Child of Destiny

...…

Shin and their little group rested as they wanted the rest of the Empyrean Talons to arrive. Arthur also went ahead to meet them on the outer region of the map that they were currently to fetch them later.

With their current experience, Shin and the others had already made a rough estimate of how powerful the monsters of the Awakened Continent were and compared them with the player rankings.

If they were only talking about monsters of the same level, then only Titled Rankers or Maverick Rankers could hold themselves against Common Rank Monsters in a one-on-one battle.

As for the regular Rankers and Unofficial Rankers, they had to require a full team just to survive against these Common Ranker Monsters.

This alone signified how difficult to survive in the wilderness of the Awakened Continent.

Even the Godlike Players and Maverick Gods were not safe either as they could only take on an Elite Rank Monsters on their own with a few exemptions, who could somewhat match some Special Elite Rank Monsters.

The level of suppression of the monsters of this place was also much stronger compared to the previous continent, which was why the group was having a hard time dealing with the Iron-Skinned Wild Boars.

With the over ten-level difference, the aura suppression that the monsters were giving them was quite difficult to deal with, especially when they were fighting those Specia Elite Monsters.

Even for someone of Shin, Arthur, and Leonard's level, this was their current limit even after using most of their trump cards.

Even with their equipment and skills that provided them decent effects of ignoring levels, their strength was still not enough to fully deal with the Special Elite Rank Monsters under the level suppression.

Moreover, this was only under the condition that the players were fighting boar-type monsters. Then what about the other monsters from the species just like the wolf-type monsters with high mobility, or bear-type monsters which were the embodiment of strength, or tiger-type monsters that were considered as the king of the mounters?

Then, there were the humanoid monsters that were capable of using techniques similar to the combat techniques of the players. These kinds of monsters were also able to wield powerful weapons.

Given the current information they had in hand, Shin and Arthur felt that the place they were heading would be very troublesome. This was one of the reasons why they had to ask for reinforcements aside from the challenges that they would be facing as they went deeper into the region.

While the group was waiting for the others to arrive, Shin looked for a corner to sit on, where he could browse the current events of the virtual world. He was quite interested to find out how the war between the Righteous Churches and the Evil Factions was going.

From what he had read previously, it seemed like the Dark Cloud Kingdom had fully become a warzone while the guilds and other organizations sided with the Evil Factions and built their bases at the city capital.

As for the location, where the Demon Portal was located, it was heavily guarded by the Demonic Churches, particularly the Demon Church of Gluttony as they were the faithful believers and servants of Beelzebub – the Glutton Demon King of the Flies, who was about to descend to this world through an incarnation.

The information about this news was under the strict control of the Pandemonium Descendants, which was one of the biggest and most influential powers among the Evil Factions.

Due to the recent war, the already strong influence of the Pandemonium Descendants was slowly getting stronger, making them more powerful with every passing second.

If the other Superpowers and Powerhouses did not do anything, then the power balance of the game would start to lean toward it.

What Shin found interesting in his recent discoveries was the fact that the Hydra Guild had still yet to choose a side. They remained neutral up until now alongside a few top guilds and organizations within the game.

Among the list, are the Central Order, the Mystery Pavilion, the Dragon Pavilion, and a couple of merchant groups.

Shin was not surprised about the Dragon Pavilion since their main target was the Hydra Guild. As a long-time rival, the two guilds were always keeping each other in check in every game they got involved in.

Since the Hydra Guild decided not to join the Faction War and chose to develop the territory that they had recently gained, the Dragon Pavilion followed suit and did the same.

These two Powerhouse Guilds focused on exploring the other contents of the game, particularly looking for more clues about the Mysterious Instructors and trying to enter the Royal Cities that appeared in the neutral regions.

The Mystery Pavilion was a neutral power that was full of mystery. Not much information was available about them, but one of their main jobs was to release a constant update on the Godly Ranking List and other types of lists within the game.

It was not surprising for them not to side with anyone.

As for the Central Order, Shin did not know much about their movements as they pulled out all their forces from the Saint Heaven Kingdom and the neighboring countries for some reason before disappearing altogether.

The last news that he had heard from them was when Arthur casually mentioned that this Superpower had decided to focus all their forces on a certain part of the Auror Continent.

As for the reason behind it? Shin did not know as no one heard anything from them since then.

It was as if the entire guild had disappeared.

"Eh!? Why does it sound a little familiar," mumbled Shin as reorganized the information that he had at hand. Then he suddenly remembered something and exclaimed. "Ah! That's right! Those lunatics from the Undying Guild also disappeared alongside Immortal!"

He had recently encountered Immortal along with those powerful Apostles under his command, but he had never seen the other members of the Undying Guild.

Moreover, those guys seemed to be fighting the Corrupted Cult, which was the faction that they previously belonged to.

"Is this just a coincidence? Or there is some sort of connection between them?" mumbled Shin as he felt that he was onto something. "But those two forces are also not on good terms, especially since they recently had a war against each other over the ancient ruins where Solus previously resided."

The war between the Central Order and the Undying Guild in the Blind Abyss Empire caused quite a commotion as it was one of the biggest events that happened during that time.

The monster trio of the Empyrean Talons was also involved in that incident along with the Hand of Midas as they robbed an entire Mana Vein under the noses of those forces.

"Strange~!" mumbled Shin as he felt the situation odd. "My instincts are telling me that those two forces must have found something that the other top powers of the game are unaware of."

"This is getting rather interesting," he mumbled before sharing his suspicions with the others, particularly Shiella, who had the largest information network of them all.

After that, he went to browse through the online forums and other platforms leisurely. After all, it would take a while before Arthur brought the others here.

Not long after, he stumbled into an interesting topic. As for the main character or characters of this particular trend, it was somewhat familiar to him.

"A hidden force of the Gold Mountain? A force capable of jungle warfare, naval battles, and aerial combat? Sweet~! Isn't this the guild that I asked big sis to build? I guess she is doing a good job," he mumbled as he read through the entire article.

"Deicide," mumbled Shin as he looked at the unique emblem at the end of the article.

He could not help but laugh as he realized something. "Hah! To think that she even hired Miss Bunny to write an entire article for this!? The others may not be able to notice it since the technique and arrangement are a little different, but she can't hide her great familiarity of the said 'hidden force.'"

"It is obvious that big sis has given her some inside information to make the article more believable and authentic," he shook his head as he knew that this must have been done to increase the hype.

"But why does Big Sis have to do this? Isn't it better to hide the Deicide Guild as much as we can? Why does she need to reveal some of our information rather than conceal it?" he mumbled in confusion as he found the situation rather odd.

"Did something happen?" he suspected as this was the only reason he could think of.

As Shin continued to browse for more interesting topics, he suddenly received a call from someone.

"Eh!?" looking at the ID of the caller, Shin could not help but raise his brows. He then started smiling as he answered.

*Di*

Right after the call connected, the face of a young man with messy curly hair and a pair of round glasses appeared on the virtual screen and 'cried' at him.

"How can you do this to us, Brother Shin? How can you leave us behind when all of you head to the Awakened Continent!"

Molton Potter, who happened to be using the same IGN in the game, immediately bombarded Shin with questions right after all the lines connected.

Shin could only smile helplessly as he listened to this young man before finally using a 'trump card' to escape the bombardment. "Ah~! The Imperial Library of Divinity City is quite huge. I wonder how many books it has?"

Right after the words 'Imperial Library' left his mouth, Molton's interest was immediately diverted to it, completely forgetting everything else.

Seeing the look on the latter's face, Shin could not help but shake his head and wear a bitter smile. "This kid is too easy to read."

...

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