“The Cosmic Anomaly Investigation Bureau?”

  Arthur repeated after him, unsure of whether he had heard the name before or not. Even if he hadn’t, he wasn’t sure why it would be important. It was probably from some other universe. Universe A is what Dean had said. If he had used that letter as a substitute for calling it the very first universe, then wasn’t that a little presumptuous?

  Dean Farland nodded and walked to one of the many lavish chairs laid across the room and took a seat. Arthur sat on the bed with his legs down to make sure that the man had no view of the underside.

  “The CAIB was formed back when the Collapse finally hit our universe. It was an immediate reaction by the United Nations to combat the growing threat of the parasites. I am sure there’s something similar in your universe, but with a different name?”

  Arthur shook his head, “Not really. We…aren’t aware of the multiverse at all. Nobody knows that it exists; there’s no threat like what you say.”

  “Must be proximity, then.” It felt like he was talking to himself now, “Given that there’s only a limited amount, then maybe the energy signature of the source did not…tell me this.”

  He looked back up at Arthur and came back to this world. The teacher immediately started paying attention once more.

  “You mean that the parasites are not present in your universe? And you mean that you did not face the massive aerial earthquake which broke ninety-eight percent of our satellites?”

  “Nope. Nothing like that.”

  He nodded, “Well, that’s what happened with us. About two years ago, when the barriers between all the universes collapsed, it was because of a source. This source exploded, which led to the barriers collapsing. And alongside the destruction of this source came the spread of the parasites that started giving everyone these weird abilities.

  “For the longest time, we have been trying to find the universe of this source. That is because in our universe, the invasion of the parasites was the worst. They attached to anyone and everyone, regardless of if they were capable of handling one or not. It is like a cancerous disease that’s slowly killing millions upon millions of our people. All we want to do is find and destroy the source of these parasites so that they can be free. Are you keeping up?”

  Arthur nodded. He hadn’t really thought about the parasites at all, ever since he got one. But he had indeed found out quite a bit about their nature. How they followed the rules of a video game, or how they were somehow related to the strange laboratory that he had been in earlier, on that strange planet. Now that he thought about that, that teleport had probably been his first visit to another universe.

  Could that have been the source universe that they were looking for? If he told them that, would it mean that they would be able to save all of the people who were dying in their own universe?

  No. Not just yet. He needed to be a little bit more cynical here and think things through. These were the same people who had lied to King Arthur and were clearly playing along with his little story. They had kept quiet when he had mentioned Multiversal Domination. What were the actual motives of the CAIB? Were they even actually called that, or was that a fake name too?

  “I understand your apprehension. It is natural, and completely valid.” Dean said, “So, I will just explain a little bit more. I come from Universe A. That is where the CAIB is located. Now, it’s called Universe A because it is the one where we are located. It only makes it easier to narrow things down and make reports about. I could tell you a lot of things that we know if you are interested, but under a limit.”

  “Under a limit?”

  “The multiverse is a strange place, Arthur Cross. But I have found it is also way more political than it is fantastical. Information is a resource that is rarer than the rarest mineral in the times we live in now. I will give you three questions to ask me, and I will ask you three questions in return.”

  Arthur gulped and considered the offer. As someone interested in science, this was a victory he could not let slip. He wanted to know more about the multiverse. And now that he had been forced to think deeper about the parasites and their nature, he had no reason except to pay attention. His curiosity would get the better of him, and he knew it. But that didn’t mean he could say yes to everything.

  What if Dean Farland asked something dangerous that could put Arcadia’s group in a disadvantageous position?

  “Don’t worry. I have nothing against you, so I won’t ask anything that will compromise your personal mission. I have also understood in the last two years that everyone here has their own agenda. Pushing mine on others is not the way I intend to save my people. You ask me about our knowledge, and I ask you about yours.”

  “Fine.” Arthur nodded, “I’ll do it.”

  “Perfect. Then, as a show of good faith, you may ask first.”

  Arthur did some quick math to prepare himself for that. He already knew what he wanted to ask. It wasn’t directly related to the parasite problem, but something that he thought could lead to the answer to it anyway. So, he asked, “You call yourself Universe A. Consider that is the first universe, how did you figure out there were 1782 in total? That would make the last universe BPN, is that right?”

  Dean nodded, “That’s right. We haven’t reached Universe BPN yet. Not on foot, at least, but we do know basic facts about it. Essentially, the moment we figured out how to open up portals into other universes, we started making small probes that could do the same thing.”

  “Wait, you mean…you do not need parasite powers to open holes into other universes?”

  Dean shrugged, “Not really. Also, I’ll let that slide as a sub-question of the first. But no, we do not require a dedicated person to open our portals. We did that with our own science. Either way, we sent probes in every single possible direction and figured out that there are eight universes that are directly accessible from ours.

  Then, each of those has eight more attached to it. By repeating the process over and over, we were able to keep sending probes at lightspeed until they hit the barrier at a total of 1782 different universes mapped. All of them were given designations from A to BPN, and have slowly been making our way through them all.”

  “But isn’t that a weakness? If you consider yourself to be A, you lose your actual position in the blast radius of the source.”

  “We know. And we have slowly been working on how to fix that. For now, we have been considering the so-called Universe AHG as the Source Universe.”

  “Universe 891. Right in the middle.”

  “Yup.”

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  “I guess that makes sense, but there are many other things that wouldn’t make sense. For example, you would theoretically be closer to the source universe than the universe I am from, so AHG will not be your answer. After all, you felt the ripples from the blast, but it was weak enough to not be felt by the time it broke our barriers. So, the source will be somewhere between A and AHG.”

  “Except we didn’t know that till now. We haven’t come across a lot of intelligent universes until now. At least not ones where we would be able to have proper scientific communication like this. So, we have been shorthanded. Once I pass on this information, though, I am sure they will be excited to narrow it down further.”

  “I mean, yeah. They should basically be able to get the answer if they can figure out what code is my universe and then use some basic calculus to check the exponentially decreasing effect of the blast’s aftermath.”

  “Sure.” Dean nodded, “Now, I understand science a bit, but I’m not that smart, so please…a bit simple. Let’s move on to my question now. Why are you here?”

  Arthur considered it very carefully. The answer Dean had given had been simple and straightforward. He had held nothing back and proven that he was being honest. It was only right to return the favor. But was it something he could do? Elle, beneath the bed, had made no effort to stop him. So, maybe it would be fine.

  After all, the CAIB clearly knew about the assassins, too.

  “We’re tracking down the person who has been trying to kill all versions of Arthur Cross. For that, we came here to get a curing potion that can help us lift a curse on someone and get her to talk.”

  “Ah. The curse on the assassins? Personally, we weren’t able to undo it, but I wish you the best on that. Thank you for answering truthfully. Now, your second question.”

  “Alright,” Arthur prepared himself. He could ask them what they were planning with King Arthur, and that was his ultimate intention to find out. But at the same time, it was probably better to ascertain the character and motivation of the entire CAIB first: “What is the goal of the CAIB once the source of the parasite has been destroyed and your citizens have been freed?”

  Dean gave him a sly smile, “That is a smart question, Arthur Cross. I am afraid I cannot answer it very well. I might be the Lieutenant General, but even I don’t know everything that goes on in the head of our Director and the United Nations. Right now, our goal is to just save our people. No matter the cost, we will do that.

  Every single soldier working for the CAIB either feels greatly for the human race or has a personal stake in this operation. A mother, a father, a sibling, a lover. Many joined because their loved ones were taken by the parasites. So, if your question is about what we will do once that has been done, then we don’t know the answer. For us, even getting rid of the parasite has been a dream for two years.”

  Arthur couldn’t blame him for that reaction. He hadn’t seen this reaction himself, but he understood just how invasive the parasite was. If your body wasn’t compatible, it could lead to horrible consequences for everyone involved. To see someone you love go through that was probably very difficult. He imagined his version of Celia, back home. What if she got infected someday?

  He nodded and replied, “I understand. It is a difficult situation, and it was a question in bad faith. I guess…you can ask the next question.”

  “It is not trouble. Being cautious is a good thing. Being aware of what is going on at all times can save many lives.” His eyes wandered all over Arthur as he spoke. The teacher nervously shifted his position, but managed to stay inconspicuous. Then, the officer asked, “The second ability. How did you get it?”

  Best to be completely honest here. Arthur had already messed up once with his previous statement, so he could repair that by giving him as much information as possible. And that was exactly what he did. In as short a time as possible, he narrated the events of what had happened without mentioning too much about Vil and his story. He just framed it as ‘another dead version of Arthur Cross’ and left it at that.

  Instead, he paid special attention to the game mechanics and the research lab on the strange planet. This was probably their source universe, if they could track it down. In fact, if they could get one of their own men to gain a second ability by some luck, they could give him a tracker and potentially go there with ease. Dean liked this, too. There was a genuine, positive spark on his face as Arthur narrated the idea.

  “Very good. Thank you so much. This changes a lot of things, for a lot of people.” He looked at the door and then nodded to give Arthur permission to ask his next question.

  And this one, he had already decided upon a while back.

  “Who are the other people in the Round Table, and what do you want from King Arthur?”

  “That’s two questions.”

  “It’s a single compound question.”

  Hanging around with an English teacher who constantly got on his nerves with technicalities had been a blessing. Mainly because he liked it when she did that, but it had also come into help right now.

  Dean groaned, “Fine. I’ll bite. One of the other men is Staff Sergeant Eudon Belrose. The one with the blue marble eye. He has a Time Module and has been one of my best friends ever since the Bureau was formed. If you can trust me, you can trust him. The third is actually Arthur Cross. A Private First-Class who has proven himself useful over the last half a year and become indispensable after the assassin threat was found out about.”

  S, they did have an Arthur Cross. It was only obvious, since they knew about the assassins. Suddenly, the idea he had given them earlier – about getting someone a second parasite and letting them track the source universe – did not sound that great anymore. Dean had been clear with his intentions. They wanted to save their own people, ‘no matter the cost’.

  “We’re here because we need King Arthur’s abilities. His module is a special one that allows him to communicate with the parasites directly. He can hear them, talk to them, and give them instructions. Right now, it is limited to just making them stop all functions, but we believe we can teach him how to move past that and truly be able to talk to them. Like that, we can find out more about the motivations of the parasite itself.”

  Arthur was confident that that was not going to work. He could tell that to Dean right now. The ability to properly talk to the parasites was probably locked behind an upgrade, which would only be possible by levelling up somehow. But before he could warn him of that, the Lieutenant General continued,

  “We will get you the potion by tomorrow. In return, I want you to take this vial and leave immediately. Leave King Arthur to us. We will not hurt him in any way. We just need his abilities to save our innocent civilians. Make that deal, and we can go our ways. I will control his outburst.”

  Arthur could figure it out later, then. All he needed to do was get the vial and leave. Then, with Vil and the others, they could slowly figure out what they needed to do with King Arthur and this version of Celia. Getting out right now was the primary objective. He stood up.

  “It’s a deal.”

  The moment he said that, he felt something that he should not have. A hand on his ankle. He looked down, and so did Dean. The officer, somehow, did not have any reaction at all. As if he had known this was the case, and he had been waiting for it to happen. Elle used his leg and pulled himself out.

  “What do you have here, Arthur Cross? You didn’t tell us you were having guests over.”

  “Elle…” Arthur whispered.

  The man reached into the pocket of his suit, eyes locked on Dean, “What did you do to both of them? Why are they all grown up?”

  “I am afraid your team’s three questions are up, Arthur.”

  “Shut the fuck up and answer the question, you bastard.”

  “I am not obligated to any answers anymore. What is so difficult to understand about that?”

  Elle pulled his hand back out, and with it, a pistol. Arthur felt a chill go down his spine. He hadn’t seen Elle like this before. He didn’t even know that the man carried a gun in his suit.

  “What the fuck did you do to them?”

  Dean Farland sighed and raised his hands, “Mr. Cross, I believe I have a question left, do I not?”

  Arthur did not reply. If he needed to choose a side here, of course, he was going to pick Elle. Deal or no deal, it didn’t change the fact that Arthur had messed up by not asking this question earlier. His scientific curiosity had caused him to be drawn to questions about the parasite instead. He should have been worried about the kids. He should’ve given some thought to them. He was a disgrace of a teacher. Arthur reached out for the katana and his back and took it out.

  “Answer his question, Lieutenant General.”

  “I believe I’ll ask my own, then.” Dean stood up like a tired old man and immediately stood straight, “Do the two of you have any final wishes?”