Tom paced in the system room nervously. His eyes were watching the screens that showed what his body was doing. All the children, regardless of the age group, were herded into the center of the room.
The volunteers, adventurers and fighters all decked out in their battle armor formed a protective circle, as though they were expecting an attack to occur. Not to protect, Tom thought as he remembered Dimitri’s words.
The adults circled around them to get vengeance if a strike was launched, and that was obvious from how they positioned. There were no big shields, and over a half of them faced inwards instead of outwards. It was pragmatic, even if more than a little upsetting, but this was real, not a game; their actions reflected the reality of the situation. If the assassins already had a target, there was nothing humans could do to save him or her, because the enemy out there was more than willing to die to kill a reincarnator. They had been called to action by their GOD, and that was not something they could ignore. However many were here, whether it was one or a hundred, they were all aligned, and none of them expected to survive. If they had a target, they would sacrifice themselves without hesitation, and that’s what the adults were waiting to see.
When Tom had entered the gymnasium, there had been fifty fighters, but they had trickled in constantly, and now over a hundred warriors were ringing them. These were true adventurers, too, because, unlike the typical adult he was used to seeing, the majority of these had full fate pools, and that let him estimate how powerful they were. Their fate pools dwarfed his own. Most had ten to fifteen times more, which pinged them all at being well over rank-fifty.
Dimitri raised his hands, and silence descended.
Tom had never been so aware of the time dilation. But he knew he had to watch this speech, and he couldn’t afford to do it at a faster-than-chipmunk speed, because then he wouldn’t be able to follow it. The real-time monitors went to the wall, and, with a flex of his will, Tom watched and listened to a version without the time dilation applying. Time would seem to fly by outside, but he had to know exactly what was happening.
Dimitri did not look happy. “All four perimeter security wards and shields of the orphanage were broken as of twenty minutes ago. I can confirm that hostiles have entered the orphanage. They are now undetectable until key resources come back from exploring. Until they are cleared out, all reincarnators must stay in their pseudo-system room.” Dimitri pointed. Volunteers that Tom recognised because they helped with their lessons were stringing up red banners. Some wore armour, but most were crafters and thus did not. “Once the orphanage is ticked off as safe, those banners will be replaced with green. That is the only signal that you should pay attention to before leaving the system room. Ignore anything else. That includes signs, messages in the isolation room, people giving you direct instructions. All of that will be the enemy’s lies. Do not leave your system room unless these banners are green. Do you understand?”
Obviously, no one responded to that question. It was not like any of the reincarnators would be stupid enough to put up their hand.
“We anticipate it to be up to a week until we have the resources gathered to clear out the infestation, so I expect you to be stuck in your system room until then. Please, listen to me. Everything I say is important. We know there are assassins out there. We will deal with them in time. Seeing one does not warrant abandoning the pseudo-system room; thinking your life is in immediate danger is not a reason to leave, either. Even if you think taking control of your body will give you a chance to escape, don’t do it. They will try to trick you, but they’re rank-seventy and can move seventy times faster than you. Your only protection is not allowing them to confirm you’re one of the reincarnated. Stay in there until these banners change their colour. These are smart, dedicated enemies. Don’t underestimate them.”
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“They are going to try to deceive you. They’ll use elaborate tricks that I can’t predict. In the past, they’ve woven illusions showing the person in my position ordering reincarnators to come forward. They’ve put up signs in isolation rooms and safe places. They’ve created an appearance of bloodbaths, and mimicked the destruction of an entire orphanage to trick people. They’ve orchestrated rock falls and almost starved children to death to try to reveal a target. Don’t let them win. Remain in your system room. Be very aware of the dirty tricks they’re going to play; be aware that they’re willing to sacrifice themselves to get a kill. Standing next to me won’t help you, because while you’ll get avenged straight after, you’ll still be dead.”
Dimitri sighed heavily. “These situations always suck. We don’t know how many of them got in. Maybe three, maybe seven, or ten, or possibly a hundred. We’re still uncertain. Stay in your pseudo-system room no matter what. As per GOD-enforced treaties, if you are not a reincarnator and you’re not actively participating in combat, you are absolutely safe. You’ll note that some of the volunteers are not in armour. That’s because they can’t be attacked by these assassins. The rest of us are here to kill an assassin if they emerge, but until we swing a weapon in anger, we’re also perfectly safe. Given those treaties, our routines won’t change while this disruption occurs. The same isolation and trial rules apply as always. Trainers will turn up to teach you in the electives like they usually do. The only change will be our presence.” He waved at the armoured warriors. “We’re here to fight once we know where the enemy is. Dismissed.”
Tom released his slowed down version of the speech and glanced at the real time monitors. His body was currently with Bir and Kang, huddled close to Dimitri’s platform, presumably to get additional comfort. They weren’t the only ones - most of the younger children were similarly positioned. The older ones seemed more accepting of the situation, and many of them were quizzing the armoured warriors – in other words, extracting information from a resource they didn’t typically have access to. Tom approved of their opportunism.
He wondered how Kang was coping. Usually he was unflappable, but Tom suspected in this case he would be more affected than he was. After all, Tom was confident that, provided he listened to instructions, he was personally in no danger. The nature of his reincarnation, the wording of the conditions that let him be here, gave him a surprisingly large amount of comfort. He was sure that even if they were here for him, he would survive this. That was the nature of a deal with a GOD. Once he reached maturity, the protections would be reduced, but for now, provided he was careful, he was a hundred percent safe.
There’s a difference between a monster boss killing him, which would be his fault, versus a rank-seventy assassin that he had no chance against. DEUS would almost certainly protect him against the latter, while he wasn’t anywhere near as confident about the former.
With nothing to do, he created a luxurious couch in the middle of the system room and lounged on it while watching his avatar go through life. The fast forward images grated on him, so he fiddled with the inputs and was able to play back an experience at normal pace while tracking what his body was doing on the side-screens. Another option let him experience every sense the avatar had, which included taste and touch. He was looking at the past events and remained a passenger in the body, but it was a nice switch of pace to avoid boredom.
The routine of the orphanage continued as normal.