486 The Cartoonist

"The Boundary is the closest place outside the Primordial Tower where the Deep Ones can approach," the Cartoonist told him. "Being the place of the afterlife, all Death-personifications across the Multiverse have special authority over it."

He still had a hat over his head. His pointy goatee looked disheveled, and he kept biting the carrot, reveling in its flavor.

"That's why you must have the resurrection stone," the Cartoonist said, taking a mirror out of nowhere and attending to his beard. "Also, you must have the Title - Death Scion. Both help in connecting a Contestant to this place."

Kai listened to the man with a buried gloom in his eyes.

The Cartoonist had already told him about the Debugging, and its odd relationship with the Tournament of Worth with the theme—Survival.

Now Kai knew the reason for everything. Now he knew why he had concluded that he had been destined to fail. Only by giving up on his true Self, his Attitude, could Kai clear the Samurai's Task. But that would have been as good as failing it, too.

Men like Kai were shameless for anything and anyone except their beliefs. No matter how twisted those beliefs were, they were his. Without them, he could never take another step with confidence.

So, even if he had known about the Debugging, or had the option to Give Up, it wouldn't have changed anything. Sure, he would have survived by saying "I Give Up" if it hadn't been the Debugging Stage. But could he keep walking with his head held high, knowing that he had given up before?

This was a treacherous path, the path toward the Peak of Absolute Power. Only the best, the hardest, and the most resolute could tread it. Kai knew it because he had already done it on Island X. The peak there was shorter compared to the one of the Primordial Tower, but a peak it had been, nonetheless.

There were things a man could give up on. One's ambition and one's attitude weren't among them, and they never would be.

"Look, doc," the Cartoonist said, his tone apprehensive, "take out the Resurrection Stone, and I will help you connect to the Death. Perhaps you can make a deal with HIM. How will I connect you to Death, you ask? Well, we have a hotline…"

Kai looked in the direction where the Cartoonist was pointing at.

There, some dozens of feet away from them, a red, non-dial phone was resting on a white table. In the middle of the phone, where the dial box should have been, there was a hole.

"That's where the stone would go," the Cartoonist said, grinning. "Of course, there are other things that can go in it…"

Kai looked back at the man. "I don't have it. I can't use Inventory, either."

"Sure you can't," the man replied, chuckling, chewing the carrot. "You are dead, doc. How can you have Inventory? Theoretically, you can still take out the Resurrection Stone, though. Try it."

Kai closed his eyes and "willed" for the Stone to appear; for any stone to appear.

Nothing.

As Kai's kept trying, his eyes flickering, the Cartoonist shot a hurried look up, frowning.

"As I said," Kai began, opening his eyes, "I didn't have the Resurrection Stone."

"Odd," the Cartoonist commented. "Very well. Just go into the ocean and fish one out. It's full of them, anyway."

What?

Kai's face was full of doubts. An ocean, full of one of the most desired Artifacts in the Primordial Tower?

Then Kai remembered the appearance of the "stop sign", the "hole", and the "hammer". He had to remind himself—Logic, as he knew it, didn't work with the Cartoonist.

Kai stood up, entered the ocean, and began searching for the Stone using his hands. The ocean was cold, smelled of salt, and it had a bluish-green color about it. Kai let his feet soak in the saltiness, his fingers digging into the wet sand underneath.

"Ahem!" the Cartoonist cleared his throat.

Kai snapped his head back, looking over his shoulder. There, on the beach, the man was trembling as if he was choking on something. No, not as if. He was indeed choking—on laughter.

And it seemed the Cartoonist wasn't very good at it. "Hahaha!" he guffawed, holding his stomach. "Resurrection Stones… in an ocean… man! How gullible are you?!"

The ocean sizzle under Kai's feet. Calmly, he turned around and walked toward the laughing man, one step at a time.

The Cartoonist's laugh died. "Now, look, doc!" he blurted, sensing something amiss. He hurriedly reached behind him and took out a white flag. The Cartoonist held it and waved it, and said, "Peace man! I give up. I truly am."

Kai kept walking and stopped two steps away from him. "What are you?" he demanded, his voice icy. "What powers do you have? How are you doing… whatever you call this?"

Kai knew, for a fact, he wasn't gullible. There was a different kind of power within the Cartoonist's words. He could feel this oddness in his bones.

The Cartoonist gulped, his rabbit ears twisting in reflex. "You can't comprehend me," he said, looking up.

Kai looked up with him and found nothing but the sky glaring back at the two of them. "The truth. Now."

"You must know by now that I was sent to an Initiation Mission in the World of Cartoons, right?"

Kai nodded.

"Well," the Cartoonist continued, licking his lips, "that's the only mission I have ever been to."

Eh?

The Cartoonist smiled sheepishly, biting the carrot. "I am a 1st-floor Contestant."

"If you are lying to me, I swear…" Kai threatened, but somehow he could tell that the man wasn't lying.

"No, I am not!" the Cartoonist protested. "Look, doc. All I can tell is that I gained an Ability there. It's the kind a man is not supposed to possess."

"You are lying," Kai repeated, testing again.

"What are you? Some kind of Lie Detector?!" the Cartoonist flared. Suddenly, he beamed. "That's a good idea!"

He reached behind him, turning his waist, and took out a machine. It was an enormous chunk of machinery, which the Cartoonist put on the ground. Then he wrapped a strap around his left hand, near the elbow, and looked up. "Now ask, doc," he said, chuckling. "It's a Lie Detector. If I lie, the red LED you see here will light up."

The corners of Kai's mouth twitched. "Do you have a Blessing?"

"No."

And the red light lip up.

"Damn it!" the Cartoonist cursed, kicking the machine away. "It's broken, doc. Don't believe it."

Kai looked at the man. The Cartoonist was chuckling to himself under the hat, as if no one could see him.

For the first time, Kai felt amused by this self-claimed 1st-floor Contestant. There was something truly funny about him. "What can you tell me, then?" he asked softly.

The Cartoonist's head snapped up, shocked. "I knew it!" he shouted, standing up. "I knew I could convert you, you hot-headed gullible fellow. Now you see my importance, eh? Kneel and worship me!"

In the next moment, Kai grabbed him by the collar, lifting him in the air.

"Wait! Wait!" the Cartoonist shrieked. "I have an Elite Ability. Ass Pull!"

"Don't you dare…" Kai narrowed his eyes.

"No!" the Cartoonist screamed, seeing Kai's look. "I swear on your dead mother, doc. I am not lying. I pull out… things from my ass. Metaphorically, of course. I can't fit those…"

*************

AN: Hey guys! Don't forget to comment and leave reviews now and then. Donate PS if you can, too. They help a lot.