Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 7: Professor

Isaac scrolled through the news on his phone while he waited for the person he wanted to meet to pass by.

The people of Earth were slowly starting to realize that ‘nothing bad will happen if we don’t make it happen’, therefore, there was little need to panic as long as people would. Just. Stop. Summoning.

There was also rather frightening looking footage of the tail end of a riot in Russia. Someone threw a Molotov cocktail, but a man wearing a suit had stepped out in front of the mob and had plucked it out of the air with casual ease.

Catching a thrown Molotov cocktail was well within normal human limits, especially those of action movie heroes, but making it look that easy … it was intimidating as hell. The protestors clearly thought so, given that the riot dispersed within a couple of minutes of the man calmly pulling out the flaming rag and stomping it out underfoot.

Isaac himself could have easily done it just as impressively if he’d invested all his XP into levelling his person, rather than acquiring aspects. After all, he’d have been Level 7 by now, and given that he was going to go for a build based on Agility and Perception, that was literally what he would have been made for.

However, the fact that already having the Aspects slotted before everything else would influence his future [Class] choices for the better while gathering them was also easier at his lower level had convinced him to do this before levelling up too much.

So yeah, that kind of intimidation was clearly effective as hell, but only to people to who didn’t know much about the intricacies of the [System]. Granted, most people wouldn’t have that knowledge, but Isaac did. If that person was going for an Agility and Perception build, they might be around Level 2, if they were going for a more generalized build, they had to be around Level 5. But any way you sliced it, they weren’t that powerful. Yet they’d already had such an outsized impact on the world.

However, even as the actual level of danger and mayhem were going down, the level of danger actually being reported went up as various news machines got revved up. The ‘this is the end of days’ preaching had reached a new height and people were starting to roll out the first theories about what was happening that weren’t half baked. Sure, people were still claiming the [System] had been created by aliens or heralded Judgement Day, but at least, they were somewhat thought out.

Amongst them was his own essay, the one he’d finished on the train ride back and then anonymously disseminated. It was a rather detailed essay on the nature and danger of summoned monsters, with each and every claim backed by the instruction manual.

He’d used the cash he’d gotten from Calise to buy a brand new smartphone, used air drop to transfer the essay onto it, then used several methods to fuck with the embedded metadata to make it impossible for anyone to identify the device that had originally created the text.

The actual release had happened during a two hour stop in the Swiss city of Chur. Isaac had walked to an internet café well clear of the train station, using [Hundred Faces] to prevent any cameras from capturing his real face.

Immediately afterwards, the smartphone met a swift and final demise as he pulled out and broke any part that looked even remotely important. He’d toss them once he was back in Germany, to avoid anyone from finding the parts along with his fingerprints in the trash near the internet café. If someone was willing to go that far, that was.

It might be overly paranoid, but Isaac was planning on using the identity of ‘Insight’ he’d created as the author of the piece in the future and that might prompt someone to go looking for him.

The essay had gotten a surprising amount of attention, but it was the most detailed and thorough essay on this topic released to date. But parts of the information would need to be verified through experimentation, such as the hard to kill nature of Ephemeral entities.

That meant that whenever he anonymously released anything that wasn’t part of the written instruction manual that had come with the [System], people would likely be skeptical.

What Isaac truly needed was to integrate himself with a person or group that was a public and trustworthy source. That was what had brought him here, to this place, at this time. The biology campus of his university.

The university whose business school he attended actually had three separate campuses, a mathematics, physics and engineering campus just outside the city, the biology campus well outside the city, and a campus downtown for everything else.

Right now, Isaac was sitting on a bench in the mostly empty biology campus, waiting on him. The Professor, Adam Bailey. The most junior professor in the entire university who would become the foremost expert in the world on summoned creatures.

While most professors and doctors were busy making sure their chosen fields of study still worked, someone had to research the basics, just so that such data was available. For this university, that person was Professor Bailey.

The man would not only be doing this from the instant it was safely possible to do so, but he was also smart as a whip.

In other words, the perfect person to work with.

Now, Isaac was sitting on a bench in front of the building he knew the first experiments would be taking place and had been doing so since five in the morning to wait for him. In fact, he’d used [Spectral Shift] to break in and check the lab was still empty before sitting down out here.

As to how he knew where the first experiments had been conducted, it was simple. This place was truly famous. In the other timeline, Bailey’s work had long since moved on to a more secure, purpose-built location, at which point countless documentaries had been filmed in the former workshop of who was arguably the most famous living scientist in the world.

Isaac shivered slightly as a cold wind blew past. It might be early May right now, but it was also still half past seven in the morning and an unusually cold one at that.

After looking around for another few seconds to ensure Professor Bailey wasn’t about to enter the building, he went back to looking at the news. He might have gone through all this before, but he had a hard time remembering everything that had happened twelve years ago, for him at least.

It took another thirty minutes, but Isaac finally spotted the person he was looking for. A tall blonde man, head shaved down to the bare minimum where one couldn’t quite be considered bald, looking like he was roughly in his mid-thirties. in other words, he was as young as anyone who’d earned the vaunted title of professor could possibly be. Fucking finally.

“Excuse me, Professor Bailey.” Isaac said as he jogged up next to the man, speaking English. The Professor was actually from America, so he chose that language to approach the man. And as to how he could possibly know that, it was simple. There was a rather complete profile on all the professors on the University website, even the very new ones.

“Good morning. What can I do for you?” Bailey asked, half speaking, half yawning involuntarily. Clearly, he’d been quite busy.

“Actually, it’s about what I can do for you …” Isaac trailed off as if he were reconsidering his phrasing “Ok, I’m just going to come out and say it. As scary as this whole mess surrounding the [System] is, I also find it fascinating. I asked around and, even as everyone else is desperately making sure the bases of their dissertations are still valid and functioning, you’re going to go exploring the depths of the mystery surrounding the [System]. I want to join your work group at the university.”

“Are you a student, then?” Bailey asked, clearly stifling another yawn as he did so. The last couple of days could not have been kind on him.

“Yep.” Isaac replied, holding up his student ID as though it actually meant anything.

Bailey frowned “Economics student? Don’t you study at a whole different campus?”

“Well, I studied economics to earn money. But now, I want to study what lets me do … this.” Isaac said, phasing the hand holding the card, causing it to drop straight through, only for him to catch it with the other.

“I see. Clearly, you’ve played around with the [System] a little.” Bailey said, then started walking again, prompting Isaac to follow with a wave of his hand “So, give me the elevator pitch, what would make you an asset to my department?”

“Have you ever heard the term LitRPG, Professor Bailey?” Isaac smiled.

“It might have come up in the countless documents that have been produced on the matter of the [System] in the last two days, but I don’t know any of the specifics. Why?” Bailey asked.

“Well, it’s rather simple. LitRPG is an entire genre of novels based around the concept of ‘the world has become a video game’. And I just happen to be a big fan of it with a significant base of knowledge around both it and mythology in general.” Isaac said. Incidentally, he’d also researched precisely which of the novels he’d read in the other timeline had actually been released at the moment. Revealing his secret by talking about plot points that currently only existed in the author’s head would be embarrassing.

“That’s certainly interesting, but I don’t quite see the benefit it would bring to the department. So, tell me in your own words, how would your knowledge help us in the pursuit of knowledge?” Bailey asked. He was evidently intrigued, though he was also clearly eager to keep Isaac talking about this..

“Actually, it’s rather simple. The [System] draws inspiration from mythology, fantasy and pop culture for its creatures and powers. The original might not always match the creature that can be summoned exactly, but a Hydra is always going to be a Hydra, a Specter is always going to be Specter, and so on and so forth. I have a lot of knowledge to spread about context that would require more than a casual google search to uncover. In essence I offer a new and effectively unique perspective, something that should be very valuable while researching a brand new field, no?” Isaac asked.

“However, putting all of that aside for a moment, I’m willing to work incredibly hard, making this the only thing in my professional life. I looked you up in the university website, you literally became a professor less than twelve hours before the [System] initialized, you can’t have had that much time to put together a department yet.”

Bailey just sighed “Has anyone ever told you you’re a bit of a smartass? You’re right, though, on both accounts. A different perspective can be incredibly useful and I could use the help. What indemnity form have you signed? I think the standard lab forms should cover that for today, if you decide to stay with us after today, I’ll get some proper paperwork drawn up.”

“Economics student here, I don’t exactly spend much time in labs.” Isaac reminded him.

“There’s always a stack of those things in the office near the chem labs, you can pick one up there.” Bailey said, then stopped and turned back to Isaac “Given your little display earlier, I’m guessing you have a bit of experience using the [System] and fighting the summoned creatures?”

“I do.” Isaac said, feeling like admitting that might be a mistake, but he’d already said too much to convincingly lie on that respect.

“In that case, let me be clear. What you do in your own time is your business. You’ve clearly come through whatever it was that you’ve been doing perfectly fine, but it’s important that you realize that working with me and my department will be a very different situation. Everything will be planned out ahead of time, carefully executed. Barring an utter emergency, you’ll have to follow that plan.

"No running off and doing that one thing ‘real quick’, order is very important in scientific research. In case there is an emergency, you can of course take action as appropriate. If someone is about to get electrocuted, hit the emergency breaker and so on.” Bailey said.

“And stab the monster if it’s about to rip someone’s face off? I hear ya.” Isaac nodded “I’m here to help and will do that within the confines of the rules you set down.”

“Of course. But just so you know, this will probably be rather boring for you. Like I said, we’re going to be planning a lot, proceeding carefully and writing a lot of reports. You’ve clearly experimented with the [System] a little before, probably fought monsters, but there won’t be any big adrenaline fueled action here.” Bailey cautioned.

“Unless something goes horribly wrong at least, I know. Look, Professor Bailey, I was going to go into business, become a manager at some accounting firm until it’s time for me to retire. I’m no stranger to ‘boring’. And believe me, studying summoned creatures from myth and legend is not going to be boring, even if it takes a bit longer than one might expect.” Isaac replied.

“Well put.” Bailey smiled “How about this, I get the standard indemnity form for today, which basically states ‘I’m going in there of my own free will and I won’t blow up the lab, but I’m also now covered by the university’s insurance’. Then, if things go well and you still want to work here, then I can get you a proper research assistant contract. Sound good?”

“Sounds excellent.” Isaac grinned.

“Great.” Bailey smiled back at him, then gestured at a door they were about to reach “I’m just going to grab that form, then we’ll have to wait for someone for a bit, anyway.”

“Thanks.” Isaac said, looking around the building as Bailey headed into the office. There were quite a few people here, more than he’d have expected given the whole situation surrounding the emergence of the [System]. Then again, if anyone would take one look at a world changing event and then show up to try and analyze it, it would be a member of academia. It was the fear of the unknown that still paralyzed large parts of the world, but these people were going to do their damndest to shine light on the matter.

And now, he was going to become a part of that effort. It would cut into the time he needed to grow stronger, but it would earn him something so much more valuable. Knowledge for all of humanity and all the power said knowledge would eventually allow them to gain.

After all, there were two things that had fucked over humanity in the other timeline. Their lack of knowledge had led to them making serious mistakes and their lack of strength had made fixing said mistakes that much more difficult.

As to how he was planning on combatting that, it was simple. He was going to give humanity the knowledge it needed to both avoid mistakes and grow incredibly strong. Whilst also intervening in a few incidents the other timeline had proven to have incredibly dangerous long term effects.

And lastly, he’d be increasing his personal combat power to the point where he could deal with [Raid Bosses] on an even keel.

Ambitious? Perhaps. But that was what he was planning on doing and what he’d be achieving.