Chapter 185

Gaining Undercurrents (II)

The city woke confused for a moment, as following the very loud and very alarming warning... the world went quiet. Nobody knew who yelled so loud that they woke up a good chunk of the massive city, nor did they know why. It would eventually end up becoming one of the ‘notorious mysteries of L.A. -- #alienedition’.

In the meantime, the instigator of it was currently standing in a corner of a dimly lit room, whistling while desperately trying to ignore countless sets of eyes boring into him. Cain did eventually realize he was a bit too ‘aware’ of the flaws of his Class, and had severely overestimated the group attacking them. Speaking of them, the sixteen survivors were all currently sitting inside the room, lurched up against the wall, staring in horror at the small army that swiftly tore through their ranks and captured them -- no, rather than the ‘army’, it was better to say that it was only one person while the rest just looked on.

The group had already learned half-the-truth behind it -- sort of, at least. At least one party connected to the whole incident was Lender, but that was hardly where things ended; the hundred and fifty people that had tried attacking them were all deceptively well-leveled, the lowest of them being level 35. That wasn’t even something Rick could pull off, let alone Lender -- at least not so on their own.

Cain departed shortly after, leaving others to do the ‘official investigation’. He, on the other hand, had heard enough. He signaled Kramer to follow him and the two made a speedy way out the building and into the moonlight-doused courtyard.

“You gonna make a trip?” Kramer asked as Cain took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up.

“’round and round.”

“Need help getting information?” Kramer offered.

“You done it before?” Cain quizzed.

“Despite the overblown budget,” Kramer chuckled. “The military can really be stingy with new hires.”

“Ha ha ha,” Cain sighed following the laugh, tossing away the cigarette after having had two puffs of it. “No, I’ll be fine. I’d rather nobody see me like that.”

“I wouldn’t worry; Lender’s a major pussy,” Kramer said. “Six year old girl with a pair of twin tails laughing weirdly would piss the truth out of him.”

“So I ought to send my daughter? Ha ha ha,”

“... other countries were likely involved in this,” Kramer said after a brief moment of silence.

“Yeah,” Cain nodded. “Understandable. I really was a major prick during the meet. And I still am. So, understandable or not, fires are gonna burn.”

“You should let it slide.”

“Huh?”

“You’re the strongest there is,” Kramer said. “I’ve no doubt in my mind you can probably end the life on Earth as we know it if you wanted. So... when someone like that does something, it sends a message, Cain. Message that Conquerors can now do whatever they want, and as long as there’s not a stronger Conqueror out there to stop them... they can get away with it. With one act of yours... you can change the world.”

“... that’s a lot of responsibility.”

“It is.”

“The world’s gonna change, Kramer,” Cain said. “Heck, it’s already changed.”

“Yes; but, however shallowly, it’s contained,” Kramer added. “Let the government handle this -- it will tell the world you still defer to it, and restore some resemblance of order. I know you only care about the people in here, but literal millions if not tens of millions of innocent people are going to suffer if you go off.”

“... for a guy who went all American Sniper for a good deal of his life,” Cain chuckled. “You sure are a softie.”

“You’ve never even seen let alone read American Sniper, did you?”

“Was more of a Lord of the Rings/Star Wars kind of a guy.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me one bit.”

“Dude!”

“... so, what’s it gonna be?” Kramer asked.

“There’s a lot of pent-up anger I have to let go of,” Cain said. “So, we’re going back into the Tower next week. By then, Lender better be dead or Parallaxed.”

“... should I get the reference?”

“If you were a cool kid,” Cain glanced back, looking up and down. “Not at all.”

“So, what’s the plan with the Tower?”

“We’re gonna conquer the second floor,” Cain explained. “And move everyone there.”

“Hm?”

“They’ll be safe,” Cain said. “In the city. Safer than out here, anyway.”

“... you’re a good guy, Cain,” Kramer said, patting Cain’s shoulder.

“Yeah, kick the man when he’s down, sheesh.”

“Ha ha ha.”

The two fell silent for a moment, as did the world around them. The night was still deep and dark, the shine of the stars clouded still. Kramer walked off a few moments later, leaving Cain alone to dwell on his thoughts. Kramer was right; if he went ‘nuclear’, so-to-say, he’d set a precedent. In a way, he’d already done it, but seeing as he held back since then, some order was restored. However, if he made a move again, he’d be the last drop in an overflowing bowl that would send the world careening.

Sighing, he spun around and walk back into the apartment. By the time he got back, Emma and the rest of the group was already there, sitting around, their expressions of worry. His appearance seemed to have shocked them as they looked up, prompting him to look at them strangely.

“... you expected me to go nutty, huh?”

“Can you blame us?” Senna asked.

“A bit, yeah,” Cain replied. “For how little trust you have in me.”

“Maybe he’s here to get items or something?” Senna instigated further.

“... y’all should go back to your apartments and get some sleep.”

“So... you’re really leaving it alone?” Emma asked as she walked up to him, grabbing his hand.

“Yeah,” Cain nodded. “Don’t get me wrong -- I’d really like to fly off like a storm and set some places afire. But... think about it -- if I did that, it sends a message. And, I don’t know if you’ve realized it honey, but... I’m kind of an important guy.”

“Oh? You are? You’re an important guy?” Emma chuckled.

“Very, very much so,” Cain said, wrapping his hands around her waist. “The eye of the world follows me. Whatever I do, others just copy; it’s actually really, really annoying.”

“Ooh, I bet~~”

“What? You disappointed?”

“Na, not in the slightest,” Emma stretched lazily, yawning. “Looks like I worried for nothing. Come, let’s go to bed. Let the interested deal with the rest.”

Cain laughed freely as everyone dispersed, sleeping through the rest of the night. By the morning, many-a-news have reported on the strange ‘cry for help’ that shook L.A. last night, but nobody had any real answers. Rick pressed tightly and held everything under the wraps, commencing a low-key investigation in silence, away from the public eye.

The group, on the other hand, mostly remained within the compound, silently preparing for the next major excursion back into the Tower. As Cain said, with this visit, he fully intended to conquer the second floor and open the gates for the third. For that, however, he’d still have to get some ways stronger -- which was why he intended to grind his levels back out before doing anything major. However, since he’d have the entire group with him this time around, he figured they may as well commit to one of the major areas of the Second Floor for at least two months which, he figured, should be enough to make him strong enough to face the trials of ascending the city’s stratas.

While it was entirely possible to slowly climb the City through doing quests and accumulating points, it was too slow -- the fastest way was to actually challenge the ‘Guardians’, so-to-say, of each strata, eleven in total. If all eleven are defeated, the floor-wide quest to defeat the ‘Sun King’ would commence, and everyone would have a chance to participate in the final battle where the ‘system’ would grade everyone’s performance and assign some basic rewards. Cain, however, didn’t really know what those rewards were past some extra experience and low-level items that less-than-impressive bunch shared, since all the top-guns at the time who’d completed the quest kept silent. As such, besides just ascending past the second floor, he was also interested in the reward -- especially now that he depended too much on items to succeed.