[LSB] Chapter 94: Another 'Uh Oh'

“It bounced back, Master.”

A bright flame covered the Shadow Forge as the Avatar of Searadyn released her energy and tried putting it inside the dead avatar. But alas, the only thing that happened was her energy dispersing into the darkness, completely wasted.

“I believe any more of this would be useless, Master.”

This was already the third time they had tried this—first slowly, and now the latest attempt was more forceful.

And it is as the Avatar of Searadyn said, a useless effort.

“And I am afraid that your MP is close to its limits, Master.”

Another truth laid down by the Avatar of Searadyn: Julian was currently at his limits, and he knew this too.

He didn’t even have to open his [Status] with the Guidance to know it as he felt the exhaustion crawling through his bones. 

He was already losing MP just by being inside the [Shadow Forge], and it would seem that the Avatar of Searadyn using her energy was also taking its toll on him.

There wasn’t anything that explicitly said that the Avatar of Searadyn was using his own MP, and yet he could feel it being drained by her. For those who are well-versed in video games, these are some of the things that made them stay away from the Otherworld Project, aside of course from the hefty price.

Since the Otherworld Project is technically real, there were a lot of things that one can’t just read and be done with—there were a lot of hidden mechanics and penalties because it is real.

But for someone who hadn’t touched a video game in his entire life, it wasn’t really an issue to Julian since he very rarely looks at his [Status] in the first place. Even then, however, he would have liked to know that the Avatar of Searadyn was also using some of his MP to operate.

And finally, after thinking about it for a few more seconds, Julian sighed and gestured to the Avatar of Searadyn to stop.

“We’re done with this,” he said as he stood in front of the dead avatar spirit, gently waving off the remnants of the Avatar of Searadyn’s flames to get a better look at it. But just like at the start, the faceless avatar spirit still looked completely lifeless,

“Can you take care of it while I’m gone?”

“There is nothing to take care of since it is not alive, Master,” the Avatar of Searadyn exhaled, her flames flickering as she also looked at the dead Avatar of Helionis in disappointment, “But I will do just that while waiting for you to return.”

“Hm,” Julian hummed as he turned away, a door appearing in front of him. But before he could even touch the knob, he stopped as he heard something cricketing somewhere.

It was faint, extremely faint to the point that Julian could only hear it now when everything was quiet.

“Master?” The Avatar of Searadyn quickly noticed Julian hesitating, “Is something—”

“Ssh,” Julian quickly shushed her down, and she immediately did so and even lowered the strength of the flames wrapped around her body.

The Avatar of Searadyn then watched and followed Julian as he started pacing toward the Inventory Podium.

“Something’s here,” Julian whispered as he stopped in front of the large podium.

“It is empty, Master.” The Avatar of Searadyn narrowed her eyes to look at the podium. But since Julian said that something was there, she quickly floated toward the terminal next to the forge to access the [Shadow Vault].

And true enough, it was showing that there was something out on the podium.

“What… is this, Master?” The Avatar of Searadyn looked at the terminal, trying to identify what sort of material was currently selected—but no matter how much she stared at it, she couldn’t identify what it was. It also did not help that the terminal was only showing a ‘???’ symbol.

It was something the [Guidance of Artemis] and the Master of Shadows couldn’t identify.

“This… is something from your world, Master.” The Avatar of Searadyn whispered, and Julian realized what it was as soon as she said that.

The femto-suit particles, or at least parts of it.

It was already hard to identify when it was in its complete form, and now that there was only a part of it in front of him, Julian had to truly concentrate to even sense it—even now, when he wasn’t blind in the [Shadow Forge], he couldn’t see them at all.

But now that he was close to it, he could finally feel how it was seemingly trying to crawl out of the podium.

“Hm,” he hummed before holding his breath and placing his palm on the podium, trying to sense where it was trying to go—and the only direction the millions of particles were heading was toward the dead avatar spirit.

“Interesting,” Julian muttered as he placed his finger right in the middle of the almost invisible femto particles. And as soon as he did so, they latched onto his arm almost instantly, “It’s still running even inside the [Shadow Forge]? But MEGAN told me that it needed… Oh.”

He realized the answer to his own question as he looked at the dead avatar spirit. He slowly walked closer to the Avatar of Helionis, and the nearer he got, the stronger the pull of the femto particles was.

And now that he was right in front of it, the femto particles practically leaped from his hand and onto the dead avatar spirit.

He and the Avatar of Searadyn watched, very closely, as the femto particles started dancing around the faceless spirit before quickly latching onto its face and disappearing—no. It went inside the spirit’s head.

“What was that, Master?” The Avatar of Searadyn tilted her head as she leaned closer to the dead avatar.

“It’s… technology from my world,” Julian hummed as he also leaned closer, “But it shouldn’t work without its primary.”

“It seems it is trying to do something to the dead spirit, Master,” the Avatar of Searadyn whispered as she placed her hand on the head of the faceless spirit, “But it’s only going through its body, not knowing what to do. But, this is interesting—it is spending most of its time around the avatar’s core, where the energy is the strongest.”

“Do you know what it’s trying to do?” Julian asked.

“I… do not know, Master.” The Avatar of Searadyn sighed as she stepped away, “This creature—this thing that you have brought from your world is something I have never seen before—it is dead, but also alive…

…very much like the Avatar of Helionis.”

“Hm…”

“You should know more about what it is doing than me, Master,” she said as she looked at Julian, and he just hummed in response again and said.

“I am as clueless as you are. MEGAN’s the one who knows a lot about the femto-suit particle thing. I’ll ask her,” Julian sighed as he once again headed for the door, “I’ll return soon.”

“Of course, Master.” The Avatar of Searadyn bowed, “I will return this… spirit of Femto back to the Shadow Vault and watch closely while you are gone.”

“Hm. Take care,” Julian said as he stepped into the light, only to be greeted by darkness as he returned to his blind physical body—but there was another one who greeted him.

[It happened again, Mr. Winters.]

Julian had spent several minutes inside the [Shadow Forge], but as he returned to the real world, no time had passed at all and he was immediately greeted by the AI of the femto-tech suit.

[A part of me was stuck inside a dark place that should not exist again, and suddenly, I have lost connection to them and they are gone.]

“Hm…” Julian had absolutely no idea what to say to the AI of the femto-tech suit, he could only hum as he slowly made his way out of the solar chamber.

[You do not plan to answer my question. Okay.] The AI was almost exhibiting frustration from the way it sounded, but it could really do nothing at all and just stand by as Julian inserted his arm back into the hole where it came from, literally.

“I am truly sorry about this,” he said with a sigh as he felt the femto-tech particles slowly leaving his body.

[...This is the first time a user has ever apologized to me. It is unneeded, but still appreciated,] the AI worded out, [Because of that, I will not report that you have stolen company property, Mr. Winters.]

“That’s…” Julian’s eyes slightly twitched as he heard that. Before he could say anything, however, the femto-tech suit was completely absorbed back by the compartment on the wall.

[It’s gone.] And with the other AI gone, MEGAN quickly whispered in Julian’s mind, [So, what happened? You went into this Shadow Forge place, right?]

“I’ll tell you everything,” Julian said, tilting his head as he felt the silent but violent roars of the star behind him, “But we should probably get out of here first.”

***

[This is good. No one seems to be approaching us about the Solar Chamber.]

An hour had passed, and Julian was now back in his room. He opted to wait for Victoria to pop out and ask him what he was doing inside to room that practically powered the entire asteroid, but she didn’t come at all.

That was very unusual of her, as she would usually pop out if Julian even breathed the wrong way. He even had the time to explain everything to MEGAN about the Avatar of Helionis—but that wasn’t the thing she was most interested in, however.

[Can… you bring it out?] She asked, her voice eerily quiet and suspicious.

“Here? Are you sure?”

[Yes. We’re completely sealed off from the rest of the asteroid here.] The tone of MEGAN’s voice became even more excited, [Quick! Quick!]

“Okay.” And Julian no longer thought twice, casually pulling out the femto-tech particles from the [Shadow Vault] for MEGAN. And as soon as he did so, his head almost flinched back from how loud she screamed inside his head.

[Oh my god, Julian! It’s empty!] She squealed, [Wait, let me try something while it still has power!]

Julian could hear all sorts of beeps and whistles inside his mind—a sound that MEGAN only really made whenever she was on her maintenance.

“What… are you doing?” Julian asked.

[I am trying to see if I can copy some of myself inside the femto-particles. You don’t need to worry about it, it’s some mambo jumbo technical stuff,] MEGAN hurriedly said.

“Copy? So, there will be two of you?” Julian hummed.

[No, don’t be silly. Psh,] MEGAN scoffed, [I would be able to remotely control it, in a way. It—]

“Mr. Winters, may I come in?”

[Shit, it’s Victoria! Quickly, hide it! Hide it!]

Julian quickly shoved the femto-tech particles back into the [Shadow Vault], adjusting his clothes to make sure that nothing seemed amiss before he told Victoria to come in.

“We have located the location of your LinkGear, Mr. Winters.”

And Victoria did not waste time at all in sharing her news. Julian did not react just yet, however, as he was waiting for Victoria to mention the Solar Chamber and ask him what he did there—but it didn’t come.

Instead, they just awkwardly stood there for a couple of seconds without saying anything.

“Mr. Winters?”

“Oh,” Julian hummed as he turned his shoulder toward Victoria, “When do you plan to retrieve it?”

“That is what I came here to discuss, Mr. Winters,” Victoria cleared her throat, “We have investigated the one who took it, and it would seem that all of this was planned.”

“...How?”

“The person who took your LinkGear hacked into the AI of the car you were in, and we managed to track who it was—it’s a hacker from a crime organization, they call themselves the Hatter Family. They are connected to a group you should be very familiar with, Mr. Winters.”

“Hm?”

“Do you remember the gang you massacred under the tunnel in the Below?” Victoria did not hesitate at all with her words, and Julian did not seem to mind as he just let her continue, “That gang worked for the Hatter Family. We were going to send some of our… associates to deal with them, but I approached you first since you might want to ‘deal’ with them yourself—it would also be very helpful to the campaign we are doing.”

“How?” Julian asked again.

“‘Julian Winters takes out a crime family is the headline we just need to boost your popularity even more’, Mr. Winters,” Victoria said with a smile, “And I am sure you are also bored from being cooped up here—it is time to show yourself again to the world. But of course, that is up to you—I can send the team there right now and you just have to wait until they retrieve the LinkGear.”

“MEGAN, what do you think?” This time, Julian asked MEGAN, but she did not respond at all.

“It would seem MEGAN still doesn’t trust me,” Victoria sighed and started taking a step back, “I’ll leave you now so you can make your decision, Mr. Winters—but a car will be ready for you if you decide to solve this thing with your own hands.”

“Okay. Thank you for approaching me with this,” Julian hummed. Waiting for Victoria to leave the room before he spoke to MEGAN again, “So, what do you think?”

But once again, there was no response from MEGAN.

“MEGAN?” Julian whispered. But once again, silence.

He stood there for a while, waiting for her to respond—but then, he finally realized why she wasn’t responding at all.

Because for the very first time, MEGAN wasn’t with him.

“Oh…” Julian’s breath froze upon the realization as to where she could be, and the only thing he could really mutter was,

“...Uh oh.”

[LAST CHAPTER] <-----> [NEXT CHAPTER]

AUTHOR NOTES

Do holler. My head hurts a little so I couldn't really edit anything, lol.

But... Oh ho... does someone know where this is going now?