Chapter 18
The Request
Part 3A
I guess my wish came true this time because one of the new skills that I had been given or gifted was what I was in need of and was looking for at the moment since my desire was to listen and understand what they were talking about. Although the distance was not that far, they were talking in such a low voice that I couldn't hear them unless I was standing beside them, and I was not, but the only thing was how to activate the skill. Without thinking or knowing if it was within the description of the skills or not, because I didn't want to go once more and read the whole thing one more time, afraid that I may miss all the conversation between the two men, more than what I already missed, I just said the skill name, "Hayber Hearing "Then instantly, I shifted my gaze and attention to them.
The conversation was going on. I couldn't tell what they said to each other before, but I was hearing everything clearly, like I was standing next to them. My guard was talking now, and he was saying, "That is what happened so far, and I don't have any explanation of how it did happen." The middle-aged man was listening to him while shaking his head as an acknowledgement. "That is really strange, but everything can be explained if there is the appropriate time and clues." Then he stopped wondering and looked at me, which startled me because I was not expecting that.
They both looked at me for a few seconds while I was looking back at them while pretending that I was looking at both of them at the same time. The old man continued talking after that brief pause. “I believe I have an idea of what's going on, but I can't say for certain unless I go back to my library. No, I need to go back to my wife and kids. What do you know about this young boy, the newcomer? Is he also from another world?” At that time, all three of us looked, at the same time, at the young boy who was still standing behind me. The boy shrunk for a second, form our gaze towards him, but didn’t move from his place. “I have no idea, but I don’t think so” answered my guard. The middle-aged man looked at him and said, while his expression was changing, "Go and bring them both, we need to hurry; we will figure out everything as soon as I find my family safe”.
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Somewhere in a large rectangular room as large as a basketball stadium, there was a huge screen covering an entire wall from top to bottom. In the middle of it, there was a timer like a countdown or a timer with six digits suppurated by a dot 00.00.01; it was stuck with those digits now for almost seven days. Suddenly the last digit went up instead of going down like a normal countdown, and it became 00.00.02 with a clicking sound. Everyone in
the room stopped whatever they were doing and looked at the screen. No one said anything, and no one moved a single muscle. All eyes were looking at the screen, waiting and anticipating what was going to happen next.
"It took a couple of weeks to move only one digit," someone whispered to the man beside him while still keeping his eyes locked on the timer that was covering almost all of the wall. The whole area was quiet; there was not even a single sound. Everyone's eyes were glued to the timer; they thought it was a countdown timer, but it went up instead of going down. No one knows what's going on, but everyone has an idea of what's going to happen when the timer starts.Which means it began and will end at the same time as the beginning of calamity and the end of life as they know it, and all they can do is monitor the timer and nothing else. Why would they just monitor it if they can't do anything? That was a question they asked themselves a lot of times during the last couple of weeks, but no one gave them any answers.At that moment everyone heard the click of the timer once more and it changed once more 00.00.03 no one took note of how long it took to increase once more by one digit but it was not more than one minute for sure, and the second click was the wake call for everybody and the whole are stared buzzing with voice everyone started talking at the same time, everyone saying whatever was in his or her mind, some were talking to themselves, some was talking to the one beside in front or behind them "Quiet...Quiet...Everyone Quiet" Everyone heard the loud voice and quieted down almost instantly, looking at the source of the voice, the man was yelling loudly while he was raising his hands and when he saw the everyone's silent and looking at him he with same tone said whiteout turning his voice down.
"It's time to start working and do our job. As you can see, it started, and we are running against time. Here, we don't know how much we have or how long it will take exactly to end, but now that we know that everything we have worked for all that time until now is about to happen and come true, can we prevent it? Can we stop it? The answer is no, but we can do our best and hope for the rest to come. But as it has been predicted, there is no reason for us to despair; we have to trust ourselves that we can do it. Now everyone, go back to work, stop talking about something you can't do anything about, and start working on the things that you can do something about right now, right here."
Without another word, everyone started moving and kept on doing whatever he or she was doing before the timer started.
In a secluded space not visible to anybody, at the same time they can see everything going around them in a 360-degree radius. More than ten men and women were sitting, each of them looking straight to the screen showing in the big hall, and the hundreds of people walking around the area had in front of each of them a small device projecting in front of him or her some data, video feeds, pictures, and a lot of different things; none of them was looking at the same thing or doing the same thing. There was only one old woman sitting separately from the rest of them, with the same device in front of her, but the difference was that she was talking to someone on a conference call. Though they were talking, no one was able to hear their conversation but themselves, even if they were standing beside her.Not just hear, even though no one else was able to see the man talking to her through the screen.
The woman apparently was listening to a report from the man talking to her while she was shaking her head as an acknowledgment. Then she asked, "How long will it take for the second phase to end?” The man answered, “The schedule for it is to take no more than two weeks." “How long do we have overall?” “Maximum twelfth weeks; it could be less or more by a week,” fear started to appear on the old woman's face for the first time. “We don’t have much time. Can you expedite the process much more?” “We already did the most we could do; we can't do anything more than that. I believe we can succeed this time." “I hope you are right”.
Chapter 19 The Request Part 3B Manuhunter Empire, in the royal court, in a large, secluded room serving as a private meeting room, one of the many rooms made for the same purpose, six men were sitting together; the silence was so thick and ominous; dread was visible on all their faces; no one was saying anything; and no one was looking at the other one. If you listened carefully, you could hear their breathing rhythm, even their heartbeat. The one who was sitting on the largest seat at the table while he was in the same situation as the rest of them. He couldn’t bear the silence any more, asking the person sitting on the opposite seat of him with a harsh tone and saying, “You said you could handle it, and it will not take time; why didn’t you get any reports until now?" The man was apparently shaking with fear and stress, thinking to himself that he may have bitten more than he could chew. "It's too early to tell; we have to wait. We will get the update as soon as there is any new
Chapter 20The Request Part 4AAmran's point of view"Then, let's go." Ajbadan said that and started to move: "Raco, keep the rearguard for now, and remember, our first priority is to protect our guests, we will not attack unless we are attacked first. Is that clear?" It was the same formation that we have been doing so far, and nothing changed. Heading towards danger to collect information was the best option we had at the time, although whether it was wrong or correct, I didn’t object to it and didn’t see a reason to. Maybe for a second, I thought to ask Ajbadan to go and check by himself since we don't know the level of danger we may face. Still, I didn’t worry much or feel any fear or something like that at that time, believing that with this strange system, I would be able to handle most of what we may encounter.The distance was not that far to reach wherever we were going to maybe a few more minutes and we will be there, and I will be able to see my first fight in this world.
Chapter 21The RequestPart 4BThe moment the middle-aged man said the word “I have a request,” the interface popped up once more, but this time there were a few more details that I was not expecting.Name: Amran Age: 12 Race: Human Rank: A Level: 5 Occupation: Strategist Status: healthy Skills: six skillsObserve Skill Level: Level 1 {Nothing can skip your eyes or ears; this skill helps you to understand the hidden information of whatever or whomever you are observing at the time.} Skill Duration: one minute, two seconds Skill Cool Down: No cool down required {Skill can be upgraded by continuing usage}.Analyze Skill Level: Level 1 {Upon activation, the skill enables you to analyze any situation or condition from all aspects, presenting to you all possible inputs with positive and negative outcomes. Therefore, you will be able to make the best decision regarding your situation or the condition you need to solve.} Skill Duration: one minute, two seconds Skill
The First EncounterPart 1AI had been hearing gunshots for a while now, but finally I was facing one pointed towards me, not me in particular but in my direction. That made us hesitate and stop all of us, except the emporer, who, on the contrary, increased his speed towards them. The rest of us, we stood in our place and didn’t move. The boy with the rifle was looking at us, still pointing the gun at us.Although he saw the old man, I mean the emporer, coming towards them, his expression softened a little bit, but still he was pointing the rifle towards us like he was waiting for a signal to start shooting at us. The distance between us was about a hundred meters give or take, and he reached them within a few seconds, then immediately bent down and stared, hugging the two kids and the woman who was holding them while the other three women gave them a space by moving back while standing each in a side, like they were keeping some type of formation.After less than a minute, the empore
The First EncounterPart 1B"I have a request for all of you. I need you to assist me to keep my family safe until I get a way to take back my county." That was the emporer request. Looking around me, I was thinking, What was the reason behind asking a group of odd people gathered in a forest, among them women and children? Also, those people were totally strangers, so was it normal in this world to ask favors from strangers? I don't know why that didn't make any sense to me. At the same time, I was looking around and checking the faces of the people around me and their reactions. The faces of the ladies I was with were without any expressions, except for the surprise of the identity of the man who was talking, and the new group was strangely standing apart, which made me come to the conclusion that they are not together or else they would have stood together.The same thing I was doing, the emperor was doing it also, looking at the faces of the people around him. Although nobody reac
Chapter 23 The First Encounter Part 2A Since I made up my mind and decided to tell half of the truth, at least at the moment, the pressure left my shoulder. Still, I intended to tell the emperor the truth when the time was right. I don’t know if he would be able to help me with my situation or not, but all I can do is try, since all I can do at the moment is to go forward. There are no set goals a head of me that I am aspiring to or want to fulfill at the moment. Except that thing deep in my hearth looking for some one or something that I don't know who or what it is, at that one of the ladies started talking and introducing herself; the one with two swords started speaking and said, “Your Highness, my name is Amun; I was in a city called Andoradiya when I left an office building. I found myself in this forest suddenly, although that was not the most strange thing that happened to me but definitely the strangest.”. I thought to myself apparently that what she said was true, for som
Chapter 24 The First Encounter Part 2B I guess while I was distracted with the girl, everyone came to where we were standing. The next thing I heard was the man in a uniform saying, “The question is, where in this forest can be considered safe?” Although I have no idea what dangerous animals or beasts are roaming around this forest, or any other beings I am not aware of, regardless of the armed men that we have been fighting for a while now, the real question is: where in this forest can it be safe for us to rest and plan for our next step? Personally, I don’t have any answer for that, and I don’t think anyone has the answer to that. At that time, the Statues Panel interface appeared in front of me, like it was giving me the answer that I was looking for, but the full menu appeared this time, so I had to figure out what was new this time by myself: Name: Aden Age: 16 Race: Human Rank: A (Officer) Level: 6 Status: healthy Skills: five skills gained 1- Skill Name: Flash Skil
Chapter 25The First EncounterPart 3AIt took several minutes for the two young ladies to calm down the young girl who was screaming in terror, that give a little bit more time to contemplate on the issues of how do I present the items I have in my inventory and also the gifts that I have, I had a pretty good idea about the skills and attributes but this gifts I had no idea how it works, but assuming that it works just as the skills and attributes I concentrated on the mystery map, without any difficulties a map appeared on my interface covering all the space in front of my face, previously the interface screen was like a 14” screen but now it was almost 30” screen, and the whole screen was filled with trees, it was like I was watching a life TV in front of me and not looking at a map.{You have activated the mystery map.}{You can zoom in and zoom out by either using your hand gesture or by concentrating on the location you want and giving the order verbally}{Markers are indicated