Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

The place the Regressor led us to was a homely establishment situated in a little nook on the outskirts of Pandora. We were away from the strange cityscape and back in the quaint village-esque part of the town, and I could probably never get used to the strange dichotomy of the two aesthetics.

We were the only ones in the restaurant, obviously, and we grabbed the big table seat by the window. The smell of home-cooked meals permeated the air, and a nice older lady came to bring us some tea and coffee. The menu on the side listed an array of comfort foods, and we quickly settled in and gave our various orders.

Vadeem practically chose one of everything on there, and a few additional ones that he thought the twins might enjoy. The two girls didn’t argue and seemed to just be enjoying the new atmosphere. I think they were still unused to seeing so much light in one place. Noel chose to order a full rack of ribs and some fries on the side, while the Regressor and his sister had some fish and chips. I ordered the bangers and mash since I’ve always wanted to try some but no place ever seemed to serve them where I was from.

The meal arrived quickly, and we spent the first few minutes just simply enjoying the food and the ambiance.

“You know, there’s one thing I have to ask,” I said between bites of sausage, “But who are these people working here? I know they’re not Aspirants like us.”

“Aren’t they just NPCs?” Noel asked, her entire face was practically covered in BBQ sauce as she bit into another rib.

“Sort of,” the Regressor answered, he had barely touched his own meal, “Most of the workers here are constructs, like the golem we faced earlier, just better made. They only have a limited function, and can’t deviate from their orders. Only a few people are official workers like Raffiel.”

“I’m assuming that the receptionist we met earlier was one of them?” I added before taking another mouthful of food. I never knew British comfort food could be so damn good.

He smiled again, “Yes, as are most of the other staff in the building we bought.”

That didn’t seem like a lot of workers dedicated to the function of an entire city. But maybe these constructs were the results of the funding cuts Q was talking about. I can’t imagine that he would want the majority of the main stage staffed by robots - or I suppose golems in this case.

Vadeem muttered something incomprehensible since his mouth was stuffed to the brim with various foodstuffs. Not even Noe’s ability to translate languages could discern what he was trying to say. Eva poked him on the side and gave him an unmistakable look of disapproval. He returned the glare with a shy look of apology before swallowing all of the food and speaking again.

“As I was saying,” he stated again after drinking a large glass of water, “if only the first 1000 teams are here now, which is what, 5000 of us, then when’ll the others arrive?”

“It’s less than 5000 people,” the Regressor corrected, “Some of the teams would have lost members.”

Yoona looked slightly uncomfortable hearing that fact, but she had to accept the situation we were in soon. I just hope her brother wasn’t babying her too much because I know a time will come when she has to see the world for what it was.

The Regressor gave his sister a quick glance before continuing, “But the next set of teams will arrive tomorrow at noon, and the set after will come the day after that, and so on until a set number of the top Aspirants make it to Pandora. It should take about a month or two for that to happen.”

“So we only get one day head start?” I asked again, “That doesn’t seem like much.”

Vadeem laughed, “Yet we already own the Administration building, and you think that isn’t much?”

“Alright,” I admitted, “Fair enough.”

“What about the rest of the people?” the big man questioned, addressing the Regressor again, “I mean the ones that didn't do so well in the Trials; do they just all come at once later on?”

Jae-Hyun took a sip of water before answering, “Not quite. They’ll come in larger batches after the next Trial, and not everyone will be sent here. There are several other settlements like Pandora scattered around and our numbers will be divided amongst them. I don't think we'll hit six digit numbers of inhabitants here in any case.”

Right, although this town we were in was pretty large, I don’t think it could feasibly hold a few million people in it. It also makes me wonder how the population was distributed, but maybe I can clear that up with Q and his workers later.

Yoona put down her food and whipped her mouth before asking, “Do you know when that will be, brother?”

“Depends,” he answered with a shrug, “the next Trial starts the second the last party in the top 10% gets distributed, so it could be in a month, could be after three. It all depends on how many teams are left.”

I finished the rest of my sausages and started slurping down the mashed potatoes, “Wait, so everyone else just get to skip the third Trial? Seems like a good deal to me.”

Noel laughed, almost choking on the large piece of steak, before answering, “And skip the rewards of clearing the Trial and going straight to the 4th one? Little bro, that’s like skipping the tutoring and going straight to the last boss. Those poor dudes will be screwed!”

Hm, Noel made some sense this time, but it still didn’t seem that terrible to me.

“Not just that,” Jae-Hyun added, “the third Trial is a bit special, it’s not combat-focused, so it won’t be as dangerous as the others. Not to say that it won’t be challenging.”

“Which means that only the best Aspirants will get to reap the rewards,” Vadeem concluded, “The people running these trials are sly buggers.”

I nodded slowly, finally getting a better sense of how this main stage was shaping up to be. There are still a lot of questions left unanswered, but I’m sure they’ll be answered once it's appropriate. No one wanted to be bogged down with too much new information all at once.

I ate the last of my meal and ordered some more, I hadn’t realized just how hungry I was, and the amount of food I could eat seemed to have increased as well. But I was filthy rich, so it’s not like I couldn’t afford to eat all I wanted.

The only problem was that I had to figure out a good way to explain why I had more money than all the other Aspirants together to my new guild members. I certainly had to use my newly acquired funds in order to survive if that last damn trial taught me anything, but I couldn’t exactly tell them that I got a hundred million coins from the people that kidnapped everyone.

The Regressor had a serious grudge against Central, and the absolute last thing I would want is for him as an enemy. Well, maybe the second last thing, making Xalla or her race angry was probably a whole lot worse.

Some ideas came to mind on how I could potentially circumvent this problem, but as always, I decided to wait and see if I could glean more information about this current stage and what kinds of trouble I could expect before acting. For now, I’ll just use a few thousand here and there, at least when I am in public with Jae-Hyun and the gang.

“You’re right Vadeem,” the Regressor answered, “But if we make the right plans, then we can beat them at their own game.”

“What plans are those?” I asked.

“For now?” He said, “We need to rest.”

“Pardon?”

He looked at me, “Especially you, Walter. We just came back from that abnormal second Trial, and we need to rest while we still can. Whatever that darkness did to us is still lingering, and we need to properly treat it before we do anything strenuous.”

I frowned, “But won’t we give up all of our advantages if we do?”

“Trust me when I say that getting proper rest is not a waste of time,” he answered solemnly, it appears that he was speaking from experience, “And I’m not saying to just lie in bed all day, but there are other ways to improve other than fighting.”

I wanted to argue, but I remembered that Jae-Hyun wasn’t the only one who told me to get some rest. Noe had as well when I first came back from that horrible zombie hellscape. Who am I to argue with an all-powerful system and a guy from the future?

“Your point’s made,” I conceded, “we’ll rest, so what are we going to do in the meantime?”

The Regressor smirked, “We consolidate our guild and grow our influence.”

“So recruitment and setting up infrastructure?” Vadeem said with a grin. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he quickly glanced at Yoona and the twins and didn’t continue.

The Regressor saw this as well, and he gave him a barely perceptible nod of thanks. I guess that will be a conversation for another time when the kids are out of the room. I can’t believe that Jae-Hyun was still willing to leave his sister in the dark even after all that’s happened, but I guess Yoona had been unconscious for most of the second Trial.

“Yes,” he answered, “We are in the unique situation where we have next to no competition on available resources, and only the cream of the crop in terms of potential recruits. I’ll go over the details in full once we get back to our headquarters, but eat first. We’ll go get the two new members properly equipped and dressed after. Our building should be ready for us after that.”

“Sounds good, oh awesome guild leader man!” Noel added, she had just finished eating all of her food and was sneakily stealing more from Vadeem’s portion. The twins were engaging in a small skirmish against Noel’s fork, trying their best to stop her from taking more of their food.

“Can’t argue with that!” Vadeem added before stuffing his face once more.

He frowned as he saw that some of his portions had disappeared, and started to help out the twins with their counterassault on Noel’s plate. She didn’t stand a chance 3 versus 1, and Vadeem quickly brought back the spoils of his victory onto the dishes in front of Ana and Eva. The two quickly ate everything given, always on guard for a new round of raiding to begin from Noel. I think they’ll explode at this point, given how much they’ve both eaten.

Yoona watched on with a chuckle, clearly enjoying how well the two skinny girls were able to adapt to their new situation. I think I had a smile on as well as I saw Noel make a white flag with a toothpick and napkins, waving it to signal her defeat.

Jae-Hyun was the complete opposite as he slowly but meticulously ate the food in front of him. It was like everything else he did in his second life, it was all purposeful and minimized waste. I really do wonder what he did in that previous timeline for him to have turned out like this, and I couldn’t help but feel a little sad for Yoona. It must have been a shock to see her brother change so much.

We ate quickly after that, making small talk and light-hearted jokes. I honestly felt myself relax for the first time in a very long time, and perhaps Jae-Hyun and Noe were right, I did need some time off.

“Rest is absolutely important, my Host,” Noe chimed in, her voice warm with affection, “Please ensure that you take care of your body. It is still weak, but Unit Noe will ensure that you become whole once more.”

Thanks, Noe, but what do you mean become whole? You’re the one that’s missing shards.

“You are right, my Host,” she said again, and that weird mischievous tone was back, “Please disregard what I said.”

Ok… we really need to have a proper conversation about your changes and upgrades later.

“I look forward to that, dearest Walter.”

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