Hector sat upright in his chair, subtly flexing biceps that were shown to good effect by the form-fitting t-shirt he’d been given. With the fresh cut and hair dyed to no longer be gray, he looked remarkably better than two days prior. He’d survived his first battle with the monsters by sticking close to Rodrick and occasionally smacking the squid things with his domain.
Cameras caught all of the action from a distance. Zelda assured him that there was considerable buzz. If Hector were one of them, he’d be getting a solid boost to his energy levels. Instead, he was doing his best to not mess up an interview. He’d been coached past the point of exhaustion by his new colleagues, who gave him barely passing grades. He barely rated a D minus, according to Vivian.
Though he understood the Arahant media campaign was reted to their energy restoration rates and participating in their scripted appearances would ultimately benefit his own goals, Hector felt that he’d been drawn into a meaningless side quest. Following the crushing completion of his dreams, everything felt hollow.
He clung to his mission to save Earth, desperate to do something that mattered. His entire life had been a vain pursuit of money and fitness goals. Did those things even matter? He’d lost all his family. There was no one on Earth he had a true connection to. Only a burning desire for his life to mean more than Volithur’s remained. He needed his life to have some grander purpose. Otherwise, did anything matter?
The next step to saving Earth, now that he’d found allies, was convincing them to help. Silly as it may seem, the best way of advancing his own agenda was becoming a guest star on reality television. That started with nailing his performance in an interview he didn’t want to do.
The reporter across from him was Robert Priest, a renowned media presence granted exclusive access to bring cameras into their beach house. Though no formal instructions were given to the man, he seemed to perfectly understand the subtle cues of the Arahants and went along with their desires. He either appreciated the colboration or had been suborned by mental trickery.
“A lot of people are curious about you, Hector. Do you realize that?”
Hector looked down bashfully and smiled. “I’m really just a normal guy.”
“Now, Hector, I’m not sure if you know this, but normal guys don’t move things with their mind. At least not on this world.”
That question hadn’t been anticipated in his script. Best to avoid engaging. “I suppose not. Actually, could I say hello to some people real quick?”
“People from this world? Absolutely, go right ahead.”
“Hello Randy and Greg and Mandy and Maggie. Thank you for the warm welcome to this beautiful world.” The others encouraged him to make such a statement. It was humanizing. It also felt like shit to be a calcuted public retions hack that took advantage of nice people. He’d been sold on the move because it would benefit the nice family who welcomed him to this world.
“So these are the first people you met on our pnet?”
“Yes. Other than the truck that almost ran me over. You see, Robert, I entered your world in the middle of a road. I have terrible aim with that sort of thing. So after I survived the scare, Randy made sure I was safe. Then he took me to his little girl’s birthday party. He’d noticed that I wasn’t exactly normal, you see.”
“I bet it was the teleportation that gave it away,” Robert drawled.
Hector chuckled. “Very likely it was. But I went to Maggie’s birthday party. Very nice people.”
“Nicer than the truck driver, at least.”
“That’s on me, though. I can’t expect a truck to stop on a dime when I appear in front of it.”
“What’s a dime?”
“A small coin from my world.”
“I see, I see. Can you tell us anything more about your world?”
“It’s a lot like this one, actually. Except some people move things with their mind. I came looking for the Arahants because we know they are selfless protectors. They’re going to try helping out after your world is safe.”
“Have the Arahants been to your world before?”
“Not to my world, no. But I have traveled other pces.”
Robert leaned forward. “What is that like?”
“Not near as exciting as you might think. I live like a homeless bum while I recuperate enough to go to the next world.”
“Hold on. I find this inconceivable. Couldn’t you demonstrate your abilities to get better treatment? I can’t imagine people would let you go cold and hungry if they knew what you were.”
Hector shrugged. “I’m not looking for handouts.”
“How very disciplined of you. People have been doing a lot of specution the past few days. We noticed you looked awful chummy with Rodrick when the test wave of squids came out of the water. Do the two of you have simir personalities?”
Time to earn his keep. “He’s been looking out for me. I’ll admit I needed his help a time or two. Rodrick didn’t think I should be on the front lines. That’s not really an option for me, though. I’m going to fight monsters wherever they are. Rodrick… well, I shouldn’t say anything.”
“Whatever shouldn’t you say?” Robert ughed as he made the obvious ploy for more information. It was expertly done. Hector could brush it off as a joke or answer if he wanted. While he didn’t really want to tell the lie, that was the main purpose of this interview.
“Rodrick lost a sworn brother in battle just before he came to this world. He took it really hard. That’s why he’s always so serious. I won’t say more than that. It’s his story to tell.” Halfway there. “I respect him a lot for everything he does and everything he’s gone through. But.”
“Uh oh, there’s a but!”
“Yeah. I’m not some kid. Just because I’m not as powerful as the rest of them doesn’t mean I can’t hold my own.”
Robert grinned broad as the Cheshire Cat. “This seems to really bother you.”
“It’s fine, Robert. The two of us have an understanding.”
“How does that work, exactly?”
Hector waved the question away. “It works. That’s all that matters.”
“Fair enough. There’s another very important topic we need to cover. You’ve been living in the beach house.”
“I have.”
“Who sleeps where?”
Hector chuckled and wagged his finger at the reporter. “Nice try, mister.”
“At least let us know if there is anything worth knowing about. Just a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Is romance in the air?”
Crap. He was supposed to be done with the acting after the Rodrick stuff. Robert had to ask about romance. This would be incredibly embarrassing. At least his face was flushing on its own. “Romance? I just met her….”
Robert cpped his hands. “Which ‘she’ are you talking about, Hector?”
He shook his head and cmmed up. It wasn’t a hard act. He didn’t know if he’d ever been more thoroughly humiliated. How many millions of people were going to be scrutinizing this interview to determine if he was pining for Zelda or Vivian? No matter how much younger he looked post makeover, Hector felt like he was creeping on kids in a very public fashion.
“Let me ask another way, Hector. Is Machi involved with anyone?”
“It’s not my pce to say.” He barely got the words out. How he hated this charade. Zelda told him to use emotion in the moment to push narratives. “Honestly, at this point I think I’d rather be fighting monsters than conducting interviews.”
“Oh, you did just fine, Hector. I bet you have a fan club by the end of the day. Any st words you’d like to share with the world?”
That’s right. He was supposed to come up with a catch phrase that tied into his public persona. Somehow that guidance got lost in the shuffle. Rodrick always issued a stoic ‘stay strong’ message. Zelda went a humorous direction and said ‘gotta fly’ as a reference to the fact that she could literally grow wings on her back. Machi tried to be comforting with ‘you are safe now’. And Vivian gave an aloof ‘stay in school, kids’ as if she were mocking the convention.
He didn’t have any canned words to present himself any particur way. He didn’t approve of the superficial nature of what he was doing. He certainly didn’t receive any benefit from aggrandizing himself in any way. “I’m not really anyone special, Robert. I barely limped my way to this world in search of help. I don’t seem particurly adept at fighting compared to my new friends. I won’t cim I have any great wisdom or a talent for speaking. So what I’d say to people is ‘you matter’.”
“Inspirational words indeed. Thank you for sitting down with us, Hector!”
After the taping ended, the other Arahants were allowed back into the living room while the film crew packed up their things. When Zelda sat on the couch next to Hector, he thought nothing of it. Until Vivian stood way too close to Machi and stared murder at Hector. Then he realized they were still acting even without the cameras.
What the hell did they expect him to do? No one prepped him for this situation. If he’d had any inkling that the fate of Earth would depend on his acting skills, he would have taken an improvisation css. He was supposed to reveal he liked one of the girls, which he’d done. But they wanted it to be unclear which one at first. Hector leaned close to Zelda, pretending interest in her conversation about the format of the upcoming Q&A session.
When the outsiders were gone, Zelda elbowed him away.
“How did I do?”
“Passing grade,” Rodrick answered.
“You’re too obvious with everything you do, but no one should notice because of how awkward you came across.”
Hector made a face. “Don’t hold back on the criticism, Zelda.”
“You’re pretty good for a Xian,” she allowed.
Rodrick ughed. “That’s a low bar to clear. Lord Windbde once told reporters at a press conference that he didn’t come to save pitiful weaklings like them, he just wanted to fight monsters and it would have been just as satisfying to y waste to their whole pnet.”
“Speaking of weird things to say, ‘you matter’? What self help book did you rip that off of?”
Hector twirled a finger in the air. “Oh no, my love interest doesn’t like my catch phrase.”
Machi fshed a thumbs-up to Hector. “You did fine. You’re not supposed to be as popur as us. We just need you to be interesting enough that people have an excuse to talk about us.”
“Is this what the realization process is all about? Getting attention?”
Zelda patted his knee. “This isn’t the realization process, Hector. It’s restoration.”
“What’s the difference?”
“We could practice restoration forever and never gain another level. That’s the difference. The realization process is a whole lot harder. You need to convince reality itself to make room for you to grow into. Public perception only helps to the extent that it gives you leverage to get things done. A true insight is the cheat code to advancing for an Arahant.”
Rodrick grunted. “True insights also help a lot when it comes to energy conservation. Confgration barely sparks a fme and his enemies explode like they were doused in alcohol.”
“That’s the beauty of resonance,” Zelda muttered. “I’ve been working under Confgration for ten years now in the hope that I’ll pick up even a hint of his insight.”
Machi nodded towards Hector. “What about you, Hector? They say that all the dream people get insights.”
“It’s called chaotic emergence.”
“A phrase which holds no meaning to me,” Machi retorted.
“I draw primordial chaos through my externality and transform it into cosmic energy.”
Four Arahant froze. Vivian was the first to find her words. “Is that as overpowered as it sounds? Like, you can power level all the way to Xian lord?”
“In theory. The guy I dreamed about made it to level eight in about five years.”
Rodrick cleared his throat. “Hector? How long have you been a Xian?”
“At a guess, about half a year.”
“Level four in half a year? That’s fast for a Xian, right? An Arahant could do it faster in the right circumstances, but I don’t know about a Xian.”
“It’s reasonably fast. I have no body enhancement, though. That’s one of the biggest drains of cosmic energy. They call people who let their soul level exceed their capabilities hollow spears. That’s what I am at the moment.”
“So how long would it take you to get to level five right now? Ignore the body stuff.”
“Two weeks,” Hector said. “But I want to enhance my body and mind before then. The guy in my dreams ignored a lot of advice from experts and chased levels instead of building strength. I’m realistically looking at around half a year.”
Rodrick shook his head as if refusing to believe what he’d heard. “You’re as good as guaranteed level ten. Shit. Maybe eleven. Has there ever been a level twelve Xian?”
