The twelfth plane, the capital
Today, although he was still clad in black, his windbreaker was nowhere to be seen. Instead he wore a dark turtleneck and looked at the entering boy with curiosity.
But Zhai Xiaoyi wasn’t looking at him. The office he was standing in the middle of – if it could be called an office – was filled with strange objects.
Whether it was furniture from the turn of the century or even before, tools used for divination techniques that have died out long ago, perhaps just the entire interior of a pawn shop, everything could be found here.
To say that it was unusual would have been an understatement. If it weren’t for the tall windows behind the desk, he wouldn’t have found it strange if he was told that he had entered another dimension. Wasn’t he already used to that anyway?
But when he looked outside, he could see the expanding city and the faraway mountains on the other side of the glass. What was even stranger was that even though the room might have seemed overcrowded at first glance, the more he looked, the more he seemed to understand the order of all things inside.
Nan Zhi gestured for him to sit down on the other side of the desk. He had already pulled out an empty file from somewhere, and held a fountain pen in his hand as he tapped his fingers on the desk. He seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood.
Zhai Xiaoyi sat down. Although the room was filled with all kinds of things, the only thing on the desk was the paper and ink the other had placed on it the moment before. It was made of a dark and sturdy wood, and it had a glossy surface. He looked back up as he listened to Nan Zhi talk.
‘Alright. Where should we begin? Let me write your basic data down first. Of course, this is already in the database, but it seems that I’ll have the pleasure of being your agent. I like to write things like this down, it is harder to get rid of the information. Right, what is your name?’
‘Zhai Xiaoyi.’ He was still looking around the room, only looking at the paper in front of the other from time to time.
‘Great. I’m Nan Zhi, the main representative of our department. The following information, I can get it directly from your ID or you can tell me yourself. It is quicker if I copy your card, but that takes away the opportunity of a heart to heart talk. Which one would you prefer?’
Zhai Xiaoyi just blinked at him, then sneezed. He didn’t know what to say.
‘Alright, alright, don’t wanna talk. Just hand me your ID then.’ Nan Zhi shook his head, and he seemed somewhat displeased.
Zhai Xiaoyi fumbled through his bag and pulled out the card. Nan Zhi’s frown only deepened as he took it from him. Zhai Xiaoyi wanted to ask him if something was wrong, but the other snached his hand before he could say a word.
‘Your fingers are freezing. I didn’t want to say anything, but your hair is also somewhat damp.. Just what the hell did you do before coming here?’
‘You know what, it doesn’t matter. Are you cold? I’ll get something warm for you.’ Nan Zhi let out a sigh as he stood up only to walk to a tall cabinet to the side. He opened it to reveal several piles of neatly folded clothes.
He handed a thick sweater to Zhai Xiaoyi as he looked back at him with dissatisfaction, ‘The one you’re wearing is so thin. No wonder you’re cold.. Ah, humans have always been so fragile. You should pay more attention to your health, how about it?’
Zhai Xiaoyi felt a sudden urge to explain himself, ‘I was working overtime last night and fell into a lake. It’s nothing serious like what you said, only a little cold..’
‘A lake? How does one accidentally fall into a lake.. Well, however you did it, I advise you not to do so again, since from now on I’ll be the one who has to pull you out. Wouldn’t want that, would we now?’
‘Yeah, no, I mean, I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you like that.’ Zhai Xiaoyi was confused. ‘But I won’t ask you to do anything like that. As my agent..’
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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‘The second one is the official app, how it works and what it’s for, things like that. The third is the direct relationship between agents and the actors they are responsible for. At the end, we sign a contract.’
Nan Zhi smiled, but his smile felt strange and cold. Zhai Xiaoyi felt that he couldn’t follow his mood swings at all.
‘Alright then. Do you have any unanswered questions about the worlds themselves?’
Zhai Xiaoyi thought for a moment. ‘Well, this one’s pretty obvious, but why me? The letter even said that my ‘application’ was accepted. I never applied to anything of the sorts.’
Nan Zhi nodded, his expression unchanging. ‘That is indeed a pretty basic question. I don’t know what to tell you, the actors are chosen by the main system. It finds the most eligible humans to act as players in the experimental scenarios.’
‘This main system..’
‘Think of it as something operated by the world’s consciousness. Which.. Think of it as a sort of god who has ultimate power in this world, but isn’t a person nor anything you could understand. It isn’t that its existence is hard to understand, it’s just impossible to explain. With time, you’ll know what I mean.’
‘Right. If the main system has power above all, what does it need the.. like, me for?’ Zhai Xiaoyi’s gaze still didn’t stop moving around the room. It looked as if he was getting ready for a hidden attack, and Nan Zhi found it somewhat amusing.
‘You misunderstood me. The main system does indeed have an amount of power incomprehensible to us, but it isn’t the most powerful being in the world. Imagine it this way; the office we’re in at the moment is the main office of the Federal Bureau, which means that there are side branches of the organisation, right?’
‘These branches all have their own respective buildings in different cities. If I remember right, there is even one in the mountain villages towards the eastern border. Each of these branches have someone in command.’
‘Think of our world’s consciousness as one of these managers. It is indeed the most important being in that faraway office, but in fact there are many others in positions higher than it.’
‘So why..’
‘Doesn’t everyone want their branch to be the best? To work hard and get benefits, fame, to be the most prominent of all? Our main god is just as ambitious as any other. It has its own superior, and the instance worlds are a good way of showing off.’
‘In the instance I was in, two people died. Is that really something it would want its higher ups to know..’
‘You’re thinking with a human’s mindset. You know how many people die in a day approximately? Well I don’t, but it ought to be a lot. What does two more count to someone in the position of a god?’
Zhai Xiaoyi pursed his lips as he nodded reluctantly. ‘I guess nothing.’
‘It isn’t all that serious though. Not everyone who dies in the instances will die in real life.’
Zhai Xiaoyi looked up at him, ‘Then how is it decided who gets to live and who doesn’t?’
‘It’s quite simple.’ Nan Zhi shrugged, leaning back on his chair. ‘Some deaths are necessary to solve certain instances. Those don’t actually result in death, but they hurt all the same. On the other hand, people who throw themselves in danger and court death will most likely get what they want. The world consciousness is not an unfair existence. Any other questions?’
‘I’m not done yet. Let me think for a moment.’ Zhai Xiaoyi thought through everything he learnt from the past few days before asking, ‘Do you live here?’
He first had this thought when Nan Zhi gave him the sweater from a pile of other clothes. The other was completely speechless.
‘I don’t see.. how that would concern our current matter.’ Nan Zhi coughed. ‘Right. Then let’s just proceed with the topics I mentioned.’
‘There are over a hundred genres of instances that any actor can be pulled into at any moment.’
‘Right, I’m sure you’ve already noted that time in the instance worlds is the same as here, and there are additional blank hours as you transition. There is no information as to what happens during these short periods of time.’
‘I’m your agent, but that doesn’t mean that I can actually help you inside the games. They are part of their own completely self-sufficient worlds, and agents can’t enter at all.’
Zhai Xiaoyi suddenly thought of something. ‘But you did enter ours, then isn’t that..’
‘I went there as a representative, not an agent. With a good reason, of course, those in higher positions can enter any instance world. But as your agent, I probably will not be assigned the worlds you enter even if there is a mishap.’ Nan Zhi interrupted him, twirling the fountain pen around his fingers.
‘What was I saying before? Oh, right. The subgenres can be divided into eight main categories. These categories correspond to those in filmmaking. I’m not going to list them for you, it would be a waste of time. You can easily look these up at any time.’
‘This brings up another important thing. The instances are of course based on existing stories. These are usually pieces of literature that people have pitched to our organisation, there is a whole department for those things if you’re interested. The main point is, all of these are stories based on real events that people have survived, therefore they are safe for actors to act out.’
Nan Zhi wrote something on the paper, then crossed it out. ‘Alright. Any questions about this part?’
Zhai Xiaoyi shook his head.
‘Great. Now, I’ve already mentioned this in the beginning, but there is an official app that has been developed to accommodate the needs of all actors.’ Nan Zhi pulled out his phone, showing him an application with a simple white ring as an icon. ’You’ll need to go to the IT department to get it installed.’
The app was called HH. Nan Zhi opened it, and the first thing that came up was a forum.
‘The app has four main functions. The first one is to check your balance.’ He pointed to a corner where a ridiculously high amount was displayed. ‘These are experience points. You get a couple of them after each instance, and when you collect enough, there is the opportunity of exchanging them for whatever you want.’
‘The second one is the forum. This is mainly used by players to ask those with more experience for advice, or by the main branches to promote their projects between players.’
He flicked the screen carelessly, and the page refreshed to show a dozen new posts. These were all posted while he had been explaining the details. Some of them were light green, showing that they had been posted by employees.
‘You can also add other players and chat with them using your serial number. Of course, you can add me too, I even recommend doing that. Employees don’t have serial numbers, so that’s at NZ004 for you. It’s easier to maintain contact like that.’
‘The fourth function is a list of all current players. They are ranked by their success rates, which are determined by matching the runtime of their games and other details you probably won’t care for. Efficiency rates and such.’
‘You don’t have to pay much attention to these rankings though. I mean, I don’t want to be rude, but based on your current efficiency rate you’re disappointingly average. So don’t worry about it.’
Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t feel comforted at all. He didn’t want to be at the top of the rankings but still.. It wasn’t necessary to say all that!
‘That’s all, I think. The last thing we have to go over is the relations between actors and their agents. Let me explain it this way, take it as if we really were in an actor-manager relationship.’
‘I deal with most of your problems, but how you act in your movies and shows is beyond my authority. You can ask me for help any time, except for when you’re in an instance world.’
‘If there is anything you need, just message me and I’ll fix it, but this doesn’t cover your instances. I’m always here to help, but even I can’t just barge into other dimensions. Any additional questions?’
‘Yeah, one last one. The same player told me that seeing ghosts is advantageous in instance worlds. How can I use this for my benefit?’ Zhai Xiaoyi saw Nan Zhi’s eyes brighten. The other reached over the desk and clutched his hand. His movements were so fast that Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t even have time to think of dodging.
‘You’re a seer? It seems that you aren’t as useless as you made me think you were.’ Nan Zhi hadn’t felt this excited since he had almost lost a precious copy of the liver of Piacenza to another collector. He softened his hold on the boy’s hand but still didn’t let go as he asked, ‘Had it formed after your first instance or have you always had it? This is a crucial question.’
‘Always had it.’ Zhai Xiaoyi moved his hand away with unease.
‘Ah that’s right, didn’t you say your surname was Zhai? I thought it was only a coincidence.’ Nan Zhi wasn’t bothered by his expression, instead he seemed even more excited. ‘Who would have known? Back in the day, I used to be acquainted with Zhai Yiran. He should be your grandfather, no?’
Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t know what to say to that, so he just nodded reluctantly. His grandfather was indeed named Zhai Yiran.
‘Great. About your question, I’m not sure I could say anything that could help you. Maybe try stuff out and whatever works, works.’ Nan Zhi shrugged, then looked down at the paper in front of himself and lifted it to fold it in half.
He pulled out his phone again, and sent a quick message to someone. ‘It is time for the last step, precisely, time to sign the contract. I advise you to read it over properly, as you never know when these corporations will get you to sell your soul to them.’ He laughed and put his phone away. ‘Of course our department would never do anything like that, we have more than enough workers..’
The sound of the door opening interrupted him, and the young girl from before walked in. She put a stack of paper in front of Nan Zhi, and went outside just to come back with a small tray in her hands. She placed a steaming cup of tea in front of Zhai Xiaoyi, and left without saying a word.
Nan Zhi leafed through the stack, and separated it into two equal piles. He pulled out the last page from each of them to sign, then pushed both in front of Zhai Xiaoyi, careful not to touch the cup. He put his pen down on top of the paper too, as if to signal that from now on things would be sailing smoothly.
Zhai Xiaoyi reached out, and vaguely skimmed over the first few pages. They were about normal, everyday safety precautions. He turned the page, and let out a barely audible sigh.
Nan Zhi was looking at him intently. ‘Are you not gonna drink? Don’t worry, I didn’t ask her to poison the drink.’
The author has something to say:
Nan Zhi: You’re disappointingly incapable.
ZXY: QAQ
Nan Zhi is even more overwhelming out of the instances
Thanks for the chapter! <3
Thank you for the chapter!!