Chapter Two - Time Testing

I'd like to say that I reached some deep understanding and that it changed everything, but... that wasn't quite the case.

Instead, I started to walk.

It gave me time to think, and seeing the city sane and whole... or as sane and whole as it ever was, reassured me that things weren't that bad, that the breach hadn't happened yet, that I was safe.

I'd heard about things like PTSD, and I'd always dismissed them as something that happened to other people. I didn't think, even now, that that was what I had. I was just, rather sensibly, nervous.

The adrenaline high was coming down, even if there was no adrenaline high to begin with.

So I wandered and let my thoughts drift, only keeping a bit of attention on the second trigger. Now that I knew more about the magic I had, I decided to relabel the triggers in my mind. From A and B to 'Save' and 'Reload.'

It was a bit cheesy, but I'd played my share of videogames and the terminology stuck.

My feet brought me to the docks. It was a less populated part of the city, but not one of the least-guarded ones. Actually, it was the opposite. The docks ran for a few miles along the shoreline next to Fortress ENE, with a thick cement barrier blocking it off from the rest of the city. It was a barrier with dozens of entrances and openings to let trucks and the like in, but it was there all the same.

Out in the water I could see several large towers. All cement. They were capped by a rotating top onto which a gun platform was affixed with the barrel over the 'side' so that it could aim all the way down. Each pillar had a small base around its bottom, near the water, with a few small boats tied up and more gun emplacements of the smaller variety.

If there was something that came in from the ocean, it would have to be able to eat 16-inch naval shells for breakfast.

I could remember seeing six of those towers on fire one night, just a few days ago. There had been a huge boom that sent a wave across the water as one of the ammo dumps went up.

I shivered, then hugged myself closer. The lapping water, the splashing of waves, it felt calming.

What was I going to do now?

My power seemed... pretty niche? Kind of useful, though. I was still not sure how far back it went. I supposed I was testing that now. But even if it only went back a few minutes, then that would be worth a fortune.

In the right hands, that could shake up the economy.

When delving, it could mean that every team knew what they were going to face long before they went in, because in another time that never happened, they had gone in and reported back what they could.

I would be locked in a box somewhere if the wrong corp got a hold of me.

No one could know, then. I'd have to keep it to myself.

Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any outward signs of anything. My power was subtle. The fact that I was a D-ranker... well, that'd show eventually. It took time for a body to improve. If it went according to common knowledge, then I'd grow a little stronger, my reflexes would sharpen, I'd be able to take more of a beating.

I'd be a little hotter?

That was nice. D-rankers weren't exactly model-like, but being at the peak of healthiness was usually a good way of looking... well, good. The longer youthfulness certainly helped. The better endurance helped too, I supposed.

I moved over to the side of the pier and sat down, legs dangling over the edge. What was I going to do?

I watched some boats gently rumble past, then a tanker from some far-off shore came in and was tugged along into place next to a part of the docks where several cranes started to unload it. I felt my jaw tighten when I saw some of the containers were painted a deep blue with an NG logo on their side.

NetherGain. One of the larger corporations that dealt with portals. They had several dozen delving teams and smaller corporations under their umbrella. A modern-day Freeport, if that company handled extraction in other worlds.

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I sat up a little straighter as a cop car rolled past. It didn't stop for me, just moved on, but I could feel the crawl of someone's attention on my back for a moment.

This sit-down and think thing wasn't working out too well for me.

I needed to act. But acting right now felt too risky. NetherGain would have to be dealt with.

I was far, far too low on the ladder of command to be told who was responsible for what. But I had suspicions. There were a lot of those going around. Who stood to gain the most from the disaster was a pretty hot topic of discussion.

I glared as a boat with a billboard skirted along the waves. There was the big, smiling face of the incumbent mayor. The election would be in six months or so, and I knew he was going to lose. And he wouldn't take it well.

Who else? Who could have wanted the city basically gutted?

The one person I knew wasn't responsible was myself and the innocents of Fortress ENE. Maybe the monsters on the other side of the portal too, for all that they didn't seem to mind a bit of hyperviolence once they were free.

They didn't strike me as strategic enough to plot and plan the entire breach.

"Fuck," I muttered quietly.

Two things were obvious. Someone had planned that breach, and I needed to get a lot stronger if I wanted to live through it.

Standing up, I dusted off the back of my jeans, then glanced back towards home. A glance at the time on my augs showed that it had been an hour and a half since the moment I triggered my 'Save.' Time to see how well that worked.

I pulled the Reload trigg--

I was back by the van in the parking garage next to home.

"Wow," I muttered.

I felt less tired, but somehow more jittery. Maybe the calming waters had worked to sooth me a little, but this older me didn't get the physical advantages of that.

"Alright," I said as I scooped up my grocery bags. The time was the same as it had been. All that introspection had only taken a fraction of a second, and it didn't feel like there was anything stopping me from 'reloading' again.

What if I set another Save? Would that override the first?

I tried it, moving to the other side of the van and setting down a new Save trigger. The Reload option was still there. No way to go back to the previous 'save.'

So, only one return point.

That was more than anyone else received, so I'd take it.

Now. If this me, the me of this now, were the real me, what was the best course of action I could take to accomplish my goals?

I needed to be stronger.

Joining Luna Corp again could help. I knew how it worked, and it would put me in places where I could best use my foreknowledge. It was also work. Cool powers didn't make me rich... not yet. I'd need some cash to spend on the stock market before that happened, and even then, how big would the returns actually be?

God, I had so much to think about.

I needed... more power. The way to do that was diving and fighting. Spending mana and pushing oneself, but also gaining a better understanding of yourself? I wasn't too sure about that. The ways to progress were kept... if not hidden, then at least a little private, at least from normal people.

As a D-ranker, I might be able to get in on that.

More personal power was good. More corporate power was better.

Then what?

If I needed to change the city, I'd need other sorts of power too. Social, at least. I needed the credibility that would come with that, to convince people to listen. That meant a reputation.

Which of course, would fly in the face of my work at Luna Corp.

Could I split myself in so many directions?

Could I afford not to?

Maybe this whole power wasn't just another chance. Maybe this blade had a second edge.

***