Chapter 37: Questions And Answers
Day 103 - Early Morning
I didn't sleep well.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw them, the fifty people who'd died yesterday. Their faces. Their last moments. The ones who'd screamed. The ones who'd died instantly, perhaps the lucky ones. The three fighters crushed by the Magma Colossus's fist, reduced to nothing in a split second.
At 4 AM, I gave up trying and went to the training yard.
The compound was quiet at this hour. A few night guards patrolled the walls, but most people were still sleeping, or trying to. I could feel them through Battlefield Awareness, a dull ache of collective grief and exhaustion that permeated everything.
I drew my sword and began going through combat forms. Basic stuff, muscle memory from months of daily practice. The repetitive movements helped quiet my mind, gave me something to focus on besides the weight of command.
"You're up early."
I turned to find Lucas approaching, his own sword already drawn. He looked as tired as I felt, dark circles under his eyes, shoulders carrying invisible weight.
"Couldn't sleep," I admitted.
"Same." He took a position across from me. "Spar?"
We'd done this dozens of times over the past months. No System abilities, no tactical coordination. Just two fighters working through their demons with steel and sweat.
Our blades met with a familiar ring.
"You saved hundreds of lives yesterday," Lucas said as we circled each other. "The coordination was flawless. Without your Tactical Overlord abilities, casualties would have been triple."
"Doesn't make the fifty deaths hurt less." I blocked his strike and countered.
"No, it doesn't." He parried. "But you need to stop measuring success by who died and start measuring it by who lived."
"That sounds like something a therapist would say."
"Lisa's been working with me." Lucas admitted, lunging forward. I sidestepped. "Processing the Integration. The people I couldn't save during the tutorial. She says survivor's guilt is normal but dangerous if you let it consume you."
I thought about Lisa, sitting in the medical tent with blood on her hands, crying because she couldn't save everyone. "How do you process it? The guilt?"
Lucas was quiet for a moment, our swords locked together. "I don't process it. I redirect it. Every person I save in the future is a tribute to the ones I couldn't save in the past." He pushed off, creating distance. "It's not healthy, probably. But it keeps me moving forward."
We sparred for another twenty minutes, neither of us really trying to win, just burning off the nervous energy and grief. Finally, we both lowered our weapons, breathing hard.
"Marcus Wu wants to meet with you today," Lucas said. "Alone."
"I know. Maya told me last night."
"Be careful." Lucas's expression turned serious. "Wu is smart. Dangerously smart. And he suspects you have foreknowledge. He all but said so during the battle coordination yesterday, the way you predicted enemy patterns, knew exactly how to exploit the Void Drake's regeneration cycle."
"What do you think I should tell him?"
"The truth." Lucas sheathed his sword. "Or at least, a version of it. Wu respects honesty more than deception. If you lie and he catches you, he'll never trust you again. But if you're honest about having advantages while keeping the transmigration secret..." He shrugged. "He might accept that. Might even respect it."
"And if he doesn't?"
"Then we deal with it when it happens." Lucas started walking toward the compound. "But Ethan? Whatever you tell him, remember, Wu is an ally of convenience, not a friend. The moment cooperation stops being beneficial to him, he'll turn on us."
I watched him go, processing the advice.
Marcus Wu was arriving at 10 AM. I had six hours to decide how much truth I was willing to share.
---
8:30 AM - Medical Tent
I found Lisa exactly where I expected, in the medical tent, already working. She'd been there since dawn, checking on the critical patients who'd survived the night.
"Forty-one made it," she said without looking up from the patient she was examining, a young woman with severe burns from the Magma Colossus fight. "Three died overnight. Forty-four critical yesterday, forty-one alive this morning."
"That's... better than expected," I offered.
"Is it?" Lisa's hands glowed with healing energy as she worked. "Three more families destroyed. Three more names on the memorial wall." She finally looked at me, and I saw the exhaustion in her eyes. "How many more, Ethan? How many more before this is over?"
I didn't have an answer.
She turned back to her patient. "I've started organizing counseling sessions. Group therapy for survivors. The psychological trauma is... significant. People are having nightmares, panic attacks, survivors guilt. We need to address it before it becomes debilitating."
"Whatever you need. Personnel, resources, space."
"I need you to attend." Lisa's tone left no room for argument. "You're carrying more weight than anyone, and you're not processing it. I can see it in how you move, how you speak. You're compartmentalizing everything, shoving it down, ignoring your own trauma to focus on everyone else."
"I don't have time to process trauma," I said. "Eighty-three rifts in twelve days. Wu's meeting in ninety minutes. The mysterious watchers. The weaponized rift attacks...."
"Ethan." Lisa stood and faced me fully. "If you burn out, if you break, hundreds of people die. Your mental health isn't a luxury, it's a strategic necessity." She softened slightly. "Please. Just one session. Let me help you before the weight crushes you."
I wanted to refuse. Wanted to say I was fine, that I could handle it.
But looking at Lisa, this woman who'd lost her daughter, who spent every day saving others while processing her own grief, I couldn't lie to her.
"One session," I agreed. "After we deal with the immediate crisis."
"I'll hold you to that." She returned to her patient. "Now go prepare for Wu. And Ethan? Be careful. Marcus Wu is the kind of man who weaponizes other people's secrets."
---
10:00 AM - Private Meeting Chamber
Marcus Wu arrived exactly on time, alone as agreed. He wore the same expensive suit from yesterday, now cleaned and repaired, probably through System enhancement. His Level 16 aura was controlled but noticeable, a subtle reminder of his power.
I'd chosen the meeting location carefully, a small conference room with one entrance, soundproofed through System enchantments, and with Maya and Cross positioned just outside. Not threatening, but not vulnerable either.
"Commander Chen." Wu extended his hand. I shook it. "Thank you for agreeing to meet privately."
"You fought alongside us yesterday," I said.
"Saved lives with your coordination. The least I can do is answer your questions."
"Direct. I appreciate that." Wu sat across from me, his calculating eyes never leaving my face. "Let me be equally direct. You have some form of foreknowledge. Precognition, future sight, prophetic dreams, something that lets you predict events with impossible accuracy."
I kept my expression neutral. "That's quite an accusation."
"Is it?" Wu leaned forward. "You prepared for the apocalypse before it happened.
Stockpiled resources, recruited people, positioned yourself perfectly. You predicted the Integration's difficulty curve. You knew about rift cascade mechanics before Dr.
Chen discovered them. Yesterday, you exploited the Void Drake's regeneration cycle like you'd fought it before." He smiled thinly.
"Either you're the luckiest teenager in history, or you have information others don't."
I considered my options. Lucas had advised honesty, a version of the truth that protected the transmigration secret while acknowledging my advantages.
"You're right," I said simply.
Wu blinked, clearly not expecting such immediate confirmation. "I'm... right?"
"I have advantages others don't. Information, preparation, strategic insight." I met his eyes steadily. "How I obtained these advantages is my business. But yes, I've been operating with knowledge that gives me an edge."
"Precognition? A System ability?"
"I'm not going to detail my methods," I said.
"But I will say this: My advantages aren't infinite. I didn't predict the seventeen simultaneous rifts yesterday. I didn't know three Tier-6 entities would appear. Every day, I know less than I did the day before, because reality keeps diverging from my expectations."
That was true enough. The novel knowledge had been useless since Day 30. I'd been operating on strategic analysis and tactical skill for months now.
Wu studied me, his mind clearly working through the implications. "You're telling me you had foreknowledge, but it's running out?"
"Something like that."
"And you're not going to tell me how you obtained it?"
"Would you, in my position?"
Wu laughed, genuine amusement. "No. I'd guard that secret like my life depended on it.
Because it probably does." He leaned back, steepling his fingers. "Here's what concerns me, Commander. You're seventeen. You command hundreds of people. You have abilities and knowledge that should be impossible. And you're asking me to trust you with alliance coordination, with my people's lives, without full transparency."
"I'm not asking for trust," I corrected. "I'm asking for cooperation. We both want to survive the rift crisis. We both benefit from alliance coordination. Whether you trust me personally is irrelevant to that calculation."
"Pragmatic. I can work with pragmatic." Wu's expression turned serious. "But understand this: If I discover your secrets threaten my people, if your hidden knowledge becomes a liability to the alliance, I will act accordingly.Ruthlessly, if necessary."
"I'd expect nothing less," I said. "Just as you should expect me to protect my people with equal ruthlessness."
We stared at each other for a long moment, two leaders acknowledging the fundamental tension between cooperation and competition.
Finally, Wu smiled. "I think we understand each other, Commander Chen. You have your secrets. I have mine. We work together while it's mutually beneficial, and we stay out of each other's way otherwise."
"Agreed."
"Good." Wu stood. "Now, let's discuss the real reason I wanted this meeting. The mysterious watchers."
That caught me off guard. "You know about them?"
"My scouts detected the same energy signatures Dr. Chen found. Observation posts monitoring all three Tier-6 battles.
Professional surveillance, the kind that requires System-enhanced technology far beyond anything currently available on Earth." He pulled out a data crystal. "I had my technicians analyze the energy patterns. They match signatures from high-tier worlds, Tier 3 or Tier 4 civilizations."
I accepted the crystal, plugging it into my System interface. Data flooded in, technical analysis, energy pattern matching, comparison against Galactic Federation databases that Wu somehow had access to.
"You have Galactic Federation data?" I asked.
"I paid an alien merchant three thousand credits for it," Wu said. "Krix the information broker. Unpleasant insectoid, but remarkably well-connected. He told me something interesting: Newly integrated worlds are often monitored by higher-tier civilizations. Evaluation protocols, he called it. Testing to see if we're worth investing in or just another failed species."
That aligned with what I'd suspected. The watchers weren't enemies, they were observers. Probably representatives from advanced civilizations, measuring Earth's potential.
"Why tell me this?" I asked.
"Because whatever these watchers are evaluating, we want to pass their tests. Failing probably means Earth gets ignored by the Galactic Federation. Or worse, marked as a resource world for exploitation." Wu's expression darkened. "I want to survive, Commander. Not just the rifts, but the entire integration process. That means impressing whoever's watching."
"By closing rifts and demonstrating combat effectiveness."
"Exactly. Which brings me to my proposal." Wu pulled up a holographic interface showing rift distribution across the Pacific West Alliance territory. "We've closed twenty-eight rifts. Eighty-three remain, with twelve days until critical mass. At current rates, we're going to fail."
My stomach dropped. "Dr. Chen's projections..."
"Are optimistic," Wu interrupted. "They assume we maintain yesterday's pace. But yesterday cost us fifty lives across the alliance. We can't sustain those casualties. People are already questioning whether survival is worth the price."
He was right. I'd heard the murmurs in the compound, fighters wondering if they should flee Seattle, try to survive somewhere with fewer rifts. The alliance was holding, but barely.
"What's your proposal?" I asked.
"We expand the alliance. Aggressively." Wu highlighted several smaller factions on the holographic map. "There are twelve more settlements within a hundred miles. Smaller groups, twenty to fifty people each. Individually, they're struggling. But if we absorb them into the Pacific West Alliance, that's another 400-500 fighters."
"Absorb or recruit?"
"Recruit," Wu clarified. "Voluntary integration with full rights and representation. We're not conquerors, Commander. We're survivors trying to build something that lasts."
It was a good plan. More fighters meant better rift coverage, reduced casualties per engagement, faster clearing rate.
"I'm listening," I said.
"We split the recruitment effort. You take the northern settlements, Everett, Marysville, Bellingham. I'll handle the southern ones, Olympia, Tacoma, Centralia. We offer them the same deal we have: Mutual defense, shared experience, rift coordination, and autonomy." Wu's smile turned sharp. "And we do it in the next three days, before they get desperate enough to try something stupid like fleeing or attacking each other for resources."
"Three days is aggressive."
"The rift crisis won't wait for us to be comfortable." Wu extended his hand again. "Do we have an agreement?"
I thought about it for exactly five seconds. The logic was sound. We needed more fighters. The alternative was failing the rift quest and watching Earth's dimensional structure collapse.
"We have an agreement," I said, shaking his hand.
[END OF CHAPTER 37 (part-1)]
---
If you enjoy this chapter, please vote with your Power Stones! It helps a lot! 💎