Finally, just the day before the start of the Tournament of the Towers, the Rings laboratory had finally extracted and translated all the data from the data collector.
'It took them a lot less than what they said ... they must have worked a lot ...'
I went with Libert to the laboratory. I knew very little about Libert, however, he seemed very calm and composed from the first moment, he was also the only Bestens I had ever talked to.
"I saw you are invited to the Novice Towers tournament ..." He started talking out of the blue.
"Yes ... anyway, can I ask you something?"
"Sure ... if I can answer you, I'll gladly answer"
"You ... don't you remember anything from your past? I mean, don't you remember anything about your world?"
'After all ... he must come from another world ... right?'
"Exactly ... I don't remember anything, about my parents and why I woke up in this world ... I think my story is very similar to yours of you humans ... well, today we would discover something more ... at least I hope …"
He said the last few words in a low voice.
Arriving at the laboratory there were also Liza, Ron, and David.
We said goodbye and then one of the researchers gave us tablets, of what looked like glass, with rounded edges, one for each.
"Er ... and what is this?" I asked.
"Consider it a kind of tablet ... inside there is various information about the arena and the Slter empire ... and above all information about you ..."
I looked at the tablet, I didn't understand at all how to turn it on.
I stared at it for a couple of seconds and the tablet turned on.
"If you want you can also take them to your rooms, as they are foldable and easy to hide ..." the researcher told us.
"I ... then I think I'll go ..." Liza said, probably she wanted to read about her past in private.
After a while, the others left too.
Instead, I remained a bit petrified there, standing in the "Den", after a while I called the researcher who had given us the tablets.
"But ... my room is not controlled by the arena right?"
It was a question that I actually wanted to ask for a long time, however, at that moment I asked it mainly because I was afraid of what I could find inside that tablet, I was afraid and therefore I wanted, in a sense, to waste time with something else.
"Well, before I entered the "Rings" ... Yes ... but now you don't have to worry, we have corrupted all the cameras in your room ..."
'Oh, good ... even if I can't quite understand how they've done that… maybe it's always thanks to that acquaintance at the top of the arena? ...'
"Mmh, and the bracelet?" I asked pointing to the bracelet that all the gladiators wore.
"Ah, you don't have to worry about that, it doesn't have any built-in control functions." He told me.
'Dunno ... I think I have to trust him ...'
I was too agitated at that moment to ask for more, so I said goodbye.
I went back to my room and sat on the bed, my heart was pounding, I was excited and at the same time afraid.
I picked up the tablet and turned it on.
There were only three buttons, in the shape of a circle.
The information on the tablet had in fact been divided into three macro-groups.
I didn't want to start immediately with my past and so I hit the button where it was written "Arena".
As soon as I tapped it, a 3D map of the arena appeared all around me.
'Oh ... this will certainly be useful in the future ...'
There were also marked corridors and rooms not present on the normal maps, in addition, there was also information on the schedules of the guards and on where the surveillance cameras were present.
I then opened the "Empire Slter" section.
There was little written information here, there was a summary of how it was born and the names of the most important Slter emperors.
For now, I just took a quick read, not understanding and not wanting to understand almost anything of what I was reading.
I was distracted.
* Gulp
I took a deep breath and clicked the "About Zeto" button.
I stood looking at the tablet screen for a long time, suddenly a message arrived on my bracelet, it was Liza.
"Can I come to you?" She had written to me.
I replied with an "ok".
'She probably wants to talk to someone about this…'
I said looking, lost, at the tablet.
'But what does all this mean!? ...'
Liza arrived shortly after, I let her into my room and offered her a drink.
For a while, we remained silent.
"Have you read about your past?" She asked me. "Or at least, what little is written about it" She added.
I took a sip of the drink I had poured myself, a red grape juice, it was very sweet and pleasant.
"Yes ..." I said. 'So even on her tablet there is not much written …'
"I saw who my parents were… but even after seeing their faces… I still don't remember anything about them, that is… it says they're my parents, but I don't even recognize them! And then… not even their names are written there… "
She said angrily.
"It also said how and where they died… they made them work to death… the Slters… I will hate them forever!"
"Then ... apparently in the previous world I was Japanese ... I lived on an island ... then… it doesn't say much else ..."
She added.
It was clear that she was very confused, but what she said made me even more confused about my own information.
"And you ... how did it go?" She asked me.
"I ... I think there is an error in my information ... that is, look ..."
I showed the tablet to Liza.
Among my information, there was only an image of my mother and the place where I lived.
"There is only your mother ..."
"Yep ... the image of my father is not even there ... what does it mean? And then… well, it just says that I lived in Spain… but… nothing else… why…"
Liza also looked confused about it.
"I don't understand ... perhaps it is a mistake of our researchers ..." She said. Not even she, however, believed much in that conclusion.
All this did nothing but fuel my desire to find out what was hiding in my past.
"Well ... anyway I talked to the others too ... none of us have found out much about their pasts ... but, actually ... I imagined it ..." Liza said, "This brings us to the next step ... that is to recover our memories and then escape from here ... now that we have more info on the Arena ... "
'Do you really think we could do it?' I wanted to ask her, however, I remained silent, I wanted to believe in her words.