[“So you’re still alive?”]

It was a rather late reply from Radingo.

[“Yes.”]

[“You’re one lucky bastard.”]

There were also other messages from my family’s group chat. I inferred that they were going to come during the afternoon as Lia needed the morning to pack hirs things.

I was currently sitting on a nice, comfy stool. A relatively olden day 90s restaurant which still uses a print menu.

It was grandma and grandoa’s recommendation. More like, this traditional-styled coffee shop located near the condominium is their usual breakfast spot.

Bread with dried coconut shavings, soft boiled eggs, barley drink, western food– to name a few of the common items.

“Do you like barley?”

“Yes.”

There was this one time when Novelle’s sister-in-law made Shin barley tea. He was hooked that day onwards.

“Do we still have the ingredients?”

“We have leftovers I think?”

Grandoa nodded.

“We’ll make you barley drink at home if you like it so much.”

“I don’t think you need to go so far to make so much just because I like it..”

“Barley is good for your health. I’ve wanted to make a pot of barley with aloe jelly for quite some time now.”

“It’ll only take a few minutes. Throw it in the pressure cooker and let everything sit. It’s not hard at all.”

The conversation was going in an odd direction.

Our food came.

I went with grandoa’s recommendation and got myself the soft boiled egg and croissant set. Since I knew the portion would fill me completely, I also ordered glass noodles with tofu.

“Eat more, grow strong and healthy.”

“Do you always eat this much? You still look so thin though.”

“I don’t think it's a matter of being thin or fat.”

“Eat more, eat more. Whatever you want, just tell us alright?”

I nodded with a troubled expression.

I cracked the two soft boiled eggs and poured them into the bowl provided. I added some soy sauce and pepper.

I noticed that my grandoa like to dip hirs sweet bread with the egg yellow. And that my grandma likes her coffee without sugar.

I made it a note to tell the waiter to add less sugar into my barley drink next time.

[“Avner, I won’t be available next week so I plan to call someone else to help you activate your system. She might not be as free as I am so make your arrangements for meeting quickly. Here’s her contact: {/LINK}”]

[Avner, beware.]

I know Randell.

Going against the warning, I accessed the link. It brought me to the account of a private chat. Is this the correct one? I went back to Randingo’s chat.

[“The link directed me to a private chat.”]

[“Just say that you’re here because I’m away. She’ll know what to do.”]

[“Thanks.”]

I mustered up the courage to text a stranger. Is this a necessary part of being a demon? Though, looking at it in another way, the part about camaraderie is true. Being thrown into a life and death situation forces you to connect with others.

[“Excuse me. I’ve been directed to you by Randingo. Are you a demon?”]

Just imagine if the other person on the line wasn’t a demon. They must be thinking of filing a lawsuit for juvenile cyberbullying.

I resumed my breakfast feeling paranoid.

===

[“This is Lucifer, yes, you’ve texted the correct person. Randingo told me about you. I heard from him you were caught up in the incident yesterday night. Are you alright?”]

[“Yes, I’m fine.”]

[“The Seraph has gone to a different zone so the mall yesterday is now free of the threat. Are you able to make it over?”]

The Seraph is gone. That’s good news.

Flashes of yesterday night’s memories caused me to shiver.

[“I’ll be going to the mall again today.”]

[“That’s good to know. I actually work at one of the fast food chains. Do you know Ducklings?”]

Ducklings is the name of a fast food franchise. And as the name suggests, duck meat is a staple ingredient for the items on the menu.

I remember eating duck as both Shin and Avner. Shin didn’t have any particular comments about the taste besides recognizing it as meat. Avner hated the odd smell.

With those two points in consideration, I still think I’m down for ducks. If I find that I can’t handle the smell, I’ll order non-duck dishes. The restaurant also serves your regular chicken burgers and nuggets.

To meet this demon, I need to persuade my family later. We have two elderly to consider too.

[“If I’m unable to make it to Ducklings, what do you suggest?”]

[“Try to drop by at least. Somewhere I can see you.”]

[“Okay? Then you’ll approach me then? Or how should I approach you?”]

[“I’ll act like your senior. You said you were from Saint High, correct?”]

Will that even work? How exactly is she going to dismiss her work and approach me? Plus, doesn’t activating the system require some chanting? Maybe it's different for demons?

[“I’ll try to drop by.”]

I don’t think we’ve ever tried eating at the Ducklings chain in Oala mall.

“Boy! Are you there?” I heard grandoa’s shout.

“Yes, I’m here, what is it?” I made my way out of my room.

Grandma was watching something using her OptAR, she directed me to the kitchen where grandoa was.

I saw xe in an egg patterned yellow apron, scoping out something from the pressure cooker.

“Try some of this barley and tell me what you think?”

“Thank you.”

“We didn’t have a lot of coarse sugar left, so we had to use rock sugar as a substitute. There’s also some red dates inside.”

Not too sweet, not too bland. Since it’s barley and not oat, it’s still got that still watery consistency.

“It’s great. Thank you.”

“Glad you like it. Want some more? We have a lot.”

“A little more I guess.”

“Take it when you’re free alright?”

I nodded.

===

I looked upon the interior of Oala shopping mall once again.

I tensed and loosened my arms. No reaction.

There’s also no message saying that I’m being watched.

I think I’m safe.

“Big bro, did you not sleep well last night?”

“I was up drawing.”

“I thought you normally sleep early,” Lia mumbled.

Sorry for ruining your every day game night schedule.

Because Lia and I share the same room, and will continue to share the same room, we’ll inevitably influence each other’s actions. Directly, or indirectly.

Lia is that kind who wants to stay up late to play games. Concurrently, xe’s aware that by doing so, it would disturb me in my sleep. And so, hirs conscience got the better of hir and xe acts in accordance with my schedule.

We went to various shops to get things like a new mattress, bed sheets, toothbrush and toothpastes. Since there was a swimming pool, mom got us new swimwear. The selection process was annoying, I must confess.

I should also mention that elves, like girls, need sanitary pads. It got me curious. What does an elf’s down there look like?

There was no detailed description of it in <Cookie Cult>. Then again, it’s not like Avner doesn’t know the features. It’s just.. how does copulation work with something like that?

I’ll have to watch porn to figure out, eventually..

Never thought I’d say something like that.

“Where do you want to go for lunch?”

“Could we try Ducklings?”

“Ducklings! Where?”

“I think it’s on the ground floor.”

“We’ve never been there, have we?”

“That place? The food is not bad,” grandma said.

“We occasionally go there just for the duckling dumplings,” added grandoa.

“Ducklings, so everyone is alright with that?”

“Yes.”

My father booked a quick reservation.

That’s surprising. I didn’t think it’d go so well.

Having paid for the items, we split up. One group went back to the apartment unit to place down the mattress and toiletries. The second group roamed the shopping mall while waiting for the first group.

“Hoho, look at this,” grandma was messing around with the AR snowball.

“Can you see it too, William?” grandoa asked, looking at the snowball curiously. William is father’s name.

He nodded.

Grabbed a nearby snowflake which turned into a small snowball, he threw it to grandma.

“Ah!”

“Hahaha.”

No worries, it’s only fooling around. The snowball isn’t a physical thing. If it hits another person’s OptAR hitbox, a frosty outline would appear on their display temporarily.

Meeting up with mom, aether and Lia, we made our way to Ducklings.

2.29.

[Do you have a reservation?]

My father chose yes and pasted the code.

[Thank you for coming. This way to your seat.]

An AR arrow directed us to a seat for eight. A digital duck appeared and wagged its tail at us.

[Thank you for coming, would you prefer to use a physical menu or a digital one?]

The service structure of a fast food restaurant has changed for better or worse. There’s no longer any need for workers to take orders manually. With AI integration, ordering could be done easier without queuing, improving overall efficiently.

The Ducklings in Oala mall is a big place. The restaurant can seat a few hundred people at least.

There’s a take away station over to my right, managed by a machine. You can place orders hours in advance and come with the food still warm.

“We’ll order using the digital menu.”

[QUACK.]

“What do you want?”

“2 sets of Ducklings Dumplings.”

“Double-duck burger.”

“This one here.”

“Wedges with a side of crispy duck skin.”

“Duck wings.”

[We have a promotion for this month. Would you like to try the..]

We were going to eat duck dishes later, yet the AI serving us was a brown duck. Was the design intentional?

[Is that all?]

“Yes.”

[Please confirm your order.]

We checked through the list.

“It’s correct.”

[Thank you for confirming. The food will arrive shortly!]

The duck jumped off the table and dawdled towards a fake duck-only door which glitched into existence.

It was then that from another door which said ‘staff-only’, a supervisor wearing a uniform came out.

My eyes widened.

It was the person who saved me last night.

She went to greet the people over at the other tables. Asking them about their experience and giving a blurb on Ducklings’ history.

She repeated that with a few other customers.

A robot came out from the kitchen with a conspicuous AR sign floating above it, telling us that this is our food.

Noticing that, the supervisor came over.

The robot stopped in between.

“Good afternoon, my name is Lucifer Saunders, is it alright if I help you with this?”

She greeted us with a smile, offering to arrange the food on our table.

“Thank you.”

“No problems.. hm? Avner? I didn’t think I’d see you here.”

???

No, how did she know my name? Randingo told her, maybe?

“Uh.. It’s been a while.”

“Sorry. Avner was my junior, it’s been a while since we last saw each other.”

“Oh, you two are friends then?”

“Very so.”

“You operate this restaurant?”

“I’m acting as the vice-supervisor. The place is owned by my boss.”

“To reach such a position at your age is quite impressive.”

“Oh no. It’s thanks to my boss. She was the one who found me and took me in,” Lucifer said, slightly embarrassed and apologetic.

Though the food came in paper packages, placed according to each person’s order, they were arranged in a way that made them look true to the menu. She gave a brief spiel on how the Ducklings franchise came to be.

“Enjoy your food. Avner, could you come see me later? It’s been a while so I want to ask about how things are going over in school. Um, is it alright if I talk to him a bit later?”

“If he doesn’t interrupt your work, then it’s alright.”

“Okay.”

“Thank you.”

She bowed with both hands placed to the front. After that she went to enlighten the other customers at the other tables.

[“Message me when you’re ready.”]

Lucifer texted. Lia eyed me suspiciously.

“Is she still studying in your school?” Aether asked.

“No, she’s graduated.”

I have no idea.

“So you met her, one year ago? Something like that?”

“I’m surprised that your friend holds a position like this.”

“I didn’t know either.”

I looked toward her direction once more.

Smiling as she talked with the customers. I recalled how she tackled the situation with The Seraph yesterday.

Now seeing her here, serving all these people, I can’t help but think that she’s a really capable woman.

I’m glad she didn’t die.

===

I was ushered past the staff-only door. My family looked at me with a weird gaze.

Behind the door were a unit of machines working in concert. A display showing the various items that needed to be prepared. A timer to the right of each item showing when the food would be completed and the time elapsed since first order.

The smell of food here was appetizing even though I’ve eaten my fill.

“Avner, correct?”

“Yes.”

“I almost mistook you for someone else. I didn't think you’d be the person from yesterday night.”

“It’s alright. I should be thanking you for saving me,” I lowered my head.

“No problems. It’s my duty as a fellow demon. Follow me.”

“You work here?

“Yes. I operate in these waters, pretty dangerous territory.”

I followed her to the back office, passing through the storage unit and freezer unit. The office had numerous displays lined up showing different metrics. From the remaining ingredient stocks to the revenue numbers today.

Lucifer waved all of it away. She sat me down.

“I won’t take too much of your time, your hand.”

My hand?

“You mean this?” I showed her the gold tattoo.

“Yes. I’ll have to break it.”

“You do know that I go to school with angels right?”

“I can’t activate the system if you have that thing on you. It hinders any interference from demons. And if you don’t know, I’m putting myself at risk just by being close to you. This thing is a tracker that marks demons. Trust me, it would be better if you got rid of this. If the angels truly trusted you, they wouldn’t be taking advantage of you like this.”

I’m being used?

I held out my hand.

“Thank you.”

Now that she’s said this much, my doubts are increasing.

Angels or demons? Why would Cain spare my life and even go all the way to provide me weapons so that I could protect myself? Which side was good, which side was bad?

She pressed her finger in the center of the tattoo.

It began to fade. I felt a weight lift off my shoulders.

“Now, to activate your system. I need you to close your eyes.”

“Before I do that, can I ask how it works for demons? For angels, they do a prayer.”

Lucifer heaved a heavy sigh.

“For angels, they need to do something holy. For demons.. anything opposite of that.”

“Which means?”

“Just close your eyes and don’t open them.”

“Okay..”

“I’ll kill you if you open your eyes before I tell you to do so.”

That’s a little scary to know.

2.30.

The buzz of the machine in the background, the sounds of chattering in the main restaurant. My eyes were closed. I heard her rise from her armchair.

“Don’t move.”

She whispered.

Her wet fingers pressed against my lips.

“Keep your eyes closed, don't open them..”

“Still closed.”

“One moment.. mn.. okay. You may open your eyes.”

She finished by dabbing my lips with a silk cloth. I raised my eyelids and saw Lucifer with a bright red face.

And on top of her head was a floating black crystal with a complex design.

I see. So that’s the crown.

I don’t think I should ask how exactly she activated my system. Better wash my mouth after this.

{REVITALIZATION OF SYSTEM}

{CENTRAL CONNECTION ESTABLISHED: YOU MAY NOW USE SYSTEM FUNCTIONS}

{ERROR}

{ERROR}

{You have been invited to join 4SEAS}

Errors?

“Is this normal?”

“Which one? No, what is this? Did the angels tamper with your system?”

“I don’t know.”

“Normally you only have these two lines. I’m not sure what the extra errors are about,” she pulled her hair around her ears.

“As for this?”

“Join my fleet.”

“I’m a fledgling.”

“You can’t fool a veteran. You definitely have experience.”

“If I join a fleet, doesn't that mean I’ll have to join the demon’s side?”

“Yes.”

I shook my head.

“If that’s the case then sorry. I just want to live a peaceful life.”

“Which is why you should join our fleet. I used to be like you. I thought it was possible to make peace with the angels.”

“Is it really not possible?”

“From my experience at least.”

This is troubling.

“If what you want is a peaceful life, then you need to gain strength and stability. Don’t you agree that-that’s correct?”

“Yes.”

“Even if you don’t actively participate in our activities, you’ll still get some form of benefit. And that benefit you can use to upgrade yourself. That’s how it works. I want to help you survive, now it’s: do you want to help yourself?”

“True..”

“So, what do you say? I’m just trying to lend a hand to a comrade in need.”

“Fine. You win.”

{You have accepted 7SEAS’s invitation}

{You are now a member of 7SEAS}

“Try to bring up your menu by drawing a command.”

Lucifer drew a 7 in front of her. A blue flame trail following her fingers, a purple string of words appeared with a border.

I performed the same motion.

A menu appeared. class abilities, hexes, contacts, and recent encounters. I examined each option.

{Class Operative: Frigate}

{Class Abilities:

1) [PASSIVE] All attributes improve +30% when protecting for each unarmed vessel (effect can stack up to 90%);

2) [ACTIVE] Erosion value bulk of 50 added to current erosion value of target (Uses: 3 [MAX]; +1 added each day until MAX)}

Frigate is something like a healer class, apparently.

{EROSION VALUE: 94}

Erosion value is simply put: our health bar. Though, I don’t know to what degree of damage it helps cushion, just because it says here that I have 94, it doesn’t mean I can’t die from a single headshot.

{HEXES: Echoing Into the Abyss, Arondight}

As for hexes.

What is Echoing Into the Abyss? I know Arondight is a sword, but what’s the other?

“Is it alright if I take a look?”

“Sure.”

“Two Hexes? That’s rare. The names are unusual too.”

“Is there any way to check the effects?”

“You can only check it by using it in the astral plane.”

“That’s too bad. I wonder what this one is about.”

“Mine has a weird name too. It took me a while to understand its use. You just have to try sometimes.”

Lucifer showed me her class abilities. I noticed that some of the abilities had stars on them.

“Does this mean a level up?”

“Something like that. There are many ways to get a level up. I got mine through a tournament reward.”

Tournaments. There’s even something like that huh?

“If you’re wondering what tournaments are, they act as both a ranking measure and an opportunity to receive exclusive rewards. It’s hosted every year.”

“So it involves fighting.”

“Yes. A lot about this world involves fighting.”

Which means our lives are at risk.

“Lucifer, about yesterday night.”

“Yes?”

“What happened, exactly? You said The Seraph went away, right? How? And, why was it here in the first place?”

I appreciate the fact that she risked her life to save me, but the fact that she works here makes it seem as if this place wasn’t all that dangerous.

“We chased it away.”

“Chased it away? You can do that?”

“We had a Rakshasa in hiding. Long story short, it was a trap for the angels. Sorry we got you into that mess.”

And Rakshasas are demon versions of Seraphs ,apparently.

“So the demons won?”

“There are no winners in war. This is still angel territory, as much as we’d like to take back control.”

There are things known as Zones which encompass the different parts of Alska. The condominium and Oala shopping mall is part of Zone 17. The demons had previously tried to take over Zone 21, but it ended in failure.

The leader of the movement tried to take advantage of the loss by baiting the angels to Zone 17, where they set up a trap.

“The Seraph turned tails and ran. We returned The Rakshasa back home. It ended up a draw, with us demons gaining the upper hand.”

Seraphs are machines, she adds.

“Though, the angel forces are still much better than ours. They’re more systemized. Unlike Rakshasas, Seraphs are obedient entities.”

“Is it even safe to operate a store here?”

This place could be the target of angels, couldn’t it?

“If not here, where else can I go?”

I didn't know how to reply to that.

“You see, Avner, that’s why the angels are problematic. They take over the territories, leaving none for us demons. Now we’re left to fend for ourselves. Affecting our daily life, having no choice but to face danger all day, every day.”

Conflict due to territorial rights.

“Though I may be fine right now, I don’t know when the angels will take action and come take my head. That’s how it is, living in enemy territory.”

No matter how strong you are, if you were to face multiple angels at once, your chances of survival are slim to none. How did Lucifer even manage?

“I don’t know if I have the right to even say this, but from what I heard, the angels don’t initiate attacks unless they’re threatened?”

I’m not sure if it was true, so I asked.

“Oh, we demons say the same. But who follows those rules? Neophiliacs and blood thirty people exist everywhere.”

Apparently not.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much I don’t know about this world.

“How exactly do territories work? Are there any benefits to claiming a territory? Maybe it serves as a defensive fort? I don’t know what that means though.”

“That’s a complicated topic…”

Her eyes shifted to the bottom right.

“Sorry Avner. We’ve been taking up quite some time. I think I need to return to work. We’ll meet up again and I’ll guide you through the necessary basics you need as a demon. Would that be alright?”

“Then this last question, are there any debuffs for being in angel territory?”

“No. Besides certain functions that become inaccessible, there’s just an increased chance of meeting another angel. It happens almost every week and it pisses me off. Though, I’ve kind of gotten used to it by this point. Still, I wish I could just run the store in peace,” Lucifer sighed.

I nodded, expressing a little sympathy.

“Thank you Lucifer. For today, and for yesterday.”

“I’m just doing my job. Last note, be sure to check out the contracts for 7SEAS.”

Lucifer pushed me out to the room.

===

dotturndot: Yay~ system abilities~

The story is going to be soft on systems, so I won’t be referring to stats often. Since there’s a lot of other stuff I can talk about. The system is just there to inform you of the general traits and adds to the world building (it becomes obsolete fairly quickly). I wonder if the stuff I’m packing into each chapter is too dense? Because the focus keeps shifting. One moment it’s about the social-geo-politics of angels and demons, the next we have a montage of ducks in a restaurant, and then we have fleets, tournaments and contracts (missions).

At the time of writing this, I’ve reached volume 4 (for draft). So while the interlocking bricks behind the different facets of the world have been internalized in my mind, I’m afraid I may be skimping out on the necessary information needed for first time readers.

Welp. If that's the case then I can only blame my writing skillz. Read slowly lol. Try your best to understand lel.