Plateau Zero was an anomaly. This was an established fact, and much more so, considered the way it had been altered. Its overall size was nothing compared to other Plateaus. Unlike them, it had a finite boundary.
“{Well, we talked about Nebulas recently, haven’t we?}” Fray remarked amusingly as Rakna stood up after having been disoriented by the transfer. Already, he felt heavy and sick. He could feel that so many of his abilities were inaccessible to him as if they were shackled; but not inexistent.
Briefly pulling his attention away from his condition, he couldn’t help but admire his surroundings which first started with his direct vicinity; a worn-down cross-road with lanes made of steel. The buildings followed the same pattern; dirty, metallic, rusty, but very electrically equipped.
Steam and smoke filled the air about five meters up and once you actually bent your neck to look up, a confounding sight would be presented to you. There was no sky. Just an inverted city of metal.
The whole Plateau was a sphere with inverted gravity. The curve on the horizon went up instead of down, so you could simply see the city rise, curve, and then hang above your head with a large sphere of metal affixed in the center, connected to the city’s grounds through several columns.
“I believe this is what they call cyberpunk,” Hans commented as he appeared next to him, brushing the dust off his shoulders and seemingly impassive to the lack of System. “You and your armor fit perfectly in here.”
Rakna moved his eyes away from the upturned city and snorted. “Maybe.”
“{Wait, I’m more concerned about something else,}” Nyx spoke up, this time using her soul instead of mana to communicate with him. “{Femme Fatale? Really?}” She asked dumbfounded. “{Did you truly add that to your status?}”
The therian’s expression twitched under the mask. He groaned half-heartedly, “I did not.”
“{Huh? Then how?}”
“It… popped up naturally sometime after I had finished designing the fake status.”
“{Are you telling me that…?}”
“Yes,” he replied with a grunt. “It’s a genuine title the System gave me after I lured those men and killed them,” he grumbled and a snort sounded from the side. He scowled at Hans who outwardly appeared as callous as usual. “Did you just laugh?”
“Yes,” the author responded and then froze again. His eyes darkened and he glared at the sword hanging from the fake woman’s belt. “I despise this weapon of yours,” he spat.
“Good to know it still works as intended,” Rakna fired back and then looked around. He narrowed his eyes at a few groups of people who were pointing and laughing at them. “Let’s move to a place more isolated,” he said and started walking.
“Do you even know where to go?” Hans questioned.
“Don’t worry,” his answer was immediate. Eye of Symphony activating beneath Scherzo. “I know everything I need about this Plateau already.”
“…of course, you do.”
* * *
Five minutes later, in a hotel room, Nyx stepped out of Rakna’s shadow with a strained groan. It seemed that recovering her physical form was also made harder by Plateau Zero even though it relied purely on her physique.
She staggered a bit and Rakna supported her so she wouldn’t fall. “Thank you,” she smiled at him and sat down on the bed. “As you say, it’s quite disorienting…” She rubbed her temples.
“Is this place safe enough to talk?” Hans asked whilst leaning against the wall.
“It should. I already hacked the security and I don’t sense anyone close enough to listen in. I would have put up some runes… but as you know,” Rakna trailed as he tried to draw a rune. It appeared for a second before fading. “Technically, it works fine. The problem is that I need to provide mana to it constantly. And since we can’t regenerate it, it’s just a bad idea. Not to mention its effects are severely weakened.”
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“It’s as if there is a lack of ‘world’ in this place,” Nyx commented as she stared at her hands.
“What do you mean?”
“Well… take it this way; outside the System, the influence of the ‘world’s will’ is what’s responsible for the manifestation of magic through chants, gestures, etcetera. Inside the System, it’s as if it was modified to become some sort of life-support machine that its inhabitants can’t live without. But in here? There’s nothing. All we have is ourselves. Not only do we have to make do with the mana that we have and can salvage, but we also need to act as our own ‘Gods’, if you will. We are the ones creating the magic, not engendering it. It makes everything much harder.”
“I see…” Rakna squinted his eyes; his mask dismissed after they had entered the room. “I suppose it’s a bit more complicated than just ‘no System’. Let me check something,” he uttered and walked to the center of the room.
He took a martial stance and breathed in. Soon enough, his body began to blur but it was sporadic and unrefined compared to what Ripple of Rupture can normally do. Rakna sighed and stopped using his internal energy.
“Even my internal force is being somewhat affected,” he muttered. “Ripple of Rupture is a martial art that basically functions based on how I channel my ki, without necessarily expending it. Looks like even that is restrained, but it’s not unusable at least.”
The therian hummed and then looked at himself. “From what I can feel… my traits and most of my Nirvana Skills are usable. All except Ascension of the Titan. I wonder why.”
“Most likely because it is more akin to a blessing,” Hans answered. “It is stated in the description, is it not? That it is a skill gifted by Kronos to the System. You were essentially blessed by a God with the System as an intermediary. Not all Nirvana Skills are exclusive to Hosts,” he added.
“Makes sense. Other than that, my Path Skills are fine too. I tried summoning my Valkals on the way here and they work fine. Though obviously, there isn’t a moon in this Plateau, so I can’t gather lunar energy. That would have been a useful substitute for mana.”
“My magic is off, Gigantism is off, Star Flash is off, Dead Men Tell is off, Stealth is off, Reinforcement is off… to some extent,” Rakna said as he tried to trigger each skill. “Call of Hounds is off. Tail Clone is also off. Even aura is off. But it seems that my Ultimate Excel Skills are still accessible. Rift Shuttle is weakened but available. And of course, my attributes went down a bit. What about you two?”
“I got it a bit worse than you,” Nyx replied. “My Path skills are not responding. They’re essentially spells at the end of the day, Eternal Night or not. However, my Sub-Path is fine. My skills related to my divinity are working fine too, but my attributes went down by a fourth. My Nirvana Skill is good to go and I also have a Max and Ultimate Excelled skill that should work.”
“Oh? I didn’t know you had any of those,” Rakna exclaimed curiously.
She shrugged. “It just happened while I was doing Quests for the Wiccan Guild here and there. Me aside, what about you, Hans?”
The author’s expression twitched at the name. Since he had ‘rewritten’ himself, he had the urge to correct her, but he resisted it. He sighed, “All things considered, I am the least affected. While it is a fact that I cannot use my magic, I am content with my Path Skills. My Cursive Insight is not hindered in the slightest and my Rewrite is still usable. Most importantly, however, my attributes have not changed. The curse of the Fairy Doll is still applicable. They all are exactly 216.”
“Ah, I didn’t think of that before,” Rakna nodded. “It would make sense for you not to be affected by the reduction of attributes since your physique is what dictates them…” He mused. “Well, on that note, we should start discussing our plans.”
“You said you hacked every network in range, right?” Nyx remarked. “What did that tell you?”
“Many things. There are plenty of electronic devices around. Most of them have little to no digital protection, as if it wasn’t a concern,” he said and his Eye projected a list of the connections it had already established, with details about the force of the signal, the battery of the device, and so on.
“Presumably, people here don’t care about stuff like this,” Rakna added and walked to the window of their room. He looked out, down at the streets where he could hear conflict. Then, barely a few seconds after watching, he saw someone getting stabbed. “It’s to be expected,” he uttered and went to take a seat even as gunshots echoed outside.
“We have two targets; Bora Quaso and the Terminal. We kill the former and access the latter.”
“So, the issue is finding them,” Hans summarized. “Without magic, it would be difficult. Unless you have already triangulated a probable search zone?”
“Sort of. I don’t know about the Terminal. So, our best shot is to find Bora Quaso and interrogate him directly,” Rakna replied and crossed his arms, emphasizing his current body’s chest. Even Nyx had to clear her throat and look away while he continued.
“I have no idea where the guy lives. But as luck would have it, he spends a lot of time at the Arena and he’s apparently sexually promiscuous. So, with Undertaker’s little VIP ticket in hand, the best course of action is to participate in the fighting games and catch his attention. I only need to meet him alone… and then he should be dead without much trouble.”
Hans raised an eyebrow, half-sarcastically, and half-amused. “Truly? It seems everything is being set up in your favor. What a boon.”
Nyx couldn’t help but giggle. “We should thank Kaelith and Higure when we’re done. If they hadn’t goaded you into donning this appearance, things might have worked out much slower. Even that man, Treiber, seemed to give you preferential treatment just for your ‘beauty’ alone,” she said with a mirthful smile.
Rakna clicked his tongue at that. “Don’t rub it in.”
“So, you are joining the Arena,” Hans put the conversation back on its trail. “What about us? Do we follow you?”
“No… I want you to gather information. Nyx, shadows can make you near-undetectable, so it would be best if you could trail Bora outside of the Arena when I can’t. Find out his daily trajectories and then relay them back to me. Also, see if you can profile his bodyguards.”
The goddess nodded in understanding and then Rakna turned toward Hans.
“As for you, your Cursive Insight is our key to discovering this Plateau’s secrets. First, help Nyx find out the bodyguard’s capabilities when she deems it optimal, and when you’re on your own, I want you to search for the location of the Terminal and… see if you can find any trace of the Nine-Tailed Scorpions or the creatures of the Abyss.”
Hans scowled. “The bugs and the pests? Why?” He inquired and Nyx sweatdropped at the terms.
“Kratos is an organization led by Bora. That’s what Eva has come to learn,” Rakna replied. “But she also has intel that the Scorpions. As for the Abyss… I have my doubts. Fang was a vampire, and he was far too involved in this Plateau for to be normal.”
“If I had to be honest, I’d say Bora is a smokescreen; a figurehead. Think about it. How did that guy come out of nowhere, with apparently no talent or power, and hijack control of Plateau Zero so thoroughly? Not to mention that I fought a vampire a while back, who was part of Kratos.”
“So, you are saying that the real danger is not Kratos itself, but the furtive forces who potentially built it,” the author nodded in understanding. “And? Do you intend to fight them?”
“No, I want to avoid them. If my hunch is right, Bora will be an easy target to kill. But I will probably be hunted down afterward. At the very least, I want to be aware of the ones capable of doing that before it comes to it.”
Hans and Nyx looked at each other before acquiescing simultaneously.
“Before we go, Nyx, I have a question I forgot to ask you before.”
“What is it?”
Rakna narrowed his eyes. “For how long do you think you can maintain your Twilight Dimension on a night of Full Moon?”