Anne and I spent most of the day waiting before the board, looking for Paul Drake's name.

No luck.

I took some time to explore my new abilities by trying out Observe on random items. The results were fairly mundane.

On a chair:

A CHAIR. STURDY AND MADE OF WOOD.

On the announcement board:

INFORMATION BOARD FOR PUBLIC COMMUNICATION.

MANUFACTURED BY JUPITER ELECTRONICS INCORPORATED. PRICE $200.

On our lunch:

CARROT STEW. A NUTRITIOUS YET UNFULFILLING SNACK, WHOSE PRIMARY VIRTUE IS ITS ABILITY TO FEED MANY PEOPLE CHEAPLY.

HP +1.

1 SERVING PREVENTS HUNGER FOR 6 HOURS AND THIRST FOR 2 HOURS.

I had a hunch 'Hunger' was more than just the human trait of feeling hungry, according to my power's way of interpreting the world. Sure enough, a little digging revealed this gem:

STATUS EFFECTS:

AN INDIVIDUAL MAY BE AFFECTED BY ONE OR MORE STATUS EFFECTS AT A TIME.

STATUS EFFECTS CAN BE BENEFICIAL OR HARMFUL.

KNOWN STATUS EFFECTS:

HUNGER:

TRIGGERED BY NOT EATING FOOD.

HP REGEN REDUCED TO ZERO.

-1 HP PER HOUR, -2 DEX.

REMOVE BY EATING FOOD. EACH FOOD ITEM PREVENTS HUNGER FOR A CERTAIN TIME. EFFECTS OF FOOD ITEMS STACK UPTO 24 HOURS.

THIRST:

TRIGGERED BY NOT DRINKING WATER.

HP REGEN REDUCED TO ZERO.

-2 DEX, -1 STR, -1 HP PER HOUR.

REMOVE BY DRINKING WATER.

WARNING: SOFT DRINKS DO NOT REDUCE THIRST.

REQUIRED: 500 ML OF WATER EVERY 6 HOURS. MULTIPLE SMALLER DOSES WILL HAVE THE SAME EFFECT.

EFFECTS STACK UPTO 12 HOURS.

CURRENT STATUS EFFECTS: NONE.

HUNGER: NONE. TIME REMAINING: 8 HOURS.

THIRST: NONE. TIME REMAINING: 8 HOURS.

Well, I'd had a glass of water with my lunch, so the effects showed.

More and more, my power seemed to involve exhaustive documentation of the properties of things, including my body.

Over the course of the day Anne explained more to me about the city I found myself in.

"Tanisport started out around 2025," she explained. "It was originally a bunch of hospitals used to treat coronavirus patients. A bunch of labs grew around it, then housing, and 2045 it was a full-fledged township. Then we had Seagenworks Informatica setting up their offices here…. they're still one of the big employers…. and the town's population just exploded. We were half a million people in 2058 and the population's stayed steady since then."

"So it's a pretty decent-sized city now."

"Yeah. Dad came here in 2058 just after finishing school. Worked construction. Helped build a lot of the houses here."

"He still works construction?"

"Not any more. Nowadays he's the secretary of the Construction Workers' Association."

"And your mum?"

"Mum worked in a store. Dad met her when he went shopping for Gatorade. He asked her out right there in the checkout line."

I smiled. "That must have been romantic."

"Sure. She was always fond of rom-coms."

"How did she die?... If you can talk about it, that is."

Anne took a deep breath. "Mistaken identity."

"Mistaken identity?"

"There was an …. attack, at a police station." She took a deep breath. "A villain called Grumman had built combat suits for himself and a half dozen of his soldiers. They attacked the station to free some of their gang members who'd been arrested. The police fired back.

"Mum was at a hairdresser just opposite the police station. A number of shots were fired at the hairdresser. Several of the staff there got shot. Including Mum."

"The villains shot up the hairdresser?"

"The villains shot at the police station. The police fired back. Some of the bullets…."

I could feel a dawning sense of horror. Cops weren't supposed to shoot innocent bystanders. Not even by accident.

"Why mistaken identity?"

"Some of the cops said afterwards that they'd seen Grumman's henchmen hiding in the hairdresser." Anne's tone was bitter. "Nobody found any bodies of the henchmen afterwards, though. Grumman and his men got away clean."

"Rules of the range. The cops forgot them."

"Rules of the range?"

"Before a gun is fired, check what's beyond the target, just in case you miss. Any shooter learns that in basic training. When a gun is fired, Mr. Bullet is not your friend."

"Mr. Bullet? Where did you learn that from?"

“I wish I knew. I keep having random quotes jump into my head with no context.”

“As opposed to the floating letters that jump before your eyes with no context?”

“That too. Hey, maybe my random quotes are a separate superpower.”

“Yeah, it’s called being old.”

“I’m not old!”

“How would you know?”

“I don’t feel old,” I grumbled.

“Whatever you say. Let’s check the board again, old man.”

“Please don’t call me that….”

An afternoon, an evening, and no updates on Paul Drake.

Anne kept up a cheery face, but I could sense her getting more and more worried as time went by.

I decided that I’d try Prophet’s Roulette that night with a specific focus - to try to figure out her father’s whereabouts. It hadn’t struck me until halfway through the day that my new skill was perfectly optimized for figuring out something like that.

I tried to access the skill immediately. No luck. Instead, it showed me a timer: 08:04:33. Seconds ticked down.

So I could only access the skill when the timer ticked down to zero, it seemed.

Fine. I'd spend the time learning what I could and practicing my other abilities.

I kept using Observe on various things. Most of the observations were fairly mundane.

CHAIR: YOU SIT ON IT. IF YOU WEIGH MORE THAN 140 KILOS, YOU BREAK IT.

FOOD TRAY: METAL. USED TO CARRY FOOD. ALSO MAKES A DECENT IMPROVISED WEAPON.

WATER BOTTLE: PLASTIC. USED TO CARRY DRINKING WATER.

Some objects turned out to be a little more interesting - or disgusting.

DISCARDED SLEEPING BAG: NORMALLY USED BY A SINGLE PERSON, THIS BAG HAS BEEN DAMAGED DUE TO IMPROPER USE. A NEWLYWED COUPLE USED IT LAST NIGHT TO SNUGGLE, AND MORE. THE BAG HAS RIPPED IN PLACES DUE TO EXCESSIVE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY.

Okay, so I'd give that bag a wide berth then.

The more interesting use of Observe turned out to be on people.

How did I discover this? Well, I tried to use it on the vending machine and accidentally used it on the vending machine attendant.

SAM K.

LVL 2

VENDING MACHINE ATTENDANT.

RELATIONSHIP: NEUTRAL

Not really insightful, since the attendant was already wearing a nametag saying SAM K. Though the level information ... that made me think.

What did a Level 2 mean, actually? Or any level, for that matter? The Sarnak had been Level 12.

Surely other people didn’t have level progression and experience points.

Or maybe everyone secretly did, and I was the only one who could actually see mine?

… Eh. Not enough data to test.

A wise man knows when to stop trying to figure out things for which there is no data.

Using Observe on one of the cops yielded more:

POLICE OFFICER

LEVEL 5

FACTION: TANISPORT POLICE DEPARTMENT

HP 100/100

RELATIONSHIP: NEUTRAL

I thought through the level data. From what Sergeant Ryman had told us, the average Sarnak trooper could easily tear apart ordinary soldiers.

The Sarnak was therefore more combat capable than a normal cop - by a huge margin - and a cop would, logically, be a more effective fighter than a vending machine attendant. Their levels were 12, 5 and 2.

Was it that simple?

Was a person’s level simply my power’s way of assessing how effective they were in combat?

+1 TO WISDOM FOR GAINING A USEFUL INSIGHT ON THE NATURE OF REALITY.

MP INCREASES TO 240.

And a confirmation, if that could be called one, plus a reward. Sometimes my power wasn’t all terrible.

Now to figure out if I could do something useful with the other information.

What was Faction?

FACTION: THE ORGANIZATION OR GROUP TO WHOM A PERSON OR BEING PRIMARILY BELONGS AND OFFERS THEIR HIGHEST LOYALTY.

A BEING MAY BELONG TO A SINGLE FACTION AT A TIME. HOWEVER, MANY FACTIONS HAVE SUB-FACTIONS, WHICH ARE NOT EVIDENT AT FIRST GLANCE. FOR EXAMPLE, THE TANISPORT POLICE DEPARTMENT IS A SUB-FACTION OF THE TANISPORT CITY ADMINISTRATION, WHICH IS A SUB-FACTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

FACTIONS MAY HAVE VASSAL, ALLIED, NEUTRAL OR HOSTILE RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER FACTIONS.

FACTIONS WHICH ARE SUB-FACTIONS TO A PARENT FACTION ARE CONSIDERED ALLIED FACTIONS.

MEMBERS OF A FACTION WILL INHERIT THEIR FACTION’S RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER FACTIONS.

YOUR CURRENT FACTION: NONE.

YOUR KNOWN FACTIONS:

TANISPORT POLICE DEPARTMENT GRUNTERS BONES OF THE HIERARCHY

I remembered seeing the Grunters in front of the shelter Anne and I had stumbled across the previous day. Very efficient-looking, but not real soldiers. A gang.

It seemed wrong for such well-equipped, disciplined looking troops to be a gang.

What was wrong with this world anyway?