Chapter 6: Fate

"So the difficulty of your divine mission is similar to our main mission?" Kayla expressed her disappointment, realizing that Hikari, a newbie, had been assigned a mission of comparable difficulty to theirs, which was intended for seasoned veterans. To make matters worse, even their mission time limit was almost the same!

"Yes," Hikari confirmed.

Curious, Hikari asked, "As far as I know from the information I have gathered, the world noble is scheduled to arrive three days later. So why did the Miracle give me 20 days as a time limit?"

"To face the consequences!" Kayla replied with a sombre expression.

Hikari was puzzled. "Consequences? What do you mean?"

"The Miracle works in mysterious ways. There's a popular saying in the divine realm. Would you like to hear it?" Kayla asked.

"Um... sure," Hikari nodded.

"Know this: the weight of sin demands payment, yet liberation from its cursed grip shall only be granted upon acceptance, repentance, and the breaking of its shackles. We are the sinners; hence, the Miracle is what grants us salvation." Kayla said in a prayer like tone and continued,

"It's a well-known phrase attributed to his holiness. Many people in the divine realm believe in this saying. They think that the extra time the Miracle makes a player stay in the mission world is meant for repentance. However, not everyone believes in this principle, and no one is certain how the Miracle truly operates," Kayla explained.

Hikari contemplated the philosophical sentence and the mention of his holiness. Although he wasn't familiar with its deeper meaning or who his holiness referred to, he decided not to delve into it further for now, as he knew he would eventually learn more in the future.

Hikari nodded solemnly in response and asked, "Do you guys have any sort of plan for your mission?"

Joel replied softly, "Yes."

Hikari locked eyes with Joel, his expression clearly conveying his desire to hear the plan.

In the tense silence, Kayla spoke up gently, "Well, we are planning to blast the entire Dawn Island."

The room fell into complete silence.

Hearing this Hikari was stunned!

Blasting the entire Dawn Island seemed insane, considering its significance to the protagonist trio and characters like Garp and the upcoming Rat Haired Snitch.

"Well, not the entire island, only the port" Joel coughed to ease the situation in hand.

"But how do you plan to accomplish that?" Hikari asked, his confusion evident. Obtaining a bomb powerful enough to cause such widespread destruction would be no small feat.

"Kid, why did you suddenly become a retard?" Joel questioned with a stern look.

Another awkward silence.

"Babe, chill out. Hikari is probably from a less technologically advanced world," Kayla scolded Joel, coming to Hikari's defence and trying to defuse the tension.

After Kayla's intervention, Joel raised his hand, and with a bright light, a small pitch-black ball materialised in his palm.

Before Hikari could inquire further, Joel said, "This is a Tier 3 Mini Black Hole prototype I bought from Celestial Enterprises," his voice tinged with pride.

"Wouldn't a black hole just devour the entire planet?" Hikari innocently asked.

This time, it was Kayla who responded, "Since you're a newbie, let me explain the basics of item tiers."

"All items, titles, legions, ranks, and worlds are categorized into tiers ranging from 1 to 12, in ascending order of power. There are rumours of realms beyond these accepted ranks, but it is for you to accept these rumours when you are in the divine realm."

"In simple terms, the higher the tier of an item, title, legion, or world, the stronger, more powerful, or more useful it is. Of course, there are variations and sub-tiers, but we won't delve into that now."

She continued, "The current world we're in is an upper-ranked Tier 5 world, and some powerhouses here possess combat strength comparable to a Tier 6 world."

"The Mini Black Hole Joel just revealed is merely a Tier 3 object and doesn't possess much power. If you were to compare it to a real black hole, it would be like comparing a light bulb to the Sun!"

"Although this Mini Black Hole wouldn't be able to harm the powerful individuals of this world, it will be more than enough to destroy the port!" Kayla exclaimed, her tone filled with excitement.

Hesitant and slightly stuttering, Hikari spoke up, "Then... can I help?" He felt a bit embarrassed, trying to convey his rural and awkward nature by asking for a favor.

Upon hearing his request, both Joel and Kayla exchanged glances, their smiles turning wicked.

"Tomorrow night, the nobles are planning to burn down the junkyard of Goa Kingdom—Gray Terminal—in order to appease the arriving World Nobles. Don't ask us where we got this information," Joel said with a smirk.

"Since your mission is to assassinate the upcoming World Noble, if we cooperate, we can certainly accomplish both our missions. However, there may be some risks involved," Joel continued.

"So, what is my role?" Hikari asked, getting straight to the point. He knew that both Joel and Kayla were trying to butter him up, so he was certain that the task would be dangerous.

"It's quite simple. We need you to bury the Mini Black Hole," Joel said in a low voice.

Hikari then inquired about the risks with a solemn tone, "So, what are the risks?"

"Before I explain the risks, let me clarify what 'fate' is," Joel said with a rough tone.

"Fate is absolute. Once something is written by fate, it is bound to happen. Luck may vary, but fate is unchangeable."

As Joel spoke, he pulled out a compass from his pocket.

"The selection of a normal player's next mission world is determined by three factors: Strength, Evaluation of Previous Missions, and Luck," Joel explained.

"As I mentioned earlier, fate is absolute, but luck can vary. It can be either high or very low."

"Originally, our group used to complete missions as a team of three, but due to some issues with our third member, we couldn't group together, and our overall strength decreased significantly."

"When the time came for our new mission, the potential worlds that could be our next destination, according to The Circle of Miracle, ranged from tier 3 to tier 5."

"Unfortunately, our luck was dogshit, and we somehow ended up with the worst possible choice. Let me be clear: this world being selected as our next mission was as unlikely as magically finding a needle in a haystack or successfully flipping a bottle 50 times in a row!" Joel ranted, expressing his frustration with their extremely unlucky outcome.

"Well, whatever. Since I've explained fate to some extent, let's move on to the next part. Each mission world has its own plotline or story, and the events within it follow that plotline. It consists of what you would typically find in a regular movie: protagonists, side characters, and a villain," Joel said, holding the compass up and showing it to Hikari.

The compass was crafted from gold, and instead of indicating directions, it displayed a few written words inside the glass: "Very Good," "Good," "Bad," "Dangerous," and "Very Dangerous." Each word had a distinct background color, ranging from green to light green to red to very red. The needle of the compass pointed towards "Very Dangerous."

"I had to trade many things to acquire this compass," Joel sighed, his expression serious.

"This compass measures the current plot's situation. Before you entered the room, the situation was classified as 'Dangerous.' However, as soon as you arrived, the situation escalated to 'Very Dangerous,'" Joel explained solemnly.

"As for the question you asked, the answer is I don't know. We have never dealt with a mission rated as 'Very Dangerous,' so we are uncertain about the risks involved in your task," Joel added in a hushed tone.