Although outwardly, it didn’t show, as Brenden and I walked out of Gnarnia and into my bedroom, internally, I was actually quite nervous.
My Father was very much the embodiment of a Hero, from his justice-driven mindset down to the fact that he had been a cop for nearly 30 years. He had spent the majority of his life putting away criminals, and in a sense, I was the worst Criminal to ever step foot on Earth.
’Heh, it’s good to see I still have one or two emotions intact,’ I thought while the two of us left my room and headed toward the kitchen, where we found my Father setting up for dinner, which, by the way, was fried chicken from the grocery store, a staple in my household growing up.
It wasn’t that my Father didn’t know how to cook, only that his list of recipes was EXTREMELY small; we could basically tell what day of the week it was depending on what meal was for dinner.
This explains why our eating habits were so terrible; IE, Brenden before Emilia and I were both picky eaters.
"Taylor, Brenden, dinner will be ready in 5 minutes; wash your hands and help set the table," Dad asked as he moved about the kitchen, seemingly unbothered by the fact that he was talking to a five and 7-year-old as if we were teenagers.
’How do we do this? Do I rip the ticket or something?’ Brenden asked, utilizing the fact that I had a semi-permanent Telepathic connection between us.
’I assume so. The odds are that when you rip the ticket, a notice will pop up asking you to designate the intended target.’ Shrugging my shoulders and retrieving the silverware from the drawer we stored it in, I set about placing everything on the table in the usual way we did things.
As I did so, I watched Brenden stand in place, seemingly frozen, with a golden slip in his trembling hands.
’You’re worrying too much; just do it, little brother; we will deal with the fallout when it comes. I have already made a shit ton of changes that I expect to get harassed and scolded about, so get on with it.’ Watching my Father out of the corner of my eye, I looked away from him and watched as Brenden ripped the ticket.
Then...
Nothing…
Or at least at first, after all that build-up, when Brenden ripped the ticket and nothing happened, I half expected some fanfare….
FOOOOWOOSHHH
"Spoke too soon," I grumbled while a beam of Golden and Red light shot out from the ripped ticket toward my Father…
THUD
Who instantly collapsed onto the floor unconscious.
"You were saying," shooting me a smug look, Brenden quickly appeared beside our unconscious parent, lifted him, and walked toward the man’s bedroom.
’Care to explain the random delay?’ I asked, trailing behind Brenden, and my Princess carried Dad.
’Ah…well, you were right; it asked for a target and told me the transfer would take 24 hours.’
’That’s not all; there is more to it, I can tell.’ I said while Brenden carefully hoisted Dad onto his bed.
’We have a deadline…Arkadia said that because of Dad’s age and being deceased in the Origin Timeline, we will have seven days to get him to that same rank he was at before he died, or else the Resonance Convergence will fail, and he will die in this timeline as well.’ Finishing his statement, Brenden took a deep breath, which I mimicked, and immediately brought up my inventory.
"You are leaving out something else, say it Brenden,"
This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.
"The only other option is to upgrade his Racial Classification."
"Mother fucking ARKADIA!" Clenching my fist, I, for the first time in many years, felt regret. Had I just waited and not immediately written off that Upgrade Reward, we wouldn’t be in this situation; then again, hindsight is the killer of hopes and dreams.
"Taylor, you didn’t know…neither of us did," Brenden said, trying to soothe my building anger toward myself.
"It’s…fine, its fine…’ I muttered while swapping away from my inventory and to the MISC Shop.
"There is always a way; Arkadia wouldn’t give us this situation without a way to circumvent it; setting an impossible goal, such as Reaching Gamma Rank, when we don’t have the means to do so indicates the other option is the viable one."
"Where is it, where is it…" I mumbled while scrolling through the never-ending list of items until I found what I was looking for.
It was an extremely niche item that, frankly, hardly anyone had ever bought or used in the Origin Timeline, but I, being the neurotic loon who wanted to know every item in the shop, had…
"TSSS, fucking expensive, doesn’t matter, we need it." Purchasing the item, I navigated away from the MISC shop and toward the Token Emporium, where I bought three Linkable ++ Tokens before shifting over to the Resource Store, buying one more thing and then finally settling down some.
"I’ve got a plan, but it will take some preparation," I said, retrieving two of the three tokens. I handed them over to my brother, who gave me a questioning look.
"I have linked those two tokens with mine so that we can all enter the same ++ Instance,"
"Yeah, I got that part, but how does that help us at all, setting aside the fact that we would need to enter one of only a handful of very specific Instances, Even if we run full sprint while taking turns carrying Dad, the odds of us Reaching the Gamma zone in any of them is extremely slim."
"You’re right, but you seem to be forgetting something, my Apparent CURSE with instances; I have a sneaking suspicion that Arkadia keeps sending me to the Caverns for a reason, and if that’s the case, I should end up there again," I said with a smirk.
"Still not helping Taylor, sure, the Caverns is one of the Never-ending instances that have higher particle Content, but unless you have a way for us to blaze through, I don’t see how that helps us."
"Well, that’s because you’re a fucking moron who can’t read between the lines; the Rank Requirement was never meant to be met; Arkadia is playing games with us, the real mission is to Evolve Dad’s Racial Classification, and for THAT, I have a plan."