I sat down on a fallen log and really took the time to think about my current rate of growth as I waited for Vadeem to finish stuffing his face. As I said before, I couldn’t rely solely on Noe’s luck skill to survive these ever increasingly dangerous situations, but what else could I do when it was abundantly apparent that the Origin Matrix wanted nothing more than for me to fail?

Let’s break the problem down and see if I can’t find even a hit of a solution.

First of all, relying on the Trash Matrix was out of the question. I bet that even if I managed to clear this Trial perfectly, it’ll find some idiotic way to dismiss all of my achievements and saddle me with an even shittier job. But if I couldn’t use the same tools that everyone else had, what could I use?

Wait… some things are not adding up about Origin. First of all, there’s no way that Central’s all-knowing AI didn’t know that I wasn’t an actual Arbiter, yet I still managed to gain that Rookie Arbiter title. In fact, there was a subtle difference when Noe announced the acquisition of my first two titles compared to the Master Groveler one I got earlier. Noe just told me that I had gained 2 titles before, yet it specifically stated that the last title was given to me by the Trash Matrix.

This would mean that the Trash Matrix doesn’t control the Title system at all, or at least not completely. Perhaps it could only give out titles, but not stop someone from getting them naturally; after all, Noe said that these things came from the Universe itself, and not Central.

I knew that if I wanted to beat this stupid defective Matrix then I couldn’t use the tools it gave out, that would be a losing battle every time. I don’t know why the thing hates me so much, maybe it couldn’t communicate with the rest of the Site staff so it was taking actions into its own hands, but I wanted to give the thing a piece of my mind.

In fact, now that I think about it, something else was odd about the Trash Matrix. It was the levels of everyone before the start of the Trials. With the sole exception of myself, everyone had more than a single level to their name. In fact, Q even alluded that humans could gain levels by simply crawling around as an infant, so it couldn’t have been Origin giving those out to people.

Hey, Noe, you know anything more about this?

“Affirmative,” it replied, “The Inferior Trash Matrix can only accelerate and manipulate the natural growth of its subjects, along with removing the natural limitations placed on a non-ascended species. It can do nothing else.”

So it can’t really control our stats at all on its end? Like say, remove all the strength from my attributes?

“Negative,” Noe explained, “It is worthless and has no such abilities. It can only enhance growth at a disgracefully slow pace, not delete it. The only functions that the Trash Matrix has full access to are the Class Advancement system and the distribution of end of Trial rewards.”

Wait, only end-of-trial rewards?

I remembered that there was a section displayed at the end of the first Trial about hidden rewards, not to mention the mundane things that an Aspirant could potentially pick up during the Trials themselves.

“To answer Host’s inquiries,” Noe answered, “The Trash Matrix has, once again, no control over the distribution of any other types of rewards, as those are managed at the Site level. It is woefully incompetent.”

I smiled. This was perfect. I had alternative ways of gaining strength that didn’t rely on the damn Trash Matrix’s pity. If I couldn’t get a great class then I’ll make do with amazing titles, and if it won’t give me any rewards then I’ll abuse my Arbiter status and steal all the damn hidden stuff! And to further rub it in its stupid AI face I’ll take all the free EXP it was giving out as well! Let’s see who’s the one with the intelligence of a drunken Neanderthal now!

Yes, a plan was quickly formulating in my mind. But I had one more question to ask Noe, to see if what I had in mind was feasible.

Say, Noe, my favorite and best system buddy.

“Yes, Host Walter?”

There is a maximum of two secondary titles that I can equip at once, right?

“Affirmative.”

But they can be switched out, yes?

“Correct, Host Watt.”

And I’m assuming that you’re the one responsible for switching them for me, and you can read my thoughts, right?

“Unit Noe does have those functionalities.”

So if I had a lot of titles and I wanted to quickly switch them on the fly, because say, I was in a battle…

“Unit Noe understands the nature of Host Walter’s inquiry,” it answered, “Unit Noe can assist Host Walter in those situations. Rest assured that I will provide the Host with the optimal title for all situations during combat and elsewhere.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I smiled again. I think my crazy plan might just work!

“Alright, my friend!” Vadeem said with a loud blech, “I think I’ve recovered enough. I can never get used to eating that much food at once!”

“Small price to pay to turn into a house,” I replied with a laugh.

“A house of muscles you mean!” he returned the smile and proceeded to flex his biceps, “And I’m glad to see your earlier gloom disappear, finally got your head in the game?”

“Ah, you noticed that?” I answered, scratching my face in embarrassment.

“Just like you noticed I wasn’t naked!” he said with a wry smile, “Alright, so what’s our plan for the creepy village? The Vadeem special?”

“No, or at least not yet. I have my plans for this one,” I answered,” but first, we need a little more information on what we’re up against. I’ll climb up another tree and see if I can’t see what the village is like inside, can you go around the perimeter and see if there’s anything of note? We might need an escape route later.”

“Got it!”

I went up a nearby tree, a lot easier this time now that the glow of the nearby village made it so that I was only mostly blind and found a sturdy place to sit down. What I told Vadeem was half true, because having an escape route planned out would never hurt, but the main reason why I gave him those instructions was to be alone. I needed to check in with Raffiel and Q.

“Raffiel, I need to speak with you,” I whispered.

I waited for a response but received none.

I frowned, normally he would have answered me immediately… did he not hear me?

“Raffiel, you there?” I asked again, louder this time.

A couple of seconds passed and I heard a faint voice, heavily distorted as if I were speaking with someone with the worst cellular reception possible.

“Y-u hea- me?” Raffiel’s voice said, “-biter W--ter, there’s -- a- issue -ere.”

“I can’t make you out,” I said with a frown, something was definitely wrong here.

“Le- me ge- Q.”

Some more static and horrible screeches assaulted my ears before the signal seemed to improve.

“Walter, can you hear me now?” Q’s voice answered, it was still a little tinny, but was certainly an improvement from Raffiel.

“Much better now, what’s going on?”

“Some slight problems have turned up on our side of things,” he said, voice grim, “Nothing too major at the moment, but some of our communications with Origin have been compromised. We’re unable to monitor the Aspirants, nor interfere with the Trials. I’m speaking with the higher-ups right now, but it seems that all facilities with an active Anomaly are affected.”

I frowned, “Keep me updated. Is there anything that I can do on my side of things?”

A slight pause, and then Q answered, “Perhaps, let me find out more about the situation first, but I think there are things that can only be done on your side. The higher ups are not allowing any of my staff from entering the world.”

“They're definitely hiding something,” I said, “Do you know anything about the place my group and I are in?”

Another pause.

“The information’s been compromised as well, but I was able to retrieve some of it.”

I nodded on habit, even though Q couldn’t see me.

“You’re in an adjacent Earth,” Q explained, “but it’s not on one of the lists of approved locations, or at least not for the second Trial. The information I’m getting is all over the place… What is the Origin Matrix thinking sending its Aspirants to these unregulated dimensions?”

Hm, a little more information that I could use. So it seems that the Origin System didn’t create these trials by itself, but was just sending us to an existing location.

“Anyway, the Earth you’re in is quickly reaching its end, something happened a while ago and caused the extinction of most of the life there.”

“Any idea what that is?”

A pause again, most likely Q trying to access the necessary information, “No, that information is completely redacted. I can’t even get an exact date on when it happened. All I know is that the Earth is heading towards extinction, and it’s going there fast. There should still be the last remnants of Human outposts, but even the data on this civilization is corrupted.”

“So, expect the worst?”

“Yes, Lord Arbiter, but the scraps of information I could dig up suggest that you should be able to communicate with the humans there. Try to see if you can find any useful information out of them, anything could prove vital to our investigations. Origin, no matter how distorted, should still be acting based on its internal logic systems. There’s a reason why it’s doing all this.”

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do.” I said, and I noticed that Vadeem was quickly coming back, “Like I said, keep me posted. I’ll speak with you later.”

The static and white noise died, and I was left in the eerie darkness again. Remembering why I was up here in the first place, I squinted and saw that the village was quiet, but there were occasional movements. The light was too dim to make out the size of the place, but there should be a sizable population in the outpost. Checking to see if I missed anything else - I hadn’t - I climbed down the tree and waited for Vadeem.

With the new influx of information, the wisps of a plan were quickly formulating in my head. But first, I needed to take inventory of all the resources available to me.

Vadeem approached me, his smile never leaving his face despite the gloom, “Find anything useful up there?”

“Yeah, some,” I nodded, “The village definitely populated, seems to be human inhabitants as well. Anything on your end?”

“Not much,” he answered, “The walls stretch out around the entire complex, but the settlement’s not too large, only took me about 10 minutes to circle it. I should be able to smash through the walls if worse comes to worst.”

“Good, thank you, Vadeem,” I said, “One last thing, what sort of random stuff did Jae-Hyun make you bring?”

He made a small clearing and dumped out all of his gear. Aside from the usual camping supplies and an assortment of weapons, Vadeem had some rather… unique objects.

“That’s everything,” he said, then gestured at his shirt, “minus the clothes I’m wearing. All they do is change depending on what I need.”

I nodded and took stock of the stuff on the ground.

“Firecrackers, some rope, masks, paint, and what’s this thing?” I asked, pointing at a briefcase.

“Ah, that thing damn near bankrupted me!” Vadeem said, holding the case up, “I got it in the store, supposably it can hold as much food as you could ever need, and I’ve been shoving food in it for the whole week.”

“They just let you steal the food from the cafe?”

He shrugged, “Food was free in the first place, and it’s not like anyone stopped me. I think I got enough stored in there to last me years, even with my skill! And before you ask, no, nothing rots in there.”

Well, least you can't say that the man doesn't plan ahead.

“Alright, I think I have an idea about how we should approach this.” I told him, “So it goes like this…”

I told Vadeem the plan, and true to his earlier words, he didn’t complain even when my instructions felt like random nonsense. I really liked that quality about him.

After some final touches and preparation, we approached the village and I was about to put on a show for the ages.