Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 60: The Press

“You aren’t seriously going to step out in front of the press in that, are you, young man?” Chandler scoffed, looking Isaac up and down. Sadly, the professor had a point. Isaac was looking rather unpresentable. He was a good fighter, but the small stains, burn and rips added up after several hours of fighting.

Embers flying when a Bonfire Golem was struck or some creature’s fur burned off, random sparks arcing off a bolt of lightning, the occasional splash of blood he was unable to avoid and attacks he only avoided with enough clearance to keep his body from being damaged, but not his clothes … combined with his regeneration ability, he looked like the hero of a 16+ action movie, one not afraid of to show blood and other grossness but unwilling to let the hero actually be seen hurt.

“I’ve got a change of clothes in Professor Bailey’s spatial storage, I’ll change before the press conference.” Isaac shrugged.

“By change of clothes, I suppose you mean an intact version of your current outfit?” Chandler asked, an eyebrow raised.

“Yes?” Isaac frowned. That question had seemed a little pointed.

“That simply won’t do.” Chandler stated matter of factly, then raised his voice “Everyone follow me, I’ll make sure you look presentable. Don’t worry, I have experience in announcing big news to the press and a source of good and proper attire.”

Isaac just sighed and plodded after him. The man shared the annoying combination many older people in leadership positions had, consisting of intelligence to quickly realize something, the experience to know what to do about it and their being so used to being in charge that they rarely bothered to explain their exact reasoning. Still, they had close to three quarters of an hour left and he did need a new outfit. If said outfit wasn’t ‘jeans and a shirt in a color that blood is less visible on’, all the better.

Bishop stayed behind, experimenting with various moves while wearing his Ulfhednar cloak. He had a wide, elated grin on his face, eyes glowing a warm yellow. He was also standing a few centimeters taller and had gained a sprinkling of grey hairs all over his body. The transformation as he fully drew on the cloak’s power was alarming, but they’d all analyzed it and its effect and noticed nothing wrong. Then again, Bishop had a very compatible base and evolved [Classes], which might play into how smoothly the new form of power was being integrated.

He'd also kept his outfit in the original, druid-cosplayer form, something that Isaac had categorically refused to do. He’d been the one to get the second cloak and immediately reduced it to a spiffy leather jacket, though he wasn’t currently wearing it. He didn’t want to damage it before he had a chance to experiment with it, something that had a serious chance of happening if he continued to play frontline defender.

A few minutes later, Chandler, Bailey, Isaac, Amy and Raul found themselves in some kind of costume warehouse, or at least that was what it looked like on the surface. Patrick’s appearance had been deemed acceptable by the old professor, the younger man had for some inexplicable reason decided to put on a white polo shirt and cargo pants before coming in this early/late. Apparently, it was just the right combination of nice and functional while also having survived the events of the night completely intact, mostly due to the inordinate amount of spells Patrick had picked up to get out of mundane chores. Cleansing, clothes fixing, rain repelling … all gained as soon as humanly possible so he had more time for other stuff.

“What is this place?” Isaac asked, head whipping from side to side as he tried to take everything in.

“Costume storage, basically. If we need an outfit for a photo op, it’s in here. Old equipment that is no longer suitable for actual use but still looks good. A few suits bought by the university for professors to borrow if they need a specific type. Old suits that people no longer need or were willed to us, stuff like that.” Chandler explained.

“Wow, I had no idea this was here.” Bailey said in wonder, letting his hand run along a line of fancy outfits.

“I suppose it must have slipped everyone’s mind. This place is really only for professors, but the world went to crap literally the day after you became one, so …” Chandler trailed off as Raul’s MIrcroraptor sneezed. She’d been running around on the floor, sniffing the old coats, and ended up getting a nose full of dust.

“How old are these things?” Raul wondered.

“Old.” Chandler chuckled “Some of the suits were worn by professors while doing experiments in suits, oh, a century or so ago.”

“That sounds pretty unsafe.” Raul commented.

“Oh, it was. Lab coats are somewhat fire retardant and can survive basically all chemicals long enough for the wearer to tear it off. Suits … not so much.” Chandler commented dryly “Why be safe when you can look refined?”

“As interesting as this is, I believe we were here for a reason?” Bailey suggested.

“Ah yes, making you lot look presentable. Feel free to choose anything here, just make sure it looks right. It needs to be something that you might have worn while fighting. If it looks too fancy, you’ll look fake. If it looks too much like you’re trying to be ‘cool’, you’ll come across as a poser. Or worse, one of those ridiculous cosplayers. And if you look too bad, uncultured, or otherwise like you wouldn’t make for an upstanding member of society, you’ll make a terrible impression, obviously. Lastly, if you look too rough, it might appear that you barely walked away from a given situation, which is very much not the impression we want to give.” Chandler explained.

His observations were pretty obvious, but they were also good points. The real challenge lay in actually implementing that advice.

And as it turned out, it really was a challenge.

“No, you’re not trying to look like you just came out of the lab, Bailey. You called a press conference, you’re expected to look halfway presentable. What do you think a lab coat makes you look …”

Once again, Chandler had the experience to make good calls, but not the tact to properly communicate that. Isaac suspected that would change when he was actually standing in front of the cameras, given that the old professor was an old hand at dealing with the press.

In the end, Isaac had been given an old suit in an ever so slightly outdated style, but it looked hefty, as if it could be worn while exploring ancient ruins and be just fine. Or so Raul commented while pointing out that Isaac would look like Indiana Jones without his hat once he put on the Ulfhednar jacket. He’d also be strapping Old Reliable to his belt in its Kriegsmesser configuration. Overall, it would make it very clear what his role on the team was while also making him look good.

Raul had ended up getting a falconer’s jacket that included several heavily reinforced sections that raptors and even eagles would be able to land on, grip tightly with their talons and never even leaving a scratch.

Meanwhile, Bailey and Amy came out of the sudden makeover mostly normal looking, wearing clothes that looked slightly fancier than regular streetwear, but not so much so that no one would ever wear it to a risky area … like a summoning room.

“Alright, now none of you are allowed to go back to the summoning room. Mr Thoma, I’ll have someone bring out that magic leather jacket of yours.” Chandler ordered, shoed them all out and locked the door behind them. He had a point, though. Given how many creatures had already died in the summoning room, they’d have been standing ankle deep in gore if it hadn’t been for the regularly used cleaning spells. So while it had never even looked like a place where animals were slaughtered, their goal hadn’t been complete cleanliness, it had been a passable state. So if they went in there now, there was a fairly high chance that they’d end up dirty.

They headed over to the storage rooms, collected the others, and walked over to the building that held their old office. Well, it was technically still their office, but they probably wouldn’t be using it after tonight. Their new office space was already completed and while there would be construction happening overhead, both Karl and Amy had ways to blot out the noise. That extra mana expenditure and the harder access was well worth the vast universe of new possibilities opened up by not only having four summoning rooms, but also having far larger summoning rooms.

The crowd of people setting up at their destination was very clearly divided into two groups.

There were the people with a more basic setup, each looking tired and borderline exhausted. These were likely the ones who’d been sent out here when Bailey had first started posting his things on the university website and just camped out here, waiting for a comment.

The other group had a professional setup, several different ones, in fact, complete with pole microphones, or whatever they were called, large cameras, microphones, all taken out of vans with rather prominent logos. They were here for the guaranteed story of the professor who’d touched the whole world with his research today, and then announced a press conference.

“Professor Bailey, could I get a comment?” someone called out. Several someones, in fact, all blending together in an auditory mess that even Isaac’s Perception had to struggle to pick apart.

Bailey merely stopped walking and looked at them with a sternly neutral expression as the questions continued to rain in, almost exclusively from the first group of reporters. When they didn’t get a response, of any kind, they began to slowly peter out, at which point Bailey started to walk again, stepping up behind a stone bench, near the entrance to their old building. A split second later, the bench warped, rising upwards until it looked like your stereotypical speakers podium. Isaac knew that Karl had done that and anyone with mystical senses could find out, but it still looked damn impressive.

The team might be extremely used to magic and used it to replace mundane methods with a frequency that was practically unnatural, but these people weren’t. Hence, this had quite the impact. Silence fell, true silence. Not just one where most people didn’t talk and those that did keeping their voices down to a hushed whisper, but the quiet of a graveyard and midnight under a new moon.

“Good morning, ladies, gentlemen, thank you for coming. My name is Adam Bailey and I am a Professor of [System] Sciences.” he began, voice strong and clear.

“Eight weeks ago, the world changed with the introduction of the [System]. Six hours ago, it changed again when the [System] started what it referred to as an event, temporarily opening up new summoning options. Since that time, my team has worked tirelessly to analyze each and every single one of those creatures, all the way up to and including Tier 5.

“During the course of that work, we have found out that these monsters are consistently stronger than …”

In essence, it was the speech whose precise wording they’d hashed out over and over again. An introduction followed by a warning, then he went into a little more detail on a few interesting monsters, pointing out the problematic abilities in each of them. Then he explained that yes, these monsters did give new rewards and they were somewhat good but getting them meant fighting dangerous enemies.

The speech ended soon after that, with a sincere appeal to anyone who thought about summoning these Event monsters to think about it thoroughly, as whatever instincts they’d acquired during the last 8 weeks would not work here, given the strength differential between Event and normal monsters of the same Tier. This was followed up by him pointing out that all of the information was available on the university website, complete as to the full extent of their knowledge and updated every hour until the Event ended.

And then about a million questions rained in.

“Do you have an explanation for the increase in monster power if the cost doesn’t change?”

“Not at the moment. However, we’ve determined that the increase is always roughly the same across all tiers. It might be an inherent feature of Event monsters that will persist in future Events. We’ve been able to determine that the strength of normal monsters has not changed.”

“Does that mean you expect there to be future Events?”

“This Event was explicitly linked to an astrological event with major cultural and religious significance all around the globe, rather than being a celebration of the [System] having been here for a specific length of time. There are also three more similar astrological events each year, the Autumn and Spring Equinoxes, as well as the Winter Solstice, and there is a very real chance that each of them will also see a similar Event occurring.”

“Where were you summoning these monsters, if not in the building behind you?”

“A larger space that has recently become available.”

“Was anyone hurt during the research?”

“How did you get the exact Stats?”

“Will you be selling some of the loot you got from the Event monsters?”

Some of the questions were truly ridiculous. Isaac was just glad that he’d asked Bailey to not reveal detailed information about his own [Skills] and [Class], also suggesting that the same went for the others. Even if the whole ‘treat your stat sheet like it’s one of your most embarrassing nudes and be as careful about sharing it’ attitude hadn’t really established itself yet, the logic behind the request was undeniable.

Slowly, the big group began to break up and Isaac slowly left away from the solid group standing behind Bailey as silent and stoic support. His senses were extended to their maximum, vacuuming in every word spoken in a large radius, giving him a level of localized omniscience these people would be supremely uncomfortable with … if they’d been aware of it. The existence of people with supernatural powers was something everyone was well aware of but internalizing something like that was a whole other kettle of fish.

There were a lot of interesting conversations taking place. Many of them were in awe of Bailey’s ‘big brass balls’ and how he’d stood in front of the world, proudly announcing that he’d taken a bunch of students to fight Tier 5 monsters, but most weren’t planning to twist this into something malicious. Nothing bad had happened and his experiments had stayed so many would-be summoner turned corpses’ hands that trying to slander his good name was unlikely to go over well.

Certainly, some would try it, but the overall reception was positive. Then, a particularly enticing conversation reached his ears and Isaac immediately changed the direction of his footsteps until …

“Hi there. You’re on Professor Bailey’s team, right? Would you be willing to answer a few questions?”

The asker was a preppy looking young woman, done up in expensive but not extravagant clothing, much like Isaac’s own. There were several other people on the prowl for people other than Bailey to interview, but only one of them had had a fairly successful blog in the other timeline.

There were, of course, plenty of others who were even more successful, but they weren’t from the local area. Well, Isaac said ‘local’, but that really included everything that could be reached with a three hour drive, which Kiara Knoer had apparently undertaken for the mere chance at getting a good interview. She had a very solid ‘think things through’ attitude towards the [System] and summoning, something Isaac could appreciate.

Besides, it wasn’t like he could just call up any current and or future famous reporters to ask them to write something on the [System]. Well, there were a few things he could use because they were extraordinary stories, but those were also things that he’d rather keep to himself. Bailey was the one with all the press contacts.

“Yes, I am, and I’d love to. What would you like to talk about?” he replied, flashing her a slight smile.

“Great. Would you mind stepping to the side for a moment so we’ve got a bit of space from the crowd?”

“Sure thing.”

“Can you tell me your name?”

“Isaac. Isaac Thoma.”

A moment later, a young man around their age stepped up with a decent looking video camera and aimed it at Isaac.

“Alright everyone, I’m Kiara from Kiara’s Craziness, here with Isaac Thoma, a member of Professor Bailey’s team. Yes, that Professor Bailey. Isaac, can I ask you how you were able to react so quickly? I mean, the [System] doesn’t wake people up and the Event got started in the middle of the night.”

Isaac chuckled softly “Well, some us are at the point where we have the Fortitude to keep a supremely unnatural sleep schedule. So when the first one noticed the message, they called the others and kept calling until everyone was awake. After that, well, a few people live nearby and got here maybe ten minutes after everything started.”

“What exactly do you mean when you said you had the Fortitude to do that? Can you clarify?”

“It’s pretty simple actually. The higher your Fortitude, the less sleep you need. There are ongoing studies to determine the exact nature of that relationship, but there are a few people here who only need a catnap every day or two and can stay awake for the rest of the time. It’s certainly nice to be able to work for absurdly long hours and still have more free time than ever before.”

“So, you work long hours? That must be exhausting.”

“Not really. As Confucius said, ‘choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life’ and I love this job.”

“Oh, I see. Have you been working here long?”

“Depends on how you look at it.” Isaac chuckled “I’ve worked here for less than two months, but I’ve also worked here since day one. And as for the long hours, that’s usually due to everyone not wanting to put off a given experiment until the next day. With our Fortitude, we can easily do so without losing all our free time. Besides, Professor Bailey asks us if we’re willing to stay and doesn’t force us to if we can’t or simply don’t want to.

“At the end of the day, we’re a bunch of very curious people, occasionally very nerdy, able to freely explore the biggest scientific mystery of, well, ever, and research whatever we want.”

“How safe would you say your work is? I know the department’s track record so far is zero injuries, but you’re fighting monsters. Isn’t that a little scary, sometimes?”

“Of course it’s scary, it’s monsters. But we’ve got very good safety measures in place and like you said, we’ve never had an injury during the team’s existence. Just like all the people working with pathogens, flammable, corrosive or mutagenic chemicals, and so on, and so forth, we’re doing something dangerous but being careful as the situation demands it.”

“And what is your role on the team?”

“Sensory specialist and hatchet man.” Isaac chuckled softly.

“So, is that your [Class]? [Hatchetman]?”

“No, I’ve got a monster analysis focused evolution of [Rogue].” Isaac explained. The police had as much on file, so he felt perfectly justified sharing that much.

“Oh, that is very interesting. How do you get something like that?”

“Basically, your [Class] evolves based on what you do, what your [Skills] are like and which are at the highest Level, things like that. There’s actually a pretty exhaustive explanation on the university website. Well, two of them, anyway. One is a proper scientific paper, thorough as all get out and appropriately long. And the other is there for people who don’t feel like spending the next several hours picking through jargon.”

Kiara giggled “That’s good to know. Are you ok to answer a few more question?”

“Sure thing. We’re mostly done with the research for today, we know all the important things, now it’s just a matter of digging deeper on the topics we find interesting. But seriously, I’m enjoying talking like this. Usually, it’s Professor Bailey who talks to the press. If you ever feel like interviewing a famous scientist’s minion again, I’m game.”

“Oh, does that make you Igor to his Dr Frankenstein?” Kiara giggled.

“I mean, sort of? We are a bunch of scientists pushing the boundaries of established science by literally calling monsters into this world.” Isaac joked.

“That’s certainly one way of looking at it. Thank you for your time and I think I might just take you up on that offer, Mr. Thoma.”

“Please, call me Isaac.”

“In that case, call me Kiara.”

“See you around, then, Kiara.”

“Bye, Isaac.”

She bustled off in search of her next victim while Isaac walked off in a different direction, a smile creeping onto his lips. That had been a pleasant conversation. Now all he had to do was survive until the crowd of reporters dispersed, then he could go ahead and play around with the Event for next rest sixteen or so hours. Now that he had an alchemist available, there were so many things they could try.