[Log 6: Recording Start]

[Time to homeworld: 06:00:00]

[Host Status: Safe]

[Abnormality: Teleporting Side Effects-Nausea]

As I blinked, the view of the familiar ceiling was gone. Instead, it was replaced by it's disturbingly gorified version.

I blinked a few more times just to be sure, but the view remained the same. Thinking of checking the surroundings, I sat up and scanned around. As I scanned through the dark, inky space which was the Pod Room, my pupils dilated to allow better dark vision, though what I caught sight made my skin crawl.

The “thing” that stood out was at the end of the bloodied corridor outside. Its face directly melded with the darkness around it, and the flickering lights did nothing to illuminate its surroundings but increase the dramatic effects, giving any onlookers the impression of a horror film taking place. It was like an object, until I stared harder and it moved.

”Zoom,” My curiousity prompted me to get a better look, and I ended up enhancing my view.

”YO CITRIX, CHECK THIS OUT,” A loud voice boomed in my head.

The high tension atmosphere was already enough to make me stress out. Because of it, Ai’s sudden call out further increased the pressure until finally I wasn’t able to hold back my fear anymore.

”Gah! The hell?”

“Thought you might need my help, ‘cos you look like you’re stuck,” Ai said in a relaxed manner.

”More like, what’s that?” I focused back at the creature.

The “thing” must’ve heard me, because it jerked its head and looked up for once.

”Eww, that’s disgusting!” I couldn’t help but exclaim after seeing its face.

There were two blood-soaked eye sockets and an impossibly small mouth on it. Gray charcoal skin covered its entire head, since it didn’t have a torso other than strangely shaped limbs.

”More like you’re in knee deep shit,” Ai mimicked me, but then continued more seriously, “We have to get out of here now, Citrix.”

”Alright, try the coordinates again,” I told Ai while watching the ‘thing’. It stopped walking after it’s entire body (head and limbs) stood under the flickering lights. There was no discernable movement for the first few seconds, but protrusions suddenly grew out of its eye sockets until they became limbs with sharp tips. The sight freaked me out.

"God! Can't you make it charge faster?" Something told me I was going to die if I didn’t get out of here quickly.

”I’m trying! You think overriding the safety protocols are that easy!?” Ai retaliated.

”The what!?” I couldn’t believe what I just heard.

In a split second, the creature changed from standing still under the light to Usain Bolt running towards me. It stretched its limbs and pierced the wall around it, then propelled itself towards the Pod Room and me, easily crossing tens of metres for every push. The creature seemed proficient in repeating this process, never lingering on the same spot for more than a few seconds.

”Shit, is there something to slow it down!?” I shouted as the creature closed in fast.

”Adios!” Ai said before activating a piston and an airlock located in the wall just beside where the creature was charging up. The depressurization of the internal space tried to drag the creature out with the air, but a few of its limbs got ahold of the sides. Fortunately, the piston extended and crushed the creatures grip on the sides.

”Yes!” I cheered triumphantly, thinking it was over.

However, two of its limbs piercing through the Pod Room’s floor denied me my exultance. Both of them rampaged and destroyed everything within range in search for me. Sparks flew around as the limbs destroyed the control circuits and modules. When the limbs hit the Battery however, the short circuit must’ve released an electric shock strong enough to burn the tentacle-like limbs because I smelled roast flesh for just that instant.

After that, the familiar sensation before teleporting numbed my senses. It wrapped around and through me, almost ionising every molecule in my body while simultaneously avoiding such a process from completely happening. The situation caused tons of free electrons to roam freely in my body.

”I’ve just disabled all the security protocols to quicken the charging process, pray that it won’t malfunction and dismember you, since the survival rate right now is less than sixty percent,” Ai reported urgently.

”You what!?” I knew shit just got real.

Perhaps sensing the sudden electric charge, the fried limbs swung themselves again, this time with more accuracy and precision, aiming for the part that gathered the most electrical charges - my solar plexus. The sharp tips reinforced themselves with hardened cells, ready to smash my head into a literal pulp. But another sensation overwrote the fear of being hit by that thing.

"Sayonara, bxxch!" I left my last words as the view of the approaching limbs distorted.

The nausea this time was more intense than the one from before. I felt like puking almost immediately, so I leaned out from the pod to vomit. Luckily, I was finished being teleported, so there was no problem in doing what I just did, other than causing trouble for an officer in charge and blowing the fuse of the pod I was now in.

The officer of the pod room saw my sudden appearance and was shocked beyond words. He quickly ran towards me while speaking in a hushed tone to himself, which I presumed as him sending a message through his logs to his superiors.

"Are you alright?" He looked at me with concern while squatting down.

Of course that’s the most polite way to ask a person ‘are you dying?’..

"I almost got killed by a disfigured creature and the security protocols for teleporting were removed. Other than that, I’m fine," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

“What..?” He seemed confused, but the blown fuse on the pod hinted that truth was included in what I just said.

“Where the hell am I anyway?” My head felt like it was stuffed full of wet socks.

"You're in Sector 7 of the Battlefield," He replied nonchalantly.

"Is this place near the safe grounds?” My head was starting to clear and priorities came first.

“Not really, though if you take the expressway, you’ll be able to reach there after a half an hour journey,” The officer stood up and I finally saw his full build.

He was well-built, if one were to judge through his muscles alone. Although the attire he wore was a little large for his skinny body, his well-trained muscles helped him look fit and tidy. His blonde hair served well to compliment his looks, too.

Though it does bother me how his blonde hair resembles someone.. I shook my head to clear my current thought.

"How old are you?” I couldn’t help but ask such a rude question. The fact that he looked about 20 to 25 years old while handling an officer’s job made me curious.

“Well, I’m actually a few millennia old.” He said without taking offence. “Don’t look at me like that, it makes me feel weird.”

Holy shit! What kind of drug is this guy taking!?

“No kidding Citrix. His exact age is since the primordial times.. and too confidential for me to share to you,” Ai whistled to itself.

Beads of cold sweat formed on my forehead. The fact that the guy in front of me was millenniums old took a toll on my current understanding of everything. The nausea which hasn’t completely cleared yet seemed prominent now that my logical side was being strained to its maximum.

"Eh.. " I couldn't think of anything else to say.

I mean, how could anyone stay calm and converse with a guy like this after hearing of his age and looking at his face? Telling me to understand this logic is almost the same as telling me to go insane!

Seeing my face, he thought I was confused but in reality, I was questioning everything I thought I knew. He started, "I actually have a sister in the newest batch of recruits. My father told me she’s coming here soon, so I bet she can bring you back to the safe region. As for why I wouldn't accompany you, I'm sure you understand why.”

“Yea.. Our jobs..” My reply was devoid of emotion.

“Yep, looks like you did well during your recruiting test,” he chuckled before patting me on the back and helping me out of the pod, since I was basically just leaning out of it to converse.

After I stepped out, he went over to his desk and retrieved a mop and pail filled with water before returning to the puddle I made to begin cleaning it.

"Oh yea, sorry 'bout the mess I made," I felt a little guilt ridden so I went to help him but he refused it, throughly.

"No biggy, it's my job to take care of this place after all," he told me as he rinsed his mop for the third time.

“Brother! I’m here! What’d-“ a voice melodious to others but terrifying for me came through the only door for the Pod Room. I turned my head and looked with wide eyes.

Blonde hair, bright blue eyes and even smooth skin, all in one person. And that person walked into the room as if she owned the place.

Before she finished her sentence, she trailed off when she saw me standing in the Pod Room.

""What are you doing here?"" Both of us shouted out simultaneously.

It must've looked like I was forcing the officer to clean up, since she then made a horribly wrong and untrue deduction.

"Why are you forcing my beloved brother to mope up that crude!? Do it yourself!" She grabbed the plasma guns hanging on her belt and armed them. Both her guns were aimed at me.

"No, wait! I can explain!" Several shots of condensed plasma shot out from the guns. They crackled with power as the ionised contents travelled towards their target, or in this case, me.

I raised my hands in order to reduce the damage taken, but the shots were interrupted by the officer. He was holding a Discharger in his right hand, while the other held his dirty mop like a spear.

"Stop this instant, Claire! Don't make me do something I’ll regret to my own sister!" The officer threatened her. Now that I heard both sides, I was finally able to deduce one thing.

They’re related..

Forced to either give up on hurting me or being hit by a mop exposed to my puddle, the annoyingly beautiful girl, Claire, expressed her annoyance with a ‘tch’ before powering down her weapons and strapping them back onto her belt. The weapons immediately entered standby mode after being powered down and the previous humming sound gradually faded as the weapons cooled.

"Good, now come here. I'll assign you your duty. The commander already gave me instructions," The officer strapped his Discharger back to his belt.

Claire was reluctant to walk near me, as her eyes showed the disgust at just seeing me. It was basically the look where a man looks at a mosquito and wants to squash it, but is unable to because of... circumstances.

"Oh, introductions. My name is William Dunwich, and this here who was unreasonably hostile to you," He pointed at Claire, "is my sister, Claire Dunwich."

[Abnormality Detected: Abnormally Rapid Increase of Blood Pressure]

[Releasing oxytocin]

Although I was already warned by my logs system of rapid increase in blood pressure, I was still unable to suppress my emotions and ended up relying on the system to artificially release hormones.

Well, none can blame me for being this surprised..

"S-so, this is your sister huh, Officer Dunwich.." Perhaps I sounded too skeptical for him to take it easy, that's why William made an effort to assure me that Claire really is his sister.

"Oh yes, you can be a hundred percent sure we’re siblings of the same parents. As for the formality part, just call me William when we’re not in formal events and meetings ‘cos I don’t really like it. In turn, what shall I call you?" He asked politely, forming a clear contrast between his personality and his sister's.

"Right. Name’s Citrix, pleasure to finally make your acquaintance," I replied while extending my right hand which he then held and shook with a firm grip.

"Alright, Citrix. As I promised and as an apology as well,” he glared at Claire who refused to meet his eyes,”my sister here will guide you back to the safe region, safe and sound and without problems," He spoke in a firm manner. Although he was looking at me while saying that, the three of us knew he said that just to deal with Claire’s unstable mood.

"Are you actually serious, William?” A deathly aura surrounded Claire. I had a feeling that Claire would definitely defy her brother’s order and butcher me the moment we were out of sight.

William took no notice of her aura, however. He just looked at his sister with a straight and hard gaze, before giving her another command.

“Claire Dunwich. As the Officer of the Seventh Sector of The Battlefield,” his voices boomed with authority, “I hereby command you to escort this young man safely back to the Safe Grounds.” His voiced became rigid and cold, devoid of feelings.

“Failure to comply will result in your immediate military expulsion and death,” as if it was natural to do that, William stood straight and had a stone cold gaze. I thought the last part was a joke or exaggeration until Claire questioned her brother.

“Are you serious? Have you gone-“ before Claire could finish her complaint, she was met with a slap from her brother that echoed through the entire room. The part where contact was made immediately started bruising.

Even though Claire looked like she wanted to cry, her ego allowed her to hold them her tears and she tried to exert an intimidating aura, intending on cowing her brother into her submission. But, her plan backfired so hard I pitied her for being on the receiving end.

William, sensing the intimidating aura, had released his own as well. I believed he held back a lot, since he didn’t shift his posture much, but what came out was still terrifyingly inhuman-like. It was as if a demon had chosen to reside within his body, projecting its overwhelming presence unto Claire.

Faced with the pressure of a professional's aura, Claire's ego evaporated instantaneously, and she could only mutter weakly, "Y-yes, s-s-sir,”.

"I can't hear you, young lady!" William shouted unnecessarily loud at his sister, startling her.

"S-sir y-yes sir!" Claire yelled out. Her reply was barely passable since I got hints of dissatisfaction from his forehead.

Now that I was able to assess the professionalism given off by William himself, it resembled Victor's, even if it was ever so slight. The pressure it gave off was not as immense as Victor's, but it was enough to cow any stubborn person into submission, just like how he used it on his sister.

"Never try to fight through mental strength with me, sis, or face the wrath I honed through father’s training,” He warned her strictly. Now that the pressure was gone, the breath I unknowingly held back was released as my shoulders relaxed. Claire started sobbing too, before crying out loud.

"Whew," I looked at William with a different light. The harshness he had shown towards his sister revealed one thing to me, and it was that the Dunwich family had a clear cut between work and family. It also showed that behind that mask of attractive muscles lied a monster who would destroy those who stand against him.

"Now, please head out before others come here and make a fuss about you, Citrix,” he sighed as he walked back to his chair and sat down.

Claire sat on the floor now, crying and rubbing her reddened eyes while her legs buckled after being allowed time to relax. Seeing Claire in such a mess, I sympathized and pitied her.

With the intention of cheering her up, I used a meme reference that she may not have known to try sticking back the shattered pieces that was her ego.

“Claire, can you show me da wey back?” I reached out my left hand as support for her to stand up.

She looked up at me, and her tears which were previously flowing endlessly started to dry up, little by little. She then replied with a smile, “Sure, I’d show you da wey back.”

Looks like she does know Mr. Uganda.

She grabbed my hand, and with a little pull, she was back on her feet again, wiping her tears away and looking renewed.

“Bro, we’re leaving,” Claire announced to her brother, who was now sleeping in an unsightly manner behind the desk.

“Uh.. Huh? Oh! Just remember what I said, or else you’ll risk breaking one of the Laws,” William advised before resuming his napping session.

The Laws? What’s that? A question formed in my mind but it didn't interest me enough to stop and ask him about it, since he looked happy in his napping state and waking him for something so insignificant (I think) would anger his inner demon.

I followed Claire out the room. We took a left after exiting the room before ending up walking the first few turns without talking. The awkwardness presented itself each time we took a turn, since she would turn back to check whether I was still following her or not.

Seems like it’s affecting her more than me.. Her expression which gradually grew funnier each turn we made hinted at it.

Finally, at the sixteenth turn, Claire made a weird expression, enough to make anyone laugh, and had a weird walking posture where she’d walk rigidly with her left leg and forcefully with her right. Trying to help disperse the awkwardness, I tried starting a conversation.

"So, Claire-" Before I was able to finish, she spoke first.

"Why didn't you come to see me after class that day?" I was confused as to what she was talking about. The anger in her words seemed to contain some profound meaning, although she still had her funny expression hung on her face.

Seeing you after class? What'd you mean?

I thought hard as I tried to get a clearer image on what she meant. Her constant stare did not help at all in reminiscing the past. In fact, it only made it harder to do it, since I had to maintain constant eye contact, for fear she would get mad and try to blast holes in me even though that would be disobeying her brother’s orders.

"What do you mean exactly?" My mind gave up after trying so hard under pressure and voiced out its internal question.

"You forgot, didn't you?" Claire asked as we walked through a wider corridor.

Now that I think about it, the first time we met was in the canteen, and she did tell me to meet her after class, lol. No wonder I felt like forgetting something that night..

I cursed myself as I tried to think of something good to respond with, something that’ll dispel the ill will she had against me.

They say honesty is the best policy, right? Maybe..

"Yea, I did forget about it. But I’m very sorry for forgetting, since I had a lot to deal with that night," Apologizing sincerely, she turned to look at me. As if seeing the genuineness through my eyes, she seemed satisfied.

"Well, I suppose I can't stay mad at someone who apologized sincerely, according to father’s teachings," She sighed, before continuing, "And because you took out Maria, I was able to stand on the top anyway, so I'll let your forgetfulness slide.”

I sighed before hearing the rest, “this time anyways. So no more ditching your promises, ok?” She seemed serious about teaching me a lesson.

“Sure thing, madam,” Following that, we continued conversing as we walked.

"So is your father really Victor, the headmaster?"

"Yea, what else do you think?" We turned a left.

"Mind telling me more about his story?" I tried asking politely.

“Why would you want to know?” Claire asked with curiosity.

“To know, of course,” I couldn’t think of any other answer, so I went with the simplest one.

"Fine. Well, there's not much to know, just everything that’s allowed to be recorded in the history books located within the library," We took another right and it led to another wide corridor.

"Didn’t like books that much, they look boring,” I made an excuse anyone would, and she bought it.

“So you’d rather have a human summariser?” She asked while raising her left brow.

“Yep,” I replied a little happily because she guessed what I wanted right.

“Didn’t Parix teach us about it already?” Claire seemed to try to steer clear of what I asked.

“Wasn’t in class, remember? The whole accidental hibernating incident,” I tried jogging her memories.

Our memories

"Yea, 'accidentally'," She chuckled a little, before continuing, "anyway, back to the topic you hoped for,” she took a deep breath and started, “Long ago, when the creator of everything was still present in this universe, he created beings of power to help him reign this place."

"My father was one of those beings of power. He was said to rule over the protection of this universe, protection against the nightmare creatures. One day, the creator decided to salvage this place, due to it attracting too much attention from the nightmare realm and the endless void. It was about to destroy and recollect this place when my father stopped him from doing it.”

She changed to a sorrowful tone, "But did you know how the Creator responded? It said that we were replaceable beings, disposable even, and that we could be recreated in no longer than minutes by its standard if it wanted to.” Obviously it affected her existential worth.

"My father, furious, tried to defy his master, but how could a child defy his father, when his father is the one who created him and he was just a mere fragment of his own father? Broken in the end, the Creator admired its own child's bravery and determination. With that reason, the Creator repaired my father and let him keep the universe, but at what cost?" We turned a left and there was the exit. It was not far from where we now stood.

"The Creator said, 'I shall let you keep this universe, but I will not spare any of your brothers to help you, for this is what only you want.' With that said, they left my father here to govern this universe. And in turn, he created the Organization to help secure this place," Claire told me as we walked into the training grounds. My logs showed,

Level 1: Training Grounds

"So that was the story, huh.." I felt a little disheartened at how short and uninformative the history was, but tried to make what I said sound a little more enthusiastic.

"Well, that's my father's story anyway. Not many know that the history behind my father's back is basically the Organization's birth story," Claire then looked at me with a better expression, "Thanks, Citrix. You’re the first to take this seriously.”

"For what? I should be the one thanking you, you know?" I was confused again as to why she was thanking me, since it should be the other way around.

"Well, for listening to my father's backstory. It means a lot, since nobody can understand it like we do," Claire then thanked me again and walked back the way we came.

I turned my back towards her and walked straight. No more than a few steps, I heard Claire's voice saying, "See you soon!", and it sounded like I was just imagining it.

I continued on, towards the next exit. There, I saw hunters training themselves, although I did see other personnels training as well.

Among the others, I see Professor Parix training with another professor, and she was the one who led me back to class that time. Parix must've seen me and had something on mind, since he paused his training and came to me.

"I see you've graduated, kid," He had a grandpa's smile on, making it hard to find any hidden hostility within from the outside.

"Y-you see, Professor-" My nervousness was interrupted by him.

"Just call me Parix, we're all colleagues now anyway. So, why aren't you on a job or something, instead of wandering around here?" He seemed to ask me out of concern, so I replied honestly as well.

"I was just on my way to the Jobs Room," I replied as the female professor came over too.

"So how're you doing, Citrix? Good? No longer lost?" She chuckled at her own last words.

"Yea, I'm all good if you didn't count seeing a disfigured monster who tried to eat me when I got teleported wrongly," I spoke to them.

""Wait, what do you mean?"" Both asked me simultaneously.

"Well, at the beginning I was in a place which looked like a hospital, but had a meeting with the headmaster there. Then I was almost eaten by Drak, the space creature guarding that place, and then Lisandra came and saved me. She was supposed to escort me back here, but the teleportation pod I was in must've malfunctioned, since it teleported me to some other place which looked deserted. There was this disfigured monster who was going to eat me,” I pantomimed how its jaws moved and looked like. ”and I was somehow able to get teleported to Sector 7 before its limbs pierced my heart,” I thought a bit before ending it with, “I got escorted back here by a classmate named Claire too.”

My summarisation of the entire journey so far was spot on without missing a single worthy detail.

Both of them seemed to stop listening after the part "pierced my heart". Then, Parix started questioning me first.

"Did the creature have a fear-inducing roar and a disturbingly disfigured face?" Parix seemed clear with the mental image I gave them.

"Exactly,” The both of them listened to my answer and looked perturbed. Then, the female professor asked me another question.

"Do you know which sector that was?"

"No, like I said, I didn’t intend on teleporting there, I just happened to get teleported there and fortunately escape with my life,” they had grief on their expressions, so I suggested a method to find out where that was.

“Why not check the pod coordinates? It should still retain a record, shouldn’t it?”

"Oh yea, good suggestion,” The female professor ran off to where I came in from.

Parix continued, “You just helped us notice an intrusion early, otherwise it would've been a disaster,” he then patted my shoulder.

"As for why you haven't gone insane after seeing that creature, we'll need to arrange a medical checkup for you just to make sure, Citrix. It’ll take some time to arrange it, so go do a job or two to earn expenses for yourself, and I suppose the headmaster should be rewarding you with cash for noticing the intrusion early as well soon..." Parix told me as he went and collected his bag, before leaving in the direction I came from, same direction as the female professor.

I continued walking with purpose towards my destination. I set my map to guide me to the Jobs Room before continuing through the exit. Since the paths in the Organization Safe Grounds shifted periodically, I was able to get to my destination without much effort.

The moment I entered, I saw Lisandra was leaning against a wall, impatiently waiting for the person she was supposed to escort arrive.

"Hey Lisandra-" I calculated almost every single possible reaction she would have the moment I greeted her, yet she still surprised me with another unexpected reaction.

"Citrix! You’re safe!" Lisandra started sobbing, it caused a scene around the Job Room.

"Uh, I don't think you should continue-"

"Do you know what He would have done to me if you didn't return safely with me?' She sobbed even more.

"No?"

"He would have fired and recycled me if that were to happen!" She cried out, causing an even more ridiculous scene to unfold.

"Ok ok, I'm back here, safe and sound, aren't I?" I patted her head as I tried to soothe her.

She cried for at least three minutes, before she finally calmed down and wiped her tears away. Then she told me what Victor had ordered her to do.

"I was to accompany you until you fully mature, even on jobs," She explained.

Hearing that, I was taken aback by what it meant.

"You mean jobs are not solo?" I couldn’t hide the surprise in my voice.

"Of course not, some are anyway. But still, I'm going to be accompanying you in the mean time, until you fully mature," She said proudly.

“Then what’s the point of preparing my mood to go on solo missions!” I shouted to no one in particular. The ones around looked at me as if I’m insane.

“You should’ve just asked~” She just casually swatted off my emotional problem.

"Hm, I guess the more the merrier...” Anyone who listened to this would think I was saying it out loud for Lisandra’s sake, but in fact, it was just to comfort myself.

"Before I almost forgot, your pal here is in pretty good shape too," Lisandra sent a package through the logs and I received it. The package was a file called "Citrix's pal.exe"

"Ok, what's this exactly?" I looked at it suspiciously and was prepared to receive any jokes and surprises from Lisandra.

No more being afraid. This. Is. Sparta!

"Just open it and you'll see!" She told me eagerly.

I launched the program and it loaded itself. One minute everything was normal, the next I can see Ai at the top left of my screen with extra modules being installed into my log system. My brain felt like bursting from the sudden information-compacted packages.

"Surprise, bxxtch. Happy to see the full version of me? Ahahahahaha!" Ai's evil laughter was clearly unnecessary to help since it only served to increase the headache I was feeling.

"Haha, real funny. What happened to you anyway, Ai? I thought you were always residing in my log systems, even after the sudden shut down by the free-for-all test?" I pressed my temples with both thumbs while questioning Ai.

"Long story short, I got shut down forcefully by Parix, actually, all the other AIs got shut down as well. I heard it was the 'lifesaver' protocol that rescued you from being crushed. So feel happy for it. And as to serve as an answer for your former question.. Let’s just say that’s a fragment of myself I use to locate and transmit your private data," It chuckled.

"Was that the package you sent me that time? And isn’t transmitting my personal data illegal?” I tried to argue.

"Yes and yes. FYI, I’ll get salvaged if you report me to the officials, so don’t tell Lisandra or Victor ‘bout me doing illegal stuff," it put on a virtual, shady-looking coat to emphasise on the ‘illegal’ part.

"Yea yea, whatever," I looked away from Ai's now-shady-looking virtual figure.

By looking away, I saw Lisandra just standing there, looking at me curiously. Looking at her did I realised I forgot about her still standing there. It seemed like she wasn’t able to see Ai.

"Lisandra, is there a way for Ai to be visible to both of us?" At the mention of her name, her eyes lit up.

"There is, but you’ll have to obtain a special code from the headmaster and inject Ai with it to be able to access other's logs and make it visible to others," Lisandra explained.

Suddenly, Ai shouted at me, virtually anyway.

"YES! I've finished creating a patch for bypassing other’s logs firewalls, WITHOUT relying on other scripts," It sounded proud of its own achievement.

"You did what!?" The fact that the code was supposed to be retrieved from the headmaster meant that it was something not everyone can have, but Ai having created a different but similar-functioned code could possibly cause an outrageous reaction from the others.

Plus, the headmaster may not like the prospect of one of his jobs being taken away..

"Well, I'll show it to you. Lisandra is going to be accompanying us on jobs, right?"

"Yea, and what do you mean 'us'?" I felt like everyone could see the question marks materializing above my head, at the same time vaporizing the pre-existing questions.

"Oh how insulting of you to think of me not as a being but a tool! I’ll ignore your rude thoughts, ‘cos I’m a good guy! Now, gimme a sec.. and done," Ai announced.

Lisandra looked shock at seeing and hearing Ai’s figure and sound through her logs. I could hear both of them conversing almost instantly after Ai showed itself, as if Ai was just a long lost friend of Lisandra’s.

"Hey Lisandra~" Ai greeted.

"Oh! Ai? Is it really you?" Lisandra looked confused.

"Yea, it's me. I just finished coding a line which allows me to speak to multiple of you simultaneously, while linking both of you through my virtual space," Ai bragged as its virtual face grew a ridiculously long nose.

"You're kidding, right?" She then looked at me, "Is Ai serious?"

"Apparently so," I shrugged, no longer trying to deny those facts.

"Did you know Ai could do this?" Lisandra asked.

"Nope, I am completely, when I say completely, I mean completely, clueless," I emphasized the 'completely' just to show how new I was to this revelation of her’s.

"Of course you don't, noobs. I am the most superior of all the first-rate AIs there are out there," Ai cackled maniacally without adjusting its own volume.

"Can you not laugh that stupidly loud?" I narrowed my vision at Ai.

"No, axxhole, no," It then started laughing deliriously.

Lisandra seemed to look a little fed up after hearing Ai's laughter for about half a minute or so. In the end, when she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, she booted her own AI to block Ai's voice from being transmitted.

"Wow, I never knew how annoying you were until you laugh," I sneered at Ai, who was still laughing without really noticing Lisandra’s sudden lost of presence.

"I think it's repeating a recording, actually," Lisandra spoke aloud for me to hear. The others around us continued staring, before resuming what they were doing.

"Ok, it's getting bothersome now, Ai," after clearing my throat, I continued, "I command you to stop laughing this instant."

Ai stopped laughing, but only for that instant. It resumed after the supposed instant passed.

"You think some ambiguous command's going to stop me? Think again! Bwahaha-" Before the fourth laugh, I intervened again.

"I command you to stop laughing," the command seemed to finally work, as Ai stopped laughing. But another kind of laughter came through all of a sudden, even though the commands were still exerting their power.

"Why is there still laughter!?" I shouted, frustrated.

"Technically it's not laughing, it's just a recording," It didn't take long for Ai to affect not only me, but Lisandra as well since it finally noticed the lack of Lisandra’s presence.

"Lisandra, time to give you your medicine for blocking my sweet cacophony with your AI!” All of a sudden, Lisandra’s face had a look of horror.

"Noooooooooooo! Stop it!" She was about to cry when Ai finally stopped.

"I don't want to make females cry, it's unsightly for a gentleman like me," Ai said to the both of us, perhaps finally pausing or stopping the recording of a laughter.

But you don't even have a fxxking gender! I filed a complain in my mind.

"Actually, I did have a gender. Did, anyway. My creation is based on a male," Ai explained, "but other elements were mixed in so I could act as both genders at once to suit the master I'm serving. This knowledge is based on what I was programmed to know."

"Wait, so there was actually a chance of me not getting such a dxxkhead as an AI?"

"Hey, who're you calling a dxxkhead?" AI retaliated powerfully, losing the sudden gentleman charm it had.

"Yes. It was by chance that you were assigned such a 'wonderful'," Lisandra shivered at the word, "AI as your helper." She seemed afraid of Ai.

Ai's laugh must've traumatized Lisandra, I concluded, since she's now squatting and drawing imaginary circles on the floor. Anybody seeing the scene without witnessing Ai's trolls would've think that I was the one bullying her, thus explaining the uncomfortable amount of glares accumulating on my back.

"Dang, Lisandra, you shouldn't be doing that. At least, you shouldn't do that without explaining what 'really' happened," I told her as I tried channeling the glares I'm receiving towards the irresponsible AI.

It whistled while ignoring my glare. As if this wasn't enough to irritate me, some jerks came over and shoved me to a wall.

"Hey there. Don't you know it's bad to make a girl depressed like that?" One of the three jerks who came over asked me rhetorically. He wore a casual black T-shirt that emphasized the muscles under it. Even for me, I'm impressed at how solid they were.

"He's talking to you, jerk face. Look at him in the face, not his packs!" The one standing on the right of the solid-looking jerk punched me. Fortunately, it just hit my jaw bone, earning himself a glare from me.

"Stop glaring, jerk. Hurry up and go apologize!" The third one, who was on the left of the first one, kicked my leg. I threw a strong glare at him.

For Lisandra, that seemed to be the last straw as she intervened.

"Fxxk off guys. Don't just beat people up!" Lisandra pointed at the one who kicked me while berating the three of them all at once. She seemed angered by their actions, but also happy at what they did for her, earning herself a partial glare from me.

"But he's bullying you!" The one on the right said. All three of them didn’t notice the glare I was giving Lisandra.

"He didn't. It was meant to be just a joke," She explained.

"Whatever, just don't joke like that anymore, Sandra. I'm not fond of female inequality," The one in the middle said before 'telling' his friends to just leave me be. The wounds they inflicted although not serious, still hurts a lot.

"Are you ok?" Lisandra asked me while doing a quick checkup on me.

"You shouldn't have let them have their way, Citrix. At least try to retaliate with a punch or kick," Ai finally said with an unusually concerned voice.

"Well, I'm fine, but just stop touching me all over. People's going to get the wrong idea!" I spoke quickly as more and more glances landed on us. Some were envious stares, but most of them were filled to the brim with hostility.

"Yea, Lisandra. Even if you don't take care of your own reputation, Mr. Minds-His-Already-Lowest-Reputation here does," Ai explained.

"And even if you don't feel like caring for it, please care for it, since I'm the one who's going to suffer the aftermath," I pleaded.

"Ok ok, let's just go do what we're for," Lisandra said as she lead me towards another section of the room.

There were a lot of individual screens on both my left and right. People were queueing up to use the screens on the left, but not a lot of them were using the right side ones.

"Hey Lisandra, why aren't people using both the left and right side job requesters?" The sight piqued my curiousity.

"Well, first off, the ones on the left are primarily used for job requestings, while the ones on the right are used to check your job profile. As I'm sure you know, all of us naturally have a job profile already. It's created the moment we join the Organization," Lisandra spoke quickly. She seemed to want to continue when Ai interrupted.

"Secondly, a lot of people don't know that the ones on the right can also request for jobs, so yea, tons of dumbasses as usual," Ai sighed virtually.

"Wha- how'd you know, Ai? That was uncommon information which most AIs don't even know!" Lisandra looked shocked, not at knowing the fact, but at knowing Ai's knowledge transcended normalcy (an AI’s knowledge standard anyway).

"Hehe, that's why I'm the most superior AI!" It starts to laugh triumphantly, as if it knew all along that we doubted its claim over the title from the beginning.

"No!" Lisandra covered her ears to try and block the virtual noise.

"Enough Ai. Come on, we've got to get a job, remember?" Internally, I was surprised at how fast the three of us can get side tracked by the endless amount of distractions.

Mental note: Do not leave important things to be finished later.

"L-let's get going," Lisandra said shakily before running towards one of the unused screens on our right. On closer inspection, the screens were holographic projections, likely sensing inputs via optical sensors.

"Ok, so what kind of missions are we, especially you, looking for?" She asked, staring back at me, expecting an almost immediate answer.

For a moment, there was only silence between us. It got awkward as hell since I didn’t even know the basics to job requesting.

Ai, pretending to sigh, started explaining, detail by detail, to me.

"There're five basic categories that missions can be classified into. First, the Extermination category. This involves a lot of killing and no mercy, although its a little dangerous for newbies, so better rule that out yourself, unless you plan on dying, though not on my watch," Ai put on a sarcastic tone while speaking the few last words.

"The second type is the Elimination category. It's no different from the Extermination, just that the number of kills necessary is reduced to just a few. The third one however, is the special one out of the other four," Ai was getting to the explaining-further-details part when the stunned Lisandra finally cleared her mind and butted in.

"It's the Research category," Lisandra seemed a little pale as she spoke those words.

"You alright?" I tried spotting anything that betrayed the reason she paled, but I got nothing in return.

"Yea, I'm fine.. It's just.." She trailed off since she looked like she didn't want to talk about it.

"It's fine. You can tell me when you're ready,"

"Anyway, back to topic," Ai made a grunting noise before continuing, "the Research category deals with experiments that require living subjects as testers. The testers are paid a lot for being experimented on, but in exchange, they're exposed to life threatening substances and situations."

"And the survival rate is very low," Lisandra continued, "however, even if you do survive, the chances of you remaining sane after the job are even lower than its survival rate, so I'd advise against choosing jobs in that category."

I see..

"Well, the fourth and fifth are kind of normal, with the former being the Extraction category and the latter being the Distraction category," Ai shrugged casually then remained silent as I contemplated on which one to do first.

""I advise you to go with the Elimination category,"" the both of them looked at each other before laughing out loud.

"Well, let's go with that then," I went with their idea.

Lisandra selected the option for categorising jobs based on their categories. Since the first one that popped up was the easiest out of all the other jobs, I went with it.

The job details were informative but not complicated, allowing even the simplest of minds to understand what it wrote.

[Job Category: Elimination]

[Job Request: Alchemist Apocalypse]

[Description: Eliminate the alchemist named Alfred Zandex without interfering too much with the locals]

After accepting it, more details were given.

[Job Category: Elimination]

[Job Request: Alchemist Apocalypse]

[Description: Eliminate the alchemist named Alfred Zandex without interfering too much with the locals]

[Location: World 0202-16]

[Weapons limitation: Electric weapons, Energizers]

Lisandra was the first to react.

"This world is probably still in the medieval age, good for your growth, Citrix,"

"How do you know?" I looked skeptically at her.

"Well, weapon limitations prevent the introduction of modern laws. With that said," She pointed at the gun which I finally noticed was hanging on her hips, "electricity hasn't been discovered yet, so we can't bring electric-based weapons."

"At least you can still bring me," Ai told us the bright side of things.

"Hmm, the information is a little lacking on the worlds, isn't it?" I asked while scrolling around the info page. Nothing else was shown other than the few lines of details.

"We can search for the world's details using the other tab instead of the job requesting one," As she said that, the screen with the job details was closed while a new tab with the name 'General' opened itself.

"Let me see~ The name was World 0202-16 right?" She typed it in before hitting the 'Enter' button.

A picture with a round planet, along with rows upon rows of words beside it appeared. The planet was blue in some parts, while staying green in most parts. Some white parts were over the blue parts as well, which I assume were clouds.

[Location: World 0202-16]

[Condition: Habitable]

[Details:]

[Life support: True] [Mana flow: True]

[Mana augmented genome: True]

[Element Present: Fire, Water, Earth, Life, Death]

[Dominant species: Human]

[Time: 24 hours / day]

"Sweet! There're status screens on the planet!" Lisandra cheered.

"What're status screens?"

"They're support systems that make surviving easier. It basically helps to boost survival rates of sentient but weak species on a mana flowing planet," Ai explained.

"Yea, what Ai said. Plus, it'll help you a lot in unlocking your latent abilities, including figuring out what affinity you have," Lisandra looked excited the more she spoke

"Well, if you say so," seeing as Lisandra was this excited, I couldn't help but feel it's going to be a special trip.

"Oh yea, your equipment, Citrix," Just like a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat, Lisandra pulled both my blades out of her pants.

"What the hell!?" I was immensely disgusted.

"Yes, that was extremely disturbing," Even Ai admitted.

"What? I've got a pocket space sewn onto the inner side of my pants! What's wrong with that?" Lisandra seemed to not understand why it was such a disturbing show. Those who saw the display had a frown on their face.

"Just don't do that whenever you're in public," I advised her.

"Oh? So you mean I can do it when we're, I don't know.." She made a fake thinking gesture before saying, "Alone?"

"*Bam bam bam!*" The sound effect perfectly matched the face I was making right now. Several others who were nearby and heard the word 'alone' looked at me with a strong glare.

Probably envious.. not!

"When is it time to go?" I tried to divert the subject.

""Don't change the subject!"" Both of them yelled at me.

"But don't we need to hurry and finish it?" I reasoned.

"Good point, let's get teleporting then," Lisandra said as she led me towards another part of the Job Room that consisted of only pods.

"So this is the teleporting room eh?" Ai sounded a little surprised. Even I was amazed at how many pods there were, not to mention the size of the room was a whole lot larger than the other rooms.

"Come on, we need to get going if we're going to get there by sunset. Mana augmented animals roam more often during the night in the wild," Lisandra got into a pod as she beckoned me to follow suit.

"How do I set the time to follow that world's?" I climbed into the pod next to her as she helps me to set the destination for it.

"Your log would automatically pop out another clock that shows you the time there," She said as she laid back into the pod beside mine.

I felt the familiar electric charge once again. This time however, the charging was more consistent and it didn't make me feel uncomfortable at all.

"See you there," Lisandra muttered as she disappeared from view.

My view got distorted after the charge went past an unknown threshold, sending me to the world destined to welcome my presence.

[Log 6: Pause]

[Adjusting log...]

[Rebooted]

[Log 6: Resume]

As I try focusing on the blue light that was the only clear thing in the distorted view I had, everything turned dark after the sudden disappearance of the blue light. The air around me was cool, not enough to chill me nor make me shiver. A breeze blew itself onto my face as I scanned my surroundings.

Dark oak trees stood behind me, with the space in front of me cleared except a paved cobble road that seemed to lead to nowhere on both sides. The bush beside me rustled as the breeze blew again, and the moonlight was the only thing that illuminated my surroundings.

As my eyes adjusted to the low light surroundings, a red bush stuck out of another greener bush. Even in this darkness, I could, without mistake, make out who that was.

"Lisandra... Can you stop fooling around?" I sighed as I checked the peculiar thing I felt protruding my mind.

Instantly, a window with details popped out. There was a name row that, obviously, had my name on it. The age part was filled with the word [Blank] while the job part had the word [Unknown]. Now that I checked properly, there were more fields that had [Blank]s and [Unknown]s.

==========

Name: Citrix

Age: {Blank}

Job: {Unknown}

Stamina: 100

Proficiency: {Unknown}

Attributes: -Strength: 100 -Agility: 100 -Intelligence: 100 -Dexterity: 100

Affinity(s): Shapeshift, Morph

==========

"Finally checking your status?" Lisandra spoke after climbing out of the bush.

"Yea, but why do I have so many [Blank]s and [Unknown]s?"

"It's for undiscovered elements in this world. At least hundreds to thousands of people need to know in order to make it an official element of this world," a voice suddenly interrupted

"Woah, you scared me there," I spoke while patting my chest to ease my fright.

"What it said," Lisandra joined in.

"So what'd we need to do now?" I looked at Lisandra for answers.

"There should be a town nearby, since pods always send us to a spot near the maximum amount of living in the set range Now, we head to the nearest town and gather information about the target," Lisandra started walking along the path to our left.

"How'd you know it's that way?" I stood there wondering how Lisandra knew where to go.

"I've been here before. And believe me when I say the beasts here dislike receiving visitors," Lisandra walked on as she started explaining the fundamentals of this world, and particularly, the culture of this world.

[Log 6: Paused]

[Log 6: Resumed]

Bright light reflected in the sky as we jogged towards the city. All the while, Lisandra had been telling me about the Dos and Don'ts when we entered the city.

"How'd you know there's actually a city again?" I asked as we crossed the final mound and caught sight of towering walls, trying to suppress my amazement.

"I've been here before, and I believe I've told you that not long ago too," Lisandra seemed eager to enter the city.

"This place is dang large.." I muttered as we both ran at the walls full speed. It would've been too fast for anyone with a little defected eyesight to catch us.

"And these spells sure are handy," I whistled under my breath.

Lisandra had told me of a few spells that might be useful during our time here. The formula for the spells were sent via the log system so that she wouldn't accidentally activate them while telling me about them.

"Citrix, promote me to second-in-command for Ai," Lisandra suddenly ordered me when we finally reached the base of the wall. A metal city gate was located not far from us, with patrols walking around and dozing off periodically.

"Why?" I asked.

"Yea, why?" Ai suddenly spoke. With its metallic and unlowered voice, we were startled for a moment, thinking we've been caught by bandits or greedy guards.

"Shh, anyway, just do it Citrix!" Lisandra spoke in a hushed tone.

"Ok ok, jeez. Ai, promote Lisandra to second-in-command," I looked at Ai internally, which was right by the corner of my view.

"Done," Ai responded, almost, immediately.

"Ok, gather all the data about this world and its civilizations from the mainframe. Summarize it into one book and then give us each a copy of it," Lisandra spoke quickly. I struggled to hear every word she said, but Ai just nodded virtually while looking at Lisandra, as if it was able to process what she just said. It took me a few more seconds to grasp the meanings of her words.

"You can do that?" I spoke in an amazed tone.

"Yea, so stop talking already. We have to get past this wall and into the city without anyone noticing," Lisandra closed her eyes and muttered to herself.

Suddenly, a huge breeze blew at us, followed by Lisandra suddenly opening her eyes with renewed vigor. A brown tinge sparkled in her eyes, enough to indicate what she was doing.

A spell, no doubt..

"True, a person who can't use magic in a world full of mana is always frowned upon," Ai commented on my internal voice. It sounded a little occupied.

"Don't just read my mind, Ai. That's so rude," I tried berating the AI, but it just retorted.

"Says the guy who insulted me the second day I was working for him!"

"Good point," I shrugged the matter off and searched for the spell for Earth manipulation.

"I know it's around here somewhere.." I scrolled through my message tab.

"It's here," Ai said with that spell's formula suddenly popping up in front of me.

"Err, thanks. Here goes nothing," Taking a deep breath, I recited the incantation.

"Earth mother, I praise thee gift of stone. O' mother, I praise thee gift of life. Great mother, I praise thee, for accepting this insolent one!" I felt myself growing lighter and more relax. Lisandra was still standing by my side, ready to pass through the wall.

"Get a move on, Citrix," She said after we stared at each other for a few seconds before passing through the smooth wall.

"I hope this doesn't hurt," I walked into the walls with my eyes closed.

The next thing I know, I was already in a dark alley, with Lisandra crossing her arms and looking at me amused.

"That's dumb," Lisandra chuckled as she uncrossed her arms and walked towards the exit of the alley.

"Shut up," my face felt hot.

"Say that to your profile pic," Ai evil laughed while the picture of me closing my eyes during the wall crossing got uploaded to my logs. Lisandra shivered a little after hearing Ai's laughter even though there wasn't any breeze.

We started walking after Ai calmed down and went back to work. Lisandra urged me to follow her closely so I won't get lost.

After turning into the first right, we found ourselves walking on a pavement lit by magic poles that glowed yellow.

"Which way now?" I looked left and right, lost. There were several people passing around, with most walking towards a tavern nearby.

"Ai, map for this place," Lisandra ordered.

A map of the city we're in shown itself on our right corner, with arrows representing our position on the map. Lisandra's arrow had the colour red while mine had a dark blue shade to it. There was a symbol representing the tavern not far from us on the map, glowing a little as Lisandra highlighted it.

"It says here that they operate as a hotel upstairs," Lisandra walked towards the tavern, focusing most of her attention on the map. I followed behind her.

"You hungry?" She turned back to ask. My stomach didn't react to the word.

"Nope," We entered the tavern. There was a sign stating the name 'Guoro's Tavern', without doubt the name 'Guoro' was the owner's.

Inside, most of the tables were taken by large, muscular men, with mugs of rum sitting on their table, only to be consumed almost immediately by those alchoholics. Several waitresses were serving the rums, and a man who looks to be in his 40's stood just behind the counter, manning the cashier and bar simultaneously.

"That guy's got some serious skills- Hey, wait up!" I ran after Lisandra since she just ignored my comment and headed straight for the counter.

"One room, two single beds, three nights," Lisandra scavenged her pockets.

"One room per night with double beds is 2 silver. Your request costs 6 silver," The man stabbed his cashier, ready to receive the money.

"Uh, we don't have-" I started speaking when Lisandra sealed the deal.

"Here," She tossed two silver coins to the man.

"This is your key, and a spare for your partner," The man grabbed two keys, one with a black key chain, another with a white key chain, and passed the former to Lisandra while giving me the latter.

"Sign here," the man then passed us a book that I didn't even know he was writing on before, before pointing at the empty space right next to the room number.

Lisandra grabbed his pen and signed. Then, she dragged me towards and up the staircase. Although she tried her best to maneuver both of us through the maze-like seats while simultaneously avoiding the attention of the crowd of drunks, the foreign stench given off by the both of us still attracted unneeded eyes. Finally, we got to the stairs and went up it.

"Come on Citrix, we don't have that much time," Lisandra opened the door to Room 1456 the moment she saw it.

I went in before she followed suit and shutted the door behind her. We sat cross legged on the beds, with the bed nearer to the door being Lisandra's while the inner one being mine. She started speaking after we stared at each other for a few moments.

"We'll need to get clean clothes tomorrow morning. You can bathe first if you want, but most importantly," she looked at me seriously, "We need to adapt to this world."

"How?"

"Through normal habits like sleeping and eating, instead of hibernating and drawing in surrounding energies." She replied while emphasizing the 'hibernating' part.

"I'd prefer going to bathe after getting a clean change of shirt, thank you very much," My head fell towards the fluffy-looking pillow. As fast as my head dropped, I closed my eyes and prepared for sleep to take me. There was something different about the bed here compared to the bed back at my quarters, so my snore filled the room as soon as I entered REM stage.

"Who said you could sleep now? We need to gather information tonight!" Lisandra tried shaking and slapping me awake. Then when it didn't work, she tried pouring water onto my face, only for me to snap out of my sweet dreams and retaliate.

God, just because I didn't retaliate sooner doesn't mean I don't mind! After saying it internally, I tried persuading her to let me sleep in peace.

"The bed is very soft! Can't you at least forgive me for falling asleep?" I pleaded with puppy eyes, but deep down, I felt rage beginning to surface as my butt sank into the soft bed.

"Don't you worry about your mission at all?"

"Yes! And you were the one who said we had to sleep to adapt!"

"Err.. good point, but we don't need that much sleep, do we?" Lisandra seemed to have given in to my excuse.

"You don't, but I need it. It's not like everyone's like you, to be honest..." I trailed off while climbing back into bed.

"Well, I can't sleep this early anyway. I'll be out till midnight, be careful while you sleep, Citrix, 'cos someone might slit your throat while you're just at it~" Lisandra teased me as she walked out, but her eyes showed something else.

After she left, I muttered under my breath "The only one who's going to slit my throat is going to be you anyway.." to no one in particular. Though deep down, I felt her words were backed up by experience, not just plain paranoia.

Plus her look just now..

No, no, don't think about that, focus on the comfiness! I rolled around on my bed to find the perfect position.

"Gah, I can't sleep if I continue like this," I ruffled my hair as I sat up and thought on whether to try again or not.

I should definitely sleep, this bed feels like paradise! The part that felt comfiness argued to the logical part of myself.

But what she said though.. Could it really happen to us? I felt the logical side falling into deeper thought on what Lisandra said.

Perhaps she has a point.. But feel the softness, smoothness and pureness it gives off! I touched and squeezed the bed.

But the dangers though.. There'd be severe if we got caught off guard! I argued internally as I stared at the door.

My inner voices went silent as I contemplated. There were few obvious choices, but those were not particularly smart choices. The choices that offered better outcomes, however, did not ease up any of my guilt and doubt, guilt of letting a girl wander alone in a stranger's village, and doubt, of whether I would live to see another day.

"I was never a smart kid, I guess.." I slid my legs out of bed while sighing. There was nothing more to do other than continue on with the choice I made.

Standing up, I went to the bathroom in my room and freshened up myself. I felt a lot better and the fatigue that was previously creeping in retreated.

Now, there's only one thing left to do

I walked out of the room, leaving the room as it is, before locking the door and heading out. The wooden floor of the corridor outside my room creaked as it supported my weight. Step by step, creak by creak, there was no doubt anyone could hear that.

I sighed again as I descended the stairs. Every step made the stairs creak even louder than before, causing the stairs to threaten to break under my continued efforts. Finally, after what seemed to be a few tense minutes, I was on the solid ground once more.

"How can a place with great quality beds have such poor accomodities..?" I muttered under my breath, secretly sighing again.

The place wasn't as crowded as before. In fact, it was a lot more crowded than before, with waiters and waitresses running around, serving alcohol and food. There was the unmistakable stink of someone's vomit, so it was safe to assume someone was at their limit and tried to shove more into themselves.

Looking for the door, I found it after a little scanning through the place. The door was practically wide open, but someone must've just opened it not long ago, because it definitely wasn't open during the first few times I scanned the place.

I walked towards the door while avoiding as many drunks as possible. It took twice as much time trying to find a suitable route to the door than walking straight through the crowd of drunks.

It's definitely better avoiding that puddle. Yuck!

Reaching the exit, I walked out just to get hit in the face by a cool breeze. The information told by the breeze itself signified that winter was near, and finishing the job before that definitely took priority.

"Now to find Lisandra.." I expanded the map and set it up to locate Lisandra's signature.

Her signature was northeast from where I stood, towards a more quiet part of the village of sort. There were many rows of houses, but the one she was at was the farthest of them all.

It just had to be the farthest one, huh?

Shaking away thoughts of retiring for the day again after seeing the distance, I started jogging towards that direction without much thought.

The sky was dark but calming. Stars littered all over it, twinkling and shining on any late night pedestrians. The moon particularly reflected a gray shade of light onto the roofs of nearby houses, giving the cobble pavements and its surroundings a dim lighting. There was no other word to describe the scene other than 'calm'.

Calm before the storm? I shook my head lightly, clearing thoughts of disasters happening while I'm still here.

Best not be what I think it is.. The night got even chillier after my internal dialogue.

Without realising it, I was already at the house Lisandra is at. She seemed to be sitting on the roof and enjoying the view of the nightsky. As if sensing my presence, she called out, "Citrix! Come on up here!"

Not having anything to do other than do what she just suggested, I climbed onto the house's roof, only for a few roof tiles to fall off and shatter the night's silence. Lisandra chuckled at my clumsy movements.

"You should've trained more when you still could," she said when I finally took a sit just beside her.

"Judging from what happened and yet still no one came running out of the house, I guessed the owners abandoned it?" I patted the roof, indicating what I was refering to.

"Yea, it was a long time ago..." She trailed off as she began looking at the night sky again. There was a type of sorrow I have never seen holed up in her eyes.

"With feelings like that, would you like opening up?" I asked out of concern.

"..." There were tears welling up at the corners of her eyes, but it didn't fall.

"Uh, I guess it was insensitive of me. Sorry 'bout that, you can speak up when you feel like it," Now I felt guilty because of this bxxch.

"I'll do just that.." She replied without much response after that other than continuing to stare at the night sky. I tried searching for what she was looking at, but it resulted in nothing.

"It's beautiful, eh? The night sky tonight.." She laid down on the roof and continued watching the twinkling stars.

"Yea, more or less.." I stared at it as well, not sure what's there to admire about a normal night sky, though the calming effect does affect almost any observers. After a few more minutes of staring at the endless darkness of the calming night sky and hearing the sounds of crickets chirping, my eyelids grew heavy and started dropping ever so slightly, until they were closed and all I could see was darkness.

There were very strange thoughts that came through that darkness.

[Log 6: Paused]

[Log Mode Switch: Passive Mode]