“Marvin, what are we doing here? We were assigned a mission by the Lords. We should be dealing with it.” The tall girl in brown stated in a dissatisfied voice while folding her arms.
The one she referred to as Marvin was the Caucasian fellow in red who seemed relaxed and was even sipping wine leisurely. He waved his hand lazily towards his colleague’s question.
“Minerva, you worry too much. How many times a year do we get to leave the base? If we enjoy ourselves during the course of a mission, what’s wrong?”
The girl in brown, Minerva, hesitated when she heard that and looked at the others.
“Juan, David, you guys have nothing to say to this?”
Juan, the Latino in red, simply relaxed into his seat while admiring the various beauties around. “Hey, don’t try and rely on me to dissuade Marvin. I agree with him fully.”
David, the feminine Central-American in green, smiled gently. “Find peace in all things Minny.”
Minerva turned to the two Asian twins. “And you two? Xaio Yu and Xaio Ya?”
“We find that…”
“…This establishment…”
“…Is super entertaining…”
“…and fun!”
They both spoke in unison, finishing each other sentences while the other was still speaking. This kind of speech pattern really taxed the brain in deciphering their meaning, but the group here were used to it enough that they could manage.
Minerva glanced at all of her colleagues who seemed to be enjoying themselves while not caring about their mission and sighed. “Aren’t we at least going to pretend like our mission is important?”
Marvin replied casually. “Important? Always. Difficult? No.”
“Peh, its just a fucking game studio for those freaks from Supernatural to play under. Since when has any member from that group been our match?” Juan added disrespectfully.
Minerva was rendered speechless. Their power was naturally not something those so-called ‘talents’ from Supernatural could manage, otherwise the organization would not be at the bottom ranking of top powers in the world along with Superhuman.
“Minny, I think you should relax a bit. You’ve been focused and alert this whole time and it might affect you later on. Just let it go.” David advised with a look of friendly concern.
Minerva seemed to like David a bit more than the others due to his gentle disposition, so she sighed once more and leaned into her seat, releasing her folded arms as she tried to ‘relax’. She was deathly afraid of the punishment that came with failure of a mission, and she knew the others feared it even more than her.
However, the reason they could afford to laze around was naturally due to their confidence in the mission and their youthful nature of wanting to have fun and explore different things. To be honest, their upper echelon had no problems with this as long as they got things done.
Just like when armies were deployed into war-torn areas, who cared if the soldiers raped a few underage girls? As long as they killed the big bad, they would be welcomed back as heroes and no one would know.
Just as the group were relaxing and having a good time, a strange purple gas was released into the large lounge they were in, quickly enveloping everyone. Those who inhaled it fainted right away, falling into a deep and peaceful sleep.
When they woke up later, they would feel much better and refreshed, not realizing that approximately 2% of the remaining lifetime was burned to give them that pleasant feeling. After, this gas was not a pleasant aroma but a poison with a specific use.
They were lucky the user had a conscience and did not listen to the demon who this power originated from, otherwise it would not have been diluted so much that they only lost 2%. After all, the power of the full and potent version was to have any target sleep to death, eternally peaceful.
The sextet of youths had their expressions change greatly when they detected the gas, but their relaxed demeanor saw them unable to react before they too inhaled it. Unlike the commoners, they didn’t immediately go down, but they were practically rendered incapacitated.
“Well, that was easy. Did we both really need to come here for this?” A lazy voice spoke casually.
“Hmph, Ghost you’re making the same mistake they did. Had they not been arrogant and casual, they would not have fallen so easily.” A sonorous male voice spoke next.
Two men came into the area from the entrance, one dark-skinned youth with dreadlocks who put both hands in his pockets and another fair-skinned youth who handsomeness was heart-moving, his hair tied into a bun.
They walked over to the paralyzed group who were glaring at them with viciousness, trying to manifest their elements at all times but failing to do so. The fair-skinned youth leaned towards them and smiled cruelly.
“Well, they definitely are feisty. They seem unresigned, as if when given the chance, they could wipe the floor with us with ease.” Cobra mocked with a laugh.
Ghostpro glanced at them with a strange look. “They’re mad. Even the weakest core members is at Tier 2 Control and could wipe the floor with them, much less us. If the bossman didn’t want to do this quietly, they would already be dead.”
Cobra nodded and rose to his feet producing some ropes. “Well, let’s tie them up and send them over to the others.”
………
“Now, you see here, this is what you’re gonna do. You will tell us the entirety of your life story and all you know about the Elemental Group.” John Smith spoke to Marvin who was tied to a chair with a smile.
They were currently in a luxurious lounge – again – but this one belonged to the Purgatory group. All the core members sat in various seats, chilling and chatting while watching the six youths tied to different chairs with expressions of schadenfraude.
They were surprised when they learned of such powers hiding in the real world, but they couldn’t care less. They were no longer just a special group of gamers, but now qualified control masters, if not bloodline wielders, supernatural members, etc.
None of them were normal anymore, and this contributed to their confidence. However, despite being surrounded by so many enemies and captured like this, none of the six seemed fearful and panicky, only showing endless disdain.
“Are you stupid? You think you just ask and I will tell you? Go fuck your mother!” Marvin spat with hatred in his eyes.
John Smith scratched his head. “Well, he’s right. Why didn’t you active your effect Sir Eden?”
A manifestation of a seemingly normal spotted snake appeared behind John Smith and coiled around him majestically. “Hmph, and pass up the chance to see you lose your composure? Fat chance. Though, it backfired anyway, so whatever.”
John Smith was speechless. He honestly had no idea what was wrong with this God Serpent and why it was so petty. Then again, Eden was the snake that tricked Adam and Eve, the experimental lifeforms that Amaterasu created, into biting the special fruit that gave them wisdom which Amaterasu warned them not to take.
Eden solely did this for its own amusement, being an ‘evil’ snake just like any of the other God Serpents, and was later punished by having its legs removed by Amaterasu. Lucifer simply looked to the sky and did nothing since it was his boy that did wrong this time.
How could such a God Serpent be a bastion of love and generosity?
A wave of ethereal energy burst from Eden and encapsulated the six youths, causing their expressions to slacken and their eyes to fade. When they looked at John Smith, it was clear they were seeing something else.
“L-L-Lord..!! W-We haven’t failed the mission yet, we swear!” Marvin screamed in fear when he looked at John Smith.
John nodded sagely and spoke. “I am aware. You are currently being recorded because this mission was crucial to the higher-ups, which was why they chose you. For this debriefing, you will first illustrate your history with us before describing the mission details, and then what happened towards the end, do you understand?”
Marvin and the others nodded profusely, not even finding any strangeness in those words. The core members who were looking on shared strange looks, realizing that this organization’s superiors trained these fellows brutally, making sure they obeyed before anything else.
Such training was good for maintaining loyalty and subordination, but in situations like this, it also led to their downfall.
Marvin began exposing his origins which was a typical kidnapping backstory into experimentation, into being the sole survivor of his batch of experimented kids, grasping powers, brutal militaristic training and then being sent on the occasional mission.
“Our mission today was to investigate the Purgatory Group and find a way to discover its link to the Glorygore group. Our informants within the game tell that the guild called Umbra has a suspiciously beneficial relationship with the AI of the game, which likely translates into a relation ship between both companies.”
“Taking it a step further, the main representative of the Glorygore Group, Ms. Amber, is often seen working within Umbra and for Umbra.” Marvin revealed calmly.
Hearing this, the faces of the core members changed. They had always known that the Guild Leader and the Lady Boss were super close with Glorygore and the AI. After all, each of them had gotten to go to the headquarters and have their DNA extracted to get Genetic Compatibility in the game.
Any fool could tell they were blessed by the heavens and had great favor. The core members understood this and even the basic members understood this, and everyone kept their mouths shut about it. But it seemed like they were a bit too ostentatious, as previous actions and events left too many clues for the sharp to pick up on.
The Dragon-Slaying Event, the First Guild War, the Void Manifestation Emergency Quest, the Abyss Event and the most recent First Inter-Player International Competition. If anyone had been present at all of these events, he could come to a very succinct conclusion.
Umbra was either a subsidiary of the AI or was in direct collusion!
Now, given how ‘benevolent’ Umbra usually was, most players didn’t have a problem. Umbra did not go around bullying smaller guilds and causing trouble. Rather, they opened their doors for players and recently even began sponsoring many smaller guilds with their endless money, making the playerbase stronger.
People don’t care if there is an absolute overlord who had all the power if they were benevolent and sensible. If you like the power, take it. As long as you make my life simple and stress-free, I will not give you trouble.
However, there were groups in the world who wanted the AI and Glorygore to bend to their knees, but previous attempts had shown how futile it was. As such, since they couldn’t do anything to Glorygore, they eyed their ‘partner’ Purgatory Group who were much easier to bully, and decided to start with them.
Now that they understood the ins and outs of the matter, the core members were furious. They had long been used to being the top dogs wherever they went, their power awing and shaming all other members of their own species and even other ones.
How could they accept being treated as a soft persimmon that could be squished whenever and wherever? The top echelon of the core members were truly furious and shared a look.
Sublime folded her arms and spoke softly. “Hades.”
Hades shook his head and sent a wave of dark miasma around the six youths. Immediately, they began to scream and thrash in agony for a few seconds until they became quiet. The dark miasmas became thicker and colorful, returning to Hades as it entered his body.
Hades immediately shivered, not caring about the six dried-up corpses that turned to ashes and dissipated with the wind, his eyes flashing with a multicolored hue as fire, water, earth, and air elements manifested around him.
