Inspection

"Why me?" Roland asked in confusion. He didn't know anything already about this world.

'If I become his disciple does that mean he gets to teach me? He's already the strongest person I know in this world! plus I can get his protection! But what's the catch.',Roland fell into deep thought.

'Doesn't he have confidence in himself or something? I'm gonna have to be assertive. At least his not arrogant.' The old man thought.

"I don't need a reason, I want you to be my disciple and that's that." The old man said, his words weren't polite but he said them in a gentle manner.

Roland looked at the old man in shock, he looked at Fifi for help but seeing her helpless smile he sighed, he scolded the old man in his head. 'Not like I can resist but I'll be careful in case he wants to use me! Why ask me when I don't even have a

choice.'

Roland nodded and the old man gave him a few strong pats on the back. Roland was than taught the proper gestures to accept a master and he did them.

"From now on you must call me master, tommorrow pay me a visit and I'll begin imparting my wisdom." the man said and sent them away. After Roland and Fifi entered the tunnel, the man waved his arm and the tunnel got covered.

Roland and Fifi quickly returned to the cell, when it was time, Fifi hide in the tunnel. Like clockwork the guard came with food, Roland ate and received some bread and passed it on to Fifi.

"Big sister, is that old man we met earlier strong?" Roland asked Fifi as they slept. 

Today there wasn't any 'comforting' like yesterday but they were close none the less, they were laying next to each other. Roland was nervous at first but he was ultimately disappointed.

"Hmm, how do I put it. He's the strongest person I've seen and I've meet a lot of people but no one like him. If I'm not mistaken he must be a rare powerhouse and could possibly be the strongest person in this whole place." Fifi's words shocked Roland.

'Why would a person like that choose to stay here? Does he want the treasure? Or are there other reasons.' Roland and Fifi shared the same thoughts.

Silence descended in the dark room, both of them in their own thoughts. Some time later, their breathing slowed down and their heart paced, and soon they fell asleep.

_The next morning_ 

Roland woke up and release they were hugging each other, after an akward morning they both sat up.

"I didn't know you were a hugger when you sleep." Fifi said.

'Neither did I.' Roland did felt embarrassed at this moment,when he was asleep he treated Fifi like a teddy bear, he was hugging her like his life depended on it.

"I'm sorry..." Roland didn't was her to see him as a creep.

"No, I don't mind actually." Fifi's words surprised Roland.

Just then, they heard the door opening, Fifi quickly dissapeared into the tunnel stayed hidden.

This time when the door opened, a group of guards were standing outside. Roland who was confused, was quickly taken outside and a group entered his cell.

"Room inspection!" 

One of the guards shouted.

When Roland heard this, his heart started beating faster, it was at this moment that he remembered the inspection the other guards were talking about.

Because of what happened yesterday, the new information and his mind being occupied with other thoughts, he forgot about it.

Roland was brought to the hallway and multiple hands held onto him from different directions, while another group of guards entered the cell. 

'Oh shit! oh shit! What happens when they find the tunnel? Will they kill me? I'm a dead man!', Roland started panicking but he was held down and could barely squirm.

The narrow hallway was filled with other guards and captives, it looked like a black ocean because of their robes. The other guards were also holding onto their captives. 

From the captives, Roland saw his previous 'roommates' including the demi-human boy, Artic. 

'They are gonna find the tunnel! They are gonna kill Me! I'm so dead! I'm so dead!' Roland's intrusive thoughts made themselves comfortable in his mind.

"Done! It's clear!" A guard far away shouted and then like a tidal wave more shouts kept sounding. 

Some time passed and the captive were placed back into their rooms. Roland's thoughts ran wild 'What's going on? Why are they taking so long?'

A few moments later Roland was the only captive left outside the hallway. The other guards curiously came closer, soon the entire hallway was filled with just guards. 

"Done!" 

Just as the guards started murmuring, the guards came out the room holding a blanket.

"The cell is clear! But this smells like a woman, also there are some traces of a woman. " One guard said to another guard, Roland was confused by this.

'Did they not find the tunnel? Fifi must have hidden it!',Roland was confused at first but then he relaxed a bit. Everyone turned to look at Roland and this rebooted his anxiety. 

"Go report it and bring him to Sir Edwin" one guard said.

Roland was than taken away by an entourage of guards. They went down the hallway, arriving at a staircase. There were two guards standing. After a few minutes of walking with a few twist and turns here and there, Roland arrived at an office.

Behind the big chair was a handsome middle age man with blond hair, the man gave Roland a fatherly feeling.

The middle age man was neatly dressed and his hair was combed back. He was tall in stature and very muscular.

The guards waited patiently as the middle age man wrote something down and only after they got permission they reported their findings and afterwords were dismiss. Although the guards looked normal, Roland felt like they were actually scared of this man.

The middle aged man sat back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. His deep and manly voice sounded,"You know, I don't believe in destiny or coincidences but sometimes, something happens that makes you wonder, if all of life is predestined.... makes you think huh?".

"Take a seat!" The middle age man sat up and signalled at the seat opposite him, the man's eyes were fierce. Roland involuntary found himself already seated down.

"Your case is a curious matter. Don't you think, on one hand a woman mysteriously vanished from her cell and on the other, traces of a woman are found in your cell."

"What do you think off this matter? Coincidence?" The middle age man asked Roland.

"I believe that in life we're bound to meet up with coincidences. Humans or creatures of intellelect use 'coincidence' and 'Destiny' as a means to try and explain the things they don't understand. In the end, it's how we preseve things." Roland said nervously. This was something he saw from an online video that was talking about philosophy.

The middle age man's eyes widen. He wasn't asking about that but Roland's matter, but his brows frowned and he said, "Elaborate." 

"Say that a person who previously kidnapped children gets release from prison and following that a few children go missing. Even if he didn't do it people are more likely to believe that he did, because that's what we think is logical."

"Where there's so little evidence people are more likely to go with what they know, where as the entire thing could all just be a coincidence." Roland used one of the many quotes from his previous world .

With a deep 'hmmm' the middle age man fell into silence seemingly in thoughts. He momentarily seemed impressed by Rolands words but his deadpan expression returned.

Roland sat there in silence, as time moved on, he was becoming less and less nervous.

'At least he seems more reasonable then that old man. If I show him my value, I might live for a minute longer!' Roland thought in his head.

Roland looked around the office, the wasn't much technology, no electricity. All the light he'd seen so far was either from a fire or a crystal.

On the large wooden table, Roland's attention was drawn by a mysterious dark blue rock. Roland reached out his hand and touched it.

[Pure Fabric substance was found. Do you want to absorb and boot up the Chaos system?]

Roland heard the prompt in his head, and was shocked. What shocked him was that this prompt was different then the once he was use to, this prompt said 'Pure' substance while the others didn't.

Roland involuntary accepted and the glowing rock started slowly flickering as the light grew dimmer and dimmer. Roland was dazed, the flickering light was mezmorizing. Time slowly passed until the rock disappeared and in it's place, black powder was left.

[Absorbing Fabric Substance, system booting process at 10.24%]

[Absorbing Fabric Substance, system booting process at 12.24%]

[Absorbing Fabric Substance, system booting process at 13.24%]

.....

[Absorbing Fabric Substance, system booting process at 20.24%]

Roland was shocked by this discovery, it took him a lot of time and effort to reach just ten percent and he had used a lot of that strange stone that was in the prison walls but a small mysterious mineral had gotten that in an instant.

Another thing was that, through investigation, Roland discovered that the higher the percentage the more was required to increase it.

Roland was so surprised and happy that he was about to ask for more of that mysterious mineral but than he saw the middle age man's expression.

'Shit!'