Alice is looking at me strangely. I'm not sure what to do about it, so naturally, I ask bluntly.

[What is it?]

She doesn't flinch from the unexpected question, instead responding bluntly. "What's your strength stat?"

[...My what?]

Gesturing slightly, she asked again, "Your strength stat. The level of strength which the system recognizes you to have."

[I don't know what you mean. What system?]

She seems a little surprised. "The system. That blue box that you can pull up by saying 'status'?" She acts as though something invisible appears in front of her, and slides it away. "Do you not have that?"

[No. Joule does all of the upgrading bits.]

Alice looks interested. "Are you sure that she isn't the system?"

[No, I'm not the system. I'm rather curious about whatever it is you're talking about, though.]

[Oh, Joule! You're back! What was up with earlier?]

[I'm not going to talk about earlier. What do you mean by strength stat?]

Alice seems reluctant to explain, and Dylan takes over. "Everyone, monsters included, can be improved through the system. There was actually a movement to make the 's' in system capital, but it never caught on because-"

Baby takes over. "The strength stat is the measurement of your strength that the System deems accurate."

[Why didn't you say that to start with?]

Dylan loses his steam a little, and Alice asks again.

"You threw me across the room like I didn't weigh anything. So what's your strength?"

Joule muses for a moment, processing. [What's yours?]

She puffs up ever so slightly. "Two hundred and fifty."

Dylan gapes. "Two fifty? That's crazy - how did you get it that high?"

I get a strange feeling that Joule is quantifying the cat-woman. My suspicion is confirmed a moment later.

[I've been using kilograms to measure Null's strength, but it looks like you use a measurement equal to two pounds per point, so...]

She crunches the numbers for a moment, before replying, [In your system's terms, Null has a physical power of nine hundred and thirty-nine. At least right now.]

All of them stop what they're doing and stare. Baby's the first one to talk. "Carking crap."

[Joule mentioned a version of that first word, but she still hasn't told me what it means.]

Alice grabs onto my mandibles, pulling me closer. "Nine thirty-nine? Are you freaking kidding me? How do you get to ta strength like that?!"

Joule starts talking smugly. [Fun fact - ants can carry up to fifty times their own weight. Normally that's because they're so light - you know, they tend to be small and all that - but Noah figured out how to retain the ratio of strength to weight as Null grows. I'm still working on figuring out how he did it.]

All of them seem highly impressed, except for Dylan who skips straight to curious. "If the strength ratio stays the same, what about when he grows to much larger sizes? Will the ratio improve or decrease, or will it just stay the same? Can you improve it through the system? Can you-"

Joule's quick to respond. [I think we can talk about it sometime later if you want to, but I feel like it might bore everyone else. In the meantime, would you like a demonstration?]

I don't know when I got pulled into this. [I don't think I should.]

Baby looks excited. "Yeah, I want to see this!" Alice looks equally interested, though Dylan clearly just wants to talk about science stuff more.

I sigh, the lungs once again proving their usefulness. [Fine.]

Walking over to a sizable tree, I grab it with my mandibles near the base of the trunk and rip it out of the ground. I'm actually quite surprised with myself - I'd expected some more resistance. Baby crows in excitement and Alice just sort of grins. Dylan looks like he desperately wants to weigh the tree.

Joule's already on it. [Wait, that tree weighed more than what you should be capable of - did I miscalculate?]

I shake my head, the tree still in my mandibles. [I don't think you messed up. I think that it might have more to do with the void.]

She considers the possibility. [That... might be the case. I'll think about it.]

Alice suddenly lunges forward, slicing a tree at the stem, and it falls over. Baby, realizing the challenge, promptly punches another tree, and it snaps. I try to catch up and start tearing out trees by the roots, tossing them away.

It's more fun than I expected, and soon we're smashing through the forest at a remarkable rate, Dylan yelling something we can't hear.

The ground shakes.

[What was that?]