184 At The Border 1

Country F was a fairly developed nation in the southeastern part of the globe. For some reason, due to being close to the equator it was prone to storms and earthquakes, but this also endowed it with abundant natural resources and some of the world's greatest biodiversity. Its scenic locations were very popular, especially the beaches and forests located south of it. Also, its extensive rice terraces that were carved into the mountain ranges past the Cotton Province was called the Eighth Wonder of the World. One way or another, the whole place was a beautiful nation.

Despite the majority of its islands being scattered on the sea bordering the mainland of the continent, the country was actually part of the mainland. At least, its capital and biggest metropolitan area, the center of culture, economy, education, and the government were located there, sharing borders with three other sovereignty.

Alina City was the capital, but from the north, it was only two cities away from the barren expanse separating the country from C Empire. Thankfully, the world was currently in greater peace than it was hundreds of years ago so Country F was coexisting peacefully with the other mainland nations. People from it sometimes heard of some scruples and disputes at the border, but due to the peace talk and non-aggression pact signed between countries, no large-scale wars would be happening anytime soon.

Of course, this only became possible since the messengers of chaos in this part of the world called immoral hosts were luckily busy with their own businesses. But who could say for sure though that this would last?

The first century of the new millennium was almost at its halfway. Wars were actually happening a bit further west of the mainland which was surely sparked by some idle immoral hosts. Country F too had its fair share of the scuffles, like the other territories.

Yet if not prevented or handled appropriately, it seemed the nation too, would have no choice but enter a state of emergency... and it was only due to an elite main non-host supporter mercenary from C Empire who turned out crippled by one of Country F's residential immoral hosts.

Funny that this whole mess started just because there were a pair of sisters in which the older one wanted to silence the younger forever.

For now, no definite status had yet been revealed. It would be nice if the involved system users would be able to draw a compromise over a mere non-host. However, were people like them reasonable to begin with? Maybe... Just maybe. If the person disabled turns out to be someone important to the Level 5 host of C Empire...

...

6 am. An hour after Chris left Alessa's residence.

Under the soft reddish glow of the eastern skies, soulful music was filling up the whole cafe in West Alina, rowing it like a small luxurious boat gently in a nerve-calming stream. Only morning people coming for coffees and light drinks were occupying three or four of the more than twenty tables in the shop. One of these tables was taken by two individuals sitting opposite each other.

One was a middle-aged man with wrinkles near the edges of his brown eyes. The other, a short-haired tall athletic-looking beauty. The atmosphere between them started off light and warm due to the woman's teasing of the older person. Yet not even a minute passed and her smiles and hypnotic laughter seemingly vanished, carried off and replaced by the cold air circulating within the place.

"... Where is that man now?"

The man was massaging his forehead as he leaned his back to the chair. "I sent the coordinates to you by it. Just check. Now that I think about it, I can't inquire anything about that merc. Fortunately, the other man is not masked. I know his companion, the one I commanded to cut off their tongues, is a mercenary from C Empire..."

The woman in front of him immediately turned serious, also closing her eyes to do what he said.

"C Empire huh. Just a few minutes away..."

He sneered. "Easy for you to say. But if I were you, check out first that crippled man before charging towards another battlefield."

The woman stood up, meaningfully looking at him. "You accidentally stirred up trouble so you want me to clean that up too, right?"

Even though the middle-aged man's intention was laid bare, he didn't flinch under scrutiny but instead stared back with an intense coldness and restrained fury. "I saw that woman peeking here from the outside, so I know that you actually went out to deal with the troubles yourself. However, you left out Alessa's location purposely for me. That's considered cleaning up for you, right? You know I should be getting my hard-earned sleep instead of stirring up that unwanted trouble because of you."

'So in short, why don't you fix up my trouble too?' His eyes told her.

She looked away indifferently, "For a very minor matter like that, you sure are bearing a grudge. It's bad for health!"

"So you can stop jesting, aside from the many unpleasantries this morning, must I remind you of what I went through at Country Y just, so I can investigate about Leo Jones there?"

Since the place was owned by the woman and had its security heightened up to the maximum through her system's assistance, the middle-aged man didn't put much reservation in spouting such highly classified information in there.

Anyway, even without factoring the mysterious array he didn't really understand how had been set up, the two of them were sitting inside the cafe, but actually, the woman generously used up a 50k item to isolate the space two and a half meters of radius from her.

It was the downgraded version of what Clarissa used before against Leo, with no whatsoever restricting properties towards those with abilities to Teleport or Body Swap.

It was good for making sure no sound or anything leaks out from inside though. In fact, no one from the outside would notice what was happening there.

An illusion was cast in place so all the other people would see was a seemingly father and daughter pair taking their daily dose of caffeine early in that morning.

The short-haired woman stifled a laugh as she looked at her 'father'. It was such a puzzle on how her beautiful face made the man's eyes turned sharper and colder.

Deep inside though, the man was regretting that he brought up the two words Country Y. It seemed to have reminded the woman of something amusing to be laughing like that.

"My dearest talent, I didn't know you're so popular overseas as well. How's the feeling of being stalked heavily by your fans there? Is their love so heavy too? I heard one of them almost murdered the guards of the hotel you checked in there just so they can meet you?! Such a fantastic story! It's making my eyes open to how devoted fans can be when it comes to their idol."

"It is no joking material, Sofony." Impatiently replied by the middle-aged man.

"Oh. Well, my mistake. I forgot a few people got injured because one of the fanatics was a young girl wielding an ax as she charged towards anyone who stood against her. The other two are no lesser though. Even now I'm wondering if Country Y is such a lax place that kids can actually have access with real guns."

He angrily threatened. "If you don't stop, I'll harden my heart to freakin' make that man commit suicide! FYI, Miss, I have planted a seed in his brain!"

Sofony almost laughed again but stopped herself since she knew had indeed gone overboard.

"Fine. Stop giving me freezing glares. I'm actually glad that you made it back in one piece and is quite in agony that on the day you returned you experienced death threats and has been poisoned to the point you almost force yourself upon a woman in love with you." In the end, she still giggled.

After placing a small black round device on the tabletop, she turned around and waved a hand, saying before she disappeared along with the 'confined space'.

"No worries, I appreciate your efforts, so I'll do my best about your request. But don't count on me too much. If that mercenary is someone without any relation to the one I'm searching for, I can't help much then. I'm also useless if it's someone higher than me."

The man was left frowning. When his eyes went down to the item she placed in front of him, one of his brows went up.

"Should I be glad that she still has a conscience to pay up favor with something like this?"

The chandelier hanging above shone hazy rays onto the black surface of the small object. Its clear sheen gave off an eye-piercing glow. The man in the extreme disguise, Chris, stood up and picked it up. Inside his head, 98 began to ramble again with its explanation.

In his peripheral vision, he caught sight of a lithe figure chasing after the woman who just got out of Friendlies.

He absentmindedly muttered to himself.

'I'm bad and selfish for wishing this. But I hope that mercenary will have even the littlest of connection with that middle-aged host she is looking for.'

A second later, he bemusedly thought,

'Well, it seems at least we've become wonderful friends now, always thinking of using each other for the best of our interests.'