The group led Allen to their vehicles and escorted him to their base.

From what Allen could gather, the group was now in their usual routine and that is to hunt monsters and gather cores as well as looked for silver crystals within the forest.

Because of the huge disaster that happened not too long ago, livelihood was completely messed up.

Livestock, grains, wheat and any other crop that could be used as food were lost and destroyed. The people despaired and even the military couldn’t keep up the populace any longer.

In order to ease the public’s anxiety, the military ordered a regular hunt for monsters as food. At first, it was very difficult and several men were killed during missions until individuals called Superhumans appeared.

They possess supernatural abilities that were unimaginable to ordinary humans and could only be seen on TV, myth, and legends.

With their help, the community gradually became stable, causing the Superhumans to be seen as heroes.

Heroes…huh…

Allen was feeling a bit uncomfortable about being called Hero. Superhumans are in fact, just humans that possess supernatural abilities.

And in this world, who do you think is most fearful; Monsters or Humans…?

Humans are greedy by nature and they would do everything to satisfy their own egos while Heroes are people who are admired and idealized for their courage, outstanding achievements, and noble qualities.

They are the embodiment of being selfless and brave.

And so, are humans really fit to be called… heroes?

That question can’t be answered by anyone.

… well, only those who believe them could call them like that.

Each of us is only fighting to protect something. Was it to protect your family, your lover, your friends, your dreams, your ambitions… or to protect yourself.

Allen shook his head since he didn’t want to think about this. He was like that. He isn’t fit to become a Hero since, even in that world; he was just fighting not for noble and selfless reasons, but to protect himself.

In the end, all of it was the same.

--- ---

“Young Miss, the squad 3 succeeds in their hunt and managed to retrieved three monster cores; two blue, one red.” A young female wearing a suit, looking like a secretary reported.

“And what else?” Mia didn’t care much about this incident.

Hunting monster cores right now is most important, however judging from their current forces, it’s not already surprising for them to have this achievement since they have several Superhumans in their group.

“The president of America request for a meeting…”

“I refuse. Tell them that I am busy.”

With the Bianchi Family’s rapidly growing power, several countries have already sent dozens of invitation for her but she rejected them every time.

And their stubbornness has already irritated her.

Mia shakes her annoyance away and kept reading the documents she was holding. She was in a rush to immediately finish all of the work piled up and do some hunting. She can’t let Allen leave her behind!

“But, young miss… the president wanted to tell you that this is---”

“I said refuse them!” Mia exploded.

She was already extremely annoyed these past few days because of Allen’s disappearance and was only keeping it well because of the work she needed to do but now…

The secretary looking like young woman was startled by Mia’s outburst and almost jumps back. She was new in this job since Lieri was supposed to be the one doing this kind of thing.

But since Lieri was desperately looking for Allen’s whereabouts through the medallion, she couldn’t attend to Mia.

For additional information, they still couldn’t completely track Allen’s location up until now because of the disaster that changes the whole world on the seventh day of chaos.

It created a lot of disturbances in the world and caused a strange ripple in atmosphere interfering in the fields of atmospheric variables and delayed and even shifted the receiving of electric current that represents information. Because of this, they still couldn’t precisely track the youth’s whereabouts.

Mia and Lieri were getting anxious about it and every hour and day feel torture for them and the others but they still persevered while adjusting the electromagnetic wavelength. Little by little, they have managed to fix the flaws.

That is also the reason why Mia was so desperate in finishing her work so that the moment they finally located Allen’s location and deemed that he was in danger, she would immediately rush there to save him.

She can’t waste time playing political games with those old geezers!

“Tell them that my man right now is out there in danger! So I don’t have the time to play games with them!” Mia’s sharp tone caused the pitiful secretary’s body to tremble and on the verge of crying.

“Y, Yes.”

Mia returned her attention to the paper she was holding.

“Y, young miss…” but there is still one issue. Fighting back the urge to cry, the secretary clenched her fist and called Mia once again.

“Hm?” Mia raised her head. Her tone and expression showed extreme annoyance. It was like a volcano on the verge of exploding.

“A, a new call was received from a group c, calling themselves [ Dawn Alliance ] and was saying y, you know of them.”

Mia looked at the girl in surprise, ah. [ Dawn Alliance ]?

Was it ‘The’ [ Dawn Alliance ]? But how…?

No, it can’t be… don’t tell me another returnee…?

Mia’s thoughts were in a mess. [ Dawn Alliance ] was the organization they founded as the last stand for humanity in their previous lives.

She and Allen were the leaders of this group together with several eight Superhumans that stood in the apex of strength.

And now, a group calling themselves [ Dawn Alliance ] appeared in this world.

Was it them? It couldn’t be another people because they said that she knows of them.

But who?

The dead traitor Keneth aside, out of the seven people left, all of them were also traitors. The people she hated the most and the cause of Allen’s dubiety’s status.

At first, it was all nothing but a speculation. She had hoped that it was her over thinking about it but from Aileen’s continues report and Lieri’s strange feeling as well as Grace and the others opinion, all of it strengthened her supposition.

Allen right now was neither white nor black. He was also not gray.

And this worries her too much.

And all of this is because of them!

Mia gritted her teeth as she thought about this. Should she kill them if they really returned?

“Who is the leader of this group?”

“They didn’t say anything. We tried asking about it but they seem to conceal it and were demanding a meeting.”

Precaution… is it?

As expected of those bastards…but who exactly was it? Are all of them present or just one person acting…?

“Let them come and arranged for a meeting.” I will catch them in a dragnet!

A flash of killing intent flickered in Mia’s eyes.

“Y, yes, certainly!” The girl turned around and was ready to leave; however, a knock came from outside of Mia’s door.

”Come in.”

The door was pushed open, Lieri also came from outside.

Mia had already returned to her work, however, when she noticed someone coming in, she quickly put down the documents on the table and calmly looked at Lieri.

“Is something wrong?”

Mia then gestured to her to sit on the sofa in the room., “Sit.”

”I’m fine.” Lieri did not move as she stood in place and only looked at Mia in the eyes, “We finally managed to locate the young master.”

“What?!” Mia shot up from her chair.

“Where is he? How is he?”

Lieri noticed Mia’s hopeful gaze and chuckled as she glanced at her.

“The young master is in the mainland, China.”

“China?”

“Yes, and I believe that he is alright as he seemed to be moving to the nearby city post,” Lieri answered while smiling happily.

Right now, her worries already washed away.

She never doubted Allen’s safety… never…

“Really?! But what about Alkrasha…?” Mia also let out a relieved smile.

At this moment, Lieri bit her lip but did not answer.

“What?”

“That is…” Lieri was hesitating. “… the thorn medallion was already not in the young master’s hand and seemed to be fixed in one place.”

“You mean…”

“This is just my guess but, what if the thorn medallion was already given to this Thumbeline or worst, the Insect Queen’s hands…?”

!!?

“… It would mean that the fourth seat, the thorn symbol was either Thumbeline or the Insect Queen…”

Mia’s eyes widened from realization. If that’s the case then, Allen’s purpose on going with the monsters was to find Alkrasha and invited her to [ Vivite Liberi ]… but how?

How did Allen do that?!

Forget about a monster joining the organization, the prideful Insect Queen joining a human organization was already of itself… unthinkable!

But Allen did it? How?

“Is the server for the [ Vivite Liberi ] already finished its final maintenance?”

“Unfortunately, not yet. I fear that it would still take two to three days for it to be fully activated.”

“… …”

Mia reseated and drank a cup of coffee to clear her throat.

The hands at her side slowly balled into fists. What is Allen planning? Why did he invite a terrifying monster like Alkrasha without telling her anything about it…?

Lieri and Mia looked at each other. Even the secretary who missed her exit also stared at Mia. The office was so quiet, only their slight breathing was heard inside the room.

“Continue observing the Thorn medallion and fix the [ Vivite Liberi ] server with haste.” Mia’s voice was low and sweet without any sense of color or care. “… also contact the Chinese government and inform them about Allen’s existence.”

Mia wanted to put more attention on this.

In the previous life, from what she had learned from Allen’s past through her investigation that Allen had experienced many awful things in that country. The China's hidden aces [ Thirteen Aristocratic Family ] as well as the [ Ten Hidden Martial Sect ] chased him and tried to kill him.

In this life, Mia wanted to avoid such things. What happened in the previous life should never occur again in this lifetime!

Mia’s expression turned cold and solemn, “Warn them that if they found someone named Ye Wushuang, they should never do anything to him or else they would suffer severe retaliation from us!”

Lieri nodded her head but suddenly she noticed something. Ye Wushuang? Not the Young Master?

“Mistress, Ye Wushuang?”

“Ah, I see, you didn’t know?” Mia cast a faint smile at her. “It’s Allen’s fake Chinese name. I think he wouldn’t use his real name there but this name. He always uses it whenever he's in China.”

“I see,”

Mia glanced at Lieri for a moment, “Anyway, what I said, you understand them?”

“Affirmative,” Lieri nodded while wearing a smile.

“Try contacting Allen if you can… no, if you can’t find a way, then create one.”

“Yes!” Lieri nodded and then walked out of Mia’s office.

--- ---

After a long ride, Allen finally arrived at the city. Although it more looked like a simple village, rather than a city as it was only composed of small houses made from woods and bamboos. Although there were concrete buildings, there were only several of them.

The group who brought Allen here wanted to lead him to their superiors but Allen politely refused. He didn’t want to involve himself into another trouble as it looked like it would be a pain meeting them.

They insisted but they were driven off by Allen’s firm refusal.

Allen was walking expressionlessly and along the way, there were many people bustling inside the city.

And from his position, he noticed that there were a lot of young males and females walking around. Some were holding guns and weapons that you would ask yourself, ‘Are guns now accessories?’

There were holding guns as if it was natural but they didn’t look soldiers at all. Wearing casual clothes and some even looked like delinquents, but surprisingly enough there seemed to be no one creating troubles.

Everyone minded their own business, making stall and selling merchandises such as guns, weapons, meat, clothes, and et cetera.

Looking around, he surveyed the whole area.

--- ---

The whole city was bustling. People here and there, walking while bringing some weapons. Most of them were young and some even were still around 13 – 15 in age.

Amidst those young people, there was Allen's figure. What seemed to be different from him compared to other people was that he wasn’t bringing any kinds of weapons and on his shoulder was just a small cute monster.

His pretty and clean face without any stubble, he looked very young and casual. Fragile and frail.

Yet, regardless of his feeble atmosphere, there was a vague presence from him as though his back was standing straight; perhaps it was because of the abnormal experience a normal youth of the same age would never encounter that Allen had piled up in his previous life.

… Or it also might be attributed to his presence as a real [ King ]; the Monarch of monsters that even with Allen’s body in a really casual and relaxed posture, without any kind of weapons in hand, caused the attention of the surrounding to naturally be attracted to him.

It was because of that presence he exuded.

Despite the strange sense of security that his calm atmosphere caused, there was also the slight aroma of danger that came from him.

Akin to a sense from a weaker life form to that of a superior one, but this was natural.

Allen was currently a Lv3 Monster King!

Due to this peculiar presence and aura emitting from him, perhaps it could be said as the only natural that sometimes there were a group of girls who kept glancing at him.

There were even girls whispering to each other with slightly reddened cheeks and among those groups, some were on the verge of doing reverse picking up.

Who is that? They asked inside their minds as they saw him walking nonchalantly in the street.

This was the very first time they saw him in this city and so they know that he was a foreigner and was someone who just came in this place.

They would never forget a youth wearing a loose black parka and black stylish pants that were honestly seemed to be rough yet cool if they have seen him here before.

Anyone who caught sight of him, regardless of their age or gender, they would have their gaze drawn in without exception.

That style of clothing pushed aside the difficult to approach aura which further boosted up his charm.

Some even guessed that the youth must have been a model or a celebrity.

… But unbeknownst to them, Allen’s current appearance was the result of him leveling up. He wasn’t that handsome originally but barely good looking.

However, as he increased his level, his appearance changed. It was even boosted by his presence as a king that could cause anyone to feel inferior when looking at him. A feeling like those of a peasant in front of a real king.

This was the innate power of those possessing a very rare Lord Class.

However, Allen didn’t pay attention to them at all. He walked forward dashingly, and before long, amidst the gathered attention, he had approached an Asian girl around eighteen to nineteen years old.

“Please excuse me, but do you know where I could find a good place to eat?”

Allen asked in a perfect mandarin.

The girl stared blankly at him for a moment before her charming face flushed slightly.

She answered, “Ah, I, I don’t know if you liked it la but there’s a good restaurant not too far away from here. Just around that corner…”

The girl raised her hand and pointed at a certain building.

Allen smiled faintly, “Thank you.”

The girl hastily replied with embarrassment, “No, no it’s my pleasure la. If, if you like I could lead you…”

“Nah, I can manage. I don’t want to inconvenience you any longer.” Allen politely refused.

“Of course not! It, it would be my pleasure…” but the girl insisted.

“Oh.” Allen was taken aback by the girl’s enthusiasm. So he could only nod his head while saying ‘thank you’.

“My surname’s Ye, given name Wushuang.” Allen extended his hand at the girl as he introduced himself as Ye Wushuang. This name had a very significant for him.

As a proper gentleman, Allen took the lead to do so.

“Ye?” The girl was slightly startled. “What a coincidence?! I’m also a Ye…”

She then blushed as she took his hand. “Ye Shishi la.”

Ye?

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Me too…”

With the girl leading him, Allen went towards the said restaurant to taste his first proper meal after a long time.

The gaze of the people at the place was already in a glued state toward Allen without being unable to take off their gaze. Their curiosity kept rising over the limit.

Who was this youth?

While completely ignoring those people, Allen shrugged and followed the girl.

--- ---