NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 40
Mark was surprised and thought that although it was inevitable that someone would find him out, it would not be this soon.
“How can I help you, Ms..?”
“I’m sorry, my name is Special Agent Danielle Harper and this is Special Agent Andrew Feldman. This is regarding the situation that happened in Ventura County Medical Center. Can we talk inside?
“I’m sorry! Sure, please come in.”
Mark invited the agents inside and offered them cans of coke after he led them to the sofa.
“Am I under arrest? This is so exciting! My first visit from the FBI!” Mark said jokingly.
“No, Mr. Baker.”
“I’m sorry, please call me Mark.”
“Alright, Mr. Baker. Mark it is then. Please call me Danni.” The lady agent said. Her companion kept quiet.
“You’re not under arrest Mark. We’re just investigating what happened on the hospital. It’s a very unique phenomenon that have a high impact on our country. We’re actually interviewing everyone that was present during that time.”
Mark was happy that he wore a medical mask when he went to the Community Memorial Hospital the night he got depressed thinking about his parents then curing people using his Dryad’s Circle Spell.
“We knew you went there to visit your friend’s daughter who was sick. Can you tell us more of the details that you saw during that time?”
“As you know, I’m not really much aware of the surroundings because I was focus on John’s problem. I was racking my brains on how to console him. He was very kind to me when he was my manager at the store.” Mark paused for bit. He tried looking like he was thinking about what happened but in actuality, he was thinking of what he could say that would be easily accepted by the woman FBI agent.
“John was actually hugging me at that time, crying. He was just so devastated on what happened to Juliet. Then suddenly we heard Mary, that’s John’s wife, shouted.” Mark then drank a bit of soda from a can then continued.
“It was so weird. We saw some trees growing inside the room and after about three seconds or so, there was like a mini forest inside! There was actually a lady in the trees as well! If I’m right and I usually am when it comes to this kinds of things since I love DnD, that’s Dungeons and Dragons by the way. The lady was a dryad!” Mark exclaimed. He hoped that he looked real when he said those things with surprise.
“Would you like some snack or something?” Mark asked the agents.
“No thank you, Mark. Please go ahead, continue.” The lady said. Her companion still not speaking.
“So, when that happened, I almost knew for sure that a good thing will happen to Juliet because the same thing happened to that other hospital. What’s the name of that again? The one in the news? It think It’s called Memorial Hospital or something. After that, we heard people shouting from the other rooms so that’s when I knew, the same thing was happening to the other rooms.”
“Did you notice anything else. Like anything you think is out of the ordinary aside from the trees growing in the room. Like did you saw someone that perhaps you may think that should not be there?” Danni asked.
“Uum, what do you mean? Like an alien or something?”
Danni smiled and said, “No, like somebody who was dressed differently like an agent or a soldier.”
“No, I didn’t see anything like that, and to be honest with you, if there was someone like that, I really wouldn’t have been able to notice since as I have said I was focused on John and his situation and also I’m not very observant.”
Danni then asked Mark something not related to the hospital situation. “You resigned from your job about a week ago, Isn’t that right Mark.”
“Yes I did. I found an online job that pays well.” Mark said nervously.
“Also last week, you were around two hundred and fifty pounds. If you tell me now that you were two hundred and fifty pounds a week ago, I wouldn’t believe you. Can you tell us how you achieved that?”
Mark thought of being confrontational like asking what has got to do with what happened in the hospital but it could be the wrong move. He decided to serve a story hoping that the agents would swallow it.
“I saw this post on reddit about a guy who lost a lot of weight after purchasing some tea from China. The guy’s post said that he lost one hundred and eighty pounds without suffering from any side effect after drinking the tea. When I read that, I was in a dark place. I’ve been depressed you know, ever since my parents were killed by that drunk driver. And of course, because of my weight, I’ve never been in a relationship. So instead of killing myself I thought I should just poison myself using that guy’s tea. If I died, then so be it. If I actually lose the weight, then that would be wonderful. And what do you know! I did lost the weight. I tried contacting that guy again but it said that the phone number was disconnected. I also tried searching for the post but it disappeared. Ooh maybe that guy found a way to get that tea from that dryad, since that tea was very magical! Unfortunately after drinking the tea, I threw away the dregs.”
Danni stood up so was his companion. “Thank you for being so cooperative Mark. Can we contact you again if we had further questions?”
“Of course you can call me anytime!”
Danni gave Mark a card. “You can also call us anytime if you remember anything that you want to share with us.”
The agents departed and Mark thought of postponing his buy, replicate and sell, money run. He thought again that he should start earning money legitimately. He did have more skills than Replicate. His Inventory Material Restoration is an invaluable skill that could help him repair things. So basically, he had four skills that he could capitalize on. His Inventory itself, Replicate, Dryad’s Circle and Inventory Material Restoration.
