Chapter 67

Chapter 67

"Huh, I figured you would be in some kind of cocoon or something, not stuck to the wall like a failed spiderman. And considering your supposed to be a 'imp' you really don't fit the bill for what media made you out to be." John quipped as he looked at the red being using air quotes for the imp part getting a sneer in response.

"And what did you expect? A little red figure with a pitchfork and bald head and long sticky legs and arms? Well, this is what we really look like your idiotic human." He asked sneering at them from his place stuck on the wall.

"Well whatever, I'm willing to try and make a deal with you, its pretty basic and I feel its fair, especially considering you don't really have many other options from what I've been told. So, here's the deal I'm offering, you answer my questions and I'll let you go, or kill you or even just let you stay here, it will be up to you." John says calmly, standing infront of the red being now who stared coldly at him, seemingly contemplating his words.

"And what guarantee do I have you will honour your word? you humans would sooner sell out your own mother for your own gain before honouring to do what you say." He sneered angrily as he seemed to try and rip himself from the wall without much success.

"Kindly give me your knife please." John says after turning to Alice, his face entirely calm receiving a confused look in return but she gave him her knife nonetheless but seemed to be surprised the next moment as he used it to cut his dead arm before returning the knife to Alice who mutely took it in confused shock and worry.

Taking his usable hand he proceeded to touch the cut and collected a bit of blood before holding it out infront of him and letting it drip from his grip. "I swear on my blood and essence to keep my word to you, should you answer me honestly for all my questions I will either kill you, release you or help you with my limited abilities." John says to him getting a intrigued look in return as he seemed more willing now.

"Make it 2 favours being sworn on your spilt blood and I will tell you whatever it is you wish to know." The Imp says after a bit of consideration receiving a nod form John in return.

"2 favours in exchange for answers to my questions. But the favours need to be reasonable and within reason, you can't expect me to suddenly recover your limbs and make you super powerful or drop a giant rock on people." John says to him getting an unsettling grin in return.

"Very well but know should you not honour your word my spirit will find a way to get recompense from you and make you suffer as an oath breaker. Now ask your questions and we will get to what I want from you." The imp says with a nasty smile, giving the impression of having made a deal with a devil, what was surprising for the girls was how serious he was and how simple it seemed for John to convince him to give answers, little did they really understand the serious nature of what his oath and the like truly entailed.

"What is the group you work for? Not just the abridged 'it's the gods' nonsense everyone is told about, I'm talking about what they really truly are and what their real purpose is, and what they really do." John says getting a huff from the imp.

"To you they might as well be gods, that's how strong they tend to get, the weakest could destroy what any of you consider a country and the strongest ones are who create and blend realities. Before you try to say anything about getting that strong or how to do so or something along those lines keep dreaming, it would take a whole lot for something like that to happen and I doubt you would be able to do so. As for there supposed real purpose and what they really do I can't answer that as I don't really know, I was just in charge of helping to keep this area's entertainment captivating for the viewing god beings, as for my faction as its not a 'group' we where under the Jester who worked for someone beyond you and all of us had the secondary job of keeping things running smoothly." The imp ground out, seemingly being honest but clearly keeping some things back unless it was specifically asked about.

"Next, where is the rest of the people? I mean small encounters, and everything is one thing but there should be a lot more around than what there is, so far there has been really few bodies, enemies and even when we did encounter others it was few and far between, so explain to me what's going on." John continued; the girls also only now seemed to realize this fact after giving it some thought, and the imp seemed to glare at him full of hatred for asking this before giving a bloodthirsty smile.

"We could send away everyone under a certain age to world around ours and changed the reality to make it so they believed the odd number of twins is normal and changed your reality itself to become a focal blending point of some of our other controlled reams, maybe we chose to destroy most and the rest couldn't handle there choices?" the imp seemed to try and deflect only getting a headshake from John.

"The deal was you tell me honestly so don't come with questions and twisted words, my question was rather direct after all, so tell me why there is so fewer people and what has happened to them." John frowns as he asks his question again slightly more forcefully.

"Fine, I was serious though with my question, it ties into what has happened. As I said some of us are in groups and where in charge of different parts an area. You would assume it means a large piece of land or city or possibly even a country, the fact though is that isn't correct. A area is referring to a large part of pocket reality, when the big ones take over and change things they divide it according to the amount of entertainment they could get, in a simple way for your mind to understand picture each area as a different TV channel, some are really popular well others aren't but still get views, over the eons that we have been doing this we have learnt to filter where everyone goes and there situations based on what they choose as a class, the least popular or repetitive get sent here to level 6 and slowly the number goes lower with the rising level of popularity, they have different events and scenarios and the like dependant on what has been found to be popular." The imp tells him enjoying the confusion and frustration on John's face.

"Those who have better classes or more interesting ones or even first-time classes get sent to lower levels depending on the potential attention they could draw, everyone getting split up and divided between the areas with some beings from other worlds also added in to help spice things up but a majority is on the lower levels, yours is for the rejects, the dull classes and just for beasts well being somewhat of a breeding ground for the beasts and monsters before they can go to the lower areas." The imp continues practically laughing in his raspy voice before falling into a coughing fit.

Taking a deep breath John tried to get his thoughts back in order, processing what he had just learnt, glad he finally got some answers but feeling conflicted if he should be glad he wouldn't be facing the strongest of the strong or upset that his group was considered the trash of the changed world.

"And how does that even work? Suddenly people disappear from here and get whisked away to the other 'levels' or whatever? What about the rest of the planet?"

"Hahaha oh your serious? Well your planet still exists somewhat but large parts are sectioned off before an entire level free for all happens boundaries exist separating countries, normally takes about a year before the boundaries fall but sometimes it has happened sooner, it all depends on conditions being met and no I am not going to tell you what those are. As for each level there almost identical worlds that run parallel to your own where they get send and from there we blend in other realms depending on its level, yours for example is just beast and monster breeding ground even humans into monsters who then get sent to the lower levels. Afterall even if we clone and duplicate a creature eventually we will run out of material, and cloning clones destroys or degenerates the DNA after a while, so we use the highest level as a base to create and obtain more creatures, some of interest get taken for duplication and replacement of those who can't be used anymore" The imp replied snidely clearly not going to make any further comments on that.

thinking on the whole levels part of things John couldn't help but try to find out more on that instead, feeling he could probably gain powerful allies there in his quest to take down the god beings. "How do I get to the lower levels? Do I need to hit a certain measure of strength or something? Also, how could a person who's repeated this over and over be dumped here; I mean someone like that should be on the higher levels shouldn't he?" John couldn't help but fire off, feeling he would need to get through those lower levels to achieve his goal of facing the gods and this mysterious enemy they should be facing.

"Huh, you wish it would be that easy, if you want to get to the lower areas it's not a matter of getting stronger, you would need to control the entire area you're in and somehow collapse it onto the lower level, it would then become a part of the lower level and fuse onto the landmass like a layer of paper overlapping what's there causing utter destruction and chaos for the part it fuses with, but that has rarely been done. As for the returner you mentioned, that's easy to explain, if you have seen someone do something over and over even if they try different routes it gets boring after a while so we just dumped them here to not bother with them, as you go lower though the number of people multiply by folds of 3, people from this world and others alongside it." The imp informs him trying to break his spirit and causing the girls to mumble to one another as they tried to make sense of all of this.

"Last question, how do I access the system store? I know it exists but how do I access it or even my own stats and ranking and all that?" John asks, not letting the imps attitude get to him and instead trying to figure out something that may aid him instead only to be disappointed with the reply.

"You can't, your class needs to be of a gamer or system user, there often the more favoured classes that exist through the various levels, there one of the only ways to get coin and items from beasts as opposed to creating items yourself, but often they get to cocky early on and meet an early end either by overestimating there strength or there system devours them hehehe which honestly is always fun to watch happen." The imp says with his feral grin causing shivers.

"How do you even know so much? I mean some things you said cant be basic knowledge or something you should know, like the monsters part, how would you even know about the duplication thing?" Alice couldn't quietly getting a glare from the imp who, well annoyed seemed to decide to humour her.

"I was never good at following the rules to a T, my attack on you and attempts to kill you should have been clear enough to you about that." He sneered as John looked at him with a frown.

"Well I have no more questions, since I don't trust you to be honest with looted items, so tell me what the 2 favours are you want from me?" John asks, feeling he got his answers and couldn't think of anything else to ask only to get that dark smile from the imp once more reaffirming his feelings of having made a deal with a devil.