Fuck you! Shadow Society!

With the increase in the concentration of reiki on the surface, ordinary plants and animals mutated into horrible spiritual plants and monsters increasing their strength and reproduction abilities. Monster tides became a common thing, so a large number of humans migrated to the underground spaces of Blue Star. These Underground spaces existed long before the Reiki era, counting about tens of thousands of small, medium, and large caverns inhabited by diverse underground races, it can be said that the amount of land area of underground spaces combined is hundreds of times that of surface area.

The concentration of the reiki in underground spaces is not high making it hard for plants and monsters to mutate easily, which in turn makes it easy for human survival, and humans usually travel to surface areas to hunt those powerful monsters on the surface forming mercenary groups. The current underground city 'C-71' is built 200 years ago on a medium underground space with an area of more than a hundred thousand square kilometers with a population of 3 million and above.

The underground space is incredibly tall, reaching heights of hundreds of kilometers, making it impossible to see anything above. It's filled with artificial surroundings like clouds and artificial sunlight beamed down from the surface using advanced magical technology powered by Reiki. Artificial Sunlight Projectors use Reiki energy to create and beam fake sunlight underground, giving light and mimicking daytime. Cloud Generators make clouds with Reiki, making it seem like there's a sky underground. Climate Control Systems manage the temperature and humidity underground, keeping it comfy for everyone. Bioluminescent Flora are special plants with Reiki that glow softly, helping see in the dark and making the underground world look cool. This creates a perfect imitation of day and night underground.

While he was still thinking about various things, he heard a slight sound of the door opening behind him. Ram immediately became vigilant and used the robot controller in his hands to give instructions at a moment's notice and waited for the person to come. However, contrary to the shadow messenger he expected to see what appeared from the door was his buddy Liam who must have somehow followed him here.

Liam who came out of the door was about to scold him for choosing such a dilatated building, while not inviting him for a drink was stunned on the spot by looking at the tall Robot Blade. He swallowed his words and looked back and forth between Ram and the robot unable to distinguish the situation, "Fuck, brother!! When did you buy such a robot?"

Ram didn't reply but still looked at Liam with an enquiring look like asking him 'Why are you here?'

Seeing that he still looking at him but giving an answer, Liam spoke while touching the back of his head. "Haha.. Bro, I saw you sneaking away before and thought that you might be in some trouble. so, I secretly followed to help you. But looking at you, it doesn't seem to need my help anymore."

Ram sighed softly and commanded the robot to get behind him into standby mode and told Liam of his plan to meet with the Shadow messenger as Liam was already here with good intentions to help him. He can't scold him or send him back now, so he told everything about how he met old man Smith from beginning to end.

Liam who listened to the entire story, sat beside him with a beer bottle in his hands drinking slowly, spoke out his thoughts, "You must be crazy enough to believe in the words of some mentally retarded old man, even if there is someone from Shadow Society, none of the known members of this organization is a good person."

"Hey, what can I do I've tried every possible way known so far to awaken. Nothing worked, so I just wanted to hear the method mentioned by the society and decide whether to choose or not." Ram replied with firm resolve, with a determined voice.

Liam didn't say anything this time, just waited for the shadow messenger to arrive or return back if nobody came. Time passed slowly as they discussed other things.

Suddenly, the air around the surroundings became cold, and a figure materialized from the very air. It was like a phantom stepping out of a half-formed mirror, its form coalescing from wisps of swirling shadow. Its features, shrouded in a swirling vortex of darkness, defied recognition, yet somehow emanated an aura of both chilling powers, he first checked Ram and the other two and spoke, "Hello, Ram."

[ Name: ??? Age: ???]

[ Race: ???]

[ Profession: ???]

Looking at the shadow phantom, both of them were shocked they didn't expect such an entrance, and even now they couldn't find if the person in front of his is a person or just a phantom. "You, are you the Shadow messenger?" Ram asked while he concentrated hard to check the attribute panel of the shadow messenger, but unlike his previous successful inquiries this time what he got was all question marks including race.

"Yes, I heard that you want to find a method to become an awakener. Is it true?" the Shadow messenger nodded his head and slowly replied while asking the purpose of today's meeting.

"Yeah, do you really have it? can you tell me what it is?" Ram asked again, to see if the method told by the Shadow messenger was fishable or not and make his final decision.

Shadow messenger looked at the robot behind and Liam beside him, and waited for a few seconds before he spoke, "The method is very simple and has a high success rate, with less than 20% failure rate. However, I can't tell you what this method is unless you join the organization." 

"This?" Ram became silent, he had expected this reply even before he met the messenger and asked for more details. "Tell me more about the details like how to join and how long I need to work for you?"

The Shadow messenger laughed slightly when he heard Ram's words, "It's easy to join, but you need to work for about 15 years before you are set free."

Even before Ram could reply, Liam who was silent before spoke, "Bro, don't listen to him. It's not worth it to spend 15 years for some simple method of awakening, furthermore, we don't even know if what this person telling is true or not."

"Listen to me and we will return back now and discuss this thing again or find an alternative way."

"Hahaa....haha," Liam who was about to persuade him to not accept the shadow messenger's offer got interrupted by the sudden gloomy laughter of the Shadow messenger in front of them, a sudden chill emanated from the phantom in front of them enveloping both of them.

"You kids really thought that you can come and go as you wish? when you met me there is no return." this time the words of the shadow messenger sounded from all directions surrounding them as if they were inside of a separate realm.

Ram was the first to react, he immediately ordered the robot to fight while Liam beside him condensed knife made up of ice in his hands and stood in front of Ram with a flexible poster ready to fight at any moment.

With the instructions received, the eyes of the robot lit up with slight red color and the powerful energy furnace burned the life energy inside powering the robot, with its sharp blade held in his both hands, it dashed its tall body towards the shadow phantom with inhuman speed and precision.

However, contrary to what they expected the shadow messenger easily waved his hands and through the robot that came at him, just like flinging a mosquito, the robot which looked very powerful just a second before was thrown off more than twenty to thirty meters away from their sight, scrapped unable to get up again. 

Both Ram and Liam were stunned on the spot, both turned back at the same time to run away. But, before they could take a step, they lost consciousness as their eyes became dark and the last thing Liam hear before he lost consciousness was Ram shouting. "Fuck you! Shadow Society!"