“Here’s the indemnity form, Mr. …” Professor Bailey announced as he left the office, waving a piece of paper “Actually, what is your name? I don’t think it ever came up.”

“Isaac Thoma.” Isaac thrust out his right hand “Pleased to meet you, Professor Bailey.”

“Nice to meet you too, Mr. Thoma.” Bailey said as he shook it “That being said, I’m truly terrible with names, so please don’t take it personally if I make a mistake with yours.”

“Don’t worry, I know a few people who’re like that, I'll know you’re not being malicious. But if you’d like you can call me Isaac.” Isaac replied while also filling out the form.

“In that case, call me Adam. We’re probably going to be working together for a while and I’m not really a fan of excessive formality in a situation like that.” Bailey said.

“Yeah, excessive formality can be tough. Did you know that the German school system dictates a formal form of address from the 10th grade up? Well, literally the only teacher who tried to stick to that was my Latin teacher, and two lessons in, she just went ‘fuck it, would anyone have a problem if we went back to the old form of address’? By the way, that’s a direct quote, or at least as close as you can get after translating it.”

“Like I said, I’m not a fan of excessive formality. As long as you don’t try to sneak any insults past me, you can call me whatever.” Bailey replied with a wry grin, then checked his watch “Seems the person who’s supposed to be meeting us is running late. If you have any questions, I suppose now is the time.”

“Where are we going to be working? Granted, I’m not the most knowledgeable on this part of the university, but I’d be stunned to discover we have some kind of monsterproof bunker in here.” Isaac asked after a few moments of silence.

“It wasn’t designed to be monsterproof, but we do have a bunker of sorts. We used to use radioactive substances to mark specific points in the genome during DNA sequencing and there’s a heavily reinforced, lead lined room in the basement where they used to be stored. That particular method got phased out as newer ones became available, but the room is still there, in the deepest part of the basement, with heavily reinforced walls. A dozen people spent all of yesterday putting in cameras and securely sealing the holes they drilled to lay the cables airtight.” Bailey explained.

“That sounds great. Though there are probably creatures that can break out of there.” Isaac said.

“And that’s why I’m getting a whole new building as soon as they finish building it.” Bailey grinned “[System] analysis is the greatest new frontier of science in our time and I’m one of the people who will be at the forefront of that field. Therefore, we’re getting a purpose built facility to be used by everyone who needs to work with monsters.”

He glanced over at Isaac “Perhaps you should have a little talk with the people designing the chambers, tell them about any really strong monsters you summoned. That place won’t just have to hold the monsters we can summon right now, but also the upper end of what we will eventually be able study. Right now, they’re mostly going off scientific wild ass guesses and any real world experience could be useful.”

“Sure thing. I haven’t fought creatures that powerful, I’m not a reckless idiot, but I do have little experience and know a bit about stronger monsters.” Isaac shrugged “Just tell me when and where.”

“Thank you, I …” Bailey trailed off, looking into the distance “And there’s the guy we’ve been waiting for.”

With that, he headed towards a man who looked like he was roughly in his mid-thirties, just starting to go bald, wearing a suit that practically screamed government employee with a briefcase slung under his arm.

“Are you Professor Bailey?” the man asked and Bailey nodded “Thomas Wechsler, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. I’m here to make sure your department is up to snuff where animal rights are concerned. Given the rather dynamic and ever shifting situation at hand, my boss felt it was best to send someone here who can authorize things in the moment to avoid delaying things too much when something unexpected pops up.”

“Hm, so you’re going to be looking over everyone’s shoulders?” Bailey asked, somehow managing to keep the irritation Isaac strongly suspected he was feeling out of his voice.

“I’ll stay out of your hair whenever possible. Like I said, you’ll probably come up with a bunch of new stuff to try out, involving creatures who no one has any knowledge on or written any regulations on their proper handling. And when you do, you can have someone rubber stamp that stuff within moments. People well above me feel that this is something important which needs to be conducted with all possible haste.” Wechsler explained.

“And you can just rubber stamp everything?” Isaac wondered.

“How much do you know about the laws surrounding animal rights where lab animals are concerned?” Wechsler asked.

“Not much beyond common sense stuff like ‘don’t be cruel, don’t torture the animals’.” Isaac said “I’m guessing there’s more to it than that?”

“Yep.” Wechsler said, lighting up a little. Clearly, he didn’t get to talk about his job all that often.

“There are a lot of rules surrounding animal experimentation, but they can be summed up pretty easily.

No animal experiments may be conducted for commercial uses and no products tested on animals may be sold in the Federal Republic of Germany. Obviously, that isn’t going to be problem here.

Also, in order to qualify for the use of animals, an experiment needs to be necessary, there needs to be a need for it.”

Wechsler gestured around.

“The need for these experiments should be apparent to anyone who’s turned on a TV at any point in the last couple of days.

If you want to use animals in an experiment, that is only allowed if they are necessary for the experiment and cannot be replaced by alternatives such as cell cultures and the like. And unless you happen to have something like that stashed away in your back pocket, the need to use the actual monsters should be rather apparent. Basically, most of those requirements are going to be fulfilled as a matter of course.

As to actual limits on the experiments, I think you summed it up pretty well, don’t be cruel. If Dr Frankstein or a Bond villain would do it, you shouldn't.”

That comment drew a snort of laughter from Bailey, and Issac joined in soon afterwards.

“Like I said, I’m just here to speed things along, not put in extra roadblocks by insisting on the letter of the law being followed. You’d be subject to the same regulations regardless of whether I’m here or not.” Wechsler finished, with Bailey adding “And we’d be following them regardless. Like I said, precision is important here. When doing research, you follow the rules exactly.”

“Thanks.” Isaac smiled at the two of them as they walked down a set of stairs.

Once they reached the bottom, they were walking along a cramped feeling passageway. It was actually fairly wide and the ceiling was high enough to give even the tallest of people half a meter of clearance, but it just felt small. Pipes ran along the ceiling, thick bundles of cables nestled in between them, only the occasional door appearing in the walls. They were truly in the guts of the building now.

“Should I be leaving a line of string behind me? I think I’m lost.” Wechsler commented dryly.

“We’re almost there, don’t worry.” Bailey reassured him as he turned one final corner and gestured to a vault looking door at the end of the corridor.

Incidentally, the corridor looked awful. Floor scratched to hell, streaks of color marring the white walls up to a meter in height and a large paint stain in one corner. Also, a small mound of construction debris had been pushed into one corner.

“Like I said, this place was a rush job. That should be cleaned up by tomorrow.” Bailey said, gesturing to one of the four doors that were on the side of the corridor “If you would join me in my office for a bit, Mr. Wechsler?”

Then, he gestured to another door “Isaac, we put in something of a lounge in there. It’s just a sofa right now, but I think that might be more comfortable than staying out here. I’ve also got three other research assistants who’ll be joining us, they’ll show up soon, if they aren’t already here, that is.”

“Thanks.” Isaac said and entered the indicated room.

It was a surprisingly large room, maybe a hundred square meters, but also pretty empty. One couch in the exact same shade of green that had stained the walls outside was the only large piece of furniture inside. Clearly, it had been responsible for part of the mess.

There was also a pile of folded camping chairs in one corner.

Two other people were already in the room. A tall redheaded woman around Isaac’s age sat on the couch, looking at something on a tablet while several books and folders were piled up next to her. The second person was a short Hispanic man on one of the folding chairs with what Isaac was ninety percent sure was a gun case on the floor next to him.

The man’s eyes snapped over to Isaac as he entered. He put the book down and walked forward, sticking out his hand for Isaac to shake.

“Raul Mina, pleased to meet you. I’m here from the forestry department of the university for knowledge on how to deal with wild animals.”

Isaac shook the proffered hand. “Isaac Thoma, enthusiastic volunteer, Economics student and mythology expert, please call me Isaac.”

“I’m Amelia Shaw, cell biology. Call me Amy.” the woman introduced herself from the couch, having put her tablet on the existing pile next to her.

“Nice to meet you both.” Isaac said, grabbing a chair from the pile and putting it next to the couch while Raul pulled both his chair and the case closer.

There was a moment of awkward silence, then Amy spoke “So, what brings you to this place? I joined because I don’t just want to rehash past research in this new context, I want to do something new.”

“I’m here because they needed a volunteer from the forestry department with a firearms license and experience dealing with wild animals. I volunteered.” Raul said.

“So, I’m guessing that’s a gun in there?” Isaac asked, getting a nod in return “Anyway, I’m here because I find this fascinating and I want to do everything I can to understand it. Also, I have a feeling this whole [System] thing has a really dark side to it. There’s an entire genre of literature dedicated to stuff like this, where the world becomes a video game and those stories tend to be kinda, well, apocalyptic. Either I help do important research here, or I do research that could literally help save the world. Either way, it’s important.”

“Wait, seriously?” Raul exclaimed “You’re going to have to recommend me some of those books, that sounds awesome.”

“Oh, they are. But so are horror movies … until you suddenly come face to face with Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees.” Isaac said, face incredibly serious and eyes locked on to Raul’s face. He held the man’s gaze for a few seconds, then burst out laughing.

Raul joined in after a moment “Yeah, I can see that. Still, recommendations?”

“Of course, happy to. I’ll try and pick one that’s less than terrifying given the new context.” Isaac promised.

“Yeah, media can have that effect on you. I’ve never watched another medical tv show after going to the doctor five times in a month over small stuff. That show very nearly turned me into a hypochondriac.” Amy chimed in.

“Yeash, now I’m glad I never got into any of that.” Isaac said.

“Back on the topic of the experiments, I’m actually pretty surprised they let us do that in the university. It seems kinda dangerous. Or am I wrong?” Raul asked.

“There’s a lot of kinda dangerous stuff in a university. We have a vast stores of various chemicals in buildings full of people who know exactly how to turn them into something that explodes. And the physicists have a giant laser that can cut through a person like they aren't even there.” Amy replied.

“I think I actually saw that thing on a school field trip once, isn’t it like twice the size of this room? Getting shot with that thing would practically require one to deliberately act like an idiot. It couldn’t even really happen by accident, you’d have to be willfully stupid.” Isaac interjected.

“And we have a fortified, airtight room to conduct our experiments in. These experiments should be fine as long as we act like the intelligent people we are.” Amy suggested “Besides, people in this university and most other well equipped ones could do so much worse than just release a few monsters. And they could have already done so for years. If given a normal genetics lab with all the stuff that goes in to it, an oligonucleotide synthesizer, an internet connection and a couple of months, I could splice genetic material from the Spanish Flu into an ordinary cold virus to create a bioweapon. By the way, we have all that stuff in this very building.”

“Seriously?” Raul asked, doubt clear in his voice.

“Seriously. It’s actually been done before. While researching the Spanish Flu, samples of the virus were retrieved from the bodies of victims that were buried in permafrost soil. To see if it were possible, they spliced them with a cold virus to see if it would work. To their utter horror, it worked.

What followed was a lot of hemming and hawing about whether or not to publish the results. On one hand, publishing it would give any would be bioterrorist ideas. On the other, it would ensure that the world was aware of the threat. In the end, the study got published. So yeah, give me a way to look up that study, the lab tools to use it and some time …” Amy explained, trailing off ominously.

“Thanks for that, I was currently a little lacking on the nightmare fodder front.” Raul winced.

“That’s what’s so bloody scary about the world. If someone is enough of a fanatic to commit terrorism, then they can easily get their hands on the necessary weapons. A copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook or an internet connection is all you need to build a proper bomb while a knowledge of cell biology and some rather pricy lab equipment is all you need to create a bioweapon.” Amy said in her best sage voice.

“That’s what’s scary about the world?” Isaac asked “Everything’s scary about the world. Just look around, or turn on the news. It’s just that for every asshole, extremist and would be terrorist, there’s many more people willing to stand up to them. That’s the only reason us humans are still here, after all.”

“I think we may have gotten a little bit off topic here.” Raul commented, drawing nods of agreement from the other two.

Then, the door opened to reveal a tall blond man with a frizzy haircut, built like a beanpole. On his back was a rather stuffed looking backpack.

“Hi, I’m Patrick, nice to meet you all.” he introduced himself, prompting the three of them to introduce themselves in turn.

“So, I’m a zoologist like Professor Bailey. How about you?”

“Forestry. I’m here to take care of any creatures that pose a threat.”

“I’m a cell biologist.”

“I’m the random guy off the street who somehow has the exact kind of knowledge the main character needs, the kind you see in movies.” Isaac echoed the other two, drawing a laugh from Raul and an eyeroll from Patrick.

Patrick then joined Amy on the couch and the three others began to trade theories on how the [System] had been created and why it was here. Isaac chimed in with the occasional explanation stolen from some random book, but he wasn’t really into it.

After all, he knew what the [System] was. A well meaning gift, if slightly ill thought out, twisted into something incredibly dangerous.

After another quarter of an hour or so, the door opened again to reveal Professor Bailey. It seemed things were finally about to get going.