But I hadn't eaten in hours, so I begrudgingly ate.
It was just bread with cheese in between, but it was really delicious.
'I wish I could make bread taste this good...'
After that, it was back to the vehicle.
"Hey, Kid. You're from a dungeon, right?"
One of the other guys suddenly spoke up, but...
I wasn't sure how to answer that.
That's what everyone had probably assumed. I definitely wasn't from Terra, unless there was a distant country that had red eyed people who rarely ever came to the Empire.
Even Cierri had said as such.
Of course, whether I was or wasn't was a bit odd. I'd technically reincarnated in one, rather than in Terra itself, but I was an alien regardless of where I reincarnated.
But then again, the dungeon had chosen me, whatever that meant.
Just like an alien could still claim citizenship, I was basically from the Lost, even if my true origins were elsewhere.
So I eventually shrugged. "I guess so."
"Huh. Do you know how to play this?"
He disregarded my answer so quickly, it took me a moment to realize just how idle of a question he'd meant it. I had whiplash, but eventually shook my head after he showed me a handheld device.
It was similar to the one Cierri used to map the dungeon.
"No. I have this."
I showed him my tablet, and it took him a moment to figure out how it works, before he started chuckling.
I stared blankly at him.
"Hah, no, kid... this is a little computer. It's not just for drawing on, it can do all sorts of stuff. Here, let me load up something for you..."
***
Van sat in the front, letting one of his juniors drive while the other sat with Kid.
It was basically just how people did things in the Empire.
Not that every imperial citizen was a walking stereotype, but this moment was so stereotypical, it was practically like a movie come to life.
Or, well, a cliche in one anyway.
He watched the young girl, who was dressed as a boy, as she played games on his junior's phone.
If it were any other moment, he'd ask the guy why his guild-assigned phone had games installed, but it had been precisely the right move.
Even if it wasn't, it was still charming to watch the girl's thoughtful, almost annoyed expression turn to surprise and a sort of childish panic as she was handed a game she'd never seen before, thrust right into...
Well, who knows what it was about, but he could see her pressing at the screen, frantically doing something while noises came out of the device.
He hadn't played those kind of things since he was a kid. The perks of having a good Skill at a young age meant getting to skip all the uncertainties of college, tests, and job seeking.
The downsides were going through endless hours of training followed by endless missions that demanded his unique abilities in particular, and therefore sparsely any time to simply have fun doing something that was meaningless to everyone but yourself.
It was relieving to see the girl could still get absorbed in that sort of thing.
He hoped that he could protect that.
***
I sighed with relief as I cleared the last virtual enemy on the tiny screen that had been shoved in my hands, before I finally questioned what I was doing.
Was it just a game?
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Or did my actions impact something elsewhere in reality, like how seemingly autonomous drones could simply be piloted from afar through controls?
I wasn't sure, but the screen congratulated me, and that made me suspicious.
It offered a meaningless reward.
Words of comfort.
If I'd actually done a good job, shouldn't it have paid me in some way?
Had I been unwittingly drafted into free labor? Well, I'd been practically forced to go with these guys, so I was basically being trafficked.
At least I could think of far worse forms of slavery than... popping unusually aggressive balloons through a glass screen.
Even if the screen itself said I was quite good at it, and therefore I likely deserved some pay for a job well done...
'Ah. They're making me work off my food bill.'
No wonder they didn't want me to pay directly. They already had plans for me in advance. It was a pretty thorough setup.
I handed the device back to the guy sitting next to me.
"Oh. I'll load up another one."
"A-Another one?" I practically stuttered.
The guy who seemed to be in charge of this trio spoke up in my defense, thankfully.
"Ah, you'll overstimulate her. She's still getting used to things, so it's good to take things slowly."
Though, for some reason, I wasn't very fond of how he said that.
Probably because he implied the problem wasn't that I was being forced into labor against my will, but only that the pacing wasn't right.
Humans are terrifying creatures...
***
We arrived at the destination a bit after that.
I struggled to read the sign, but their boss, Van, said it out loud anyway.
"This is the Imperial Guild and Skill Administration. The GSA. If you've heard it as GAS, that person's just being a troublemaker, so don't mind them."
I nodded slowly, not really getting it. Was one a jab at the government bureaucracy, and the other its actual title?
What was the jab, if so?
Regardless, we went inside.
It wasn't a very big office building, so I assumed it must be a branch, or else not a very important administration... but actually, the waiting area was jam packed full of people.
The suited men practically swaggered up to the front desk with me in tow.
"We have an appointment. Azure Dragons, Van."
"Azure... oh, I see. Yes, he's been waiting. Please, um... no rush, but... you know..."
Suddenly, as people overheard the conversation, I could sense a bit of polite and even some not-so-polite ire directed at the four of us.
'Why me? I didn't do anything. I don't even want to be here!'
But even as I panicked inwardly, the real culprits simply nodded and swaggered further into the bureaucratic beast.
I was fairly certain they expected me to continue to follow them, possibly even to the ends of the earth, but for once, I really didn't want to get left behind, so I did.
Though even then, not without complaint.
I didn't voice the complaints, but I had several.
***
What awaited us wasn't exactly what I expected.
It was an unusually spry old man.
"Excellent! You're here! Is this the one you mentioned?"
"Yes, she has a new Skill. We'd like to know everything about it. Also, since she's a minor and a protected class, please make sure to keep everything confidential."
"Of course, of course. Please sit here, young lady."
He gestured at a chair, so I sat in it.
Begrudgingly.
Then he grabbed an orb that looked like it was the same material as a mana shard, only perfectly spherical and big enough that I'd need two hands to hold it.
His eyes flashed all sorts of strange colors, and mist came off of the sphere in his hand.
It was weird.
"I see. How unusual, and yet how expected."
"What is it?" Van asked.
"Do you know the criteria of a beginner dungeon? Actually, I dare say we did not until just now, although we've used science to reverse engineer a truth eerily close to reality... and yet now I do know that reality."
"Reality? What's a beginner dungeon got to do with... oh..."
"Oh indeed. She is a living embodiment of that dungeon effect. She cannot die."
Well, someone was bound to figure it out eventually if I was ever forced to rely on it.
But I still wished they hadn't.
You can do a whole lot more awful things to someone that can't die than someone who can.
"This must be an S rank ability for sure," one of the two lower ranking suits said.
"S rank... well, yes, but you do know the S is short for special? S rank abilities aren't definitionally superior to A rank, and in her case, that's especially true."
"What do you mean?"
"Every dungeon is a beginner dungeon to her, yes. Even Terra itself, which outsiders have long claimed to simply be another dungeon. However, without other Skills, that's precisely all she is. A beginner herself, ironically."
"I wonder if that's why it wasn't called something like Immortal or Undying," Van mused.
Although... perhaps it wasn't called those things because I already had those traits.
By the way, my imperial's gotten pretty good, but the old professor they took me to had such an elaborate way of speaking that I had trouble following his exact words.
Mostly the filler words, though. I think I caught the basic meaning.
But just keep that in mind, that what I actually heard at the time was more like...
"Oh ?????. She is a ??????? of that dungeon ?????. She cannot die."
And...
"S rank... ???? yes, but ??????? the S is ????? special? S rank abilities aren't ???????? to A rank, and in her case, that's ??????"
Yeah.
I later confirmed the gist of what he said though.
***
Meanwhile, Kid's sudden reappearance was being discussed on certain corners of the Terran internet.
Hero194: What were the exact messages?
RedOwl: Kid cleared the dungeon, became the boss, and gained a Skill called Beginner.
Hero194: Who's Kid?
Indigo997: Oh no...
Popcorn5: Now you've done it...
Hero194: Done what?
OutsiderFan71: Kid is a little outsider girl who helped the Indigo Eye map out the beginner dungeon, the Lost, about three years ago.
RedOwl: How old was she back then?
OutsiderFan71: I'm not sure.
RedOwl: She looked like a kid now, so she must have been really small.
OutsiderFan71: Wait, you saw her?
Hero194: You saw her?
RedOwl: Yeah, those Azure guys were trying to surround her, it's almost like they were protecting some big shot's daughter... or kidnapping her. Honestly, she looked terrified.
Popcorn5: I guess I would be too.
OutsiderFan71: How awful. Back then, they say she didn't even speak Imperial, so she was probably very confused.
RedOwl: She went with them though.
One might expect more shortcuts with online speech, and for most of Terra, this would be true.
Surprisingly though, the imperial language has undergone a number of artificial refinements over its lifetime, and has already been made remarkably efficient in its written form.
It's a remarkable achievement even in its own world, although one most imperial citizens usually just take for granted.