Nick squinted and hissed at the backhanded compliment. "You still haven't answered—"
"You already know who I am." The stranger cut in.
Nick remained silent for a second. "I know that you're an admin—"
"That is all you need to know."
"Can you stop cutt—"
"No."
Nick frowned. The stranger seemed to be really capable of pissing someone off.
Nick recognized the stranger's reluctance to reveal more about himself, so he decided to take a different approach.
"Alright then. I'll call you Mr. Stranger." He began. "You should at least tell me, why me?"
This was the primary question that plagued Nick's mind. Mr. Stranger had been watching him for quite some time now. At first, he thought Mr. Stranger was Boss Falco's adversary of some sort, but that didn't seem to check out logically because Boss Falco was just a small bug compared to the behemoth of being an admin of something like Top Idol.
From Rule No. 1, Nick knew only Admins had the power to bring people in, and now the question was why him of all people? He was too little, too inconsequential. It was at this point he figured that was precisely why he was given this 'chance'. But having witnessed life's unforgiving side, he wasn't naive, he knew there was a catch. Nothing came without a price in this world, most especially what was good.
The shadowy figure at the window chuckled. "Consider it a trade. I offer you hope and a fresh start, and in due time, you'll perform a task for me."
'As expected.' Nick nodded. "What is the task about?"
"You will become... different… than you are now. That is who is indebted to me."
Nick pondered the cryptic response. 'Is he saying I should first have a higher "class" before he tells me the task? Or that I have to go through a few things in the Top Idol hemisphere that'll change my values, so I could perform the task without any moral indignation or something? My goodness, can't this guy just talk straightforwardly...?'
He rubbed his temples. "What do you mean?"
"Become a Master, first."
Nick, drawing from his knowledge of Top Idol, understood the Master Specialist class was what Mr. Stranger most likely referred to as 'Master' for simplicity. It was the fifth level of ascension, right after Triple Specialist. Nick, however, was still an Irregular, not even a Specialist yet.
He sighed.
"Alright." Pressing forward, Nick asked the second question that plagued his mind. "But what is Top Idol? How is any of this even possible?"
"Top Idol is a chance," Mr. Stranger said. "For how it's all possible, such information costs a lot."
Nick fell into a brief contemplation.
"What can I afford?" he asked, wanting to narrow down the information to what he was 'capable' of knowing.
"I can tell you a little, depending on the amount of years of your future you sell me." Mr. Stranger chillingly suggested.
'What…? Years of my future?' Nick was short of words. "Never mind."
The shadowy figure just laughed.
…
Parked at the roadside, outside the streetlight's area of illumination, the sedan waited.
"Contraband."
"Desolate."
"Egg."
"Game."
Brrr~
A call rang out from the front passenger's pocket and he answered it.
"Jimmy, have you got him?" the person on the other end inquired.
The towering, deep-voiced individual shook his head. "No, Boss. We're waiting for him right now."
"Waiting? Where are you?"
"We followed him to someplace in Queensgate. He entered an old building here and has not come out yet," the deep-voiced Jimmy answered.
"Why didn't you follow him in?"
"We are not sure if he is alone in there. He might be trying to ambush us."
Boss Falco remained silent for a second before blurting out, "What kind of dumbass reason is that? That kid is as harmless as a spoon! You idiots, go capture him now!"
Drew quickly interjected on the phone call, "B-But Boss, the abandoned hospital is believed to be haunted—"
Boss Falcone cut him off sharply, yelling at the top of his lungs, "Idiot! The kid had 10k withdrawn. Do you really think he was planning to give it to us?! He was attempting to skip town, you fools! And we took that cash! He should be on the brink of suicide! Get this, if he dies without me recovering my money... all three of you are dead."
Upon hearing Boss Falco's chilling final words, the three men swiftly sprang into action.
Drew cursed and Timmy unbuckled his seat belt.
"Dammit, I told you guys!" Jun complained from the backseat and forcefully opened the door.
…
After some seconds of frustration and thought, Nick asked, "Can you at least tell me if you Admins are the creators of Top Idol?"
For some reason, the atmosphere suddenly sunk into an unfriendly, unsettling silence and Nick felt a chill crawl down his spine.
'Did… Did I hit a nerve?' He began to feel a bit angsty.
Nick was no stranger to liars, fraudsters, and phonies, so he purposely (and covertly tried to) ask a single question that had an answer he could use to deduce the answers to other similarly important questions.
The question he asked had an answer that would clarify that the stranger was of Admin status by testing the validity of his claim using the truth of the matter, meaning, if Nick ever found out Mr. Stranger's answer was wrong, he could conclude that the stalker was a liar. Also, the answer would give Nick a proper mental image of the power, influence, and importance of an Admin when it came to Top Idol (that is considering they were at a level closer to the creators of the app or were the ones who outright created it).
There were a few more answers Nick could 'deduce' but these were the most pressing for him.
"You have doubts," Mr. Stranger said plainly.
Nick cleared his throat, not wanting to sound too scared when he spoke. "Sh-Shouldn't I? You haven't told me anything I don't already know."
Nick arranged his thoughts mentally and continued, "You never admitted to being an Admin, since I practically allowed you the gray area by assuming you were one. I'm not stupid. You could be a higher-class pointer who got wind of the next person to get an invitation link and then kept an eye on me. With what I've seen just today, I can't say such information isn't available at higher 'status'.
"I won't deny that you did save me from drowning and I'm thankful but that is only because you need me for something."
Mr. Stranger seemed to smile. "But the invite link came right after I saved you and you woke up. What's that about then?"
"You could've just known the exact day I'll get the link and it could be mere coincidence I planned to die the night before. I imagine an Admin will do their job of giving out invitations and let Top Idol take care of the rest itself… without needing individual pointers to give them something in return."
A heavy silence hung in the air.
"You really are smarter than you look." Mr. Stranger laughed briefly. "If you thought about it this much, why did you still come back here to see me?"
"Because I might be wrong. And if I am, it'll be kind of foolish to not turn an Admin into a friend," Nick said. "So? Are you Admins creators of Top Idol?
The shadowy figure stated calmly with a smile, "Yes… and no."
Nick scrunched his eyebrows. 'Another vague answer. He must mean they had something to do with its creation, but not every part of it. Meaning that there must be some general 'developer' or 'creator' above the Admins. Is he the one granting the desire? Hmm, that begs the question, do the Admins also want to be the Top Idol and have their deepest desire granted? Or are they just the creator's lackeys?'
As Nick deeply contemplated, before he could ask anything else, Mr. Stranger suddenly said, "I guess our little chat has come to an abrupt end," and muttered, "thankfully."
"What? Why—"
Mr. Stranger cut in, "I am going to give you three friendly tips.
"Firstly, don't delve too deeply into these questions. The cost of certain knowledge in this world, when you can't afford it... is often death; either yours, people close to you, or both.
"Secondly, for your own good, never tell anyone you know me. My name carries a sort of… 'emotional' effect on those who have heard about me."
"And lastly," the stranger said with a wry smile, "you better start looking for somewhere to hide."
"Huh?" Nick was left dumbfounded but he was mainly confused by that last conjecture. "I should hide? Why?"
"You bastard! You were really going to try to kill yourself!"
Nick's body tensed, and he immediately turned, pointing his phone's light to where the sudden shout came from.
At the edge of the bush at his far right, he saw a dark-skinned middle-aged man with low-cut hair and a sturdy build… charging and pointing a gun-shaped object at him!
'Isn't that one of Boss Falco's men? Have they been tailing me?!'
Now understanding the previous warning, Nick turned back to the broken window of the abandoned building, but the shadowy figure was no longer there.
…
[Rule #4: After receiving three (3) consecutive warnings, the defaulting pointer will be disqualified.]