13 Silver Head.

Tom yelped backwards. He lost his balance and fell. He couldn't believe that the square robot just mentioned his name. This could be one of the weird things I have been imagining, Tom thought. He smacked hard right at his face and then wrung in pain after he'd notified himself that he wasn't dreaming or any sort of

 

The square robot stopped its "bip-bop" sound and then the area once again resumed with nature's wave of flow.

 

The robot scuttled towards Tom as its metallic legs gave a scratching noise on the tide road. It stood before Tom, and at about that time, Tom could hear some mechanical whistling, like a motor rotor, sounding from the body of the robot. Not very long after, the silence was broken.

 

"Hello," it said, its voice sounding like a reverberated, low-tuned microphone. It had no accent. "I am sorry for the inconvenience. It's been a tough journey for me." It moved forward toward Tom. Its eyes were expressionless, but Tom could read a sense of manner from the robot. It's no bomb robot afterall, because it would've ticked me off if it was one. Tom became oddly at ease at that moment. But the fact that the robot had called his name was still ringing a bell in his head.

 

They both starred at each other for some time before they spoke up again. "Nice to meet you?" Tom nodded. Finally, he sat up. He would have wanted to stand, but because the robot was struggling with the height between his knee and ankle, Tom decided to keep a comfy state of discussion.

   

"Where do you come from?" Tom asked it. The robot hesitated for a while, then looked at Tom and then squatted. Next thing, he sat down, sounding like a garbage can that fell with a loud clank. Tom got confused with what it was doing. Tom thought it was trying to stay in his position.

 

"Is young Master Thomas bothered?"

 

Tom felt odd instantly. Master?

    

The robot brought its hands together with a long stare into the sky. "It's always a beautiful reality."

Tom followed its sight direction and also looked into the sky, trying to figure out what the square robot was trying to say.

  

"I am from the fifth reality, but I was born in the IBOT reality. I chose good over evil. Now I wink from one place to another, helping to encourage the Multiverse system candidates ," the robot said, answering Tom's questions, which he had dropped earlier.

 

Every word that flew from the robot's mouth only confused Tom even more. As difficult as it was to believe the metallic-colored robot was in front of him, the conversation was equally bizarre.

 

"And the fifth?" he asked. "What's that, an address? Where is it? Where's the IBOT reality?"

 

As its blue-lighted pupils danced around the bolt-like object, the robot gave one of the scariest and most unbelievable laughs, which made Tom wonder if it's for real. Its laughter was like a three-year-old kid counting the numerals bit by bit.

"It appears that Silver Head has a lot of questions, Hann...ging on and there's no way I'm telling you anything. The professor forbids that you children know anything about the multiverse system yet, until it's the right time. "

 

What about the professor? This is something connected to the letters I received, right?

Tom found out that the robot had something to do with the letters he was getting, even the riddle.

"Um, pls, what is your name?" Tom asked.

  

The robot looked at Tom, kind of hysterically, trying to tell him why he'd asked such a question. Since there was no expression on the blue-lit eyes, Tom gave up trying to guess what the look might be.

 

"Silver Head, I have said it earlier," the robot answered calmly.

   

"Silver Head?"

The robot nodded. Tom wondered what kind of name that would be. " Silver Head?" Tom asked. " Can you tell me everything you know about reality?"

 

"Why are you so interested in hearing it? That would break the code rule. And the prof won't be happy about that. My other friend, very tall-looking, is also on this rough journey, and also keeping the rules."

 

"So that means you know about the letter? You know about me. That's why you called my name when you saw me. "

"I know you as Prof knows you, but you must be unaware of the systems, realities, teleporters, and so on," it said, holding out a finger as it listed each strange item as if it'd been given a list beforehand. "Aside from that, feel free to ask your question, as I'm at a loss for what to say to you."

Tom rubbed his eyes , frustrated. He tried his best to memorize each of the strange words Silver Head had said, burning them into his mind for later analysis.

 

"Silver Head, it's official. This is the craziest conversation I've ever had."

 

"I'm sorry, Tom," Silver Head's microphone voice reverberated softly, indicating the first emotion Tom perceived from it.

Is he depressed? He thought.

 

Silver Head continued, "It's important you figure things out for yourself. It won't work otherwise. But, you might've seen something strange since you got those letters."

 

Tom's interest perked up considerably. "Yeah I have, a few hours ago earlier today. A cloudy eyeball with a string of electricity appeared, and the eyeball was turning round and round. Can you tell me about that? "

 

Tom would have wanted Silver Head to be jolted up or either be scared or at least put up some emotion on its face. But it's the other way round.

 

"That's death sleep."

 

  "Death sleep?"

 

"Death sleep can be more vicious when using that bulky eye ball of its, swerving round and round trying to hyptonize their prey. If you stare at it for thirty seconds, my friend, you get dizzy, and then fall into an endless sleep of eternity. You know what I mean, right? No waking up again? "

 

Tom went bizzare. For thirty seconds? Tom imagined what could have been for him if he had stayed in the alleyway a longer time. He would have been as good as dead—in a sleep.

 

"Scared?" Silver Head snapped into Tom's thoughts.

 

With a few breaths given out, "Yeah, very scary. I wouldn't want to see it again. " Tom said as a shiver went through his spine.

 

Silver Head looked up once again, and it stood up, with all the junky metallic sounds following it. Tom wondered what it wanted to do this time.

"Any problems? Where are you going?"

 

"Back to complete my mission," Silver Head said as it pulled out a checklist book. "Thomas Noland," it mumbled as it checked in an empty box by the book's side.

"What's that all about?" Tom asked, looking confused.

 

"Some verification, you know."

 

"For what?"

" For prof's sake."

Tom felt uneasy. He sensed that the conversation was coming to an end. "Ain't you going to tell me something about you or this prof, who I assume is the master mind of all these?"

 

    Silver Head twitched a bit by moving its head a little. "No can do little man, it's against the code. You have chosen this brave path. Why don't you finish it? " With that being said, Silver Head pulled out a neat little yellow letter and handed it over to Tom.

 

The second clue? Both clues appeared on the same day.

 

Tom collected it, still shocked. He wanted answers so badly that he wouldn't have a nice day if he didn't get anything from Silver Head.

 

"Run along now."

 

"Hope I can see you again."

Silver Head nodded. "If you don't see me, you'll get to see my other friend, who I told you about. The tall-looking friend"

Tom imagined how tall the very friend of Silver Head would be. Is it going to be a robot like him?

Even though he didn't get what he wanted, he felt at ease and calm talking to someone who understood him. For some reason, he talked to Silver Head, and for some reason, he felt excited.

 

He set off for home with a smile on his face.

 

                                      ~

 

    Silver Head waited for Tom to disappear out of sight before it tapped the middle button on his box-like abdomen and a blue screen appeared.

<Sending a message to Prof. Unlock the system to the fifth reality. 80% of the total teleport energy>

  

Silver Head waited for some minutes before another coding message came back to him from the receiver.

 

<Get ready to wink in 5...4...>

 

Silver Head's leg turned into a motor tire as it rolled very fast into the forest, with its annoying "bip bop" sound starting again.

 

"Bye, poor dead chaps." It said before the countdown finished.

 

<3...2...1...>

Immediately, Silver Head winked away from the forest, vanishing in an instant.

 

     

    

 

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