This chapter is very dialogue heavy and goes into the lore really blatantly. Tell me if you guys like this kinda of thing or you'd rather the chapters be more action packed!
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"Eva, can you check the document to see if the name Caesar has shown up anywhere? " Nick asked.
Eva stopped in the middle of biting down on her piece of rib, to answer.
"Not a single count. "
"Can we focus on dinner now Nick. We can talk about it after. "
Nick felt the warmth of Eva's hand on top of his.
"Right now is our time together. "
"Alright, I'll let it go, then. Focus on the now. " Nick complied.
Eva showed a warm smile before handing Nick some napkins.
"Huh? "
Nick looked down to see BBQ sauce smeared across the top of his hand.
Eva could only give a shrug and look away when met with Nick's irritated glare.
The silence was broken with Nick's laughter, followed up with Eva's own.
It was the little things that brought them happiness and this was exactly what made the two fall for each other.
Once the dishes were empty and loaded into the dishwasher, the pair lounged on the living room couch.
"So is now the right time? " Nick asked.
Eva rolled her eyes before pinching his cheek.
"Like you have to ask. "
Nick showed a smile that signified 'better to ask than be wrong'.
"What's the anomaly doing? "
"Still in talks with the village chief. It's going smoothly from the looks of it so he'll probably be the first player to own a settlement. " Eva replied.
"He'll make a big wave in the community once that happens. " Nick sighed.
"First to awaken in the real world. First to own a settlement. It makes no sense why he isn't noted in the documents. "
"Unless we're in the one timeline where he's just this talented. " Nick sighed.
"Statistically, that's impossible. But even more so we have 200 billion years of info and his name isn't listed even once." Eva denied.
"For the first 10 billion attempts we attempted to regress every single person on Earth to determine which of them would go the farthest."
"While there is room for error, we theoretically should've gotten nearly 99. 9999% of Earth's population. The fact he isn't named even once means his very existence is an anomaly in this timeline."
"We're talking about alternative timelines, there's a chance our timeline held the perfect condition for him to be born. " Nick rebutted.
"That's possible, but our timeline doesn't differentiate that much from the other 20 billion. " Eva shook her head.
"Each of our predecessors made sure that they passed on the document and points only to timelines that were extremely similar. "
"The only possible difference between our timelines may as well be that a random number generator produced a slightly different number or someone got dealt a different hand of cards. "
"Smart. Less variables to account for. " Nick sighed.
"I guess that makes him being left out of every other timeline even more of a mystery. "
"I checked and each record also has the unique DNA sequence of everyone that logged into Alpha. " Eva stated.
"Which by the end of the 2nd year mark, would be almost everyone since we plan to make it a guarantee for every single person on Earth. " Nick noted.
"Yep. While some DNA sequences don't show up in certain timelines, they show up in 99% of the others. " Eva frowned.
"Which makes him being in this timeline even more of a mystery. We're just going in circles at this point. " Nick sighed.
"We know that he's an anomaly, but we don't know why. "
"True…" Eva sighed as well.
Eva snuggled up to Nick's side, the comfort of his body helping her think.
"Regressing someone to another timeline costs 1 million points, Nick. " Eva stirred her brows.
"Yeah, we already looked up the price a while ago. Did you think of something? " Nick asked.
"Where did our other selves get the points to spend so much? "
"From our other, other selves. 1 million points and whatever regressor or plan…" Nick paused.
"Where did we get the first million points to regress someone, Nick? " Eva questioned.
"Anything in the document? " Nick pinched the bridge of his nose.
"We've tried to find out by running controlled timelines that would resemble the original timeline" Eva explained.
"In each we only sent 1 million points for future regressions and passing of the documents. "
"1 million controlled timelines without a regressor, and each one barely scratched 800k points. " Eva sighed.
"Whereas in our timeline, the anomaly already made us 100k. On the first day as well. " Nick groaned.
"Yeah. Even the regressors who have prior knowledge and affinity with mana haven't awakened yet. " Eva frowned.
"The concentration of mana on Earth is barely. 1%, not nearly enough for most people to awaken. "
"But as soon as his mana pathways were stimulated from the game, his real body must've begun sucking mana from the environment for hundreds of miles. " Eva said.
"There was a storm that picked up in the tri-state area without warning. Lasted for 8 hours and reached hundreds of miles. " Nick confirmed.
The pair snuggled up to each other on the couch a little bit closer.
"If what we're thinking is true, there's a real good chance this one might be it, you know. " Nick smiled.
"Let's not get our hopes up too much. We never know. " Eva shook her head.
Nick kissed her on the forehead, a sign of reassurement and love.
"It might not be but I hope it is. " He whispered.
"I hope so too. " She replied.
[A second person on Earth has awakened mana in a day! ]
[Ranked 5th in the Universal mana less starting category! ]
[50, 000 points received! ]