Chapter 017

Tak tak tak tak tak

Tak tak tak tak

In a small space inside the Control Center, there is a folding bed, a table, and a chair.

Canis is currently thinking if they will continue the plan or not.

"Tsk… I think I was… wrong… did I become so greedy… Damn! Can I still fix this?"

Canis sounds unsure of himself right now.

After raiding the UASF and a couple of banks.

He realizes something.

"I could become the 'terrorist'."

Not just a simple 'thief' or 'bank robber' but a terrorist.

Of course, that is not true, but after they survive the Pillar.

The report coming from UASF will paint him as such.

The reason for this way of thinking is simple.

In the remaining part of the city, only the Association and the Freedom Guild remain untouched.

They are defending their place like a fortress.

Of course, some of the UASF personnel are still alive, and new Grandiflorians attack their base but that is beside the point.

The only big organizations that are remaining are those two.

After combing the city today, he didn't find any group that might resemble a terrorist.

Then the question is… Where is the terrorist? 

They might be weak and die immediately from the Grandiflorians.

That's his conclusion.

'A stupid terrorist group used a Conqueror's Pillar but died immediately'.

This is the story going inside Canis head.

(Well, they are fighting a Violet Rank monster which is not really impossible to happen.)

However.

"A dead terrorist is not enough to excuse… people will need someone to blame… and their finger will be pointed at me… well to the Tamer who has a Grandiflorian pet… Tsk… the fact that I need to do the Final Phase is also troublesome… should I do it or not do it…"

Canis was tired and stress out at this moment.

But he knows that he needs to do the Final Phase of his plan whatever it takes.

"I have to think of a way to get out of this dilemma… no one on Earth will respect a terrorist… I will be hunted down by several unique organizations such as… Champions Hunters."

Just thinking about that made Canis shiver.

Champion Hunters are a group of Champions that are called High Violet Rank, or the famous title they receive from the public is 'Spectral'.

If the wall for Green Rank is level 50, Blue is 60, Indigo is 70 and Violet is 80…

The road from 90 to 100 is a tough one.

Yet the ability they would get can be considered a highest ability.

Spectral is the peak of humanity.

However, the road to 90 is not easy an one, the Quest they will receive is literally out of this world.

They need to venture to another world and do the Quest.

And bypassing the Quest is also not possible.

For the other Level Quest.

If you receive a Quest to get a certain item, buy it at the auction you can finish the quest.

You could even sell that quest item after you finish the quest.

Some people break the Green Rank Wall just by borrowing the item themselves.

That's why there are companies that collect rare materials and you can borrow them for a price.

This makes the Level Quest a joke.

But that is different at level 90, the difficulty increases several fold and the risk also increases.

There are also quests that you need to finish on your own, without any companion.

These are the people who might hunt down a level 1 Red Rank in the future if Canis couldn't think of a way to fix things.

Tak tak tak tak tak.

Canis stops his fiddling with a pen.

"I need to pump some blood, so I can start thinking of a new plan."

He stood up on one of the corners.

Position himself and…

Fooo!

Foooo!

He began shadowboxing.

"This will refresh my mind for the mean time… I need my exercise too."

*****

2023 April

Freedom Guild

Top Floor Office.

Bam!

"Where is it!?"

A man wearing an expensive suit and a glass looks at several people in front of him.

This guy has a brown and grey push-back hairstyle.

He was handsome and fierce, there is also a mole right below his right eye.

"Sir Duke, they still didn't report back to any of our calls… they didn't even send any messenger as we discussed."

"Did those scum try to double-cross us!?"

He looks very angry.

"Luke, what is the summary of the deal that you made with them."

As a guild leader he knew the deal before going in, but he thought tha the miss something on the deal that they made so he look at Luke for support.

Luke is standing on the side of the room.

A guy with a glass and looks smart.

He has nice trimmed office hair.

"Brother, the deal is simple… they will use a large-scale Conqueror's Pillar and put Freedom Guild and Association together with the UASF… Then they will raid the UASF with all their personnel…"

Step! Step! Step!

"Their Guild Master will receive the crown and we will receive all the other loot including… the 'Level Break Materials'…"

Level Break Materials are materials that have a high chance of appering on a Level Quest.

"We paid several people to spy on them and give us internal information, and we paid most of the high-rank champions in both UASF and the Association by gifting them a vacation pass and some money. We even go far as to use different companies that each individual personally uses to hide the fact that it came directly to us."

Luke continues and glances at the window where the fighting with the monster still persists.

"In addition to that, together with our contact with the Association, we will not respond to any call for help from UASF…"

"Well… we don't want to directly raid the UASF… that would be dangerous for our image… even though their vault contains valuable materials that will 'break' the 'wall' of most of our Champions… It's ill advice to attack them."

Luke looks at his brother Duke.

"Is it what? At least 70%..."

Duke asked.

"Yes, brother, 72% of our personnel will 'break the wall' to be exact... well most of them are Green Rank, still…"

Duke nodded in agreement with his brother.

"Blue Rank is already on another level… we all know that the quality of ability the Blue Rank has to offer they are very different than the Lower Rank ability."

For High Rank, this is already a known knowledge.

Commander Girthwell, Great Energy Punch is a Violet Rank Ability skill.

An ability that will multiply his attack depending on the amount of excess energy, fat, he has. The ability will range from 1 to 100% multiplier.

Duke stood up.

"Luke… I approve of this mission because this is a great chance for our Guild to immediately raise our ranks… and because this is your 'deal', you handle it…"

Duke looks at Luke with care, but his stare states that this situation is no joke to him at all.

"Don't fail me, Luke... I want you to give me an update as soon as possible."

Then he looks at the person beside him.

A woman with a fierce-looking face and short hair.

She wore an office suit with match high heels.

"Mares, support Luke at all cost… I want him to succeed in this mission."

"Yes, Sir…"

Mares bow down gently and look at Luke and gracefully bow down.

Mares and Lukewalk out of the Duke's office.

Duke is currently looking down below.

The tree monsters increase their numbers, the Low Rankers are fighting in the distance while the High Rankers are at the close range.

They have been having a push-and-pull battle since early yesterday.

If the monsters got severely damaged they would retreat for a while.

This is the time that we could focus our forces on the remaining monsters and at the same time, relieve Champions that are already wounded.

Duke watch what's happening below.

Blue Rank and Green Rank are the main force of the Freedom Guild.

Those Champions are being pulled back right now.

Most of them are already tired and wounded.

Then an Indigo Rank Champion took care of the current enemy while the other Champions recover.

"The plan on chipping away the enemy force little by little is working, if not for the ability to recover then this battle is already finished since yesterday… though this isn't part of our original plan, this works in our favor."

Duke notices one of the tree monsters run away but instead of pursuing the monster the Champions retreat back.

"Sighed… The Rankers already question my decision regarding chasing them down, I have to prevent that from happening right now, killing this monster is not our main goal… our goal is to acquire the rare materials of UASF… we need them to create an illusion that we are being siege by the monsters."

The finishing blow cannot be dealt because of this kind of situation.

"Both situations work in our favor… if we kill a tree monster then the number will be reduced and the Champions can rest, if the number increases we will just spread out our forces to create an illusion of a siege… we still don't know if a UASF spy is lurking around so we have to be careful on how we do things."

Naira, one of the 4 Indigo Rankers we have right now is currently fighting with the Treants.

Using her spear she stabbed the monster multiple times and created damage to its trunk.

The damage she dealt can be considered 'above average', unlike the Green and Blue rank earlier their damage can be considered 'average'.

Naira created some distance from the monster and replied with a spear.

The monster uses his leaves to create a burst of wind to make the Champions unbalanced.

Low Ranking Champions are hunkering down, like a tornado is upon them.

Naira on the other hand is standing firm, though Duke can see that she is being pushed back a little, the effect is minimal.

Naira battle continues.

He looks around the area once more.

There are a lot of Green Rank and Blue Rank in his Guild.

(The minimum rank to be considered a high rank is Blue, level 60, but our Freedom Guild we hired Green and considered them as a temporary high rank because this gives us a low-cost contract and their 'favor'... its been 12 years since The Descend happened but majority of humanity was stuck in Green Rank…)

(It is an acceptable conclusion because finding the 'items' to break is like finding a needle in a haystack, however, this time the haystack is not limited to earth but also to the other worlds behind the Pillar… for me… I got lucky, my Green Rank quest is to kill Tri Horn Cyclopes… I just need to look around for a Pillar with those monsters in it and that should do it, but in my case, my Adventurer friends gave me a piece of information about the monsters here on Earth, I travel toward Darkhan, Mongolia, a dead zone, a place crawling with monsters…)

Duke closes his eyes remembering the nightmare he had to go through just to increase his rank.

Dead Zone, is a place crawling with monsters, and after 12 years these places become a new ecosystem.

New life is breathed into it.

They became unknown to the whole world.

Outside the 'barricade' of the cities, is already considered a dead zone.

Those places are much more dangerous than Pillars because the number of monsters isn't limited.

For Champions, being a Raider and Conqueror is much better than Adventurers.

In addition to that, due to the loss of life, the government also promoting Raiding and Conquering instead of Adventuring, due to the high fatality rate of being an Adventurer.

Going back, Duke remembers the hardship he had to go through to increase his rank.

The number of party members that died back just because of a monster ambush is unthinkable.

Duke gently opened his eyes and shook his head.

He began to watch the battle outside his office.

"We could finally move on… Freedom Guild will take a new step and advance forward."