After a long time of silence, the woman with the green-demon mask hurried outside. Ten minutes later, an old man with kind features entered, taking the other seat.
"So, your name was Nathan." He looked at me. Something about his small smile made me nervous. "Nathan Vale– I could see now why they did that."
"So, my name was some kind of trigger?"
"Kind of," he shook his head. "Now, let me go straight to the point. Are you fully aware of what's going on here?"
"No."
I knew that he needed a further explanation, but I preferred not to.
"The records said that you've entered a Class B Vessel alone and got out fine with a new record... How did you do that?"
"I don't have any idea about what exactly you are referring to."
Shivers covered my body when I remembered that ugly smiling creature, but it easily slapped away. That can't be what they all had referred to, right?
"I'm talking about the one that started with an elevator. The key to clear that was to get to volume high enough so the owner of the forest house will allow you out."
"And I did that..."
The only thing I remember was me screaming like my soul was getting out. And you say that that was the key?
Ew,
What an idiot plot for such a high-potential virtual reality game...
"Then you get out of a Class-D Vessel with your group in record time. There is no way that kind of incident happened without a reason."
"Isn't it simpler than you think?"
I leaned back in my seat as if I finally didn't care about the nonsense he was spouting.
"Simple in which way?"
"Don't believe it. You can overcome anything as long as you're not allowing it to go under your skin."
Silence made its way through the room for a long time after. It seemed like he couldn't collect his thoughts, and I didn't have anything to say.
For some reason... That silence talked more than anything. Telling me that my way of thinking wasn't something they believed in–
Or, by all means, I looked like an irredeemable lunatic.
"So, you don't know what the Vessels are?"
"I used to live like a normal working machine civilian until Sunday morning. No. I don't know, and I have no intention to know. If this will affect my life, then you're being unreasonable, and throw an outsider in these crazy things."
My tone was colder than what I wanted it to be. Making me feel a little cautious.
"It doesn't work this way." The old man spoke. Perhaps there was more than mere wariness in his voice. "If you enter it once, you'll be hunted by it forever."
"...?"
"But let's get a settlement." A bad feeling seeped into my heart as I continued to hear him. "Entering a Vessel for the first time makes the human body react, each in its way. If your specialization record stays empty until the end of the month, you'll be hypnotized and your memory erased. Then you can return to your life."
"Is there any guarantee?"
"Yes, you'll keep a record of this meeting after leaving. This room will do the rest, showing me the consequences of breaking the oath if I didn't do it."
I, as usual, didn't understand. Many questions gnawed at my mind but nothing seemed important.
Ignorance is a sin.
However, this time it felt like the sure way out.
"We'll meet again next month, have a nice time exploring things till then."
The old man got out. I followed him after taking another look at the room.
The moment I stepped out, a flash card appeared in my hand with [Nathan V. First appointment] Printed on it, making the twist in my stomach hardened.
"I can't keep up." I inhaled. An unprecedented weight presses down on my shoulders. "I need to sleep two days in a row at least."
Likely, I don't have work to do. Not today, nor in any day soon. That alone was enough for me to feel lightened.
"Came back in one piece, nice."
The team leader greeted me in the most disturbingly unnatural way possible. Still masked, but I could somehow know that there was a sarcastic feature behind the mask.
"They intimidated and threatened me, then decided to give themselves a chance before admitting that they had committed an unforgivable mistake."
"Our typical HR department."
"By the way, I need to ask you about things." I took the very near chair possible to his own (though it was still far away). "The settlement they did with me depends on some terms I've never heard of in my life."
"As long as it's reachable, I can answer. Limited offer for your first day, otherwise you must go find things out yourself."
He turned to face me fully with his wheelchair. Recognizing that for the first time made me unable to progress for seconds before I returned to my focus and asked. Straightforward to the main point.
"What is Specialization?"
"You don't know what your specialization is yet?"
"I don't know what Specialization is in itself. "
The team leader didn't say anything. Instead, he took off his watch, showing me what kind of features he had.
Light brown hair in a tiny low ponytail, dark green eyes, and a handsome face that belongs to one who is barely fifty.
No special expression, just a calm smile.
"Specialization is the thing you need the most to survive. Each one could have different things than the other even if the name was the same."
I listened thoughtfully, trying to take everything in.
"There are some people who have two or more, but it's always under the same category. Take this as an example."
He snapped his fingers, then vanished. After one second he appeared on the furthest chair in the room. Then again, returned to his chair.
I was speechless. Nothing could make me accept what I had just witnessed.
"My specialization category is Dimension Control. I could do various things aside from what you've seen but it's all on a small scale. No one can specialize fully in more than one thing."
My fingers trembled. As if my mind was refusing every word he spilled.
"And— did it cost anything in charge?"
"Once, yes. After that one time you'll just sacrifice your energy."
Something told me that his wheelchair has to do with that, but I didn't ask.
"To put things in my own words... This thing is typically for me, and customized to save my life as I need it the most. Meanwhile, it comes at a cost, a very serious one."
"Sometimes, the cost will have already been paid before you even know it."
"...?"
"It can't always be a guarantee... but the cost usually has something to do with your specialization."
"This is so complicated." I barely managed my trembled tone. "And how to know about it?"
"The cost?" He asked. I nodded as no. "The specialization itself."
"So you don't have one..." with a thoughtful look, he continued. "You'll know somehow. It's not something to learn. Plus, from what I've heard about your achievements— likely you've got it but you're still figuring things out."
"I don't think so."
I didn't use any special abilities, that was a pure coincidence or an act of ignorance.
Thinking about having that kind of strange powers made me shiver.
"Another question,"
"Aren't you done yet?"
"I'm taking full advantage of my limited access to easy answers."
He laughed, then put a condition.
"I'll give you the shortest answer possible."
"Fine." I took my watch out of my pocket and handed it to him. "Can you try it please? I'm curious about whether it's working or not."
The team leader put it without much hesitation, then that masked face was there again. Nothing special appeared to happen in front of him.
"So... you don't see the panels all over your vision?"
"This watch wasn't supposed to show you anything in the first place." He took it off, handing it back to me. "If there's something else, then it's all on your head." He clapped, finishing the conversation. "Now go and find things out the hard way!"
...
I looked at the smart watch, trying to see if there's anything special about it but didn't get any clue.
The team leader opened his tablet to read something for a while, while all I did was staring at some mysterious lines in the rug, trying to think about nothing.
It's all in my head.
What a lovely two sided statement...
If I took it as usual, then nothing will happen... since my life's number one rule was to take things I don't understand as if they were nothing.
But if I took it as saying 'all those red warning panels are your head's production'? Then yeah, I'm done. I've lost my only advantage in this life.
'At least I must make sure.'
With a shaking breath, I wear the watch.
Nothing happened at first except seeing my team leader's face again. I inhaled, feeling the tightness inside my chest disappeared... then take it off again.
This time,
My whole body felt as if it had been placed in ice water. Every inch freezed, only my eyes twitched... looking at the enormous amount of error panels around me.
It wasn't the watch—
It's all in my head. Even if I didn't know how I could imagine something I don't understand a single thing about...
It's all in your head, Nathan.
You can do something about it—
The warning signs with [Mission Failed] repeated itself so many times, in so many panels, until it all emerged in one, as if it was forced to do.
[Mission Failed]
.
.
.
.
[Calculating Penalties]
.
[Demarcation process 55%]
[Demarcation process 56%]
[Demarcation process 57%]
.
.
.
[Demarcation process 99%]
[Demarcation process 100%]
.
[Processing the mission: on]
That moment, I figured out that I was done.