Restricted Access

The elder's eyes darted to the side, as if searching for an escape route that didn't exist. "I apologize, Boss, but that information is not available."

"No," Rose cut him off firmly. "I want to know what you're hiding. Why won't you answer my question?"

Zen's expression became uncharacteristically serious. "Boss, there are... restrictions on what I can reveal. Some information is locked until certain conditions are met. It's not that I don't want to tell you—I simply can't."

Rose narrowed her eyes. "Explain."

Zen hesitated, seemingly searching for the right words—or perhaps checking what he was allowed to say. "As a simple Rookie, you don't have access to restricted information. You need to advance your rank to unlock more of my features and information."

Rose fell deep into thought. The things Zen wouldn't answer were connected to these "levels" and the "other" type of abilities—things she'd never heard of in her past life. How did Zen have all this information? The simultaneous appearance of the portals and the alien man was suspicious. Were they connected?

Rose sensed she was onto something, but she was also certain she wouldn't get any more information from Zen on this matter. Maybe if she advanced her rank—or whatever he'd called it—she'd learn more.

Instead of asking more pointless questions that probably wouldn't get answers, she got straight to the point. "How do I advance my rank?"

Zen sighed in relief, as if glad she'd asked a question he could provide an answer for. "By gathering experience points, Boss."

"Experience points? Why does that sound like it's straight out of a game?"

"I apologize if my terminology is confusing. After searching your language repertoire, it was the closest term to describe the concept," he explained.

"And how exactly am I supposed to gather these experience points?"

"Experience points are granted for various activities: entering a portal, gathering materials, defeating creatures. The more challenging the task, the higher the reward."

"You've got to be kidding me," she facepalmed.

"I would never dare," he responded with a slight bow.

"Ugh," she groaned in exasperation. Why make things easy when they could be difficult? Well, at least she'd been planning to enter portals anyway, so she'd get an additional benefit from it.

Rose took a deep breath, trying to process this new information. "Alright, fine. Let's say I accept this... game-like system. How many experience points do I need to advance my rank?"

Zen's eyes lit up, clearly pleased to be able to provide concrete information. "For your first advancement, you'll need to accumulate 1,000 experience points, Boss."

"And how many do I have now?"

"Currently, you have 500 experience points."

Already halfway there. That didn't sound so bad.

"I assume I received those points from entering the two portals before?" Rose mused.

"Yes, partially. You earn fifty experience points each time you enter and exit a level one portal," Zen explained.

"And the remaining 400 came from the creature Luke killed?"

"Precisely, Boss."

"So I get credit even if I don't personally do everything?"

"Well, you worked together, didn't you? He's your teammate. Unless... he's not? In that case, the points would be deducted."

"No, no! Of course it was a joint effort!" Rose quickly clarified, unwilling to lose those precious points.

"Boss, I must say, you're quite clever for your kind. You're the quickest to grasp how everything works!" the hologram praised.

"So there are others?"

"No, you're the first."

Then it's not exactly hard to be the quickest...

Rose could only shake her head at his silliness.

While her mind struggled to digest everything she had learned, Rose stifled a yawn and rubbed her eyes. The day's crazy events had finally taken their toll, and a wave of sleepiness washed over her. But there was one last thing she needed to discuss with Zen before she could close her eyes for the few hours left until their departure.

"Zen, is there a way for me to communicate with you without, you know, you appearing like this? I don't want anyone else to know about you, at least for the time being."

"Hmm..." Zen cocked his head in thought, his gaze falling on her cellphone lying on the bed. "We could communicate via this device of yours. I should be able to connect with it."

"And then? Am I going to call you, or...?"

"No, you can write me messages and I will answer in written form as well." He stroked his beard, murmuring, "If you only had a mental ability, such as telepathy, that would make things easier..."

"What was that?" Rose arched an eyebrow.

"N-Nothing, Boss. Do you have any other questions or instructions?"

Rose waved dismissively and yawned again. "For now, no. It seems I'll first need to level up anyway before getting to the real good stuff," she added with an accusing gaze.

Not addressing her remark, Zen bowed and vanished after wishing her a good rest.

Rose was dead tired. Falling onto the bed, she fell asleep before her head even hit the pillow.