Katja Needs A Drink

"Oh my god! Tyler!" Victoria freaked out as she saw all the wounds on her son's body. She was about to rush to his side before her husband stopped her.

"Not yet," the man told her.

Victoria turned to him with a questioning look.

As a response, Owen jerked his head toward Magnus, who had just closed the door. The blond boy then approached his friend and touched his shoulder. From his hand, a white glow could be seen enveloping TJ's body, instantly closing all the wounds on his skin. Thankfully, he had only received external wounds, nothing that [Big Spark] couldn't heal within a couple of seconds.

"Alright, he's as good as new now, Mrs. Haysmith," Magnus told her, already aware of her concern.

Hearing that, and seeing Owen getting out of her way, she rushed to check on her son. She grabbed both his cheeks while looking up at his face and scanning his eyes. "Honey, how are you feeling? Tell me, are you really alright?"

Gazing down at his mother's worried eyes, TJ tried to fake a smile to put her at ease. However, he could only maintain it for a moment before an emotion from deep within urged him to just give her a hug. He wanted to hide whatever expression he couldn't help showing on his face right now.

Pulled into a hug, Victoria knew right away that her son was not completely alright. However, there was only so much she could do but embrace his slightly trembling body and offer him an emotional support. For a minute, mother and son enjoyed the comfort provided in each other's embrace.

Meanwhile, Fiona walked up to Magnus and touched his arm, the same level of worry worn on her face. Unlike TJ, Magnus was able to genuinely smile, patting his mother's hand and nodding reassuringly. He had already unequipped his armor and all his weapons, so there was not a single trace that he'd just gone through a battle against a literal god. "I'm good, mom," he said without a hint of pretense.

That was when he noticed Owen approaching him. "I'm guessing you've been training him for the past year? That was my first time seeing him shooting out a…fire ball. Was that all the 'workout' he did every weekend for?"

"That's right, sir. I know TJ has a big potential. He might not look it right now, but the guy has what it takes to not only survive, but also protect those he cares about," answered Magnus truthfully. "However, no amount of training could've prepared him for a real battle. Especially when he's faced with a 'kill or be killed' situation. But you don't need to worry. He just needs a bit of time right now."

Seeing TJ being led by his mother to sit on the sofa, Magnus couldn't help but wonder, 'He looks so different than the TJ I knew in the original Universe. That TJ was a bloodthirsty monster. I wonder what had happened to him during the time we hadn't met that made him do a 180. Or maybe that's just in his nature, and the state I'm seeing right now is just a phase he'll get over in no time.'

He then noticed Summer looking at him from the corner of the room. He could tell she wanted to talk to him, but for some reason was hesitating. She could probably feel the slight tension that still hung in the air and was somehow affected by it. Therefore, Magnus approached her and touched her cheek. "Are you alright?" he asked while smiling lightly.

Summer nodded before leaning her head on his chest. He gently wrapped his arms around her, whispering, "I'm glad that you are. I'm okay, too. I'm sorry for worrying you."

He then slowly pulled away from the hug before kissing her on the forehead. He turned around to head toward the door again. Before opening it, he heard Owen asking, "What are you doing?"

Magnus gave him a faint smile before answering, "Eliminating potential risks." He opened the door and headed out before closing it behind him.

Earlier, on his way back to the house, Magnus had rewinded the recording of TJ's fight on the POV and watched glimpses of it. The POV feature was able to record a scene for up to ten-minute duration at a time. This allowed the gods to collect what they called 'footage highlights'. During Magnus' battle against Scoville, Magnus 2.0 had decided to record TJ's fight for both of them to analyze later.

That was how he knew that Wayde guy had been a boosted Protagonist. However, his total stats had still been way less than TJ's. Also, the guy most likely was only gifted with two skills. Which made his overall combat prowess much lower than TJ's. But what he lacked in powers, he well compensated with numbers. And of course, a gun. TJ had to face four guys, one with boosted stats and skills, and one with a firearm. Still, if he hadn't had to worry about his dad and other people, he could've defeated them all easily. And if he hadn't been so caught up with the emotional weight brought upon by killing a person for the first time, he wouldn't have needed Magnus' help to avoid being killed by the ice spear.

Speaking of ice spear…

Magnus approached the corpse of the strange woman and inspected her body. Nothing seemed to be wrong with it. Apart from the lack of head, of course. 'I guess she was overboosted.' Some god had probably picked up a random woman to be yet another disposable Protagonist Magnus encountered today. She was boosted to the extreme, and her untrained and weak body couldn't handle the overwhelming amount of stats flowing into her at once. Which was why, she was seen twitching and moving in an odd manner. The woman must've been in great pain, just like how Magnus had been the moment he went into this copied Universe. In addition, she must've been promised she would be eased off her pain if she managed to kill TJ. But that was just Magnus' guess.

Three innocent people had been the victims of the gods today. Just to get rid of Magnus and TJ. It was truly disheartening.

Magnus took a deep breath to calm himself and walked toward one guy passed out nearby. It was the guy called Ryan. Not wanting to delay this any longer, Magnus quickly casted [Wind Bullet] and shot it at the guy's head, killing him painlessly. Ignoring the slight unease Magnus felt in his heart, he moved on to the next guy, who was lying in someone else's front yard. If Magnus wasn't mistaken, he was the other guy with a baseball bat, named Nick. Magnus did the same to him as he did to Ryan, before he put both bodies in his Inventory, along with the gunner's and the poor woman's bodies. And their heads.

Magnus headed to an open area a bit far away from the house and dumped all the bodies there, before casting [Ignite] several times to cremate them. "I'm sorry," he muttered. But then he recalled the douchey words the guys had said to TJ. "Well, you guys were kinda being dicks, though."

A few minutes later, Magnus headed back to the house, glancing over Wayde's remains and wondering what he should do with them. He then shrugged and opened the door.

To find Katja facing off against Mrs. Liu. She was clutching a bottle of vodka as if it was her most precious gem while glaring at the Chinese woman.

"You're underaged!" the woman shouted sternly.

"So what?" retorted Katja. "The world's ending, so to hell with the laws! Besides, it's not my first time drinking."

Meanwhile, Nikolai was leaning on the dining chair, shaking his head at the scene before him. It was as if he had been used to Katja's antics. "Just let her be," he said to Mrs. Liu. "The longer you argue with her, the more stubborn she becomes."

"I just need a drink. What's the big deal?" she insisted.

"It's a big deal if you're—" Mei stopped herself when she noticed Magnus waving at her. She then saw him creating a light glow in his hand, with his face that said, 'I can always get her to sober up with magic'. Seeing that, Mei could only sigh in defeat. "Just…drink moderately," she eventually said before turning around.

Magnus sighed in relief before walking up to TJ, who was now quietly sleeping on the sofa. He had his head resting on his mother's lap while the woman was gently stroking it. Sensing Magnus approaching, Mrs. Haysmith gave him a soft smile while patting an empty space on the sofa next to her.

Magnus took a seat on that spot, careful not to wake up his friend. He knew TJ would have to confront all his emotional baggage the moment he woke up, but for now he deserved a bit of rest. Magnus had stolen a glance at his friend's Status Window and noticed a sixty-point increase in his XP; definitely the result of killing a person one level below his. Meanwhile, the windfall of DP Magnus had gained from that was mainly because TJ had killed a Protagonist for the first time.

"I saw him, through the window, almost being impaled by that spear…" Victoria said in a low voice. Magnus could feel a mixture or fear and devastation written on her face. The woman must've had her heart sink to the bottom of the abyss at that moment her son almost died. "I wouldn't be able to forgive myself." She then turned her head to look at Magnus in the eye. "Thank you for saving him. As much as I still don't like the fact that you've chosen my son to bear such burden, I understand you're acting with everyone's well-being in mind."

Magnus could only smile ruefully. "I know my decisions might look dubious sometimes, and frankly I know I'm not the smartest nor wisest person here. But I hope I can at least be the rock everyone can lean on, or an anchor everyone can always look to, so they can find some sort of assurance to brave the dangers that will come in these trying times. Which is why, I'm going to have to ask a lot from everyone, mostly to never…you know, quit."

Hearing his response, Victoria nodded slightly and patted his shoulder.

After observing the mother and son for a bit, Magnus then heard his copy's voice.

'Uuh, real quick, didn't you say you wanted to device a method of communication between Protagonists? I could've used that to help TJ while you were battling Scoville.'

'Right. Have you come up with an idea yet?'

'Yeah. It's pretty simple, actually,' Magnus 2.0 said as he opened their Protagonist screen. 'Get this. I found out that just like how the system doesn't have a way to pinpoint someone's specific location, it also doesn't possess a built-in feature for direct communication between Protagonists. All the other features, however, such as POV and the messaging system between Team members, have always been within the system before it got into our hands. It was probably the gods who designed them. We just happened to inherit these features for free. So, to add a new feature of our own making, I came up with this.'

ʳ After witnessing TJ's battle via the recording, Magnus had learned his lesson. He berated himself for forgetting to create a way to communicate remotely with his Protagonists. If he had, TJ wouldn't have had such a hard time fighting several people at once. However, as he wished there was some kind of way to make communication possible, he suddenly discovered that some kind of link akin to a phone call had been established between himself and other Protagonists. With this link, he could communicate with the others at any point in time, for a reasonable price. ʴ

As soon as he said that, a phone icon appeared at the top of their own POV screen, which had never been activated once. Magnus then saw he had just lost 300 AP.

'Well, that was expensive,' he remarked.

'Yeah, why is that, system?' asked Magnus 2.0. 'It's basically just a phone app.'

[To answer the host's question, the system has to remind the hosts that the price for a manual narration partly depends on the level of impact it brings to the host's Protagonists. In this case, creating a method of communication will make it easier for the hosts to guide their Protagonists, therefore helping with their growth. Which is why, the price for creating a phone call feature for each Protagonist costs 100 AP, while the price for making a phone call is 5 AP per minute, with an additional 5 for a group call.]

'What?' Magnus exclaimed in his mind. 'The system is charging us per phone call?'

'Yeah. Feels like we're being ripped off by a mobile network operator, doesn't it?' Magnus 2.0 pointed out.