Low Res Bird

"Why do I keep forgetting that the parking around here is godawful?" Rachel complained as she got out of the car.

"Because you pay me to drive you around whenever you decide to visit the city," SK replied as he exited the car as well and loaded up the parking meter. "Especially since our public transit system hasn't had an overhaul in years."

"Fair point. Hey, keep watch of my stuff while I get prepared here, okay?"

"I know, I know."

The drive from SK's apartment building to Japantown was a little under ten to fifteen minutes. However, this estimation was made before traffic and parking were factored in.

Once SK factored in these two variables, the aforementioned ten-minute drive would quickly balloon into being a twenty- to thirty-minute drive with the added frustration of other people trying to drive around him. Needless to say, all of this traffic crap was the exact reason why SK charged his friend money to be her chaffeur for the day.

'Wait... is this why I have [Driving] as a skill on my status screen?' SK thought to himself as he waited for Rachel to finish her preparations.

Rachel's preparations weren't anything too absurd for an independent journalist influencer of her size; she simply applied some light make-up to her face and attached her phone to a specially made phone gimbal that doubled as a powerbank. Once everything was in place, Rachel pressed record and turned on the charm that rocketed her to several thousand paying subscribers.

"Hi everybody! Welcome back to 'Rey of Truth.' My name is Rey-Rey, and I am here to illuminate your life with knowledge."

'Oh dear heavens above, why do I keep forgetting how much I hate that intro?' SK mentally groaned as he watched his friend do a live version of her semi-famous introduction.

"Today, we're going to be visiting, interviewing, and getting a reading done by a famous fortune-teller that has been making headlines, Miss Myster," Rachel told her audience with all the flair and bluster she could muster.

'Why do I get the feeling I'm about to get sucked into that aforementioned reading?' SK thought to himself as he watched his friend continue to vamp for her audience. 'Wait a minute, what the fuck is that?'

As Rachel continued to put on her performance for her digital audience, SK noticed that circling above both of their heads was a weird-looking bird.

Now, as a native to the city of San Francisco, SK was used to seeing birds circling above his head, such as seagulls and falcons. 

In this case, though, he couldn't help but be a little suspicious.

Because the longer he stared at the bird circling above his and Rachel's head, the more and more he began to notice that it looked oddly... low resolution, for a lack of a better word.

If SK had to make a comparison, he felt as if he were staring at a low polygraphic model of a bird from the late 90s being placed into a game created in the late 2010s. It didn't look right, but at the same time, he couldn't really pinpoint why.

Unfortunately, SK couldn't spend any more time staring at this strange bird because Rey-Rey had just finished her latest video's introduction and was now ready to go and meet Miss Myster for realsies.

This meant that SK was now on camera duty until further notice.

"Make sure you get all of my clickbait angles as we enter the shop."

"And your clickbait angles are the ones that involve your butt being subtly off to the left?"

"Amen."

…One Quick walk to the shop later…

"Oooh, this place is so…mystical."

"That's…not wrong."

The moment they walked into the fortune-telling shop, SK had wanted to make a snarky comment about the fact that the place was incredibly cliche. But after the night he had last night, he knew better than to mock a place that may very well be the den of another one of those Arcanis System guys.

That stated, neither SK nor Rachel could spot the head nor tail of the mysterious owner of this shop. Whether or not that was a good thing was highly debatable at this point in time.

'I really hope this Miss Myster chick isn't anything like that hobo wizard guy.'

"Hello? Anybody here?" Rachel called out in that oddly fearless way that all influencers seemed to have.

"I'm in the inner room, my dears," a voice that was alluring as spice-infused honey called out from past a bead curtain-blocked door. "Don't be strangers now, I know why you're already here."

"Well then, it'd be rude to keep a lady waiting," Rachel said while exaggerating her expression a tad for the camera.

As for SK, he simply followed along with the camera pointed in Rachel's direction. As well, he made sure to finally ask the Superhero System, the question that had been burning in the back of his mind this entire time.

…

'Well? Is this Miss Myster another User?'

[Pbbt! Pbbt! Error! Error! User level is too low to enable enemy detection. Please fulfill quests until the user has reached the appropriate level.]

'Seriously?!'

…

"Oh wow! You are way prettier than how the news articles describe you to be," Rachel exclaimed with shock.

"I get that a lot."

The moment SK and Rachel entered into what appeared to be the fortune-teller's actual place of work, they were greeted with the vision of a comely woman with raven hair, green cat-like eyes, sunkissed skin, and dressed in an outfit that appeared to be made of indigo silk and decorated with stars.

In other words, the picture perfect definition of a mysterious soothsayer that was definitely more trouble than they let on.

'I guess this is Miss Myster."

"Oh! Wait, I forgot, my name is-"

"You're…Rey-Rey, aren't you?," Miss Myster interrupted. "You're here to interview me for your show, yes?"

At this question, Rey-Rey let out an audible gasp.

"Oh my dear heavens, you are able to see the future!"

"No, no. Nothing like that," Miss Myster laughed as she dismissed the claim. "I am simply a fan of your show. I really enjoyed that interview you did with that Chinese chef you did down in Redwood City."

"Mister Chau's Lotus Bowls?"

"That's the one!"

"Oh! I love meeting my fans, especially when they just so happened to be my next interviewee!" Rey-Rey exclaimed with delight.

"Well, I hope that whatever answers I give can be enlightening to you and your viewers."

After this pleasant exchange of greetings, Rey-Rey proceeded to ask a series of questions that were answered with as much information as Miss Myster was willing to give, which was quite a lot.

In the span of fifteen or so minutes, Miss Myster explained that she had originally started off as an archeology student pursuing a doctorate before falling in love with the art of fortune-telling while traveling through Romania. After that, she traveled through parts of Europe, parts of China, and parts of the Middle East in order to perfect her craft by studying under various master soothsayers.

Incidentally, some of this information was already known via prior discussions people had with the fortune-teller being shared online, but it was always nice to get confirmation on whether or not these conversations were true.

Eventually, though, Rey-Rey got to the main meat of her arrival.

"Well, this is all truly fascinating, Miss Myster. But… since you are a master fortune-teller, do you think that I could..."

"Get a fortune told?" Miss Myster finished with a smile in her voice. "But of course. In fact, I'll make it for free."

"Yay!"

"And you know what? Just because I'm in such a great mood, I'll also give your cameraman over there a free fortune reading as well," Miss Myster said in a magnanimous tone while looking over at SK.

Evidently, SK wasn't expecting to be called out like this and was a little flabbergasted at this turn of events.

"Tell me, young man, what is your name?"

"Me? Uh, Stanford technically, but most people call me SK."

"Really? Nobody ever calls you Stan?" Miss Myster asked in a teasing voice.

"Only one person."

"Ah, SK it is then," Miss Myster capitulated before gesturing SK to pull up a chair at her table.

"Now, would you two like me to read your fortunes together or one at a time?"

"One at a time. Please!" Rachel answered before SK could provide any input. "

"Very well."

Once she was given the go-ahead, Miss Myster extracted from beneath her table, a set of tarot cards.

"Now then, how would you like for me to read your cards? A cross-formation that can read not only your past, present, and future but also your potential and reason? Or would you prefer a simple three-card spread that forgoes those last two pieces of information?"

"Well, they do say knowing too much can cause one's plans to deviate...but I just have to know! Give me the five-card spread, please!"

"A good choice."