The 44th District (1)

Slowly the names and districts were all coming back to me. The 44th district was a higher end part of the city where most of the rich people lived.

I'm not entirely sure I know what to expect of that place since I only ever went there one time when my dad was still here. He brought us to some fancy restaurant for a business dinner he was invited to.

It'll definitely be interesting to see how things are over there, especially since the start of the apocalypse. I'm curious about the world in general, there's no way this is just happening here.

"Any clue how far we are?" Rika asks while stretching.

Looking at the way point it still showed us to be about an hour out since we are walking there. Fast travel would be really useful right about now but I guess this isn't too bad since the new event is going on.

"Still got about an hour to we reach the district." I say while looking up at the waypoint.

Quite a long walk still.

"So how does one stop being a manager of these systems?" Kallista asks while turning her attention towards Elizabeth.

"I escaped the grasp of the Monarch, he was starting to catch on to some of the stuff I was doing. I changed a lot of Sevarians quests so he didn't get sent into a death trap early but it still occasionally managed to happen." Elizabeth explains briefly.

So she was watching out for me for awhile now, huh.

An interesting thing to keep in mind going forward.

"Sounds exhausting." Rika speaks up.

"Yeah, I got to admit that it sounds like a lot of work." I say with an agreeable tone.

∆^∆^∆^∆^∆^∆^∆^∆^∆

~The third gate is forming. Save me.

∆^∆^∆^∆^∆^∆^∆^∆^∆

A message just blipped across my eyes and then disappeared within seconds but what was that? I couldn't quite read the entire thing, just something about the third gate.

Guess I'll know soon enough I imagine.

One hour later...

The district was finally before our eyes and you could easily see all the luxury homes more clearly. This was the 44th district for sure.

Now how to go about this place is the next question.

"This place reeks of mobs." Rika says with disgust in her voice.

"Means we should be cautious traveling through this part of the city then." I reply while drawing my sword.

Anything can happen here and I'm not sure what to expect since I've got a lot of different enemies to think about. The watchers, random mobs that are on the level of a system user, and even other users.

Not everyone is out here trying to help like I am.

~You are in the right area now. Just look around and you'll find what you're looking for.

Would've been nice living in a place like this, especially before everything happened since this place usually had lots of police patrols.

A relatively safe place.

Now isn't the time for those thoughts, I need to look around since we made it to the right place. I don't see anything unusual but I can sense a different feeling in the air compared to central part of the city.

"Who's that up ahead?" Rika questions while staring ahead.

"Who's wha--" I stopped mid sentence as I noticed the woman ahead.

A woman in blue robes with long blonde hair that went past her shoulders. She didn't seem to resemble a mob in any way. Her eyes were sky blue and she seemed to be carrying some sort of book in her hands.

~It seems you have located Rena, Rena the Witch.

It's not uncommon for witches to be in rpgs or even fantasy manga, but I didn't expect to meet one already. She's also quite beautiful but I don't think she's the type to join the party.

She seems different.

"A user, how intriguing." She says softly.

"We were told to find you. Do you know why?" I question with a bit of curiosity behind my voice.

"That is accurate. I have something you may need." Rena responds while pulling out a strange blue glowing orb.

~It seems she had what we were looking for after all. Truly it does work in our favor.

A glowing orb, probably contains some sort of power or something ancient that I've not ever heard of. But it I'm not entirely certain since I never saw orbs within the game.

"You may take it." Rena says while extending her hand with the orb.

"Um, yeah." I reply while taking the orb out from her hand.

Everything began to change around me as if the world was disappearing, was this a key to the gate? This feeling was familiar, almost like when we left the last one but maybe I'm wrong.

∆∆∆∆∆∆∆

SYSTEM ERROR

∆∆∆∆∆∆∆

I can no longer see anything from the system displayed, what is happening?

"The world's are crumbling and no one has been able to stop him. Is it even possible anymore?" A mysterious voice says while getting closer.

Two people came out of nowhere and began to talk as if I wasn't here but I don't get what's happening right now.

"System users aren't going to understand how to fix it. We need to give him the system to change the outcome." The other person speaks up.

They both wore dark red robes and had their faces concealed. Speaking about the users is a bit new to me but now I'm interested to see where this is going.

"Two gates have already been defeated and closed. Will he be able to close the other 6?" The first person asks.

"Nothing is certain. We are stuck waiting to see what he can accomplish." The second person responds.

Now I'm certain that I'm involved in this conversation, those gates were closed because of me. There is six more gates but I don't think I'm capable of closing all of them by myself.

"Someone is watching. We must go for now. We can't risk the chance of it being the monarch." The first person says before rushing out of the area.

I can't speak to them though, right?