The bird trailed off A soft Hello came out of AlanÆs watch The tiny bird shook its head and said Only I am concerned that a child would have the ability to fix it It is disturbing IÆll update my projections for this Zone with the provided information
Alan unmuted the communication IÆm here Inform me the instant that Hank awakens Is there anything else
Yes There is a natural formation of ice here something really weird The locals they say itÆs a remnant of a battle one of theirs had with something called a JudgementÆ It doesnÆt mean anything to me but I thought it might mean something to Ghost
It didnÆt mean anything to Alan either but that didnÆt mean it wasnÆt important Hopefully Ghost would feel it fit to share that tidbit of information with him Before he let Ezekiel go Alan clearly asked Are you the father of Randidly Ghosthound
There was silence And then the line went dead as if Ezekiel hadnÆt heard the question Alan swore quietly He rapped on the wooden rail again and then spoke What can you tell me about this Randidly Ghosthound
Confusing GhostÆs little bird said IÆve been following his movements but it is difficult both due to his speed of movement and the limitations on the drone Hopefully a breakthrough with the drone initiative will happen soon and these problems will become moot
Alan fell silent The young man was apparently willing to just busy himself with small tasks ignoring the political ramifications of his obvious strength Worst of all he was apparently working for Senator Firefly the minority speaker in Congress The manÆs pompous attitude relying on the younger Ghosthound to back it up was becoming increasingly obnoxious Another problem to deal with
But instead Alan moved on to a different topic Father Foster and her ilk are setting up another normalization camp in the West after they heard of that new suburb the boundaries are likely to expand to I can interfere but it will be
Let them be Ghost replied quietly
AlanÆs mouth firmed into a grim line I urge you to examine their actions more harshly You know Dr Karman was last seen at one of their
I am aware They have been investigated They are clean And with that the bird flew away Alan swore quietly and abruptly wished he had a cigarette He never smoked himself but Hank had and Alan made it a habit to borrow them while the two brothers were still close But obtaining them now was extremely difficult The tobacco farms existed but no one was really willing to work them Prices skyrocketed
Sighing Alan turned back and went to the kitchen to make coffee It might be almost midnight but he had work to do
Neveah had been given simple instructions
I need you to be me Randidly had said to her But me at my most low key I donÆt want to scare them I just want them to think they know where I am especially before they realize realize what I am to Zone 32 I want to be a mysterious but harmless presence But if you have any questions feel free to contact me
Neveah resolved never to need to contact Randidly Both because he was likely busy doing some boring training but also because this was the first time she had ever been alone
She was very excited
So when she wandered into Zone 1 she considered what she knew about Randidly and what he did when he was low key He didnÆt like to talk to people so she couldnÆt just waltz into a town as much as that made her sad That just wasnÆt RandidlyÆs style
Instead he had this mysterious power of making other people come to him This Neveah had studied in detail So when she was in Zone 1 she did her best to emulate Randidly After months of careful study her examination had yielded definitive results Move somewhere make a home a little away from other people and people came and visited you That was simply how it worked
Now homes were very important to people and now that Neveah was a people they were very important to her as well Monsters werenÆt particularly concerned about such things a cave was just as good as the open sky as long as it wasnÆt raining But to people a home was an obvious weakness and an expression of oneself Although Neveah had initially thought the concept of a home was stupid why give your enemies the exact place they needed to strike to wound you she recently realized that was the point
This home would be her weakness So if she wanted to meet people she simply had to wait and defend it It was strangely logical in a very human way
So she followed her process First find a big city She skipped some of the smaller ones as she wasnÆt interested in just a few people coming Randidly had told her to make sure they knew where she was Or he was Gender was confusing to Neveah at the best of times and pretending to be Randidly made her more confused
Then she found a nearby hill There was an apple grove there but Neveah never liked apples and she demolished it Meat was much more suited to her tastes Then using her Earth Shaping Skill she constructed a castle Her original idea was to make a giant statue of Randidly to show people around who was there but then she remembered that she also had to be low key So instead she spent time sculpting all of her favorite people in her front yard but on a small scale Randidly Alana Ace Dinesh Tykes
Then within a single day people came to visit her just as she planned It was so nice to be proved right
Chapter 521
Gary Firefly was a meticulous man It was what earned him his job as a curator at the National History Museum and it was what enabled him to best take advantage of the arrival of the System letting him become a Senator He ate the same breakfast every day squeezed apple juice and sauteed spinach and peppers It was the reason he had lived to the age of 58 before the System and the reason he would continue living to be 100 now that he had used his Stats to reinforce his Vitality and Endurance
Therefore it was a bad Tuesday when he had been told that someone had demolished his private orchards and erected a castle there During a four hour span of time
The orchards he maintained because a cute fellow curator Ms Terrygate had always talked about the apple orchards of her youth When he became a Senator he planted the orchards on a whim just a half mile from Carrolshold the heart of his district Almost casually he had asked Ms Terrygate if she would work for him caring for the orchard
He obviously didnÆt intend anything untoward he had been a married man before the SystemÆs arrival and she was 20 years his junior It was very unfortunate that his wife had perished in the SystemÆs initial chaos and Gary couldnÆt deny that Ms Terrygate made him feel a sense of warm comfort
Gary Firefly at first wanted to send a few chosen military elites to get to the bottom of this but he was cautious in addition to being meticulous Doing something so rapidly required some manner of resources Until he determined who was behind this he would remain tranquil So Gary went himself to visit this strange new castle
When he arrived he bid his security detail of 6 men to wait behind Although Gary himself was only Level 39 he had on him at all times an energysuit that had been specially designed with protection in mind Without a monster above Level 50 appearing within the bounds of the Zone Gary was relatively confident that nothing could harm him
There was a gate of the sort that was 3 meters high and 2 meters wide and would normally have been filled with wooden doors There were no wooden doors There was only the cold imposing stone of the castle walls At the entranceway Gary cleared his throat Then he did it again more loudly
When no answer was forthcoming Gary hesitantly stepped across the threshold Within there was a wide courtyard and a keep The courtyard was populated with strange stoic statues GaryÆs frown deepened as he took several steps forward examining a female figure holding a spear The handling was rough as if the sculpture was hastily done But the casual nature of the doing couldnÆt cover up the talent of the artist who had done these Even without putting an eye out for detail they were still excellent