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Chapter 054: Desperate Yet Wise Atropos

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The tornado outside of the City Lord Mansion's territory had already stopped expanding into 1km and this was a sign that whatever Siva was doing inside may have already gone into a stable state.

But that didn't mean that these envious people are relaxing either.

It has already been an hour.

Some of them were already at the edge of their patience —especially the contingents from the Southern Isles who owned the only Warship that exploded in Maria.

And, as fate may have dictated it, it was none other than the [Haven Dust Company], the Guild and Business Enterprise that offended the NPCs of the Kingdom of Jeremiah.

The warship that exploded during Siva's intense battle against Kyle had their flag on it.

"Do not let anyone occupy the Northern Gate of the mansion!" shouted Gaston.

He was the leader of the survivors of Warship Lozier, the warship that exploded.

"Leader! There's a call from the GM."

Gaston's face warped when he heard one of the surviving subordinates of his central command give out this communication.

Rather than calling them pure gamers, all of them can be called 'Employees' of a company.

The "GM" referred to wasn't some Game Master or something, no, he was the General Manager encharged of the division he belonged to.

Haven Dust Company is a subordinate company of [The Union] and losing a warship is definitely a big deal to the General Manager encharge of this division.

Roles in their division were divided equally according to designation, specialization, or the function in the office they belong to so although the GM can contact him directly, the fact that it has to go thru another person signified the GM's anger at the initial report of this blunder.

In a way, although their expenses are all covered by The Union and building another warship was not a big deal to them, it still was a fact that in the game, the resources to build a warship were not unlimited and that also is a problem on itself. Now that they lost a warship, getting another would be an issue on itself.

The headache just kept coming.

"Patch me thru." Gaston nodded at the Comms Officer and a conference call was made for him.

It was a video call inside the game.

"Sir..." Gaston addressed respectfully.

Before he could continue, the man on the video call raised a hand,

Gaston explained the gist of things. And after he finished, the General Manager groaned audibly.

Gaston's frown deepened further. High Elders of The Union means those seven monsters of the Business World, the bosses of his boss's boss.

He gulped and realized the magnitude of this one mission. If he failed, who knows if he'd still be able to keep his job here in Terroa? Nothing was more rewarding than playing a game while being able to earn a decent salary.

That is, if he doesn't screw up. He could already feel the pleasure just the mention of the mission.

"What's my task?" in the end, Gaston didn't even voice his complaints. He only wished now that he should have been part of those who had died during that crossfire between 'monsters' earlier.

The man in the video was plump man, his face is like a tomato as it perspired while speaking.

A notification sound alerted Gaston to check his inbox and form there, he read the contents of the message... and frowned at the sight of the items.

"Sir, I... is this even possible? What if Siva does not agree with at least one of these things?"

The plump man in the video call shrugged.

After his words, the call ended.

Gaston felt his stomach rumble as he cursed at his irresponsible pig of a boss. Just how did I end up being punished like this? I was just trying to work a living for my family!

He looked at the list again and felt like crying.

First on the list was already a rumor considering the importance of the vents that happened in The North...

[Negotiate about acquiring fresh Dragon Blood in any reasonably cheap price]

As if that wasn't hard enough, the second and third items on the list of many was what made him perspire and nervous.

[Create a contract with Siva's 'company' and make them surrender to The Union's control]

And finally...

[Make Siva submit to us]

For someone who can destroy a warship as mere collateral damage in a fight against NPC bosses... making that kind of powerful person submit to the rule of someone else was just wishful thinking.

Gaston knew the higher ups knew it but because they needed a scapegoat for the destruction of a company property, the warship, the next highest ranking officer from those who survived during the event would have to pay that price. As such, he secretly cursed them more in his head.

*****

"Are you able to make contact with him?" Stark is not in a hurry and was actually showing that calm and composed look but Alice, someone who work in the medical industry for two years now, was all but assured that he was in a hurry.

—No.

It's not the kind of urgency 'in a hurry' but rather the kind of impatience that you see on a kid who was visiting Disneyland for the first time.

"No." FlowerLord answered. "All communications are still being screened by his Battle-AI, Cortana."

Stark looked at her and nodded.

Every core member of [Atropos] was in the main bridge of their warship and they've all heard of Siva owning a Battle-AI just like all of them.

Still, when she first said about Siva owning one just like them, there was a look of shock on their faces but was soon replaced by understanding as if they had confirmed something with it.

From the unbelievable story she heard from her two sisters, Paak and Waan, all members of their Atropos have been into that world that Siva had once shared to every core Asgardians before.

They lived during the prosperous Era of Gods.

As impossible as it was back then to believe it all when Siva had first told them that story, she also knew that it might have been possible considering she also heard a little bit of a similar story from Amanda not too long ago during one of their girl talks in the evening.

She said that 'Janus' once showed her a short breakdown of the life that Siva spent in Terroa, four real-world years ago inside this world, and that to him, it might have only been a week but in here, it was trillions of years long.

Cross referencing that to Amanda's story about Rex's accident back then and about a girl named Samantha, only now did FlowerLord, Alice, begun to connect the validity of Siva's story.

Was it really possible to live for thousands maybe even millions t trillions of years inside a game?

It was almost impossible to believe.

Nay, logically, it was indeed impossible.

But then again, spending an entire day in Terroa but only eight hours passed by in the real world should also be impossible and yet here she was now, spending the hours waiting outside this blue smoke tornado that doesn't attract any winds but still maintains its cylindrical form.

It has only been a short while in the real world but it has already been hours inside the game.

If you use an even higher-input technology when scanning the brainwaves, not only would it affect your thinking, it would also affect your memories.

Perhaps... that's the very thing that happened to Siva back then, or to her friends, Paak and Waan, two years ago before they even met.

FlowerLord thought to herself, how much time have they spent online to be able to last for many thousands of years?

She wanted to ask this but not now... not when they were all agitated as they waited at Siva.

And just as her thoughts wandered to here, the first change in the situation happened.

The 'people' guarding the blue smoke tornado began to move and from their scanners, two from their ranks began to break formation and proceed towards the direction of Anazon Forest.

"Where are they going?" Stark was confused and he asked the Navigations Officer in their deck.

FlowerLord wasn't supposed to be here but she was friends with Paak and Waan, and she'd also met Siva once when she paid to be baptized in True Dragon Blood —according to her alibi.

FlowerLord trusted her friends but she doesn't trust Stark. He gave her the sense of danger that comes from him being a desperate. As such, she gave them this alibi. Furthermore, she'd already sent the general gist of things to Siva when she tried to make contact with him.

"We can't scan deeper in the forest because of the ancient high-level Barrier Magic placed in its entire territory. Unless we follow them personally and enter the forest, we'd never know what they will do there inside."

By now, in the locator chart hovering above the table in their midst, two labeled objects entered a 'dark' area —the two NPCs from Siva's squad that entered Anazon Forest.

FloerLord knew more, however, but because of her distrust with Stark and the rest of Atropos, she didn't correct them on their assumptions that Siva's BM-Puppets were actually NPCs.

"We can't afford to be distracted now." Stark said and scanned his members, "I need three of you to go and follow them. They might do something in the forest. Just stay close and watch them. Do not make contact and just report whatever they're inside the forest."

Not a minute later, three men departed from their warship and followed the two puppets. It wasn't only them who had the same idea. Many people waiting in the vicinity of the blue smoke tornado also dispatched their own groups of followers to trail Siva's puppets.

FlowerLord remained silent and just watched the events unfold. If they think those guys are simple minded NPCs that can be tricked, they're gravely mistaken.

A few minutes after the two BM-Puppets went out to the forest, half of the remaining people in the vicinity of the blue smoke tornado also began to move.

"What is it now?" some of the impatient members of Atropos murmured.

On the locator chart hovering above their holo table with the map of Maria, five people broke the defensive circle and went out into a certain direction.

"They're going back to the battlefield?" Stark was surprised and it also applies to everybody else in their crew.

On the map, there was an overall 5km-large area that was Siva's battlefield against Kyle earlier.

The two of them moved so fast and so outside of anyone's expectations that it was hard to believe that only two people's battlefield would actually be as large as 5km.

No sooner did they see that the five 'people' then stopped into the place where a warship crashed.

"Are they..." before that voice could even finish his sentence, they saw the 'people' collect a few huge items from the battlefield and upon seeing this, everybody else almost realized what they're witnessing.

"Siva's plundering the remains of the warship!"

"To normal players, those are useful resources."

"But without any production skills, those scarps of metals cannot be used..."

"Does Siva also have production abilities?"

"He's part of the game. It's not impossible."

FlowerLord remained silent but in her heart, she was already applauding and also cursing at Siva's brazen opportunistic shamelessness.

Of course she knew about his lack of resources.

Didn't he send all the females of Asgard in the markets of Jeremiah to scout and procure some resources for him? This was just a part of Siva's thick skin. She didn't doubt that.

FlowerLord also realized that it wasn't only Siva who had thought of this thing but it was only him who had the gall to actually plunder something in a battlefield after a fight.

As such, people also began to have ideas in the remains of the warship and they jumped out of their own warships and joined on the plundering of the remains.

Stark looked at their Navigations Officer, "Is the space in Maria still locked?"

"We don't have the capability to check that in real time unless we try to use T-Devices every minute to check if we want to succeed no matter what."

The group's Analyst with rectangular-rimmed eye glasses informed them, "We don't have enough stock of T-Devices. That is impossible to do."

A member added, "There's been a spike in the prices of items lately in the market. Especially to those items from the Terran-Human Alliance, it's like there was some sort of shortage in stock or something. I suggest we don't use much of our resources. We don't know when it will dry out."

As this topic was opened, the raccoon on Waan's shoulder pointed a finger and explained, {It's not only happening in major cities. It's happening all over Terroa right now. Auctions are also being held in the real world about rarer items.}

{There is also a hacked PNF in auction. Should I make a bid? It ends in 38hrs.}

Paak's rabbit added.

"Make a bid. I don't care how much it will cost us but we have to get every PNF we can get."

{Okay.}

FlowerLord looked over at the direction of Stark and then wandered at the other Battle-AIs in this room. She couldn't get feeling astounded. All of them have Batle-AIs for themselves.

Because of the nature of Paak and Waan's job as members of the Illuminati Circle, they're bound to discover things as they travel from one particular city to another.

Data, of course, will be gathered during that time.

Stark was deep in thought, "There's always a big reason for something like that to happen. I am positive that it's connected to the invasion of the Demon Armada in Jeremiah."

"That invasion is suspicious in itself as well." said one of the members, "There haven't been any major movements within the Demons' camp for the past few decades so it is only safe to say that something indeed happened that triggered Baal to actually go to the frontlines himself."

Stark remained stoic, "I'm actually more surprised that Terroa hasn't fallen if Baal, or the other Devil Gods of that era, were still alive today. Just one of them were already enough to annihilate this planet... but look, Baal got trashed in Jeremiah."

"Siva was a name spoken to a lot in the records we have that pertained to the Gods Era alongside the ancestors of the current Terrans. I still cannot imagine an NPC like him who had lived on that era to be this weak either. He's supposed to be a God, or at the very least an Immortal, but look, he was trashed here in Maria by a mere Terran."

FlowerLord's ears prickled at the statement.

—They really think he's an NPC...

She tried her best to maintain calm as she tried to listen more on their conversation.

"No matter what it is, we can always assume that there is a reason why all of them are weaker than it was in the records. Nevertheless, the fact that Siva is appearing all over the planet means that a very high-level mission or quest is being revealed and although we aren't interested in it, the fact still remains that Siva, as an NPC, is connected to a task of the highest level in this game."

It was the Analyst on Stark's right that spoke. He gave her a nod and confirmed it to his members.

"Everyone... do not forget that Siva is an NPC to the Panorama Corporation. All of his actions are controlled by them. The fact that they are making his actions public means that these events he's connected to, starting from Dragona, are all made with a purpose... but does not change our goals regarding him and his connection to us."

The Analyst fixed her eyeglasses, "Right. We are gathered here for that one single purpose only."

Everyone nodded and closed their eyes in deep nostalgia which FlowerLord took note of. Even her two friends were blushing.

"Stark." called one member, "Do you think this so called mission slowly being unveiled by Panorama Corp. a so called H-Class Quest? After all, Siva is a name from long ago..."

"It's not impossible." Stark said. "That's why we have to get to him first no matter what."

As he spoke, Stark glanced over FlowerLord and she felt all eyes were directed at her direction.

"Will you help us?" Stark asked with his stoic face and poise that even someone as fiery as her can feel a pressure unlike the others he'd ever felt.

Dangerous.... that's the first instinctual thought FlowerLord had with Stark.

Desperate people like him are always the most dangerous of any other type of people. Because only desperate people are capable of anything as long as it will benefit their goals.

Siva was also desperate but...

Comparing their danger levels in her heart, Siva is still manageable because of Scion whereas the man was an enigma since she does not know a thing about him at all.

"I told you." She said, "I only met him once when I won the bid they have online about the Dragon Blood in Jeremiah. It was luck. And now that you said it, I can only assume that that bidding event was also controlled by Panorama."

Paak and Waan came at her side.

"Efel, you will help us meet him, right?"

"You don't have to do a lot. Just bring us to him and we will handle the talk from there."

FlowerLord felt helpless and nodded.

The scrutinizing eyes retreated and FlowerLord felt her breathing relax.

Definitely, her assumptions were correct.

Including the twins, these people are dangerous.

*****

[Boss, FlowerLord sent us another email.]

'What does it say?'

[The Atropos thinks you're an NPC deployed by the Panorama Corporation and that she used one of the predetermined passphrases for the True Dragon Blood's existence.]

Supposedly, the 'predetermined passphrases' he put on the team regarding the True Dragon Blood was an ad to sell it for when The Company was properly launched in a few months' time.

To use it now in such a situation was actually a bit surprising for Siva.

Adding on the earlier information she sent to him about this Atropos, Siva felt more assured that he is being seen as a Quest NPC instead of a man who was having the quest —just like how the rest of the world thinks he is.

Based on her Intel, Siva was supposed to be an AI manipulated by Panorama Corp. and all events around him were events controlled by them.

As such, Siva began to build a picture of what is occurring inside Panorama and what's happening in the UNICORN, pertaining to what he saw in the news about Eosin Bozkovich when he first got Cortana. It was a picture of the situation where he can see himself at the very center.

This made Siva also remember Pistareen's earlier doubts about a coming storm which he only told to Thorn and Volt, which they then told him.