—A friend of mine will contact you in a bit. Make sure you answer, alright? He will help us arrange all the matters for the stream.
"Alright."
Click!
I hung up the call with Jamie.
All in all, it ended on a great note. He agreed to do the stream at the location of my choice.
The place was, of course, the location of the cult.
But why do it there?
Wouldn’t that be stupid?
Not only would I be exposing Jamie to unnecessary danger, but I’d also be revealing my own location, practically inviting the cult to track my every move through the stream. There was no way they’d ignore a broadcast showing people trying to infiltrate their territory.
There was also another matter.
’With the stream, I can’t use my powers.’
I was essentially handicapping myself to the extre.
But—
’This is what I want.’
I had long considered all of the possibilities. There’d be no way for not to take them into account. I’d be stupid not to.
But there was one very specific reason why I wanted to do this.
One key reason.
"Risky."
The Conductor’s voice echoed from the opposite side as it looked at .
I just smiled and didn’t answer.
’Just like the stream will expose my location, it’ll also make the cult aware of the fact that I am filming in their location.’
I was, in essence, exposing them to the entire world. For an organization that had gone to such lengths to stay hidden, that was the last thing they would want. Their motives were obvious, and in my mind, their subsequent actions would also be obvious.
’...They’ll very likely try to remain hidden. In this case, there’s a higher chance of going deeper into their place because they’ll try to avoid .’
This was the perfect opportunity for .
Of course, there was more to it than that, but this was the essence behind my decision.
"I guess I should take so ti to prepare."
I checked the calendar.
There were only a few more days left until the deadline of the quest.
’I guess I’d better get ready.’
***
At the sa ti, Containnt Section.
[The number you’ve dialed has blocked you.]
"....."
Zoey stared speechlessly at her phone.
Blocked...?
She’s been blocked?
"....."
Even as she tried to make sense of the situation, she still struggled to do so. This was the very first ti that she’d been blocked, and her mind struggled to process the fact. It also wasn’t as if she hadn’t texted him, specifically saying, ’I’m Zoey,’ and so on.
He...
"Hoo."
Zoey took a deep breath, trying her best to calm down.
’Right, maybe he didn’t see the ssages. No, it’s very likely he didn’t see the ssages.’
She tried to be optimistic.
Knowing Seth, he very likely didn’t bother to check.
He was like that.
Zoey felt a lot better when she thought things this way. At the end of the day, Seth didn’t answer the ssage, and he was too antisocial to answer calls from strangers.
"Oh, there he is."
Zoey spotted Seth not long after as he ca out of his office.
After a mont of hesitation, she walked up to him.
’Just tell him that it was your number, and leave.’
Zoey stopped in front of Seth and waved her hand. He stopped too, looking at her in confusion, but just as Zoey was about to speak, a ringing sound echoed.
Trrr! Trrr—!
Seth’s brow raised as he took out his phone.
The mont he did, Zoey caught sight of his screen.
[Unknown Caller]
And soon—
"Hello?"
"....."
"Ah, yes. Hello."
"....."
"I see."
"Fuck—!"
BANG!
Zoey’s phone t an unfortunate end that day.
***
The next few days proceeded rather calmly.
I didn’t do anything exaggerated. I calmly went on with my day, either working on my ga or visiting my own squad to check in with them. Everything was proceeding smoothly, and before I knew it, it was the day of the quest.
"Ti sure flew by."
I looked at the bag next to . I had packed all of the essentials.
There was still one hour left before I’d head out.
I decided to leave my office for a short mont. But I quickly ca to regret that decision not long after.
"Is that him...?"
"I heard that he’s going to get demoted sooner or later."
"I also heard that his mbers are getting recruited by other Squad Leaders. Why is he a Squad Leader when he hardly does anything? I wonder what the Section Chief sees in him."
"Is he going to be demoted soon?"
"What’s up with him? I heard he created a good ga, but why is he at a Guild if he’s busy creating gas?"
"Not sure, I heard the Guild is sponsoring his gas."
There were a lot of looks of judgnt directed at .
I couldn’t bla them. This was all due to my negligence with my team. There was also the incident with Zoey, but I think that was mainly her being in a bad mood. I had no idea why she reacted the way she did.
Still, ignoring all the stares, I stopped before Kyle’s cubicle.
"I guess he’s not here."
This wasn’t surprising.
Kyle had been very busy lately.
I hardly saw him these days. Then again, I’d been swamped myself. With the cult mission, the new multiplayer update, and the "Guild" version of the ga still in developnt, there wasn’t much ti left for anything else.
There were a lot of things that I needed to do.
’I guess I should beco freer after this mission. That’ll be one big problem out of the way, and also... have no more quests.’
The thought made frown.
For so reason, I hadn’t been getting many quests lately, if any at all. I had been able to do everything as I wished without any problems. This felt sowhat odd to , but since I was extrely busy, I was glad that I didn’t receive any other quests.
But at the sa ti, I couldn’t help but feel slightly uneasy.
Deep down, I knew that this mission was going to be very different from everything else I had experienced in the past.
This mission was going to be a turning point in my life.
I just didn’t know what that turning point was just yet.
’I hope that I’m overthinking.’
Taking a deep breath, I was about to turn away when a sheet of paper on Kyle’s desk caught my eye.
Curiosity got the better of , and I reached out, picking it up.
The page was covered in ssy scribbles. Half-finished sentences, rough sketches, and fragnts of strange symbols that ant nothing to . At the center of it all, one thing kept appearing again and again...
"...."
The number 71, written in different sizes, underlined, circled, even carved so hard into the paper that it nearly tore through.
My breathing ca to a sudden pause as I caught sight of it, but as if that wasn’t enough...
A single sentence caught my attention.
One that made my heart pause.
"It’s not a date or a rank. It’s an order. There’s more."
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