Mirror Mirror
Michael walked up the low and wide steps that led to the terrace of the grand City Convention Center in Munich. Just like anyone else, Michael had always dreamed of a red carpet that welcomed him to the award ceremony for his Nobel Prize. This was not exactly that, but it was not too far off. Physicists and their dates from across the world dressed in their best dinner suits and evening gowns and slowly made their way into the center for the International Physics Convention 2021 dinner gala. The entry line Michael was in seemed to advance slower than the adjacent ones. He threw a quick glance around him and hoped he did not stick out like a sore thumb as the only tall young man in this even where most were past their prime.
At last, Michael reached the top of the stairs and pulled out his invitation for the check in. The rumble from inside the hall was spilling out to the terrace.
"You are good, Dr. Best." The man checking the guest list declared in a slight accent.
Michael walked inside, and the convention hall was ten times more crowded than he had estimated. He found a relatively isolated corner beside a potted plant and quickly brought out his tablet to check his mission objectives once again.
[Physics System
System Issue: Energy Asymmetry from Supermassive Black Hole
System Engineer – in charge: Mikael De Besches/Michael Best, Level II Systems Engineer
Target World: Earth, Year 2021
Overall Goal: Restore Universal Gravitational Field
Objective 2: Search for Antimatter Universe
Skills attributed: Speech, Teleportation, Strength, Luck
Speech: 20%
Additional Language skills: German
Teleportation: 3/4
Strength: 40%
Luck: 20%
Wealth: 50 USD, Earth
Equipment: LSI Table U89MDB; USV Portation Band]
Michael closed the tablet and walked over to mingle with the crowd in search of a certain Dr. Maximilian Weber. Dr. Weber was a renowned physicist who was famous for two things, for receiving a Noble Prize in Physics for discovering a family of subatomic particles that explained the existence of antimatter and for being notoriously reclusive. He had a picture of Dr. Weber saved in his tablets, but if only pictures spoke the truth. Michael would need luck and lots of it if he wanted to find Dr. Weber in this sea of people. He clicked on the luck parameter.
[Skill: Luck
Current Level: 20%
Maximum Level: 120%]
Michael heatedly tapped the word, luck, a couple more times, but that was all the information the tablet had. He sighed and tucked the tablet away in the inside pocket of his tuxedo. He then straightened his bow tie and walked towards the center of the convention hall, hoping to overhear anyone speaking of antimatter. However, all the guests talked about was the recent decimation of the largest bridges in the world.
"I only ask if there is any white wine." A lady's loud German words steeped in frustration rose amid the general murmur of the guests and reached Michael's ears. He turned and found the lady gesturing animatedly at the waiter.
"Madam, it is at the bar." The waiter responded in broken German. "at the bar, at the bar."
The old lady wildly shook her head and hands both and continued to demand white wine, very unlike her otherwise matronly look in her bottle green ball gown dress.
"I can help here." Michael interceded and informed the waiter, who sounded American. The young waiter nodded. Michael then turned to the lady and spoke in flawless German, a language he did not know twenty-four hours ago. "Madam, there is an open bar with white wine."
The lady gasped with delight as she heard Michael's word and did not wait too long to make a beeline for the bar.
"Thank you, Man!" The waiter sighed with relief, speaking in an American accent.
"I will know that southern drawl, no matter what language it is in." Michael was amused yet happy to meet a fellow American at the convention unexpectedly.
"It is my first job," the waiter said, "cannot afford to lose it. Tell me what you want, man. Let me fix you up."
"No, no. I am good." Michael was never much of a social drinker. And he was on a mission today.
"If you need anything, find me. I am serving in this section of the hall." The waiter left his parting words as he moved on to serve the rest of the crowd.
Just then, Michael felt his tablet vibrate in his inside pocket. He sneaked a quick look at his tablet and found a new notification pop up.
Michael then swiped open the entire message and sure enough, his luck attribute had gone from twenty to thirty percent.
[Skill: Luck
Current Level: 30%
Maximum Level: 120%]
Michael was now aggressively looking for situations to help out with, in addition to searching for Dr. Maximilian Weber. As Michael mingled with the crowd, he prevented wine spillage on a lady's dress, helped an owner find their dog, offered his suddenly materialized lighter to a man for smoke, danced with a lonely looking woman, then danced with two more lonely looking women, and even served water to an old physicist who would not stop coughing. Michael could feel his tablet vibrate every time he completed a task.
"Thank you, thank you," the physicist said in clear, albeit accented, English.
"No problem at all, Dr…" Michael's eyes had already begun to widen even before the old man offered his name.
"Dr. Weber, Dr. Maximilian Weber."