DC: The Gamer

[1st POV]

Pam has now started walking around the house without clothes... not at all shy in front of Maze, who occasionally sneaks glances at Pamela's butt.

Pam was overjoyed, then upset, then happy again... in total, about five times.

I tried to understand what was happening, but she wouldn't tell me.

Pam and I arrived at the palace using Flying Thunder God Jutsu.

We got where we needed to go in just two jumps.

Pam's vision was a little foggy the first minute, but everything was fine afterward.

We walked through the grand entrance and were met by the butler.

He escorted us to the very top floor of the palace, where we were already expected.

Beatrice and Harton were at the table.

She had recently promoted him to general, and now he was officially in charge of the guard as well.

"I'm glad to see you again."

Beatrice greeted us with a radiant smile, "Please, have a seat."

"Your Majesty, if I may ask, what is the purpose of today's meeting?"

Pam inquired, "Not that I mind, but I'm quite curious."

"Just call me by my name. And yes, there is a reason but it seems you both have forgotten about it."

She said, looking at us with a hint of surprise, "Actually, that makes it even better. It'll be a surprise."

Meanwhile, Harton was smiling through his impressive mustache. I wondered who had the bigger mustache—him or Gordon.

"You know how to intrigue, Beatrice."

I said, "But I really can't recall what we're supposed to remember. I've gone through all our conversations in my head and still can't find the answer.

"Well-ll-ll."

She stammered, "Considering your busy schedule and lifestyle, it's no surprise. But you won't have to wait long until midnight.

After that, she steered the conversation in a different direction. However, Pam tried to ask a question but didn't get the chance.

Beatrice is quite expert at managing her speech and controlling the flow of a conversation.

A true politician, no doubt about it.

Glancing at her stats confirmed my thoughts:

Name: Beatrice / Queen Bee

Level: 36

Race: Human

Class: Politician

1st Subclass: Diplomat

2nd Subclass: Lawyer

Trait: Willpower, Lonely Woman, Monarch, Experiment Survivor

Age: 23 years

Attributes: See details.

From her attributes, what really caught my interest was her skills:

Musician - Level 71

Persuasion - Level 48

Troll - Level 11

Hand-to-Hand Combat - Level 12

Regeneration - Level 11

Polyglot - Level 48

Mistress of BDSM - Level 26

Politician - Level 89

I'm not even sure what surprises me more that until recently, she still played a secondary role in the state despite her Level 89 in "Politician," or the skill level in "Mistress of BDSM."

The next few hours I spent chatting with Harton while Pam and Beatrice occasionally excused themselves for a couple of minutes to go somewhere.

The conversation went from everything to nothing.

I even made some light attempts to probe what Pam and I had forgotten, but Harton just smoothly redirected the discussion to a new topic.

But everything became clear when the clock struck midnight. System messages began pouring in:

"Ding!"

[Your body has turned 24 years old.]

[As a gift from the system, all your attributes and skills have increased by 1 level, and you've received +10 free points.]

[New Quest: "The Mystery of Origins!"

Death mentioned in a conversation with you that the history of your body has quite an intriguing nature and backstory. Find out what exactly she meant by this.

Objective: Uncover the secret of your origins.

Duration: 1 year.

Rewards:

+25 C.O.

+10,000 relationship with ???

-1,000 relationship with ???

[Failure or Refusal:

Feature: "Orphan."

And the most puzzling part is that I can't understand what's hidden behind those question marks.

If the God of Games Himself decided to give me such a quest, then there's a 100% chance there's some kind of trick or hidden surprises involved.

What concerns me most are the two individuals—one with whom my relationship will improve and the other with whom it will worsen.

I have no idea who they are or what this could lead to.

However, I really don't have a choice because I need to gain power to fight for this world.

After that, there were notifications about my skills—some of them even evolved.

For example, "Accuracy" transformed into "Enhanced Accuracy" upon reaching Level 50 while "Cheater" evolved into "Con Artist."

Then, a few servants brought in a cake, followed by a slightly tipsy Pamela and Beatrice.

With their sweet, drunk voices, they tried to sing me something resembling "Happy Birthday!"

Harton and I ended up having to put them both to bed within fifteen minutes.

After putting Beatrice to bed, I headed back to Pamela.

As I was about to fall asleep, my instincts alerted me to danger… from Pamela's tentacles.

I chose to go outside and get some fresh air because I was afraid of the place they seemed to be trying to get to.

On the terrace, I found Harton drinking alone. He saluted me with a glass filled with some ruby-colored liquid, probably wine, and gestured for me to join him.

"Thank you for the surprise, General. I must admit, I'd completely forgotten what day it was. Seems I've gone a bit wild."

"It happens. I understand—I'm the same way. But Beatrice is a girl with a sharp memory; she doesn't forget anything or anyone."

"I already figured that out."

I nodded and poured myself some port, as it turned out.

"By the way, could you tell me why there are no proper diplomatic relations between the USA and Bialya? Beatrice tried to explain it to me, but when she got to the 1930s, we were interrupted by Pamela."

"The story is the ambassador from your country who came to us back then arrived at the official meeting completely drunk. As we later found out, he got drunk that way at a tavern in the port. By the way, he was a highly respected diplomat who had served in various countries for over twenty years before coming to us. We still don't know what drove him to drink so heavily that day, but the fact remains that during the conversation the ambassador began insulting His Majesty and his family. That was something he couldn't tolerate, so he simply ordered the ambassador to be thrown out of the palace. He told him not to return until he repented and apologized for his actions. In my opinion, he was too forgiving but that wasn't even the real cause. Two days later, the ambassador's right-hand man requested a new audience. The King accepted him, and this fool messed everything up again in both diplomatic and even moral terms."

"Even so? My country wanted to start a war?"

I asked, genuinely surprised.

"No. However, the messengers they sent on that mission were indeed incompetent. Moreover, establishing official relations between our countries was something we needed at that time, but not for us—rather, for the United States. We had the means to help them with the Great Depression. Our economy could have handled it but after a series of failed negotiation attempts, they withdrew their mission. And two weeks later, an article appeared in a famous publication, 'Daily News,' claiming that our Foreign Minister had drugged their ambassador with some poison to discredit the US government. The article suggested it was all under the influence of the Soviet Union and we 'beat up' their ambassador, and two days later, when the 'good' US ambassador tried to resolve the issue 'for the future of both nations,' he sent his assistant to fix the conflict."

"And I guess you became the 'barbarians'?"

I asked, understanding the direction of the conversation.

"After that, the king was called a 'dictator,' and we were somehow labeled as racists, like the Nazis, and so on. Then came World War II, and Europe, especially the US, needed our connections. We helped them, but not out of a desire to improve relations, but out of an even greater hatred for Germany than for the Americans. After that, our relationship warmed slightly, but it was still far from perfect."

I was pretty surprised by this.

I had already gathered from the clones' research, and what I had heard earlier was that Bialya was a wealthy country, ranking among the top ten in the world.

However, I had no idea what kind of connections Europe, and specifically the US, needed back then.

"I see you're surprised. However, let me explain the reason for our 'importance'."

He said, smiling smugly.

Actually, I wasn't opposed to hearing what had been on my mind for the past few weeks.

"Bialya is a country with a three thousand years of history. Our homeland can rightfully be called one of the most tolerant in the world. I'm not talking about sexual minorities or the nonsense of America, but we are tolerant towards them as well. The thing is, we welcome any religion except the traditional faith in the Mother Bee. In the twelfth century, the king married a Jewish woman, and since then, we've had a large Jewish poeple, and Judaism is the second-largest religion in our country. In addition, we have Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and various small religions. Thanks to the connection with the previous religion, we maintain relations with most of the major banks and conglomerates in the world. We also maintain ties with the League of Arab States, and countries developing in the Asian part of the world. Furthermore, we have several non-aggression and non-interference treaties with large countries. The only country with which we do not have such a treaty is yours. Moreover, we have always supported scientists. We are rightfully recognized as the second country in the world in terms of Nobel Prize winners. Many of them work successfully in the field of military development, which allows us not to worry about an invasion from another country or nuclear weapons. After all, a sledgehammer is heavier than a hammer. Ha-ha-ha..."

"It seems I'm starting to understand what's going on. This country possesses something that not only allows it to effectively deal with others but also gives it the ability to give a good knock on the head to 'The Most Powerful Country in the World,' if we go by what I was taught in school about America."

"... I see you're starting to understand me. And there's much more that gives us unique opportunities to influence world politics. However, the most important thing is our economy and science especially economic levers of pressure. After all, our country supplies huge quantities of oil, metals, precious stones, and machinery. Though the list can go on for a long time. As for tourism..."

He waved dismissively, "It's just a small source of income. Although even from that, we make hundreds of millions."

"You sure have it lively here."

I nodded, calculating just how rich the kings and queens of Bealia must be.

"Well, I could go on about this for a long time. But the fact is that even now, we are essential to the USA, because due to our disputes, they can't trade freely with half of the countries in Africa and Asia. And the Middle East and Arabia are completely closed off to them."

In the distance, fireworks began.

Apparently, someone was celebrating their birthday or some other holiday.

"By the way, there's something you need to talk to Beatrice about."

"Why? And why do you think I should talk to her?"

"Believe me, I've lived on this earth long enough. I understand a lot. I also have information about your 'feats' in Gotham City. So, you're quite the 'negotiator,' in my opinion."

Harton slowly stood up and turned toward the exit, adding one last thing, "Believe me, you two should talk. Ah, youth!"

I was left there, pondering his words.

What is it we need to talk about?

What's the topic?

To be continued...

...

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