—Bibeong
HUMAN. I WILL NOT FORGIVE YOU FOR SLANDERING THEIR NAME.
"Aha, you're finally listening to me huh?"
DO NOT SLANDER THEIR NAMES WITH YOUR TONGUE HUMAN
"Tell me Bibeong. The legendary King Storma, One of LLoyd Frontera's most trusted ally. Shouldn't you hate them for betraying you? abandoning you?
WHO ARE YOU TO CALL THEM BETRAYERS
"LOOK AT YOUR SELF RIGHT NOW BIBEONG"
I BIBEONG KING STORMA
"DO YOU THINK YOU DESERVE TO MEET THEM RIGHT NOW?"
WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO TELL ME THAT HUMAN
"LOOK AT YOU, ALL WASHED UP ALL DEPRESSED YOU THINK YOU DESERVE TO MEET THEM?"
YOU HAVE NO CLUE HOW I FELT DURING THOSE YEARS
And the man went quiet.
NOW YOU'RE BEING QUIET HUMAN?
…
SPEAK YOU HEINOUS HUMAN
"What do you think they would feel, when they see you in this condition?"
…
"You know they wouldn't be happy right?"
They can never be here.
"WELL WHAT IF THEY CAN?"
What do you mean?
"THIS IS EARTH, THE PLACE WHERE THE MAN YOU KNOW AS LLYOD FRONTERA CAME FROM."
What?
"WHAT IF HE'S HERE STUCK TRYING TO RETURN, MAYBE JAVIER'S ALSO HERE? MAYBE SOMETHING HAPPENED."
Lloyd would never fail. He never fails.
"BUT WHAT IF HE'S HERE? WHAT IF THEIR HERE? STRUGGLING, TRYING TO RETURN BACK?"
He always keeps his promise
"WHAT WOULD THEY SAY WHEN THEY SEE YOU IN THIS CONDITION"
They abandoned me.
"What if I tell you—YOUR FRIENDS, LLOYD AND JAVIER THEY COULD ALL APPEAR IN THIS WORLD?"
"I know what kind of person Lloyd Frontera is"
Speak
"…"
SPEAK HUMAN I SAID SPEAK, TELL ME WHAT DO YOU A NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT LLYOD FRONTERA?
"Oh? you're asking me what I know about Lloyd?"
YES NOW SPEAK HUMAN
"He's a bastard."
"He's greedy"
"He also has the face that could make you wonder why God made his face that way and a voice so beautiful all who listens to it dies"
… That's true.
Wait So they could appear here? I should break out then. I'll search for them.
"Oh—But you wouldn't wanna hurt them would you?"
What?
"If you break out, you'd kill many humans would you?"
I would.
"So wait here. Bibeong, King Storma, Ally of Lloyd Frontera. Until the day they come, until the day they reunite with you. And until then… Keep your chin up. So when you reunite. You can show them something they'll be proud of."
Step Step Step
Fwoooshhh
Step Step Step
Tsk—That human what does he think he is?
Blink
Hmmmm—a Faceless man???
—Cael Lucian
Step Step Step
As I exited the containment facility, the first thing I did was rather simple.
Thud
I collapsed to the floor
BA-DUMP BA-DUMP BA-DUMP BA-DUMP BA-DUMP BA-DUMP BA-DUMP
"FUCK I ALMOST DIED DIDN'T I? I DEFINITELY DID. WHY THE HELL DID I DO THAT????" Perhaps because I probably just almost fucking died
No seriously.
I almost died.
That thing was three thousand tons.
Three.
Thousand.
Tons.
If it sneezed in my direction I'd be a red stain on the nearest wall.
"..."
Why did I do that?
I could've just left. Nobody told me to stay. Nobody forced me. Hell, it's not like my system gives me quests—Yet I stayed. Why?
—
"Cael?"
"Yeah?"
"You ok? You keep on dozing off, maybe you should take some rest?" Eve said with a worried expression
"I-I-It's, we'll cover the next shift, you don't have to work hard today"
"Tsk—Kids these days, they eat so much junk food." Old Man Randy said as he handed me an apple before Jeremy 'forced' me to go home early, which I did, and as usual, I showered before laying in bed.
Maybe I'm just tired right now.
…
"Whatever I'll take a quick nap"
I couldn't sleep.
It was 10.00PM and I still couldn't sleep, my mind still asking the same question, why did I stay? The question haunting over my brain, preventing me from receiving the sweet sweet embrace of slumber.
System? I asked myself, pondering if it would give an answer and it actually delivered.
[You who see do not see 'Fiction' as 'Fiction.'] before turning to [0]
…
It was right, at least in a way. I've spend years rotting with Fiction as my only friend, as my only escape from the cruel reality, humans after all fear the painful lie and would much rather believe in the beautiful truth—Except Fiction's now bleeding to reality.
In the end I decided to open some deep sleep music, but dang that was a rather 'human' like response from the system… I really wonder who my 'Patron' is, but well last time I asked. It said I wasn't worthy… Well whatever.
The deep sleep music played softly from my phone. Rain sounds. Soft piano. The kind of thing that's supposed to trick your brain into shutting up, yet It wasn't working. I stared at the ceiling. The same ceiling I'd stared at for months.
Bibeong. The system. The words that kept echoing: You who see do not see 'Fiction' as 'Fiction.'.
I turned onto my side. The clock read 11:47 PM. Maybe I should just take sleeping pills again. They didn't work before, but maybe this time—
Creak.
I stopped breathing.
Not a loud creak. Not the kind that means someone's in the apartment. Just the kind old buildings make when the temperature changes. When the wood settles. When nothing is wrong. I waited. Silence. The rain sounds continued, the piano continued. Nothing else.
See? Nothing.
I exhaled. Turned onto my other side. Closed my eyes. The music played. The rain fell. My mind drifted toward something that might have been sleep. And then—
!!!
You know that feeling when someone's standing behind you? Not that you hear them. Not that you see them. You just know. Some primal thing left over from when humans were prey. When the hairs in your neck just stands up? Goosebumps yeah that's what their called
I opened my eyes. My apartment was dark. The music was still playing. The clock read 12:03 AM, then I sat up Nothing was there. Of course nothing was there. The door was locked. The windows were closed. I was alone.
Yet that feeling stayed.
I swung my legs off the bed. My feet touched the cold floor as I stood up and walked to the kitchen as I poured myself a glass of water. Normal things. Human things. Things you do when you're thirsty in the middle of the night
The kitchen window faces the street. Two streetlights. A parked car. The sidewalk. I've looked out this window a thousand times. Tonight, one of the streetlights was dark. Not flickering. Not broken. Just dark.
As if something was standing between it and my window, blocking the light, casting a shadow that shouldn't exist. I stared at the darkness where the light should have been and the darkness stared back.
Not literally. There were no eyes. No face. No figure I could point to and say there, that's what I saw. Just a patch of shadow that was just a little different And I knew—I knew—that if I looked away, I would forget.
No.
This time I didn't look away. My heart was beating fast—I could feel it in my throat, my body going into a flight or fight response but I didn't look away.
Blink.
I checked the system once more, it still showed [0]. No questions left. Not that I knew what to ask. Is there something watching me? Am I in danger? What was that?
But even if I had questions, the system had never warned me about this before , is it failing? is it malfunctioning? I didn't move from the window. That was the first conscious decision I made. Don't move. Don't walk back to bed.
Don't do any of the normal things a normal person does after convincing themselves nothing was there. Because I knew. The way I'd known without knowing for weeks—that the moment I walked away, it would slip from my mind.
Write it down.
The thought appeared out of nowhere as I reached for my phone with one hand, keeping my eyes on the street. Opened the notes app and started typing.
What shape was it? I'd seen it ten seconds ago. I was certain I'd seen it. But the shape—the specific outline—was already becoming approximate. Like trying to describe a dream thirty seconds after waking. The details that felt so solid were becoming suggestions.
Tall, I typed and as I was about to type the second word—
BZZZT
"What-?" My phone had somehow malfunctioned, my eyes confused as I looked back at the streetlight. Normal. Ordinary. The parked car was still there. The sidewalk empty. My own reflection floated in the kitchen window glass
My own face, Hollow eyed, sleep deprived face staring back at me. I wondered how long I'd been watching reflections.
Watches reflection. Doesn't seem to notice his own habits. The words from Jeremy's notebook had somehow appeared in my mind. At the time I'd read it and felt vaguely unsettled without knowing why. When did that start?
Before Hotel Prosperity? After? Or much earlier? slow enough I never noticed the moment it began?
The rain sounds stopped. The playlist had ended. The apartment was suddenly, completely silent in the way apartments only get at 2AM—not quiet, but empty. Only the hum of the refrigerator could be heard
I put the phone face-down on the counter. Then I pulled out the chair at the kitchen table and sat down. Not to sleep. Not to eat. Just—to sit there. Facing the window. Keeping the streetlight in my peripheral vision.
And at some point, the sun had risen up. I couldn't tell when, my mind still slightly dazed as I made a cup of coffee for the day, ensuring that I would at least still be functional during clean up today… I hope we don't get a taxing cleaning room this time…
Mean while Somewhere unknown
"Well, it was nice working with you Mr. G, even as you leave The council, we wish to hold an amazing cooperation as always."
Wave Wave
Step Step Step Step
"Should we kill him?" Said the voice of an elderly man.
"No." replied the voice of a mysterious woman
"This could compromise our information. Network what if he-"
"If he wanted he would've done so from the very beginning"
"???"
"That Man has connections everywhere. I heard he's allied with Herta's Society's and many others."
"Herta's Society? What's that?" Asked the voice of a rather young man
"Your still young, so you never knew our humble beginning. Let me ask you this, why do you think our technology is far more advance then earth's current level?"
"Isn't it because we gate keep it?"
"No, It's because we—"