Cracks appeared in the darkness after the creature's deletion by the system. It formed a slit that slowly widens and from it, the light came pouring in.
I felt something snapped and opened my eyes.
"Brother Cho, are you okay?"
The fighter asked me with a frown on his face. Looks like he had been guarding me all this while. Before I replied to him, however, I asked the system about the space I were in.
'Hey system, the space I was in, is it the so-called internal world? Alan used to gripe about that cultivation stuff.'
[Yes and no. In a way, it was similar to an internal world, but without any of the useless cultivation stuff that will cut your life short if you did something wrong.]
Based on the system's explanation, it could be safely assumed that whatever took place was not in the real world.
"How long was I out?" I asked my companion.
"Around three sticks of incense's time." The fighter replied.
I was out for around fifteen minutes.
"And what happened exactly?"
"Nothing. We went inside and then you just stood there after glancing at that document over there."
The fighter walked towards a display case and pointed to the thing he saw me glancing at.
"That means I just stood here?"
"Yeah, you did nothing else apart from that. I thought you happened upon an enlightenment, that's why I didn't disturb you. From the stories that I've heard, immortals usually happened upon such instances."
Hearing his explanations, I looked around the room. Everything was different from what I remembered. There should be a large painting of the Green River at the back of the room, but it was somehow replaced by the shop owner's family portrait. The document's date was supposed to be year 235, yet the one in front of me was dated 1100. Both the paper quality and completeness were also different. Yet I am certain this is the document that I saw.
"Are you sure you remembered it right? That you never explained to me about the *******?"
"Can you repeat that, brother Cho?"
"Ah, I see. You don't need to mind that, Lin."
I can't use the exact term it seems. The words in my mouth failed to form and it left me with only garbled, chaotic, guttural sounds. Like that one TV show back home about a sponge and his starfish friend, where the characters can't use swear words and instead use the sound of a dolphin, which in truth was not taken from a dolphin, but instead from a bird called the Kookaburra.
'Is this also your doing?' I called the system.
[No, it is not.]
'I can't know who did this yet, right?'
[Yep, need more permission level.]
'Can I ask you why I need more permission level?'
[Sure, in fact, every system has its own version of the permission level. The core reason for that is to protect their hosts and help them acclimate to the world better, which in turn will help protect the systems from their predators.]
'Lemme guess, the knowledge on these predators are locked behind the permission level, right?'
[Correct. Please quickly increase your permission level, host!]
The system urged, and from our bond, I could detect impatience coming from it. Looks like I'm not the only one who got it hard. I don't know why I was chosen for this role, but I will try my damnedest to survive.
I scratched my hair and massaged my forehead where a frown appeared. In all fairness, this whole thing irked me. The system can't tell me anything of note, and then there's some dark stuff going on in the background. I am indubitably, fucked, I thought.
From this whole affair, however, at least I managed to gain something. The information about something that might've been an enemy, will be helpful in my journey. The system had given me a warning the last time I thought of leaving countless dungeons behind. That warning, coupled with this new information I got, gave me enough resources to form an image of my situation right now.
I, or rather we, was inside a conceptual Panopticon. To those who were not yet familiar with the term, a Panopticon refers to a type of institutional building and a system of control, where a single entity has the equipment and/or power to observe all entities around it. In other words, it's a prison where a single security guard could observe all inmates by using an omnidirectional tower. The architecture itself consists of a rotunda with an inspection house at its centre, circular with a tall infrastructure in the middle.
We were being watched and observed. By whom, I do not yet know. The degree and scale of it, unknown, and the dangers and risks they pose were inconclusive.
The fighter waited until I gathered my thoughts. My frowning face must've been the trigger.
"Is there a problem, brother Cho?"
I shook my head, slowly.
"Everything is fine."
"Brother, I know it's not my place to worry about you like this, but you're the benefactor that allowed me to cultivate again. Please, if you need any help, just ask and I'll be there."
"I will, Lin. Thank you."
The fighter sighed deeply. But instead of grief or disappointment, his face relaxed.
"Now with that out of the way, do you still have something you wanted to do here, Brother?"
I scanned the room again and found nothing else of note.
"I'm done here, let's go to that small restaurant Mr Abdullah recommended. The Flowing Waves, was it?"
"Yep, that's the name."
We exited the viewing room, and since we have already paid the viewing fee, we were finally back on the streets in no time. Somehow, purely by chance, there was some sort of procession happening at the main gate, when we exited the store. Looks like some sort of noble or official was visiting the place.
"Why are they here now?!" The fighter gasped and quickly hid his face.
"Do you have some sort of connection to them, Lin?"
"…"
The fighter took a deep breath, psyching himself up as if facing an insurmountable obstacle that he needed to overcome.
"Can I trust you, brother, with my life?" He locked eyes with me.
Looks like there really was a problem. It made me remember some bad memories from the past, when those who ruled, and those with power, took away everything from me. And it all started from a simple verbal promise which escalated into full-blown exploitation from all the loopholes it birthed.
So, I answered him, with the best answer I could muster.
"You can't."
"…And what do you mean by that?"
He seemed hurt. Well, that was to be expected, considering that trust between friends, or rather, comrade-in-arms, in these lands was something held in high regard. He already considered me a friend, and I appreciated that. That's why I won't let him go down the path my past self took.
"I wanted to say you could, but it would be a lie. Are you fine with lies, Lin?"
"Well, no, of course not."
"Then don't trust me, or anyone else for that matter. Separate the professional and the casual, and always use a contract to bind others and yourself. Don't be tricked, and don't let others be tricked."
"Fine then, I'll tell you all about it later."
I nodded fervently. To be honest, I'm curious about his story. The last time he talked, it was only the gist of things, but, how he lost his spirit root, how he met with the caravan leader, and how he became a wanted man, he hasn't told me any of that yet. But this is not the right place, nor the right time for that.
"Do you want to go to the Flowing Waves first? Or do you want to go back?" I asked.
"No, let's watch this procession. I need to know who, and why they came here."
"Let's walk closer then."
The fighter tightened the cloth that was obscuring his face and walked beside me towards the main gate. There, it just happened to be the time for the official to exit his carriage and gave the city's governor his edicts.
A tall, bony, middle-aged man appeared from behind the carriage's door, and he wasn't alone. A woman with two teenagers, a boy and a girl, also came outside with him. I guess they were his family. The official gave the edict he was entrusted with to the governor who read it out aloud for the people to hear.
"This is the edict from His Imperial Majesty! Bow down, and hear!"
The masses around knelt, including me and the fighter.
"A strange tomb, believed to be of immortal origin, was found near the Ironwoods, so it was to be cordoned off. Since a part of the populace depended on that place for money and profit, the Dragon Throne shall provide a generous supply of rations to those who will be affected by such changes. Others who are affected by the change but did not receive any rations for whatever reasons, are suggested to put forward a memorial for the Throne."
"Thus it was ordained!" The official ended the hearing.
The people rose and went on their separate ways. As for us, we went inside the walls to bring this news to the caravan leader.