'Why are there no other sentient beings in this entire area? Surely I would have come across a Red Demon or Human or two by now, but nothing? Really?'
It didn't add up for Alex.
All he had encountered so far were some random unawakened animals just grazing the land.
Nothing sentient, or awakened like beasts, had ever crossed into his range.
It was like this area was purposely rid of all things like that.
'Perhaps this area was set up to lure people into investigating here, thinking that this was the real area where those drop pods had disappeared, when in reality it could be somewhere on the complete opposite side of the Planet...'
Alex began piecing things together bit by bit, and he felt like he was getting closer to the truth of things.
His main theory which he was 80% sure was true, was that this 500 kilometre radius was purposely set up to show absolutely zero clues whatsoever, so that when investigators came, or lone awakened like Alex, they would find nothing and give up on this investigation.
It would be the perfect plan to throw a spanner in the works of this search for the missing drop pods, except for the fact that the place was so barren of any other sentient life.
It had clearly been cleared beforehand, which only worked against whoever had set it up.
Alex wouldn't have questioned the validity of this area being the right location if it weren't for the fact that the scenario was weird as soon as he landed.
And if Alex could notice it, then surely any official investigators the federation sent would notice it much easier as well.
Either this place was set up to only work as a decoy for so long, or the people behind this were just incompetent.
Either way, Alex didn't care.
He knew he was looking in the wrong place, so all that mattered was that he extended his search.
Standing at the periphery of the 500 kilometre radius, Alex could already see the difference between the environment inside and outside of the range.
Around 18 kilometres away from his location, a battle was going on between 5 human awakened and a group of Red Demons.
This was the first sign of sentient life he had met on this Planet, despite it being one of the hottest spots for war in this entire star system.
His theory was practically confirmed the moment he scanned and sensed that battle.
Though he didn't plan on going over to help or anything like that, as he had much more important things to tend to. Enjoy new stories from m-v l'e|-novelhall.net
The life of five awakened he didn't even know wasn't worth nearly as much as Mira's to him.
Besides, from what he saw, they looked to be doing just fine on their own anyway.
He couldn't remember the guy's name, because he simply didn't care enough to, but he recognised the face of the leader of the five humans to be the Student ranked second on the overall rankings at Capital Prime.
He was probably in a similar realm of strength as Alex.
'Time to move on from this place then.'
Ignoring the battle, Alex readied himself, positioning himself so he could better launch off the ground.
After he had discovered the plans for the Planet buster, Alex knew that the Red Demons couldn't be trusted no matter what.
If some day they surrendered, Alex wouldn't believe that for a second.
Them surrendering would certainly be some sort of setup for a trojan horse attack like the Greeks did to the Trojans back in the ancient days of Earth.
A few minutes later, Alex zeroed in on the location where the Floodgate was.
He could spot the huge portal floating ominously in the forest almost immediately after his arrival.
The trees on this planet were big, like 500 metres tall type big.
But this Floodgate was even bigger.
It had to be at least 4 times taller than even the tallest trees nearby, with it being wider than an entire patch of the forest.
Clearly there were some big beasts that were coming out of this Floodgate, which Alex wasn't so surprised about considering it was a B tier Floodgate.
But there was a certain stillness in the air that was barely detectable, which Alex only caught because he was in a constantly heightened state of awareness the whole time.
His finely attuned spatial element which had become much easier to spot and control after reaching C tier was sending him warning signs.
'This space was locked not too long ago...'
If he were still a lowly D+ rank, Alex wouldn't have spotted this, so it was good timing that he ranked up before coming to this system to investigate.
'Unless Admiral Olgierd and the other big shots have been hiding some sort of technology from us, this has to be the work of the Red Demons.'
Other than a very strong talent wielded by a very strong user, this could only be the work of some sort of advanced technology.
And considering the Red Demons had thousands of years of more time to develop in the space age than the human race, Alex placed his bets on this technology being used by the Red Demons.
It almost sounded cliché for him to blame the clear enemy of the human race for every negative clue he found, but it was just that obvious to him.
The federation didn't have the capabilities to unleash such a spatial lock, as far as he was aware, which only really left one culprit.
It was just that simple.
The effects of the spatial lock were still slightly lingering in the area as well, as Alex felt his spatial perception become restricted the moment he entered the vicinity of the Floodgate.
His range shrunk drastically, falling to just 200 metres, a massive drop considering his normal range was 20 kilometres...
And just as he neared the Floodgate, a spear flew in and struck the ground in front of him, preventing him from moving any further.
"I wouldn't try that if I were you, human."
The voice at the other end of the spear wasn't human.
"Bold of you to come into this area, and so arrogantly waltz up to a B tier Floodgate like that. You must either have a death wish, or have confidence in your own ability."
The Red Demon commander of this System paused.
"Which one is it?"