Opportunity likes to knock

"And when I came to, I woke up here in the hospital. That's about it."

"I see..."

"You really don't remember who brought you here? Nothing at all?"

"Nope. All I know is that if I can ever figure it out, I owe that guy a drink."

"Hmm."

In the private room of a hospital named after a saint, a pair of detectives were interviewing an injured security guard who was just about forty years old.

These two detectives were known as Senior Detective Gerard Parker and Junior Detective Aleks Petrikor.

"Thank you for your time, Mister Bolonski."

"We wish you a speedy recovery."

"Don't mention it."

Late last night, the San Francisco Police Department received a very strange anonymous tip about an incident occurring at Hunter's Point Naval shipyard.

Several dozen shipping containers and their contents had been destroyed by what appeared to be a freak accident that somehow combined a napalm bomb with a tornado but with zero casualties.

Sort of.

When uniformed officers arrived at the scene, they had found a pair of unconscious men that they had brought into custody since neither appeared to be visibly injured.

Afterwards, forensic teams would then discover that there was an injured security guard, named Robert Bolonski, who had been witness to the whole event, and a single stolen item... maybe.

They had discovered what appeared to be the remains of an old treasure box imported from Asia. The curious thing about this box, though, was that no document seemed to record anything about there being anything inside it. The only manifesto related to it was that it was purchased from an antique shop, and that was it.

Regardless, since the injured security guard was the closest thing to a lead they got, SFPD figured it would be wise to assign some detectives to the case.

Unfortunately for these detectives, their lead was sounding a little crazy.

"What do you think, rookie?" Detective Parker asked his junior as they entered the hospital elevator to leave. "Do you think Mister Bolonski is telling the truth or tripping on something hard?"

"The nurses said his tox screens were clean, but...his story sounds absolutely insane," Detective Petrikor replied. "I mean...giant robots, trolls, and a literal knight in shining armor all fighting against each other in some kind of nightmare royale? Sounds like something out of a comic book or a movie."

"It does, doesn't it?"

"Yeah...oh! Any word on the state of those suspects?"

"Nothing yet," Detective Parker answered with a sigh. "But I get the distinctive feeling that neither of them will be talking worth a damn either. That hobo was rocking the colors of an infamous biker gang from the Midwest, while the scientist had a logo related to one of the biggest chemical companies on the East Coast. I wouldn't be surprised if lawyers for both magically appeared out of nowhere the moment we started asking questions."

"Does that mean we're at a dead end?" Petrikor asked, with a slight sense of defeatism in his tone.

"Not exactly...we just need to find one more suspect."

"Another suspect? Who?"

At this question, Detective Parker had pulled out his phone and began to watch footage he had acquired from the security systems at the docks. Unfortunately, the quality was quite grainy and a good chunk of it was missing due to the camera being absolutely wrecked by the time the police got to it, but the footage that remained contained evidence that an explosion of some kind occurred the vening prior and that a young man had decided to go running towards it.

It didn't take the detective too much to figure out why this fool was running into danger in the first place. Not after that interview; he had no less than five minutes ago.

"Why, the young man who decided to play hero last night, of course..."

...Now back to that aforementioned man...

*Knock-knock*

"Huh?"

At this moment in time, SK had spent only about ten or so minutes looking through all the inventory, status, and quest-related menus in regards to his new system. Not only that, but he made sure to brush and get ready for the day.

He was just about to open up the [Realms] tab when an unexpected knock came from his front door.

Thanks to the way his apartment was designed, SK could get a clear view from his bed to the front door of his apartment, as well as a little bit of the kitchen and living room, and could hear whatever anyone had to say from his apartment door.

*Knock-knock*

"Hmmm."

Now the presence of someone knocking at his door, especially this early in the morning, was weird to SK for multiple reasons.

First and foremost, SK had no roommates, so the chance that person knocking at his door was someone he knew was already low to begin with.

Second, SK knew his neighbors to some extent and knew they had no reason to be knocking at his door. He wasn't close enough to any of them that he could trust him with something like a subscription service, but he was familiar enough with them to know that they worked in the morning and weren't home until late in the evening.

Once again, the chances of him knowing the mysterious knocker had grown smaller.

*Knock-knock*

This left friends, and the ones SK had weren't the type to suddenly just come knocking...wait a minute...

"I only know one person in the world who would come knocking at my door this early in the morning," SK concluded. "And if it's them... I'm going to have to get dressed."

Now knowing who was knocking at his door, SK quickly changed out of his pajamas and switched to a pair of comfortable pants and a jacket that could survive any type of weather. He also made sure to pack several power banks for his phone, because he was definitely going to need them for himself and the friend knocking at his door.

"Alright, let's do this...wait!"

But before he did anything further, he made sure to grab Platiknight's card and placed it in his pocket.

"Okay, now I'm ready."

Once he was physically ready, mostly mentally prepared, SK opened the door.

*Knock-knock*

"Heyo."

"Finally!" A short woman with short hair exclaimed as she walked through the now open door of SK's apartment. "What took you so long?"

"I was getting dressed."

"Right," she said in a flat tone of voice while eyeing up SK's outfit. "Well, whatever. I need your assistance today."

"You know my rate."

"Of course."

The woman barging into SK's apartment this bright morning was a woman who went by the name of Rachel Reyes.

Reyes was a friend of SK's from back when they were in college together, with the former being an ex-girlfriend of the latter's roommate at the time.

The two kept in contact with one another after graduating due to not only this tangential relationship but also the two of them having similar life goals with one another.

More specifically, Reyes wanted to become an independent news influencer, which fell in the sphere of "independent content creation."

Unlike SK, though, Reyes was a bit more successful. This was mildly annoying to deal with some days, but other times, it was surprisingly profitable. Then again, that might've been due to the fact that he charged her five hundred dollars to be her chauffeur for the day.

"So what's the deal, Reyes? Did you want me to drive you around Golden Gate Park again? Or do you want me to drive you through Chinatown again?"

"Neither! My intrepid chauffeur," Rachel exclaimed while pulling her phone from her purse. "We're actually going to be interviewing an up-and-coming street fortune teller who operates in Japan Town!"

"Say what?"

Without explaining anything further, Rachel tapped a couple of buttons on her screen and pulled out a local news article.

Correction, she pulled out an article from a local gossip paper.

"Take a look."

"Hmm."

…

Japan Town is Now Home to Mysterious Fortuneteller with a 100% FATAL prediction rate.

Situated in a sleepy corner of Japan Town, right next to a boba shop called the Sleeping Jasmine, is a rather innocuous-looking shop.

While the shop itself isn't much to look at, the fortune-teller inside is actually quite the looker herself.

Claiming to hail from a long line of fortunetellers, Madam Myster had spent much of her life traveling throughout Europe in order to learn of the hundreds of ways people have attempted to predict the future in order to refine her art to its absolute limit.

But the fortunes she tells are not for those who fear death.

Many of the fortunes she usually tells are dubious to say the least, as all fortunes are, but this is where things get weird.

Several eyewitness accounts claim that they were present for the fortune reading of their friends, and each one of them was told that a great misfortune would befall them soon..unless they took certain actions to prevent these aforeseen tragedies from happening in the first place.

Some took her advice seriously and didn't fall to ruin, but there were others who doubted her words and paid a price.

One woman was told to stop using a particular brand of shampoo but didn't. Now, she's completely bald because the company that made the shampoo changed the formula, and she turned out to be allergic. Thankfully, her hair is now growing back but its never gonna be the same.

Another was told to put up his dog for adoption to prevent heartbreak but didn't. Shortly after, that dog was killed in a crossfire during a shoot-off at a hostage situation. That dog was buried with honors by the SFPD.

Lastly, one man was told to delete a number from his phone or face a fatal end but didn't. The next day, his wife was arrested for stabbing him fifty-two times in the chest. Apparently, he had been cheating on her with her brother.

Either way, it is highly recommended that if you go and visit Madam Myster, that you do exactly what she says or the consequences could be dire.