Chapter 10


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    After all, the Internet is a big garbage dump with almost nothing useful in it.


    So I went to get some info this morning, and what do you think - there''s no information on how to save magic plants! And so stand on the table in a jug.


    By the way, come to think of it, not even a week into my independent life, and I had already decided to start dealing weed! So quickly people go downhill.


    After opening the app, I put my finger of fate over the list of slots. Should I work in reality today, or do another quest? Another world, riding lizards, technomagic? So-so, to be honest. Magic versus a warm latrine? Not sure magic would win. Manure, country roads, wood stoves. Plus, that constant horror of realizing you haven''t been online in over an hour! How do people live out there?


    Okay, no matter how I slice it, I have work to do. I wiggled my finger over the app and decided not to bother myself too much.


    Activated slot 9.00-12.00


    Three hours, because first of all it''s never too late to take another one, and secondly I have to consult with someone. Maybe he''s busy, then I''ll go to the seventh hall to torture the whiners there, but first... The fewer people know where you get your money from, the better chance you''ll be able to get it there next time. So it is better not to spread the word about smuggling magical ingredients among your colleagues yet. The less you say, the more you earn.


    Ordering is available...


    It''s good to think on the road. I have plenty of system points, enough for a session and three or four auction requests, and I need to think hard about how I intend to make a billion or two. And whether it''s worth it. I''m doing pretty well as it is.


    "Hello, delivery..."


    The workday has begun.


    I once tried to figure out what the man who brought me a hamburger from across town was thinking. He was thinking about nothing, or rather anything, but certainly not about me. And if half of them were thinking what I was thinking, the world was even weirder than it turned out.


    The next order sent me underground for half an hour, but with only one transfer, so you can get in on the wonders. Time to spend the points!


    When I tried to type something vague like "magic ingredients" into the search box, the auction gave a snide "not enough money in your account, clarify your request" alert. No freebies. So much I wanted to know at once, to be proud of my exclusivity... damn poverty! Okay, I need information, and about the basics. I searched the Internet, there is none. Although maybe only through the scanner available? No, I saw it with my own eyes when I was hired. I urgently need a wise mentor. Preferably, he should be a retired hero who can give a few lessons in kungfu. I''ll probably be the underdog student who will open his mouth in surprise when the teacher coaches the hero-to-be. Safe and promising, at most I''d have to get revenge on the teacher.


    Where is that bearded old man hiding when you need him so much?!


    "Your order... Thank you... have a nice day."


    Oh, I forgot it was a ring activator. Anyway, who''s looking to see where the next delivery guy disappeared to? Click, click, click... caught the bus, nice.


    The next order seems to be close by, but the "eleventh floor, the elevator doesn''t work". And twelve kilos behind. It would have been if it hadn''t been for the bag. It''s four kilos at the most. But I weigh something, too!


    "Have a nice day."


    Eye diversion worked, poke my finger under my feet, poke in the direction of the roof of the building across from the one I needed to go to.


    Step.


    Standing on the edge of the roof, I estimated where the stairwell was. There''s the entryway, there''s the eleventh floor. Poke, poke, step. No unnecessary running around with a load on my back!


    Easy.


    Already standing in front of the door, I read the note on the order "be sure to call the intercom!"


    I am calm. I am very calm.


    "Have a good day."


    Poke, poke, poke, the edge of the roof. Knock, knock, knock, the familiar door of the entryway.


    "Hello, this is the delivery courier."


    The intercom beeped and the door opened. What, go up? No way! Knock, knock, hello roof. Now it''s back to the same window, and here I am. Where''s the door?


    Tap-tap.


    Client on-line.


    "Hello, I''m on the third now, let''s go through the stairs to us."


    I suppressed the urge to speak out and checked the number of charges in the rings and again - poke, poke, roof, look, third-floor window.


    "Hello!"


    "Yes, yes, put it here..."


    They didn''t give me a tip.


    I don''t want to say anything about this job, but I have to think of something. In the other world it''s okay, but running around the floors like this is already stressing me out. And it''s not because I forgot to read the note at all! And even if I did, I have a lot of other, more important thoughts!


    For example, for some reason it feels like my work for System is a little side gig. If you think about it, I''m kind of like the peon in Warcraft. A unit of such minimal value and usefulness was sent to check the map. I don''t know where I''m going, no weapons, no protection. And there are watchtowers up ahead.


    The saddest thing is that I have to work on regular orders, too. Otherwise, I will be "failure to comply with the terms of the gentlemen''s agreement". But I want to run in the unreal world, too! Or is the usual turnover an anchor, so that I do not plunge headlong into the unreal?


    Within three hours I had somehow formulated the basic questions and decided what I wanted from the conversation. A familiar number, a call, beep: "Hello!"


    I just now realized that I don''t know his patronymic name.


    "Hello, a lad of Julius. Did you find someone else?"


    "No, I wanted to ask for some advice before you catch me in the act and put me in jail."


    "It''s reasonable, I like when the work is doing itself," he sounded like he was going somewhere. "I have lunch now, let''s meet at the cafe..."


    The one he named, I vaguely remembered. The slot was over, I didn''t even have to take a lunch break, and it wasn''t far. Ten minutes of very fast walking halfway through the teleport, and I stopped at the door of the place. The inspector seemed to be waiting and got out of the slowed car almost immediately.


    "Come in."


    It took some time to make a difficult choice between the fillings of the cheburek, then we settled down at the table. I just looked around through the scanner and made sure there were no surprises and waited for the inspector to satisfy his first hunger.


    Rainin took a big bite out of half of the cheburek rolled up into a roll, and after chewing it, he asked with obvious pleasure: "So what did you want to know?"


    "I switched to external quests, there are all sorts of stuff you can bring in here. Do we have any rules about that?"


    "Did you open the auction?"Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    "Yes."


    "If it''s there and marked as safe, you can haul it in. Auction controlled by systems."


    So there''s more than one?


    "How many Systems are there anyway?"


    He thought about it: "Well, Delivery, Skills, also Development, although it is rarely shown here. Hunters come in, fortunately rarely. And other unreal."


    It didn''t get any clearer, but at least something. Okay, next on the list: "Who rules the System?"


    "Nobody, they are all things in themselves."


    "But the money is earned, right? Someone has to receive it?"


    "This is in theory. I, too, was very surprised at the time. Big business, as it turns out, can live without human involvement. A system that is completely soulless in every aspect."


    "Somehow it''s hard to believe all this."


    "Strange statement from someone who has come face to face with a dead man."


    I tried to remember what it was, so I clarified: "Is that the umrun?"


    "Umrun, nav, ghoul, etc. The essence is the same, and you''ve met it. What, you still don''t believe me?"


    I had to dodge the answer by repeating his maneuver of folding the cheburek into a roll. I guess there''s something to that. Now for the third question: "Are there any general guidelines for dealing with the unreal?"


    "Even a song like that was composed. Don''t think of anything that can end badly." He looked at me as if that should explain something, then grimaced. "So this is the generation that''s grown up... Well, read a book about your setting. What''s yours - games, anime?"


    "I''m not so stupid to mess with anime!"


    "So games. Well done, you can always win there, the System takes that into account. The main thing is to stay on the path. In every way."


    That''s true, but on the trail lies something that others were too lazy to pick up, or even thrown away for lack of use. All the good stuff goes to those who paved the trail.


    "Tell me, what about the ordinary people," I nodded at the customers sitting across the table. "Don''t they notice any of this at all?"


    Rainin smirked: "Why? They notice. We have a default mechanism in our heads. It prevents us from paying close attention to wonders. The basic human capacity is to embody the unreal in various concepts. That is, as it were, what we are made for. But those who are too good at embodiment..."


    He stared at me expectantly, and I continued: "Sooner or later they are eaten by an imaginary demon?"


    "Or worse. As a result, being aware of strangeness is like having to poop your pants, theoretically, nothing prevents you from doing it, but try to do it. Understanding the true picture of the world is dangerous and can end badly, so people forbid themselves to see reality. Do you have a warranty?"


    "I have."


    "Have you figured out what it is yet?"


    I wondered. What had I learned about the world this week? No, wait, my time is limited to his lunch, I have to stick to the list: "What is this unreal? How to identify it, what to stay away from?"


    "Do you want a specific indication like, If it''s light, don''t go near it"?


    "At least like this!"


    Rainin answered with a question: "How can you describe something that can be a thing, a phenomenon, a cause-and-effect connection, a song? And all at the same time?"


    I thought and assumed: "Through the effect on us?" And also remembering, I added: "The items in the auction have a "saturation" parameter, is that it?"


    "Close, but no. Saturation is a real term, rather than conveying the amount embodied in an object. But even a crumb of unreal can give birth to a universe. And vice versa."


    "But we do influence it, right?"


    "Water takes the form of the vessel into which it is poured. And the unreal takes the form of the thoughts of the person who has caught it."


    I clarified: "A specific person or all people?"


    He nodded: "Or all people. There were believers - the unreal was hell and paradise, all their variants, and the entrances to them were known. It was quite possible to get to the land of Cockayne and the island of Avalon, even the maps remained. By the way, you might be able to get through now, the old unreal wasn''t going anywhere, if they hadn''t prescribed the apocalypse." He was quiet, finishing his meal not with such an appetite, but carefully, not missing a crumb, and then he continued: "There used to be religions, now there are players. Everyone influences reality at least a little bit, so they embodied the collective unconscious. That is, the water flows, it is the same and always the same, but now its form is exactly that - Systems. By the way, not only in our world."


    "Are there others? I mean, are they enclaves or a whole big reality?"


    "Do you believe in it? Then why shouldn''t it exist?"


    "So it''s kind of a fiction..."


    "It''s you a "fiction", getting to "E" in less than a week."


    So, the isekai worlds exist. And the one I was in, it''s kind of real.


    Rainin, leaning back in his chair and sipping his fruit juice, continued:


    "Real and unreal are two sides of the same phenomenon. And each contains a sign of the opposite. That is, reality without chaos is a dead piece of space. And, accordingly, chaos begins to be only when it acquires some properties of orderliness."


    Just like Grandpa said.


    "Yeah, he often consults us on things like that."


    I did not ask whether Rainin read my thoughts himself or with the help of a gadget.


    I just opened my mouth, thought, and closed it. Apparently, that''s how my brain ventilates itself because I remembered one of my grandfather''s lectures. Not for me, but for the students, about the meaning of the statues of gods in ancient religions. There the great powers were perceived as something inherently inhuman, who couldn''t understand our problems and had to adjust the user interface somehow. That''s why the source of everything was considered to be the Great Unknowable Chaos, something chthonic and formless, and it was necessary to separate from it the part that was in charge of the rain and the harvest, for example. And when the gods were called to earth they were embodied in majestic, heavy, but still motionless statues. A safety technique when working with the supernatural, exactly. The formless took on a safe form. Then they developed the idea by making a separate dude on a throne, one with the deity; he had a brain that was not made of stone and understood more quickly what was expected of him. But there was less room in him... of unreal. And if something happened, he could be stabbed quickly.


    What came before - our tales of Chaos or the unreal itself? So, in principle, we can assume that Adam and Eve were a random fluctuation of the non-real, who began to create matter and rules. They ate apples for the road and started to build.


    But if there are gods, there must also be their opposites?


    The inspector nodded: "How not to be, for example, "Descent". It''s a game, it came out a little earlier than Dark Souls."


    I thought about it: "I don''t remember for some reason."


    "Of course. The point of the game was kind of educational, where every wrong choice made the character less and less human. In the finale, an inattentive or simply lazy player made his character look creepy."


    "Let me guess - the players started competing to see who could get the ugliest?"


    "Yes, that''s what happened. Then the breakthrough of unreal happened, the game materialized, and we got a whole bunch of demons. Our old, Soviet-era discharges worked, dragging them away. It was so bad in China that they started censoring everything en masse and making games exclusively in the style of "butterflies and unicorns."


    "Descensus averno facilis est".As Grandpa likes to say.


    "A thousand years ago, someone writes a book about demons and their power, scaring himself to death with a hiccup, slips it into the unreal, and gets a strong grimoire. But this book stays in the castle library and there is no access to it. And now any kid can make an indie game and release such evil things into the world that we can''t get home after a month of chasing it."


    Somehow my list became irrelevant. I wanted to ask about prices and duties, but my interlocutor was drawn to philosophy. Probably a professional deformation.


    "And what is your advice in terms of security? And trade?"


    "Security?" he paused, formulating. "Simplifying, the principle is as follows - focus on Delivery, since you work in it. If it''s Systemic, you carry it. If it''s magical on its own, don''t even touch it; sometimes even the pros pounce, and you''ll be eaten to hell. Study the setting more carefully, you have a head start over the locals, you can see from the outside."


    It makes sense. When you know the whole plot ahead of time, it''s much easier not to turn down the road in the direction of the dragon cave.


    And about basic principles, go to your grandfather, talk to him.


    Yeah, I can just see myself walking in, talking, and then they won''t let me out of the house anymore. They put me on a plane and send me to Novaya Zemlya to chase penguins. Do you say they''re not there? They''ll bring them in especially for me. The only child in the family, after all.


    "I''m not sure that''s a good idea."


    Rainin stood up, showing the end of the conversation: "A person can be sure of anything, the real world doesn''t care about it. I was sure I was going to work for the Ecological Police, but now, I''m chasing witches. Be careful, keep your eyes open, don''t go into dangerous places without backup. Study the System..."


    I wanted to say "and hack it!" but he was on his way out.


    Damn, I forgot to ask what his name was! And it''s inconvenient to shout in the back...I quickly pointed the scanner at Rainin''s back:


    Inspector, 22 lv.


    The name does not reveal, in addition, again it is not clear what exactly the inspector is. Did he say environmental police? A search showed that the unit was closed down ten years ago. Well, it''s still necessary to specify in what world it was closed. Who knows, in light of what he said, we may be a "setting," too.


    Well, on the one hand, it became clearer, but on the other hand, the questions only increased. But in the light of what I heard, it''s not so bad. Could have been something like "we''re NPCs in the game" or worse. On the other hand - why is it bad to be an NPC? Download mods for nudity and ponies, and then go around laughing that everyone is not paying attention to these wonders.


    Hmm, well, in general people don''t pay attention to the fact that many of them have tails and ears anyway... Man, I forgot to ask about goat-footed people.


    I stopped in front of the window and looked at my reflection through the scanner. No, the most normal person, cheeky and handsome. It was the middle of the day, I had a nice snack, and I learned a lot, such as the address of a decent cafe. What should I do now?


    System slot 13.00-18.00, quest available.


    Work, what else. The points won''t earn themselves.


    I was about to poke my finger into the "Activate" button, and I wondered. Something was wrong, but what was it? My body didn''t want to think after a big snack, so I had to sit down on the sidelines and remember everything that had happened today. Didn''t everything seem okay?


    I remembered again, step by step: here I woke up, here I washed my face... here wasted a bunch of charges on that damn order... here we were talking.


    The thought swirled around, not yielding and constantly slipping away. All right, let''s take another step back, so yesterday I... Exactly!


    The warranty is off


    Definitely, it also increases loyalty to Delivery. After all, even last night I realized that they were competitors, and now I know for sure that the System is not the only one in the world, but I still can barely remember.


    Or is it more correct to say "in worlds"? Never mind. With a quick search, I found yesterday''s message, which I got before I went to bed. Well, well, "offer to review" is clear, "discount version available" is also clear. It was below...


    At the very bottom was a small logo, a familiar cabinet with small scrolls. And underneath it was two calligraphic letters. The curls, the tails, all very pretty. But the point is different - the letters are not "S" and "D", but "S" and "S"!


    And I found out today that System is not the only one.


    There are more and more wonders around me.


    Damn, I want to go home, to the attic. It''s quiet, no one''s harassing... prospective and promising... potentially powerful wizard... a wanderer through the worlds of such a wisely chosen setting... who has an eternity of awesome adventures ahead of him...


    Okay, fine.


    And I opened the attachment of the letter.


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