Chapter 1017 (1/2)

“Erickson Steel, I have a simple question that I want you all to answer: what do you fear the most?

“We live in a world that’s been overwhelmed by the strange and impossible. Monsters spawn from nothing and threaten us at every waking moment. We now have pretty definitive proof that the average Level of monsters has been slowly increasing. But this is only our current stage of a two-year long litany of crises. Raid Bosses, Dungeons, and now Danger Zones… the multitude of threats against humanity seems to grow every day.

“I know not all of those of you here listening to me was within a Zone to begin with. Some were suspended in the strange edge lands that are slowly opening up around us. But for those of us who were there from the beginning… Don’t you remember that first desperate taste of fear? Don’t you still have nightmares about the sounds of your neighbors dying and the silence of civilization being found wanting before the invasion?

“During those days, no one was safe. As we struggled to understand the rules of our new world, more and more monsters came. People died by the thousands. So much was new, so much was thrown at us at once. But we quickly realized Stats were important, and that Leveling Skills was possible. We trained. When our guns failed us, we reverted to more primitive methods to fight back. And then we started winning those fights.

“We discovered Villages and the powerful Classes that would give humanity an edge. The area of our influence spread outward. Even the threat of monster hordes wasn’t enough to cow the bold spirit of humanity. But that wasn’t all we had to deal with, was it? Villages were not the safe havens they promised to be. They brought on a Tribulation. And almost one-fourth of Villages we are aware of fell to those Tribulations.

“It didn’t stop there, did it? Then we had a Raid Dungeon and Champions. Which brought forth a Nemesis and the Danger Zones.

“All the while, we have been fighting. We are growing stronger every day. We discover Paths, Soulskills, and Skillsets. Knowledge gets passed down to those who don’t yet have Classes, and we slowly perfect the art of growing strong. Some of us even touched upon images as a means to accomplish our goals. Slowly and surely we have stockpiled our power and built up momentum. The monsters around us are beginning to die.

“Does that, then, mean we fear nothing, Erickson Steel?”

Randidly inhaled slowly, savoring the taste and sound of images from the people in front of him. Although they had begun listening with small, secret smiles, those had faded to solemn attention. Now they simply stared and waited for him to continue. It was clear from their faces, however, that these were not people that had nothing to fear.

Even with Randidly Ghosthound himself standing before them, the most powerful man in the world, they could not be without fear. Not any longer. They had seen too much death in the last few years.

Randidly’s fingers tightened on the podium in front of him. Then he increased the pressure further until he felt the soft wood of the object begin to creak and groan. There he stopped. He didn’t apply any further pressure; he simply stood there and felt the tension in his fingers and the weakness in the wood within his hands.

And he looked out over the group of people present in front of him. No matter what, they need to face it. Our understanding of the System is too shallow for us to ignore our weakness. In this case, blind ignorance of what we are is dangerous.

“Of course we are not fearless,” Randidly kept his voice soft. “We all feel that same fear. The dreadful anxiety as we consider the challenges thrown at us by the System. And now, we slowly wait while a seventh Zone is struggling to complete its Raid Dungeon and join us in New Earth. For that arrival will signal the genesis of a threat that gives us all pause.

“Perhaps then, what we truly fear is change. The System has constantly thrown new threats at us since the beginning, to sharpen us, to force us to grow and change in the way it desires. Currently, we have the impending threat of the First Calamity to scare our children and keep the adults up at night. A threat that could arrive at any time. It could arrive in a week or in ten years. It could never arrive. So we wait, as there is nothing else we can do.

“Does that mean what we truly fear about that threat precisely that it is unknown?”

Again Randidly paused and breathed. His Crown and his core of images hummed. Slowly, the needle was turning as these people listened to him. Which was exactly the point. But if Randidly put names to their fears, would it help?

Or was he making a mistake?

“Perhaps it is not the unknown that torments us, because it has been easy lately to forget these looming threats.” Randidly’s smile turned sharp. “Not just you, Erickson Steel. All of the Zones have grown rapidly in power. To the point that the best of humanity can finally boldly raise a torch in the darkness; the pinnacle of our strength will not be cowed by the System’s current cycle of threats.

“As those fears of monsters, change, and the unknown fade from the foreground of our attention… priorities shift. The Zones are talking about a world capital. There is a struggle for supremacy in arms and in trade. The Orders continue to save people from the constantly expanding edges of our lands, but as their numbers grow the people at the top will inevitably grow fat. They jostle each other, aiming to position themselves for the future rather than helping people now.

“Am I any different…? Some of you are thinking that, I can feel.” Randidly released the tension in his hands. The podium seemed to sag with relief. “No, of course, I’m no different. I’m aiming to position myself for the impending future. I’m as human as every one of you. Powerful I may be, but there is no true escape from humanity. There is no hiding spot from fear. Because fear… emerges from your own mind.

“And since you haven’t had the courage to yet answer me honestly, I’ll tell you one of my fears, Erickson Steel. I fear that while we are all focusing on the future while sacrificing some of the present, the future that I am preparing for… is far from the future that my contemporaries have in mind.”

With a shake, Randidly let his hands drop to his sides. He stepped around the podium, slowly walking to the edge of the hastily erected stage. As he approached, a young boy in the front row stood frozen solid. His eyes widened until Randidly surely thought that the child wouldn’t have the muscles to pull his eyelids open any further, but they kept going.

To the point that Randidly saw the perfectly circular and vulnerable flesh of that boy’s eyeball in haunting clarity.

Randidly stood at the edge of the stage and looked down at the young boy. Then he looked out over the entire crowd and spoke in a voice booming with all the strength of the humming images that swirled around his Crown.