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Chapter 494: The Center Of The Storm

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When Siva disappeared, “Mitra” began to work as he approached the Atropos Members.

He ‘pretended’ to be angry and spoke directly to Stark, “You lunatic! What are you doing?!! What if you made him flip out, huh? What do you think will happen to me? You’re so selfish!”

Stark faced him and spoke with a straight face. “I really have to apologize to you. I didn’t mean it all but you see, we’ve decided and I want to express my guilt and my sincere gratitude to you with the advice and warning you’ve given us before.”

Mitra paused for a moment looking at them in a weirded state and said, “So you’ve all decided to die in pursuit of that goal of yours? Is that even true, hm?”

“It is true!” said someone angrily. “Who are you to judge us when you’re…”

Before the man could even finish, The Analyst at his side gave him an uppercut. Then she said, “I am really sorry about this loudmouth, sir, he was not in the first meeting and so didn’t know who you actually are.”

Many of the members in their current group were not in the first meeting and it may seem that Stark had not the chance to explain it to them.

Stark cleared his throat, “Everyone who wasn’t in the first meeting… listen up. The man beside me is called [Mitra] and he is our contact in Panorama Corp as well as our closest ally in Siva’s company here inside the game. Also, he had another…”

“You don’t have to tell them that part.” Mitra cut him and looked at the eyes of the first ten who’d already been aware of his identity. His sharp gaze made them nod their heads.

Then, Mitra spoke to Stark, “Anyways, we’re here in business so let’s just proceed with it then. Oh, and um… since there are a lot of you who’re yet to be baptized, let’s just skip the third session and just let all of you bathe here at the same time.”

Stark blinked and nodded, then faced the Atropos Members who knew already what “bathing” meant.

Men and women together in that thing behind the man named [Mitra].

The women went into the direction close to Siva’s hiding area and began to strip their clothes. The men were on the other side, a wall of fire dividing the girls’ side and theirs.

At the moment the women began to strip naked, Mitra cursed, “Aw shit.”

Stark was shocked, “What is it?”

Mitra didn’t reply for a moment and then, as if he was another person, his face began to flatten with no expression but spoke in a seemingly ‘flustered’ apologetic tone.

“I’m sorry about that. I just recalled something.”

How could Stark know that Siva had just received a call and that he’s talking to Cortana right now?

Her attempt to copy Siva’s way of playing Mitra is at best only at 90%. Alas, no matter how advanced her processing abilities were, she can only copy facial expression frigidly but not the presence of a person when Siva was in control of Mitra himself.

“Anyways,” Mitra started, “I wanna know, what did you see on your Player Panels earlier? Something about a calamity nine months from now…”

Stark looked at him in surprise, “How did you…”

Mitra cut him in, “Don’t ask me how I know. I’ve been observing your entire contract signing the entire time so of course I know why Siva acted as if he’s surprised by something you said. I was in here the entire time! Don’t make me look stupid by denying it. After all, if it’s connected to Siva, I have the right to know, yes? That was our deal.”

As he spoke, Mitra summoned a light green Panel Window and one look of that Panel Window, Stark immediately knew that Siva had entrusted Mitra of the “payment” on this transaction.

The money Mitra transferred to them went directly into the Panel Window and they can’t deny the fact that at this moment, it was thanks to Mitra that they progressed this far into their goal.

As such, Stark didn’t hide anything.

After he gave him the latest intel about [Siva], he began to explain the incident earlier.

When he finished explaining, there was a blank look on Mitra’s eyes and that ‘presence’ of a man came back to him with a tidal wave of emotions on his seemingly distorting face.

“You okay?” Stark asked worriedly.

“Ah, I’m fine… I’m fine. So, where are the ladies?”

The abrupt change in the topic surprised him.

“We’re here.” hidden in their towels, the ladies were led by The Analyst. They approached the place where the Nano-Cryo Preserver parked.

The men followed behind them, their eyes fixed secretly at the females’ behinds.

Alas, there was only one entrance and exit for the Nano-Cryo preserver so whether the ladies go in first or last meant no difference as the men will still be able to see them naked nonetheless.

This awkwardness was even more emphasized by Mitra’s reminder, “Remember that you must enter it naked with nothing else in your skin. Nothing is allowed inside the preserver or else, I can swear to you I will punish you myself when I come back as... cough… anyways, just hurry up and get in…”

The Analyst summoned an Earth Wall to protect their dignity from spying eyes and let the girl enter first before letting the men climb the ladder.

In front of the Earth Wall, Stark and Mitra went on to continue their talk.

“Can you show me a screen shot of that notif?”

Stark didn’t shy away to show him the SS and true enough, to Siva’s surprise, the intel about the invasion nine months later was actually told to this group of players by the system itself.

What more, the fact that his words were actually being treated as part of the game itself was also a large source of his shock. Since when did this thing started happening? Why didn’t I hear the Asgardians mention anything like this?

“How could this be… how could…”

“Is there a problem?”

Stark looked at him and Mitra was showing his emotional weaknesses by murmuring his thoughts like an annoying anime character giving out flags.

It took Siva a lot of effort to reign in his emotions and heaved a sigh, letting his face be controlled by Cortana as he looked back at Stark, “You might not believe it but I’m actually quite surprised that you actually managed to make Siva almost give out the [Time Quest] details that you wanted. This is not in the script I was given. Perhaps from now on, I’d be having a hard time as well.”

“What do you mean?” Stark was curious.

“I am [Siva], remember? Although you may not know it but large-scale events aside, one of my jobs is to keep him safe from any other harm that the players may bring. Oh, by the way, can I look at the contract you signed?”

Stark hesitated but then Mitra said, “I can assure you that I can still look at the contract when I get to work as Siva on. But I just wanted to look at it ahead of time. Come on…”

The man nodded and thought that it’s indeed true that Mitra is [Siva] so he showed him the contract.

Of course, Siva knew exactly what was on it but there was a reason why he wanted Stark to show him the contract. After a while, Mitra pointed his right index into a bulleted clause.

“This. Look. It says here that if you assassinate all of his enemies, you will be rewarded by this much points. See?”

On the item pointed, Stark saw that it indeed says there that assassinating targets costs many points more than the other items. But it was still less than the [Special Missions] that says here Siva can issue in a random fit of chance.

But Stark noticed something, “There are no given names of targets. How can we know if the point rewards corresponds to the level of the target that when you look at the contract, there’s only a fixed price for assassination and no designated price for the threat-level of the target.”

Mitra paused, “It means that to Siva, all targets of assassination are the same and that when you are able to complete the assassination, no matter the threat-level of the target, you’d still be rewarded the same amount of points.”

“So it basically means that if we take on this kind of jobs and the target is a street gang, we’d still get the points regardless how easy the target is?”

Mitra nodded but then he smiled, “Yes, but I won’t look forward to it. Remember, this is an H-Class Quest you’re going after. This is not an S-Ranked Mission nor was it an S-Class Quest. This is an H-Class Quest —history— and the difficulty of these missions are expected to be sky high so you must all be prepared to face unimaginable hardships.”

Stark inhaled deep but recalling their conviction and the very reason itself why they are willing to go about this trouble, he resolutely nodded.

“We’re prepared.”

As soon as he said that, space rippled right above his head and a piece of paper fell on his hand like a note from heavens. This was something he had learned from Gabriel and it gave the feeling of a mysterious message from an NPC with authority.

It was only your ordinary piece of paper that can be bought in the store but the contents inside of it made Stark gasp in surprise.

“Talk about the devil.” Mitra joked. “What does it say in the paper?”

Stark’s face twitched as his hand froze. He then showed the content to Mitra who “frowned” and then chuckled. Who could know that Siva was just playing and was in the middle of an experiment?

Mitra asked, “Did you get a notification window?”

This was what he wanted to know the most, the reason why he wanted to see the [contract] right here and now?

Stark nodded, swiped the air, and showed Mitra a screenshot of the mission.

[Siva issued a mission!]

[Kidnap the Seventh Elder of The Union]

[500 Points]

[Assassinate the Seventh Elder of The Union]

[100 Points]

“Mitra” remained silent. Stark kept on frowning.

Soon enough, the members of the Atropos Group started to run after him and they all received the same “notif” that Stark showed Mitra.

“Stark, isn’t this just too hard for too little points?”

“I can’t believe our first mission will be this one!”

“Stark, can’t you go complaint about the points?”

Many voices of protest like this rung around them but Stark remained silent, thinking, while “Mitra” was even more shocked deep within.

His words were indeed treated as a [Quest] and if so, does that mean that he really had the ability to change the future of Terroa?

And what more, it was all connected to [Siva].

‘Cortana!’

[I’ve just finished analyzing the new data that we received from Atropos sir. Do you want me to burn it directly?]

‘Yes.’

[Initializing [Focus] in five seconds! Four. three, two, one…]

Siva grunted while Mitra remained rooted in place.

*****

In the Mini Realm, Siva held his head as all of the Intel that’s filtered and categorized by Cortana are uploaded directly into his brain.

The pain lasted for thirty seconds and when it subsided, his face became serious.

Indeed, the Atropos’ Intel about him was related to the history of the Terran Universe that he was aware of millions of years ago.

The earliest goes as early as the last stages of the eruption of the [Path of Immortality] that he taught many Star System of with the latest going as past the time of Ragnarok; records and rumours that’re lost in the wars of the early Terrans, during the dawn of the war between Terrans and Dragons, here, in Terroa.

Of course, the Intel about the Dragons weren’t included in this data he received. It was only based on his deductions and comparisons of the reports and records he’d seen in Horbe.

In the end, it meant that within the Terran Alliance back then right before the war against the Dragon Race erupted were already aware of Siva having a connection to Terroa.

—but who could they be?

According to the intel he received just now, there was a certain Walled City that had the symbol of the crescent moon eating a star, and a ‘tear drop’ falling from the base of the moon. They’ve found majority of their Intel about [Siva] in the ruins of this Ancient City called ‘Deluge’ somewhere in the extreme south of the Continent of Heartilia —also known as the [Southern Isles].

The thing is… the place was extremely dangerous because it was the entrance to a deep dungeon that extends kilometers deep. Even these guys, as experienced and strong as they were, weren’t able to fully explore it.

—perhaps it has a connection to The Church!

Recalling that ‘emblem’ described in the Intel, Siva had once seen it on his chest at that time when the curse reacted the first time. He thought that it was because an “Elder” or a “Priest” of the Bloody Church was close to him that it reacted.

And if this guess is true, then indeed, all of these talks about Time Travel and The Church’s pursuit of Terra’s Medallion of Time had something to do with him, [Siva], in the first place.

When his thoughts traveled at this part, Siva also thought back to what Mohindra said: that back in her younger days, The Church wasn’t this evil. It was only when they began to settle in the Inner Continents did they show their dark side.

Siva recalls their earlier deductions that the Bloody Church had been planning it all even before they have begun to travel to Terroa.

But… just why Terroa? How did the Church plan it all to go directly to Terroa?

According to Mohindra, it was her grandfather that led the great migration to Terroa on their warship.

—was it because Mohindra’s Grandfather was…

——No. it shouldn’t be…

———but if not, why are they so sure that Terroa could actually support their pursuit of a new life and a respite from the Ragnarok Era?

But then again——

—haven’t we already guessed that the cause of the war between the Terrans and the Dragons is plotted by The Church?

If so——

—then all this time, The Church had always been aiming to go to this planet!

——they’ve hidden their agendas all these years because they don’t have the capability to travel the stars that the Dragon Race “had” back then!

———if so, then it wasn’t that Mohindra’s grandfather was part of the Bloody Church, it’s because the information about Terroa came from the Bloody Church! Mohindra’s grandfather had trusted them back then because they thought that the “Draconian God” was a cousin of the Dragon Race! It was all a trickery!

Everything, Siva thought, everything is connected to me and the secret in Terroa… and since the Church had always been targeting this planet, it also meant that there was something here that connects me and Terroa.

Only one name came to him when thinking of this vague connection between him, Terroa, and the Bloody Church——

—Vasuki…!!

At this moment, Siva began to connect the dots.

Sacrificial Magic Circle…

A plan that goes back eons…

The taking of Dragona…

Invasion nine months later…

The Devil Gods’ reappearance…

—–and then there was Balaam’s warning to prevent people from siding with me…

——they don’t want more people to know that they’ve been setting this plan for so long!

———Dragona! The answer is in Dragona!

————Vasuki… might actually be in Dragona!!!

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The Big Picture is finally forming…!!

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