"A local Guild that's long been suspected of the distribution of old world narcotics, usury, and extortion has been completely wiped off the map in a single night. The Guild, The Golden Fist, was supposedly protected by five high level Walkers, who have all disappeared. Located across several mundane neighborhoods, all of the structures related to the Guild have been reduced to rubble in what some are calling-"
The bartender changed the channel on the TV that was playing up in the corner of the room, muttering something about terrorism being on the rise.
Chris sat at the counter next to Leon, watching his friend despondently fiddle with a coaster. It wasn't entirely clear why he was so down, but when he'd found him wandering into a Bureau owned bar, he figured he'd check in on him.
After half an hour of prodding, Chris got the totally shocking news that Leon was finding Gates too easy, even the strongest ones the Uplifters had been exploring lately. The information was upsetting at first, because how many of his family would kill to have that particular problem?
Death tolls among Uplifters wasn't all that high anymore, but every life lost was a brother or sister to him, someone whose voice he'd never hear again, whose mana he'd never sense again.
Before he could say anything, Leon asked, "How am I supposed to get stronger for when it gets worse?"
The question stopped Chris in his tracks.
The Gates were getting stronger.
New Gates were opening everyday.
In the early weeks of the Tutorial exile, normal Walkers had said there had been a noticeable bump in difficulty, but the Uplifters were just too strong to notice. Maybe it was the gradual, almost incremental, increase in power that lulled them into a false sense of security, but now even their mid-tier Uplifters were feeling the squeeze from time to time.
His outrage drained from him as he mentally mapped out the difficulty scale, using the past few months as a point of reference.
It would only be two years before Gates were five times more dangerous than they are now, and that's assuming that the rate of increase stayed consistent.
What would the death rates among Uplifters be then?
Leon didn't stop there though.
"When the people in the Tutorial return, they're going to find a world that's totally different from what they lived in their entire lives. Is a handful of months really enough to make them stand on par with Walkers who're struggling as they are?"
A cup slammed down on the counter beside them and a woman with blonde hair asked, "Why are you worried what happens to everyone else?"
A blue eye glimmered with tears through messy locks, the other hidden behind an eye patch, as she sat down next to them and practically fell onto Leon.
"The Walkers…the mundanes, the Bureau, the mercs! None of them care about us, hell, they don't care about each other. Why are you sitting here in happy hour, crying about garbage that wouldn't lift a finger for you?"
The woman was visibly on the road to drunk, which seemed odd since Bureau bars usually sent you off when you got too deep in your cups, but the bartender just shrugged when Chris looked at him.
He cocked his head in confusion and the bartender gestured at her and subtly pointed down.
A demotion.
The drunkenness made sense, but the intrusion was still upsetting.
"-tta be better than them, Leon. You gotta do more. They're always expecting you to do more than the people around you, to be some kind of moral bastion. HA!
Thas a joke and a half!"
Leon watched her hard, a strange look in his eye.
A drink slid down the bar, which the woman caught and slammed back without looking, prompting another confused glance from Chris.
The man made another gesture with his head and then mimicked going to sleep, motioning two fingers while she continued ranting.
Sure enough, after two minutes she was sound asleep and the bartender was lifting her up.
"This happened pretty frequently, even before all of this. I'll let her sleep it off in the back," he said before shaking his hand at Leon's initial refusal.
"Director Dawn isn't as strict on the rules on drink caps here since its an executive bar. There's a camera monitored bunk that gets some use every now and then, though its mostly her these days."
The bartender's eyes flashed a dim purple as he led her away, and for a moment Chris thought he saw the shadows around him deepen before everything returned to normal.
Shaking his head, he looked back at Leon, who seemed to be deep in thought.
"Why couldn't I?"
Whatever was happening in Leon's head seemed all consuming so Chris went back to his drink, patiently waiting for his friend to come to whatever conclusion he was working on. His muttering became increasingly concerning as it got later, until three hours had passed.
It was midnight when Leon finally stopped and said, "I think I'm just gonna start attacking Gates."
"Isn't that what you've been doing," Chris asked bemusedly.
"No you don't understand. I'm going to do it nonstop. If the world isn't safe, I just need to make it safe," Leon said, iron determination in his voice.
The bartender sidled up to them and said, "Maybe you've had too much soda, kid."
Leon shook his head and looked into the bartender's eyes as he said, "If you could save people, wouldn't you?"
He rolled his eyes and said, "You're not even gonna ask me on a date first?"
A look of confusion flashed on Leon's face as the bartender rolled his eyes and said, "Never mind. Let me ask you a question, before I answer."
Leon nodded.
"What obligation do you have to save anyone? Haven't you done enough?"
The question even caught Chris off guard, but it outraged Leon.
"Enough?! I haven't done anything! Who have I saved?!"
He pointed at Chris and said, "They don't need saving! I don't really think the Walkers deserve saving, but the normal people do!"
The bartender leaned forward and looked into Leon's eyes, seemingly looking for something only he could see.
After a minute, he shrugged and said, "My name's Jet. I doubt I'll be seeing you here much after this, will I?"
Leon nodded and said, "How can I sit around in a bar when I have work to do?"
He finished his drink and raced out the door, practically disappearing with how fast he moved upon leaving.
Chris watched on, stunned, as Jet sighed and tapped away at his System menu, starting a call.
"Hey boss…you were right."
He nodded a few times, giving the other person information about what had happened and said, "No…she's sleeping it off again."
A few more moments passed.
"She's just going to go somewhere else."
His eyes widened and he finished, "If that's what you want. I'll put the tracker on her, but after that, she's your problem."
Chris raised an eyebrow as the call ended and asked, "Was…I supposed to hear any of that?"
Jet shrugged and said, "I'm hoping you'll help me with some stuff, so as far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to anything I know."
Several hours later, Chris found himself with a Bureau mission that actually sent him away from his Uplifter family. He wasn't entirely sure what the details were since he was supposed to open the missive when he caught up with Leon, but it was certain to be important.
That's right.
In an era where almost everything was sent via System messaging, Jet had given him a mission actually written on a piece of paper.
Well several pieces of paper, since there wasn't just the mission, but rather an entire dossier of information about what was happening and where to go.
Jet had told him that it was an important mission that he'd been looking for someone to handle, but Chris suspected it was to try and get Leon a little more under control.
In the course of the conversation, Jet had made certain to 'right the ship' as he called it, and give Chris a much more accurate understanding of the Bureau as a whole.
A general misunderstanding among many within the Bureau, particularly the Uplifter Initiative, was that their task was to save humanity from the Gates and, more recently, the Emerald Dawn event.
This was incorrect.
Saving humanity was a fool's errand and, frankly, a waste of time.
Any chance of saving humanity had come and gone long before any of the Uplifters had been born, and every possible iteration of that endeavor had long since been explored and discarded by the Founder.
No, the point of the Bureau was to empower humanity, a goal that was in significant danger of being hindered if Leon was allowed to run rampant through the Gates as he pleased.
The simple fact was that the man was actually just too strong to be allowed free reign, if his intent was to slam through Gates as fast as he could. On his own, Leon had proven capable of clearing well over a dozen Gates in a day and while that wasn't some world shaking amount, that many Gates being kept quiet meant hundreds of thousands of Walkers and, eventually, mundane citizens unable to grow over time.
To that effect, included in the dossier was a sealing array, something to lock as much of Leon's power as possible to even the playing field.
Chris was doubtful that he'd be interested, but Jet was positive he would leap at the opportunity to experience what it was like to be slightly more normal.
Now, how effective such a seal would be for someone like Leon was a mystery, but Jet and his boss figured they'd find out sooner rather than later.
Tapping at his System menu, Chris sent Leon a message since he wasn't a caveman who used paper like a savage.
"Hey Leon, before you start running Gates, meet me at the Hub. Got a mission and you're invited."
Not wanting to risk Leon getting impatient, he started the trek to the Hub and after fifteen minutes of walking, made it inside to find Leon already waiting at the entrance.
"What, did you sprint here?"
Leon shook his head and said, "Actually I was here already. When I requested a list of Gates about to crash, they told me I had to wait for a partner. Apparently some new rule got implemented that Gate information provided by the Bureau was required to have at least two people present to receive and confirm participation."
The new rule was…timely?
It was obviously put in place to keep Leon from heading out before Chris got here, but the idea that someone with that level of authority was close enough to him to make those kinds of changes made him nervous.
Leon was his friend, and if they'd grown up together he might have even seen him as a brother, but he did have to stop and wonder what he'd gotten himself into.
The situation reminded him of a book he'd read when he was younger, a cultivation novel and the term "Old Monster" came to mind when he thought of Leon's apparent backing.
Turns out even when life was essentially a fantasy, people still longed for something else.
Go figure.
As far as Chris was concerned, the way of the world was just fine…aside from the actual monsters, Gates, near constant threat of death and impending doom.
A second apocalypse so close to the first seemed like overkill, but whoever was writing fate seemed to have a sense of humor.
Running Leon through the rough outline that Jet had given him about the upcoming mission he'd been given, Chris also mentioned the seal in passing and that they'd need to hunt down a mage strong enough to implement it.
Leon, to Chris's surprise, and Jet's credit, actually was incredibly interested in having his power sealed.
The order of this man's priorities was so confusing it might make his head spin if he tried to understand it, but was glad to hear that at least one part of a plan that seemed like essentially busywork was going to go over easily.
Leon even said he knew someone who might be able to do it, and tapped at his System for a few minutes, scowling occasionally and smiling triumphantly soon after.
"We'll need to wait a little bit, apparently he's busy right now."
Chris raised an eyebrow and considered how to respond and decided to skip poking at his friend before asking, "How long is 'a little bit'?"
Leon shrugged and said, "It shouldn't be too long, he's pretty impatient."
He pulled a couple of chairs out of his inventory, prompting a critical look from his friend which he promptly ignored, and started shuffling through a magazine he happened to have as well.
Once was an oddity, but twice in the same day?
Something had to be in the air if he was seeing paper getting thrown around like this. Hopefully it wasn't a trend that would continue, but somehow Chris wasn't optimistic about it.
He hadn't even realized anyone still made paper magazines.
How did they even manage to print them?
Who had a printer in this day and age?
What company even MADE printers nowadays?
When did Leon find this thing and most importantly, why was he just sitting around if his supposedly impatient friend was coming 'soon'?
It didn't bode well for Chris's time, but he sighed and took a seat, flipping through a magazine he'd acquired through the System, watching his screen slowly scroll as it matched his reading pace perfectly.
You know.
Unlike some neanderthals who used their hands to flip pages.