On the other side of the world on an unknown island in the middle of the ocean between Hé Continent and Continent E.

"What have you people even doing in the past 6 months? I can't believe it. Half a year and there has been zero progress in finding M's identity?" The same man in the black suit that had been supervising the hackers previously was still reprimanding them to this day. ​​

He wasn't taken too seriously, there wasn't much that could be done anyways, if there was it would have already been done.

It was inconceivable that he had been given a second chance in taking charge for the operation of looking for the elusive M.

He couldn't keep messing it up because of these incompetent hackers. He couldn't fail again; the Big Boss was already getting impatient.

"It's not that we aren't making progress Boss. It's just that TWO is improving too fast." Falcon leaned back on his chair as he stretched the muscles in his hands.

He was the person with the fastest hand speed in the team, and one would think that that was why he was given the codename Falcon, but that was not the case.

In reality, it was because Falcon was always the fastest at talking back, but if he asked, it was because of his hand speed…

"No, I doubt he's actually improving this fast; he's probably just playing with us." Serpent knew best when he was being played because he was an avid player.

In the hacking world, he was the most slippery.

His opponent might be setting up a trap, and when they took a step back to watch the show, they would fall into the hole that Serpent had just dug for them.

He loved messing with his adversaries before swallowing them whole.

Yet against this opponent, he felt like he was dancing on someone else's palm. This was especially true due to the last message that was left for their team 6 months ago.

'Try again? They were obviously toying around with us!' That was what Serpent was thinking, but he didn't dare say it out loud for fear of being berated again.

"Yeah, he's probably got a team working for him setting the firewalls up one by one to mess with us." Bear was playing some games online at the moment, with his online friends, because he didn't have any in real life.

Bear used to be a video gamer, actually, he still was but that's beside the point. He got into hacking when his gaming server was raided by hackers. He was pissed off and so he learned how to hack and 5 years later, he got them all back.

By the time he had taken his revenge, those people had already long forgotten that such a thing had happened.

"We should tell the Big Boss about it. Maybe he'll let us off." His code name was Bear because he was rather good at brute force and rather weak at everything else. Everyone was rather confused as to how he became a hacker.

His attic was rather empty.

Or at least that's how he portrayed himself to be.

Bear was actually one of the people with the smallest figures in the group, which just further proved how these code names had nothing to do with these hacker's physical traits.

Serpent shot Bear a look of disdain. While the others didn't really bother with the two.

"Ha, Big Boss letting us off. What a nice dream." Sloth, who laid on the couch used his pillow to cover up the lighting so that he could go back to his peaceful sleep.

Well, his name spoke for itself. If he had the choice to sleep all day every day, that's exactly what he would be doing.

He acted as if he had been forced to come here and forced to learn to hack, and if that was what you had assumed, then you would be absolutely right.

"I agree with Sloth on this one, there's really nothing we can do about it right now. We should probably wait for Captain to come to give his opinion." Though Serpent was sly, that was mainly against his opponents. With his own people, he was less scheming… most of the time.

"Well for one… never mind, I've got nothing." Falcon who had just finished warming up his hands was trying to warm up his brain. But there wasn't much to warm up, so it didn't work out very well.

It was then that another person walked into the room. Though most men here were physically well trained, with the exception of Sloth and well… Sloth.

This man was on another level. He looked like a bodybuilder rather than a computer geek.

"Captain. You're here" Falcon was, of course, the first to notice.

"Yeah, gather up in the lounge for a meeting before we get fired." The Body Builder Captain gave his order. And of course, he had to have the meeting at the lounge, or else Sloth would never make it.

The meeting room that was just a door away from the lounge currently was of zero use.

"Well, I think we've already wasted enough time on testing TWO, we should probably move on." He crossed his legs as he sat on the single person couch, intertwining his hands and moving them to his mouth, looking as serious as he could.

Well at this point, rather than a bodybuilder, he looked more like a gangster or an evil mastermind.

"Captain, why do you sound like we're having a bad group break up over one girl?" Falcon asked.

"Oh, shut up, how would you know? It's not like you've ever had a girlfriend." Serpent retorted.

A strange silence followed.

"No way. I won't believe it." He shook his head vehemently and then hid his face behind his palms.

"Not the time to talk about Falcon's close to non-existent love life, much less Serpent's truly non-existent love life." The captain had to interrupt, or else this meeting was going to go off track, like the 5 before it.

"We should start thinking of plan F and step one is to keep this from the Big Boss."

"As for step two…"

***

Somewhere on a neighboring unknown island, a mansion was built as a part of the mountain that it was on. If one didn't know what they were looking for, they would never find this structure.

It was very well hidden in the midst of forests and hills.

The colors were also camouflaging it so that from an aerial view, nothing could be seen but the greenery and rocks that one could expect to find just about anywhere.

Inside that mansion in a room fit for royalty, an old lady struggled to sit up straight on her bed, even with the help of the young man who was sitting by her bedside.

"Grandma, you have to be careful now, you should let the servants take care of you." His pale green eyes that were surrounded by a firm black ring, reflected sincere care.

"Oh, it's nothing! Don't you know that your grandma still has years to live, stop acting as if I am already on my death bed. I guess this was one good thing about being a teenage mom, I get to see my grandson grow up all tall and handsome." The lady's smile was still bright, despite her wrinkles.

It made her shine with a noble yet warm aura. Her wrinkles didn't make her less beautiful, no. In fact, they made her look more human. One that had years of wisdom, one that had already let go of the material things in the world so that she could embrace the beautiful things that others couldn't see, nor imagine.

It made one wonder; at what age would I have to chance to find something so beautifully elusive. A feeling indescribable, one that could only be felt after a long journey, exploring all the nooks and crannies, and all the secrets that life had to offer.

It made one wonder. Just what kind of life did this woman live? What had she experienced? What kind of enlightenment was she bestowed?

"When can I know granny? Won't you tell me?" The man that looked domineering in front of the whole world, was but a pleading grandson in front of his beloved grandma.

"My Elijah, you're not ready right now. There have been many things hidden from you over the years, some of which even I have no knowledge of."

"When the time comes, I know you'll be able to figure it out, but before that, you have to look for your own answers."

"It's like a warmup, do you understand? You have to warm up your mind with all kinds of crazy theories, so that when you find out the truth, it won't be that bad, or that shocking." Grandma Mu wasn't fazed at all by her grandson's plea. Without the means to protect oneself, too much knowledge would only end up causing more harm than what it was worth.

This was a point that Elijah also understood.

"Grandma. You don't know, but I'm already letting my mind wander off, from here to space and back. I promise you. Aliens have definitely been within my considerations. Is that still not enough?" Elijah's eyebrows tightened a bit before loosening up. He held his granny's hand in his own as his granny gave him a meaningful look.

"Okay, I'll work hard. One day, you can part some of those burdens to me. I'll be happy to take it from you." Elijah's pale green eyes shone with the eagerness of a child, but the dejection in his heart couldn't be ignored either.

Granny Mu chuckled a little at Elijah's childish tone and moved closer to pat his head, but since she couldn't reach, she just opted for his leg.

"What a silly child." She whispered, just loud enough for Elijah to hear.

___________

Comment here if you would like the next Elijah chapter, or if I should just move on and go back to our Emilin's travels.