Huge Walls

Maximus turned about in his bed reading his books when a familiar *DING* sounded in his room. He got up and checked his other phone which he had bought for his vigilante purposes. Surprised to see a message from an unknown number, he opened it curiously.

"I have some information regarding the gangs in San Francisco. Do you want to buy it?"

He was dazed for some seconds before he quickly recollected he had given this number to Chester. It should be him who wants to meet up right? After thinking for a second, he decided to contact Seraphina, then reply to the guy. As most of the information would already be within Seraphina's reach once something happened.

Taking out his other phone, he searched her name and called her,

"Any idea what's going on with the gangs in this city?"

"No. What's up? You want some info?"

"Yep. it seems something seems to have happened. If you don't have any information I have a source I could buy it from. But just thought about asking you first."

"You've got the right person. Let me search related information quickly before they take measures. If you get any such leads in the future contact me quickly. Chances are I could quickly find and download such information before they do anything to it.

"They already have an idea that a *coughs* professional hacker has been snooping around recently so they have begun taking measures against me. But they still need some time to deploy and get such measures to start running or even delete all the related information, so if I am quick enough I can catch some information."

"Alright. You have my word, I'll contact you as soon as I learn of anything. By the way, how did you even reach such professional heights in hacking?"

"Haha it's just dumb luck. I'll call you when I find some information. Bye."

Saying so, she cut the call. Maximus gave his phone a look after dislodging it from his ear, pausing for a little while, confused.

'What does she mean by dumb luck? And did she end the call too abruptly so that I don't dig too deeply into the topic? Or does she simply not want to expand on the topic?'

He thought for a while then simply shook his head, going back to reading. Five minutes later, his phone's ringtone rang against the silence of his bedroom. Looking up at the caller, his eyebrows raised.

'That was quicker than I'd expected.' Still, he picked up Seraphina's call and heard her say on the other end.

"It's the organization. The one we tried messing with. They are recruiting people from gangs using some conditions I am still trying to find out. It seemed to have been done in person to take precautions against my hacking very likely. If your information source is one of the people who got recruited or got the offer or knows such a person, accept their terms of selling the information. This seems important."

"Alright, I'll call you if I get anything."

Taking her earlier cue, he didn't breach the topic about her hacking proficiency. After taking in the information given to him, he simply went back to reading after replying to chester.

"Near the base of your old gang at around 11pm."

Saying so he simply kept reading till late night, few of the information which he came across were worth noting down.

"The kingdoms first operated in a very cautious manner, with each of their cities circled by a huge wall. They did so because of the dangerous animals which roamed in that early era of the earth while humans didn't possess a technology capable of defeating them.

"These walls were removed over time but the circular nature persisted throughout generations. This influence endured even till the modern era where almost every city was circular shaped."

It was surprising for him in a way, that meant the fauna of this planet in early ages was much more deadly than that of his original planet. There was no such thing on his planet. But here the humans were literally forced to create huge walls just to stay safe from the animals.

It confused him and perhaps every sane mind who came across this information as to why they would first develop the technology to make huge and sturdy walls over killing powerful animals. Well, he got the answer shortly after in one of the later texts,

"The reports say that the technology which would have been needed to develop to kill the powerful animals was predicted to be more complicated than the ones needed simply to ensure the survival of mankind. There was also the fact that these animals tended not to attack protected locations such as those covered in huge walls."

Maximus mused as he read this part, 'The dinosaurs in my original world… were the animals here the same as them? So does that mean if humans of my world and dinosaurs existed in the same time period we might have developed this way? Interesting.'

He read the rest of the book and found nothing else interesting so he spent the rest of the day meditating with that scripture. 'This is too slow, I feel no change at all.' After the session when Maximus tried using his Reality Manipulation he found no change at all. He deduced that the upgrade from the timespan of meditation he did right now was so minute it was barely even noticeable at all right now.

The difficulty was that he hadn't killed many people in the past week either, so his progress was halted. He was thinking of going out of his way to cause trouble and kill some guys while testing the bottom line of the organization.

Inadvertently, the organization had made an impression of weakness in their minds, letting them think it was alright for them to keep kicking down their supernatural beings or the gangs they wanted to protect.

Maximus was eating his dinner, having spent his entire day searching for information and meditating. Now he was contemplating about what future paths he could take and suddenly thought of something,

'After I meet Chester today, I could set about for an independent mission after so long. Seraphina had removed the tracker on the phone that organization gave me. I should see what kind of missions they have given me in this meantime of almost two weeks, there should be at least two already. If not, I can deduce that the organization has removed me from their list of peripheral members, or I can at least contact them and ask so. They wouldn't be able to trace me so it's a safe course of action.'

Thinking so, Maximus finished his dinner and left his home. After activating a couple devices given by Seraphina, he retrieved his vigilant attire and donned it. Ready for the night.