Ch37. Alarming discovery
Night came with the tournament finals, and after it ended, she was gritting her teeth because her favorite team lost.
But when Nadia finally prepared a relaxing bath in her tub, with wine and some good music, she heard the ringing of her door bell.
She grunted and went to open the door, with Nikolai and Kurt on the other side.
"Oh shit, sorry guys, I completely forgot about it because Ruler of Mortals just lost the finals of LoA. Get in."
Nikolai looked perplexed.
"RoM lost? But didn't they have the deadly duo, Ruun and Kora?"
"Yeah, right? Go figure." She shrugged.
As Nadia and Nikolai kept having that small talk, Kurt paid closer attention to her.
She did look a bit like Evellyn, but her presence was more like a nerdy effusive girl. Nothing like Evellyn, but she had her own charm.
"Kurt? You there?" Kurt felt Nikolai's knuckles gently hitting his forehead.
"Sorry, I was just thinking." Kurt shook his head.
"Yeah, for so long that we're already done talking about LoA." Nikolai chuckled. "We're ready to begin."
"Actually," Nadia coughed. "I thought I could take a shower before doing this, how about you guys help yourselves in the kitchen if you want something to drink or eat, and I'll be right back?"
"Fine by me." Nikolai shrugged.
Nadia went to the bathroom, and Nikolai just sat down on her couch. He called Kurt to sit with him, but he was busy checking her room.
It looked like she used to record stuff, with cameras, light rings, microphones, and then Kurt connected the dots on why she was so fixated on the game from earlier.
"Does she record the matches and transmits them somehow?"
"You're joking, right?" Nikolai scoffed. "You seriously expect me to believe that Octavius raised you in such a stern manner? What? Why're you looking at me like that? You know you do sound like someone who lived under a rock, right?"
Those words caused Kurt to look at the floor for a few seconds. He was sure he remembered something about it from his previous life.
But he couldn't access the memories even if his life depended on it.
Kurt looked at Nikolai, but in front of him there were two Nikolai.
"What's going on? Why do I feel so..."
And he passed out.
***
Kurt woke up in cold sweat again, with Nadia rubbing a cold towel on his face.
"What happened? Where's Nikolai?" Kurt's breathing was erratic.
He looked around, but Nikolai wasn't anywhere to be seen.
"He had to go back to the... Black Market, but he asked me to take good care of you while he's away. Are you okay? How're you feeling?"
"I see." He smiled faintly. "Did I pass out?"
Nadia looked at him, sighing.
"You don't know what happened?"
Kurt shook his head.
"All I know is that I was trying to remember something, then my head felt fuzzy, and next thing, I woke up with you on my face."
Nadia chuckled, but her face was half serious.
"What were you trying to remember?"
"Do you know what needs to be done to make a system work properly again?" Kurt sat up, feeling less dizzy. "I mean, Nikolai told me you're accustomed with tech stuff, so I thought you might know something about it."
Nadia laughed. Her voice sounded like a crystal cascade to Kurt's ears, which made him focus a bit more on the world around him.
But he couldn't forget the nightmare he had while he was out.
'Whatever that system is, it's definitely trying to kill me, but why?'
"If I know something about systems?" Nadia laughed again. "Kid, I hacked the government than you have socks in your drawer. And they never caught me." She winked at him.
Kurt's mouth went agape as Nadia told him that, and a slight smile ran through his lips.
"Cool. So, what would I need to do for a system to work properly again?"
"First of all, we need to know what kind of system it is. Then, we have to run a diagnosis, and if there's a virus or anything like that, we gotta get rid of it. Why?"
She sat a bit closer to Kurt, her eyes scrutinizing him inch by inch, as if he was something very interesting to her.
"A virus...?" Kurt scratched his chin, ignoring Nadia's question. "What if the system already presented some malfunctions from the very beginning, like glitches, or even some kind of... Bad behavior?"
Nadia frowned, took a finger to her chin, and looked straight at Kurt's eyes.
"Bad behavior and glitches, huh? I could say that the system has a virus, almost a hundred percent sure. OR..." She paused for a moment. "But that's quite unlikely nowadays, since it has more common use among higher organizations aiming towards war or something... Anyway, if I might add one more possibility, I could say that the system 'is' the virus, or at least some bad intent program."
Kurt frowned, countless thoughts running through his head, but he sighed, nodded, and went straight to the next topic, as if dismissing what he was talking about.
"Right, and what about my registration? Can you do anything about it?"
She smirked and it sent shivers down Kurt's spine.
"It's done." She smiled genuinely.
"What?"
"You heard me. I didn't need anything from you that wasn't already in the government's mainframe, so I just rearranged some lines of code, changed one thing here and there, and you're back to life. Also, this is for you."
She handed him a little box.
Kurt opened the box, and found a holowatch inside, all black, but in the same model as Nikolai's.
"Wait... Is it...?"
Nadia smiled.
"You can't use your register without one of these, right? So I decided to give you one of the newest, because you're friends with Nikolai, and he told me you're an awesome wielder. Also, you did me a favor by teaching Laurent a lesson."
"Wow, thank you. I'll repay the favor one day, that's fore sure."
When Kurt was wearing his new holowatch and configuring the basic settings, Nadia saw something blinking in her PC screen.
"Oh shit!" She got up and went to the device.
"What happened?"
Nadia's tone sounded urgent.
"I've been crossing some data regarding the vanishing of the regulars since three years ago, but it had been so erratic that it didn't seem to have a pattern. But I guess you're a lucky charm." She smiled, still unable to hide the worry.
"The regulars' vanishing? You mean the urban legend of the purist guild?"
"So you know about it?" Her eyes went wide.
Kurt waited for her to check the information, so he could see if he could tell her all he knew.
"God almighty in the heavens..." Nadia covered took one hand to her mouth. "It's going to happen."
"what? When? Where?" Kurt looked at the screen, but there was a map displayed in such detail and with so much data that it was hard for him to find the right point where he could focus.
"Seventh Star High, within three weeks from now."
Kurt took a few steps back, his eyes wide in confusion.
"Okay, now I have more than one reason to go back to school."
"Wait, you study there?"
"Yes."
"Then why are you going back after what I just told you?"
Kurt weighed the possibilities, pondering for a while, then looked at Nadia with an serious expression.
"Because there are friends who need me there, and because I'm going to be the one who will start the fire that will burn the New Dawn to ashes."
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