Cail picked up a paper. It was a contract.
[Adapting to the Void Agreent
Party B will let Party A do so modifications to his body for him to better adapt to the void. Party B will not hold Party A liable for any issues that might arise from the adaptation process.
Signed:
Signed:]
This contract seed to be just a draft, but Cail had an idea as to what happened. For so reason, this city was probably eaten by the void, and the city needs its residents to adapt.
Cail rembered the writings on the wall. "Virehn... it seems like he was Party A of this deal?" He continued staring at the contract, then he noticed sothing.
On the bottom left, there was the infamous fine print.
Cail had to place it near his face in order to see what it was. Yes, despite his artifact being activated, it was still hard to see.
[By signing this contract, Party B will let Party A have full control over what to do with his entire being, not just limited to the physical body, but also to the immaterial soul.]
Cail hissed after seeing that deal. "Too jackal." But he bet, if those capitalists can, they probably do this too.
"But that aside, even if the print on this contract is this small, at least among the thousands of people living in the city, one should have taken a glance at it, right?" Cail wondered. "Did they sign this contract?"
It was a question, but deep down, Cail already had an answer. This city was now in a ruined state. Sothing might have happened to the residents living here.
Cail felt sothing was off. He pushed his helt cover a bit and nudged his glasses. Sure enough, his guess was right. "The ’fine print’ is not visible to ordinary eyes. Heck, it’s even a bit blurry using these glasses. This is another level of fraud."
If Virehn was the one behind it, he surely wasn’t a good guy.
"Is he dead now?" Cail muttered as he put the contract away. He continued walking until he found sothing.
It was quiet and suffocating. Cail could hear the echo of his footsteps and the sound of his heartbeat. His mind wandered into various questions.
Is Virehn a na or a surna?
What happened to this city? Was their perishing caused by the void or sothing else?
Why did their traces vanish?
"Hey Veyr, is people vanishing without a trace a common characteristic of places eaten by the void?" Cail asked. He could feel the child he was carrying freeze. "I know you’re awake."
Veyr opened his eyes. It was already pretty obvious; might as well talk. The silence in this tunnel was driving him insane. "No. It’s not a common occurrence. Well, to be more precise, it only happened in this rift."
Cail continued walking. "Do you know how to get out of here? What is your goal?" He hadn’t asked that question before, thinking a child would know nothing. But after the reveal that Veyr wasn’t what he seed, Cail had no qualms about asking.
Veyr was obedient. "Getting out of here can be done in three ways. The most common one is to crush the ’ticket.’ It’s not a literal ticket, but it’s sothing we use to disrupt the space flow for a second. You can buy that at the black market.
"The second way is finding an opening. This type of escape is very hard. Sotis, it takes years for a rift to have an opening from the inside. The opening’s position also keeps changing every 30 seconds. As for the last, it’s a bit vague, but you need to get the key and go out of the rift."
Cail stepped on a weird lump on the ground. He bent down and dug it up. "What do you an by key?"
Veyr again didn’t hide it. "My goal in this void is the key. Everybody’s goal here is the key. The key is not a physical key, but more like what we call the object that will grant us access to enter or get out of this place anyti we want."
"This rift is a unique one. A lot of organizations are battling for resources just to get the key. Rifts, as you know, have deadlines. After their deadline, no one can get out or enter the rift unless it opens once again. The technology and history of this rift are special; we want to get our hands on it."
Cail didn’t know about the deadline, but he didn’t say it. He just listened, but most of his focus was on the lump under his feet. It was a bit hard to dig. He didn’t have any artifact in the shape of a shovel, so he just used the dagger.
Veyr felt his heart aching at the prized artifact getting manhandled like that. He poked Cail. "Hey, if you don’t want that, can you give it to ?"
Cail looked at him and joked, "You need to trade your emotions for this."
Veyr didn’t mind. "Sure, I can."
Then Cail went silent. His head turned as he stared at Veyr.
Veyr panicked but chastised himself inside. "You’re a master of the Hollow Accord, why are you acting like that?!" But despite saying that internally, he couldn’t muster the courage to act up.
But honestly, Cail’s aura just shifted, and with the most declarative tone, he said, "You better not think of letting sothing ss up your emotions... You’re mine. I don’t want what’s mine to be a mindless puppet. I hate that."
Veyr wanted to retort, "I’m not yours!" But the way Cail was just sitting there staring at him was creepy. Veyr just went silent and helped Cail dig the bulge with his claws.
He wasn’t much help. His small hands were pretty useless in digging.
"Do you know Virehn?" Cail asked. His tone was back to normal.
Veyr was a bit relieved. He nodded. "Yep, yep! I’m the first to have found him!" He looked very proud of himself.
Cail beca interested. "You know what he looks like?"
Veyr, this ti, looked a bit hesitant, but he knew that an uncompromising hostage was a useless one, so he just shattered the jar and said it. "I have half of his picture. But it’s useless... it’s just a picture above the nose!"
What a coincidence, I have the bottom part.
Cail demanded the other half. "Do you have it with you? Give it to or I’ll feed you to the monsters."
Veyr rolled his eyes at the threat but didn’t dare disagree. Fortunately, the other half of the picture was on him. He reached into his small pockets and gave it to Cail.
Cail unfolded it. But the mont his eyes landed on that picture... his breath hitched.
He was totally unprepared. He had seen the other half, so it was easy to piece the picture in his mind without taking out the other. No wonder it felt familiar. This Virehn... he knew where he had seen this face.
It was—
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