Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

I was sitting in my room, getting the last of my newly acquired items packed up and ready for the second Trial. With only 10 inventory slots, with one taken up by weapon and another used to store my backpack, I was pressed to decide what else to take. Thankfully the Trash Matrix had announced that all Aspirants would have access to their dormitories again, although not the Rest Area itself, so I could house the extra things in my room without fear of losing them.

In the end, I chose to leave the garbage starting gear behind, and stuff as many healing items as I could into my bag, since that only counted as 1 item slot. The remaining 7 slots were filled with various survival gear, extra rations (I couldn’t exactly survive off of Ambrosia with the rest of the team watching), and on the behest of the Regressor, a bunch of plastic explosives. I can only imagine what we’d need those for down the line.

There was only 2 hours remaining until our 7 days of rest was over, and I had agreed with the rest of my party to meet up at the cafeteria half an hour prior to the start. I was about to do one final check on my gear when I heard a soft knock on my door. I opened it, but it wasn’t the Regressor or his gang who greeted me, but rather, it was Q.

“I apologize for coming to see you in such an inopportune time,” he said as I close the door behind him, “But I thought that it would be wise to check up on your progress with the Anomaly before you’re too busy in the second Trial.”

“You noticed the Anomaly?” I asked.

Q laughed good-naturedly, “I’d be a terrible Site Administrator if I didn’t notice at this point! Our Anomaly and his sister destroyed all the previous records for the completion of the first Trial. Which is also why I’m here.”

I raised an eyebrow, gesturing that he should continue. I didn’t want to speak too much before I had some sense of what was going on.

“I…” Q hesitated for a spell, “I just have some concerns about recent trends with Central and the Origin Matrix, and I thought it would be wise to share that with you, since you were away for 10 cycles.”

Ok, we’re getting somewhere.

“What’s changed?” I asked, genuinely curious this time.

“I’m sure you know, but the Origin Matrix almost never creates Anomalies, they’re usually the result of a glitch, or when it feels that a great crisis is approaching where nothing short of an Anomaly can fix the situation.”

I nodded, “Yes, that’s in line with what I know.”

“But ever since your return I’ve done a little bit of digging into Central’s files, just out of initial curiosity.” Q said, eyes looking nervous, “Very few things can escape the notice of an Omni, but…”

“It’s fine, Q,” I assured, “I won’t judge any action you’ve taken, even if it’s not technically within regulations. You should know that by now.”

“Right.” Q said, “So the results of my investigations showed that the amount of Anomalies have surged in recent times.”

“Surely fluctuations in these types of events happen all the time?”

“Not to this extent, Lord,” Q shook his head, “The number of anomalous Aspirants has risen by over 10 000% as compared to even 5 cycles ago. No amount of statistical variance can account for that kind of change, and the higher ups have done a thorough job of hiding this information.”

“That… that doesn’t make sense. Why would Origin do something so reckless?”

“Exactly!” Q grimaced, “Everyone knows that using an Anomaly’s almost always worse off than not having one at all, even if there’s an Arbiter guiding their actions.”

I nodded, urging Q to continue his rant. This is information I desperately needed.

“Yes they can exceed the growth and potential of all others, but more than half of them escape Central’s command, and actively try to damage us!” Q sighed, “You weren’t here, but just 3 cycles ago one particularly nasty Aspirant managed to destroy an entire Training Site and launch a crusade into Central Headquarters! It took us employing an entire squad of Xollon Mercenaries to stop that uprising, yet they’ve apparently learned nothing and making more of these things!”

“Have you managed to find out why these changes are occurring?”

Q shook his head bitterly, “No. Not even I was able to uncover that part. It’s hidden really deep, but something’s not right with Origin, I can feel it. I’ve worked in this field for long enough to notice these changes.”

“I see…”

“Just keep an eye on things out there, Walter.” Q said with genuine concern, “There’s trouble brewing in the future, and I hate being left in the dark about it.”

“I will,” I said, “And thank you for letting me know this. I’ll keep my eyes on the Anomaly and see if I can’t uncover anything on the Aspirant’s side of things.”

“I thank you again for your services, Arbiter Walter,” he answered, “I can see why you’ve earned so much recognition previously. I won’t take up any more of your time, but please let me know if you find out anything about the situation.”

I nodded, and before I could say anything else, Q disappeared, and I was alone in my dorm once more.

I sat on the bed and pondered for a bit. That was a lot of new information to unpack, but at least Q had answered some of the more pressing questions I had. Still, just because I knew that danger was ahead of me doesn’t mean that I knew how to actually stop it, all it did was enforce the things that I already knew. There’s more to my current situation than just finishing the Trials and stopping a hypothetical invasion of Earth, and I had to get to the bottom of it.

Well, my short term goals are still the same: tag along with the Regressor, get as much power as I possibly can, abuse the shit out of my Arbiter status, and figure out a proper way of using Noe’s skills. Oh, and somehow live through all this before I turn into a monster.

I sighed at my apparent mountain of oncoming trouble and headed out the door with my stuff in tow. There were only about an hour before the new Trial, and I might as well take advantage of the facilities while I still could. Then it’s off to meet the Regressor and hopefully survive whatever crap the Trash Matrix throws at me.

I chuckled as a thought occurred to me; if the Trash Matrix really was defective somehow, maybe my dream of one day kicking its ass wouldn’t be too far off course. That day could not come sooner.

I made my way to the cafeteria for one last bite to eat and saw that I wasn’t alone. In fact, everyone else was already there.

“Hey Walter,” Yoona greeted me, “Glad you made it early, it seems like everyone had the same thought. Wish we had a phone or something we could use to communicate.”

Huh, I never thought about that, since the only other people I talked with were beings who could apparently travel between space and time.

“Yeah, that would be a problem in the future, wouldn’t it?” I said, “Won’t we lose party members if we ever get split up?”

“The people running these damn tests have already thought of that,” the Regressor answered, “We’ll be able to form an official party once the second Trial starts, and we can all communicate through the system interface then.”

“And we’ll have a sweet guild later as well!” Noel chimed in, “Least that’s what the leader says. I’m already making a list of potential amazing names to call ourselves. Noel and the Nobodies’ is at the top of the list right now, subject to change.”

“That’s uh… great Noel, and I guess Raffiel and his people have thought of everything,” I muttered.

“Not everything.” Jae-Hyun said, his voice chilly. He couldn’t be more right if Q’s information was anything to go by, “Did everyone bring the items I told you about?”

“I did,” Vadeem answered, “Although the things you asked for are a little…”

“Strange?” I added, remembering the TNT and other explosives I stowed away in my inventory.

“More like random!” Noel said, “The boss man told me to bring a few gallons of pig blood, some firecrackers and a sack of marbles. What’d he make you bring, bestie?”

“Um, just a few sets of clothing for everyone.” Yoona replied, “Nothing so crazy like what you’re explaining.”

The Regressor spoke, “We need to ensure that we are properly prepared for any situation in the next Trial.”

“Pig blood and marbles will help with that?” I asked skeptically.

“Like I said, I won’t know what specific test we will go through until we’re in it, so I want to ensure that all the worst possibilities are accounted for. I’m sure you’ve all noticed this by now, but the trials reward those who come in first, and we have to capitalize on these early stages so we can maximize our growth later on.”

Man, this man must just be min-maxing every future event in his spare time, that’s no way to live your life. But thankfully he was the one doing all the heavy lifting, I’ll just go along and reap the rewards of his planning!

“Remember everyone,” The Regressor continued, “anything can happen once the Trials begin again, we’ll have a chance to form our party right before we’re thrown in, so accept quickly and get used to its functions. If we ever get lost, take out one of these and light it up.”

The Regressor then proceeded to hand out a few normal looking flares to each of us. They didn’t look all that impressive until I saw their descriptions through my title skill.

Flare of True Sight (D+ rank)

Description: Crafted by Kim Jae-Hyun using the cores of mutated undead, these modified flares will broadcast the true location of the user to any individuals registered in his/her party.

What the hell, the Regressor’s even able to craft items? I knew that he had to be impressive to survive in the future, but now it seems like he could do practically anything. But I guess if he spent most of his life alone in his prior life then it only made sense that he had to have picked up a lot of skills. Still feels like cheating though.

I sighed, yup… I have to admit that he was indeed cooler than I am.

“Thanks, Jae-Hyun,” Vadeem said before stowing away the flares into his bag, “Anything else to note before we get started?”

“No,” he answered, “our group will be fine, but just be prepared for anything. The people working here are not our friends.”

We spent the rest of the hour chatting and enjoying the final comforts of the Rest Area, and before long, a familiar voice greeted us. With a radiant flash of light, a projection of Raffiel appeared in front of the five of us.