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Chapter 456: Another Unknown Event

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Half of the whole event is being broadcasted on all local channels inside Terroa —meaning only half of this hot piece of news were on the scope of all the [players] on both worlds.

Only when this event blew in every Terran Nation did the players realize the scope of this incident. It was another global Terran event.

It was a new unannounced event and the higher ups of Panorama Corp are again in a state of quiet and angry discussion.

The [Call for Jeremiah] event was as expected one of the heaviest blows they’ve received since they started to publish this game and right now, just as they were trying to recover from the damage of the past decision, another blizzard was brewing.

And this time, they all knew it was more serious.

“Why can’t we control it?” asked the CEO who was also the highest shareholder currently present.

“The game is going in a direction totally different from what we were told by that bastard Pegasus.”

“One or two times is enough… but this time, this is just too unreasonable! This was not part of the story detail he had given us!”

This event happening right now, an unknown red-cloaked masked organization attacking cities and even taking over small Terran countries, dragging its citizens into specific locations, ‘teleporting’ them through a red-colored Magic Circle… the news had just been reported and it would seem that they’ve killed over tens of thousands of players in the last few hours since they were reported.

The entire event was a catastrophe.

It was sudden. There was no kind of precedent of this event ever being published —just like how the former ones have been thus far. It was unknown who triggered it but 60% of the speculations have been pointing to this event as continuation of the consequences of Siva’s monopoly over the game’s only Grand Quest.

This roused global dissatisfaction and the brunt of the impact was carried by Panorama Corp directly.

Players were beginning to get mad in fury. Some of them even took their anger to the streets with a few organizations setting up bounties of their own and even forming campaigns to strike at the Local Headquarters of Panorama Corp on certain cities.

The [players] are getting angry. Why is Panorama Corp not announcing events like these?

It was affecting their game, it was affecting business… it was affecting lives. Just how many players treated RPG: Terroa as their means for livelihood? If they can’t play the game, they can’t earn credits to buy food and live, to pay rent, and to pay subscription charges.

Don’t they know that in the end, Panorama Corp is the sole loser in their secrecy regarding events?

Of course these big wigs of Panorama Corp knew of this fact but they can’t do anything about it since they really have no idea what’s going to happen next in the game now that they can’t control Janus.

The CEO glanced over the [email protected] projections of President Ethan and Carl, “Have you contacted the Princess yet?”

Ethan had an ugly expression, [It might sound a bit magical but we just missed her by a few hours.]

The CEO raised a brow, “What do you mean?”

Carl answered, [As soon as we landed in the airport, I received an email from my advance agent telling me that she and her friend, and a few others in her age bracket, had just boarded a G6 to attend an event hosted by us in Lausanne. The G6 itself was also owned by us, as it turns out.]

She’s attending The Conclave?

The old people of the BOD were jolted. The CEO was angry, “And why weren’t you alerted by this?”

Carl had an ugly expression of fright and he loudly shrieked like a frightened cat, [I’m sorry! I’m really, really sorry! I didn’t know she was invited in The Conclave until just a few minutes ago!]

The CEO knew that Carl wasn’t incompetent. It is just was one of those inconceivable coincidences in one’s life... or part of someone’s meticulous plan that happened behind his back.

“Who invited her?” asked the CEO, hopeful it was not the people he was thinking of.

Carl fixed his eyeglasses and explained, [I can’t pin down the exact source but there was a lead from one of my agents who told me that every year, a certain courier company would always and without a miss send an invitation to their house for her to attend the year’s Conclave. The trace was in this particular company being a subordinate name in the line of businesses the former Queen Brynhild of the Christiana Monarchs’ household are aligned into. I am unable to trace it back further in fear that my tappings on their strings will alert the spider, but I am positive that there was a large probability it was all done in Queen Brynhild’s behest.]

The CEO asked, “Have you checked for the very likelihood of this as being just mere coincidence?”

He was really beginning to get worried.

The Christiana Monarchs were part of the original founders of the UNICORN.

Queen Brynhild was a Christiana Monarch, one of the original four. Her granddaughter is the Queen Mother of the current sovereign… and they are an active member of the UNICORN Council.

They were World Nobles!

Messing with their business was challenging the rule of the UNICORN in the world.

People from the UNICORN are all monsters of the art of scheming. Although Panorama Corp is said to be a private investiture, their technology and the product blueprint’s source itself was a Military Top-Secret Technology provided by the UNICORN.

In short, they’re nothing more than the company’s very purpose itself: a way to publish “Terroa” to the world.

As for what purpose, even they, Panorama, are not aware of it and doesn’t dare to be aware. For them, as long as they are the publishers of this hit VRMMO game, they are in business.

These underlying details in the game were not part of the things they were told about. The CEO could feel that although it was clear they were used as a guinea pig for this project, just the fact that [RPG: Terroa] is a revolutionary technology made these shareholders pool all their assets to publish this as a game… as it was intended to in its development.

All those tumbling blocks and obstacles along the way were nothing more than commercials in a long-running TV drama —they mean little to the overall goal and purpose of the game.

To earn money!

[I can’t dig in too deep but I still managed to get a few promising leads which took me to my earlier conclusion. The four Duke Palaces next in line to the current seat had been in a tight struggle to who should be the next successor. The current Queen is a childless sovereign and the four Duke Palaces are all outside in-laws in descent, which are the next lawfully valid successors for the crown. That said... the fact that I was able to dig in to Amanda’s family background is also a fact available to the four Duke Palaces if they start investigating for their possible rivals to the throne. The fact that the subordinate company to the former Queen Brynhild had been contacting Amanda’s family all these years is going to be seen by the Four Duke Palaces sooner or later… and I can’t help but think that this is the real reason why Amanda was invited despite her being an unremarkable achiever in general.]

The Board of Directors, these shareholders, was all deep in thought.

In short, Amanda going to Lausanne isn’t because she is an achiever, but because Queen Brynhild’s House was trying to preserve their hold to the line of Queens of their bloodline in the throne.

“Shit.” One of the BODs couldn’t help cursing.

“This shouldn’t have something to do with that!”

“We already have our hands full. Are we just going to let it go like that?”

“Don’t forget that we are a business!”

“I know!”

“This is not a topic of discussion. We have to find another way to contact Siva and let him play on our tune aside from the Amanda-route. We can’t afford to antagonize World Nobles.”

“Without the Janus Console, we can’t look up the internal details of the players and check the info of Siva’s comrades.”

“God damn it…”

Aside from Amanda, all of Siva’s comrades were using edited faces and even Siva’s face resulted in zero search results in the Net.

They are backed in a corner.

“Is there really no other way to control the game?”

Almost all of them were almost succumbing to their despair with the current situation.

One way or another, they at least should have a way to connect to Siva. At least they had to know of a way to learn from Siva what he was doing and how it will affect Terroa the next day.

Siva was just too hard to locate in the game and in the real world, they have no idea who he really is.

One of the BOD suggested, “Should we send an open message?”

“But wouldn’t that only make us look uglier in the eyes of the player-base? ‘The game publisher can’t control their game and had to publicly try to contact Siva’… is that what you wanna hear?”

“Are you insulting my intelligence?”

“Why are you even asking then?”

Everyone in here knew that a storm is already in a deep rise and this storm will affect Panorama Corp in a great way if they can’t control its direction.

Siva… was the eye of the storm.

Where he goes, the raging wind follows. They all knew that controlling Siva will be the key for them to controlling the situation of the game world and it will also lead to salvaging the company. If they fail to find him, Panorama Corp will fall.

The CEO clasped his face with his intertwined fingers and made a heavy sigh, “Go back.”

Ethan and Carl heaved a sigh. They didn’t reply and only confirmed the command and ended the video call.

The BOD shareholders were all silent.

And then, one of them spoke, “We have Mouse and Hijack attending the Conclave as well. Should we mobilize them?”

The CEO pondered, “Have you forgotten? Blue Card Legion kidnapped her and Mouse also said that Scion had a bad impression of The Legion because they had a clash with Siva.”

Everyone fell silent again.

The CEO continued, “But it’s also a fact that she might not know that Mouse and Hijack in the real world is part of The Legion.”

The rest of the BOD was ecstatic. This was their chance to connect with Scion… with Amanda.

“Go tell Mouse and Hijack our orders. And make sure they are clear about these crucial facts.”

The secretary on standby behind the CEO gave a light nod and soon, the two said personage received their missions and although they were both surprised, they also understood.

Back in the boardroom, the CEO and the rest of the BOD were deep in their thoughts.

The CEO himself were looking at the news of the ‘events’ in Terroa with eyes limpid with wisdom despite the recent lack of sleep.

‘One event after another, why’s the game changed so much in just a short amount of time?’

He wondered, guessed, deeply contemplated.

Alas, never would they have ever imagined that the reason these events were happening is because it was all part of an even larger scheme that the Four Duke Palaces’ fight for the throne paled in contrast to the sheer magnitude of this grand plan.

*****

In Goldwyn City, he sat in the dark room with a glass of bloody-red wine.

Computers beeped with their operations while the large screen projected in front of him continued to show that image of a civilization not known to man and more so not known to any Terran.

He drank a sip and made a sigh, “Soon…”

The words echoed louder through the beeping of the machines surrounding him.

“Although it was a little early, there is nothing to fear about anything not calculated. The end result is still the important one. The end result... is still the same.”

Behind him, a hovering metallic platinum-coloured sword silently floats above its own platform.

Incased in glass, it rotates in its own axis the faint blue glow of NanoMechs lighted its surroundings.

If scientists from UNICORN would see this sight, they’d pale in horror at what the Father was doing.

He was copying the sword…

The [key] to controlling [Siva]… the [God].

*****

Stern was the first to get back to his senses.

Perhaps it was because of his spirit, or because he was the strongest and most talented in the bunch of Acolytes present…

As soon as he realized that they were being killed overwhelmingly one by one, he backed off to the very far back, starting to survey his surroundings.

Then he realized it.

“Elder Berth is dead!” he blurted and saw the burnt remains of the falling corpse of Elder Berth. “We’re being routed. Retreat!”

He was still on his Dragon Form and because all of the people in the underground cave are Dragons regardless of their bloodline, the words spoken in Dragon Tongue were heard by everyone present.

(AN: bloodline: Divine Dragon Race or Dragonkin)

“Retreat!” roared Stern and this woke up the rest of his team thus waking them of the backlash of their first transformation into Dragons.

A line was made between the two groups and just as Siva stored his third Fire Dragon Carcass, those Dragons began to retreat towards the entrance that they came into earlier.

“Blast your way out!” roared the Dragonized Stern.

The Fire Dragons retreated from the center of the battlefield. Fire Pillars blasted through the wall Siva entered earlier and burnt an overly larger cave that could fit the largest Fire Dragon no problem.

Stern held the rear and blasted forth his strongest flames and domains. Blue fire melted the bedrock from above and below, the molten magma boiled a bright yellow as tongues of flames and large debris blocked the Vajras’ attacks.

Although it was easy to explain like this, the size of the domain and the devastation of the Fire Pillars a Fire Dragon is capable of spewing were an easy pair of kilometers outside of their own sizes.

The Vajras were as small as ants in comparison to a single Fire Dragon. Just the spectacle of these moving fiery mountains was a sight of and in itself, especially when they are retreating in one single huge wave like frightened cats.

In just mere seconds, the large entrance was now blocked by molten rocks and the Vajras watched it all happen as they too were down to their last nine.

“They… they fled… how? Why?”

Electra was panting heavily, glancing back towards the Guard Captain with a burnt left side that’s still bleeding with fresh blood.

*****

The Fire Dragons that retreated numbered at least eleven or twelve. They moved so fast that they did not have time to count how many have retreated.

In no time at all, the underground cave became a silent graveyard where tens of mountainous Fire Dragon Carcasses were scattered irregularly with differing holes on their heads and chests.

“Because I killed the Priest.” Siva’s voice rung on their ears. “But the problem is still not solved. The threat of the Church is bigger than what we initially thought. An all-out attack may be happening in the cities in the Surface Continents. They’re sacrificing tens of thousands of lives every hour or minute to the Blood Dragon God as we speak.”

Electra gasped as well as her mother who was still in the surface, in Horbe.

Siva continued, “We killed five of their Elders and if they aren’t cowards, expect retaliation as soon as you can. Captain, prepare your ranks immediately.”

{I’m on it.}

Flashes of light came about and left the area. One could only applaud the staunch personality of this Guard Captain.

*****

Electra floated there, searching for Siva or perhaps watching the scene. She even spotted a few burnt bodies of her people not too far away. Her heart felt remorse and pain. The Bloody Church really gave them a hard blow this time.

“So many dead…” she lamented hurtfully.

They were her people, she was supposed to lead them all to safety and prosperity and yet…

{I’m here.}

Siva’s voice rung on her ear and a beacon marker flickered on her vision through the Communicator.

Electra flashed in the air and after a few seconds, she came atop a corpse of a Fire Dragon. There, Siva was like a blue smoke entity, a tornado of blue smoke protected him from the roiling Magma.

“What are you doing?” she asked from above him.

“Collecting materials to fight the Bloody Church.”

She can’t see him through the blue tornado smoke but she could ‘feel’ his thought even if he did not voice them to her. She could even feel that Siva is really agitated right now.

Fear… this, she was sure.

—he’s [Siva] for goodness’ sake. What great thing was born that is making him this afraid?

“What should I do?” her passion was ignited from his words. She wanted revenge. She wanted those bloody bastards to pay for trying to ruin them.

Siva flicked a finger and four Mini Realms formed in the space above her. He said, “Fill these spaces with your Lightning Bolt because I’ll need a lot of them when I’m finished.”

This wasn’t Electra’s first time to do this so she just followed the command in silence.

Meanwhile, Siva checked his Task Palette.

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–––TASK PALETTE [LV5]–––

Current Processes:

1) SS-Generator 1000pcs: (50.97%)

2) 4th Dáinsleif: (88.14%)

3) Dáinsleif Ammunition: 42 (next: 92%)

4) Rewloola (retrofit part number 22 of 23): 9.5%

5) Rewloola (retrofit part number 23 of 23): 6.1%

6) Cortana [Nano Body] modifications: 89.67%

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21) PNF (LV6) Synchronization: 36.24%

22) PNF (LV6) Synchronization: 36.24%

23) PNF (LV6) Synchronization: 36.24%

24) PNF (LV6) Synchronization: 36.24%

25) PNF (LV6) Synchronization: 36.24%======================================

Many things have already been finished production and so it was time to proceed with the next.

(AN: for reference, check Vol.7 Chapter 29 for the last appearance of the Task Palette.)

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A battle’s aftermath is always death…

……and opportunity!!

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