After his little adventure in Girisia's room, Tarkov soon called for a friend of his to stitch Girisia back up to make him look more presentable, but what Tarkov didn't expect was his friend's reaction.
"Are you crazy Tarkov, this man has long left your jurisdiction, you had no right to 'ask questions' this intensely." The surgeon named Andrei reprimanded, his head filled with sweat. "I should have refused your request… if the Intelligence department finds out what happened, it will be over for both of us…"
What he feared was the Intelligence department. As Girisia was under his jurisdiction, making it full responsibility of Andrei, so nothing bad could happen to Girisia, that was until he gave a friend of his the right to speak to this "suspect".
"Calm down Andrei!" Tarkov told his friend.
"What am I saying, of course, they will find everything about it, they are the intelligence for god's sake!" He was worried, he already had his hands full with the recent surge of accidents due to all the gore nests and injured soldiers, so he didn't want to have to write pages of apologies to intelligence in the little free time he gets.
"Calm down already, I have come to an understanding with that man… and he is ready to give up all he knows to Intelligence. They won't annoy us if they get everything they need." Tarkov assured Andrei's inner turmoil was already huge and by the end of Girisia's explanation of his knowledge, so was his.
Girisia's threat was still vivid in his mind and his plea too.
If Girisia's power of prophecy is exposed, he may be turned into a slave by Wilkis and exploited till all information in his head is extracted, including Tarkov's true identity.
This was a fate that neither Girisia wanted to experience nor Tarkov wanted to happen. And this made Tarkov consider whether he should kill Girisia.
But Tarkov didn't act on this plan, he knew Girisia needed him, he could understand from the way Girisia was speaking since the start of their negotiation. And what he needed from Girisia was a lot more or at least the knowledge in his head.
Tarkov only regrets he is not adept at knowledge extraction from the mind himself, if he had the required knowledge and technology, he would have obtained the information on his own and thrown away the baggage that was Girisia.
"Well… if you say so." Hearing Tarkov's explanation, Andrei calmed down a little. But soon he turned to look at Tarkov's eyes, before saying. "But… but what about Professor Farsight?... She is also interested in this man." Andrei said, still unsure what his future might entail.
"Farsight?... why would she be interested in a spy?"
"Oh, you don't know?... You didn't read his diagnostic report?" Andrei questioned, pointing at the report beside Girsia's table. "Read it… and you will know."
"Huh?"
*****
After Girisia woke for the second time today, it was not the beautiful face of Tara that he found, but the grim face of Tarkov.
"I feel happy knowing you are so worried for me, captain." Girisia mocked, he wanted to laugh at how fast Tarkov's treatment of himself had changed. But he also knew that laughing at a man capable of killing him easily is a fool's errand. 'I will have my revenge one day…' He promised, but whether he will follow up on that promise is up to him. He had a bad track record with promises, to begin with.
"Now that we are on an even playing field, let's have a proper negotiation, unlike last time," Girisia said, feeling the cooling sensation of the healing paste on his neck.
In this world, even with advancements in mechanics and biotech. Most of this advanced science can't be used willy-nilly on anyone. A body needed to have proper foundations for certain drugs to take effect without breaking the body and the same was true for operations too.
But even with all these constraints, Girisia was able to recover from Tarkov's torture in just a few hours.
It would still take around a week for him to fix his bones though.
"Oh, yes." Tarkov seemed distracted, his mind was still repeating the things he read on Girisia's report. Things that he deemed not right to say at the moment.
"About your vision, how much do you know about Utena?" Tarkov asked, focusing on what was right in front of him.
"Not much, I have only seen a few things." He was not wrong, he had looked up the Utena quest list on the wiki in the past because it interested him a bit, but he never personally took part in any of their quests. So the fine details and who was part of Utena are out of his reach.
"But I know what kind of group they are and what they did to your village of Alwaris."
Twenty years before the advent of players on Taurus, there existed a tribe of new humans outside the control of the remnant of the old world. These were not modified humans like the Karabits, instead these were the people who survived on the surface since the beginning of the war and never had the luxury to get into one of the Civilian Bunkers.
But unlike others who were horribly mutated or the new life forms that gained sentience to survive in the new brutal wasteland, these new humans maintained their ancestral looks. One can't even differentiate them from the old humans unless they inspect them at genetic levels.
But there is one more difference among these new humans, the one reason why they were purged soon after meeting an explorer group of one of the core pillars of new humanity called Utena that dealt with anomalies that violate natural law, the law that they believe in even if the said anomaly is a peaceful.
Tarkov's tribe were one of those anomalies, their innate abilities were something deemed too dangerous to the old humans and only few like him were able to escape the purge. Utena not only purged the people of his tribe, but their history, the record that they existed was purged from this world too. It was impossible for anyone to know of the place where his people once lived.
And even for Tarkov who has lived for twenty years among his own enemies as one of their own, it was nostalgic to hear the name Alwaris, his birth place again.
"I already know what they did to my tribe." Tarkov pointed out. "I want to know if you know other members that were active 25 years ago." He specified.
"I don't know, though I do know a few ways we can find it… the easiest is still to just ask your old friend Yoshikov, as you planned… A plan that will go awry if I don't help you." Girisia paused a bit, he was a bit reluctant to help Tarkov, when he was not even sure that he could trust him, but he didn't have any choice.
"And what would it cost me?" Tarkov knew this was coming, so he was not surprised.
"I had previously planned to ask an anoman for this job, but I believe you are a better option in comparison." Girisia had changed his plans according to circumstances, he couldn't wait for GrannyRussia to get stronger. He needs to stay alive first and those experience points need to be utilized as fast as possible.
The only reason he didn't use it up instantly was that he didn't want to give his doctors and interrogators a shock.
"What kind of job?" Tarkov inquired, he was curious about the job a man with prophetic ability would give.
"Oh, it's just a simple fetch quest," Girisia didn't mince his words. "All you need is to get me something hidden within the facility under Hermat forest." There was no need for flowery words, his opponent already knew what kind of person he was, so there was no need to put up any act.
"Do you want me to die?" Tarkov shouted. The Hermat forest was a dangerous place only grade three and above had ever set foot into that place.
"I had planned to send the immortal Anoman's after it, but I believe you are perfect for it." He said, explaining himself. "And don't forget I know about your village, you are the last person that will die in that place."
"This… let me consider it for a bit."
"You can consider for as long as you desire, Tarkov. I have all the time in my hands" Girisia said, lifting his left stump of a hand. "But you don't have time, Yoshkov will probably leave after the raid of the fiend ends."
"Oh, about that…" Tarkov after listening to Girisia's words. "You also don't have much time and are going to die soon… After five months to be exact." He informed me as a matter of fact. His face, unfeeling as ever.
"Wha… what do you mean?" Girisia asked, before looking at his body. "Was I injured somewhere?... Don't you guys fix problems like these daily?..." There was confusion all over Girisia's face. He just can't understand it, this world has advanced methods that heal him in multiple ways even if he is a mortal.
"Of course we have, most of your flesh injuries will heal in the next two days, your bone fractures will take around 5-6 days, as for your hands, we can use mechanical prosthetics powered by cells." Tarkov was never a person who mocked a person, but his words sounded nothing from a taunt.
"But what we can't fix is your brain," Tarkov explained. He didn't mean to say Girisia was dying due to his stupidity nor did Girisia take it that way.
Girisia only questioned what kind of brain disease it was that can't be cured with this world's advancements and worry also began to well up in him.
"Your brain is damaged and from the report I read, 30% of your brain doesn't even exist. As for how you can function as a normal human while also possessing the ability to look into the future, it's out of my understanding."
"All I can be sure about is that you will die, and pretty soon too. So you may wanna reconsider your request from before. I can get you an expensive regeneration serum in exchange for your help."
This was too much to take in for Girisia, he knew something was wrong with his body since the start, then he looked at his stats again.
[Stats]
STR: 0.6
CTS: 3.2
DEX: 1
INT: 0.7
SPR: 0
WIS: 1.3
'Intelligence 0.7 and 0 in spirit. So this is the reason.' His stats, the scar on his head, his identity as a beggar.
'No! Not a beggar, it should originally be the crazy hobo of Riber city.' He only became a hobo after Girisia took over and brought back intelligence to his body.