William waited patiently for his two acquaintances to arrive at the top floor while sipping some nice oolong tea that he had just brewed, prepared in an antique china cup.
He looked at the Library's text message function; another message had come from the Ludus Company's customer support.
-Follow these directions; they lead to one of the Laws of Order's hidden bases. It's a relatively small one, so you'll be fine as long as you prepare.
Underneath was a list of coordinates that presumably led there.
William plugged the coordinates into his phone's map app in preparation.
Then, he continued savoring the pleasant flavors of the tea he brewed.
'Find my reason to live, huh...Hahaha..'
William started chuckling to himself quietly.
"Hey, boss, what's so funny?"
Fei Kangzhen and Li Jiaojie had arrived.
"Nothing, don't worry about it. Anyway, we should start our planning."
They would nod and sit across from William.
"We are going to launch a surprise attack on the organization you both have encountered. The Laws of Order. I've already taken care of the safety precautions, so no need to worry about being tracked or discovered."
"Alright. When do we start."
"Well, first I think we should consider all of our strengths and weaknesses, right boss?"
"Correct. Fei Kangzhen, your ability is strong, but it doesn't lend itself much to close combat, more of a ranged attack, so you should probably stay at a distance like before. Li Jiaojie, you will train with me, and we'll leverage that Recollection of yours to learn some skills."
"Other than that, our basic battle strategy should be for Fei Kangzhen to inflict fear onto our targets and for Li Jiaojie to deploy the War Domain ability to further weaken them before we engage. We should also try to find out as much as we can about our enemies."
With a basic strategy and plan in mind, the three began their preparation.
Fei Kangzhen ventured alone into the streets of New Shanghai, harvesting fear from every criminal he could find, turning them into stored energy for later use. He made sure to stay hidden and strike when least suspected to prevent being attacked.
Li Jiaojie and William, meanwhile, practiced memorizing the ability of Transformation and the fire and light manipulation of the sun boon. The former, he realized, he was utilizing incorrectly.
The principle of transformation is the manipulation of your own matter. Although I can't freely change shape as Xiao Wei does, I can easily just use it to heal my arm if I sacrifice other parts of my body.
A few seconds later, William was a few inches shorter and thinner than usual, but his right arm had returned successfully; he clenched it with a smile, to Li Jiaojie's horror, who just witnessed his boss change shape and lose an arm before regrowing it.
'Disregarding the fact that that violates so many natural laws of the world, because superpowers exist and all that. Pretty useful application of the ability, though there is probably a limit to how much I can do this before my human biology gives out...'
After about an hour of practicing on the third floor, Li Jiaojie managed to learn some basic moves of the light and flame manipulation, but not transformation, which made sense given his skill.
Then, William stayed on the top floor, summoning his anecdote into reality.
A novel with a strange, unreadable cover that seemed eerily familiar would manifest in front of William, floating in the air.
He would read it intently. Thinking about something...
The existence of these anecdotes was something unique and magical all in its own; he hadn't really bothered to think about what they were until now. These magic books housed information on the abilities one gained after awakening, with designs that symbolized different aspects of the user, or the novel they had first visited and had a unique connection to.
He came to a realization, the words etched onto the anecdote were the skills he gained after becoming a reader, his core ability as a writer, and its subordinate abilities. Therefore, after he consumed the fruit of knowledge and received that horrible feeling of something carving words into his soul, the soul became the Anecdote of Self.
Since Ingenuity was housed in the soul, this meant that the manifestation of the Anecdote would spell the direct manifestation of all the Ingenuity one should possess.
This would imply the ability to access one's abilities at a much faster rate of efficiency. Though it was odd that no one had mentioned this to him before, especially Kaelus.
William would simply laugh to himself, melancholically.
'Then again, I don't even know that man remotely. I never did.'
There was alot of things in this world that William didn't know about. Certain items, beings, and deities. (However, because he is who I am not, he will do things others cannot.)
'I will refrain from utilizing this for the time being. Even if I don't know that man well, there is likely a reason that people don't use it.'
William would then start thinking about the upcoming battle.
'I need better gear. Some type of magical armor would be nice. Hmm, the Greek mythos don't really have anything I can use...All bulky and metallic, the aesthetic really isn't there.'
'When in doubt, consult customer support.'
-Hey, h2 again, is there any place I could purchase supernaturally enhanced clothing, like ones from the Gift Shop, that are relatively light?
He'd jubilantly wait around for a reply, which would come after about a minute.
-You happen to be in luck, our resident specialist was also entered into the Fame Game, though they refused participation and preferred anonymity. Come to these coordinates to find him.
'More fetch quests...This feels like a crappy novel.'
He'd input the coordinates in his decaying old phone and set off on another quest.
He nabbed Xiao Wei along the way; of course, she was his trusty partner! And good for branding and merchandise.
Xiao Wei would lazily turn into a blob and melt over William like a really messy cloak of shadows, allowing him to sneak around the city to reach an extremely secretive little pond area on the outskirts of New Shanghai.
By this time, it was late in the evening, and the pond gave off an ethereal aura; the way the last rays of sunlight danced across the surface of the water was majestic in a way, glowing a mystical aqua.
'The coordinates definitely lead here...I triple-checked to make sure. I guess there's a secret entrance then.'
William would walk to the edge of the pond and look at it.
Suddenly, a genius idea popped into the depths of his clinically depressed and insane mind.
He grabbed a short stick and started poking at the surface of the pond.
Before manifesting a fishing rod out of Ingenuity and casting a line into the depths of the pond!