Chapter 56: Rise of the Engineer (Part 2)

“Welcome to The Eternal Sunshine Boutique! How may I help you?” A smiling Bella said to a couple of female customers, entering the already full establishment.

The two friends looked at the display cases in awe, giggling. “Hi. Is it true that you sell silver-tier jewelry here?”

“That’s correct, miss. Right, this way.”

“Welcome!” Amelia beamed at them from behind the counter, wearing a red dress. “We have jewelry, clothes, and accessories!”

“Do you really need to be here?” Ashley asked, behind her, eating chips. “The System automatically runs the shop.”

“It’s the inauguration, Ash. People need to see me and learn that I’m not so bad after all and that my presence has done nothing more than enhance this town’s–Argh! Where is he?! He promised to come and see how the shop is going!”

“He’ll come by dinner, surely. You can show him then.”

“But I wanted him to see how it looks full of people!” Amelia exhaled, checking her Friend List Tab. Alan’s location was on the town’s outskirts, on ‘Farole Road’. “At least he has found a new motivation…”

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*** Weasenox Defeated

*** Congratulations! You have reached Level 7!

*** Your Passive Skill, Minion Master, is now Level 2!

*** Your dedication has unlocked the Puppet Master Passive Skill, Level 1!

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While fighting alongside Anastasia, I’ve learned a lot about the use of mobs in this game-like world.

The System classifies as Minions every other trainable companion that is not a monster, like a Humanoid Magic Familiar, or a Summoned Demon.

Although the System identifies Anastasia as a Minion, it also classifies her as a Robot, a ‘species’ unique to the Engineer Class. That means that she can fight alongside me as a ‘Minion’ while I unlock that advanced class.

I got the idea by watching Amelia and Sloochie. If she wanted to, she could become a Monster Trainer, but it seems she’s not interested. In her case, her Monsters and Beasts would be able to equip one piece of gear, unlike my ‘humanoid Minion’ Anastasia, who can equip a full set of armor and a weapon.

What’s the catch of being an Engineer, who can have a fully equipped Robot to fight for you? Well, Anastasia won’t be able to level up until I reach her current level, and the Engineer class is physically weak as shit. Stats that’d normally increase the User’s strength and durability are swapped with a bunch of passive and boost skills.

“I sucked at swordplay and close-quarters combat, anyway,” he muttered holding a fuming pistol.

“Alan?” Anastasia called. Her silver full plate armor still looked shiny, without a single scratch. In her right hand, a gleaming sword, and on her left, a huge shield she carried with ease. “Master Alan?”

“Sorry, I was lost in thought. You did an excellent job, Anastasia. Well done.”

“Thank you, Alan.”

“Let’s go, I promised Amelia that I’d go to her Shop’s Inauguration. She must be pretty furious right now.”

“Shut down,” a third voice said as they were going towards the town.

Alan glanced behind him, finding his companion frozen in her spot. “The hell?”

A known girl was sitting atop a log, far away from the Weasenox vanishing corpse, wearing a black Victorian dress. Although her appearance looked young, her smirk was that of a wicked adult.

“Good afternoon, Alan Warden.”

The ghostly gal from the Shooting Stars’ HQ.

“Hey, I know that face!” Alan said, putting away his handgun.

“I didn’t know that a Low-Leveler could use that kind of weapon.”

“I crafted it. Do you need something, Miss Administrator?”

“Straight to the point, huh?” She giggled. “You know, it normally is a great honor to talk to any of us.”

“Why?” he asked, making her frown. “We’re all the same outside The Novus, correct?”

Jane snickered, before clearing her throat. “Whatever. Allow me to introduce myself properly this time. I’m Jane Andersen, The Administrator Ruler of Conduct,” she proclaimed, putting a hand on her chest. “I’m in charge of listening to the needs of the Userbase and punishing those that threaten or abuse the System.”

“So, Viola Lang is in charge of the Novus’ monsters, Ricardo Silva fixes bugs, and… I’m sorry,” Alan squinted, “it’s not clear to me what your role is.”

Jane raised her chin as if she was collecting her patience. “Anything related to you, the Users.”

“I see, I see.” He nodded. “Can I ask you a quick question, then? Is it considered ‘abusing the system’ when a bunch of High-Levelers torture a Level 5 just for fun?”

“I didn’t come here to talk about that.”

“Well, you’ve lost my interest then.” Alan was about to leave, but noticed that Anastasia remained immobile. “Did you do something to my partner?”

“I didn’t want her to listen to our conversation, which we will finish when I say so,” she said with closed teeth. “As the one in charge of the well-being of the Novus’ Userbase, I need to know what happened to you.”

So Ricardo was right. Another Administrator would question me sooner or later. And although I’d love to ask her if there has been any progress in identifying the Londorus’ terrorists, something tells me I should have my mouth shut about the topic.

“Are you talking about my low-level situation, Miss Jane? It’s such a short story. I was in a coma–”

“I know,” she interrupted. “This is what your old Guild Master alleges. But I wouldn’t be here if I believed that story. We know you’re hiding something.” She crossed her legs and smirked. “Come on. You can count on me. See me as your therapist or a lawyer.”

“Are you saying I faked being offline?”

Her collected expression turned livid in a second, but Alan would not flinch. “What I’m saying is that Cryo-Pods can’t induce you into a coma unless in extreme circumstances. And trust me, if it had happened to you, we wouldn’t be speaking right now.”

Alan folded his arms and shrugged. “It’s a better story than telling others that my pod failed.”

The woman who believed to be in control of the conversation suddenly frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“The Santa María’s staff logged me out because my pod was not working properly. They said that if I hadn’t been ejected sooner, I could have suffered from brain damage.”

Jane remained silent, hearing every word. “Why did it take so long for you to return, then? You spent eight real months outside. How could anyone believe it took the staff eight months to repair a single pod?”

He sneered. “More like 100,000 malfunctioning pods.”

“What?”

“Do you remember what happened on The Novus’ fifth day?”

Jane tilted her head, confused. “Are you talking about the ‘Freezing’?”

That’s right, something even Isabella knows about…

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One afternoon, when Amelia and the NPCs were outside, I asked Ashley the following…

“I didn’t have the chance to ask Isabella the First more details about The Singular, so, could you tell me why you think it’s hiding here?”

“We detected that The Singular was onboard 14 hours and 15 minutes after our voyage started. We and the ship’s crew managed to neutralize it after 4 hours and 20 minutes of conflict, but soon after, the Cryo-Chambers suffered from a power shortage that lasted 10 seconds. Tell me, Alan, did you experience something at the time?”

“When would that be in Novus’ time?”

“On the Fifth day, 18 hours and 35 minutes.”

“Oh, yeah, everything around us froze and we couldn’t move. It was horrible.”

“That is your answer,” Ashley said, looking at the wall in front of her, as if she was reminiscing about something. “We have already established that the Singular entered through a Cryo-pod, right? Well, We suspect The Singular caused that outage so We could not find in which pod it hid…”

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Yeah, I can use that…

“The Captain told me that both Cryo-Chambers suffered a blackout, immobilizing everyone here for about 1 minute,” Alan continued explaining to a frowning Jane Andersen. “When they logged me out to repair my pod, the Captain gave the order to check every single pod in case another situation like mine could happen. So I ended up volunteering, because…”

“I’ve already read your profile. You applied to work as a technician but got rejected,” Jane said, annoyed, something that did not fit her lady-like persona. “So, are you telling me that you spent eight months helping the staff search for any other malfunctioning pod?”

“Yeah. That’s my story.”

“…Fine,” she mumbled.

“Come again?”

“I said fine! You can go now.” She snapped her fingers and a portal materialized beside her, which she walked through without glancing back.

A second after, Alan could hear Anastasia strolling towards him. “Is something wrong, Alan?”

Once she tells the story to her group, the supposed traitor will know I’m lying. But what else can I do if they have already taken an interest in me?

Alan cracked a smile, then giggled before bursting out laughing.

And I won’t be able to do a thing! I’m totally screwed!

“Master Alan!” Anastasia called out, grabbing him by the shoulders. “Sorry to disturb you, but you looked as if you were having a mental breakdown.”

He smiled bitterly at her and shook his head. “Anastasia, promise me that if any of us gets in danger, prioritize helping Amelia and Ashley. Okay?”

Alan stared at the NPC’s electric blue eyes. “Understood, Master.”

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