Chapter 409: Cult Mission [1]

—A friend of mine will contact you in a bit. Make sure you answer, alright? He will help us arrange all the matters for the stream.

"Alright."

Click!

I hung up the call with Jamie.

All in all, it ended on a great note. He agreed to do the stream at the location of my choice.

The place was, of course, the location of the cult.

But why do it there?

Wouldn’t that be stupid?

Not only would I be exposing Jamie to unnecessary danger, but I’d also be revealing my own location, practically inviting the cult to track my every move through the stream. There was no way they’d ignore a broadcast showing people trying to infiltrate their territory.

There was also another matter.

’With the stream, I can’t use my powers.’

I was essentially handicapping myself to the extreme.

But—

’This is what I want.’

I had long considered all of the possibilities. There’d be no way for me not to take them into account. I’d be stupid not to.

But there was one very specific reason why I wanted to do this.

One key reason.

"Risky."

The Conductor’s voice echoed from the opposite side as it looked at me.

I just smiled and didn’t answer.

’Just like the stream will expose my location, it’ll also make the cult aware of the fact that I am filming in their location.’

I was, in essence, exposing them to the entire world. For an organization that had gone to such lengths to stay hidden, that was the last thing they would want. Their motives were obvious, and in my mind, their subsequent actions would also be obvious.

’...They’ll very likely try to remain hidden. In this case, there’s a higher chance of me going deeper into their place because they’ll try to avoid me.’

This was the perfect opportunity for me.

Of course, there was more to it than that, but this was the essence behind my decision.

"I guess I should take some time to prepare."

I checked the calendar.

There were only a few more days left until the deadline of the quest.

’I guess I’d better get ready.’

***

At the same time, Containment Section.

[The number you’ve dialed has blocked you.]

"....."

Zoey stared speechlessly at her phone.

Blocked...?

She’s been blocked?

"....."

Even as she tried to make sense of the situation, she still struggled to do so. This was the very first time that she’d been blocked, and her mind struggled to process the fact. It also wasn’t as if she hadn’t texted him, specifically saying, ’I’m Zoey,’ and so on.

He...

"Hoo."

Zoey took a deep breath, trying her best to calm down.

’Right, maybe he didn’t see the messages. No, it’s very likely he didn’t see the messages.’

She tried to be optimistic.

Knowing Seth, he very likely didn’t bother to check.

He was like that.

Zoey felt a lot better when she thought things this way. At the end of the day, Seth didn’t answer the message, and he was too antisocial to answer calls from strangers.

"Oh, there he is."

Zoey spotted Seth not long after as he came out of his office.

After a moment of hesitation, she walked up to him.

’Just tell him that it was your number, and leave.’

Zoey stopped in front of Seth and waved her hand. He stopped too, looking at her in confusion, but just as Zoey was about to speak, a ringing sound echoed.

Trrr! Trrr—!

Seth’s brow raised as he took out his phone.

The moment he did, Zoey caught sight of his screen.

[Unknown Caller]

And soon—

"Hello?"

"....."

"Ah, yes. Hello."

"....."

"I see."

"Fuck—!"

BANG!

Zoey’s phone met an unfortunate end that day.

***

The next few days proceeded rather calmly.

I didn’t do anything exaggerated. I calmly went on with my day, either working on my game or visiting my own squad to check in with them. Everything was proceeding smoothly, and before I knew it, it was the day of the quest.

"Time sure flew by."

I looked at the bag next to me. I had packed all of the essentials.

There was still one hour left before I’d head out.

I decided to leave my office for a short moment. But I quickly came to regret that decision not long after.

"Is that him...?"

"I heard that he’s going to get demoted sooner or later."

"I also heard that his members are getting recruited by other Squad Leaders. Why is he a Squad Leader when he hardly does anything? I wonder what the Section Chief sees in him."

"Is he going to be demoted soon?"

"What’s up with him? I heard he created a good game, but why is he at a Guild if he’s busy creating games?"

"Not sure, I heard the Guild is sponsoring his games."

There were a lot of looks of judgment directed at me.

I couldn’t blame them. This was all due to my negligence with my team. There was also the incident with Zoey, but I think that was mainly her being in a bad mood. I had no idea why she reacted the way she did.

Still, ignoring all the stares, I stopped before Kyle’s cubicle.

"I guess he’s not here."

This wasn’t surprising.

Kyle had been very busy lately.

I hardly saw him these days. Then again, I’d been swamped myself. With the cult mission, the new multiplayer update, and the "Guild" version of the game still in development, there wasn’t much time left for anything else.

There were a lot of things that I needed to do.

’I guess I should become freer after this mission. That’ll be one big problem out of the way, and also... have no more quests.’

The thought made me frown.

For some reason, I hadn’t been getting many quests lately, if any at all. I had been able to do everything as I wished without any problems. This felt somewhat odd to me, but since I was extremely busy, I was glad that I didn’t receive any other quests.

But at the same time, I couldn’t help but feel slightly uneasy.

Deep down, I knew that this mission was going to be very different from everything else I had experienced in the past.

This mission was going to be a turning point in my life.

I just didn’t know what that turning point was just yet.

’I hope that I’m overthinking.’

Taking a deep breath, I was about to turn away when a sheet of paper on Kyle’s desk caught my eye.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I reached out, picking it up.

The page was covered in messy scribbles. Half-finished sentences, rough sketches, and fragments of strange symbols that meant nothing to me. At the center of it all, one thing kept appearing again and again...

"...."

The number

71

, written in different sizes, underlined, circled, even carved so hard into the paper that it nearly tore through.

My breathing came to a sudden pause as I caught sight of it, but as if that wasn’t enough...

A single sentence caught my attention.

One that made my heart pause.

"It’s not a date or a rank. It’s an order. There’s more."