The world blurred into focus with spinning white walls and Valkyrie holding a mancatcher. It smelled like a hospital, all anesthetic and cleaner. Someone was yelling, but I couldn't hear them over the pounding in my head. A screen flashed before my face and blinked out every time I gave it attention. It continued to flash only in my peripheral. The seed of my skill tree shuddered as I felt something not there before filling my body. I had never experienced it before, but my first few breaths and the feeling of a quenched thirst clued me in. Mana was in the air.
Before the world fell into focus, the mancatcher found my neck. The Valkyrie held me in place before yanking me off before Someone else teleported in.
She yelled something in a strange language before the screen that had been so shy exploded into being.
Welcome to Visage, the greatest Sect in the Southern Layer.
Vincent Hawk
Race: Earthling
Species: Homo Sapien
Blood Type: A positive
Birthdate: Feb 14th
Height: 5'10"
Weight 225lbs
Company Title: Work Slave
Current Value: 100 Credit
Secured Debt: 500,000,000,000 Credits.
Skill Tree: Gold Fiber
Is this information correct?
y/n
I selected y and finally had an idea of my situation. A secured debt meant that it was made with collateral. If Earth defaults, Visage had its hostages as collateral. I understood that Visage wasn't expecting Earth to pay its debts. For all I knew, Visage was working with Logos to ensure Earth would forever pay interest in soldiers. Why bother conquering a place when you can have them run themselves and pay tribute?
My eyes found the Valkyrie and fell away. I couldn't see her face clearly even when I tried. She moved, and I had no choice but to follow. She flung me into a room with nearly a hundred people seated and waiting. The noise of conversations paused when I entered.
"Find a seat and wait for further instructions." The Valkyrie said.
I went deeper into the room as an automatic door shut behind me. The faces up the stair were grim, and few people seemed willing to let him sit with them. Some men held uncomfortable girls close with their free hands on their guns.
"Keep walking, and I won't put a bullet between your eyes." A man with an eyepatch said.
A click sounded, and a .45 was in my face with the hammer cocked.
I backed away and raised my hands like in a bear attack. "I don't want any trouble. I'm looking for a seat," I said.
The man nodded and eased the hammer back without shooting me in the face.
"Keep walking; this rodeo is about to begin; you'll want to be seated. These folks are the type who like their manners." The man said.
I found a seat in the nosebleeds and felt like I was in college. That brought back memories, some good, others not so much. Before I could get good and distracted, the door on the opposite side of the room opened, and a man in a flowing cobalt blue robe stepped through. He wore a hat covered in flowing beads; each felt dangerous, like a nuke waiting to go off. It was the same feeling I had when I sensed another's skill tree. As for the man himself, he felt like an unfathomably mighty blue tree that towered amongst the clouds.
In comparison, most people felt like a seed fluttering in the wind, yet to find rich soil to grow. Vincent knew he must feel the same way.
"You may call me Instructor. I am unfortunate to have drawn the lot of such an uncouth class. Stand all of you, I command it, and bow as is proper when you meet your teacher. You, mortals, might think yourselves to be hot shit in your pitifully weak world, but here we'll look at your status." The Instructor said.
I sucked it up and bowed, but I was in the minority. Resisting at this stage wouldn't help me; I could feel the differences between myself and the Instructor.
"Once, I would have had to turn my palm to discipline such an unruly bunch. Thanks to the technology we have adopted from your world, I need not do that much." Screams echoed through the class, and then gunfire. I hit the deck, and the screaming intensified. "Your mortal weapons are useless here, and if you survive, you'll abandon them willingly. I will allow you to bow if you believe you have had enough punishment. Those who refuse will not receive my mercy a second time." The Instructor said.
Battling the Instructor wasn't going to happen. I could only hope my grandfather didn't try to gun down his Instructor. He was too powerful. Did none of them feel the waves of power radiating off the man? Maybe they did and ignored it. I didn't like the odds.
"Freedom," Someone yelled and shot again. This time the man screamed until he went silent.
"Does anyone else wish to try my patients?" He waited until the room was silent except for the corpse shaking. "Good; we will begin reviewing your short-term job for the next decades. Our Sect is very hands-off as long as you are committed to improving your value to the Sect.
100,000 Credits
"This is my net value with no debt to the Sect. With a value of 100,000, I can take positions like Instructor of new recruits, outer court disciple, and sales representative to newly discovered worlds. The more you are worth to the company, the more freedom you have to choose."
I forced myself to ignore the smell of burning flesh and focus on the lecture.
"As a slave, your freedoms are limited, but that doesn't mean you have no rights. Any slave I kill without a good reason will become a debt I owe to the Sect. Some insurance companies sell packages to sue your killer within the Sect. It keeps the elders from outright murdering annoying slaves. Your value of 100 credits would be meaningless to one of our elders. Our in-house insurance companies insure that they pay for waisting sect resources like the rest." The Instructor smiled and looked around. "Remember that when you return. I'm sure you want to know about your job."
"We once used slaves to tend fields, mine precious resources, or serve as cheap labor. With the invention of numerous puppets that fulfill nearly any function, we no longer require low-skilled labor. So you might ask why give you pills and have you as collateral. That concerns the artificial spirit root pills we gave you to complete tasks for the Sect. Natural laws prevent those originating in higher realms from venturing into the lower worlds. Beings like Logos notwithstanding, we can't send a puppet to what you would consider a higher realm because we would immediately lose control over it. So we created a workaround. You are that workaround." The Instructor said.