The old man looked at Kurt and sighed.
"Unfortunately, I can only answer one of these questions. And that is that I have reached my limit in this place, which ans that just like all things that are born and grow... I must die, too."
Kurt was perplexedly speechless, but the silence didn’t last too long, because his quick wits placed so pieces together, and he asked.
"But... If ’you’ must die, then it ans that the other Kurt has already died in here, too. Right?"
"I can’t answer that. Although my words might already be an answer by themselves. All I can say is that I called you here for a reason."
Kurt was quiet, waiting for the old man to keep on speaking.
"You have reached sothing that neither nor Kurt, or for that matter... The ’other’ Kurt, have been able to." Orkas paused for a brief mont. "Stability, balance. And, sohow, a way to ta the system."
Kurt already knew all of it, because he spent so ti inside the [MORY FRAGNT] not only when he t the other Kurt inside the [HIDDEN ROOM].
He also spent ti visiting and revisiting it through his sleepless nights, and through all the ti he had studied hard to understand what he was getting into.
He saw the other Kurt amass an unimaginable amount of power in just a few levels and just a little ti.
And Kurt knew how wrong it felt, how it seed...
Too easy.
But more than that, he noticed a blatant difference between how the system behaved towards the other Kurt and how it behaved towards him.
It almost looked like the system ’liked’ this new Kurt.
But Orkas’ words shed a little light over Kurt’s thoughts about the matter.
"So I really kinda... Tad it?"
"You spent almost two months to reach level 05, and to say the least, you only reached level 06 right after fulfilling the conditions for our eting, because of the special... ’Features’ that the system displayed for you-"
[DON’T]
Kurt felt a sudden pang in his chest, he furrowed his brow, and turned around in every direction.
"Did you hear that?"
"What?" Orkas shot back, as if nothing happened.
Kurt stared at Orkas for a few seconds, but as if he didn’t find anything wrong in Orkas’ body language, the boy urged his hero to go on with his explanation.
"... So... If it isn’t taming, then I most definitely don’t know what it is." Orkas chuckled. "You certainly made it easier for him to-"
[DON’T BELIEVE IN THEM!]
This ti, however, Orkas couldn’t fake a nonchalant expression.
His eyebrows twitched and his eyes went slightly wide. Even his explanation kinda choked on itself.
Kurt had decided he would let it slide the first ti, because Orkas really didn’t display any signs of lying.
But he knew sothing was off, and he was waiting for a chance to see if it was just sothing in his head, but it seed like it wasn’t.
’[POLYGRAPH]!’
[DUE TO THE LEVEL OF YOUR SKILL, YOU CAN ONLY TELL THAT THE TARGET IS HIDING SOTHING]
Kurt’s heart skipped a beat.
He knew that sothing was off, but he never read or heard a ssage from the system with a tone like that.
And by that ti, when he looked at Orkas again, the old man was just two steps from him.
’Can he be this fast even at his current age?’
But the strangest part was that Kurt’s instincts, his [PERCEPTION], didn’t sound any alarm in his head.
"You’re hiding sothing..." Kurt risked. "But you don’t intend to try and fight , why?"
Orkas smiled, but his eyes had tears.
"I can’t answer that, kid. All I can say is that once you’re out of here, you’ll be a completely different person, and I hope you... Don’t... D-" The old man started choking and grabbing his own chest. "I... Won’t be able to... Give you... My... Legacy. But if you... Survive... You’ll earn the right... To do just... The sa..."
Orkas fell to his knees, coughing blood and grabbing the chest of the shirt he was using even tighter.
Kurt felt lost, confused.
He tried approaching Orkas, but his body wouldn’t move.
"Oh, my... Why do you favor us so much, old man?" Another voice asked behind Kurt.
A voice he was very familiar with.
"I didn’t want you to die, but you know how things work around here, right? Without you, I wouldn’t be able to last so long being the current , and so I wouldn’t be able to enjoy this chance..."
Kurt felt the touch of a hand on his shoulder, but he still couldn’t move.
When the person ca into his field of view, every single one of Kurt’s suspicions ca true.
The other Kurt was standing in front of him while Orkas was dying on his knees.
But that Kurt didn’t look much like the version who had taught the younger one everything in the [HIDDEN ROOM].
However, Kurt’s instincts told him that it was the real other Kurt. Even with the crackled face, and the exceedingly scrawny body.
"How are you doing, other ...?" The other Kurt smiled. "You have sothing that belongs to , and I’m here to take it back."
***
Agent Collins opened the door to the interrogatory room and greeted the other two agents that were waiting for him.
In the dark, the agents saluted Collins, walking towards the door when he responded "At ease." But they stood there, not leaving the place.
The two people thoroughly cuffed and restrained raised their heads towards him, but they clearly feeling his presence, but the blindfolds around their heads kept them from seeing who he was.
And Collins didn’t say a word to them yet.
He looked at the mirror in the back wall of the room and said out loud.
"I want all the footage of the last hour AND the next three hours ’erased’."
He took the silence that followed his words as a compliance and sat at the table.
"I ran into a quite big deal of trouble to accomplish my mission because of so... Setbacks. But what I didn’t know, was that you two, out of everyone else, knew sothing about this setback of mine."
He slamd the table and the two people flinched backwards.
Collins looked at his n and nodded towards them.
They moved from the door and approached the prisoners, taking the blindfolds off of them.
"Now, I want you two to tell what is up with the kid nad Kurt Blake, and how he could go from a basically crippled kid fated to a hospital bed... To a prospect at the Boston Wielders Academy...?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)