Chapter 77 - After The Border

"Oh, where's my respect... I am Councilor Agent Se Bastian, an agent from the Supreme Council."

Se Bastian offered a hand for a handshake. Roger accepted it and shook his hands with him as he introduced himself. Then, after their handshake broke, Roger could feel that there was something with Se Bastian. Even though he was smiling sweetly, he couldn't disregard the uneasiness he was feeling. He felt that Se Bastian was looking at his very soul.

'There's no way that this person with low fighting spirit could do something like that... Does it?' Roger thought as he raised a confused question to himself.

Roger had noticed after giving Se Bastian discerning eyes that he had a low fighting spirit, which meant that he was at least not that good at fighting since fighting spirit should be accompanied by experience in fighting. But even though it was like that, Roger couldn't remove the suspicion he had.

Underestimating was never his card, not unless he unwinded himself.

"So, I heard that you wanted to meet me, sir. Do you mind if I ask?"

Se Bastian shook his head and continued to smile while he spoke his answer.

"Well, I am here to give you an offer. How do you feel about working under us? The Supreme Council is at the top of the food chain in this county, you know."

When Roger heard that question, he couldn't help but raise the uneasiness he felt. The doubt he had continued to grow as he tried to assess what Se Bastian was aiming at.

'It is obvious that the glitch gave me or showed my worth to them. But with the treatment I received earlier, it was not easy to accept. Although it was not much, I still needed to see what this person wanted to talk about.'

"Ah... I don't know what to answer, but may I ask again?"

"Sure."

"What should I do if I work under the Supreme Council," Roger asked.

Se Bastian curled his lips down with a pondering face, thinking of what he should answer Roger. Then, he smiled once again with his reply.

"Well, you will just have to fight for us and with us. That is as simple as a piece of cake, isn't it?"

'His smile is making me worried.' Roger thought and continued to talk to him.

"But, if you are offering me a job, should you give me the contract to see what your conditions are?" Roger asked. It would be stupid of him if he gave him an answer since he clearly didn't know what kind of work Se Bastian was offering. After all, Roger had just arrived from the District Wish.

'Are they underestimating my decision-making capacity? I don't want to be hysterical, but this is what it felt like. I am familiar with this.' Roger thought.

Se Bastian went blank after that question, which made Roger raise an eyebrow.

"Uhm... Sir? Do you mind making things clear to me? I clearly don't understand you." Roger humbly asked, but Se Bastian continued to be blank until his smile expression earlier disappeared and became serious. It was bizarre that Roger couldn't deny that his suspicion was wrong.

'I knew it.' Roger rolled his eyes and then looked at his surroundings. Out of nowhere, he could see fighting spirits surrounding them, but physically, they were not visible. 

'Magic that could turn things invisible. Interesting, one thing that Murim people couldn't do.' Roger smiled afterward and dropped his humble face. He then blended with the serious face Se Bastian had.

Ian then had an expression that seemed to be constipated at the moment. And slowly, he got away from the two of them, eventually totally running away. It was as if he was running from a scene.

Roger sighed and then darted an eye at Se Bastian.

"I clearly didn't understand it at first, but let me ask you one thing: why do you need to resort to things like this? You could just offer me kindly if you have something on your mind. " 

Roger could only feel disappointed in them, as, after all, they were officials and officers of the country and he didn't expect them to stoop this low.

Roger always thought that Earth retained peace because of the government. One example was the mayor of Line City and the neighboring cities. But currently, facing Se Bastian who introduced himself as an agent from the Supreme Council, did make him throw his expectations towards the government.

'So, just like in Kluma. Governments in this world have their very own type of greed. I didn't think of that in the beginning. I was too stupid to think that Earth was kind of peaceful compared to Kluma.'

"What should we do? We already know that you won't accept it."

Roger grunted, "You didn't even ask me in the beginning. I am willing to listen to what kind of offer you have. I am here to abide by the law. That is why I left a record at the Hunter Association to at least give you the sign that I am existing."

'I at least wanted to introduce myself by working as a civil servant, which I hated in the past. I grew hate towards the government back in Kluma. That is why I hated the concept of being a civil servant. But after living and understanding the system, I realized that being a civil servant was not bad.'

'I could raise my privilege by just being a civil servant. I could even have connections to being a civil servant. And most of all, I don't need to create my own gang or organization just to keep my family safe since the government could offer it. Except, they could use my family against me.'

As those ideas went into his mind, Roger was urged to take a pause and then sharply looked at Se Bastian's eyes.

"What were you trying to offer?"

Se Bastian smiled viciously as if he was a kid, which was different from his age to consider. "Uhm... we were asking for you to be our test subject and fight for us, using different methods."

***

It was dark... only dark, but there was an entity that could observe things without any light, and it was the core of Earth, the unnamed entity that caused the apocalypse.

No human could explain the beginning of the Doom Era. As the records told the people, the rifts suddenly appeared. It was a phenomenon that even science couldn't explain. But there was an entity that was willing to explain things, and it was the cause itself, the core.

A secret organization of unknown species was formed and lived underground. The location was unknown, but this organization knew it all. Apart from this, they were led by someone who had the ability to regress back in time.

"The core was starting to wake up completely. It was still in its pre-awakened state, but still, the effects were already present. Rifts in the upper lands and also the changes in human bodies were already widespread. However, another result of this pre-awaken state was the ability to provide humans with the ability to create a new species.

"Humans are starting to have their way of becoming gods. With alchemy, they were starting to create weapons that could close the rifts completely, but the downside was that they were using their race, humans."

The secret organization in the dark underground became silent. Then, slowly, another voice uttered.

"How about I give the upper land a visit?"

"No, they are still not ready for us. Even with the changes, they still won't be able to accept that someone higher than them was living just below them. Let them be. After all, their ancient era had already rejected us."

"Yeah, I can still remember how they destroyed the pyramids of my cousin."

"Enough with it. I have a small idea that could be used. We already know that I have a memory of the future, but I didn't know what the purpose of that ability was. How about we form ourselves and have an appearance similar to that of humans? Mana was starting to get dense, which is a good season for us to enhance our shape-shifting abilities."

"Even though it is mediocre, it is still appreciated. Let's do it!"

It was just darkness, but in this place, under the crust of what humans knew, entities with unknown appearances were living happily. For them, days were just seconds, as they couldn't even feel boredom.

But, as these complex creatures knew everything, they didn't know one thing. They still didn't know their purpose in life or why their leader had the ability to regress time.

'I had become a human in the future and witnessed the end of the world. But, I still didn't know how I would survive humanity if they were like this.'

'Our goal was to ensure that they survived after awakening, but after witnessing their traits so many times, I couldn't tell what our goal had become.'

'I am starting to question why the core was still there and why do we need to keep both life forms alive and sacrifice ourselves.'

'Oh dear Founder of Earth, please enlighten me again and show me the purpose of our life.'