think we could begin tomorrow morning if that works for you? I have to put my papers in order and such. Do you have any food?"

"Sure, let's go down to the bar. Order whatever you want! It's on me!"

We got a table near the crowded bar and sat down. A waiter girl came over and took our orders. I spoke in a slightly dulled tone to not attract undue attention. "I scouted the neighborhood out earlier today. If there is any need to escape, we can climb out our windows and run across the roof to the east side. There is a way to get down and hide in the sewer". Mike raised his eyebrow. "Well, I hope it doesn't come to that, but this place will probably not be safe for us after a while. Where do you come from?"

"Oh, I am a traveler from far away. I came here with my machine, the Armageddon, and we have been trying to figure out how this world, eah, land works. It's very different from where I come from. No one knows about manna or the soul. You could say my eyes were opened when I moved here. I came across your journal in the library and thought I better learn from someone actively studying the stat levels' end progression. After all, I have seen some disturbing system messages, and some people have made statements with verbiage that mirrored the said system messages. For example, I keep hearing people use the term "She" as referring to some type of deity. I am also defiantly interested in why you think people who reach the pinnacle status are different!"

"Oh, yes. I can tell you what I have uncovered in my studies! I think your eyes, so to speak, will open the rest of the way once we have that discussion! The world is not as it seems, my friend! Oh, look, the food is arriving".

The meal was pretty good. The inn was the nicest one I could find, after all. It was chicken, potatoes, and some sort of green-fried vegetable. We ate the rest of the meal in silence and went up to our rooms. I toggled my comm. "Armageddon! Mike, the librarian guy, made it here safely. Thanks for that! Um, can you have a satellite watching the quantum scanners and alert me if anyone looks like they will enter our rooms? Suddenly an overlay popped up in my HUD. It had the complete scans for the building, and a little alarm box was checked. I guess it was that easy!

The night passed peacefully with nothing but a few light raindrops. The following day I knocked on Mike's door. He was already up; he had everything laid out for his presentation and was ready to begin. I chewed on some dried meat as he began to talk.