Chapter 92

However, there was something that I needed to check first before putting it into practice. “What’s the principle behind capturing what I’m looking at right now? If the video output is here, where’s the input? Is it filming far away with something like a camera?” – …

The [Door of Hope] didn’t answer immediately.

I continued asking.

“Can an Awakened being in the place of observation notice the fact that they are being watched through the [Door of Hope]? For example, if he has a special skill.” – … Artificial intelligence remained silent for a while before replying.

– This information is not registered in this item’s operating system.

Next, there was telepathy that was close to it talking to itself.

– Searching through a collective intelligence network.

– Connection is unstable.

– … Network connection time exceeded!

– No response to search attempts. – Insufficient information to answer the user’s questions.

I sighed lightly.

“It doesn’t know, after all.” The collective intelligence, whatever that was, according to Adam, was a concept that existed when the Sebrarian Empire still existed. Simply put, it must be like the Internet.

It would be futile to access and extract information from the empire’s ruined intelligence system.

“It doesn’t know the detailed operating principle from the operating system itself, but does it mean if the user requests to perform it, it carries on the command?”

I pondered for a moment and reached a quick decision. “I don’t think Adam noticed when I looked at him just a while ago.” I talked to the system instead of artificial intelligence that manipulated the item this time. I thought about the information about the aliens on Earth in my head. “Update location information.” The answer came right back.

– The current location information of the target requested by the user is as follows.

Most of the aliens held the same position as what I had seen recently, but it was observed that there were a few aliens that moved far away like Adam.

‘Shall I take a look at each of them?’

I gave the [Door of Hope] an order. “Show me this place.” I wanted to observe the current status of the aliens on the list. I wanted to do it beyond simple location information, but rather in real-time as if I were to look upon them on a satellite. The operating system responded. – Do you want to transport it to that location? At the same time, the scene in front of me changed. I was internally amazed. ‘Wow, that actually worked!’

It was clear what the aliens, who infiltrated the Earth under camouflage, were currently doing.

Just to be careful, I had prepared to stop observing right away.

‘There’s no sign of noticing the observation.’

It was a performance beyond my expectations. I realized it once again. SSS-Class items were overpowered. ‘Technically, it’s an extra feature needed for one to move around, right? I didn’t know that even the additional function that gives a view of the destination would be this faithful to the class.’ Since then, I have observed the aliens one by one. The first ones that caught my eyes were those Adam had already confirmed didn’t belong to the Union. ‘Hmm.’ But unfortunately… ‘Nothing unusual.’

It didn’t matter if it’s a being that hid outside without human contact or a being that mixed itself with humans and lived as an impostor.

There was nothing extraordinary about their behavior. If they were to boldly go around doing strange things like Adam, it would be even easier to recognize the opponent’s goals and abilities, but there was no such scene, at least at that moment. ‘But I can’t just watch them 24/7.’ Furthermore, it was only possible when I went to a different dimension and returned to Earth. In the case of the Botarch dimension, 16,000 cores were used for a round trip. ‘I’ll have to find a way to make regular observations while reducing the cores consumed.’ There must be a nearby dimension where the door could be with fewer cores. I was going to experiment with every coordinate in my head one by one. I would need to find the most suitable world in a way that I wouldn’t cross over but rather only check the core consumption. While I was observing each one of them, thinking like that, something happened.

“Huh?”

The moment I moved on to the next alien, I found an anomaly. In the coordinate that the [Door of Hope] had just projected, no aliens were visible. ‘It hasn’t been that long since the system gave me the coordinates…’ I thought about that alien in my head and asked the system once again. “Update location information!” – The current location information of the target requested by the user is as follows. I was surprised to see the coordinates.

“Wait, did it cross the border in that short time?”

While I was observing an alien, another suddenly began to move. But its speed was very fast.

“Won’t you look at that?”

I drew a line connecting the initial and current coordinates. Its direction was revealed.

I spoke again.

“Update location information!” Coordinates were updated while maintaining a constant direction. I thought it was still moving. And…

If I continued to draw the route as a line, the fact that Beijing would be in its path must not be a coincidence.

‘It’s approaching Beijing!’ The opponent was one of the Union’s eyes, that was, the being that Adam confirmed as an ‘observer.’ Adam told me to leave him alone since he wasn’t doing exceptionally harmful things toward the Earth. ‘They started moving first?’ Ever since I first identified the coordinates, it had been stuck in Russia and hadn’t moved since, so the sudden change made me feel uneasy. ‘I will resume the observation later. I should go back to Earth for now.’ I spoke to the [Door of Hope].

“Send me back to the same place where I took a dimensional leap from Earth!”

– Sending user.

The light waved, and I felt a strong rotational force swirling around.

With the feeling of my body floating, it sucked my body into Earth.

* “Oh! Are you back?” Adam greeted me with pleasure.

There were huge earthworms with their guts and body parts butchered out and body fragments of Botarchs lying around on the ground.

It was a horrendous sight, but I explained the situation to him urgently instead of giving it a good look. “What? An eye is coming?”

He scratched his bearded jaw roughly.

“It means they’ve been watching everything that happened here. If they’re determined to observe from afar, does that mean I can’t notice them…?” I interrupted him while he was mumbling seriously.

“But I was caught when I was watching you stealthily.”

“I thought it was a little weird back then as well. They’re not that easy to spot.” He cracked his neck, thought for a moment, and spoke again. “Well, I didn’t commit a crime. We don’t have to avoid it.” It was unexpected. “You mean you want us to wait here and face them?” “If the eye is on its way, its purpose is me. Their mission is to manage the species that finished the tutorial. And I’ve never broken the treaty. There’s nothing to lose.”

He then spoke to me as if to give a warning.

“They won’t do anything to threaten you first. Don’t pick on them or mess with them without a good reason to do so. I’m sure it’s strong since the Union dispatched it.”

Of course, I didn’t mean to spark the fire pit first.

“I got it.”

It was an alien sent by the Union to observe the Earth. What’s their deal with Adam that they’re coming here?

I waited with mixed curiosity and caution for an alien who had no business with me in my previous life.

After a while… Shhhh! The sky we were looking at was distorted. “Here you are.” The alien, who flew nearly 3,000 kilometers from the Sakha Republic at the eastern Russian Federation to Beijing in a flash, appeared quietly, accompanied by no noise or shock waves. Stepping lightly on the floor was a young black-haired man wrapped in thick fur clothing. With eyes that were hard to infer emotions from, he looked at the two of us one after another.

He had a small bag on his back and was carefully carrying a gray fur toy poodle in his hands. The dog was wearing a rather sloppy pink fur coat that was obviously knitted by hand.

“Hey.” It was Adam who spoke first. He spoke to the alien with a certain sense of distance between them.

“What brings you here?”

The observer wearing a camouflage shell replied. “This is the first time I’ve ever faced you like this. I am an observer assigned to this world from the Union. What should I call you? You’re called ‘Adam Abrams’ here. And I think that’s what the Awakened next to you calls you as well.” The opponent didn’t hide the fact that it had been observing Adam. Adam had a disapproving look.

“Just call me Adam. You don’t have to tell me your name. I don’t want myself to be deeply associated with the members of the Union.”

It replied with a calm voice as if it didn’t mind. “Yes, understood.”

Adam continued without giving it a break.

“So, what’s your purpose? Just to clarify, I have never broken the treaty.” “Haha, you’re in a hurry.” It turned its head from side to side and calmly stared around.

“If there’s such a big event going on in my jurisdiction, and there’s even an Awakened involved on the main quest, shouldn’t I naturally come in person? I would be negligent of my duties otherwise.”

“You’re here for work? Then why did your pet have to tag along when you’re out here to carry out a public service? You want to brag about it to us?” The alien replied as if it had a valid point. “Well, you’re right. Pardon me. It showed some symptoms of separation anxiety… I raised it up ever since it was young, so I am all it knows. It’s a short time for me, but it’ll be a large part of its life.” Adam, who heard his answer, clicked his tongue as if he were dumbfounded. The alien continued. “If you’re uncomfortable, I’ll leave it away for a while. Sergei? Would you like to play around over there while we talk?”

When he heard those words, a little nervousness floated on the expression of the black-haired young man.

However, in compliance with the order, he gently placed the toy poodle on the floor.

He then distanced himself and flopped to the floor.

Without even batting an eye to the corpses of Botarchs and earthworms scattered around, he took out knitting materials from his backpack and began to concentrate with his nose stuck to it. Looking at the shape, it looked like a fur coat for the toy poodle as well.

The observer, spoke.

“Public service is my task, but I also wanted to take this opportunity to greet you.”

“Greetings? Hmph. Such a sugarcoat… That means my observation grade has gone up, right? It’s reached a point where you have to report directly to the Union after seeing me face-to-face.”

The observer drew a blatant smile around its mouth that no ordinary dog could imitate.

“Your performance today was impressive. I was afraid you might slaughter a large number of non-Awakened, but you rescued them instead.”

“Yes, our dimension hasn’t even joined the Union, but we are faithful to the treaty. We don’t want to suffer an ill-fate!” There was sarcasm in Adam’s tone, but the observer didn’t seem to care. “I would like to thank you on behalf of the Union for your commitment to the treaty, even if you’re from an unregistered dimension. I almost misunderstood it as an attempt to slaughter thousands of non-Awakened because you suddenly threw them over the barricades.” What? He threw them? It was only then that I learned the secret of Adam evacuating all the hostages so quickly. “Don’t worry. I threw them in a way that wouldn’t kill them. And, what was that? Sincerity? It’s all because of the Union’s act of ganging up on the unregistered dimensions to make them follow the treaty!” “Hahaha.” The observer just smiled lightly and didn’t contradict Adam. “Anyway, you’ve got a good look on the scene with your two eyes, and you’ve made contact with me, haven’t you done all the things to report to the top? We’re leaving now.” “Oh, wait a minute.” Toy poodle held out its front paw and stopped us, and Adam’s eyes became fierce when he saw it. “What is it?” “Actually, there’s one more reason why I’m here.” The dog’s sparkling eyes changed the direction they were looking.

Toy poodle’s eyes were looking at me.

My eyes locked on the alien disguised in the dog’s shell. ‘… Huh? Me?’ The poodle greeted me late. “Hello, Mr. Seo Jin-Wook. Nice to meet you.” It said my name as if it’s only natural for it to know. Yeah, it surely was watching me as well. “I have a question to ask you.” It raised its butt that was on the floor and approached me with its four paw tapping. “Mr. Seo Jin-Wook seems to have been acting along with Adam Abrams for some time now.” Since when, and until when was it looking? Was there no way to take its glance away? It was ironic that on the day I checked the [Door of Hope] ‘s best surveillance equipment function, I met the watcher who had been watching me in return. “Yes, I am.” Then, the alien raised a question. “May I ask you what your relationship is between you two?” Couldn’t it figure out what kind of conversation had been going on between us?

I answered calmly.

“It’s a trading relationship where we exchange what we want from each other.” “If it’s a trade, you mean something equivalent?” There was nothing to worry about. “Right.” Adam also nodded his head as if it were a given.

But at that moment…

Whooooooooooo! After hearing my answer, Mana began to storm rapidly from the toy poodle’s heart. ‘This bastard?’ It suddenly tensed up and kept its senses on edge. Why was he casting a skill all of a sudden? ‘Attack? Now? It’s different from what Adam said!’

The Mana of the alien, which had been rising and circulating from the heart, began to make a pattern.

I had never seen it before in the totality of my past and present life.

‘I don’t know that skill!’ I stared while preparing to fight back or escape right away. ‘…!’ My body began to stiffen. ‘What the hell is that?’ There were only two colors of Mana that I knew of: the blue one when an ordinary skill was activated and the red color that accompanied a unique skill. [The Successor’s Eyes] had never captured an exception that deviated from those two. At least… Until that day! ‘I’ve never seen that color of Mana before!’ Simultaneously, as the blue Mana emitted by the toy poodle took shape, its color began to change. The intense Mana, which was cohesive around the observer’s body, was a dazzling golden color.