Let the games begin! (1)

The Skydancers that arrived at varying times found their places in Hugo's living room and were just waiting for him to give the order to start the meeting. People had started becoming angry, but those people were ants without any power in their words—none of their words possessed any sort of authority.

A lot of these people paced up and down the room impatiently, probably just itching to get the hell out of this man's house.

And what could they do? They, of course, had to give respect to the man who owned one-third of Allegro.

However, things were different in Hugo's opinion. The required amount of S-ranks and A-ranked had been reached, but he was only waiting for Alpha2 and Hyena.

'Those two bastards better get here quick!'

Ruki looked at Hugo and puffed out a small breath of air, shrugging her arms.

'Man, these people are cowards. The A-ranks basically have duplicated thoughts. Oh my god, I'm in the Smithson manor. Oh crap, I'm standing in the place his Honour Hugo sits! F*ck, though I'm pissed I can't do anything to the Region Lord in his own house!'

"Che, how annoying." Ruki walked over to where Hugo stood with his back resting against the wall, making him look like some sort of edge lord if the black he wore everywhere on his body was considered.

She whispered to him, though not really caring if someone overheard her conversation.

"So... what're you gonna do? You have most of the good Skydancers in Allegro cramped in your tiny living room because you're waiting for friends. Excuse me for being judgemental, but I don't remember 'this' to be the Hugo I've known all these years."

She said the word 'this' with a slight trace of dissatisfaction in her voice.

And as fast as she came, she rushed back to her seat before anyone else could claim it. And she knew what she was doing;

A feeling and caring Hugo would help no one in this situation. What these Skydancers needed was the Hugo she knew—the person that disguised himself as a scaredy-cat to see the personalities of potential allies, the person who took the Skydancer exams though he could have easily gone on to claim a high-level title with his status.

Hugo could have lived his life in luxury just by surviving off his parent's achievements, but he didn't do that. Ruki knew for a long time that Hugo wasn't just going to spend his time doing nothing. From a young age, the boy had already steeled his heart for what was to come.

And that boy was what they needed at that moment.

Hugo could almost hear her thoughts as he thought about the perfect solution.

'She may be right, though. Ever since I've become more perceptive to the world, my decision-making skills seem to have failed me. I need to get my act up immediately.'

He contemplated that in his mind, but couldn't think of anything to get rid of this obnoxious new self bothering his cognitive abilities.

'What would the logical Hugo do in this situation?'

And he thought about that one question for a few minutes without any other distractions. His brain led him to countless solutions to his question.

"Alright, let's start the meeting."

His words hanged the atmosphere of the room and people had begun to murmur. Some even sighed in relief, like they were just about to release any tension that might have built up.

"Before we start, any questions?" This was the first thing he'd learnt to say when in situations like this. So before the actual meeting started, people would know how serious the entire event was.

A dancer sitting in the far corner of the room raised his hand a little; he was one of the few Skydancers that had the confidence to sit in a house they'd never been to, and such a high-profile one, too.

Hugo had already long taken note of this guy and pulled his profile out of his brain cabinet.

'Hmm, it's that guy that came to recruit candidates from the Skydancer Exams. I think his name was... Black Shadow?'

Hugo humoured himself for a brief second, noting that the name was quite similar to his.

The Shadow group was one of the few influential Skydancer groups in Allegro. They specialized in conducting assassination missions responsible for the killings of various people, such as fugitives, criminals and other people who had managed to evade the law.

And since they had existed for a long time with lots of experience, the public automatically regarded anyone that they killed as a criminal or someone who was involved in criminal activities.

However, some people viewed things on the other end of the spectrum and opined that Skydancers like these weren't even real Dancers anymore and protested that Slaughter Dancers were not different from those who had gone rogue.

These views and baseless opinions didn't stop them from doing their jobs, though, and this Hugo admired them for.

"What is your question, Mr Black Shadow?"

Hugo saying this, projected his Skynet account onto a projector screen that popped down from above.

Iron Alchemist once again found another weird thing to piss himself off. What kind of weirdo keeps a projector screen in his living room?!

Black Shadow was a tall, dark-skinned man, decorated with a few scars on his face, and accompanying him was the candidate he picked up from that day.

'That guy... he called himself Forest Shadow, right?' Hugo was uncertain, and the version of himself that he'd cast out earlier took over for a brief second.

"I wanted to ask what reason is so big that you indirectly request more than half of Allegro's best Skydancers to your manor?"

Black Shadow wasn't so dumb as to insult Hugo, but he really had somewhere to be. If he didn't get there fast and he was too late, then many people would die, and it wasn't going to be because of a cause-event effect.

Hugo stared at Black Shadow for a while, with the other staring back at him the whole time, obviously not intimidated.

'Is he trying to scare me? If his reason isn't good enough, then I'm leaving this place.'

Black Shadow swept his dreaded hair backwards and held his unshakeable stance. Black Knight was a high-ranking Skydancer than he was, so in truth, Hugo had no obligation to continue with this meeting, but considering he was the one who requested the meeting, he had to answer.

"Well, Mr Black Shadow. If I and the two others were correct, then this matter could produce waves on a global level, and might I add that these waves aren't the good kind."

Black Shadow stared back into the bottomless abyss of Hugo's eyes. He wasn't able to read them. But he could tell that the teenager felt the matter was truly important.

"Alright, let's get this meeting started. Earlier today, I was heading back home and encountered a man who called himself Wind Demon standing in front of the exploded wall of the Prison."

He looked at the reactions of the older people who murmured to themselves.

"That can't be possible, though! Wind Demon has been executed years ago!"

One of them protested, which is when Hugo furthered his explanation.

"Exactly. He mentioned something about killing hundreds of people and I inferred that he should have been dead by that time. But the problem was that Wind Demon still had his Awakened powers intact."

The murmurs became even louder as the Skydancers realized how important this situation was going to be. To resurrect a dead man and use the same power he used while he was still alive?

"You can see now, the full importance of this. And that's not all, the so-called Wind Demon was speaking of a revolution where the people are free to use their abilities without having to take the Skydancer Exams or where they were free from the government."

Unexpectedly, their reactions were different this time. Some even showing looks of astonishment. It was then that Black Shadow, who had personally dealt with Wind Demon, spoke up again.

"That's not possible. I've dialogued with the man. The only thing he cares about is testing the limits of his power on humans and the environment. The last thing a man like him would mention is freedom for the people."

Hugo noted this down and nodded a little.

"Yes, and seeing things were odd. I cut the man down. But crawling out of his body was what I have labelled Plague cells. These cells formed into some sort of large Plague monster, which is what I also call 'em."

As he spoke, he projected the images his mind recorded on the projector screen. He did this using a machine that allowed one to record memories and happenings as if they were pictures.

He could literally become his own camera using this machine.

"These things…"

"Yes, they are the creatures which attacked us. The first two were bipedal, meaning to say they were more than one. When smashed, these Plague monsters duplicate themselves and even still completely regenerate, and furthermore, they can take on new forms according to their controller's request."

That was when a huge question mark appeared on the screen.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, who or what exactly is Vector and what are his goals?"