14 Cantansoa III

"How?" Mr. Rogers was staring at Dairen, dumbfounded. No Sleepers could escape his powerful magic. He took a step forward towards Dairen, taking a good look at him.

The others who noticed Mr. Rogers were also baffled at Dairen's unphased mind. They all knew he was powerful, and the only person who shook her head in understanding was Snow. She, too, had the same thought when she tried to use erasure magic on him and found out it was ineffective. But to see that she wasn't the only one who made her relieved that she wasn't going crazy.

Mr. Rogers took an uncomfortable step forward towards Darien; he leaned close to his face and took a few sniffs, causing Dairen to become stiff. "So, it's that."

Heather, who was standing there watching the whole situation play out, couldn't help but ask. "What do you mean?"

Mr. Rogers turned around towards Heather. "An old magick covers his body." He folded his arm in front of him, frowning. He leaned backward. "A powerful one as well."

Heather gasped, to hear that there was someone powerful enough to stop Mr. Rogers was impressive. Everyone knew that Mr. Rogers was from an ancient line of wizards.

"Do you know who has cast it?"

Mr. Rogers clicked his tongue disappointed. "It's from one of the seven gods. You're lucky, boy." He spoke towards Dairen; he wasn't too pleased to have a Sleepers know of his ability.

"You were blessed by a God of Light."

"How?" Dairen was shocked to know that a God blessed him.

"Simple. Somewhere down the line, a God liked you and blessed you," said Mr. Rogers.

"Gods."

"Yes. The fickle Gods that hands out blessings like a street vendor giving out food for a simple price."

He scoffed. "Either way, you have been fortunate to be alive until now because of that blessing.

Eventually, your blessing will expire. From the smell of it, I wouldn't be surprised if another six months to a year, and you will be back to an average human." He stressed the words differentiating

Dairen to the rest of the magical realms that everything will end up as a dream and nothing more.

Dairen could tell that Mr. Rogers was not too fond of humans like him though he had to wonder why Mr. Rogers would set up a club for Sleepers in the first place if he didn't like them.

"With that being said," Mr. Rogers clapped his hand in enthusiasm, "why don't we go back and enjoy the party?"

The music turned on as if it was on cue, the people reverted to their usual self, giving the illusion that whatever happened was nothing but a dream, but what interested Mr. Rogers was that there were a group of people standing by the side, watching the whole procedure. They looked just as confused as Mr. Rogers, who had full control of the room. Finding more Sleepers awake was unusual.

Mr. Rogers snapped his fingers again. Nothing happened.

One of the girl's wearing a school-like uniform looked at Rogers, wondering what he was doing.

"Uh, why did you snap your finger?" The girl with long hair and a striking figure asked, confused.

"Party trick, I supposed?" Another young man who looked to be about the same age as she spoke up with a chuckle, but stopped as he gazed down on the floor. "What the hell is that?!" He exclaimed, "is this a new party trick or something?"

"Calm down, Ralph. Nothing to get fussed over about." A blond young man spoke with a calm attitude.

"I'll be calm when I want to, Leo." Ralph snorted at his friend. "Not like you can do anything about it."

"You guys, enough with your chit chat." A girl with glasses stepped between them. "Don't you guys find this strange? That guy just snapped his fingers and made everyone leave like some kind of mindless drones."

It finally dawned on them in what the girl had said.

"Look at his interface." The girl with glasses said, which caught Snow's attention instantly. Even Dairen glanced over. "That's Mr. Rogers. He's a vampire." She hissed. "I'm not the only one seeing this, right?"

"What are you talking abou-" Ralph spoke, and instantly he went silent. "Holy cow, you gotta be kidding me. What the hell am I seeing? Is that a status information on them? I'm not going crazy, am I?" He rubbed his eyes.

"No. I see the same thing." Leo spoke slowly, watching his friends, and then watching the group around them.

Snow understood instantly; she looked over at Dairen. Who looked at the group of seven people with open mouth. She knew something immediately was wrong; the whole appearance of the masked man and the reappearance of more aliens was too out of the ordinary. It was almost as if it was all forced in one spot? What was going on?

Without a second thought, Snow went over to Dairen. With a gentle grasp of her hand over Dairen's shoulder, he woke him up from his stupor.

"Hello," Snow spoke with a gentle voice, turning towards the group. She tried not to startle them but failed.

"Oh my god. It's that crazy girl who did whatever with the two what-ever-you call it."

Snow tried not to crack a frown and gave them the best service like a smile that she usually gave when talking to a customer. "My name is Snow, and you are?"

"The NPC is talking." The girl with glasses elbowed Ralph. "This could be an introduction or something. Don't break the cutscene."

Snow's eyes twitched, realizing what the girl had stated as she wanted to scream to them that she was not an NPC or a cutscene. She couldn't help but wonder if all the aliens were like this from the start, but then again, Dairen was a lot more polite than her.

"My name is Heather." Heather fixed her glasses as she started to introduce everyone one-by-one.

"Leo is the one with the blond hair. Ralph is the rude asshole who won't shut up. Chloe is Leo's twin sister over there next to him. Frag is the one who wears a frog Pj. Then we have Joe, Stacy, and Kim."

"Are you guys from the same school or something?" Snow couldn't help but notice that most of them wore the same uniform.

"Yea, we came from Hiltoran High School."

"So, you guys are underage at a club…" Snow sighed, "kids." She couldn't help but wonder why out of all the days, today.

"We are all seniors and 18 years old. Thank you very much."

Like that would make a difference. Snow rolled her eyes but quickly focused back on her. "So, what brings you here of all places?"

"Well, about that. We thought you might know." Heather spoke sternly; she frowned a bit as she crossed her arms. "Is this a reality game show or something? And what is this interface thing that keeps popping up in our faces? It's bizarre to give us drugs and stuff to bring us here, you know."

"I'm sorry?" Snow could feel her vein bulge from how rude these idiots were. "Are you implying that we did something to you?"

"Well, yes, that is the only conclusion that could be brought up. We don't know how we got here, why we are at a club, strange message boards pop up like a virtual world interface, and we stumbled upon some kind of murder scene in front of us."

What dumb luck. Snow thought. She couldn't help but let a small groan escape her lips. It was like deja vu. No way was she going to chase these people next. Even if they ran, she was not that sane enough to do another marathon.

Mr. Rogers stepped forward, curious. "How about we sleep for tonight and reconvene in the morning. All your answers will be answered then."

Nice save Mr. Rogers. Snow couldn't help but gratefully smile at him because she already had a headache from this crazy event.

"I have a few open rooms though some might need to share." Mr. Rogers casually threw such words out without much care as he clapped his hand. "Ronald." He called out.

In an instant, out of nowhere, Ronald stepped out from the dark and into the light, startling everyone.

"Yes, master?" said Ronald. He was in a butler attire as he gracefully bowed.

"Show them the way to their room."

"Yes, master."

Without a second hesitation, Ronald motioned the group. "Please follow me this way."

"Wait, we are just going to end it like that?" Mike was appalled at the quick change of attitude. "We didn't get a single information."

"Let it be. It's just a prelude to a cut scene anyway. The NPC probably is not going to give us more until later. Let's just go to sleep and figure out this weird situation later." Heather waved Mike aside as she yawned. "Plus, being here gives me the creeps."

The others nodded, fully understanding what she meant. They followed Butler Ronald like little ducklings and disappeared from the room.

Silenced followed as Mr. Rogers motioned the rest of them to follow as they were all confused and dilapidated with the strange event. They all took a seat as Butler Ronald came over and gave them all a chair. Snow was impressed at how quickly Butler Ronald appeared out of nowhere to assist them so promptly, but then again, she did sense a bit of dark magic that was used every time he appeared and disappeared into existence.

Mr. Rogers casually walked over to his chair as he took a cigar in one hand. Butler Ronald appeared before him as he lit the cigar with fire magic that appeared out of thin air. He puffed once, sighing.

"It seems you understand and an inkling of what is going on, Miss Snow." Mr. Rogers eyed her, which he gave off a tremendous soft energy that seemed to weigh down on her.

"Not completely, but I do understand a bit of what is happening." Snow spoke her words carefully; she knew enough but not enough for everything. She was no prophet. "You see here, Mr. Darien, here is an Alien." With blunt wording, she motioned her hand towards Darien.

"Alien?" Both Darien and Mr. Rogers spoke in synch, which threw them in for a loop.

"Yes, an Alien." Snow replied. "What would you consider yourself then if you aren't one? You come from another world."

"Ah, you're right," Darien thought over what she had stated, shaking his head with understanding.

"But, as I was surfing through the forum, I found something interesting that has been going on."

"That is?" Snow thought she heard him wrong. Forum? How was he able to get in contact with his home planet, if he didn't have anything. Or did she think too quickly without realizing what kind of magic this man even had?

"We are called Players."

Snow was confused. Unsure why he was even called such a title out of all the other titles that one could have. Alien sounded a lot better.

"Don't look at me. I just found this out. A new feature just opened up on our status board" Dairen shrugged; he was already having a bit of difficulty trying to explain everything that was going on with his limited knowledge. "Let's just say; I found a way to connect with my people as a live update went online, where I can gather information easier. Like a virtual internet with no electricity to run it."

"Interesting," Mr. Rogers thought deeply on what he had said, thinking over the things that had been going on. "So, there are more of you guys?"

"I believe so."

"How many?"

"I don't know."

Snow realized instantly what Dairen had stated. This meant that a new problem was arising quickly for the magical community, and to have the so-called "Players" to appear everywhere in the world could jeopardize them.

Instantly, on instinct, her whole demeanor changed. She sat up straighter, her mind working in overtime as she spoke to Mr. Rogers in a confident voice.

"Mr. Rogers. I have a suggestion you might want to consider."

Interested, Mr. Rogers glanced at Snow. "What would that be, my dear?"

"I believe we need to round them up and register the Alie-...Players with the Hunter Association." She bluntly spoke. "If we can keep track and teach them the laws of this world, we should have less chaos and unnecessary exposure of the magical community."

"This is an interesting idea, but do you, my dear, have the power to back up this claim?"

"Absolutely not." Snow snorted at such a statement, "I was hoping that you would bring this up as your statement. From the amount of power that you have and the understanding of what is going to happen possibly, the exposure of our magical community could be detrimental to the Sleepers community." She knew that the Sleepers were already paranoid beings; if there were a sudden influx of strange and magical occurrences, the panic from these people would be too widespread.

The chance of going back to the dark ages could be immediate.

"Nobody would just listen to the word of a receptionist, but if it's from you...the amount of publicity for your company would exponentially grow. As the founding father of working with the Hunter Associations, wouldn't you reap more benefit than loss?" Snow softly smiled, giving him the most glorious smile she could muster, for she had practiced this smile over a million times, which provided a natural sparkle.

She knew and heard about Mr. Roger's companies that he had accumulated over thousands of years. The most famous one was the Red River Blood Bank that every hospital would go to for its quality blood and service in the human and magical world.

Mr. Rogers crossed his legs and leaned forward, puffing the cigar in his mouth. A wicked grin appeared on his lips, causing Snow to shiver. It was a look of a hungry prey, ready to devour its victims. Snow felt the powerful energy around him hum with pressure as she felt small and insignificant to the rush of power before him. She knew the next wrong move and words could cost her life as she stood still. Her breath became short, waiting for the pressure to lessen.

Time passed as it felt like an eternity. A bead of sweat ran down her face as she stared back just as fierce at Mr. Rogers, hoping her bluff of confidence would stay intact. Any minute now, she felt her would slowly crumbling as she thought the increase in power. She knew what she had suggested was more like a demand than a suggestion, but this was an instant thought she had thought up of that could help control the situation.

Even though it wasn't her problem, she knew that the Players would be heavily restricted and possibly also killed without a second thought if they were to go to the other so-called "alliances". Mr. Rogers was a lot more comfortable going compared to the other fanatical groups out there.

"Your opinions interest me. Do you think Mr. Jay would agree?"

"Yes, if you bring up any form of profit, he would jump head over heels with the idea. Plus, assist you in the process of bringing it to the higher-ups." Snow countered. This was true, Mr. Jay would almost say yes to any business transaction if they could get some form of profit out of the "commissions" that people had posted. Practically all commissions had to go through the major branches of the Dragon Express. Even though Mr. Jay was just a manager of one of the major departments, he was considered one of the best in his field.

Mr. Rogers nodded, instantly agreeing with what Snow had said. Everyone knew the greed that Mr. Jay had; he did not even hide such a fact.

"Well, then." Mr. Rogers leaned back on the chair, bringing with him his usual casual appearance as he thought over what Snow had said.

"It seems you have piqued my interest, especially for the young man who sits next to you." Mr. Jay let out a chained circular smoke as he blew towards Dairen's direction. "What do you think?"

Dairen spoke, "I don't think I have much of choice." He frowned, "we are considered the invaders on your planet, and the rules are different from here to back home. Honestly, I don't want to cause any trouble or misunderstanding to Ms. Snow here."

"That is unusually considerate of you." Mr. Rogers raised an eyebrow, looking at them both. "But, this should also give you protection and an alias to live on our land. Other than that, you would be considered a ghost, an anomaly that would be listed in the purge list."

Dairen gulped and shivered at how casually Mr. Rogers spoke. "I wouldn't like that."

"I agree. A waste of workforce." He casually said, " and I would like to figure out the secret behind your people. To not be phased as much by my mind magic, there must be something special hidden in your people's mind that piques my interest."

Like a lion staring at its prey, Mr. Rogers chuckled. Dairen flinched as he hiccuped.

"Let's adjourn this meeting. I shall talk with the main branch of the Dragon Express. Take a room for the night here." He clapped his hand as Butler Ronald stepped out from the corner of the shadow.

"Yes, master?" Butler Ronald elegantly appeared before him as he slightly bowed.

"Take our guests to their room. They must be tired." He waved his hand in front of him.

"As you wish." Butler walked towards the group. "This way." He motioned, directing them to follow.

Everyone got up as they all wanted to leave behind the oppressive air that Mr. Rogers was giving off. Especially Snow, who grabbed her right shaking hands as she hid it from view.

"Ms. Snow."

Snow froze, gulping. Oh god, how she wished he didn't call her name. But with great vigor, she steeled her heart and mind as she spoke in her receptionist voice.

"Yes, Mr. Rogers?"

"I'll see you around noon."

"Yes, Mr. Rogers." She bowed, turning around as she skedaddled out of the room. A soft chuckle could be heard from behind her as the door magically closed.