Chapter 44 - Roberion's first lie

Just as the quest screen closed and vanished, the first thing to grace his eyes was Shade’s helmet looking at him. He could see himself as if in a mirror. The panicked face was on full display. This time the giant got him, and his fear doubled as the implied question didn’t need to be asked. What the fuck will I tell Shade? That I have a broken quest about Nulls? Maybe Shade would think that I would betray Shade for the Nulls or something.

“What’s wrong?”, Shade asked with a genderless artificial voice.

I don’t have much time. I can’t lie about the quest not updating. It's better to play with the truth.

“The quest was updated. I need to go deeper into the research station. Sadly, I can’t get to know where this is because the quest is broken. As you know, my engram is malfunctioning. It even stopped displaying the quest. I don’t even know if it’s still working.”

Shade looked at him as if detecting his lies. Not seeing the expression of someone is worse than seeing the face of a demon; at least you could try to find a change in it. Now in his situation, his own mirrored face only seemed to make him more nervous, as if he himself were his worst betrayer. After all he did, after all he endured, he was here, in the research station, only to be put down like a mangy dog by the one that seemed like his only hope.

He himself didn’t know if he would betray the armored giant or not. Honestly, he wouldn't, because of the simple fact of how powerful Shade was; he doubted that even the muscled Null leader could confront the giant. If Fujian and Raijin could be believed, that guy would die sooner or later, unless he reached the next step of his incarnation. Could the muscled Null fight an undead behemoth? Even Shade can’t. Dammit, they are still looking at me, fucking giant. Let’s try to change the topic.

“Shade, how powerful is an undead behemoth? Could you fight one? I’m thinking that if I need to go deeper into the research station, I might find one of these guys. What if I don’t have any choice but to go where they are?”

Shade didn’t respond, like the giant knew that Roberion was trying to get away from his lie. Roberion was glad that Nulls had his emotional effects reduced. Maybe it was better to remove all his emotions altogether. No, it is still better to feel something, like getting powerful, defeating a powerful opponent, surviving, getting items, getting artistic muscle cards, eating food with a friend—or summoning weapons.

“Shade?”, Roberion tried one more time.

“By the information I could gather, undead behemoths are powerful, Blessed beasts. They use the neutral line to improve their already powerful bodies. Their strength is their major weapon, the second being their regeneration. Speed, dexterity, and intelligence are their weaknesses, but they're weak for someone like me who can take advantage of that and run away. You, I don’t seem much of a chance." Shade looks around as if in thought, “There are also variants, but there isn’t much info on that. I hope we can find more in the research and development area. Lucky for us, we are close to it, just five blocks away.”

“Don’t be afraid; let’s go, Roberion.”, Shade said, touching the crown of Roberion's head.

Roberion touched the top of his head, afraid of bleeding because of the gauntlet claws. He was safe, though. I don’t know if Shade was mocking my size, baldness, or if this armored tank is threatening me. It must be nice to live inside your own mobile fortress. Let’s see if it’s enough to endure an undead behemoth. No, scratch that; if Shade is fighting one of these guys, I’m already dead.

Looking around, he found that Shade had already left. Luckily, or on purpose, some mice were following the giant, the common kind. Roberion was behind him with a curious expression, but the automaton mouse in his head was a warning that they didn’t have privacy here. Anything he said, Shade would know.

“Let’s go, Percival; the faster we are out of here, the better. I just wish we had enough time in that place, as Shade talked about. I need to learn that spell that increases speed urgently. By what the giant said, any speed gained is a lifeline here", saying that Percival started following the generic automaton mice.

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Percival just nodded; the unique automaton mouse was completely balanced on his head. That automaton was both a curse and a blessing. As long as they have it, Shade will know everything they will do; at least it seems like that. But if they get rid of the mouse, the giant can see them as a threat and eliminate them. He also needed the protection and intelligence that Shade was giving. There wasn’t any way he could scout here safely, maybe by hiding and sending Percival to scout. But he would need to be immobile in a safe place for that, and according to Shade, the place was the size of a city.

No, I need to keep following Shade. Maybe later an opportunity will show up, but I need to remember that I’m still alone as always. Who do I know in this universe? Finding a place to go after leaving this planet is already a problem. I don’t even have money. I suspected that bag was from Claudius, but he was really stupid. Why didn't he have any money there? He could have it with him, but the purpose of having a safe cache is to have what you will need in an emergency.

The place he was in seemed to be a sort of transit place. There were some chairs, screens, and desks, but nothing else. Going by the looks of it, the idea was that people would be attended by the staff. There was even a glass separating the area of the staff from the one requesting assistance.

Finding Shade not far away, he decided to ask. It seems the armored giant stopped trying to jump-scare him.

“Shade, what place is this?”

“We are in the HR area. This place is where they attended for health and transportation agreements. We will only find useless data here. Maybe you can scavenge more food.”

“I’m just taking it as compensation. People here wouldn’t use it anyway; not having a cookie wouldn’t kill them. The undead behemoths will.”

“Its stealing at best, robbing the dead at worst. Anyway, there isn’t anything useful here, and we won’t find any undead here. The research station system was already programmed to direct all the undead to the other areas. It’s a strange coincidence. But there is nothing to do about it. This seems to be the best route. We will spend some time on research and development. There is where we will plan our next step.”

As they walked, more desks, some cabinets, and computers could be found. It was a common office; it’s strange in itself why there wasn’t any type of magic here. It didn’t make sense for Roberion; why didn't they use magic? Thinking more about that, Roberion came to the conclusion that maybe they used magic, but not of the common kind, some of them, at least, the blessing of the lines don't seem easy to acquire. Something like increasing their brain activity. However, Roberion himself didn’t know much about working, especially in an office.

Roberion was really bored out of his mind. Being safe was good, but this place was monotonous.

“Wait, my automaton mouses found something.”, although the voice was still genderless and artificial, Roberion could feel the seriousness and alertness Shade was expressing.

Shade didn’t wait for a reply from Roberion, already with a bone-white glaive in hand, again summoned from nothing. Roberion didn’t wait before taking out his spear. The sound of footsteps could be heard as Percival ran and took a position at his front.

As he waited, he started to hear the sound of barking. The barking sounded like a dog from hell had shown up, wanting to take them down to the inferno by himself. Seeing the beasts nearing them, the reality wasn’t far from his imagination.

A canine creature showed up. There was no doubt that this was a dog. But something changed it, the same way it changed the undead to become what they were before. Their body was purple, their fangs seemed to be improved and bigger than normal, and they couldn’t keep them inside their closed mouth. The fur was varied as he got a better look at ten of the creatures nearing them.

Some had black fur, some had white fur, some had lost all their fur, and others had lost only some parts. These that lost only some of their parts are the strangest, like someone had decided where these beasts would lose their fur. Some had lost fur from their heads, some from their legs, and diverse body parts; all lost fur with clinical precision. Were they experiments? Are these furless parts regenerated or changed? The answer may lie in the research and development area; if Shade feels like it, maybe I will know; I have no way of extracting that information.

Roberion stopped his musings as another creature showed up, his body ten times the size of the dogs. Its body looked like it was made entirely of muscle, furless. Its paw muscles tensed with each step, and the claws were big and sharp like sickles made to rip everything they touched, but the soft movement that didn’t leave fissures on the floor showed the dexterity of this beast.

Fear gripped Roberion, the primal one. Is this a type of behemoth? The creature's eyes locked onto Roberion, and he could sense a spark of intelligence behind them. It seemed to be assessing him and deciding whether he was a threat or not. Roberion's heart raced as he waited for the beast's next move, unsure of what to expect from the undead. He just wished Shade could confront such a monster.