Sitting on a sofa in the reddish-orange space Dina stared into space silently contemplating the things she had seen before being ejected. Genad’s heartbreak, Paws sorrow, and the portal being destroyed.
“Did everyone survive?” she asked Zero dully.
“Yes, they were ejected from the portal right away most probably by the dragon god,” Zero answered dutifully before whisking out a bunch of napkins and posing them before Dina.
“What?”
“You seem like you want to cry,” Zero answered.
Dina silently stared at him before asking with a broken voice, her voice quieting at the end “Y-you, h-h-how… h-how did you know?”
“Your face was completely red, your eyes filled with tears and you kept on biting your lips to keep calm. It’s alright Dina, I’m like a robot who can’t feel anything so if you cry I won’t find you pitiful, neither will I mock you and I’ve never laughed before so rest assured, I won’t laugh at you,” Zero said calmly and for a moment Dina felt his usual robotic voice held more life in it, or maybe his words were making her so sentimental she became delusional.
“You can just say you’re worried you know?” Dina teased before wiping the tears that trickled down with the napkin.
She couldn’t go on like this, she formed lots of relationships and ended up getting hurt because she was leaving. She had to distance herself as much as possible from others at least, so she could concentrate on her aim, the target.
If she went on crying after every world, she’d probably turn this place into a lake by the time her contract expires.
“Alright! Am all better now. I just need rest to cool myself off, after all, I just lived an entire life. Can I get a bed?” Dina questioned.
“Yes, something of that level is free.”
“Oh great!”
After that, Dina fell into the huge bed whose softness seemed to be sucking away her worries and cuddling with the fluffy goodness in her arms, laid her head on the other pillow before drifting off into a wonderful sleep. At least she was still allowed to sleep.
A few moments later, Zero leaned over to a deeply slumbered Dina who was snoring softly with messy strands of hair all over her face. She curled in a fetal position as she tightly cuddled her pillow like it’d varnish into thin air and occasionally would pat its head and coo at it like it was a person, a habit she had formed due to Jack from the first world.
Tucking away a naughty strand of her that had snuck into her mouth, Zero leaned into her bed with his knee before tying up her hair and preventing it from falling all over the place again.
After he was done he glanced at her once more before leaving.
***
“So you’re saying that the divinity hidden within Genad had stimulated Dina’s slightly and when she was in dire danger it burst out which caused the first incident of Dina turning to Tana. This however caused Tana’s energy to stick to Genad, and due to that dragon’s meddling, the shard, now extremely repulsive of other divinities, repelled her energy which happened to be all around Genad due to their closeness leading to the attack against Genad despite being the son of fate?” Jackson summarized completely before looking up to Zero who nodded.
“Indeed.”
“I see and since only the shard noticed Tana and not the world, she wasn’t ejected?”
“Yes.”
“Very well, thanks for your report, you’ll get a few extra points for that, although that’ll mean nothing to someone of your level huh? Anyways, you may leave,” Jackson mumbled as he got ready to report on his side.
“Yes,” Zero replied curtly and turned to leave when Jackson called him back.
“Did you feel even a thing?” Jackson asked curiously.
“I believe it’s a bit too early Jackson and as for the question to your answer, no,” Zero responded as he gazed right into Jackson’s eyes. Green met blue and the blue orbs trembled from the power within those green eyes.
Dead or not, touching a lion’s tell was paramount to committing suicide, and facing Zero always gave him those feelings.
“Alright, you may leave.”
“Okay.”
***
“I feel so much better, what the heck this definitely had something more to it than sleeping! Is the bed special or something?” Dina chattered excitedly.
She had woken up all filled with energy and all the depressing thoughts varnished just like that making her heavy heart feel lighter. All the negativity dragging her down was completely suppressed!
“Sir Jackson gave you a little gift,” Zero replied clearing all her confusion.
“Well I am grateful, I dislike him but it’d be wrong to not give my appreciation. Tell him I appreciate but please don’t tell him I said I disliked him,” Dina pleaded, with how Zero was he might just report everything she said word for word like an AI with no initiative.
“Affirmative.”
“What are you, a robot?” Dina teased.
“I am your Assistant Transmigrator, the system can be referred to as an AI and not me.”
“Ooh, did I hit a sore point?” Dina asked with a smirk.
Zero raised a brow and in his usual monotone voice replied, “I believe I have no such things since I can’t feel emotions.”
Dina sighed disapprovingly, “Hm, are you ATs like that? Robotic and cold?”
“We ensure to do our jobs and do it well, some although more amiable could be unreliable so yes, most of us are strict.”
“I see, okay whatever, I just imagined something disturbing so let’s not dive deeper and go to the main event, hm?”
“If you say so, Dina.”
Zero began divulging the rest of the required knowledge a Transmigrator was meant to have which was locked up before due to Dina’s rank. In the first place came an introduction to character integration where the concept of OOC was finally introduced.
Acting out of character otherwise known as OOC was a forbidden action that could cost a Transmigrator points. It was like a cruel warning because the more one OOCed the more they risked being found out by the world as an external energy.
***Transmigrators will be referred to as T from here onwards.
To stop Ts from doing things that might cause their revelation, a strict system that calculated their rate of OOC was made with a deduction of points as a penalty. It also helped curb the issue of the Bureau having to cover for the T if they somehow revealed their identity to the world which led to a huge loss of energy for them.
Instead, with the OOC meter when the meter reached a full 100 the world would instantly be counted as a failure and the T ejected directly without the Bureau having to end up fighting to save the T from the world, which would cost a whole lot of energy.
OOC meter was calculated according to, how out of sync one was the identity’s character, the level of suspicion of the characters around you, and the possibility of your reveal to the world.
An example was OOCing before the child of fate or another main character who had a strong link to the world and OOCing before a minor character. Since you run a higher risk of being discovered by the world if you OOC before the main characters than the minor ones, your OOC meter skyrockets, which was why one had to be extra careful around the main characters or those with a high connection to the world.
Another group of people to be wary of were the ones close to the identity as they were more likely to suspect you, thus raising the OOC meter.
The rate of deduction depends on one’s percentage meter and a T risked the high possibility of losing all their points and reaching a negative if possible.
“What happens if the person’s negative points reach their limit?”
“They’re forced to do an extremely problematic but simple job that even idiots like them could complete in other to clear the negation before continuing Transmigrating.”
“I see… how cruel,” Dina shivered, the Bureau was indeed a scary organization.
Zero then introduced the effects of the meters to Dina, the things it showed about the target, and the plausible effects.
“It has exactly six stages according to their plausible effect. However, these effects depended on the target which means that the reaction would vary to some extent even when in the same stage. Like Genad and Jack, the latter fell earlier for you at around 70-something of the meter’s completion while the former fell for you only when the meter peaked at about 90 percent,” Zero compared.
“So you’re saying that although the effects are the same for those stages it would differ to some extent for each target?” Dina questioned.
“Yes Dina, however as long as you follow this guide you should be prepared enough to predict the target’s feeling for you.”
Zero explained the stages slowly,
Stage 1 [around a negative to 5%]: Might represent a certain level of hate, complete indifference, or negative feelings towards the Transmigrator.
Stage 2 [around 5%-15%]: Ranging from good impression on target and positive feelings towards Transmigrator.
Stage 3 [around 15% - 30%]: Ranging from a better impression of the T and deeper feelings towards them.
Stage 4 [around 45% - 60%]: A certain amount of trust has been established between the target and T or at least the target feels more relaxed around the T.
Stage 5 [around 65%- 95%]: The target has developed deeper feelings (not necessarily romantic) for the target. An inclination to desire their companionship as either a true friend or a lover is set up.
Stage 6 [around 95%- 100%]: The target has full trust in T and holds them as the dearest to their heart.
When questioned, Zero had clarified that the effects were exclusive for Dina since her job was different while the other Ts had their effects depending on the department they were placed in.
“What’s my department?” Dina wondered curiously.
“Department of Temporal staffs, not a true department but definitely where you’d fit in,” Zero replied.
“Huh,” Dina hummed in disappointment, “But wait! Does that mean that every world will end with the targets being hopelessly hooked with me if I end up being the dearest to their heart?”
“Possibly.”
“What?! So every world’s target is gonna end up as a mental patient obsessed with me and holding unto my corpse like some lovelorn patient?!”
“You could blow your body up to prevent such an incident, as a rank E the pain suppression function has been activated and although not 100% can shield your body from the pain to an extent,” Zero advised earning a glare from Dina.
“You say it so easily like it’s natural for someone to just blow their body to smithereens, I should at least give the identities a certain amount of honor by keeping their body the exact way or even in a better state than when it was handed to me,” Dina bragged with eyes filled with righteousness, her ego inflating at how kind she was being.
“That’s ridiculous Dina, the identities are like puppets which means after use they become useless, nothing but an empty shell and a hollow container that would eventually deteriorate after being discarded," Zero ruthlessly burst her bubble.
“But Feral…”
“He was but a figment of the role the puppet identity was made to play, just know that your situation is different from the others Dina. Your identities are uniquely yours, unlike other Ts who have to go through a completely different method.”
“Alright, alright, do continue.”
“The last information would be navigated by you this time Dina,” Zero said intriguing Dina, what did he mean?
Just then a holographic interface appeared before Dina with a tab named, ‘Bureau community’ open, showing various apps with strange names confusing Dina, what the heck was this?
She clicked an icon that had on something that seemed like a music note out of curiosity and was astonished by what came into her view.
“It’s an… an entire audio community!”