Chapter 320: World's Will

Chapter 320: World's Will

Plateau Zero was an anomaly. This was an established fact, and much more so, considered the way it had been altered. Its overall size was nothing compared to other Plateaus. Unlike them, it had a finite boundary.

"{Well, we talked about Nebulas recently, haven't we?}" Fray remarked amusingly as Rakna stood up after having been disoriented by the transfer. Already, he felt heavy and sick. He could feel that so many of his abilities were inaccessible to him as if they were shackled; but not inexistent.

Briefly pulling his attention away from his condition, he couldn't help but admire his surroundings which first started with his direct vicinity; a worn-down cross-road with lanes made of steel. The buildings followed the same pattern; dirty, metallic, rusty, but very electrically equipped.

Steam and smoke filled the air about five meters up and once you actually bent your neck to look up, a confounding sight would be presented to you. There was no sky. Just an inverted city of metal.

The whole Plateau was a sphere with inverted gravity. The curve on the horizon went up instead of down, so you could simply see the city rise, curve, and then hang above your head with a large sphere of metal affixed in the center, connected to the city's grounds through several columns.

"I believe this is what they call cyberpunk," Hans commented as he appeared next to him, brushing the dust off his shoulders and seemingly impassive to the lack of System. "You and your armor fit perfectly in here."

Rakna moved his eyes away from the upturned city and snorted. "Maybe."

"{Wait, I'm more concerned about something else,}" Nyx spoke up, this time using her soul instead of mana to communicate with him. "{Femme Fatale? Really?}" She asked dumbfounded. "{Did you truly add that to your status?}"

The therian's expression twitched under the mask. He groaned half-heartedly, "I did not."

"{Huh? Then how?}"

"It... popped up naturally sometime after I had finished designing the fake status."

"{Are you telling me that...?}"

"Yes," he replied with a grunt. "It's a genuine title the System gave me after I lured those men and killed them," he grumbled and a snort sounded from the side. He scowled at Hans who outwardly appeared as callous as usual. "Did you just laugh?"

"Yes," the author responded and then froze again. His eyes darkened and he glared at the sword hanging from the fake woman's belt. "I despise this weapon of yours," he spat.

"Good to know it still works as intended," Rakna fired back and then looked around. He narrowed his eyes at a few groups of people who were pointing and laughing at them. "Let's move to a place more isolated," he said and started walking.

"Do you even know where to go?" Hans questioned.

"Don't worry," his answer was immediate. Eye of Symphony activating beneath Scherzo. "I know everything I need about this Plateau already."

"...of course, you do."

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"Presumably, people here don't care about stuff like this," Rakna added and walked to the window of their room. He looked out, down at the streets where he could hear conflict. Then, barely a few seconds after watching, he saw someone getting stabbed. "It's to be expected," he uttered and went to take a seat even as gunshots echoed outside.

"We have two targets; Bora Quaso and the Terminal. We kill the former and access the latter."

"So, the issue is finding them," Hans summarized. "Without magic, it would be difficult. Unless you have already triangulated a probable search zone?"

"Sort of. I don't know about the Terminal. So, our best shot is to find Bora Quaso and interrogate him directly," Rakna replied and crossed his arms, emphasizing his current body's chest. Even Nyx had to clear her throat and look away while he continued.

"I have no idea where the guy lives. But as luck would have it, he spends a lot of time at the Arena and he's apparently sexually promiscuous. So, with Undertaker's little VIP ticket in hand, the best course of action is to participate in the fighting games and catch his attention. I only need to meet him alone... and then he should be dead without much trouble."

Hans raised an eyebrow, half-sarcastically, and half-amused. "Truly? It seems everything is being set up in your favor. What a boon."

Nyx couldn't help but giggle. "We should thank Kaelith and Higure when we're done. If they hadn't goaded you into donning this appearance, things might have worked out much slower. Even that man, Treiber, seemed to give you preferential treatment just for your 'beauty' alone," she said with a mirthful smile.

Rakna clicked his tongue at that. "Don't rub it in."

"So, you are joining the Arena," Hans put the conversation back on its trail. "What about us? Do we follow you?"

"No... I want you to gather information. Nyx, shadows can make you near-undetectable, so it would be best if you could trail Bora outside of the Arena when I can't. Find out his daily trajectories and then relay them back to me. Also, see if you can profile his bodyguards."

The goddess nodded in understanding and then Rakna turned toward Hans.

"As for you, your Cursive Insight is our key to discovering this Plateau's secrets. First, help Nyx find out the bodyguard's capabilities when she deems it optimal, and when you're on your own, I want you to search for the location of the Terminal and... see if you can find any trace of the Nine-Tailed Scorpions or the creatures of the Abyss."

Hans scowled. "The bugs and the pests? Why?" He inquired and Nyx sweatdropped at the terms.

"Kratos is an organization led by Bora. That's what Eva has come to learn," Rakna replied. "But she also has intel that the Scorpions. As for the Abyss... I have my doubts. Fang was a vampire, and he was far too involved in this Plateau for to be normal."

"If I had to be honest, I'd say Bora is a smokescreen; a figurehead. Think about it. How did that guy come out of nowhere, with apparently no talent or power, and hijack control of Plateau Zero so thoroughly? Not to mention that I fought a vampire a while back, who was part of Kratos."

"So, you are saying that the real danger is not Kratos itself, but the furtive forces who potentially built it," the author nodded in understanding. "And? Do you intend to fight them?"

"No, I want to avoid them. If my hunch is right, Bora will be an easy target to kill. But I will probably be hunted down afterward. At the very least, I want to be aware of the ones capable of doing that before it comes to it."

Hans and Nyx looked at each other before acquiescing simultaneously.

"Before we go, Nyx, I have a question I forgot to ask you before."

"What is it?"

Rakna narrowed his eyes. "For how long do you think you can maintain your Twilight Dimension on a night of Full Moon?"