BXBX NOVEL Chapter 62: It ate my phone!
"Hmm, it looks like an adventurer's guild for some reason. I wonder if that was intentional. Did IRIS intentionally put adventurer guilds into Isekai stories so reapers would familiarize themselves faster?"
Despite my attire calling some attention, aside from a few glances no one bothered me. The typical trope of adventurer bullies harassing those registering didn't seem to be a thing here.
I silently queued at one of the desks and awaited my turn. The line I chose was the one with the least number of people. As I came closer, I noticed each counter was manned by an extremely good-looking woman in maid uniform. They were like super models, and it was obvious why some lines were longer than others.
The reapers probably simped on their preferred clerk. If the Isekai tropes are to be believed they would also be charming, supportive and extremely pleasant all to cajole reapers to doing the hardest tasks.
"I guess IRIS got somethings correct," I mused.
When my turn to the counter came next, I immediately understood why no one wanted to use this line. Instead of beautiful woman I was face to face with a creepy looking middle-aged butler with a monocle. Noticing my shock, the butler looked offended as he spoke words laced with scorn.
"What? If you want a big titted whore to fawn over you fuck off to a different counter."
It wasn't that I could not understand him, while waiting in line I noticed other counters being queued by nothing but women. Upon close inspection these counters were manned by good looking men. They looked somewhere between K-pop idols and Marvel superheroes.
Of the sixteen counters, ten were manned by maids, five by pretty boys, and you had the lone bastard I was queued on. If the other clerks had over twenty people on each, mine had like three with me being the third.
The clerks should be scored by the contributions of each reaper they were in charge of. From the queue's length, this creepy bastard would have had to have the worst possible score.
I shook off the useless thoughts from my mind as I stepped forward and introduced myself.
"Not interested, I am John Smith, a rookie wraith. Today is my first night in Hellsgate and Zachary Lynch sent me. He told me to register here for the Mercenaries."
The clerk said nothing and checked what looked like a laptop. Hmm. I noticed that they had electricity and electronics here. If you considered the reaper phones that would make sense I theorized.
"Please forgive me for my earlier comment. I am Phillip Scrivener. Do you have a reaper handset Mr. Smith?"
Was the effect of mentioning Zach that immediate? Phillip went from rude to professional in under five seconds. Not that it really mattered to me. I pulled out the black reaper handset I got from Lilly and placed it on the counter.
"I expected it from someone connected to Nightmare but to see an GRI-392 is impressive," he commented in reverence.
"Huh?"
Unable to understand what he just said, my dumbfounded reply slipped out unexpectedly. Like a professional Phillip didn't embarrass me further but clarified what he said.
"In case you are not aware Mr. Smith, Zachary Lynch is more renowned as Nightmare. His accomplishment in the NA battle front is among the best. He is one of the few specters that can fight on the level of Revenants. This handset is part of the experimental Graveyard Reaper Interface model 39 series 2."
"Hmm Zach aside, Is the phone really that impressive?"
"Do you have your personal phone with you by any chance Mr Smith?"
Wondering what he was going to do I pulled out my phone and gave it to the butler. He wordlessly placed the GRI-392 on my cheap ass phone. In the next second I watch the GRI eat my phone into its body like they melded together into a single piece.
The GRI then morphed and became my cheap ass phone. In surprise I couldn't stop myself from cursing.
"What the hell? It ate my phone!"
Phillip then took the remaining phone and returned it to me.
"Mr. Smith, what you see now is a normal phone to anyone else. But please try sending souls into your eyes."
I followed was he asked and drew the energy from my soulgem to my eyes like drawing water. The interface on the phone suddenly changed and displayed the reaper interface from the original GRI-392. When I looked up Phillip smiled to me as he explained.
"Having a reaper phone is dangerous for esteemed individuals. Trinity has been known to track reapers by their use. The 39 series allows the reaper to hide the phone in plain sight. It is also able to do this."
Phillip then touched the phone and send souls through his fingers. The phone then transformed into a plain looking watch with a 3D holographic display coming out of it.
The display could still be touched and moved just like a smartphone would. When I removed the souls from my eyes the display disappeared and all that was in front of me was a plain old watch.
"This should add a layer of protection to you Mr. Smith. The 39 series of GRI's are only given to the top 10 reapers of an enlistment. Please use this handset carefully as many would target you for not only its value but what it represents."
Before I could reply, Phillip transformed the watch back to a phone as he returned it to me.
"The GRI are encoded to soul signatures, so they cannot be used by anyone else until you are alive. They can also be used to locate and track you if they are obtained by those that wish to do you harm."
Interesting. So, these handsets which serve as the link to the world of reapers could just as easily be used to hunt or even assassinate you if you were not careful. I was once again reminded how merciless the world of the Hellsgate was.
"As for your paperwork Mr. Smith, everything has been filled and filed. There is currently a gag order on you so I cannot even verify anything outside of what your Id denotes."
"You lost me again, explain."
Like a patient teacher Phillip wrote down my Id and began explaining with eloquence and respect.
"Your Id Mr. Smith is NA20230799-FRM, a reaper Id allows one to identify general information about the reaper in the case of death. Your id broken down means North American battle front, year 2023 July enlisted, 99th place and Formless. Any reaper Id you will encounter from all seven battle fronts would use this format.
"Mine is structured similarly. Its NA200712801-CMS, this means I am from the NA battlefront and enlisted in December of 2007 and ranked 801, my {Fate} is C ranked manifested of a support nature. The last three letters are comprised of the {fates} rating, the letter M for manifested and either a C, A, S or a D which stands for combat, assassination, support or defense respectively.
"As you are Formless there is nothing recorded about your {fate} thus your letters are just FRM. Just from the ID's one's strength can be estimated. Any id that only has 8 numbers is known as octad, this denotes they are powerful enough to rank in the top 99.
"Any Id with the letters beginning with an A are reapers ones should treat with caution. Especially Id's ending in AMA. Or A ranked assassination-based {Fates}.
"The ones that grant these IDs are Graveyard so they cannot be falsified or changed once given. Naturally, biases are formed based on the Id's content because of how much truth one can gain just from learning it. Thus, please never give out your ID unless it is with someone you trust."
WOW, I couldn't even stifle my awe at the intricate system of identification. With the {Fates} themselves being part of one's identification, searching for specific types or roles would be a breeze for management.
Danger, use and purpose would be understood just from a single glance. Whoever designed this system was a genius.
"Regarding the registration of the Mercenaries, as standard I wanted to check if you are sure of your decision. Once registered it would no longer be possible to change without a good reason. Are you certain you wish to join the Mercenaries?"
'If just an Id had so much detail in it, I wanted to ensure I did not make a mistake I would regret. I only heard of the professions from a video. It might be a good decision to listen first to what it meant.'
"Can you first tell me what I have to choose from Phillip?"
"Certainly Mr. Smith. Professions are subgroups meant to assist in the defense of Hellsgate they are divided into Fortification, Adventurers, Mercenaries, Production and Academics.
"Fortification is the group in charge of construction, defense and housing. Production deals with the creation and maintenance of supplies, food and armaments. Academics are tasked with undead and {fate} research plus development."
Okay the first three were simple enough, one builds buildings the other makes shit, and the last were the eggheads who studied and developed science. What of the last two?
"Adventurers are jack of all trade reapers that are assigned quests that range from corpse disposal, cartography, request for materials, investigation and hunting. Mercenaries on the other hand are reapers tasked with combat support and zone reclamation."
Combat support and zone reclamation? That meant they were the guys sent into battle and the ones who try and liberate the fallen zones?
'Hell, this thing just got way more interesting.'