Chapter 16

Chapter 16

I had always wondered how it would feel to be forced into joining a side in a conflict, and I mean a big one, not one where you had to side with a family member to choose what movie everyone would watch.

I was sure I didn't need to join anyone's group, but doing so would open many doors to me. It would certainly make it easier for me to just live.

Thinking about the options I had was not very hard. I was mostly annoyed that I had to choose something in the end.

I suppose it's necessary, but ultimately, I really didn't want to do it. I wanted to continue on my own. The hermit route sounded appealing.

Especially after I found this random cave and made sure there was no one close to it, not even anomalies. It was cold and dark, but after I made some basic furniture by molding the trees outside the cave it began to give me a cozy feeling. I was pretty sure any normal being would feel very uncomfortable if they used any of my primitive furniture, but I liked it.

There was something about making the stuff on your own that made you like them more. Granted the cave was still very dark inside, but I didn't need to use my eyes to see the world around me anymore, so that wasn't that big of an issue.

It was interesting to experience the monk life. With no real possessions and no place in society, it gave me a liberating feeling I had never experienced. There was just one tiny issue.

Lately I have been feeling like a couch potato.

I was not in anyone's basement, but I still felt like I was being lazy. Not having anything to do might be nice, but it made me remember the lockdown periods we had during the Covid pandemic back in my original world.

They were fun and I really enjoyed them. Being in the cave made me remember those days clearly. Unfortunately I also felt pretty bored after a while. It's kind of hard to explain how I felt at the moment. I was happy I had no responsibilities, but I felt the need to do something of significance.

I considered trying to work with the Foundation once more and quickly discarded the idea. I had already tried plenty with them and they had made it pretty clear how I would be treated if I worked with them.

I had no plans of joining any cult since I wasn't interested in bringing Cthulhu into this reality. And I didn't want to be friends with fanatics, so I guess that discarded the church too. Zealots were bound to be a part of them, even if I believed most people in it would be nice.

That left me with two options. I either go out and find some kind of organization that is not too radical, or give those GOC guys a call.

I still had the phone that Sling chick gave me. It was turned off and sealed in a pocket space, but if I ever felt the need to call them I could do it at any time.

I sighed, I didn't know if this was pride or just some pettiness I still felt because of the Foundation, but the idea of working underneath someone and being some kind of lapdog annoyed me. And my annoyance annoyed me more. Why was I annoyed at the idea of working for someone?

Every fucking body worked for someone or something. Almost every human had a job with bosses or supervisors. The ones that didn't have those still had to follow some rules. Either because of the law, or basic human needs. Technically everyone was a slave to their bodies.

So why was I so against working with or for anyone? The idea of being some kind of secret agent always had had some appeal to it. What kid had never thought of being some kind of FBI or CIA spy?

I could literally go be a spy, or secret agent, or anything I wanted to, but I felt a nagging feeling it would be somewhat annoying. The last few months have really changed my perspective on life. Would anything I do really be important? I was not about to go into some kind of existential crisis, but actually knowing the multiverse was real made everything seem pointless.

What was the point of doing anything if there existed an infinite amount of realities where whatever you did would never affect them? Why did I feel the need to make a change?

I had once thought about becoming some kind of superhero if I ever got powers. Then in my late teens I realized it would be better to work with the government. They would definitely know how I could use my powers to be more useful to society as a whole. It would definitely be better than me going around kicking ass.

Now that I had powers I boggled at the idea of helping random people. Saving lifes now sounded unappealing to me.

I realized this mostly came from how my thinking had changed, but I still felt pretty dumb whenever I remembered how I thought I would go around helping strangers. Why would I even bother?

I would literally gain nothing from it. Just some fame or whatever, like that one show where superheroes were celebrities. Man, I miss my home world's entertainment industry.

Fortunately, I didn't feel any remorse for not helping humans improve their quality of life. There was way more important shit to worry about. Like that scarlet king guy. What was his shtick anyway? Just invade realities and conquer them?

I needed to be ready for XK class scenarios and other stuff. Would joining any organization really be of any help? Some were bound to have some info on the scarlet guy and other important threats, but would they be any useful when the time to deal with them came?

I sighed once more, and layed down on the wood bed I had made. I was thinking too much about the future again, I needed to concentrate on what I wanted at the moment. Living in the present was important.

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POV - Brows 75215874/326: Vincent Samuelson

Some say you shouldn't play Galaga while you were supposed to be on work hours. I thought that was just a recommendation. Really, being part of the PSYCHE division usually left one with a lot of free time.

We didn't need to run around the globe looking for trouble like some assessment teams, and we definitely didn't need to go around fighting monsters all day like some strike teams. We usually only prepared to give the GOC a good PR face, or in rare occasions, make contact with other parties or safe threats.

Which meant that I could play Galaga all I wanted, even if Steve was against it.

I was about to make a new record when one of team handy's phones that had been confiscated rang. I was about to ignore the call when I realized who was calling.

The director had been very specific on who the one caller ID I had to have an eye on would be; at the moment, the ID 'Desk' just seemed to glare at me.

I looked up when Steve leaned into my cubicle and glanced at the phone. I guess he was curious about why I hadn't hung up yet.

"You gonna get that?" He asked.

I just looked at the phone again. "I don't know?"

"You don't know? Why haven't you just answered or turned off the phone then?"

At that moment the phone stopped ringing. "Shit."

Steve sighed. "Who was it? Another family member trying to contact team Handy?"

I felt some sweat run down my back. "It was Red."

Steve opened and closed his mouth before just sagging a bit. "Shit."

The phone began ringing again, and I quickly grabbed it and tossed it at Steve.

"You should take the call, I'm sure you will do better than me."

He fumbled a bit as he tried to catch the phone while he yelped at me. "Nope, nah, no, you take it." And he tossed me the phone back.

"I'm sure you will do well. Don't worry too much, Red was described as friendly!" I threw the phone at him again.

"He was also assigned to you and I refuse to talk to some random omnipotent being." He aimed at me with his left arm and chucked the phone back at me.

The phone stopped ringing again.

"Did we just miss two calls from some ROB?" Steve said with a dead inside voice.

"Shit."

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Pov - Gabriel Garcia

Was Sling really not going to answer my calls? Maybe she had lost her phone? She told me she would answer as soon as I called her.

I tried calling for a third time and this time the phone was answered immediately.

"Ahhhh, hello, ummm, I'm sorry. You are Red correct?"

I paused for a moment, Red? And then it hit me. Sling had said my nickname was Red Angel. I felt shame start creeping up on me but decided to ignore it for the moment.

"I suppose that's what some people are calling me."

"Okayyy, just give me a moment please. -Steve, where the hell are you going? Come back here and help me.-"

"-Nope, I refuse.-"

"-What do you mean you refuse? Help me out buddy, it's just one call.-"

"-Which you already fucked up. What was that 'ahhhh' and 'ummm'? We are supposed to be the ones who are good at talking!-"

"-Well forgive me for getting nervous. How would you have answered?-"

"I'd try to not ignore the guy on the other side of the phone."

I heard something hit the floor before some scrambling came through the phone.

The first voice coughed and started speaking. "I'm sorry, I should have muted myself. Is there anything you need?"

"Yeah, Sling told me to call her whenever I was interested in doing something other than just 'be a wild man' and come back to society."

"Yes yes, but is there anything you want to tell us?"

Did I really need to have something in mind to talk to Sling? Why wasn't she the one answering anyways?

"Where is Sling? I get that she may be occupied, but I'd rather speak with her."

"Oh, she is not here at the moment. Is there anything else you need?"

"-Dude, stop being so pushy!-"

"-Oh, you think you know what to do? You want to take the call?-"

"-You know what? You are doing a wonderful job. Keep at it.-"

"-That is what I thought.-"

I sighed. Sling said she worked with the UN or something. These guys did not seem like people a secret organization would hire.

"Did I call the wrong number? You guys are part of the GOC right?"

"Yes, yes. We are. Sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just nervous. Let me start from the beginning. Is there anything I could do for you?"

Were they making fun of me?

I sighed… I noticed I had been sighing a lot more lately. "I… just guess I want to work out a deal with you guys."

"You do?" The voice sounded surprised.

"Yeah, I'm a bit bored."

"I uhhhh, I need to talk to one of my superiors. Please let me call you later."

"You don't even know what kind of deal I want to make."

There was silence on the other end.

"What kind of deal do you want to make?"

"I kinda want to be hired by you guys to deal with anomalies."

"Thank you, I'll call you back as soon as I'm given some directions."

The call ended and I was left to ponder on my decision to call the GOC. Maybe they were not as big as Sling had made them out to be. That guy sounded so out of his league that it wasn't even funny. It was in fact somewhat worrying. Did I make a mistake by calling them?

The sun glared down at me and I decided to bask in it for a while. I would worry about how competent and serious the GOC was later.

I had left the cave to make the call. I thought that maybe the phone wouldn't work underground and had gone outside to touch some grass.

Maybe I should also make some furniture to decorate out here too, my front yard looked pretty desolate.

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AN

The story is by no means dead, I'm the one dead inside. Whatever ideas I had 2 weeks ago about how I would continue the story just disappeared from my mind so I'm trying to think up new stuff. I've lost some inspiration I had, but I still want to continue writing.

I feel so weird coming back to writing after a week of not doing it. It feels jarring, and I'm still somewhat exhausted from my shitty week.

Still, I'll try my best with the story.

Ps. Shitty formating Webnovel has. Reading this story in QQ, I recommend.

If any of y'all find a spelling mistake, has questions, has some criticism, or whatever, please leave a comment. I enjoy reading them.

Thanks for reading.