Chương 70: 68: Citizen of the Multiverse

The moment we got out of the principal's office, Danny poked me in the side. Hard.

"Hey," I objected, even though it hadn't hurt at all.

"Check your notifications." He was practically vibrating.

"Quick, quick." The blinking dot in my HUD had been there since the rift. I'd been ignoring it on the grounds that I knew what it said—dead drones, 0 XP—and it wasn't going anywhere. I needed some crazy amount of XP, over 12000 points, to level up again, so that wasn't happening anytime soon.

"What am I looking for?" I asked him.

"The stone. The universal language."

"Are we translators too now?" I asked, opening my notifications window. It would be cool if World First didn't literally mean the one and only. As usual, I seemed to have a lot of notifications. The first one was really weird, though. Ability unlocked: [Flag of Truce] What the heck was that? I mentally hovered over the ability name until the tooltip opened. Flag of Truce: Create a temporary zone of System-enforced non-aggression.

Within the affected area, sapients are unable to use abilities, skills, spells, or other System-based mechanisms to attack other sapients. Does not affect non-sapients. Does not prevent defensive responses to attacks initiated before activation. Duration: Will x 2 minutes Radius: Presence x 2 meters Cooldown: 12 hours Note: Effectiveness may be reduced against sapients with Will significantly exceeding the caster's.

"What is this?" I muttered, staring at it and trying to do the math. It would be pretty small, given how low my Presence was, but it would last for over an hour. That could come in handy. Especially if the boundaries weren't obvious. If I could convince the Barrows that they were incapable of attacking me, maybe they'd go away and never try again.

"Did you get it?" Danny asked.

"Do you see?" I glanced away from my HUD.

"I got something." He heaved a sigh of teenage exasperation and opened his arms.

"Look at me! Do your thing and look at me!" I laughed, but I did as instructed. [Thorn's Shadow: Level 8]"What the fuck?" Danny was practically doing a jig in the hallway, his delight too big for his body to contain.

"5000 XP and a title. It's so cool!"

"And a title, too?" I kept [Analyze] focused on him. Name: Daniel (Danny) Mercer, Jr. Title: Citizen of the Multiverse (1)" You're a Citizen of the Multiverse," I told him, although obviously he already knew that.

"One of the first 10, 000," he told me proudly. And then he shrugged, looking a little sheepish.

"Not that I did anything special for it. But it's because we can speak the universal language. You should have it, too." With a thought, I opened my status sheet. I apparently had not just one, but two new titles. I blinked at them, then moved out of the way of the foot traffic in the hallway.

"You were right, I need to read my notifications," I told Danny absently, mentally clicking out of my status sheet and into my messages. X-Factor Synergy Trait Triggered! Your luck, force of personality, and sheer stubbornness have combined into something the System recognizes as statistically improbable. Against All Odds: When outnumbered or facing opponents whose combined level exceeds yours, all X-Factor attributes gain a bonus equal to (X-Factor Total × 1%), capped at 100%, for the duration of the event.

The longer the odds, the harder you are to stop. The X-Factor synergy trait was the one I was going to get at least two levels from now, after I'd poured all my free points into Presence for a couple of levels. Why was I getting it now? I kept reading. Congratulations! You have encountered strangers in rifts, faced down mobs, entered territory claimed by others, and met aliens.

On each occasion, the majority of individuals on the opposing side of the confrontation ended the encounter in a measurably better position than they began it: uninjured, freed from mind control, alive, or welcomed to safety. The System notes that these outcomes were not inevitable. They were chosen. Title Awarded: Unconventional Diplomat Attribute Gain: +10 Presence Ability Unlocked: [Flag of Truce] Okay, so that explained the Synergy trait and the ability.

It didn't exactly explain the tingling in my eyes, except that the System had just reframed my confrontation with the Barrows for me. Therapists love reframing; it's every cognitive behaviorist's best friend. But when I'd been thinking about that moment—which, admittedly, I was trying real hard not to do—I'd been thinking "murdered Ezra." Maybe, at best, trying to make that thought, "killed Ezra, justified."

The System had just pointed out that actually I'd saved four men from living with those black tendrils stuck in their backs. Sometimes it was hard to hate the System.

"Are you okay?" Danny interrupted my musing. He was watching me, eyes intent on my face, so maybe he'd noticed the blinking.

"I have a lot of notifications," I told him. I skimmed through the others. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. Congratulations! You are among the first 100 Earth humans to acquire the ability [Universal Language]. Title Awarded: Universal Translator Award: +10% experience from all sources. — Congratulations! You are among the first 10, 000 Earth humans to have taken a first step toward full citizenship in the multiversal community.

The multiverse is larger than you know. Welcome. Title Awarded: Citizen of the Multiverse Achievement Progress: Citizen of the Multiverse (1) Award: 5000 XP — Congratulations! You successfully defused a hostile crowd of 23 participants with zero fatalities and only one instance of targeted violence. The System notes that the targeted violence was, arguably, also de-escalation. Award: 2300 XP — Congratulations! You attempted to de-escalate a hostile crowd through dialogue. Optimistic.

Award: 500 XP — Congratulations! You have successfully preserved the life of a fellow System participant (Joseph Navarro, Level 1) through creative application of available resources. Award: 500 XP — Wow. I'd actually made it to Level 21, which I'd thought was going to be close to impossible not twenty minutes ago. Time flies when you're having fun. And it was kind of sweet that I'd gotten points for saving Joey. It felt a little weird, though. Why Joey and not JJ?

It had been obvious from the first day of the challenge scenario that the System had a fair amount of leeway in its bonus awards. XP from monsters was a math equation. If you knew the monster's base and its level, and, of course, your own level, you could calculate an exact number. The bonus awards, though, felt… not random, exactly. But more as if sometimes the System was paying attention and sometimes it wasn't. Could that even be possible? Or maybe it wasn't attention; maybe it was mana.

Chelsea had been clear that mana was a resource and that one reason System integration was so horribly messy was that mana was limited on integrating worlds. Maybe when the System felt like it had excess mana, it was more generous with the bonuses than otherwise. Of course, excess mana might mean a couple of things: fewer people to share the wealth, more deaths to increase the mana flow. Or maybe I was just speculating wildly and really didn't need to be thinking about this right now.

I closed my notifications and turned to Danny.

"Did you level up?" He asked, his voice innocent.

"Personal questions." I shook my head at him. He snapped his fingers and grinned, totally acknowledging that it had been another attempt to find out the things I didn't want to tell him. He'd been right to tell me to check my notifications, though. We'd left the Sarathi negotiating with Helen, Mercer, and Principal Nakamura over locations on a map of San Celeste with the excuse that I didn't know the area and Danny had unspecified work to do. But that Citizen of the Multiverse achievement changed…

not quite everything. A lot, though.

"You know what this means, right?" I said to him.

"What what means?" he asked.

"Citizen of the Multiverse."

"My Agility just zoomed? I can probably run faster than Mbappé?" I had to smile, even though I had no idea who that was. Zelda gave a small woof from her spot by my ankle. We race. I win. My smile turned into a laugh.

"Okay, so, yes, and yes," I said to each of them.

"But also, no. We have an opportunity and we need to take advantage of it. No one can use the ability stone until they hit Level 5, but the XP boost and points while the ability is still rare is an incredible prize at these levels. Incredible." Danny's mouth shaped the O, but no sound came out. He glanced away, down the hallway with its kids' artwork and cubbies lining the walls.

"Katie. And my mom."

"And your dad, but he'll be easy." Danny nodded.

"My mom's at home now, taking care of our dogs. They wouldn't let them in the school, but we live pretty close."

"And your dogs, then."

"Dogs?" I nodded toward Zelda.

"Level 19. The ability stones might not work for canines, but that doesn't mean they can't level up. And a Level 19 dog—well, let's just say, I don't have to be afraid of much." Nineteen. Danny's lips again shaped the word, but without sound.

"That must mean—""Stop!" I laughed, putting my hand up. Man, this kid was persistent.

"You go get your mom and your dogs. We'll meet at the rift? I'll talk to your dad and the principal, and get your sister." Danny looked down the hallway again.

"She's… I'm not sure…"

"Don't worry about that. I'll get her."

"I don't know if—" he started.

"Hey," I interrupted.

"Don't doubt me on this one. If I have to, I'll just carry her to the rift and dump her in." His lips quirked.

"Okay. But she'll probably bite you if you try." I lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

"I'll survive, as long as she doesn't have rabies." Probably I'd survive even if she did, which was an odd thought.

"Okay. I'll meet you at the rift?" Danny double-checked.

"Us. You'll meet us at the rift," I confirmed. He took off, headed for the front doors, and I knocked on the principal's office door, then let myself in without waiting for a response. Seven heads turned toward me: the three Sarathi, Helen, Ross, Mercer, and Nakamura. They'd all been bent over a map of California spread across the desk.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," I said, not sorry at all. And then I hesitated. A cacophony of conflicting rules and ideas stomped through my brain: negotiations, bargains, secrets, value… values. The Sarathi had no idea how much the [Universal Language] ability stones were worth to us. They considered them common, almost everyday items, a skill that everyone picked up eventually. In maybe a year or ten years or a hundred years, that would be true. Right now, though? Those stones were precious.

The sensible thing to do would be to keep that a secret. Why tell a purveyor of goods that their goods were a treasure beyond measure? Because it was the right thing to do. And if that wasn't convincing enough for my pragmatic soul (although it was), because we needed to encourage the Sarathi to make as many of these stones as possible, until people stopped getting the achievement and those three free levels.

"Danny just gained three levels from an achievement related to gaining the [Universal Language] skill. It is, however, a time-limited achievement, which means we need to get as many people as possible to Level 5 as quickly as possible. And get ability stones for them." I nodded to Mercer and Nakamura.

"That means you." I turned to Raila.

"And that also means that I would like to get as many of these stones as you can give me now, and that we—" I circled my finger around the other humans in the room, "—would like to get as many of them as possible in the near future."

"Three levels?" The hunter, Soral, spoke first.

"Three?"

"From Level 5 to 8," I said, realizing for the first time that maybe that might worry people whose society was stratified by level.

"I hope that doesn't concern you. This world is new to the System, so you will have many opportunities to gain levels of your own. Not the least of which will come from guiding absolute beginners through the rifts. I expect that appeals to you." He was a hunter, after all. Playing tour guide in the rift for clueless humans ought to be worth a ton of XP before he leveled out of range. Even then, every instance clear was worth something, if only credits. The Sarathi exchanged glances.

I wondered if [Uncanny Insight] worked on every alien or just the ones who looked so human? Because despite their white eyes, those glances were not at all hard to read. Opportunity, threat, reality. Oh, I didn't like that last one. Raila had just told the scavenger with her eyes that I could take what I wanted and there was nothing they could do about it.

My cringe must have been visible, because she immediately bowed her head, and if she hadn't been in such an awkward position—leaning over the desk, trapped between two chairs—I'm sure her knees would have hit the floor.

"I don't really have anything to buy the ability stones with right now," I said, so gently that my voice felt like ice in my throat, "but if you don't have any more or don't want to give them to me, you can say so. And I will walk away empty-handed, and that will be fine. I don't need to help people level. And if I did, well…" I sort of shrugged. I didn't think the Sarathi could see my exact level, but I suspected from their reactions that it involved question marks.

I could probably power-level this whole town in the rifts if I needed to and wanted to. Of course, I didn't. I needed to get back to Pen and my dogs. But I could've.

"Of course, Sera. Of course." Raila opened her bag and fumbled within it.

"We brought ten stones, thinking that would be sufficient for these early conversations. We can produce—" She looked to Nim, the scavenger.

"I'm sure we have some in stores. A few boxes. But when they are gone, four or five a day? But not here. This world does not have sufficient mana."

"We don't know how long the achievement will last. I think we should just try to do as many as we can for as long as we can. Given those boxes in storage, though, I would like to take these stones back to Florida with me. Is that—""Florida?"

"What?"

"What the hell—" Mercer, Nakamura, and Ross spoke simultaneously. The three Sarathi looked on, surprised. Helen simply smiled. She seemed like a really mellow person. I thought I'd like her if I had a chance to get to know her.

"How did you get here from Florida?" Mercer spluttered.

"Oh, right, I guess we haven't talked about that. I have a title—maybe a job, really? I'm a Rift Keeper." Despite the lack of room and the chairs in the way, the knees of all the Sarathi hit the floor.