6 Chapter 6 - It Begins (1/2)

I took in her explanations my mind racing, but I had one other question I needed answering before I was ready to get to work. ”Why are you here?” I asked her.

Vanessa frowned, ”I am the representative of the company.” she replied.

I shook my head. ”That is your job. What I want to know is why are you here? You have family, probably friends too. So why this job? You can't go back to see any of them.”

”That is pretty personal.” Vanessa responded with a growl then sighed. ”Though I can't blame you for asking. It doesn't make sense does it?” she asked.

I shook my head.

”Because I am the opposite of you. I have a big family who loves me, more importantly I love them all a great deal.” she told me then paused.

Everything clicked but I wanted to hear her say it.

”Usually we had just enough to get by, but life happens, my little brother got sick, my older sister got hurt. There just wasn't enough anymore. That's when the company approached me. I have always been pretty, positive, and despite our situation, pure. They made me prettier, trained me, and offered a lot of money, all paid to my family for my services here. Obviously the better I do here with you, the more they will pay my family. Though it isn't all bad. With some upgrades I will be able to keep in touch with my family. If we can make this place safe they might be able to come and visit.” she added becoming more animate by the moment.

Visit? Then it hit me, we can't leave because we are linked to the core. That didn't apply to everyone else. Which was why we were worried someone would show up for the Neglism, maybe even Trellion himself. I had noticed that before the reset I had been considered the temporary master of the core. He might have had a plan for the core and not just the Neglism.

”Alright, so what else can I do as the dungeon master?” I asked.

Vanessa gave me a smile. ”There are a few things. The most obvious is expanding.” she told me.

I nodded. ”What about the other climate crops?” I asked.

”Same answer.” she said her smile getting bigger. ”It's just that instead of expanding out, you expand down.”

”Dungeon, of course.” I said feeling stupid I hadn't picked it up on my own yet.

Vanessa giggled. ”Its fine, a lot has happened in a relatively small period of time.” she told me.

I nodded.

The crystal flashed then gave off a chime. A moment later and a screen appeared in front of me.

Incoming holo call, communication upgrade required. Discounted price of 50 iron offered, will you agree to upgrading communication system?

I stared at the stupidly for a moment.

”Yes!” Vanessa exclaimed excitedly.

I looked at her surprised by her enthusiasm.

”That's something I need to talk to my family and it's only a tenth of its normal price.” she explained excited.

Why would they do that? However it was a chance to get it cheap, besides I had a feeling I would need it eventually, not just to make Vanessa happy.

I agreed to the payment then watched as the crystal core flashed brightly for a moment. Then a realistic holographic image appeared beside the crystal. Problem was I recognized the person in the image. While the companies evaluation of me being someone who wouldn't be missed wasn't far off, there was one person who would miss me. That person was the one shown by the holographic image. It was my cousin Candice Xavier. A bright bubbly beautiful blonde three years my senior who hated the way her mother treated me growing up. While we might be considered cousins, I had always viewed her as my elder sister.

”Candice?” I asked suddenly frightened and angry. Why was she there, were they going to use her to threaten me? Why? I hadn't gone against them.

Candice's image looked around the room then looked me and Vanessa over carefully. ”This is so COOOL!” she said excitedly then danced around a bit.

What in the hell? Then I groaned. Whether or not they were going to use her to threaten me was unclear, but Candice herself obviously didn't know anything about it.

”How did you even find this gig Jason? I mean long term immersion pod tester? Seriously?” she asked still dancing around excitedly.

I glanced over at Vanessa hoping this was closer to the truth and everything else had been a joke.

Vanessa shook her head.

I sighed, I felt it was better to believe Vanessa at the moment. If this was all just a game, well I would wake up eventually.

”Candice!” I said loudly to get my sister's attention. When she got excited she had a tendency to go a bit crazy, reeling her in could take some effort.

”Sorry.” Candice said regaining her calm a lot faster than normal. ”This place just looks so good. Once the testing is over I am sure it will be a popular game!”

I nodded ”So how are you here?” I asked.

”You took off for three days without a word. When I went to look for you Envision Games contacted me. Let me know what you were up to. They even offered me the position of the store side company rep so you had a friendly face to interact with. Pay is much better than that assistant manager spot at the coffee shop.” she explained with a smile then frowned. ”Though the fact you signed up as for a year long immersion without letting me know is a bit irritating.” she told me giving me her angry eyes.

How the hell was it possible to feel guilty about something I didn't do? Yet here I was trying to formulate an apology when I wasn't even the one at fault!

”Sorry Candice, it wasn't his fault. He was a emergency replacement when our previous tester backed out. The company was supposed to send out notifications to the family but it must have gotten lost in transit.” Vanessa spoke up covering for him.

Candice gave me another glare then let it go. ”Nice to meet you Vanessa, I will be your counterpart from now on. I hope we can work well together from now on.” she said to Vanessa all smiles.

Vanessa smiled back. ”I am sure we will Candice, so what are you calling for, and introduction?” she asked.

”Huh? Oh no. There was an update to the alerts about a Trellion. Seems he is the guy I am replacing, I heard he had given you some trouble. Anyways, the report is that he isn't a threat anymore. He and another group teleported into your region but were wiped out. We are currently investigating the cause and if it will have any effect on you and your farm.” Candice reported shifting into her professional mannerisms and tone.