"Huh, I figured you would be in some kind of cocoon or something, not strung up on the wall like a failed Spiderman trying to mimic a fly trap." John quipped, a sardonic smirk playing on his lips as he surveyed the crimson figure before him. "And considering you're supposedly an 'imp,' you really don't fit the bill for what media made you out to be. No pitchfork, no pointy tail… just stuck to a wall looking rather undignified." He added, making sure to emphasis the word 'imp' with air quotes.
The imp, its voice a gravelly sneer, shifted slightly in a futile attempt to rip itself free. "Tsk, of course a idiot like you would imagine us as little red figures with a tiny tridents, a bald heads and long, sticky limbs. Perhaps appearing in a puff of smoke for a dramatic entrance? This you fool, is what we really look like. Oh, but I see you brought some females along with you, what? You plan to torture me by viewing you fornicate in front of me?" Its gaze was cold and full of contempt as it bore into him.
John took a step closer, his expression remarkably calm despite the situation and its words even as the girls seemed to blush or glare at the imp. "Well, whatever your true form, I'm willing to try and make a deal with you, even ignoring your rude words. It's pretty basic one admittedly but I feel it will be more than fair, especially considering you don't really have many other options from what I can see." He paused, letting his words hang in the air, allowing the Imp to fully grasp the weight of its predicament. "So, here's the deal I'm offering: you answer my questions honestly and in return, I will either let you go, kill you, or just let you stay here till your drained dry by Elena. The choice of your fate will be entirely up to you and if you can give me good enough answers."
The Imp's gaze narrowed, seemingly contemplating his words and but a deep suspicion still simmered beneath its gaze. "And what guarantee do I have you will honor your word? You humans would sooner sell out your own mother for personal gain before honoring a promise made with words." It replied, seemingly training against its restraints as a frustrated growl escaped its throat.
"Alice, could you please give me my dagger? I'm pretty sure I saw you pick it up as we left my… Office." John said, turning his head slightly towards his companion, his face utterly devoid of emotion causing her to blink, a flicker of confusion crossing her features but she wordlessly pulled his knife from her dress and handed it to him well Ash and Saya watched from the entrance. The next moment, a sharp intake of breath escaped her lips as John removed a bit of the armor covering his dead arm before, without hesitation sliced a gash across it, causing a thin line of crimson to well up before returning the knife to a mute, shocked and somewhat worried Alice whose eyes darted between the wound and his unnatural, unwavering composure.
Taking his usable hand, John then pressed his thumb against the fresh cut, collecting a bead of blood before holding it out in front of him, allowing the crimson droplet to slowly drip from his finger. "I swear on my blood and essence to keep my word to you. Should you answer me honestly, answering all my questions I will in return either kill you, release you or help you in some way that falls within my limited abilities." The Imp's sneer quickly faded, replaced by an intrigued and calculating look. Swearing on blood was an old method universally understood as an ancient ritual, even if simplified in the way he had just done it still held a lot of weight.
"Change the conditions to be two favors sworn on your spilled blood and I will tell you whatever it is you wish to know along with whatever other information I feel is relevant." the Imp finally said after a moment of intense consideration, its voice still raspy but now holding a hint of genuine interest that made him nod, a silent acknowledgment of the revised terms.
"Two favors in exchange for answers to my questions and any other information you feel relevant, but the favors need to be reasonable and within reason, favors that fall within my abilities." John clarified with a firm gaze. "You can't expect me to suddenly recover your limbs, make you super powerful or drop a giant rock on people out of nowhere and I can't risk fighting those so far beyond my weight class that I end up killing myself either. My assistance will be limited by my current capabilities and the bounds of common sense." The Imp responded with an unsettlingly wide grin. It was a smile that promised trouble and caused him to begin questioning what had made him choose to make this deal in the first place.
"Very well human. But know this: should you not honor your word, my spirit will find a way to get recompense from you well marking you as an oath-breaker, a mark that shall stain you down to your soul for all to know. Even in death such a promise cannot be broken lightly." The Imp's nasty smile intensified, giving the distinct impression of having just made a deal with a devil. What surprised the girls was how utterly serious this creature was, how straightforward it seemed for him to convince it to give answers and seemingly without much effort unaware of the unease and confusion running through John's mind. Little did they truly understand the serious nature of what his oath and the ancient traditions it invoked deeply entailed; they saw only a strange man cutting himself for information, not the true profound depths of what it truly entailed.
"What is the group you work for? Not just the abridged 'it's the gods' nonsense everyone is told," John began, cutting to the chase as he threw the unease from his mind. "I'm talking about what they really, truly are along with what their real purpose is, what do they actually do and want by doing all this." The Imp let out a long huff, a sound like that of air escaping a deflating tire.
"To you they might as well be gods, for that's how strong I've seen them get. The weakest among them could destroy what any of you consider a country with a wave of their hand and the strongest are those who create and blend entire realities to rule over as a means to grow even stronger by feeding off of them." The Imp paused, its gaze sweeping over John as if assessing his worth. "Before you try to say anything about getting that strong or how to reach that level or something along those lines, keep dreaming. It would need a lot of conditions to be met for something like that to happen, a convergence of power and circumstance you can't ever hope to happen and even if it did happen, I doubt a creature such as yourself would ever be capable of handling it." It scoffed. "As for their supposed 'real' purpose and what they really do? I can't answer that, as I don't truly know. I was in charge of helping to keep this area's entertainment captivating for the viewing god-beings well helping with the breeding of various creatures, hoping to create new variants to be used in future and other areas. As for who I work for — it's not just a 'group' — we were under the Jester, who worked for someone beyond even the god beings I just described, all of us had the secondary job of keeping things running smoothly well orchestrating the dramas for our patrons who watched well he delt with his own bosses and the matters behind the scenes." The Imp ground out the information, seemingly being honest but clearly holding back details unless explicitly asked, clearly going against his own earlier words of giving information without being asked.
"Where is the rest of the people?" John continued, his eyes unwavering. "I mean, small encounters and everything is one thing, but there should be a lot more around than what there is, there's too few factions with too small a reach, two years on there should be a lot more or have far bigger territories than what I've been told of about, not to mention even when we did encounter others it's been far and few between. So, explain to me what's really going on." Alice and the others seemed to exchange glances at that. As if they only now seemed to realize this glaring fact. The Imp seemed to glare at him as a flicker of hatred in its eyes for the pointed question realizing he wouldn't be able to play with his words this time before a bloodthirsty smile once again spread across its face.
"If we could send away everyone under a certain age to worlds around ours and changed their reality to make it so they believed the odd number of twins is normal then who's to say we haven't changed your reality to become a focal blending point of some of our other controlled realms? Maybe we chose to destroy most of the people and the rest simply couldn't handle their choices and turned into monsters?" The Imp tried to deflect, its voice laced with malicious pleasure, but John merely shook his head, his patience wearing thin.
"The deal was you tell me honestly, so don't come at me with questions and twisted words. My question was direct and if you're not going to tell me why there are so fewer people and what has truly happened to them then I won't need to keep my promise to you either." John frowned, a subtle warning in his tone.
"Fine." The Imp paused, licking its lips with a tongue far too long to be normal. "I was serious though, with my questions; they tie into what has happened. Us imp's and even our bosses are in charge of different parts of an 'area.' You would assume an area means a large piece of land, a city or possibly even a country, but that isn't correct. An 'area' refers to a large part of a pocket reality. When the big bosses above our own bosses take over and change things like they have with your world they divide it according to the amount of entertainment they could get from the people's choices. Let me try and simplify it for your monkey mind to understand, picture each area as a different TV channel and you people are the shows. The channel number dictates the popularity of the 'shows'. Over the eons that we have been doing this, we have learned to filter where everyone goes and their situations based on what they choose as a class. The least popular, the most repetitive or the most mundane classes get sent here, to channel/Level 6. Slowly, the number goes lower with the rising level of popularity and entertainment. Each level has different events, scenarios and challenges dependent on what has been found to be most popular among the god-being viewers. Naturally the bets are higher the more popular the channel is." The Imp seemed to revel in the growing confusion and frustration on John's face, a glint of cruel amusement in its eyes.
"Those who have better classes, prove to be more interesting or even those with first-time unique classes, get sent to lower levels depending on the potential attention they could draw from the god-beings. Simply put everyone is split up and divided between these areas, with some beings from other worlds thrown into the mix to help spice things up. A majority of them are on the lower, more 'popular' levels beyond my reach. Yours, being this place is for the rejects, the dull classes the ones whose stories wouldn't even warrant more than three viewers if you're lucky so instead we ended up using it as a breeding ground for the beasts and monsters before they can go to the lower areas, a vast, grotesque farm where the god-beings have their chosen's of no interest tossed, occasionally a few use this level as a means to gather souls to feed on since no one cares about trash and wouldn't care if a chosen they picked on a whim was devoured well focusing on their real chosen's on better levels, or so I was told." The Imp practically cackled, its raspy voice cracking before it devolved into a coughing fit, spewing a fine mist that shimmered strangely in the dim light. "It means you and everyone around here who think there something really aren't, your nothing but trash and fodder meant to feed either the beasts or gods."
Taking a deep, measured breath John tried to get his thoughts back in order. It was a lot to process but helped to confirm some of his own thoughts and theories. Even though he was glad he finally got some answers he still felt deeply conflicted. Should he be relieved that he wouldn't be facing the strongest of the strong or upset that his group along with him where considered the trash, the unwanted refuse of this changed world only good for feeding beasts and sacrifices? The insult stung more than he liked to admit well leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.
"And how does that even work?" John finally asked, his voice low. "Suddenly, people disappear from here and get whisked away to the other 'levels' or whatever? What about the planet itself? Does it just… cease to exist outside your preset area?"
"Hahaha! Oh, you're serious?" The Imp's laughter was a grating sound, like stones grinding together. "Well, your planet still exists but split into those levels I had mentioned, each level being a large land mass that is then divided into area's. Each level is then split up into sections with boundaries made of invisible walls to create what we call areas under the control of various imps such as myself and a superior such as what you called 'the Jester'. Normally, it takes about five or ten years before these walls to fall, creating a true unrestricted chaos on the level. It can fall earlier if certain conditions are met though and no, I am not going to tell you what those are as I, myself don't know them." The Imp's eyes gleamed with mischief. "The reason we need a breeding ground is because even if we clone and duplicate a creature repeatedly for use on other levels and cycles, cycles being when we reset everything, we would eventually run out of viable material due to DNA degeneration. Cloning clones tends to destroys or degenerate the DNA strands after a while, making them useless for the more refined and important levels. So, we use the highest level as a base to create and obtain more creatures sometimes getting lucky and spawning a variant. When we find any of those or even something interesting it gets taken for duplication and future breeding, sometimes even as a replacement f for creatures that the viewers have grown bored of." The Imp replied snidely, clearly not going to make any further comments on it.
John's mind was whirling as he put the pieces together. His original goal of getting revenge and destroying the godlike beings seemed to stretch further and further away as he realized the gap between them yet also making it clear he would need to build a force to overwhelm them with numbers and strength over doing this on his own as he realized something, if this level he was on wasn't watched by them like the other ones, barely being noticed then it held the potential to grow without there notice, to take those they deemed trash and turn them into blades that could strike out at them. If this wasn't a tactical advantage on a silver platter that he could fully take advantage of then he didn't know what was.
He fixed his gaze on the imp, who still wore that infuriatingly smug expression. "How can I get to those lower levels?" John pressed, his voice taut with a controlled urgency. "Do I have to reach some level of strength? Get some kind of power to be able to go to them? speaking of which, how could someone who's supposedly repeated this entire cycle over and over and called a 'returner' be dumped here of all places? Someone like that should be on the higher or even the highest level, shouldn't they?" He asked, trying to get an answer there that might help open a way to getting stronger or to other areas and levels.
The imp let out a dry, rasping chuckle, its eyes glinting with mischief. "Huh! You wish it were that easy monkey! If you want to descend to the lower areas, it's not a matter of simply getting stronger." It paused, savoring the moment, before continuing with a theatrical flourish. "You would first need to control the entire area you're currently in, total dominion over its very essence and then do the same for its other areas till the level itself is entirely under your rule in one way to another and then somehow force it to collapse it onto the level below. Imagine it as a massive, destructive cascade; the landmass beneath would be brutally crushed but instead of being destroyed it would be the falling debris well the top layer scatters around creating far more chaos and mayhem, like bits of paper overlapping and merging with what's already there creating a strange collage and depending on if their borders dropped or not, if they haven't various pieces could easily fall into other areas beyond its walls. Either way it creates complete and utter chaos and has rarely ever been done." John didn't know what to say to that or if he could trust it, the Imp had claimed it didn't know how to do it yet then explained a method to do exactly that. He kept silent about it though, choosing to not point it out just yet but feeling it voided his agreement with the imp.
Addressing John's second query it shook its head. "A 'returner'… that's an easy one to explain. If you've watched someone do the same thing over and over, even if they occasionally tried different routes, it inevitably gets boring if their personality always stays the same, it becomes tedious. So, we just dumped them here whenever they pop up. Out of sight, out of mind." A cruel smirk stretched across its face. "But you should be aware that if you do somehow manage to delve lower, the number of people you encounter would multiplies exponentially, by folds of three, to be precise. You'll find beings from this world and countless others alongside it, all crammed together and fighting to control various areas if the level if it hadn't had its walls dropped."
The girls, who had been silently observing the exchange fell into hushed whispers, their faces etched with a mixture of fear and bewilderment as they struggled to make sense of the imp's words.
John though remained outwardly impassive, refusing to let the imp's attitude or its explanations deter or confuse him. His mind was already sifting through its words and picking out the bits and pieces of importance well searching for any advantage he could use. "Last question," he stated, his gaze unwavering. "How do I access the system store? I know for a fact it exists since my sponsor mentioned it but also about there being problems with it this time, I haven't been able to find a way to use it or even check my own stats, ranking or all the other basic functionalities that I should be able to use." He hoped for a straightforward answer but already knew it was just wishful thinking.
The imp snorted, a sound devoid of humor. "You can't. Your class needs to be that of a 'gamer' or a 'system user' to be able to have access to any of that, clearly your patron is either an idiot or felt like messing with you. They are often the most favored classes that exist across the various levels, granted unique interfaces and privileges that grow stronger the lower the level. For them, it's one of the only ways to acquire coin and items from beasts as opposed to having to painstakingly create or hunt for every single thing yourself with hopes of stumbling onto a trader who would take their goods for coin or trade. They tend to have a tremendous advantage, but it tends to cause them to get far too cocky early on, overestimating their system's power or their own ability before suffering a brutal end early on. Or, even better," the imp's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, "their very system ravenously devours them whole when they use up their usefulness hehehe. It's something which I always love to see, it's always immense fun to watch it happen." Its feral grin returned, sending a fresh wave of shivers down the girls' spines.
"How do you even know so much?" Alice blurted out, her voice barely a whisper, unable to contain her curiosity any longer. "I mean, some of the things you've said can't be basic knowledge or something you should know if your only in charge of a supposed back water area. Like the details about the monsters or the duplication process you mentioned and even systems eating people, how would you even have access to that kind of information?"
The imp's grin quickly vanished, replaced by a sharp glare that could cut glass. "I was never particularly good at following the rules to a 'T,' little monster," it sneered, its voice dripping with disdain. "My attack on you should have made that abundantly clear." John looked at the creature with a deepening frown, a clear sign of his growing distrust.
"Well, I have no more questions," He finally said. "Since I don't trust you to be even remotely honest with any looted items or interesting locations, what are the two favors you want from me?" He knew he should have felt a sense of satisfaction at getting some information but he wasn't sure how much of it was true. He was serious about his side of the promise and oath but it was clear the Imp wasn't and broke the agreement, its demands would be the final factor of if he followed through with his side of the agreement or not.