Chapter 332: Briefing (2)

“How is he?” the First asked as he leafed through the document on his desk.

“Perfect!” The Seventh who was sitting at his side said. ”We couldn’t have found a better replacement!”

“He checks all the right boxes. He is only three months older than Victor, and has a similar body structure and depraved personality!” the Fourth replied as she put down her smoking pipe. “That permanent face-changing pill really works wonders!”

“Getting Victor’s blood from the family to make it was not easy, but thankfully we had an agent in their labs and they had been testing everyone recently!. By using the blood on a first-degree relative the results are always satisfactory,” The seventh said feeling a little proud of himself. ” Too bad that Dick went missing, we no longer have a fresh supply of baby blood….  Did you know what happened to him?”

“Not at all. He went missing after that night when Victor desecrated his son’s corpse… What a waste…”

“It might be Theodore or even Ann who discovered something… Investigate more, but keep it discreet…”

“Yes!”

“Did you inform Axel of what he needed to know?“ the First asked.

“Yes… We finished briefing him and already began training him on the Von Weise etiquette and rules, but he keeps asking about becoming a player. He couldn’t wait after we told him about this!”

“Contact Kolmir and ask him to help us sneak Axel into the Von Geldstadt’s gold mountain fortress to use their artifact… If he manages to awaken as a Merchant like Victor, he would be perfect,” the First said, squinting his eyes as he looked at the paper in front of him. He really needed a new pair of glasses. Reading in the dark for so long seemed to have ruined his sight. Would a healing pill work? He would try it later.

“I understand,“ the Fourth said, “Now, I have some reports that agents from Rebirth have been spotted in the Wiren principality… Sadly, we lost track of them as they separated after meeting once. Shall I order my men to search more aggressively?”

“No… They will surface sooner or later…“The first said. “But what are they after?”

“Unknown…”

“I see… What about the Nutcracker? Did you find his trace?” The first turned to the Seventh and asked.

“No… As far as we know, it was heading west… someone was asking about it secretly on the streets, but we don’t know who,”

“We must….”

“MASTER….” the secretary suddenly barged into the office interrupting the meeting.

“What?” the first person asked. His cool secretary was acting a little out of character.

“The moon…. You have to see this…” she said as she gasped for breath.

…

“Next we have to talk about my family, the Von Weise…” Victor said, opening another folder. “In my past life they were eradicated in the early days of reckoning by a very strong guy…. ” he explained to Elise and Margret.

“That guy is Victor’s nemesis…” Lily continued, deciding to tell the girls this much.

“Exactly. Do you happen to know his identity?” he asked Lily, looking her in the eyes.

“No. I tried to look it up, but by the time I was aware of him, someone must have helped him wipe his ass… It was as if he was born out of nothing. If not for declaring why he was destroying the Von Weise family as he did, we would have known nothing,” she explained

“Yes, I already know the guy who would cause this animosity and I plan to get rid of him. The safety of the Von Weise is critical to keep the power balance between the other families, and most importantly to provide me with a sturdy background!“ he nodded.

“My grandfather believes that they are already on the brink of destruction…” Elise interjected.

“Yes… It is my fault as I had to sacrifice the awakening artifact after some nasty demon surprised me. I defeated it, but it tried to take me with him…” Victor said, making the three girls look at him with shock.

“When…” Lily began to ask then stopped, glaring at Victor. Something didn’t add up here, but since he didn’t explain any further, she decided not to ask.

“Wait… You mean the Von Weise lost their awakening artifact?” Elise asked in shock. The families are built around those awakening artifacts.

“Yes… But don’t worry, I plan to steal the von Zwei family's second awakening artifact and then give it to them as a replacement,” he said as if this was already a done deal.

“Oh… That’s a good idea, but wouldn’t it be better to keep that awakening artifact for ourselves?” Lily asked. That thing was really one of the best awakening artifacts. Thankfully the von Zwei family had no idea how to utilize it to its full extent.

“Yes, it is tempting, but my family needs it more, and I already have the skill to awaken players anyway…”

“WHAT?” Lily asked as the other two girls looked at Victor with a frown. “What do you mean?”

“Yes… I got a player awakening skill when I awakened my bloodline. You were not the only one who got to use some crazy strong skill…” he said mysteriously, making Lily open her eyes after realizing that she totally forgot to ask him about his bloodline.

“You mean you can awaken players now?” Elise asked in a hurry.

“I haven't tried it yet, and I'm not sure about its result. It is only an F-ranked skill after all… But yes!”

“I see…” She nodded as her eyes sparkled. A strategy began to form in her smart little brain.

“So, about my family, I plan to give the artifact to my brother and let him inherit the Von Weise family. This is the most direct way to make them my allies!” Victor said taking a purple token and putting it to his side also. “Harvey already gave me the entirety of his spy network so this should act as a backup card to eliminate any resistance!”

“Oh…” Elise was a little surprised. Her grandfather seemed to have believed that the Von Weise family would soon end. He foolishly sacrificed one of his most important pieces cheaply. Somehow she felt sad for him, yet proud that her husband was the one who did it!

“Ok… Then the next thing is the Von Zwei family!” Victor said.

“They need to die… Those bastards have no bottom line, and would even team with the demons at times!” Lily said directly. She had seen their atrocities in the other timeline… She also knew what they did in the basement of Troy’s mansion.

“I am already working on that…” Victor said. “I already have an agent in there that I plan to use to steal the artifact and then maybe destroy their main base….”

“WHAT?” Lily asked in shock. When he said he planned to steal the artifact, she presumed he was going there himself. “When did you have the time to do that?” she asked. She knew how strong those guys were.

“Two months ago… My cousin Rita was taken by them. They planned to use her as a corpse bomb to kill everyone at my grandmother’s birthday party! ” he said.

“WHAT?” Lily asked as Elise also looked at him, trying to keep up with their conversation. At this moment she was 99% sure he was not lying about the time-traveling thing.

“The party was canceled…. So at the wedding, they sent some men and that priest and tried to kill everyone. They planned to make her detonate at the funeral afterward when all the important people were in one place…” Victor explained. “We stopped him this time too!”

“And? What should we do about them?” Margret asked.”If they keep at this they might succeed…”

“Don’t worry, Rita was not overtaken by the exploding corpse demon. She devoured it instead after I taught her the soul-eating art, and now she is acting as if she is already possessed and is waiting for my command, ” he said. “Although we might not be able to completely eradicate them by taking out their base, I plan to slowly chip away at their power until the Reckoning… By that time they should be weak enough to not cause too much damage!” he added, taking a black token and throwing it to one side.

Elise, who took a quick glance at the file in front of her, was in total disbelief. They were discussing the demise of a major family like it is some kind of an easy task!

Her grandfather was telling Gary at the wedding that Victor was not to be underestimated… He was the one underestimating him, damn it!

“The next one should be the Von Rosen…” Lily said with a smile.

“Oh… those ones are interesting.  “ Victor said. “Officially they are a separate family, but they secretly work for the Von Zwei… They had been having some other thoughts lately though…”

“They are the weakest of the five oligarchs!” Lily said. “They got their seat twenty years ago with the Von Astrom family after the two strongest families stepped down!” Lily said, not elaborating.

“They planned to use a parasite to control me, but it seems like some of them are working for some cockroach demon. They implanted Lin with a demonic seed instead that she transferred to me when I slept with her!” Victor said.

“WHAT?” the girls asked. They should really stop getting surprised.

“Don’t worry, I was prepared for this one and I devoured it without letting it cause trouble… This one is not from this world, and it seemed to have made a deal with one of the Von Rosen family elders to help her get stronger in exchange for helping it pass over.” Victor said.

“So, what are you planning to do…?” Lily asked.

“Nothing, no one will know if I am possessed or not. And I already have a bottle of rust blood that I plan to pass to them using Lin....”

“Oh… OHHHHHHHHH” Lily opened her eyes wide and then nodded. “Then that’s it for them…”

“What do you mean?” Margret asked. She was feeling a little left out.

“They will make a mistake and summon a monster that will destroy them, turning their family into an SSS dungeon,” Victor explained. “We will do nothing!”

“Oh…” Elise nodded as she watched Victor take a red token and put it to the side with the black one. This was his imaginary graveyard bin.

“What’s next?” Margret asked as Elise who seemed to be enjoying this briefing looked at Victor.

“The last of the five big families, the Von Astrom…” Victor said. “We have to do nothing, they don’t have the background to pose a threat. They will also weaken themselves gradually due to internal fighting in a few years…. And after the Reckoning, they will only survive as a minor force. Even if something did change, their sphere of influence does not overlap with our plans!” he said.

Elise nodded and watched as Victor put the blue token to the other side. The ignore bin. Wait… Did he just finish the five oligarchs who rule the world just like that? WTF

“Now, let’s move to the three major sects!” Victor said, putting three folders in front of him. He had some more folders under the desk.

“The sects?” Elise asked. She was not really knowledgeable about those.

“Sects are like families, Powers who have an awakening artifact, but they don’t keep the awakening in their bloodline, but through their trusted disciples. They are basically like a big gang!” Victor said.

“Other than the heavenly sect, we can safely ignore the other two,” Lily said. “They will play an important role in fighting the demons and after that, they will not be strong enough to cause too much noise…”

“Yes!” Victor said putting a stripped token representing the sword sect and a cyan one representing the ice sect in the waiting bin. “I already got that girl Windy to the ice sect anyway…”

“Windy…..Oh isn’t it that girl you cornered and forced to sign some contract…”  Margret remembered when Victor scammed some poor lass using his demon disguise a couple of months ago. He really started setting his pieces from the beginning.

“Yes…” Victor said.

“Wait…” Lily said as she looked at Victor. “Are you telling me that the Windy you met at that time was the same Man-Killer Windy of the ice sect?” Lily asked. “The one who will become their Matriarch in a few years!” she added, looking at Victor with apprehension.

“Yes, that’s the one!” he nodded.

“Damn… How the hell did you get to her?” Lily had to ask.

“It was a coincidence that I met her… I couldn't just let her leave that easily!” He explained. “There was also a change in the Sword sect,” he added in a low voice.

“What happened at the sword sect? You never went there?” Lily asked.

“Oh… Do you remember the pendant Margret found in the goblin dungeon?” Victor asked.

“No…” Lily shook her head.

“Oh… You were not there. Anyway, she happened to find the Pendant of Armas! An Artifact that increases authority by 1!” he said

“What?” Lily asked. “You gave it to the Sword sect’s perverted young master? When did you meet him? At some brothel?” she asked, getting angry.

“No… I gave it to my grandmother in exchange for your assassin sisters…” Victor said acting hurt.

“Oh… ”

“My grandmother gave it to the Sword sect master…”

“I see… But do you really know what that depraved guy would do now that he has the power?” Lily asked with disgust. “You should have never helped that bastard!”

“Don’t worry. To wield the pendant he will have to use the Mardik Curse…”

“Oh… So that's why…He will never touch another girl again…” Lily nodded, calming down a bit.  In the past lifetime, that guy, knowing that he would not be able to inherit his father, preceded to rape all the girls in the sword sect after drugging them one by one and then blackmailing them to entrap others. It was vicious that didn’t end until one heroic girl stood in his face, not only killing him but also single-handedly defeating the sword sect master and replacing him.

“Wait… Doesn't that mean that…” Lily asked, looking at her pervert husband angrily again.

“Who knows…” he said with a depraved smile.

“You were already planning on your next capture target, aren't you?” she asked coldly, making the other two girls look at him.

“...Maybe I will not meet her…” he said.

“We will see about that…” Lily said, biting her cherry lip. That girl would definitely be at the tournament.

“We will….  Now, the heavenly sect..” he said, changing the subject while twirling a white token in his hand.

“Isn’t the Heavenly sect the one that guy Caspian came from?” Margret asked immediately. Now she understood why Victor didn’t explain these things before. There was too much to take in. For the first time in her life, she was jealous of Lily.

“Yes… They are the major controllers behind the Players’ Council and It is the strongest power in the world nowadays, at least if we ignore the hidden ones.” Lily was the one who replied. She was enjoying displaying her knowledge in front of the helpless Margret. The slut was not that scary after all. At least not in bed!

“Caspian is not what he seems, he is in fact a demon in disguise planning to use the sect after the reckoning to wreak havoc!” Victor said.

“WHAT?” Elise was a little surprised. She remembered when Alex screamed at him for being a demon. This triggered a very valiant response from him.

“Yes… About 50% of the losses after the reckoning were due to his betrayal.” Lily said, completing Victor’s words. “He will get 44 very strong players to assist him as his generals. And one of them is your cousin Valarie!” She said to the shocked Elise.

“What are you planning to do against him?” Margret asked.

“Oh... I already have some agents there. And didn’t you see the fake Nova I sent after him? She works for me and I plan to make her survey the situation of the heavenly sect and perhaps wreak some havoc in Caspians' plans!” Victor said. “My plan in that regard is not complete yet, so I will not share it with you…”

“That’s not like you… Why aren't you planning to finish them off?” Margret asked sarcastically.

“Most of the disciples there are innocent, and I can’t weaken the human side too much, or we would be having a real problem getting rid of the demons after the reckoning!” he explained as he put the white token in the center, giving it one greedy look before taking out another stake of folders.

“Now we…”

“Wait… wait… Just wait… That fake Nova. She was Tom right?” Margret finally asked. She kept waiting for him to explain this point but he dodged it.

“Yes!” he nodded. He already confirmed this to her earlier.

“He is working for you?”

“... In a way... He is just being controlled...”

“Oh...Since when? How the fuck are you controlling him?” she needed to know. More than once she felt as if Tom was doing the exact thing Victor wanted him to!

“Oh, that… Well, you should probably know this… Keep it a secret…” he said with a sneaky smile. “I have this skill called blood slave. When someone eats my blood willingly they will become my slaves forever…. Or at least until they have more Authority than me…” Victor said, making the girls look at him with shock. Especially Lily who had no idea all this time. Damn it! Even with all her knowledge, it was useless in front of his schemes!

“So can you make him do whatever you want?” Elise asked.

“It depends on the person, but in principle, yes!“ Victor nodded.

“How many of those Blood slaves do you have?” she asked again with scared eyes.

“I can’t get a lot… I just have Six with an empty seventh slot that I got this morning…  Other than Tom there is Rita whom I told you about earlier, and so are Lin and Alex!” Victor explained. “The other two are not people you know… ”

“What Lin too?” Lily asked in surprise.

“I had to make her drink my blood and become my blood slave to help her become a player… I offered to release her afterward, but she would hear nothing of it!” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

“How did you make Tom drink your blood?” Margret asked the question she had in mind. Tom was not an easy guy to fool.

“In the goblin dungeon… The poor guy drank that elixir without thinking just to cure his balls… That elixir was my blood!”

“OHHHHHHHHHHHH…. WHAT… When did you have the time to put it there?” Margret asked. Since when were they being manipulated by him?

“On the first day… I … I got the dungeon map for discovering the dungeon and on it, there was a secret tunnel leading to the treasure room. I only had to sneak in there and replace the true treasure with a chalice containing my blood and then write Elixir under it.” he lied.  He couldn’t tell them that he just dug a tunnel through the impregnable wall. The secret about his authority was to be kept even from Lily. This was his final trump card.

“AH!” Margret was shocked. “And he is willing to do your bidding without making trouble?” she asked. She knew Tom. That bastard definitely hates Victor's guts, why would he do as ordered without screwing things up?

“Yes… Isn’t he a scion?” Lily asked, realizing this very important point.

“He has no idea I am controlling him…I am not making him do anything against his will anyway. I am disguising myself as an ‘OMNIPOTENT SYSTEM’ that helps him achieve his goals and makes him rich!”

“OMNIPOTENT SYSTEM?” Elise frowned, not getting this.

“The one we find in stupid web novels? The plot device lousy writers use to keep the plot moving?” Margret asked as Lily looked at her husband with somewhat scared eyes.

“That’s the one!” he said.

“He fell for that?” Margret asked.

“He acted as if he did at first… But after I made him a fortune more than once while demanding nothing in return he became my best pal!” he said. “He already had the tendency to consider himself the ‘protagonist’ of this world after all!”

“Oh… Not bad… How the hell did you convince him to disguise himself as Nova then?” she asked.

“Nova is his first girl… He wanted to grab her from my evil wedding, and the system just told him the truth that I am using a fake Nova and then provided him with some very convincing method of turning into her and shaming me in public… Who knew that Caspian might take him away and then fuck him…”

“Fuck what?” Lily asked with a wired expression as Margret and the blushing Elise looked at Victor.

“Yes… During the wedding, Someone cast a curse on me and Lin, probably Linda. So I could only use my disguise skill to redirect it to Caspian and Tom… It was some kind of sex curse…” he didn’t elaborate.

“So… he got it in the butt?” Margret asked as she put her hand on her mouth, hiding the depraved smile on her face.

“For an entire day and night!” Victor nodded.

“Ssssssssssssssss!” she gasped. So did Lily, who didn’t like Tom at all.

“Excuse me… What exactly is scion?” Elise who was blushing suddenly asked. “She noticed how Lily’s face changed when she mentioned this word earlier.

Victor sighed and looked at Lily who nodded and looked at Elise.

“Well…  I guess I need to explain Scions clearly!” Lily said with a sigh glaring at Vector. “What you know is probably 50% wrong anyway!” she told him.

“What?” Victor asked as he looked at her in surprise. That can’t be true!

“This was one of the secrets kept by the real world powers…” she sighed.