The Systemic Lands

Chapter 14: Day 25 – Informant

I had 1,037 crystals. I had pushed myself to exceed my goal of 1,000 crystals and was quite pleased with myself. I made my way into the plaza, pre-dawn. I kept a sharp lookout.

I spotted three people watching from different buildings, but no one came out to bother me. Small victories. I put my bag on a pedestal and quickly brought my point count up to 5,688. Leaving 10 crystals unclaimed. No shop upgrade unfortunately.

“Michael.” I quickly purchased a restoration for 141 points, before turning around. It was Amber, Kevin, and Jacob. No Ryan, which was unfortunate.

“Hmmm?” I responded. They stopped a short distance away from me and all three had clubs.

“We wondered if you wanted to split the cost of upgrading the store?” Amber asked.

“Don’t tell me what to do with my points, and I won’t tell you what to do with yours,” I replied. They all gave me a tired look.

“We were kind of hoping to team up,” Amber said.

“You mean, mooch off of my knowledge and skills. If you have questions that I can answer, you pay up.”

“Why are you…so…ah!” Amber shouted and walked away.

“Sorry, she is upset after Ryan killed himself,” Kevin said. I didn’t think the guy had it in him. The pain was probably too much. That slime acid was brutal on flesh and clothes.

“Hmmm, do you need anything else?” I asked.

“Well, we were thinking about telling more people about the slimes,” Kevin finally responded.

“I don’t care.” I could sense the surprise radiating off Kevin and Joe. “If I wanted to stop you, I would have killed you when we met. Let everyone go out and hunt slimes, it will be amazing. Praise be to the almighty System, it givith and taketh.” I gave my crazy grin and raised my hands and shook them in the air.

“Oh, ok then. I guess, good luck,” Kevin said while slowly backing away.

“Good luck to you too.” They both turned around and left. I was curious if they really would spread the word about the slime hunting ground. I was done with that headache. I wasn’t going to tell anyone, but I wasn’t going to keep it secret. Too much thread pulling.

I turned back to the pillar and the store. Ten more upgrades for 3,875 points. That put me at 63 upgrades total, with Body at 43 and the rest at 5. I spent another 50 points on new clubs and fruit. That left me with 1,622 points saved up.

I looked around. It was time for my next move. I had been thinking about what I would do over the past couple of days. The group I had met was a start, but I needed information. I went over to the edge of the Plaza where I then stood against the wall and waited.

Dawn slowly came, and a few people came out and got fruit. I got a couple of looks, but no one came over. I was willing to wait.

The shadows were quickly disappearing when an older woman came up to me. Despite her age, she had maintained her figure fairly well. She was wearing sweatpants and a large sweater. Better than the poor people who were teleported half naked or completely naked.

“Haven’t seen you around here before,” she said.

“Because, I haven’t been around. Looking for someone to give me information. What groups there are, what has been discovered, who is doing what, that sort of thing.” She got the crazy grin.

“Perhaps I could help, but I would need something in return.” She appeared weary but was willing to talk. Hopefully this would work out.

“Points. You talk, and if I like what you have to say you get the points and we set something up on a regular basis.”

“And how will you give me points, hmm?”

“Well, then I suppose you better start talking.”

“I need something first.”

“No.”

“Don’t be that difficult. I can tell you lots of things, just a couple of points, help a woman out.”

“No.”

“Fine, you are probably lying anyways…,” she trailed off as I held up a crystal. Her eyes snapped to it and then to the grin on my face.

“Last chance to give me the lay of the land.”

“Alright. Well, the biggest group is over there.” She gestured at a building with someone on watch. “At least ten people, been bullying others for points.” She went on to talk about the various groups that had formed.

I listened for any interesting details, but it was mostly people just posturing and slowly becoming weaker. Nothing that useful.

“People have found the gates, but the only people who might have come back is that girl you were talking with.”

“Amber.”

“Amber, uh huh. Well, she might be the only person who has survived leaving the city, but she is down one person. Also, there is talk about you.” I quickly looked at her.

“Ah, I see you are interested.” I cursed my reaction to her comment. “How about we discuss terms.”

“Not out here. Come on.”

“You won’t be trying anything with me, I bite you know.”

“I am allergic to bites, so nothing to worry about. Pick a building, they should be empty.” We had gone to a side street, and she picked the nearest one. We went up to the second floor.

“So, share.”

“You kill monsters to earn these crystals. Crystals give you points when brought to the pillar. Let me say, the monsters are tough. It will be and has been a blood bath. Here.” I tossed her a slime crystal and she caught it. “That is five points.”

“Not that much.”

“True, but that is from an easy monster. But people have already died to it. So easy is relative. Easy to me.” I shrugged a bit. “What I need is someone to keep an eye on things here. I don’t care if you share this information, I don’t want people to bother me, and I want to be kept up to date about how things are developing.”

She appeared to consider things for a bit. “You aren’t from this group are you. There were previous groups.”

“What gave it away?” I rolled my eyes. Stupid beard.

“So obvious,” she muttered. “You don’t want me to spy or spread rumors, or anything?”

“My answer ranges from maybe, to I don’t care. Just don’t bring trouble my way. I just want to know how people are organizing, rumors that others spread, information, and what is happening.”

“Have any more of those crystals?” she asked.

“What are people saying about me?”

“You have been noticed and no one remembers you from the initial teleport, but a lot of people scattered. People think you are probably one of the people from that group, but you look a bit…worn.”

I snorted at that and spat the phlegm to the side. “I don’t want people talking about me. If I do get brought up, then say I am someone who likes to be alone and dangerous.” I pulled out four more crystals and held out my hand.

She quickly reached out and I handed them off. “Not a lot.” She gave me a look.

“Your information wasn’t that useful. Like a news report with filler content. Interesting to know, but nothing serious or breaking.”

“You can call me Evaline.”

“Michael. I will be back in five days before dawn. Meet at the pillars. I shouldn’t have to say, but if there is an ambush, I will hunt you down and kill you.” I gave her a long stare and she quickly looked away.

“Got it, don’t worry, I won’t start something. Still, that’s quite a while. These few points…well it will be hard.” I gave her a look and let out a sigh.

“I don’t trust easily Evaline. You fuck me over, I won’t forget.” I handed off the last five crystals I had.

“Don’t worry. I was a teacher before this.”

“See you in five days.”

“Before you go, do you know anything about all of this?” she asked.

“No. But this is probably another world and that means there are no rules anymore. You might know that up here,” I tapped my head, “but you need to know it here.” I then tapped my heart.

“You haven’t found any hints or clues?”

“This isn’t some mystery novel, where the answer has to be provided. Nothing about this place has to be fair in any way. And no, I haven’t found any clues or hints as to what is behind all of this. All I know is that when the points get low, people will get desperate. Then they will kill each other.”

“Is that what happened to the previous groups?” she sounded quite worried.

“Hmmm, who knows, who knows. I look forward to your report Evaline.” I left the building.

Time to go back to hunting slimes. I suspected a shop upgrade would be coming soon and I planned to buy lots of things. Well maybe not lots, but useful things to improve my situation. I really needed a shave and a haircut.

But I had accomplished one of my side goals. Develop a useful contact to keep an eye on things, while hopefully stirring up the pot at the plaza. I noted the footsteps behind me, always people looking for trouble.

I had no doubt that Amber and companions would become a target. Depends on how well people kept the secret of the crystals. I had no doubt that things would quickly grow much more contentious in the following days as desperation grew.

I was honestly curious what Evaline would do. If she got beat up or killed, I would have to consider what I would do then. I didn’t want to get involved in a large-scale fight. Showing back up on day 30 meant that things would have settled from this group when the fourth group arrived.

That would stir the pot up even more. I was also hoping someone would get the points and upgrade the shop. Amber was trying to keep things quiet as well, but her group wasn’t as stealthy as she probably was hoping they were.

There was a reason they found me in the pre-dawn hours. They were exchanging crystals as well. Probably on a two or three day rotation unlike my five-day rotation out to the slime forest.

“Hey mister, wait up.” I paused and looked at the young man who had been following me. We were only a couple of minutes away from the plaza. Not that far. I turned fully towards him while paying attention to my surroundings. I didn’t hear anyone else, and he wasn’t looking anywhere else, so probably not an ambush.

He caught up to me and was breathing a bit heavily. “You walk fast jeez. Boss Carlos wants to speak with you.” Things were heating up quickly now. My brain went into overdrive thinking about how to handle this new situation. That was probably the leader of the largest group that was extorting people.

“Alright, let’s go speak with Boss Carlos. I am interested what he has to say.”