Chapter 10: 10 Worst Case Scenario
Lady Lieutenant Layx came up to his bedside and leaned languidly against the wall, her face full of confidence and self-pride, and expectant.
「 P-Pretty boy? 」
"P-Pretty boy?"
Nuel realised that he had said that out loud. And it did not help that he was beginning to feel a bit queasy at her eyeing him openly like that; he was not that good actually handling with the opposite gender outside of business situation.
"W-What brings you here, Lieutenant...? Ah, yes, the doctor had ran me through some scans and gave me a prescription. He said the headache would be gone after a week at most, and...and the other two survivors are over there, they're not awake yet, I think-"
"Why don't you call me 'Lady' again? I like that nickname, and I like a pretty boy like you more~"
「 A-Are you f-flirting with me...? 」
"A-Are you f-flirting with me...?"
「 F**K! 」
She snorted smiling, then she approached him, dawdling in.
Her clear, brown eyes maintained contact with his the entire time.
"What do you think, pretty boy?"
Nuel gulped.
His muscles frozen.
And his mind was blank.
He had never had anyone interested in him in his thirty years of living, not even before from when he was still able to walk on his own two feet.
His brain was getting circuit-fried.
"Uh-h..."
Lady Lieutenant Layx quickly backed up as she smiled at him, seemingly satisfied with whatever thing she had just did.
Then, she quickly wore a sedated expression, with her shoulders spreaded and her back straight.
"Mr. Calibre, I'm actually here to escort you to an appointment with Captain Vycter, commander of the 37th Western Recon Company, and the commanding officer of this Bastion. Please, Mr. Calibre."
「 Ah, that's why she's here... 」
"Ah, I see. Sure."
Nuel rose to his feet mechanically - still not that used to moving around without his wheelchair - as he stuffed the <Barcode Data Strip> and the <Thacon Credit Chip : 500 ₢> into the pocket of his loose pants; yes he had changed into a better hospital clothing, per his request to the medical officer from earlier.
The previous gown was too airy for him.
"You're disappointed?"
She giggled with her eyebrows lifted, before closing in again, this time to the side of his face, and whispered,
"Don't worry, pretty boy. We'll have a real~ nice talk after this."
"..."
.....
Nuel was a bit jittery as he followed after Lady Layx through the dimly-lit corridors, her shiny black-ish exosuit accented with metallic bluish paintjob scintillated against the light in a dangerous, cool glint.
Behind him was another soldier in exosuit, wearing the typical stout and no-nonsense attitude in his aura, probably brought about from living in the face of death all these while.
Something had been tingling at Nuel's subconsciousness since earlier - his nerves was slowly tautening tight, as they reached nearer to their destination.
「 The f**k is this stuffy feeling? Some sort of PTSD shit, huh? 」
Perhaps it was the feeling of vulnerability, due to the lack of initiative he had over himself in his current situation.
And perhaps being unable to rely on his ESP perception due to the psionic barriers within the Bastion was what really nicking at him.
「 F**k, these are all red flags! 」
Nuek glanced around - gray walls lined sparsely with crusted fluorescent lamps, the floor made of metal grills clanged and thudded under the stomps of their footsteps.
The imminent interro- meeting with the captain of the <Bastion>.
The intimidating steel doors he passed by along the corridor leading to rooms he knew nothing of.
Surrounded by unreliable and untrustworthy NPCs everywhere.
Unarmed and unarmoured at the moment.
Nuel took a deep breath and exhaled solemnly - his veteran-gamer instinct kicked him hard in the gut-
「 ...I need a backup plan! NOW! 」
Nuel pulled up his [ Character Status ] screen and his eyes inadvertently caught onto the total <XP> and <Unallocated Skill Points> he had accumulated.
.....
At the <Bastion's Command Bridge>.
"7th Platoon Leader, Second Lieutenant Haellen, reporting. The civilian, Mr. Calibre has been escorted for the appointment, sir!"
"Thank you, lieutenant. And this must be Mr. Calli-Callibray?. Glad to see you. I am Captain Nyala Vycter, of the Thacon City Administration's 16th Battalion, 3rd Thacon Infantry Brigade as well as the commander of this 37th Far West Recon Company...
...Have a seat, Mr. Callibray, I'm sure you have a lot of questions, since you kind of lost you mind, hahaha!!! But before that could you tell us what happened?"
The captain was a man in his forties and unlike the lieutenant lady, he had a greasy jolly face worn all the time, despite his sinewy tone and unnecessary-abrasive speech.
「 ...and his intentional mispronouncing my name! 」
Nuel circulated his <Talent's Active : Tranquil Aura (Basic)> on himself.
A faint calming power slowly washed over him, and boosted his [ COMP ] stats.
_____
Nuel's [ COMP ] stat has been increased from 1.25 >> 4.52.
_____
「 Stay calm. 」
"That's correct, sir. I actually lost my memories and the only thing I remember is waking up in a capsule bed or something, then..."
He noticed that while he was talking, the soldier standing behind the captain - wearing a military uniform instead of an exosuit - was eyeing somewhere behind him while he spoke, seemingly waiting for something.
Nuel gulped.
"...then, I was chased by a smoke monster. I managed to lose it at some point, but I was suddenly hit by a terrible headache...and that was when the soldiers came to rescue me..."
"I see, I see... So do you like remember anything before waking up, like what research experiment you were in for, or who were the researchers?"
"Sorry, I don't know..."
"What about who you were, your family, your work...?"
"...I don't know..."
"...Then would you tell me again how did you end up where the soldiers found you?"
Nuel mentally swallowed a gulp.
"...Yes, when I first woke up, I was in a capsule bed filled with a kind of liquid. Then-"
The suspicious soldier eyed somewhere behind Nuel a few more times almost inconspicuously for a before a radio call comm-ed in.
>"Charlie 1, Charlie 2, over."
The captain smiled apologetically before he replied into the <PTT Radio> device handed over to him by that soldier,
"Go ahead Charlie 2, over."
>"Charlie 1, Operation Echo, one-eight is clear. I say again, Operation Echo, one-eight is clear, over."<
"Copy that. Charlie 2 may resume previous engagement, over."
>"Willco, roger and out."<
"Sorry about that, where were we? Right, your memory loss. Hurmm, so you really don't remember anything, huh, I see, I see...
...Actually, you may apply to join as a conscript in this company and you will have access to the full medical benefits of a Thacon soldier. I have enough authority to do that at the very least..."
"...And it would provide you with an identity to access the Administration HQ, located in the Upper District of Thacon City Inner Ward, the safest place around here. What do you say, Mr. Calibre?"
"...?"
「 That change is f**king too quick! The way he speaks, heck, even the way he called my name, just turned a hundred-eighty degree! So, it really was that! There's an esper nearby! 」
As a veteran playing 「 ex Umbrae Online 」solo with the [ Class : Soldier ] for the past six years, Nuel had made it a habit to cast surveillance on his surroundings while on the move, using abilities such as <Skill : Trained Perception (Advanced)> or ordnance gadgets such as a <UAV : Light-Class Reconnaissance Drone>.
This would prepare him with increased [ Initiative ] against any hostile ambush.
This time, stirred by the uneasiness he had felt, Nuel had used up 75% of his current [ Max.XP ], which amounted to 22.5 points, and converted it into 1 <Unallocated Skill Point>, making it a total of 2 points now.
Then, he used the points to increase his Level 1 <Ability : Precognition (Basic)> up to Level 3, activating it to achieve similar boosts on his [ Initiative ].
Although, he could not use it to survey his environment like his ESP talent, he could use it instead to see about one and a half seconds into the future - which was obviously better.
And that one and a half seconds which he saw into the future was a sequence of unreasonable events leading to him getting held at gun point by the other soldiers in the room!
He could not guess how the situation would lead up to that, so within the time-span of first greeting the captain earlier till he took a seat, he listed all the probable causes and filtered them out based on his years of playing the game.
And that was how he came up with the unexpected deduction; there were Deviants onboard!
Or rather, he was under the scrutiny of a Deviant, and the captain and the rest of the soldiers within the room were there simply to contain him should he failed the Deviant's examination.
And a Deviant fitting that role would only be the [ Class : Esper ] of the Telepath-type!
A bad match-up against his!
Horrified by the worst case scenario he came up with, Nuel chose to activate his <Talent's Active : Tranquil Aura (Basic)> - which would raise his [ COMP ] stat - instead of his <Lv 1 Ability : Delusory Shroud (Basic)> - which would hide his mental presence.
If he used the latter, the hypothetical esper would immediately notice his psionic 'disappearance', giving him away right on the spot.
The Tranquil Aura ability on the other hand, although still weak at level 2 at this moment, would be able to increase his [ COMP ] stat slightly, guarding his mind from any psychological attacks that may come from the hidden telepath.
And not to mention, a composed mind would better protect his surface thoughts from being 'read' by the other esper after all!
However, when the radio-call came in, that was when Nuel realised something.
From the sounds of it, it might be that the captain was simply trying to sound him out, through using an esper or the more likely possibility, utilising some sort of psionic lie-detector device, to check whether he was lying about his memory loss.
Thus, using the <Active : Tranquil Aura (Basic)> had been the right choice after all, although for an entirely different reason.
The immediate change of the captain's attitude just proved everything.
「 Phew, that was f**king close!!! Fortunately I used my Precognition earlier. Or else, I'd end up somewhere worse." 」
Though at the end of the day, he still did not know why he was held at gunpoint in the vision in the first place.
「 I wonder what the f**k was that all about...??? 」
The interro- the meeting did not last long, and after a few more exchanges of empty pleasantries, Nuel was soon escorted back to the <Medical Bay>.
He was relieved yet very alert, he had actually underestimated his circumstances then.
「 F**k, I survived that...but spending all that XP now feels a bit too wasteful! 」
Then, a familiar airy voice tickled his ear.
"What's with the frown, pretty boy? Did you forget, we're going to have a real nice~ talk somewhere?"
「 F**K! 」
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
agnozan
agnozan This is the first time I wrote a romantic scene (or how it came to be) so there might be a lot of erroneous mistake here and there. Truthfully, though I've dated before, I have only superficial knowledge on the subject, so I beg for your understanding.
If you have any criticism, feel free to leave a comment, I'll be sure to read and act on them.
Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
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