97 97 - Money

"Unfortunately, yes. Like my teammates, I can't remember what happened after the portal appeared. I can't even imagine why I was so tired, since after we fought the Boss, we were tired, but my energy was not as low as it is now..." Noah also pretended a tone of voice and body expressions that showed frustration to try to pass the maximum credibility to the government official.

"Are you saying that all of you fought a Boss much more powerful than a Rank D Fortress, managed to emerge victorious without any deaths and the only heavy injury you had was that BigBull fellow with the injured leg? And that after that happened, you have a blank in your memory and can't remember anything?" the agent said while getting impatient.

Noah, hearing his question, wanted to laugh out loud, but he needed to keep to character and agreed with everything the agent said.

Just like what Noah imagined, the Blessed Ones when leaving the Fortress forgot everything that happened after he woke them from the illusion, as if as soon as they crossed the portal, they had gone through another illusion that simply erased everything that happened to them from memory.

This even included Mufag. Not even the dwarven corpses they had found during the Fortress did they remember. As they talked about the Fortress, even when giving testimony to the government officials, it became clear to Noah that for them, they had just invaded a normal Fortress like any other: without dwarf corpses, without Mufag, without the Final Boss that Noah left tied up and passed out, without knowing about the existence of the dwarven galaxy. They remembered nothing.

Initially, Noah was a little frustrated by this, since he wanted to talk about it with someone, even share some theories. But as no one else but him remembered, since he was the only one with the system, then he would have just raised unnecessary suspicions against himself.

The government officials would not understand why he would be the only one who could remember, the only one who could communicate with little Mufag, the only one to have a power far above the others, the only one to think about not leaving the portal. If only one of these traits were found in him, it wouldn't be too suspicious, but with him being the sole holder of all those traits, Noah knew it wouldn't be a wise choice to go out and talk about it with the others. So he just told them the things that happened that did not involve the dwarves, in addition to telling them that the Fortress was taking place on a moving train, since the others had said that, and removed all suspicions from himself.

This Fortress was special, very special.

"Keep the signature of this Fortress. When a portal for it opens again, we will send a team of government agents instead of ordinary Blessed Ones. We need more complex reports to solve this mystery," the chief agents ordered a young agent who was operating a large machine, apparently the machine that read the energy frequencies of the Fortress.

The young agent nodded and kept the signature of this Fortress in a special database that the government had for Fortresses that showed some kind of uniqueness.

The government knew there was something wrong going on, but they couldn't find out exactly what it was. When they thought they had found the answer to this problem, in fact they found that the most important information had disappeared and that the essential clue to deciphering the mystery had disappeared between their fingers. It was like someone trying to hold water with their bare hands; the person knew that there was water there, but when he needed that water, it would have already run between his fingers.

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Noah put aside his concerns about the Fortress for a few minutes, as he had just received notification on his cell phone of how much he had received for cleaning up this Fortress.

He was already delighted to receive $1,000 for each Rank E Fortress he participated in, but receiving $3,000 for a single Rank D Fortress made Noah unconsciously smile widely.

If he were to compare, now with just a single Rank D Fortress he would get the same money as a week of 3 Rank E Fortress raids. And if he went even further, a single Rank D Fortress would earn him as much money as 10 Rank F Fortresses. This meant that a single Rank D Fortress yielded to him the same as almost a month of raids on Rank F Fortresses. In just three weeks, Noah came out of a situation where he was practically in extreme poverty, and now he had moved on to the other side of the scale on the wealthy side.

'Maybe I can really buy myself a good car now? Maybe I can even pay for Maggy's treatment when I start to invade Rank C Fortresses? I realized that I can already invade Rank D Fortresses without any difficulty, since this Fortress had a peak Rank D strength. Invading average Rank D Fortresses would pose no problem for me, so it will only be a matter of time before I reach Rank C and can enjoy a truly luxurious life,' Noah thought with a big smile on his face as he wondered what he could do with the money he would earn in the future.

Jasper was too tired to talk while driving on the way back, so Noah, who was just tired because of the huge energy expenditure due to teleporting and because of what he did to Mufag, was now not so tired anymore and he saw that Lilith was awake and looking around with curiosity, but not wanting to disturb Noah.

Noah used a hand to caress her head and started to remember what she had said inside the Fortress that startled them both, but because of what was happening the time they were unable to pay much attention to it.

'Don't compare me to these filthy monsters. I am a noble demon.'

That was the phrase Lilith had said out of reflex, as if she always said things like that, but Noah knew very well that his little snake companion had never said such words before. She didn't even know exactly what she was, just what Noah had found out through the system, so he thought it was time to try to find out where his friend truly came from.

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