[MA] 113. Free to Go (Patreon)

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Shen wasn't sure how much he would trust a supposed murderer—if the system's charges were to be believed—but he definitely wanted to at least hear what the boy had to say. Hearing both sides of the story was essential to trace his next steps.

Zed Fisher stopped pretending to be asleep. He opened his eyes and immediately Inspected Shen. His eyes widened a little.

"Holy fuck, you're really the Rising Star," Fisher said. "D-rank too! You're our hope!"

"I don't know about being your hope, but I am the other things," Shen agreed. "And you're my prisoner." The boy's excitement dropped a little at those words. "What's your and the Sorcerer King's take on everything the Major told me?"

"It's all true," Fisher said as he sat up, much to Shen's surprise. "He just forgot to fucking tell you most Crusaders shoot on sight. Fuck his tale of them being under control. You saw how they attacked us to kill, didn't you?"

"All I saw was them protecting themselves after getting suddenly attacked," Shen countered.

"Damn right! We fucking had to attack them first!" Fisher yelled at once, sounding excited. The system's charges against him were likely not fabricated. "We tried to talk too many times, and they always shot us!"

"How often did you try to talk to them but got shot instead?" Shen asked, smelling something fishy.

He was a master of War, and he was fully aware that the first victim of any war was the truth. Troop morale and information warfare demanded that falsehoods be spread to allies and enemies. He promised himself not to do that unless it was a matter of life and death—but weren't all wars a matter of life and death? Something to think about later.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" the boy asked. "I'm not stupid! I know better than to trust the fucking Crusade!"

"But you didn't know they were the Crusade beforehand," Shen insisted. "One of your companions shouted about their identity after I subdued you, and everyone retreated then."

"Look, I'm not fucking stupid, alright? I know a purist when I see one. No one with a soft heart lives as much as I do. This is bigger than any of us or any fucking morals! This is for Earth's fucking future! Sacrifices must be made for the greater good!"

Shen suppressed a sigh. The boy was incapable of seeing his own contradictions. Any intelligence Shen could get from him was likely poor at best.

He still had to try though. "Anything else you can tell me about the Major's story?"

The boy thought for a while. "I didn't hear all of it but did he tell you about how his people fucking brainwash the Guardians they capture? Half their prisoners join the military because the alternative is death. Fuck him and fuck the US. The old order is gone! Long live the Sorcerer King! I'm sure you could join us too!"

"And how do you know about the brainwashing?" Shen asked, ignoring the offer.

Fisher snorted. "Everybody knows that."

Major Cox returned and disagreed, "That's a lie. We deliver any suspects to the Department of Justice for due processing. If they are released, or their crimes are minor, we offer them an optional reeducation course to decrease the sentence."

The man approached Shen and offered a rectangular, thin, metallic, and glassy object to Shen, who took it. The Major then returned to his previous seat. The boy looked ready to attack at any moment.

"Fuck you!" the boy yelled and stood up. "You killed my mother! Fucking military dog!" he produced a fireball, and Shen's spearhead instantly found its way to rest on his neck, drawing blood.

"You're my prisoner," Shen said firmly. "Drop the fireball and sit down. Now."

"He's the fucking enemy!" the boy yelled. "He wants to kill us all! You too! The only reason you're not dead is that you're the fucking Rising Star!"

"This is your last warning," Shen said. "If you don't, I'll put you to sleep again."

There was a tense moment before the boy complied. He didn't look happy. "Fucking traitor," he whispered.

Shen turned to the Major. "Please, continue."

Cox nodded. "Some who go through the reeducation class are considered capable of redemption and are offered to serve their time in the military. Only about one in every ten Guardians we arrest joins us; we don't want crazy mofos with superpowers in our chain of command. The Crusaders are only kept because they were military before the Alliance arrived and are already used to following orders.

"The others are kept in prison. Whether they are given a death sentence or not depends on which state they were captured in and the judge's decision. Anyone with a smartphone could check that, but I understand most insurgent groups limit access to free information."

Shen raised his own smartphone. "Who's going to teach me?"

"I was planning on doing it myself, but you could ask your prisoner. I think it'll be an enlightening experience for you both."

Shen agreed. Fisher might be a brainwashed idiot, but he would try to show Shen all the things the Major might want to hide. He turned to the boy. "Do you know how to operate a smartphone?"

"The fuck are you talking about?" Fisher asked.

He had been asleep during the part of the conversation in which Cox talked about Shen's past. Either the Sorcerer King's information-gathering network was not as good as the US military's, or Fisher had been purposefully kept in the dark.

"Just treat me like someone who was living under a rock," Shen replied, pushing the device into the boy's hand. "Teach me how to operate it, and I'll let you go."

"Fuck no," Fisher said. "If you let me go, the Crusade will brainwash or kill me. I want to stay with you."

Shen shook his head. "I don't trust you."

"Dude, you're fucking D-rank. I remember how you got me. I can't do anything against you."

"You can do many things against me," Shen corrected. "Spy on me, yell or look aggressively at people I'm talking to, or distract me. None of those require you to be able to kill me. You're of no use to me currently, and if you refuse to teach me, I'll release you now. If you teach me, you'll have that much time to hope the Sorcerer King's troops will return to rescue you."

Shen was surprised no attempt of the kind had been made yet. As for releasing the boy, that was Shen's way of getting repaid for the attempt on his life. Fisher didn't want to be let go, and Shen would do just that. The boy might help with the smartphone, but it wasn't enough to make up for the attempted murder, and Shen had no desire to keep the boy around.

Fisher clenched his jaws, then said, "Fucking fine. What do you want to know?"

A crash course on turning the screen on, installing and using apps, and surfing the internet followed. Shen was thoroughly impressed with the technology. Fisher naturally tried to make things as slow as possible, but Shen didn't mind. Fisher could only do that so much, considering Shen's learning ability.

In less than an hour, Shen had social media accounts and followed people and groups that interested him.

The system translated anything he read, but it didn't work the other way around. Touching on links and memorizing his password was easy enough though.

"This is a left-wing liar, and this is a right-wing one," Fisher complained about every follow. "Fuck both sides of fucking purist politics. Only the Sorcerer King can save us." As annoying as his comments were, they also let Shen determine how to ascertain people's ideologies at a glance.

He was surprised to see so many lies spread freely online. Two versions of the same fact came from people on different parts of the political spectrum. The objective truth could be pretty hard to ascertain.

The return of the Pioneers was trending on every social media platform, right above the latest song of a refugee South Korean star—their country had been destroyed by the atomic explosions—and below the latest developments of war in Asia. The war on Europe was the top trending topic, and it seemed Italy suddenly found itself with as many allies as enemies because Marzia had become the Human Maiden.

"Watch out for fucking bots," Fisher said. "They just spread misinformation, like the fucking military."

Shen started learning at around 9 AM. At 2 PM, the smartphone battery died. He looked at Fisher.

The boy had tried to keep a front, but his jabs at the US and the military mainly had become empty bravado by the end. Shen had looked for many articles on the Guardian War and the Crusade—Fisher wrote what Shen asked him to—and the Major had at least told the generally accepted version by the great majority of people.

The bombing of Austin and seven other cities in the US was more controversial than Cox had let on. To this day, people are demanding the head of the General of the Army for authorizing it. At least a hundred innocents had died in the operations, maybe as many as a thousand, which was a massive scandal. The man had come out to apologize and promised to accept civilian judgment once the crisis was over and martial law was lifted in the US.

Anyway, to put it shortly, the mortal world was a mess.

Shen had never seen anything like it in the Eternal Empire. Things were much better organized and controlled there.

As for China, there was too little information about it. The country had surprisingly not warred against or bombed anyone. It had, however, completely cut itself off from the rest of the world. No one entered or left, and communication was all but impossible. There were some whispers of a strong Guardian taking control of it but no mentions of cultivators.

"I have the last question for you," Shen told Fisher. "Do you know the spell to hide Guardians from surveillance? If you do and teach it to me, I offer to bring you to the Sorcerer King, doing my best to not be followed by the military."

The boy clenched his jaws, swallowed, and shook his head.

"Then you're free to go," Shen said. "Do not attack the Major. Major, I ask you to allow Fisher to leave this building. I'll not interfere in whatever happens outside."

The Major took another cigarette from his pack. "I'm not supposed to attack anyone, only protect myself," he said. "I'm an overseer, and the men must obey me in any matter related to Guardians, but I'm not allowed to help them in their operations. Another reason they hate me; I'm an outsider getting in the way of their job."

Fisher looked around for a while. Then he stood up and ran toward the exit.

Shen linked himself with the nearby soldiers. There were over fifty men and women in his range, and he could feel them as if he was looking at them with his own eyes. Most of them watched the surroundings, but twenty had their weapons pointing toward the hotel. When Fisher left, some soldiers appeared behind big chunks of concrete fallen from some building and ordered him to surrender.

Fisher attacked them, but a single shot on his leg was enough to make the boy surrender.

"Thank you for giving him to us," the Major said.

Shen shook his head. "I didn't do that for you."

The man smiled. "Thank you anyway, Rising Star."

Shen shrugged and stood up. "I would appreciate a new smartphone." He offered the dead device to the man. "Did you talk to your people about my third condition?" That was the one where Shen wouldn't go anywhere he didn't feel safe.

The man stood up too, took the smartphone, produced a new one from his pocket, and gave it to Shen. "Yes, and they accepted it. We have a base in Houston, and this unit will accompany you halfway there. The meeting place we chose is in the middle of nowhere. There will be a lot of high-caliber guns for their protection, but you should be safe if you stay far enough, and we'll change location if you ask for it."

Shen took the new device and started walking toward the hotel's entrance. "I would appreciate a report on the guns' capabilities."

"I'll ask them," Cox replied, walking beside Shen.

Shen still didn't feel totally safe, but absolute power was the only way to accomplish that. He was a long way from that. Until then, he had to get used to living with his limited power. Learning to do so against mortals felt as safe as it would get, even if they had weapons that could hit and kill him.

Anyway, Alicia had said that all politicians sucked—another thing that made Shen question democracy.

He was about to find out how true that was.

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