Before I went and left alone with some shady sounding organization that I may or may not have attracted the interest of while I was asleep, there were things that I needed to do. First, I needed to figure out my angle.

In a word where things made sense, I would have tons and tons of information to base things on. Sadly all I know is that I probably rescued some people from this organization while I was killing monsters. ‘But the thing is I don't know how much they know. Or what they are for that matter, for all I know they could be a demigod organization or something similar. Who knows what could be different from the real world to the books. They were written for teens and kids after all, things could be different in reality.’ I wondered, pacing frantically around the room with my hands on my head.

‘Ok, so I need to play stupid. That's the only way I can get information about the situation.’ I decided, with a slight twinge of my ego. Though not much of one… I didn’t even know I had an ego.

Ok, angle decided. I just be me, but clueless. Now, moving onto the more physical preparation.

“Where did I leave my jacket?” I whispered softly, looking around cluelessly before I focused and recalled that I left it hanging in the shower to dry off a bit. I left my daggers in their sheaths inside my jacket as well.

‘You know, I really don't give my jacket enough credit.’ I mused as I walked in, looking over the leather with an impressed look. ‘It doesn't stain at all somehow, it's put up with everything with barely any ware on it, and it holds both my daggers and my rings perfectly out of sight. I should probably take care of it better… Eh, who am I kidding? If it didn't get used, it would be useless.’ I pondered as I slipped the slightly wet jacket over my shoulders.

I gave my daggers a quick check as I drew them before putting them back in silently and digging around in the folds of my pocket for where the rings all pooled together in the pocket after I took them off before I showered. They were right at the lowest corner, just below where the handles of the daggers stuck out from their sheathes inside the pocket. I took them out and put on the Ring of Creation that was currently bare of any material attachments, the Constructor, and finally Masatr. Oddly I felt a bit more sensitive to my Spirit Energy and Aura once I put them on, noticing the slight, almost miniscule cost to keep them all on even when I wasn't using them. All but Masatr, that felt like a blanket coming over my body and almost holding my energy in. The cost of wearing them slowed down my Spirit Energy and Aura generation, but it doesn’t drain anything.

I blinked. ‘Since when did I start feeling my spirit like this? I don't even have to think about it, it's just there… Not that I am complaining, this feels… Really good. Things feel a bit clearer somehow? It's odd though. I wonder what happened?’ I thought to myself, my brows creased until I gave a small snort. “Question of the day it seems…” I said out loud with a scoff and a sigh.

I put the only remaining ring, Mystic, back into my pocket. Its energy consumption is really high and it has to be on all the time, and I do not need my own people radar on all the time. And while I may or may not have made a Passive Ability that could replace this ring, I have never used it before… At least not that I remember. So I kept it in my pocket so I could slip it on at any time instead.

And now… Only one thing left. Percy.

I went to my desk, hurrying now so the agent guy wouldn't start getting worried, and I took a pen and slip of paper and scribbled some explanations before taking a piece of tape and attaching my note to the door where Percy could find it.

Then… I opened the door again and stepped out into the hallway so I was face to face, or technically face to uniformed stomach because of my small size, with ‘David Prince.’ If that was his real name.

“You ready, kid?” The man asked, looking me over as he took a step back to keep a respectable distance.

I gave a shrug of mild discomfort at that, looking up at the man with my hands in my pockets, touching both hilts of my daggers. “Yeah. Though I still don't know what this is all about. Am I getting arrested for something?” I asked, trying to play a little more clueless than usual. Not that it is hard, seeing as I actually don't know anything substantial. I don't even remember last night when I supposedly met this guy.

“No, no. Don't worry. You are not in trouble. You, me and the rest of my team are just going to meet some people and have a talk. And in fact I am here to be your advocate. You can trust me.” He explained, waving me down the hallway as he set the pace towards the stairwell that would lead to the exit.

‘Advocate?’ I wondered as we walked, staying just a step or two behind the soldier as he led the way. ‘And I am going to have a talk with some people. So I attracted someone's interest. I need someone who is supposedly my advocate because I am going to be interrogated and they need a good cop.’ I realized what he was saying pretty quickly and started to think things through.

‘This is not looking too great. If I can react in time, then I could escape in an instant using the Soul Forge… Though that would only be temporary. I can't leave through anywhere other than where I entered… But I do have my rings, which would in theory trump other weapons like guns if I could react before bullets were fired. Use the Ring of Construction and even normal concrete and I could shield myself while I… I have no idea how I could escape. I would have to kill them before I could escape an enclosed space like a basement or interrogation room. Then run and go into hiding. When did my life become a spy movie?’ I thought with a small wince. ‘Also… When did my immediate solution involve killing people? Was there another way?’ I wrestled with myself as I walked down the stairs in silence, trying to school my expression from revealing anything.

“You look like you are planning escape routes, kid.” David commented as he glanced back at me, not even taking a moment to see through me. I frowned. ‘I apparently don't have a great poker face.’ I thought to myself ruefully, putting my thoughts out of my mind. I was always good at improvisation anyways.

“You don't need to worry, Ardika. You can leave at any time. You saved me and my team's life, kid, we are not going to kidnap you.” David said seriously, slowing down as we reached the door at the bottom of the stairwell and turning to me with an expression I couldn't quite understand.

“Right.” I told him, trying to reassure both him and myself as I made myself relax just a touch. Though it wouldn't be anything but plain stupid to trust him, no matter what he says, I wouldn't want to give up an edge. Underestimating me. I was already in the body of a twelve year old, but if I could seem… scared or something, it would go a long way to that goal. But it's a little too late now, it would clearly look like an act just because of how I was acting before. Maybe stressed. Well that's not hard.

I tried to put a little bit more of my nervous energy into my movements and expression as David opened the door, ramping things up. He gave me a glance, frowned a bit sadly, but did not comment. ‘...I am being stupid, aren't I? Am I seriously trying to trick spy’s?’ I thought with a mild sense of irritation. I wish I had a Passive for acting. Hang on, I did have The Long Game. What was the description for that again?

I went ahead and focused for a second, walking in step with David in the entrance hall to the dorm building steadily towards the exit. ‘Increases recognition of when a person is unconvinced by an act or lie of your construction and increases the ability to recognize possible ways to convince people of a long term lie or act.’ I thought to myself, then I noticed something.

‘Hang on, aren't I already doing this?’ I realized, with a small frown. ‘I don't feel the Passive activating though. No… I am not quite lying and I am not really doing an act either. This is more like trying to express my emotions in different ways. There is a huge difference, and I think both me and my system knows that. I need to recognize that better. And I didn't think about this as a long term act, did I? So the other half of it couldnt activate even if my “acting” counted. Ok, let's do this right this time. No time to learn like the present.’ I analyzed, thinking hard before I put my thoughts into action. Though the first step wasn't a physical change as I kept walking.

‘This needs to be a long term act. Come on, you went through Drama class… once or twice. Character. Ardika Ekia, a kid who is a bit impulsive with possible ADHD, fights monsters, has a… Hero Complex? No, that's overrated. I will save people and place human life first, but I am selfish and place myself first aside from killing monsters. Maybe I have a hatred of monsters gained from someone dying? And how to explain the daggers… Right, I got them on the streets from a gang. Gang? Maybe a small one that fights monsters? Ok, I was a streetrat until very recently and learned to fight that way. Though that would mean I should have scars, doesn't it? Wait, I don't even know if I do have scars. Have I even looked at myself seriously in the mirror lately? Urg. To think, I barely know what my own body looks like. Ah well. Anyways, so I escaped the gang and lived in an orphanage until I was sent to this school. Or no! No, everyone in the gang died and I was the only one left so I ran away to New York and things went from there. Everyone loves a dramatic backstory. Damn! I could be a writer with storylines like this!’ I planned out my character thoroughly with satisfaction.

‘So, Ardika v2, you are going to be my long term act when I am dealing with these guys.’ I completed my thought process, and I could feel something shift as I thought that.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Everything seemed to slow down a little as I could feel the shift of the Passive Ability. Unlike my other main Passives like Dagger Skills, which works around my physical body and guides me almost through what I need to do like I had always been doing it, or like Tracking that is like parsing through a whisper in a storm, The Long Game was unique. Suddenly small things in David's body language started to stick out to me and I could feel what it meant. It wasn't really in words, but mood and some of his thoughts about me and the situation suddenly became clear. It wasn't all encompassing, but some I could parse out his thoughts and intentions about me in particular.

His walk was slow and measured, almost too careful to keep a good distance to me. He doesn't want me to feel pressured, or get scared off like he believes I might be on edge. Which is fair, and makes sense. It fits my character to some extent as well, so it seems to be working ok.

Also… Thinking back, he doesn't leave a certain distance either. That would suggest that he feels he needs to stay close for one reason or another. Protection for my sake? Yeah, that seems about right with the rest of his body. He is looking around and back at me every few seconds and his body seems angled a bit away from me and towards elsewhere with his body in front of me. He thinks I might need protection… That's not ideal for my character. I could fix that.

He seems to be a bit comfortable around me, though I can see some tension and stress in his posture. And I think I remember seeing bags under his eyes? He didn't get much sleep. That's probably from last night. I barely got any sleep myself. Though now I was feeling like Sherlock Holmes or something, so maybe I wasn't really comparable to how he was feeling.

And from what I remember he only seems to glance from the surroundings to my face, barely resting on my hands at all and certainly not enough to show if he was ready to defend himself or even assessing me as a danger. He trusts me.

That pulled me back to reality with a small shock at the realization. ‘He genuinely trusts me to not be a danger to him. That could mean he didn't see me fighting monsters, or he thinks I wouldn't attack him for some reason. Or both. …But he trusts me. If he was about to attack or lure me into a trap, he would not be acting so calmly. But can I trust him?’ I wondered quietly.

Then I started feeling the secondary part of the Passive kick in and I adjusted myself a little as I could feel the physical acting part of convincing people of my act kick in. This I was more familiar with, as it felt a lot like the guiding instinct and visualization that came with my Dagger Skills, Stealth or Throwing Skills and more. I was practiced at this point.

Then the skill’s suggestions faded and I found myself frozen for a split second at the surprise, though I recovered quickly. I creased my eyebrows as I felt the small flash of more suggestions come and go. ‘This is not normal… Or is this the new normal..? The system did say it would make leveling harder to promote growth, is this something to do with that?’ I thought with concern, though I quickly realized that this just added a small layer of difficulty to using Passives. It was more than manageable, if given practice to learn how to deal with it. I needed to push to grow my skill and adapt. That was a Passive on mine wasn't it?

By the time me and David had reached the door and he was leading me outside, I had a little bit of a handle on it. Small shift in my face and tightening it just a bit as if I was suppressing emotion, looking around at everything but particularly David with some caution, shifting my pace to be a bit more careful and just a bit firmer. But making sure the small shifts are just small enough as to almost go unnoticed alone, slow enough so no one would be suspicious.

David glanced back and while I didn’t react much physically beyond a glance at him back, but internally I was holding my breath. He didn't seem to react much, though his gaze lingered just a bit longer than before. Then I felt my attention pull to a small expression that flashed on his otherwise rather tired face. Assessing at first, then a little worry combined with acceptance and disappointment. He seems to have bought the act just a bit more, maybe he realized something? The disappointment and worry… Probably from him realizing I didn't trust him. That's a bit sad to be honest.

Whatever. I was ready. Let's get on with this whole play of mine.

After that whole thing played out and I was finally ready for whatever was going to happen now, we were near the middle of the open field at the center of campus between the school building and the dorm building and walking steadily without pause or interruption towards the street.

I doubted that whoever this organization was got direct approval for me to go with them, and I didnt want weird rumors to start about me, so I supposed it was lucky that it was very early in the morning and nobody was around.

As we walked, I spotted the car that was definitely the one David said was waiting for us. It was solid black with tinted windows, though it wasn't a car but a van that looked almost like a jeep the size of a larger minivan was designed by a guy who designs tanks and limousines at the same time. I hadn't seen anything like it before, but it didn't even stand out unless you were looking. Probably extremely expensive and it looked unique as well, without a logo anywhere on it.

“That's your ride?” I asked just to be sure, interestedly looking it over as we approached it. “Yes. Mine and my teams ride.” David smiled a bit as he turned his head to face me, giving a grand gesture as I spotted movement in and around the van.

From the sliding doors on the sides of the vehicles and from the driver and passengers seat emerged a combined total of six people.

From the driver's seat came a rather stocky man with a bit of a thin beard and a head of dirty blond windblown hair and a lined but soft face with brown eyes.

Four more came from the sliding doors leading out from the interior of the van, two women and two men. A younger man with short and unkept frizzy brown hair with a similarly unkempt but short beard who was a bit chubby and looked a bit uncomfortable. He stood beside a taller, almost lanky, russian looking man with a black fuzz of hair that might have once been a buzz cut on his balding head with a hard face and was looking bored as he gazed vacantly around. Then came a woman with short reddish black messy hair with bangs that stretched down to the eyebrows that looked a bit on the curling frizzy side, but she had on a lot of dark makeup, dark brown eyes that were almost the same color as her hair, a small mischievous smile, and a very fit slim athletic form to go with it so it somehow worked. And finally from the side door came the second woman that looked almost the opposite of the first woman with golden brown hair tied into a careless braid so as to not get in her way, green eyed with a very hard looking face and muscled body, like a wrestler or mma fighter.

All in the same UMBRA uniforms as David. Except for the last person to step out of the van, who drew my eye instantly.

A skinny girl with longer dirty blond hair, soft brown eyes and a round face wearing jean shorts and a light pink T-shirt. She was almost exactly my height as well, which made sense. Because she looked the same age as me. And I am physically twelve right now.

I stopped as I saw her, just looking at her. She was incredibly out of place, a kid surrounded by big tough military looking people beside a blacked out van. I looked around at all the people once again in confusion.

Everyone but David and the stocky driver looked amused. David looked at the big driver with a grimace. “I thought her mom would come and pick Becca up by now? You are working, Brad.” He asked scoldingly at the embarrassed guy, who was apparently Brad, and gesturing to a now stubborn looking Becca who was probably his daughter. I could see the similarities now that I was looking.

“She is running late! You know New York traffic is a nightmare, and she just arrived at the airport an hour ago.” He explained embarrassedly with a shake of his head, rubbing his eyes with a hand.

‘What..?’ I wondered in absolute confusion as to what was going on, blinking a bit to make sure I was seeing things right. Nope. ‘Ok, what? I thought these were professionals or something. Who are these guys?’ I wondered, looking up over my shoulder at David.

“Hello! I am Becca. I like you. You are cool.” I turned back as Becca, the little girl, came walking up to me and looked me in the eye with a smile, completely ignoring the adults around us.

I was caught off guard. And I blinked in surprise as I saw her reaching out to shake my hand. ‘Wow, this is a first.’ I thought to myself as I instinctively reached out and took her hand. “Hey, I am Ardika. Nice to meet you Becca.” I introduced myself in turn, and she shook my hand energetically. Her hands were very soft. “Your hands are really hard.” Becca commented, almost as if reading my mind. “Uh… yeah. Yours are really soft.” I responded, not quite sure what to do now as I pulled my hand back a bit embarrassedly.

“Ah, young love.” I heard a snicker in a thick Russian accent come from the balding man by the vehicle, and I looked up to find everyone looking at the pair of us looking amused. Though the Russian was laughing openly now as I took an embarrassed step back.

But Becca spun around and marched right up to the distracted man and kicked his shins hard with her booted foot, making him shout and almost drop to the ground. She grinned and stepped back with a satisfied expression, crossing her arms in front of her as she looked up at the man. “Shut up, stupid! You are making Ardika embarrassed.” She demanded of the now quiet man to the snorts of laughter of the others, most particularly Brad and the younger fuzzy haired guy. Though Brad looked more proud of his daughter while the other was mocking the buzz cut guy.

I just watched on with wide eyes as she turned back to me with a smile.

Then David broke through the chaos, with a hand on my shoulder. “Ok, this is enough. Ardika, this is Brad Pine, our weapons specialist, his daughter Becca, who is most definitely not supposed to be here,” He gestured at Brad and Becca first, “Korkovich Vysotsky, our explosives specialist,” He gestured at the still recovering Russian man, “Lerry Alderson, our techie,” He gestured next at the short haired younger man who gave me a small peace sign with a small glare at David, “Amy Prichardson, our stealth and infiltration expert” he pointed at the quiet short haired woman who flashed me a smile, “and lastly Janice Petro, our close combat specialist.” He pointed lastly at the big woman with the braid who gave me a nod of greeting.

“Hey.” I said simply, greeting the group back with a vulcan greeting, just because it seemed fitting to such a weird group. Lerry flashed back one of his own with a delighted smile, but the others didn't seem to care much.

“Now, Ardika, The Director is waiting to talk to you inside.” He told me and the rest of the group seemed to straighten up a bit, getting serious at the mention. Except for Becca who seemed uncaring as she stood with her dad.

David walked to the van and opened the door, gesturing for me to head into the seemingly empty dark van. And I followed, stepping up into the van and sitting down with David climbing in behind me as he ducked low to sit before closing the door and causing the interior to go black.