THE ANSWERED CALL

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟑: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋

"Should I just answer the call?" Those were the words that ran through Eric's mind.

This was a frightening situation for Eric more so than losing his job. He thought of calling work management or sending an email to his boss, but his phone was literally possessed by something, and his computer was next to his possessed phone.

Without a second to stop in between rings, the phone continued to ring, over and over again.

"I could...just pick up the call! But what if this some kind of stalker or a ghost!?😰" Eric thought as he cautiously approached the ringing phone.

Eric tried to motivate himself to get his phone, "No, there's no way that ghosts actually exist. Maybe I'm overthinking it."

And it seemed to be working, he accumulated a lot of confidence as he slowly but surely approached his ringing smartphone.

....𝐌𝐄𝐀𝐍𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄....

In the dark alley where Delete stood waiting, out of the shadows, a mysterious figure appeared behind him, wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, clothed in a butlers suit, a silver cane in hand and a fedora hat to complete the fit.

"Hello dear." said the mysterious man as he place his hand on Delete's shoulders. Those words sent a shiver through Delete's spine upon hearing them.

He knew that dreaded voice. An entity he knew all too well, "Shadow Man." Delete instinctively retreated from the man's side.

"You still call me that crude name, tsk, tsk, tsk! I thought we'd be closer than that already!😁" the mysterious man said.

"What do you want!?😨" Delete demanded to know. He had a scary expression on his face as he refused to show his back to the mysterious man.

The shadow man mischievously sighed, "Oh you~, straight to business as always, look where that got you!😈"

The man's reply made Delete get even more defensive, his entire being wanted to run away but even he knew that wasn't an option. If there was one thing he knew about the shadow man, it was that there was no escaping him as long as there's a shadow.

Calming his already erratic nerves, Delete took a step forward, kept a stoic expression and spoke, "I'll ask once again, what do you want?😶"

The shadow man sighed once more, "You're no fun. Fine, I'll tell you why I'm here..."

"...And what would that be?" Delete asked further.

"I am here for the same reason you're here, my dear. I am here to wait for his answer." the shadow man mischievously said.

"What makes you think he'll do that?" Delete asked.

The shadow man answered vaguely, "It's simple, he has to."

"Afterall, he's done it before, why would this one be different?" he added.

"I've reduced the possibility of that happening! All of them, the alternate versions are gone now! I made sure to get rid of every single one of them!" Delete debated.

"Did you really~?" the shadow man mentioned.

"What?" Delete asked, confused at the what the shadow man uttered.

"Hmm... Nevermind, not that it matters now, even if you reduced the climax probability, the future is already fixed." the shadow man said.

"What are you saying?" Delete was even more confused by his statement.

The shadow man took a walk around Delete, as he stated, "Oh you naive child. Time is like a neverending river, it flows, it bends and even spreads out endlessly. Just because you placed a few dams to block the river doesn't mean it won't overflow."

There was silence between them, they both stood silently facing each other in that dark alleyway. The shadow man stared in Delete's red eyes and Delete did the same, but all delete saw was...darkness. Behind the shadow man's mask seemed to lie vivid darkness and nothing more.

"Be careful~! You don't want to stare too much." the shadow man warned.

"Why do you say that?" Delete asked.

"Because when you stare into an abyss, the abyss stares back" the shadow man replied.

"There is nothing you can do to actually change time, all you can do is delay the inevitable but time always catches on" with those few words, the shadow man begins to retreat into the darkness.

But just before he fades away completely, he says, "Never forget, there's a reason why I am called Chronus."

And just like that Chronus disappeared into the shadows of the night, leaving Delete with more questions than answers.

Meanwhile, on Eric's side, he had finally mustered up the courage to reach for his smartphone, placed the battery-less phone by his ear and answered the call once and for all.

"Umm... Hello?" he said whilst hesitantly answering the call.

A male with a calm and soft voice replied, "You actually answered the call? Erm... Is this Mr. Eric Brander?"

"Y-Yes, this is he." Eric stuttered.

"Great, Mr. Eric Brander, a twenty-five year old man, an accountant as well as a recorded divorcee with no relatives of any kind, is that right?" So much sensitive information about Eric was just said by the Unknown caller, this placed Eric in an even more worried state.

The information the caller knew worried Eric to the point that all he did was stutter, "U-U-Umm, y-yes? A-And who may I be speaking with?"

"I..." the unknown caller said with a pause.

"....Hmm?" The pause confused Eric, he began to think that there may be a bad connection or his phone had finally gone to normal as it was still amazing enough that it was working without a battery.

It took Unknown a while to answer because he was stunned by what would be the best reply to save Eric, or what would sound trustworthy to Eric. He was at his wit's end and couldn't take anymore chances that would mess this up.

Unknown had also realized that on his last attempts to save Eric he never actually introduced his hacker name to Eric, and this bothered him.

"...I am Unknown, I am a hacker." he hesitantly introduced himself with his hacker name.

"And I am here to give you a very important question to answer for me." Unknown added.

"A hacker with a question you say?" Eric asked, he was surprisingly calm. Maybe it was due to the fact that he had finally got a name for his persistent caller.

"Yes, just a question." Unknown confirmed.

"I see. Well, if it's just a simple question that doesn't involve any of my sensitive information like my bank account or social security number, then ask away." Eric was cautious in his words, he couldn't take any risk with this so called hacker.

Afterall, he had heard so many stories involving hackers that steal people's finances with just a few numbers from ones social security number.

"Haha, don't worry, I'm not after your money or finances. Plus, where I'm from, we only use wallet addresses. There's no such thing as a bank." Unknown confirmed his suspicions.

"No banks... Where the heck is he from? Then where does the money go, he's not making any sense." Eric thought.

"I simply have a question that I am obliged to ask you as your CyberVerse Reality agent." Unknown immediately added so as not to waste too much time.

Eric was a bit confused by the new words Unknown uttered, it made him think, "'CyberVerse Reality agent'? I've never heard of that before."

"I've never heard of this CyberVerse Reality before." Eric asked. Curiosity had got the better of him.

"Why, of course you haven't heard of them before, they had a different name in your time, but due to the terms and conditions of my contract with them, I cannot divulge that information." Unknown answered with an apologetic tone in his voice.

....𝟏𝟏:𝟑𝟎𝐏𝐌....

The time had just reached 11:30PM, and Unknown was in a hurry that he asked with haste, "Please, there isn't much time, will you answer my question, yes or no!?"

"...Fine! yes, I'll answer your question." Eric agreed but he was still skeptical about the whole thing.

Unknown immediately accepted the agreement, "Verified and confirmed by the system, I can ask you the question now."

"Ok...?" Eric said, patiently awaiting his question.

"Mr. Eric Brander!" Unknown exclaimed.

That flustered Eric, "Uh yes! Yes..!?"

"By the powers vested in me as a member of the Revivers hacking group, I ask you, will you accept offer to help save you from your impending death?" Unknown asked in a serious tone.

"I'm sorry, what!?" Eric was confused by the question.

"Do you wish to live, Mr. Eric Brander!?" Unknown asked again.

𝐓𝐨 𝐁𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐝...