“Wait, what?”
I saw the shock flash across Kyle’s face as he turned to me. I couldn’t blame him. Considering how much I hated anything remotely related to horror, this was definitely out of character for me.
But then again, I had done the same thing with the first trial.
“You’re interested?”
More importantly, staring at Zoey and seeing the doubtful look on her face, I nodded.
“Yes, I’m interested.”
This was actually a good opportunity.
Not only would this bring potential exposure to my game, but if I could do this well, then… I could also clear the optional quest. This was two birds with one stone.
“But I have a condition.”
“Ho? You have a condition?”
Zoey raised an eyebrow, her lips curling into a half-smile. I could almost hear her thinking, I’m already doing you a favor, and now you’re asking for more?
I ignored her look and just stated my condition.
“There’s a certain museum that recently caught my interest recently. I’d like to visit it for some inspiration. It’s an abandoned one, so it might be intriguing for your contact.”
“…An abadanoned museum?”
Zoey frowned, seemingly not expecting such an answer from me.
Then—
“What’s the name of the place? Let me see what it is first.”
“Velora Art Museum.”
“An Art Museum?”
Zoey appeared a little surprised by the answer, but soon typed up the place on her phone.
“No. 12 Ivory Hollow District?”
“…That’s the place.”
“Hmm. It says it closed five years ago because of a gas leak? But wait—here it says it shut down due to insufficient funds. No, wait…”
Rolling her finger across the screen, Zoey’s eyes squinted.
“Ah, here.”
Her finger eventually stopped.
“It says here the museum shut down five years ago after it was robbed of its most important painting—The Lady of the White Umbrella. After it disappeared, a string of unfortunate events followed: a gas leak, the sudden withdrawal of their main sponsor… and eventually, the closure.”
Zoey’s voice slowed down as she read.
Eventually, tearing her eyes away from the phone, she looked at me.
“This is the place that you want to visit?”
“…Yes.”
Though I said that, I wasn’t actually sure. I wanted to go, but would the system allow it? It did previously say that I couldn’t do anything that would compromise or reveal it. Would something like this be allowed?
And more importantly…
That painting that got robbed, it was none other than the one that was in my office, wasn’t it?
“Hmmm.”
Zoey tapped her arm thoughtfully, deep in thought.
And then…
“Let me see what I can do.”
“Really?”
Kyle’s tone rose. It usually happened whenever he was excited. He looked pretty happy for me.
However, I was anything but excited.
I knew her well enough to know things were probably not going to be as easy as they seemed.
“I’ll get in contact with him. I’ll let you know if they agree soon.”
“…Thank you.”
“Sure.”
Zoey nodded before glancing at Kyle and finally moving away.
I stared at her back as she left.
‘She might make things a little harder for me, but at least she won’t go too far.’
Zoey was petty, but she knew when to draw the line. I could only get myself ready for whatever she had planned.
In any case, I turned to look at Kyle. There were quite a few things that I needed to ask him.
“There’s something that I wanted to ask you.”
“…Oh, me too.”
His eyes narrowed.
Oh, right. He probably wants to ask me about why I accepted the offer to livestream… I already had an answer to that.
“I want to improve my game—and for that, I need inspiration. I never had the chance before; I was always stuck in the office. But now that I’m free, I’m thinking of exploring new places to find it.”
Kyle’s mouth paused. He bought my words. In fact, he almost seemed happy.
‘Well, whatever pleases him.’
I took the chance to go straight to my point.
“Anyways, I wanted to ask you about something that I’ve recently overheard.”
“Okay. What is it?”
“It’s about something called order? First order? …Second Order? Well, something like that.”
It seemed like this topic caught him off guard, as his face stiffened. At the very least, I now knew that he knew something.
“It’s… eh.”
Kyle scratched the back of his head. Then, looking at me, he made a complicated look before eventually deflating with a resigned look.
“…I guess it doesn’t hurt to tell you, considering where we are. You were bound to find out sooner or later.”
He paused briefly, then moved to the nearest computer. After booting it up and tapping a few keys, an image flickered onto the screen—a strange gray lattice dotted with various glowing points.
It was weird to look at, but looking at it closer, this looked like a neural network.
‘No, that’s exactly what it is.’
The only key difference was the strange dots connecting each neural path.
“This is a scan of my brain. Or, well… yeah. Let’s just go with that for now.”
Kyle’s words were enough to confirm my thoughts.
“Do you see the dots on here?” Kyle said as he pointed at the screen.
“Yeah…”
“These here are nodes.”
“Hm?”
My ears suddenly perked up. Node? This… I was quite familiar with this term.
“Nodes are separated from Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, and Prime. See, look, this one right here is the intermediate one, while this one over here is the Basic one.”
Kyle pointed towards two dots on the screen. They were rather easy to tell apart. The ‘basic’ dot or node appeared to be half the size of the ‘intermediate’ one.
“What about the Prime one?”
“Prime? Pftt..”
Kyle laughed.
“I’ll need to be at least in the Seventh Order before I can touch that thing. I’m already struggling to unlock an advanced one.”
“…Oh.”
I pretended to nod, but I didn’t really understand.
Kyle explained further.
“Essentially, nodes are pockets of synthetic energy we can channel into various skills. In order to be of the First Order, you must have access to at least one basic node.”
Things started to become clearer to me from this point. Connecting the current information with the bits and pieces that I had already been exposed to, I finally started to understand my current situation.
‘So the Containment Vessel I’ve got now is just a basic node, which means I’m considered this… First Order thing or whatever.’
I thought back to the application window and further verified my thoughts.
“I’m sure you’re already starting to get an idea, but the reason why we enter the gates and clear them is so that we can collect what we call ‘Myst Fragments’. In short, an extremely dense energy source that we mainly use to keep the island afloat.”
“Uh?”
Keep the island afloat? But…
Kyle smiled but didn’t elaborate.
“It’s also the main source of our powers. By consuming the fragments which come in many different types and forms, we gradually gather enough energy to create new nodes, and eventually, once we’ve created the node, depending on the type, we rank up to a higher Order.”
“So that’s the case…”
In that case, considering that I was in the First Order, taking on a Second Order mission was impossible?
“Oh, but don’t get too deceived by the Order stuff.”
Kyle suddenly interrupted my thoughts.
“While it’s true that your power increases with each higher Order, that doesn’t mean someone of a lower Order can’t win. With the right preparations, items, or depending on the type of Decree you follow, it’s entirely possible to defeat someone ranked higher.”
“That’s good to hear.”
In that case, it wasn’t completely impossible for me to defeat the conductor. Although I wasn’t sure about its ‘Order’, I knew it wasn’t anything low.
‘That being said, he did say something about a Decree? What is that…?’
I was just about to ask him when he cut me off.
“Oh, right.”
His face suddenly turned serious as he looked at me.
“I’m only telling you this because you asked. But for your sake, I hope you never get involved in something like this.”
“Why?”
“…Because it’s dangerous.”
As if he didn’t make the point clear enough, Kyle looked around before shifting his attention back to the computer. His fingers pinched onto the trackpad, slowly moving out, and it was then that I saw it.
The multitude of severed paths.
“There are consequences to using these powers. I’m one of the lucky few who hardly have any fractures, but if you’re one of those unlucky ones with a cognitive shard…”
Kyle pursed his lips and shook his head. The meaning behind his words was clear. However, it was also in that moment that I felt my lips quiver.
“Are those shards… dangerous?” I asked, my mouth feeling strangely dry.
“Seizures.”
Kyle replied, his gaze locked onto the computer and away from me.
“Muscle stiffness. Loss of cognitive function. Eventually, your mind just starts to deteriorate.”
“…Wha.. what else?”
“Bradykinesia.”
He added, his voice lower than before.
I could only silently swallow as I tried my best to keep my lips from trembling.
That was because—
These symptoms…
They were identical to the ones from my disease.