Darvin was floating back and forth. With his just over four-foot-tall form, he hovered inches off the ground. He had news of the system’s actions, and he was waiting for his guests to arrive.
Darvin was a System Watcher. No, he was THE System Watcher. He had been alive for millennia and had been the System Watcher for centuries. According to the records, which only he had access to, there could be only one System Watcher alive at a time. When he was offered this legendary class at level 250, he hadn’t known what to think… The final class upgrade was supposed to be at level 200. Of course, he accepted. With his acceptance came information.
Information passed down from previous System Watchers. If he were to say that he was the second most knowledgeable person from the system, no one would claim to be first.
He stopped pacing and looked into a mirror. He was a member of a race of psionics known as the Malaxis. Before the system arrived in his land, he and many others had already unlocked their psychic prowess. Adjusting to the system was no great feat. His race thrived during the five-year tutorial phase. And when their five years were up, they were already considered a powerful force in the system.
Darvin was a typical Malaxi. Humanoid with a small stature, purple skin from head to toe, and no hair to be found. His solid green eyes stared back at him from the mirror. He was wearing his usual green dress robe with purple trim.
Darvin checked his system to see the time. Would it kill them to arrive early for once? There was an anomaly in the system, so he had called a meeting of the heads of various system regions. A meeting of the strongest or most respected.
He had called a meeting like this once before, centuries ago, but that was to organize a system-wide tournament. This was to discuss a problem with the system that he had never seen or heard of before.
Finally, he heard the familiar hum of the teleporter ring out. He relaxed. At least someone has some decency to show up on time. He moved to the head of a table with 11 seats. He had invited ten figures to discuss the problem, and one had finally arrived.
He stared at the teleporter. Finally, it flashed, and a giant of a woman stepped out. She stood nearly nine feet tall with a head full of dark hair. Her skin seemed to almost glow a fire red. She was a member of the Ascarian race. He had to admit, she was as beautiful as she was intimidating. “Ah, Amelia, you are the first to arrive. Welcome. Please have a seat while we await the others.” Darvin offered the woman a seat toward the head of the table.
She nodded and sat down, not saying anything.
The two sat in silence, waiting for the others to arrive. Soon, the teleporter flashed again. This time, a creature with eight legs stepped out. The creature had a black exoskeleton and mandibles. It was a member of one of the insectoid races.
“Xephos. How nice to see you again,” Darvin greeted the creature.
“Darvin, it’s a pleasure, as always.” Xephos strode forward toward the meeting table. He shifted his body as he crawled into a chair. He looked at Amelia. “This must be the beauty, Amelia. It’s an honor.”
Amelia gazed at the insectoid and nodded.
As time went by, more and more figures arrived. Soon, a total of nine beings, including Darvin, had taken a seat in the meeting room. On Darvin’s left side were Amelia, the Ascari, Holcom, another Malaxi, the lizard-like Wri, the Ulaixian, and Awery, the Centaur.
On the right side of the table sat Xephos, the Ul’oc, Kelvin, the Human, the cat-like Briya, the Taji, and a blue humanoid Trischa, the Ivali.
Darvin waited for the other two to arrive. He kept checking his system time. He was becoming impatient. After some time, Kelvin spoke up. “Can we get on with it? I’ve things to do.”
Darvin sighed and nodded. “Jakis is young and may not know the importance of such a meeting, so he may have ignored the summons. Cuthos, however, is not. He will need a good explanation to avoid punishment.” He picked up a remote from the table in front of him and pushed a button. The teleporter in the room shut off. “So we aren’t interrupted.”
“Alright, first things first.” Darvin hit a button on his remote, and the table changed to a screen. He moved his hand to the screen and pushed a sequence of buttons. When he finished, a hologram shot up from the table.
Darvin signaled to the hologram. “As you may know, this is a model of the entire system universe.” He spun the hologram to give everyone a good view. Afterward, he hit a few buttons, and the model expanded. “As you can see, over the centuries, the system has expanded at a constant rate in all directions—”
“We know this. What does it matter?” Kelvin interrupted.
“I’ll soon get to that. Please be patient.” Darvin motioned again, and the expansion of the model stopped. “This is the amount of the universe that the system had covered as of a few weeks ago.” The model was a perfect sphere. The system seemed to have a perfectly uniform expansion.
“Now watch as I show you these past weeks.” Darvin motioned again, and the uniform expansion stopped. Then, a portion of the sphere began growing at a rapid pace. “This is the anomaly that I brought you all here to discuss.”
“How interesting,” Xephos mused. “It seems like by focusing all its energy in one direction, it’s able to grow at an extreme pace. But the question is, why?”
“It’s hunting,” Amelia spoke up for the first time.
“Oh, would you elaborate?” asked Xephos.
Amelia looked at Xephos, then at Darvin but said nothing.
Darvin nodded at Amelia. “I believe Amelia is correct. As for what it is hunting, I do not know. But, in the days that I have monitored the situation, I have found what may be a clue.” Darvin spread his arms, and the model disappeared.
He made another motion, and a picture of a human male popped up from the table. The man had coal-black hair and light blue eyes. He was wearing black steel armor and holding a glaive in his right hand. “This human is Derek Hunt. He is from planet C-186, which the residents call Earth.” Darvin motioned again, and a list of Derek’s stats popped up.
“Hmm. Level 79. If I remember correctly, this ‘Earth’ is under my territory.” Kelvin spoke up. “It’s not a bad level, but Earth’s five years is almost up. The strong should be at least level 90 by now.” Kelvin paused for a moment. “I will say that he has magnificent stats compared to his level. Can we see his titles?”
“We cannot. My power is limited to any being’s level and stats. I cannot show their titles or skill unless I am within a certain range of them, and even then, it is limited,” replied Darvin.
“So what’s the big deal with this human?” Kelvin asked.
“He vanished almost two years ago. What you are seeing is his status from then,” said Darvin.
Xephos spoke. “There’s nothing strange about someone vanishing. It’s possible for a being to leave the system’s range. I know a few who have.”
“You are correct, and two years ago”—Darvin moved his hands and another image with Derek’s face on it popped up—“the system designated him as ‘Out of System Range.’ Now, when a person is out of range of the system, the system can offer no more ‘help,’ but it can still locate the general direction of a person.”
Darvin then brought up another image. “This is Derek’s system status as of now.” The ‘Out of System Range’ had changed to ‘System Suppressed.’ “I have no clue what this means, but the day his status changed was the day the system began growing exponentially in a singular direction. This could be a coincidence, but I do not believe so. I have scoured the system records, and I could find nothing related to this anomaly. I think the system is hunting Derek Hunt—or whatever it was that suppressed it.”
A fairy-like voice rose up. “This is interesting. Do we know what happened to the human in the first place? How did he leave the system range? It may be easy for some, but his planet was still in the introductory stage. There should not have been many ways to leave the planet, much less the system.” Trischa made her thoughts clear.
Darvin sighed. “Yes.” He looked over at Kelvin. “It seems that humans still jump head-first into things without a modicum of research. I mean, really. ‘Things to Avoid in the System’ is basically free in the system shop, and the first chapter is all about portals.” Darvin shook his head, and Kelvin giggled. “A female human named Silvi Jacobs has been particularly lucky with her portals. Not a single beast has broken through. Though after she lost most of her team and her portal closed with Derek Hunt still inside, she has not done much of anything.”
“Oh? So he was trapped in the void?” Holcom, the other Malaxi, spoke up. “Two years in the void. I wonder how he’s still alive. How long would that be for the person inside?” he asked.
“We do not know. Time in the void is always fluctuating. It could have been days or decades,” Darvin replied. He turned to look at Kelvin. “Kelvin, once the introductory phase on this ‘Earth’ is over, you are to gather Silvi Jacobs and the remnants of her team and find whatever information you can on Derek Hunt.”
“Very well.” Kelvin tapped a few times on a device fastened on his wrist. “I will go personally in two months when ‘Earth’ finishes its introduction.”
