“Okay, so when I said magic-less, I was being a bit colloquial. Technically, every dimension does have at least one form of magic. It's just physically and conceptually impossible to access in any form in this one,” Vivi explained while I lay my head on the broken-down drone and debated killing myself so that I could go become a wizard in another world.

  Sure, the mind powers I could use were cool, but they weren’t magic cool.

  “I think the activation requirements were something like ‘bring a living being's internal body temperature to exactly 1338300°C-ish,’ which just can't happen. Because by that point, it would no longer be a living being. Extremely specific requirements generally make magic unusable, but on the flip side, they're also incredibly rare… they also make for incredibly powerful magics if you can meet the requirements.”

  “What about you? You seem like you're able to walk around in a nuclear hellscape without even breaking a sweat. Could you use magic?” I asked. Vivi had never really explained what being an Anchor even meant.

  “Not this dimension's magic, no. I was able to do that by tweaking my body such that I remained at a temperature that was actually survivable and prevented the concept of radioactivity from affecting me,” she replied, which sounded like she was just applying cheats to herself to me. “However, I can use the magic I chose to purchase from past dimensions. It was a whole hassle to unlock the Asset Package for purchase, but now I can do this.”

  She held out her hand, and a small ball of fire appeared in her palm. Rolling her fingers, the glowing ball spun through them as if it were solid.

  “It was this world where emotional stances were linked with elemental typings. I ended up getting pretty good at hatred… You already know why. Fire ended up being a pretty good addition to my toolkit, considering that when I'm in contact with it, I can make it react to my body like it's a physical object,” she threw the orb into the air and it came down as a knife made of fire. Vivi caught the knife and threw it across the room, it dissipated as it hit the far wall.

  “Fire is a physical object, it's just heated air turned into plasma,” I told her. “What you meant to say is you can make it react like it's solid.”

  “Really? Physics in this dimension is weird. Fire is usually just energy, similar to how light works,” she said.

  The door to the room opened, and Makesi entered in full power armour. Removing his helmet, he let out a huff of air and sat down on a crate across from me. Taking an appraisal of the room, he noticed Aisling waking up on the floor in the corner and made a clicking sound that could be interpreted as a laugh while bobbing his head.

  I added another point to the ‘used to be a lizard’ tally. We were up to three points now.

  She hurriedly took a seat after gaining her bearings. Shooting a glance over at me for a moment before looking away.

  “Thank you for joining us, Ren. I’d like to talk to you after the briefing if you’re alright with that,” he said, and I nodded in response. I appreciated being included and that he was willing to ask. Which was slightly ironic given my Aspect and apparently my first Stat, but honestly, I’d also be fine if he just compelled me to be happy with whatever he wanted. Maybe that’s why I was given this particular Aspect? “Okay, preliminary analysis shows the overlapping dimension has suitable laws of physics for Earth-based lifeforms to exist in it without external aid. We’ll be using paper documentation for the moment as Ren is not currently System-integrated.”

  Aisling passed him one of the folders, and he sorted through it, looking for something. A moment later, he pulled out several documents and distributed them around the room. “This overlap is primarily a class four conceptual encroachment in the form of an ideomorphic merging. The document you have been provided gives examples of notable class four encroachments in the past. This is a four B combinatory merge specifically.”

  Looking down at the page, I started to read the section detailing what the heck that even meant. At least until I realized that this was kind of a waste of time.

  “Hey, do you mind if I just scrape the details from your mind in the form of memories? It would help with comprehension because then I’d gain your personal insights on the subject,” I asked Makesi. “It just seems more efficient than reading a bunch of documents.”

  He turned to stare at me wide-eyed for a moment, his body completely still. I felt myself starting to squirm uncomfortably before he seemed to jolt out of it.

  “If you are capable of such a feat, go right ahead. You have my permission to attempt, so long as you do nothing but take only relevant information,” he said.

  Aisling placed all the folders she was carrying on the box next to her. A curious look on her face.

  I took a look at his mental conceptualization for the first time and frowned. It was both an office from some kind of sci-fi dystopia filled with shadows of people performing mundane office work and an endless savannah at the same time. Both existed simultaneously, not intertwined with each other at all, yet still occupying the same space.

  “I’m going to try and prod the information to the surface. Please process what I say aloud in whatever way feels meaningful to you.” I said, before starting. His mind wasn’t designed like Aurin’s to be easy to read, nor was I trying something simple here given the way his mind was structured. “A mail clerk disembarks from an elevator. He is carrying unclassified information marked for a strategy coordinator.”

  Within Makesi’s mind, the story began to unfold. An elevator appeared, and a shadowy mail clerk emerged with a single document. That document was filled with everything and nothing; it was potential in raw form. The information being unclassified just made it easier for me to retrieve it.

  “Handing the folder off to his superior, the mail clerk bids him a good day. The strategy coordinator, Ren, opens the document, which is a report on a Class Four dimensional overlap located in the southern Tiānlǜ region. Okay, got it,” I said. As soon as the shadowy individual who resolved into me opened the document, I was able to read the whole thing myself.

  It was interesting. The entire region had been turned into a massive field of white orchid flowers and seemed to have virtue instilled as a law of physics. I wasn’t quite sure how that could exist because Makesi didn’t either. It had also stolen the Buddhist meaning of virtue.

  The objective for the team was to enter the region and close a glowing hole in reality that was pouring out Dust. The Dust was causing the dimensions to combine, and this was what happened after a long enough period of Dust exposure. If these unstable regions weren’t closed, eventually they’d begin overlapping to the point that the dimension itself became unstable and collapsed.

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  Dust itself was attracted to sapience, which is why it appeared here and not literally anywhere else in the known universe.

  I was intrigued by the additional information included along with the specific objective. The Tiānlǜ apparently held a very permissive attitude towards anomalous artifacts, as they were called. Unlike Atlas, which censored any mention of them and hoarded them like a dragon’s treasures, there were actual open markets here that sold anomalous items.

  No wonder travel was disallowed between Asia and North America. We were told the travel ban was over a trade dispute on the news, I suppose, in a way that was actually true. They didn’t want the trade of anomalous items to be made commonplace. In a lot of ways, the corporate overthrow of each country seemed to take them in opposite directions from their ancient pasts in the 20th century.

  Makesi tested my knowledge on the task at hand until he was satisfied I knew what was involved with closing the rift.

  “I am curious, why was the story necessary?” Aisling asked. It surprised me that she actually asked a question after I scared her so badly moments ago.

  “The way I see everyone’s mind is like a world in and of itself. Every mind is unique, and therefore, every world that makes up their mind is as well. Makesi’s mind included an office space, so I just had to tell a story that allowed me to get what I wanted from his mind. I can force elements into place myself, but that costs more,” I said, scrunching up my face at the end. “Not a big fan of the cost.”

  “What form does your cost take?” Makesi asked.

  “I find myself becoming more and more disconnected from reality until my body is moving on autopilot, and nothing I think actually resolves into action. Things begin to stutter and time stops flowing chronologically when it gets really bad,” I replied. I’d dealt with it for a while by now, but it still sort of got to me.

  When it was wearing off, that is, I couldn't give a shit while I was completely spent, even if I wanted to.

  “That sounds like she’s spending lucidity, right?” Vivi said. “That seems dangerous for a mind user. You could completely lose yourself if you’re not careful while working with cognition-altering entities. Not that you should be accumulating cost while working with something that alters your cognition. But it’s a hazard either way.”

  “Maybe a normal Whisperer, but her way of interacting with minds isn’t standard. I couldn’t feel her doing anything. There were no compulsions or emotional spikes while she was searching for the memory. That implies she never even touched my mind,” Makesi said.

  “Oh, yeah, you were being accommodating so I didn't actually pay any cost. I just read what you showed me. The only issue I had working with you is that all of your minds on this team are incredibly weird compared to the average person's, like Vivi's is a spider web that seems to span over an endless distance. The spider looked at me once, which I've never seen happen before, minds never turn to look at me,” I said with a shudder. “Normally, it takes one or two words to get a mind to do what I want, either said by me or the target, it doesn't matter. For you, Makesi, I had to weave a whole story just for a single package of information.”

  Vivi seemed to fall into contemplation when I mentioned her mental image.

  “You used the word ‘said’, not ‘thought’, when referring to a target influencing their own mind. Is there a reason for that?” Aisling asked. She was staring at me, her eyes filled with wonder. It was nice to see her getting out of her shell.

  “Oh, yeah, very little a person is actually thinking alters their mental model. Only drastic internal shifts even show up. If I want to make a change, it needs to be conveyed in some fashion by somebody nearby. It's better but not necessary for them to understand the conveyance as well,” I explained. I hadn't really broken this down to anyone ever before.

  Obviously, I had shared my impressions of how I felt about my Aspect to Aurin. But actually talking about it out loud helped me conceptualize how it all worked.

  This was because I hadn't dared actually speak out loud about it the entire time I was at Atlas. They couldn't interrogate it out of me either, because every time they tried sending an interrogator, that individual would suddenly decide they had a moral objection to Atlas's conduct in the middle of the interrogation and then commit suicide out of guilt that same night.

  I know it worked because they stopped trying after the third one. Aurin had a lot more than a measly three attempts used on her.

  She asked me to remove the enhanced interrogation from her memories. I carried those for her, so someone would remember.

  Makesi cleared his throat, “Anyway, enough about Ren's Aspect for now. The information has been transferred through the System to you two. You've seen this sort of scenario before, study a bit of local cultural history so you know what you'll be walking into. We'll begin exploratory surveys later today. You are welcome to join us Ren, however that is not a requirement.”

  “Would it be safe for Aurin to come along too?” I asked, she did say she wanted to go exploring. Where would be more fun to do that than another dimension?

  Makesi looked uncomfortable at the question but answered anyway, “If she stays very close to me, and is properly equipped for it then for the exploratory missions it may not be an issue. Unless we somehow have a complete team wipe, which would be incredibly unlikely right now.”

  “We haven't had a team wipe since we ran into The Children of the Fold,” Vivi said with a shiver. “No fucking way we run into any of those cultists any time soon. I doubt they'd even bother with a dimension like this.”

  That was interesting. There were rival factions? Also, the way they were discussing it sounded like they were discussing their Dungeons and Dragons party getting TPK'd. I guess when you can just reincarnate again with your memories, it would be like that.

  “Do you have unlimited lives?” I asked the most important question.

  “Contractors are generally allocated a limited number of reincarnations and have to earn more through performance bonuses. Vivi is currently down to her last life, for example. Which is why finding you was such a blessing…” Makesi trailed off despite looking like he wanted to say more.

  “It wasn't fair! I died twice as an infant here! Why was infant mortality so fucking high? Biology in this dimension is an absolute mess without a conceptual foundation or any form of magical backing,” she whined.

  Honestly that did sound kind of unfair. Why did those lives even count? I guess they were a limited resource but it felt like you could just game over if you repeatedly died shortly after birth.

  “Alright, everyone but Ren go ahead and leave to do your cultural research and get your gear ready,” Makesi said.

  As Vivi and Aisling left the room they each shot Makesi a gesture that was probably their version of a salute. Thumping their chest once with a closed palm, then again with an open palm, closing it off with pressing two fingers against their temple.

  Once they were gone, Makesi turned to me and sighed, “I have been delaying bringing this up as I assumed you would want some time without a powerful entity watching over your shoulder. However, given your attempt at participating, it is clear you would like to do more than take a break.”

  I nodded in return. Being forced to do nothing right now would probably lead to my suicide if Aurin weren't around to keep me grounded.

  I just couldn't allow myself any time to not be distracted by something. The longer I had for boredom to set in the worse things would get. Because when I was bored was when my mind started to wander, and the only places it would go at the moment were… not pleasant to say the least. The moment I woke up this morning was a great example of the wonderful tricks my mind could do, and it wasn’t even one of the darker thought paths.

  “This is your notification of an official recruitment offer from the Reality Enforcement Bureau. You still have the card Vivi gave you,” he said, which sounded more like a statement of fact than a question.

  I reached into my pocket for it, and immediately found it on my first try in one of my sweater pockets. The card was no longer angry; now it was curious. It was weird, when I looked at the card, I didn't see a mental conceptualization, I saw a colour, and that colour was the colour of its current thought process displayed in a synesthetic manner.

  “Yeah, I have it. Can I ask why the card is curious about my smell?” I asked.

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