“Now then,” Q continued, wisely not allowing the other Aspirants the time to regret my choice, “you can all discuss the details of the contract at a later time, but for now, I believe that I should fulfill the most important part of my side of the agreement. The two newcomers are just a welcoming bonus, if you will.”

  Jae-Hyun visibly looked uncomfortable at the mention of the contract again. He didn’t, however, choose to question my actions further; in fact, none of my friends did. They might be ruthless and evil to outsiders, but I didn't believe for a second that any of them would choose to abandon one of their own. I think they would have most likely done the same in my shoes, er, maybe minus the creepy bug Father that is. Plus, what’s done is already done, and hopefully hearing what Q’s got in store for us will alleviate some of the discomfort they’re all feeling.

  Q produced a projection of the remaining populace of Pandora and tutted. “As you can clearly see, Pandora is down to its last handful of Aspirants. Why, you’ve almost no production staff left, and precious little in the way of anything else.” He paused for a second as if assessing something interesting. “Well, I will say that the surviving elites are a cut above the other Human Aspirants, but your numbers are in desperate need of replenishing. You should thank Aspirant Walter here because I will remedy your precarious situation.”

  The Regressor muttered, his eyes lingering on me for another second before he placed his full attention back on Q and Xalla. “And how would you do that?”

  “Careful with your tone!” Xalla warned with a scowl.

  “It’s fine, Xalla,” Q said, raising a hand to stop her. “It’s understandable that these Aspirants wouldn’t understand the grace that they are receiving. It is not our place to judge their inability to appreciate their betters. They will learn in due time, or they will die trying.”

  Xalla nodded and backed off. “As you wish, Administrator.”

  “And to answer your question, Aspirant Jae-Hyun,” Q continued with a practiced smile, “As you have been informed, the bottom five cities will be eliminated, but I will give you a chance to help one of these unfortunate locals.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked with a frown.

  “I thought that would be obvious, Aspirant Walter,” Q answered with a shake of his head.

  “Lesser intelligence, Administrator,” Xalla reminded, “It is easy to forget that these Humans are barely more sentient than their Ape cousins.”

  I winced. Now I know that I told Xalla to play the role of the villain here, but she was remarkably adept at acting the part. Maybe it was just that last statement about intelligence that brought back some unpleasant memories from the first Trial…

  “True enough,” Q sighed, “I suppose I must spell it all out for you all. You can, on behalf of Pandora as a whole, pick one Citystate that has placed in the bottom five to integrate into your own city. All of its resources will be placed under your control, and you may choose to either keep or recycle the infrastructure as you see fit.” He stopped for a moment and glanced at the watch on his wrists. “I will give you until the scheduled annihilation to make your decision, so you have around 6 hours to choose.”

  “And do we know anything about these five locations?” Jae-Hyun added.

  Q gave a quick nod toward Xalla and she came over with a stack of papers and placed them in front of Jae-Hyun. He took a few moments to skim through its contents before stashing them away.

  “Excellent!” Q continued with a smile. “Now it’s about time I left you to your own devices; I’m sure that you’ll be busy with the new changes. I’ll provide the rest of my assistance closer to the start of the next Trial.”

  “And what about Walter’s new obligations?” The Regressor asked, his voice icy.

  “That is between him and me,” Q replied, “Now then, Xalla, would you be a dear and fetch someone to escort them back to their base?”

  “Of course, Administrator,” she replied before heading off to find a worker. She came back not 20 seconds later, dragging one of the many faceless staff with her. The new individual came over and gestured for us to follow him. We all got up to leave, but Q stopped me when he saw me rise.

  “Ah,” he continued, “Please stay a while, Aspirant Walter. I need to discuss your part of the deal.”

  My friends paused, looking back at me with worried gazes.

  I tried to give them a reassuring smile. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Walter…” Vadeem muttered, “Just…”

  “I know, I’ll be careful.”

  Yoona gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Let us know if you need any help. I don’t care what the contract says, but you’re not going to do this alone.”

  “She’s right,” Jae-Hyun added, “Tell us what they demand, and I’ll think of a way to-”

  “Sorry, sirs and ma’ams,” the guide interrupted, “But we must go now. The Administrator’s time should not be squandered.”

  “I’ll let you know what’s going on after,” I said again, “I’ll be back soon.”

  “Be careful…” Jae-Hyun muttered before being forced out along with the other Aspirants. I gave them a weak wave until the last of them entered the portal heading out. I slumped back on the chair the second they were fully out of sight, relieved that things played out the way I wanted for once.

  “Great acting, guys,” I applauded with a smile, “And it is great to see you back in your role as Administrator, Q.”

  “It is good to be back.” Q answered, “And thank you; it was a simple enough task. I can see why you told us to act the way you did. I did not expect to see the Anomaly so… untrusting, although I should have expected so given his unique nature.”

  “Sorry for being so harsh, Walter,” Xalla said, blushing.

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  I chuckled. “No need to apologize, you did great there, and I was the one who asked you to play the villain, so it should be me saying sorry.”

  Xalla nodded and moved over to my side. I guess she forgot that she was still technically working at the moment.

  “Excellent plan as always, Lord Arbiter!” Q praised, although I wasn’t sure if he was genuine here or not. The last time I planned something, half the local dimension was destroyed. “Can I assume that we can fetch you under the guise of needing your assistance on some task in the future?”

  “That’s the plan,” I answered, “And we can communicate more in the open now without arousing suspicion, just send someone to get me under the excuse of the contract. Why, it wouldn’t even be out of place to have Xalla around if she’s here to supervise me or something.”

  “That would be nice,” Xalla added with a smile. “I’ve never had the chance to see your work as an Aspirant in person.”

  I gave her a grin. “All in all, this solves a lot of the logistical issues with me needing to be in two places at once. Speaking of, have you taken a look at your doppelganger since you came back? The Overseer made some adjustments…”

  "I have not..." Q frowned. “I’ll look into it when I can. I apologize for its behavior if it has impacted your stay here at all.”

  I shook my head quickly. “No no, it’s still acting the part of Aspirant Walter perfectly, like before.” Now that was a lie, but no need to upset Q or his abilities when he just came back to his role. “It’s just that he believes that he is a creation of the Overseer. I think all memories of you have been gone.”

  Q’s frown deepened and I could almost physically see the rage building up within him. “I… see…”

  Damn, I’ve never seen the usually calm man so angry. Touching his creations, especially one of his apparent passion projects, must be a pretty big taboo. I’ll have to remember that.

  “Anyway,” I quickly added, choosing to change the subject. “Can you get me when you see Bob again? I have some things I need to discuss with him about that Sponsor who popped his head in. I have a feeling more Sponsored Aspirants will get in my way, and I need to find a way to let the others know that getting in my way is very bad for their investments.”

  “I’ll let him know, but he is quite busy at the moment with his new business ventures with Lady Malice, and I also believe that he is in some secrative talks with a Director of some sort. It seems quite serious from what I've gathered, so it might be a while for him to disentangle himself. Is it an emergency?”

  “No no,” I shook my head. “I can wait, no need to rush the man. Oh and uh, there’s one last favor I have to ask you.”

  “If it is within my power.”

  “Er, I might have pissed off Molly back there,” I muttered uncomfortably, “Uh, do you know if there’s a way to smooth things over with her? You know, get her something so that she won’t eviscerate me?”

  “Ah…” Q thought. “I’ll have to think about it.”

  “What did you do, Walter?” Xalla asked.

  “Uh… it’s best if you just review the footage of the Trial.”

  Xalla sighed and shook her head before giving me a sympathetic look. “Well, I hope for your sake it’s nothing too bad, but I’ll help think of something as well. Molly’s my friend as well.”

  “Thanks, you two.” I got up from my seat. “Anyway, I think I should head back to the others before my Guild gets a heart attack.”

  “Right you are,” Q chuckled. “We’ll be seeing you, Walter, and if you need to speak with us at any time just let any Central Staff know and I’ll arrange something. Take care.”

  “Keep safe, Walter,” Xalla added before giving me a quick hug, “And let me know if anything’s troubling you here. I’m back acting as the Head of Security again, properly so, and I’m not letting anything else ruin your stay here. Just give me a few moments to clean out the lingering trash. This Site will understand why it is a bad idea to piss off a Xollon.”

  I chuckled nervously and said my final goodbyes to the two and headed into the glowing portal back to our Guild HQ. Before I could orient myself, however, Vadeem, Yoona, and Noel came up to envelop me in a hug before the rest of the guild started to bombard us with questions.

  “Are you okay?”

  “What did they ask you to do?”

  “Damn it, Walter, that was reckless of you!”

  "Little bro!"

  Vadeem was crushing me so hard that the only thing I could say was a garbled hello.

  “Now now,” Father Marcus interrupted, “Let’s give Walter some room before you squeeze the life out of him.”

  As if finally noticing my plight, Vadeem let go of me, much to my spine’s appreciation, while the other two (who had wisely chosen to hug me well away from Vadeem’s reach) gave me one final pat on the back.

  “I’m fine,” I said again, catching my breath, “And thanks for the welcome back.”

  Jae-Hyun came over and put a hand on my shoulder. “Walter, I…” He took a deep breath. “I want to thank you again and to apologize. I should have anticipated something like this, but I didn’t.”

  I shrugged. It was just like the Regressor to blame things that were completely outside of his control; the guy really needed a therapist if he thought all of the world's issues were due to his inaction. He might have died once, but he's not omniscient. “I think we all forgot about the twin’s presence. And hey, I don’t regret my choice. I mean, it was either that or I just allowed the two to get erased or whatever it is these people do. Any one of us would have done the same.”

  “But you didn’t hesitate,” Vadeem added, “That’s the second time you’ve saved us all. I…”

  “We feel useless…” Yoona finished, “We’ve been depending on you and my brother for so long…”

  Ana and Eva came up to me then, leaving Vadeem’s side. Their usual emotionless faces were creased with concern and guilt.

  “We…” Ana began, her voice horse. I could tell she was still not used to speaking. “We thank you, Walter.”

  Both of them bowed to me low.

  “You have saved our lives again,” the other sister added, “We will ensure that we grow strong enough to protect you as well. We refuse to be a burden to our..." The girl gulped as if the next words were foreign to her. "To our family.”

  I chuckled and ruffled the pair’s hair. “It’s fine, and stop being so gloomy about it. Like I said, anyone here would have done the same. Let’s not ruin the moment by discussing what ifs.”

  “Fair,” Jae-Hyun muttered, “But what is it that they want you to do exactly?”

  I thought for a moment, deciding just how much I wanted to tell the group until I ultimately decided on the bare minimum. I wasn’t sure what the future had in store for me, so it was important that I gave myself some wiggle room by not telling them much.

  “Aside from what you’ve already heard, these Central people will come and get me every now and then for some small tasks.” I paused and saw that none of my friends bought that. "I might have to go away for a few days every now and then, but I'll be fine."

  “And that’s it?” Yoona asked.

  “Well…”

  “You’re not telling us the whole thing,” Vadeem grumbled, “Just let us know how bad it is. You are not alone here.”

  I sighed. “I wish I could, but they made me sign a nondisclosure agreement, so…”

  “So we can’t help you even if we wanted to,” Vadeem spat, “Those fuc-”

  “It’s fine, I think I'm allowed some leeway here, but there's no specifics yet.” I added quickly, “It’s not too bad, I really do mean it. Look, if things do get out of hand, I will ask for help, but for now, let’s not dwell on it, okay? Let’s not waste our break because of that and just be glad that we got the twin’s situation sorted out.”

  “You’re strong, Walter… I wish I could be as decisive as that.” Yoona muttered, clutching her fists. “And you’re right. Let’s make the best out of the situation. Um, and thank you, for everything.”

  Noel joined in then, her usual nonchalant cheer returning. “Yeah, we have a beach party to plan! My little bro’s right, moping about will just make things worse, so for his sake, let’s make sure this is the most awesome amazingest beach party ever! My little bro's the guest of honor this time, so you just sit back while Vadeem does all the work!”

  "You're helping as well, you damn idiot!" Vadeem chuckled, only slightly forced this time. “But I can get behind a beach party.”

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