Sir Angelo

I put my hand on the wall and I could feel MANA interacting with me—I could never feel anything like this before, but now it appears that I can sense MANA pretty well even in objects.

Soon after, I started glowing—nothing was happening, so I somewhat had to "permit" the MANA to interact with me before teleporting inside. I wonder if back in rypU Town, Arial also got teleported or if it were just the three of us.

Though, Arial… he's going to be a problem for me—I lied about the potion thingy, so I guess I'll need to lie my way out of it again once he returns.

After teleporting inside, I was promptly greeted by guardians that redirected me elsewhere—I had to urgently go to the Information Center and report everything that had transpired in the Town.

Meanwhile in the Association:

"Dantes W. Reaper returned alone? Without his teammates?" Angelo answered a messenger.

"Correct, sir. We didn't question him yet—would you like to assist us in the conversation or would such a commitment be beyond your busy schedule?"

There's nothing particularly special about someone returning alone in a mission, but both on Angelo's mind and face, something inaudibly whispered to his ear to raise some suspicion.

"Very well. Promptly get him in here," Angelo proceeded to take a deep breath and leave his post, which was filled with dozens of papers and documents, "Scar, take over while I'm gone," "yes, sir."

Being in the busy position that he is in, Angelo had a squad of 5 assistants that would constantly paraphrase, simplify, and make the information transition more processable for him; all of them were high-ranked and experts in matters related to information—Scar was his right-hand man, a Level 6 Player that has undertaken even S- missions.

Back to the perspective of Dantes:

To think the Association has so many large buildings… The Evaluation Building, The Hotel, and now the Information Center; just how much does the Im City Government invest into the Association? Everything?

The MANA coming out of this building though…

I put my palm on the building and closed my eyes.

"Dense… really ethereal… feels like water, yet resilient like steel."

Does this MANA make up a barrier then?

Being reborn as one of the demons from rypU Town, the realization that the System is just a tool sank in deeply—the System is like a sculpture artist that shapes how your MANA comes out, while also keeping the amount of MANA you use up at the minimum.

Being given the ability to see MANA up-close like this raised many questions, however—what is the Evaluation process? Why are people given different Systems? What's the difference between them? Why'd Arial bullshit about progress not being a thing?

"Whatever," I smirked and stepped right into the barrier; my body zapped all over, yet I proceeded to walk up to the reception desk. My badge immediately lit up and the woman opened her mouth, "please take this note—promptly visit Room R2 on floor 3"; for some reason, I no longer felt compelled to be polite or show respect in a situation like this, so I didn't reply and found my way to the stairs.

While walking up on them, I kept hardening my palms and feet—I could make my nails longer and limbs as hard as iron, all at a whim without even depleting my MANA resources.

Suddenly, I stopped and looked at my hardened hand, then put my fingers on my lips; promptly, smiled and thought to myself, that truly, the only downside to this is the constant craving to devour people—I guess I'm closer to a ghoul than a vampire then; I do also feel the desire for blood, however.

The perspective of Angelo:

Glanced at my watch; he should be here any minute now.

Then the door slowly opened and a pale man walked in—he has no System because his MANA was incompatible with our Shadow Magic Systems, and his background as an immigrant is completely unknown in spite of him being brought here as early as a baby.

[ANALYSIS ENABLED]

He… flinched; coincidence?

[ANALYSIS COMPLETE]

[RESULTS: HUMAN WITH UNKNOWN ABNORMALITIES]

I see why someone as high-ranked as Arial was assigned to him—the System can't have a read on him whatsoever. I'm surprised The Soul even managed to pick up his reading at two instead of one, to begin with—I suppose something in him that the System can't sense, was detected in that case.

"Hello Dantes, I'm Angelo, the lead director of the Information Network—pleased to meet you," held up my hand for him.

Dantes looked at it for just a brief second, then shook my hand—his hand was as cold as my ex-girlfriend, I couldn't even keep a straight face because of how unnaturally cold it was. "Pleased to meet you too, Sir Angelo, you can call me Reaper."

"Reaper, huh?" I remarked out of surprise, "very well then, Reaper." Can't let any of my professionalism slip.

The conversation dragged on for a while.

"This really does appear to be awfully dangerous—Arial's report of it being an S tier threat-level mission was accurate, in that case," I stated.

Afterwards, Dantes—or I suppose, Reaper, asked me something unexpected, "Sir Angelo, do you think there's a possibility that these beings were… I guess… infectious?" The way Reaper said it was strange—his voice was so gentle and unthreatening that I was weirdly at ease because of his words.

"Infectious? Hmm…" put my palm on my chin, "infectious monsters are pretty much extinct in populated areas; the last recorded case of one anywhere near the Im City was probably many decades ago—in general, whenever a case like that happens anywhere in the Iso Continent, it's because one of them somehow sneaks in through cargo or sheer physical prowess to cross the oceans."

Then right after I entertained his question, my face blew up in surprise because of his reply, "Iso Continent?" 

"Oh, my bad, I forgot that you're a new Player and haven't been in the Academy yet—you'll be taught more about the outside soon enough, but in simple words, the Im City is in one of the Four Great Continents—the smallest of the four, which would be the Iso Continent."

It's fine to tell him this, right? He won't think we're some dictatorship-esque City that manipulates information, r— right?

"I see, could you tell me more about this Academy? When will I get to join it?" Asked Reaper.

I turned my head to the side and answered, "umm… usually within a month or so after joining a team; your leader is supposed to show you the ropes before you study formally, it isn't really meant to be some s— secret or anything, really."

Oops… I think I sounded awkward while saying the last part…

Oh, well…