“That guy is strong.” (Crys)

“Who?”

“That noble-looking man with red hair.” (Crys)

Huh, what? Kurdt Krúrick is the Desperation Agent? They mentioned a high noble who sold himself to slavery in one episode. His street name was Desperation Agent, but I don't remember anyone making the connection that DA and KK are the same character.

Arnaud Kizaha moonlighted as Thiefmaster out of boredom and Kurdt Krúrick sold himself to slavery to dethrone Caliph? What's wrong with the minds of high nobles in this world?!

Tze was born as a slave, but upgraded himself to an emperor through hard work and reckless talent. Kurdt was born as a high noble who idolized Tze's backstory and wished to do something similar with his own life: start from the bottom and climb up. But since he was born to a noble family, he had to destroy his family name and turn himself into a slave before he could start from the bottom – like an extreme athlete cutting his legs as a preparation for marathon.

“I'm Speedrun, this is is Crystal Pencil and behind him are – ”

“You. Speedrun.” (Kurdt)

“Yes, I'm the Doctor.”

“I want to talk with you. Alone.” (Kurdt)

Kurdt invited me to his tent. Crys gave me a nod and I followed Kurdt. I'll call for help, if he tries to throw me on his bed.

“You are not from here. Who are you?” (Kurdt)

“What do you mean?”

“Your face. Your shoes. Your speech. Did you come from the Winter Forest?” (Kurdt)

“No, I'm a...”

Should I tell him? From what I know about his character, he should be extremely knowledgeable about the weirdness of this world. He might even know something about how I came here and how to get back.

“Actually, let me ask you a question first. Are you the reader of the Lauticaa monastery archives?”

“So you know. Yes, I know about things common people call magic. Those are just things that Strangers have removed from the principle of the world. I am not a magician nor a Stranger. I read the archives collected by my grandfather before they were burned by the arkont.” (Kurdt)

Tze punished the arkont after rising to power, then erased his family and name from history like the arkont erased the precious archives. A loss greater than the destruction of Library of Alexandria. You can say many bad things about Tze, but at least he cares about books and knowledge, even if it's only to hoard everything for himself.

“Do you know about Rukhkh and Winter Forest?”

“The archives had strange stories from times even before Strangers. What about them?” (Kurdt)

“Is there anything about people traveling between worlds or coming out of paintings?”

“It is as I thought. It's alright then.” (Kurdt)

“You know something about that?”

“Effigian evocation. A technique for summoning a simulacrum of a person from a picture of a person. You were summoned from a painting, correct?” (Kurdt)

“No, I wasn't exactly summoned...”

“Did you open a portal for your simulacrum by accident?” (Kurdt)

“Yeah, maybe. I am just a simulated copy of the original then?”

“That is how it works.” (Kurdt)

The secret backstory of Sorry Man has more in common with me than I thought. I had an idea about it before, but it kind of makes sense. If Sorry Man came from a painting and his actions in Mu-Ur world were severely limited because of it, and I came from a neurogame and my actions were limited because of it... If I had not been a speedrunner and broken the game routinely, my body would have been even more severely straitjacketed by this world.

The more detailed the depiction, the less limited the avatar when crossing over. A casual gamer would have come into this world with a critical hit of autism.

What a scary thought.

“Do you know how to do it again or how to cancel it?”

“No details of such things in the archives. Vague depictions of witnessed events. Why would you want to cancel yourself, unsummon yourself? You are what you are now. You are not the person who stood still and modeled for the painting. You are the one from the painting.” (Kurdt)

“I still haven't internalized it yet, I suppose.”

“Live your own life, no matter what you are.” (Kurdt)

“We still need to kill Caliph to actually have a life in this world.”

“It is so.” (Kurdt)

“Will you join our group?”

“I appreciate the offer, but no.” (Kurdt)

“Why?”

“Before the Strangers came to this place, real magic and real sorcerers existed. Many different races like elves and lizardkin existed. Strangers destroyed all that. All magical races were killed. Magic was corrupted into techniques that warp the principle of the world. Magic was turned into bizarre artifices that transcend ancient rituals. Humans, and only humans, were used as slaves. Humans are a non-magical race. That saved us.” (Kurdt)

Woah, woah, hold on. What's with this surprise infodump? None of this was in the manual.

There were actually such cliché fantasy elements in this world before? And what's with that principle of the world stuff? Are we talking about game elements that include magic system versus consistent glitches that break the system?

“There was a story about a cabal of high wizards fighting against Draconic Darkness. It ended in mass suicide ritual to cast a grand spell. That spell may have saved the world in the future. They summoned an immortal being who can continue battle against the darkness forever. That being is our hope.” (Kurdt)

“Wait, is that immortal being Sorry Man? Was that the spell that got interrupted?”

Kurdt smiled, rose to his feet and walked out of the tent. I followed him. I guess he wanted everyone outside to hear.

“We have talked. I'm not coming with you, nor will I follow you, but I will cooperate and share my knowledge with you, if such a thing is convenient.” (Kurdt)

“Why, Kurdt? Surely you understand that Caliph will win, if we don't deal with him soon, right?”

“I have made up my mind. I cannot betray the me of yesterday who vowed to take the mantle of a slave and work with the true slaves towards freedom from the bottom.” (Kurdt)

“That plan won't work in the long run, Kurdt. Come with us. I assure there will be hard battles ahead even after Caliph is dead. You can sell yourself to slavery as many times as you want after that.”

“I can't follow your easy path. I will work my way through hell and reach the top with my own two hands. That decision is set in stone.” (Kurdt)

“What a pain... Crys, you talk to this guy.”

“When you're deep in the abyss, it's easier to just keep going down.” (Crys)

“You cannot persuade me neither with flowery words or rational logic. I have made up my mind. I support your struggle, but I wish to struggle beautifully on my own.” (Kurdt)

So this was the true reason Kurdt Krúrick aka Desperation Agent didn't follow Rainwoman.

In the anime timeline, he was probably already working as a slave in this community and was freed by Rainwoman against his will. When his plan to follow Caliph's example was ruined, he probably chose to go into hiding with other freed slaves and got added on the wanted list as the leader of the slave rebellion.

An absurd situation. Very appropriate for Mu-Ur. So frustrating.

Is there no way to convince him? If so, we should hurry and rescue Mirim as soon as possible, kill the Caliph and talk with Kurdt again after –

”Kneel before Lucranah!” (Lucranah)

I woke up in cold sweat.

I was still in the Hidden Valley, in the house on the hill, on the second floor, in a soft bed.

Just a dream. Just another nightmare.

Kurdt Krurick? Wizards? Dragons? Nope. Such ridiculous things didn't exist here.

“Give me break and run to a rake...”

It was raining outside and the whole valley was under a thick blanket of fog. Rain's curse had arrived in full force. She was sleeping in the adjacent room. Sorry Man was probably standing there in the dark room, staring a wall.

Just a stupid dream.

Ugh. Why do I have to watch unskippable dream sequences even in this time and place? So annoying.

I washed my face, tiptoed downstairs and stepped outside.

Crys was sitting on the veranda and enjoying the warm, foggy landscape of early morning. The valley looked like it was under a giant shower curtain.

Hopefully Crys slept at least few hours... Yeah, we have another problem child here. Maybe a degree in therapy and counseling would have been the most useful skill to acquire before coming here.

Worrying about them keeps my mind out of my own problems at least.

“Crys.”

“What?” (Crys)

“You haven't seen any weird dreams about flying, talking fishes?”

“No. Why?” (Crys)

“If your start feeling like you can't sleep at all and you see a levitating fish that talks...“

I should probably leave the details of the sequence out.

“...well, uh, just don't listen any talking fishes in your dreams. That's all. Just trust me on this. If you see a fish ghost or some hallucinatory vision like that, just ignore it. You ignored it in the original timeline as well, so just a small heads up... anyway, just ignore it and it goes away eventually. And if you can't get sleep, I can recommend you something for that.”

“Sure.” (Crys)

In the first season anime episode, Crys stopped sleeping normally and had a fish dream sequence in the Starfish Mansion. In his dream, a flying fish ghost came through the wall and claimed to be a warning from the future. It warned Crys not to write a fake history book about The Revolution Movement.

It was the first dream sequence in the series and caused a slight uproar among viewers because everyone thought the fish was a real character for a while. They had already seen enough surreal stuff in the Starfish Mansion that it wouldn't have been surprising if the flying fish really was canon... but no, it was revealed to be just a dream.

“Tell me about the Starcutter again.” (Crys)

“You're not going to ask me details about the fish dream thing?”

“No. Dreams are rarely amusing when told to others.” (Crys)

“True. It's a solo experience.”

“You will tell me later, if it's important. I want to hear all the details about Caliph's weapon.” (Crys)

“Oh, did you get an idea on how to counter it? Ah, no, I know what you're thinking: if Tze was able to learn it, you must be able to learn it too, no matter how hard it seems to me. But unfortunately Starcutter has the same high trade-off Rukhkh Egg has. Normal cutter has a steady blade of about ten centimeters long at best, but if you customize it by removing the limiters and shields, you get more range and more power, but at the same time, it becomes impossibly hard to control. Every time you make even a smallest mistake, you're basically rolling a die to see if you die. When you input a launch sequence, the plasma tentacles might cut off your arms and the tool itself. You have to hit the keys in right sequence and rhythm to lock and load the attack pattern before releasing the attack. Only Caliph Tze is crazy enough to gamble his life every time he uses it.”

“And the egg will make it easier.” (Crys)

“Yeah, that's what makes future Tze so dangerous. If he activates his demigod mode with Rukhkh Egg, he becomes unstoppable. When his body is invincible, he doesn't have to worry about mistakes anymore, he can play Starcutter all day long. His blade becomes the blade that cuts the heavens. It's just not worth the cost and effort for us. We already have Strangers' dynamite, we have Rain and Dancer, and there's still lots of less dangerous power-up items out there.”

In the game, it was possible to break into the vault under the City of the Sun where Caliph Tze had hoarded all the other mining tools and customize your own Starcutter Lite, but no player had ever spent the time and effort to learn the diabolically difficult sequences to go beyond simple melee cuts.

“Also, Crys –“

“Something else?” (Crys)

“No, not about the Starcutter. I was just thinking that you haven't offered a blood contract for Rain.”

“There wouldn't be any point to it.” (Crys)

“Well, yeah...”

Magical contracts work only if you believe in them. Crys had correctly deduced that Rain wouldn't care.

“What was your nightmare?” (Crys)

“Oh, now you're interested? It was just a silly dream about Kurdt Krúrick. A pointless mashup fantasy montage. I already forgot the details.”

“There are small inconsistencies in the information you've told me about Kurdt Krúrick.” (Crys)

“Huh?”

“You told me previously that you don't know much about Kurdt, then told me that Kurdt is the son of a person who collected the monastery archives, and yesterday you mentioned that he is an apprentice, has read the archives and knows a lot about Strangers.”

“...Did I say all that?”

Crys took out his notebook and flipped back to the notes he took during our journey in Ur Continent, along with the notes he wrote in the ship.

“I must have misremembered... I was really sick in the ship, but...”

Something was definitely wrong. My memories about Kurdt seemed messed up.

“A simple mistake is the most probable explanation, but there's an alternative explanation I've contemplated: Kurdt might have an ability to manipulate memories or erase himself from the history using a technique similar to the one that Strangers used to erase their likeness from history. A memory glitch, no?” (Crys)

Crys went straight to a more esoteric explanation. Can't blame him, I've introduced him to some strange stuff lately. It wouldn't be too strange to add some mnemokinetic abilities on top of bad weather curses, temporal paradoxes, immortality eggs and apparition aliens summoned from artworks.

Yeah, it's not that my memories are messed up – it's the Mu-Ur lore that is messed up.

I'm not wrong, the world is wrong.

To take it further, you could even speculate that Kurdt is a Stranger himself – maybe the only one left behind?

Now I'm just scaring myself.

“Y-yeah... you might be onto something there... but we also talked about Occam's razor back then, right? It's far more likely that I have a few corrupted sectors in my memories. Human memory is fragile from the start. One memory hiccup doesn't warrant jumping to a brain cancer diagnosis.”

“A simple mistake doesn't warrant it, but even a small possibility of a dangerous ability necessitates preparations in advance.” (Crys)

“Well, that makes sense too... Black Swan Events, wild cards, extreme outliers – that's what they were called in the future. Rare, but large catastrophes require bigger precautions than common, but small hiccups. You can survive a hiccup without preparations, but facing a catastrophe without prep kills you.”

“Exactly so.” (Crys)

“...I shall leave the prep to you on this matter, Crys-sensei.”

Wild speculations aside, we just have to see what kind of person Kurdt is when we find him.

Hm. Kurdt. Now that I think about it, why is there a D in his name? Kurt would have been a more normal name, so why go for exotic variant that looks like an error? He surely wasn't some shonen manga protagonist or downhill racer. Usually D in the name was supposed to meant devil or demon –

“Ah! Kurdemont! His full name was Kurdemont Krúrick! How did I forget even that?!”

This sudden realization came with another sudden realization: someone was standing behind me.

A startled shriek came out of my mouth.

“AAAIEEEEH– oh, it's you.”

“Shut up. You're waking up everyone.” (Kimono)

“Kim-chan, please. Don't sneak around like that, my pure maiden heart can't take this stress.”

On a positive note, my high-pitched Tarzan scream echoed in the valley quite nicely.

We left the Hidden Valley after a hearty breakfast.

The northern entrance of the autorail was hidden behind an actual waterfall, but we had to use a longer path to go around it – the water came down so hard that the pressure would have dragged you to the following river rapids immediately.

We continued hiking the mountain paths north and left the river segment behind. Dark clouds catched up with us again.

Then we had to travel a short segment quite close to the coastal road and move through some inhabited areas, so we decided to have a chat with some local punks from Sticky Lines Gang.

We confirmed that Caliph's moving palace had passed through these areas about a month and a half earlier.

Caliph was closer to Rukhkh than I expected.

There were good sides and bad sides to that.

I had to re-route a bit, but this was actually safer for us because we weren't on such a tight timer with upcoming Wineep mission.

“We can't get past the isthmus bottleneck until the palace has moved through it, so we have to wait. Wineep Dungeon mine is quite close to the palace road on the isthmus, so if we go too fast on this segment, we risk getting caught in the cavalcade. It's better to wait for the palace to pass the dungeon area before getting Mirim out.”

“Caliph is going to reach the Rukhkh Mountain before we catch up to him?” (Rain)

“Yeah. The palace got ahead of us, so Mirim has to wait a bit longer. Have patience, Rain, it's all going according to plan.”

Kimono and Rain eliminated the whole Sticky Lines Gang before we moved on, of course – can't have them blabber to knight squads about our movements.

As expected, we didn't meet the real Kurdemont Krúrick on our way to north. My ambigious dream didn't come true.

I re-routed us to the northernmost point of Sharp Mountains, where we used new names again and took residency in an isolated Green Mountain temple next to Lake Kroonik.

The cultists welcomed us with their hands high in the air, graciously offered their luxurious rooms to our exclusive use and then withdrew into new hermit holes in the temple garden.

Autoscrollers are one thing, waiting for slow NPCs to move out of the way is another thing. In the case of the latter, you can at least move freely in the area to collect some prior items or move stuff around in more suitable locations for future use.

We acquired a new horse. I named it Michael Horse as planned.

Yosh, let's call this waiting period our team training montage at a mountain retreat.