Chapter 12 - Don’t Look so Glum

The dark and resolute expression on Sam's face sent a chill down the alpha system's spine. While suicide would indeed eject them from the world, it would technically be a dereliction of duties and result in heavy fines. Fines which, at present, neither of them had the capital to afford.

Alpha 7419 lived very frugally. However, he hated wastefulness and inefficiency the most, so he always donated his unused upgrade points to this or that worthy cause. Consequently, this left him with only meager savings to fall back on. Enough for an emergency, but not enough for something like this.

As for Sam, well, this was his first world. All he had to his name was his abundant spiritual energy and his half of the pocket dimension.

'If you breach the contract,' he started, but Sam swiftly put his mind at ease.

"Even with all the bullshit I had to deal with in my original life, I didn't resort to suicide," Sam flashed a self-deprecating smile as he spoke, his tone lined with bitterness and his shoulders relaxed in resignation. "Why would I give up after just one beating? This is nothing."

How could the alpha system take him at his word? Between his appearance and behavior, it was apparent that Sam was feeling very wronged and in a fair amount of pain. Still, Alfie wasn't cruel enough to call him out on it. 

Instead, he tried to reassure him, vowing, "I promise it won't be like this every time. In fact, I'm fairly sure that this was either a bug in the transmigration software or an oversight made by the system in charge. Rest assured, I will get to the bottom of this."

"In the meantime, I will help you find a way to steer clear of that man," he vowed. 

Sam sniffed loudly and tried to regain some semblance of composure. Grabbing hold of the bucket and scrub brush, Sam started working on cleaning the floor. After all, it wouldn't do to slack off and risk another beating.

As he scrubbed at the stains on the scuffed and worn wood floor, he finally took a minute to look around at his surroundings. Candlelight flickered from sconces on the wood-paneled walls.

'Aren't they worried about setting the place on fire with all the candles?' he wondered absently.

'Actually, the glass cover keeps any stray embers from reaching the wood, and the flame isn't hot enough to cause the wood to combust,' Alfie replied self-importantly.

He may not be much help in a fight, but thanks to his connection to the system network, he could instantly answer most, if not all, of his host's questions about any world they visited.

"Hey!" Sam exclaimed in surprise. "I forgot you can read my mind."

Vexed his insight had passed through his host's ears and into the air, Alfie's mood soured. Sure enough, this spicy chicken host wouldn't give him any face.

'Since you remember now, maybe you should consider not making a fool of yourself and speaking aloud,' he suggested sourly. 'You look like you've lost your marbles.'

'Right...' Flushing in embarrassment, Sam immediately, albeit awkwardly, switched to communicating with his thoughts, still not used to this form of communication. 'So, um, what's the mission?'

'The mission this time is a little complicated,' Alfie began laying out the details. 'Upper management isn't sure how it happened, but somehow, someone died that wasn't supposed to. This created a ripple effect that threw this world's previous trajectory completely off course. Our task is to find that person and keep him safe while hopefully unearthing the source of the anomaly.'

"HA!" a short burst of empty laughter burst out of Sam when he heard what he was meant to do. 'Protect him? I clearly already proved that I can't even protect myself!'

'Management wouldn't have given us this goal if we had no hope of accomplishing it,' Alfie rebuked, but he also felt that in light of what had happened just minutes ago, asking Sam to defend anyone was a bit of a stretch.

'Fine, whatever,' Sam brushed away his system's admonishment with a wave of his hand. 'Who is this guy? Why is he so important?'

'Our target is the father of and most influential person in the life of Alexander Harriman.' Sensing that Sam was about to interrupt, Alfie hurried to continue, "Although he was only the son of a high ranking officer in the navy, once the child grows up, he will make his way into the seat of power.'

'Dude, so the little guy is a rebel leader?' Sam asked. 'That's cool! Fighting injustice, bringing down the man, standing for peace and honor. My kind of guy.'

'Actually...' The alpha system's little bunny face twisted into something like a grimace. 'The child grows into a ruthless and genocidal dictator. He does usher in an unprecedented era of peace once the nations of the world unite and ultimately execute him for war crimes.'

Sam: '...'

'So we're saving Hitler?' Sam questioned incredulously. 'What kind of fucked up organization are you running here?'

'We're not saving Hitler,' the system argued. 'If anything, we're saving his father.'

'Oh, well, that makes it all better,' Sam retorted snarkily, rolling his eyes. He took another swipe at the stain on the baseboard he was trying to remove before giving up on it and throwing the rag back in the bucket. 'Screw this. I'm not saving some bastard just so that he can give birth to a monster like that. I'd rather take my chances killing myself, thanks.'

'Technically, the man isn't the one giving birth,' Alfie advised petulantly. He should have guessed that his moronic host would react like a short-sighted child. 'Besides, the child has already been conceived. According to the world's current trajectory, if this child grows up fatherless, he becomes immeasurably worse, and the damage he causes will take much longer to recover from. Some of the nations he will conquer never do.'

As the two had been speaking in his head, the hallway had gotten busier with people going back and forth between what Sam assumed was, based on the contents of the passing trays, the kitchen and dining room of an eating establishment. He had to move to the side frequently, making way for the busy waiters and waitresses.

'So why don't we just kill the kid? Wouldn't that be a better solution?' While Sam would have balked at even the idea of killing a child under normal circumstances, this was baby Hitler they were talking about here. He'd had this hypothetical conversation many times with friends in his original world and had already decided that he wouldn't flinch at killing a puppy, let alone a human child, if it was to save the world from such a tragedy.

Every strand of pitch-black fur on Alfie's body bristled when he heard Sam toss out such a fool-hardy scheme. He was so upset that he didn't even pause to wonder why a dog's life was worth more to his host than his own species.

'You idiot!' he exclaimed, suddenly impassioned, wishing he had a physical form so that he could slap his stupid host. 'This kind of magical thinking is exactly what leads to anomalies like this one in the first place!'

'Some well-meaning time traveler thinks he's going to do the world a favor by preventing this or that catastrophe, and it almost invariably leads to something worse!' Breathing heavily, he went on to say, 'The world needs many types of people, even the evil and malicious ones. Common enemies breed alliances; corrupt officials inspire people to seek a more just system. It's as important to have villains as it is to have heroes!'

Sam held up his hands placatingly, 'Okay, okay, I get it. I was wrong. What do we do instead? I don't need to remind you that I'm not much of a fighter. I'm scrappy, but I'm no martial arts or weapons master, and you basically don't exist, so how do the two of us protect him?'

Alfie, who basically doesn't exist: '...' That's fair.

'We don't necessarily need to be directly involved,' the system explained. 'As long as we can deter the target from being at the place and time of his death, then we can stop it.'

'Ah, smart,' Sam praised appreciatively. As they discussed the mission, Sam diligently cleaned the floor, and gradually he made it to the end of the hallway. He could hear the sound of raucous laughter, rhythmic clapping, and off-key boisterous singing floating towards him from around the corner. 

When he made it out of the hall, Sam's eyes grew wide in wonder. It was as if he had stepped back in time and found himself in a tavern from a bygone era. 

Men in long jackets and breaches drank from wooden tankards and smoking pipes. Others clad in the simpler garb of the working class stumbled here and there in various states of drunkenness, making fools of themselves.

The source of the singing and clapping was a drunkard standing on a table belting out a drinking song at the top of his lungs with his friends either trying to drag him off the table or encouraging him by singing along.

There were women, and a few men, serving ale and flirting with the customers. Sam watched in awe as one of the male servers coyly swatted the hand of a patron who had gotten handsy and then leaned in to whisper something in the man's ear.

'Um, Alfie?' Sam asked. 'Where the hell are we?'