A/N: Well! So he's back at it again! This lazy bastard is back from the dead with another chapter of this fic.
I realised that I poorly formatted a few of the previous descriptions in the earlier chapters, so I went back and fixed them. You don't need to read back on them, since all I did was just change how they were laid out to make them easier to read
- Snape -
"So we have a deal then, sir?" Snape asked the shadowed man sitting opposite him behind a desk. "You regularly provide me with the materials I need, and I give you the Potter brat after she reaches her 17th birthday."
Snape cleared his throat before continuing. "After I fulfil my side of the bargain, you'll provide me with shelter away from the Dark Lord and Dumbledore, correct?"
Snape had to admit, the man in front of him intimidated him quite a bit. It wasn't because the man's face was fully shrouded in darkness, preventing it from being seen by him, it was their distinct lack of magical presence that threw him off.
All magical kinds, wizards, creatures, even squibs have a 'magical signature' to them as a result of the magical blood in their veins. Even squibs have one, albeit very faint, due to their parents being wizards.
This man in front of him had absolutely none.
This didn't make sense at all to Snape, because the only explanation for him having no magical signature would be that they were a muggle. However, that would also make completely no sense, because some of the equipment inside this room depends on the user's magic to run.
Snape would know, because he uses a few of them inside his own dungeon.
If that wasn't enough evidence, the man's next action certainly would be complete, irrefutable proof that he wasn't a muggle.
"It is, Mr. Customer" the man said in a sovereign tone. "Please review the document and sign in the space marked."
The man waved his hand and a glowing sheet of paper and a pen appeared on the desk in front of Snape.
The way that the paper glowed with an almost ethereal candescence told Snape that this was no ordinary contract.
Snape scrutinized the contract closely, not only trying to look for fine print on the paper, but trying to find out exactly what caused the paper to glow. He would have studied it for a lot longer, if not for the coughing of the shadowed man.
Knowing that he was probably pushing his limits, he picked up the pen and prepared to sign it. However, just as the pen touched the paper, he paused.
He wasn't going to perform any verification spells, he had done his research into this place, and he knew that doing something like that was akin to spitting in the man's face. It would not end well for him at all.
No, it was something he had just thought of after he read the terms of the contract.
"The contract states that the Potter brat must be alive when I hand her to you, right?" Snape asked the man.
"Yes, that is correct."
"Then does that mean I can do whatever I want to her, as long as she's alive in the end right?"
The man chuckled at Snape's question, his voice tinged with amusement. He responded in a knowing manner, correctly discerning the hidden meaning behind Snape's words.
"Yes. All we need is for her to be alive. It doesn't matter what state of mind, or how damaged she is, as long as she's alive, you will have fulfilled your side of the contract."
Grinning darkly, Snape signed the document and slid it towards the man.
"Is there anything else we can help you with, Mr. Customer?" the man asked, waving his hand and causing the contract to disappear with a small pop.
"No. That will be all, thank you." Snape said, standing up from his chair and exiting through the door.
Snape hummed happily as he walked through the corridors of the facility, sticking close to the walls to avoid the wandering guards and scientists.
He had to admit, negotiations went far better than he was expecting.
He was prepared to have to pay tens of thousands of galleons in order to get a one off purchase. Instead, he managed to get a lifetime's supply of exquisite and highly illegal ingredients and items all for handing over that Potter brat when she turns 17.
It almost sounded too good to be true.
The fact that the man would provide him with asylum from both Dumbledore and Voldemort after he delivers his side of the contract was also a godsend.
He was expecting to have to quietly smuggle the Potter brat away from under Dumbledore's eye, then return back to the castle to continue his boring life. However, the signed contract stated that he would be given asylum which meant that he could literally just whisk Potter away in broad daylight, before anyone had time to react.
After all, he didn't care about Dumbledore or Voldemore. He only cared about himself.
His lips curled into a disgusting leer as he thought back on what the man had said about wanting the Potter brat in any state at all, as long as she was alive in the end.
If he couldn't fulfil his fantasies with Lily, then he could at least do so with her daughter.
Just as he thought about what he would do to Lily's daughter, he had the wind knocked out of him as he flew head first into a full can of trash.
He screamed in impotent rage as cold, leftover broth from cup ramen dripped down from his chin and into his greasy hair.
- Liliana -
Liliana was somewhat confused as she read through the last of the tomes she had obtained from the library, and prepared to start on the scrolls.
She knew from her time spent in the facility that she was a "Revenant", but up until now, she had no idea as to what that actually meant. All she knew was that she had an incredibly high resistance to poison, if not completely immune to it, and could shrug off many different forms of magic.
From what she understood, a revenant could only be summoned if the victim had an immensely strong will and a fierce determination to accomplish something before they died, but were unable to. She also learned that her abnormally high magic resistance was not an innate ability of a revenant, it was quite the opposite in fact. The tome said that revenants were very vulnerable to magic, especially fire and holy type magic. However, she seemed to find magic no more painful than getting punched, not that she could really feel those in the first place.
She wondered if it was due to something when she was alive, that she was so resistant to magic.
She also noted that the tome said once a revenant has accomplished what they set out to do, they will break all their bonds with the summoner, leave them and eventually return back to death. As such, many summoners deliberately stall the achievement of the revenant's goal until they have done what they want to do, and even then, most will keep the unfortunate summon around due to how versatile they are.
It still sends cold shivers down her spine whenever she realised that it is entirely possible, no. Scratch that, entirely certain that Darius intended to do the same to her.
The next passage was the one that was the cause for her confusion; the tome said that the goal of a revenant will always be known to them, regardless of what happens. However, no matter how hard she tried, she just could not remember what she wanted.
None of the three tomes she read even mentioned the possibility of a revenant forgetting their goal, because the goal of the revenant is the entire reason as to why they could even come back in the first place. A revenant forgetting their own goal would be like forgetting how to breathe, it's just simply not naturally possible.
The only logical conclusion that she could make is that Darius had completely overhauled the ritual and created his own based on the ritual outlined in these tomes. She knew if that was indeed the case, then she'd have to break into his office and steal his notes.
She also knew that she wouldn't be able to even get into his office, let alone steal something from it.
Just as she closed the last tome and picked up a scroll, the speakers in her room started sounding.
"Revenant Liliana, report to room nine in the east-wing corridor for janitorial work."
Liliana froze when she heard the announcement. "Janitorial work" always referred to the clean up work after experiments, and room nine was the exact room which the baby was in.
'No… He surely couldn't have…' Liliana started panicking internally as she donned her coat and rushed out from her room, forgetting to equip her weapons in her haste.
She sped past the startled personnel, not even flinching as she knocked a person wearing black robes straight into a trash can.
She didn't even turn her head in his direction as she heard the muffled screams of that man.
'Please, please, please… I promised him that I would look after his child.' She repeated like a mantra as she approached the corridor. She idly noticed that the small LEDs on the cameras in this corridor weren't blinking, meaning that they weren't operational, but she didn't pay that little tidbit of information too much attention.
Ignoring all passing scientists, a few of which looked at her questioningly, she reached the door and stopped in front of it. Apprehension filled her as she put her card on the scanner. Would he be okay? Would he be alive? Or would he be a pile of decayed fle-
She cut off that thought before it could go any further.
Taking a deep breath, she scanned her card and the door slowly slid open. However, before she could get a good look inside the room, a brilliant flash of light blinded her, making her stumble back slightly.
As her vision started returning, she heard a somewhat high-pitched male voice start speaking.
"Uhhh… Hello there."
- Aoste -
I groaned as I felt my shoulder getting shook by someone.
"Five more minutes, mom. It's too early in the morning" I mumbled out, waving off the hand, turning my body to the other side, trying to snuggle into a non-existent quilt.
However, instead of going away, the shaking only got more intense, and I could hear a female voice calling my name.
"Urgh. Fine, fine! I'm up!" I grumbled, rubbing my eyes groggily, sitting up and swinging my legs to one side as though I was actually getting out of bed-
-and straight into a hard block of wood.
-0 HP for hitting your leg on a sofa!
I let out a yelp of pain that seemed to have startled the owner of the hand which was shaking me.
"Commander! Be careful!"
I froze as I heard that voice. There was only one person at the moment who would call me 'commander'.
"Enterprise?" I said hesitatingly. "Is that you?"
"It is, commander." Enterprise affirmed with a nod of her head, her white hair swaying alluringly as though it was caught in a breeze. "How are you feeling?"
I resisted the urge to go and hug the living daylights out of her. If I was seeing Enterprise, then surely I'm not dead right?
"I'm f-" I was about to say 'fine', but the events of what led up to me being here suddenly came rushing back to me. Clearly, I could not call myself 'fine' after being in that fiasco and judging by the look on Enterprise's face, she would definitely NOT believe me if I said that.
"-Feeling like utter crap." I spoke truthfully, stretching my back, making some satisfactory popping noises. "But hey, I'm still alive though, so that's a good thing."
Enterprise's face loosened very minutely at my attempt to make the mood lighter. She seemed to be just slightly more relaxed at the fact that I was okay enough to joke around.
That face once again turned to concern as I let out a groan and doubled over, clutching my stomach.
"Commander! You should not overexert yourself! You just recovered from near death and your body isn't in its best shape right now."
Wait, didn't I die though? I distinctly remember my health ticking down to 0, and myself passing out. What did she mean by 'near-death'?
I hastily pulled up my status menu to see what was happening.
Name: Aoste Lemieux (0y 11m)
Title: N/A
Perks: N/A | N/A | N/A
Status: Retribution (0h 28m)
Level: 2
Race: Human (?)
Class: Aviation Battleship
Exp: 160/300
HP: 1/225 (0 Regen/Min)
MP: 0/175 (0 Regen/Min)
DMG: 1
PHY RES: 0%
MAG RES: 0%
CRIT RATE: 0.01%
CRIT DMG: 125.1%
STR: 5 | FP: 3.5
AGI: 4 | TRP: 3.5
INT: 5 | AVI: 3.75
CHA: 3
LUK: 3
Status points: 0
Credits: 500
Money: 0
Status Name: Retribution
Inflictor: Yourself
Status Description: A potion said to be created by an elven goddess' reincarnation as a last resort to protect her kingdom. This potion has long since been lost to time, so virtually nothing is known about the history and the process of creation. However, it is rumoured that whoever drinks this potion will gain something akin to immortality for a certain amount of time.
Effects:
- Upon death, resurrect yourself with 1 HP. This can only occur ONCE per dose.
- After triggering the resurrection, for 1 hour, you are completely invulnerable to all sources of damage.
- You cannot regenerate mana or hp as long as this effect is active. After this effect ends, restore yourself to 50% mana and hp.
- ?
- ?
So this must have been what that pink potion I drank was called.
I seem to have already seen the second effect in action, as I distinctly recall smacking my leg against a sofa and seeing a minus zero damage notification.
Seriously, if I died because I accidentally hit my leg on a sofa, I wouldn't even get over it in the next life.
Moving on, there were also two unknown effects of this potion, both of which I really had no idea about how to discover what they did. The potion already covered invulnerability, what else could one need for a defensive potion like this?
Even if I somehow could find them out, I would definitely need more than just the half hour remaining that this potion is active to adequately analyse it. That, or obtain another vial, which seemed extremely unlikely because it is described as "lost to the ages".
But that brought about another question, if it was "lost to the ages", how could it have appeared in the facility on top of a trolley exactly when I needed a way to survive? Did someone place it there on purpose, knowing that I would drink the potion? Was it just a coincidence?
"Commander? Are you alright? You're staring off into space again."
Enterprise's voice brought me out of my contemplation and back to the present. I shook my head a bit, trying to clear some metaphorical cobwebs on my head before responding.
"I'm alright. I'm just thinking back on what happened to me as well as this new effect I'm under."
"So that's the reason as to why your regeneration for both HP and MP is at 0, and your HP is at 1, am I right?"
I was about to ask how she knew about my current stats, but before I could, she pointed at a place directly behind me.
I turned around… And I wasn't quite sure about what I was seeing.
The wall behind me was filled with nothing but screens, screens and more screens. There were so many that I couldn't take in all of them at once. I only understood a few of them, and that is only because there were clear labels stuck on the top of the screen saying "Aoste's status".
I imagine that this would be what the central surveillance room of Area 51 would look like.
However, what drew my attention was not the massive mess of screens, it was the gigantic glowing and pulsating white crack to the right of all the monitors.
"Oh… The white crack? That's just the place I go to gather resources." Enterprise said, correctly determining what I was looking at. "There are many different options which appear each day, I just pick whichever one seems to yield the most resources, walk into the crack, and then after a day or so, I come back with the resources."
She walked over to one of the screens and pointed at the list displayed on it. I walked closer and took a better look at the screen and what was displayed upon it.
Resource Extraction I
Rewards:
- 150 exp
- 6-10 credits
- 20% chance of extra credits (1-5)
Duration: 24h
Gear Refinement I
Rewards:
- 150 exp
- 3-5 credits,
- 25% chance of T1 equipment upgrade part
- 5% chance of T1 equipment
Duration: 24h
Laboratory Research I
Rewards:
- 150 exp
- 3-5 credits
- 25% chance of T1 laboratory material
Duration: 24h
Current Commision in progress (01:01:22): Laboratory Research I [Purity | X | X | X | X | X]
I thought Purity was the name of the game system, so what is their name doing in this list?
Before I could think about that further, a blinking light in the corner of my eye caught my attention.
I turned to look at the source of the light, and I saw a rather ominous looking purple box with glowing red lines running through it.
It reminded me of a companion cube from Portal, with the only differences being the glowing red lines criss-crossing it and instead of a heart logo, there was a rather strange symbol of… An angel holding and blowing on a flute?
An itching feeling grew in the back of my head as I looked at that symbol; it felt so damn familiar, but I just couldn't place where I had seen it before.
"That?" Enterprise said, looking and pointing at the cube as well. "That seems to be the storage for resources."
She walked over to it, and placed a hand on the top of the box, directly on the strange symbol and said clearly.
"Ten credits"
And ten small green notes appeared above the box, floating in midair.
"Neat isn't it?" Enterprise said as she picked up the notes and placed them onto the box, where they were absorbed back into the box after being transformed into particles of light. "Everything myself and Purity get from resource expeditions just ends up in that box. It's so convenient, not having to manually sort through everything, right?"
"Yes… Yes it is…" I murmured distractedly due to the fact that I was looking at my inventory.
I had to admit, I didn't even open my inventory to see if I started with any items when I just spawned into the Harry Potter world. When I did open it, I saw some things which seemed to be a bit out of place.
For starters, a 5x5 section of my inventory, which was in a 5x20 layout, had a purple background, and there were already a few items present in that place.
- 752 Credits
- 11x T1 Upgrade part
- 1x T1 Twin 406mm (16"/45 Mk 5)
- 15x Consumer-Grade Electronic Components
- 1x Unbranded Gunpowder
- 7x Refined Metals
- 8x Natural Rubber
Apart from the credits, and even that was more than what I originally had, there were a bunch of other things in there, including what seemed to be a main gun turret used by battleships.
I really wanted to bring that one forth from the box, but I wasn't certain if it would pop out at full-size, or miniature size. I wasn't willing to take that risk and destroy this place, so I decided to just take out a small number of credits just like Enterprise did.
I walked over to the box and mimicked Enterprise's action and also said the same thing while looking at the purple section in my inventory.
Lo and behold, I saw the credits number go down by ten.
I put the credits back onto the cube, and as they transformed into particles of light which were absorbed into the cube, I saw the credits number return back to 252.
That confirms it. This cube is a physical representation of the 5x5 purple area in my inventory, and the purple area is essentially a 'shared inventory'.
This could prove highly useful later on, when I need to transfer stuff to and from the Harry Potter world and… Wherever this place is.
You know what? I think I'll just call this place the "Main Hub".
I had barely finished that thought when suddenly, a clanging noise was heard, startling both myself and Enterprise.
We both turned to look in the direction of the noise, and we both coughed at the same time as we saw what made the noise.
There was a strange metal plaque that appeared on the wall behind the monitors that said 'Main Hub'.
"Did… Did you do that, commander?" Enterprise asked as she cautiously walked to the plaque, observing it closely.
"Uhhhh… I must have." I said as I walked over to the plaque. "I was just thinking of what to call this place, and as soon as I decided to call it 'Main Hub', this thing appeared."
Enterprise hummed thoughtfully as she started poking at it.
"Try thinking of calling this place something else, and see if it changes"
I tried, and nothing happened. It seems like the naming was a one-off thing, or I just didn't repeat the process correctly.
"It doesn't seem like anything changed" I said, brushing my hand over the plaque. "I tried repeating what I did to get this to appear in the first place, but nothing happened."
"Hmmm… Maybe it's because-"
Enterprise never finished her sentence, because a dinging noise just came from one of the monitors on the wall of monitors.
I think I'll call that wall with all the monitors 'Vitals'.
I was expecting another clanging noise, but that didn't happen. There was no sound, nor plaque that appeared above the wall, which made me slightly disappointed.
"Oh, it looks like one of the researches has been completed." Enterprise said as she walked towards a monitor towards the top left of Vitals and started pressing it.
Huh. Turns out those monitors are touch-screen. Nice.
"I was thinking of researching 'Communications' next, since I'm hoping that it would allow us to communicate with you, is that alright with you, Commander?"
"Of course" I said as I looked at my 'Laboratory' tab, which displayed the exact same thing as that monitor did. "If you think it will benefit us, you don't need to obtain my permission for it. I trust you will be able to select the best commissions."
+1 Affection with Enterprise.
Nice, I got another affection point.
After closing the notification, I took a closer look at the 'Laboratory' tab, and I saw that I already had two researches completed.
Resource Extraction Improvement I
Effects: Increase the exp and credit payout of all commissions.
- +25% exp gain
- +2 credits per commission
Requirements:
- 700 credits (Completed)
- 5x Consumer-Grade Electronic Components (Completed)
- 5x Unbranded Gunpowder (Completed)
- 5x Refined Metals (Completed)
- 5x Natural Rubber (Completed)
Time required: 60 Hours (Completed)
Laboratory Upgrade I
Effects: Decrease the amount of time required for research.
- 5% faster research speed
Requirements:
- 500 credits (Completed)
- 12x Unbranded Gunpowder (Completed)
- 3x Refined Metals (Completed)
- 3x Natural Rubber (Completed)
Time required: 36 Hours (Completed)
This is actually really darn good truth be told, this means that I wouldn't have to personally micromanage every single aspect of the menu. I could leave it up to my companions to do this stuff.
I looked at the "Communications" research, and I saw that I could actually start it right now.
Communications I
Effects: Enable the communication between the 'Main Hub' and yourself.
- You will be able to actively talk with the summons residing in the 'Main Hub'.
Requirements:
- 750 credits (Completed)
- 15x Consumer-Grade Electronic Components (Completed)
- 6x Refined Metals (Completed)
- 6x Natural Rubber (Completed)
Time required: 159.6 Hours (5% faster due to Laboratory Upgrade I)
Oooohh… Restoring communications would take a week to research. Oh well, better now than later, since being able to talk to Enterprise and Purity would be well worth the wait.
As I selected the research and submitted the requirements for it, I suddenly realised something rather important.
"Enterprise, I have to ask you something." My tone must have been rather stern, because Enterprise froze in her actions and stood ramrod straight. "When was the last time you took an actual rest?"
It didn't make much sense to me, because from what I saw on the 'commissions' screen, all the lowest tier commissions took 24 hours.
On average, each commission type would give 4 or 8 credits. There were two which would average 4, and one which would average 8, so all together, that would give me roughly 5-6.
I started with 500 credits, and in my laboratory tab, I saw that I already had two completed researches, each costing 500 and 700 credits respectively.
With what I currently have, that means that Enterprise and Purity have already earned me just over 1450 credits.
However, even with both of them working non stop with no breaks or sleep, that would mean around 121 days to 145 days to gather the resources…
In other words, 4 months of doing absolutely nothing except commissions, not even stopping to rest.
"Well, uhhh… You've been gone for just over 4 months, and ummm… In that time I… Errrrr…" Enterprise stammered weakly, looking like a possum caught in the headlights of a truck.
The fact that she confirmed my suspicions for how long I had been gone hardly even registered in my mind, because I was more concerned with how little she'd been resting.
Now that I took a closer look at Enterprise, I noticed some things I had missed previously. There were dark bags under her eyes, and her eyes themselves were somewhat bloodshot. Her posture was also slumping slightly, as though she was under a lot of pressure, and the vibrant skin tone which she had upon being first summoned wasn't present at all.
In fact, she looked slightly like a zombie.
Incredibly alarmed, I opened up Enterprise's status screen and what I saw shocked me to the core.
Name: Enterprise
Title: The Grey Ghost
Status: Extreme Fatigue, Sleep Deprivation, Mental Exhaustion
Level: 8
Race: Shipgirl
Class: Carrier
Exp: 150/800
HP: 221/1340 (0.1 Regen/Min)
MP: 101/950 (0.1 Regen/Min)
PHY RES: 0%
MAG RES: 0%
CRIT RATE: 0%
CRIT DMG: 250%
FP: 0
TRP: 0
AVI: 83
LUK: 93
CHA: 111
Description: A shipgirl summoned by Aoste. She is someone who is very down-to-earth and extremely diligent in performing her tasks. However, she often neglects taking care of herself, usually eating plain MREs and sleeping the minimum amount of time required for her to function. Her reasoning is that if she does all the essentials quickly, she'll be able to reserve the most amount of time for her duties. As a result, she is unaccustomed to luxuries and may feel uncomfortable when presented with such things.
Thoughts about you: Doesn't know you, but wants to get to know you better. You are her commander.
Affection: 8/100
Status Name: Extreme Fatigue
Inflictor: Enterprise
Status Description: Caused by extreme activity without rest over an extended period of time. Causes the person to have reduced mobility and massively deteriorates their physical state if no rest is taken. This status will go away after doing nothing but rest for a month.
Effects:
- Movement speed reduced by 80%
- Each day after 7 days, take 100 + (Number of days after 7 days) in pure damage. This is reduced by 75% if they take the day off, and they will stop taking damage after a week of rest.
Status Name: Sleep Deprivation
Inflictor: Enterprise
Status Description: Caused by no or little sleep over an extended period of time. Causes the person to have reduced reaction time and if left unchecked for long periods of time, will impact the mental state of the person. This status will go away after doing nothing but rest for a month.
Effects:
- Reaction time lowered by 80%
- Each day after 7 days, reduce MP by 100 + (Number of days after 7 days). This is reduced by 75% if they take the day off, and they will stop taking damage after a week of rest.
Status Name: Mental Exhaustion
Inflictor: Enterprise
Status Description: Caused by having Sleep Deprivation and Extreme Fatigue statuses simultaneously. The person under this effect will have reduced resistance to everything, as well as having massively slowed natural regeneration. This status will go away after either one of the mentioned prerequisites goes away.
Effects:
- Crit Rate, Phys Res and Mag Res are locked at 0%.
- HP regen locked to 0.1
- MP regen locked to 0.1
"Enterprise." I said in a tone that brooked no room for argument whatsoever. "As your commanding officer, I hereby order you, in no uncertain terms, to take one month off."
Enterprise started to protest, but a glare from me made her silent.
"During that time, you will do nothing except eat, rest and sleep. You will not perform any more commissions during that time, and you will not do anything that will make you tired. Is that clear?"
"But… Commander, I can still…"
"I said, Is. That. Clear. Enterprise?" I almost started shouting at this point.
Truth be told, it actually hurt me quite a bit to shout at my own summons like this. However, I knew that I had to be firm with her, otherwise she'd just spring straight back to work as soon as she started feeling a little better.
Even if she dislikes me for it now, I'd be willing to bear that dislike as long as she can recover.
"Yes, commander." Enterprise said in a rather subdued manner, her form drooping as she deflated.
Sighing, I sat down beside her and gently put a hand on her shoulder.
"Look, I'm sorry for shouting at you, but I was just so worried about you. You were about to drop dead from overworking yourself, you know?"
Enterprise looked at me questioningly as I said that, and in response I showed her her own status screen.
I had never seen a face go so pale that the dark bags under them almost went invisible.
"You see what I mean? I wasn't exaggerating when I said you were about to 'drop dead'"
Enterprise nodded numbly as she sank further into the sofa and stared off into space.
"I see what you mean… Thank you commander" She murmured quietly.
"No problem, Enterprise. What sort of commander would I be if I didn't look after my subordinates now, would I?"
She chuckled weakly at my small quip.
As I was going to reach out to comfort her, my hand started flickering.
"Commander!" Enterprise shouted as she sprang up and tried to grab me, but her hands phased straight through mine.
"It's alright, Enterprise. My retribution status effect is ending, and I'm returning back to the Harry Potter world now."
At least that's what I think is happening. I had my status menu open this whole time, and I saw the status effect tick down its last few seconds.
As more of my body faded away, I said one last thing to Enterprise.
"Once I get back, I'll get you a barbeque and some meat. I'm sure you'll love it"
+2 Affection with Enterprise
Even if that affection notification didn't appear, Enterprise's smile was all I needed to know that it would be highly appreciated.
My view of the 'Main Hub' soon faded away to nothingness, and I found myself standing up inside the same room that I "died" in.
However, I wasn't alone.
"Uhhh… Hello there."
- Liliana -
Liliana was expecting many things as she entered the room.
She was expecting a toxic pile of sludge, a mutilated body that was still twitching, or even a horribly deformed monstrosity that she would have to put down.
The fact that the baby, although he certainly couldn't be called a baby anymore, was alive and well was the absolute last thing she was expecting.
"Hello… Would you be Aoste Lemieux by any chance?" Liliana said cautiously, subconsciously reaching for her weapons, completely forgetting that she didn't equip them in her haste to get to this room.
She wasn't asking in order to make sure of his identity, she already knew as soon as she entered that he was indeed the baby because she could sense his presence and magical signature.
No, she was asking because although he seemed fine on the surface, it is entirely possible that he'd been genetically modified or something, and in her experience, asking a few simple questions was a good start to determine the mental state of the person.
"I am," The boy in front of her replied. "And who might you be?"
So far so good, he's not showing any signs of insanity or instability. His heartbeat and breathing didn't change in the slightest after answering and they were both pretty stable with nothing irregular.
"My name is Liliana Scarlet, and I'm here to cl- check up on you."
She was about to say "clean up" but that wasn't applicable anymore, because there was nothing to clean up.
"Well uhhh, thanks I guess. But as you can see, I'm fine!" Aoste said as he tried to make a flexing pose, but soon let out a wince.
Liliana inadvertently let out a chuckle at his actions because the sight of a small child pulling a pose like that was completely ridiculous.
That chuckle quickly transformed into concern when she heard him wince, and before he could even react, she knelt down in front of him and started speaking to him seriously.
"No, you are clearly not fine. Where does it hurt? What happened before this?"
As she looked into the bright aquamarine eyes of Aoste, she felt a bit… Nostalgic.
She could have sworn that she'd seen that same eye colour before somewhere else, just a few shades darker.
It was strange, because she knew for a fact that she hadn't met anyone before with even green eyes. She remembers every place she'd been to since her resurrection, and every person she'd met and she is completely certain that she hadn't seen anyone like that.
So why would this shade of green trigger a nostalgic and slightly yearning feeling?
However, she pushed that thought to the back of her mind when Aoste started talking again.
"Well, it seems like I can't fool you. I uhhh… I had a bit of an accident and I hurt my leg."
His answer actually confused Liliana quite a bit. It wasn't the contents of the answer which made her confused, it was the way that he said it.
This entire time, she had been observing Aoste closely for anything irregular, like a spike in temperature, a sudden jump in heart rate, involuntary movements etc. As a side-effect, she could usually also detect when the person in front of her is lying.
When he said his answer, his heart rate jumped up a fair bit, and his pinky twitched slightly, signalling that he was lying. However, from her augmented powers, she also sensed that he wasn't lying.
Effectively, he was giving mixed signals; he was both lying and not lying.
That aside, at least she is now sure that Aoste hadn't been negatively impacted by anything that Pierre did to him. All of Pierre's injections and potions have an instantaneous effect, and the fact that he hasn't shown any reactions up until now, very likely meant that he was fine.
She let out a small sigh of relief as she nodded and walked to the medical cabinet to pick up the first-aid kit.
- Aoste -
I am not ashamed to admit that I was just a little bit scared during that entire conversation.
The way that she was staring so intently at me made me feel like I was about to get devoured by an apex predator.
After all, I think a single flick of her finger would do more damage than my maximum HP.
However, when she went to pick up the same first-aid kit I saw before my 'death', I realised that she probably wasn't intending to kill me.
As she returned with the kit, I lifted the hem of my patient's gown and exposed my ankle area for her to inspect.
"Hmm… A slight bruising and a shallow cut." I heard her mutter as she took out bandages and a few salves and creams from the kit.
As she dressed the wound and bound it, she said to me, "While it's nothing too serious, you still should be careful. We wouldn't want the wound to get worse."
+100 HP (Bonus HP restored for a high quality medkit used)
"Will do, thanks Miss Scarlet." I said gratefully.
After that, we fell silent rather awkwardly, both of us not knowing what to talk about.
Obviously, I couldn't ask her about who she was and what she did, because how could a child who hasn't even left the room know about the things she did? It would be too suspicious.
Asking about who she was didn't seem like a good idea either, because I can't imagine that being resurrected and used for killing purposes would be a good topic for discussion.
However, that silence didn't last much longer because the door slid open and in walked a rather skinny old man with frazzled hair.
The way that Liliana's face turned completely cold and blank upon seeing him told me that this person wasn't someone nice.
"Ahhh, Subject Zero-Seven-Nine. You survived after all. Now, I'm a busy man, so I want to talk to you..."
I wondered what sort of a person this is, so I looked at his status window.
Name: Pierre Moreau (Age: 71y 2m)
Title: The Doctor
Level: 88
Race: Human - Augmented
Class: Researcher - Genetics and Chemistry
Alignment: Scarlet Cult
HP: 10000/10000 (1000 Regen/Min)
MP: 30000/30000 (3000 Regen/Min)
STR: 238
AGI: 176
INT: 592
LUK: 35
CHA: 154
Description: The most trusted subordinate of the regional cult leader, Darius. This man has absolutely no morals and would gladly sacrifice entire cities of people in the name of 'science'.
His last research involved the gassing of a large tribal village in South Africa and the dissection of the bodies afterwards in order to obtain their hearts and brain parts. That was also one of his more 'tame' researches.
He is known to be very cruel and sadistic with his experiments, often using live specimens and healing them for later use if they survive.
Thoughts about you: He is interested in who you are, and how you managed to survive when other people stronger than you died. He thinks of you as a worthy lab-rat and won't let you die as long as you're useful.
Reputation: 5/100
My skin crawled as I read through his description and thoughts about me.
I see why Liliana didn't like him.
It's clearly obvious that this man is twisted beyond belief. If the gassing of an entire village was considered 'tame', then I didn't even want to think about what something not tame for him would be.
However, I couldn't think about what he did for much longer, because he just asked me a question.
"Well, what say you, zero-seven-nine? Will you work with me for the betterment of all of humanity?"
I suppressed a snort at what he said. "Betterment of humanity" my ass.
I looked towards Liliana's emotionless face and tried to determine what she thought of the offer. I would also have asked Enterprise and Purity for their thoughts as well, but the communications research wasn't completed yet.
It was completely up to me to determine my path.
Before I could answer, the entire world went grey and froze as a popup appeared in front of my eyes.
[ != Story Decision =! ]
Pierre Moreau has offered you a place by his side. Depending on if you accept or reject, your story will change.
Accept
[+] Increased reputation/affection gains with people of the "Scarlet Cult" alignment
[+] Highly likely to find special items in staff-frequented areas
[+] Very unlikely to die
[-] You will be hated by everyone who is not a personnel of the facility
[-] You will be the centre of attention for almost all personnel due to your status as Pierre's assistant.
[-] Decreased affection and affection gain with Liliana (Temporary)
Refuse
[+] Immensely increased affection gains with Liliana
[+] You will be seen as an ally by everyone who is not a personnel of the facility
[+] Highly likely to find special items in cells and dungeons
[-] Far greater chance of death
[-] Decreased reputation/affection gains with people of the "Scarlet Cult" alignment
[-] Significantly more difficult to navigate the facility.
I stared long and hard at the two options, weighing up my choices.
This really was a difficult one, because both options are very attractive, yet both also have their downsides.
In particular, the chance of death one is a big tipping point.
However, the keyword is "chance".
For all I know, I could pick "Accept" then die a few days after due to an accident because of some random scientist messing up. On the other hand, I could also dodge many potential accidents by staying in my cell or whatever by picking "Refuse".
Urgh, this is a really difficult choice.
In the end though, I knew I had to pick one.
Taking a deep breath, I made my choice.
Ending notes: And there we have it, our first glance of a character from Harry Potter, and boi oh boi... He's not a nice one is he?
There are a few references scattered here and there, try and find them all for virtual cookies and milk!
No reference list in this chapter.