Child of Destiny

……

Not only were the Elders’ Council the ones who were conducting a serious meeting regarding the big incident that had happened just earlier.

The forces that were directly involved had even placed utmost importance on this incident, particularly the Deep Blue Continent and Clear Sky Continent, which were the ones that suffered the most due to it.

In response, the unrest that the ongoing war between the top forces of the Soaring Continent and the Black Serpent Mafia and their allies had caused suddenly calmed down.

The forces of the Soaring Continent had no other choice, especially when the old monsters who were standing at the pinnacle of the world’s powers were involved.

The World Government and the Shadow Alliance, which are supposed to be the leading organizations in their respective group, seemed to have come up with a tacit agreement as well.

They set aside their respective conflicts for a moment, focusing on dealing with the current situation at hand.

The World Government contacted all the local governments of each nation, summoning their leaders for the first world conference in a long time, while the Shadow Alliance did a similar thing for all the biggest underworld organizations based on the Dark Continent.

Everyone knew that this incident would cause an even bigger wave throughout the world, so they all had to be prepared for it.

…

However, while the older generations were busy dealing with this issue, those from the younger generation went back to their respective lives.

After all, it was the tallest people of the world who would hold up the sky first when the heavens collapsed for everyone.

Shin and the others did not know that a huge incident had shaken the entire world aside from the supposedly war between the top forces.

However, another issue had come knocking on their door when they were still recovering from the previous operation that they had gone through.

The game servers of «Destiny’s Fate» Online were about to become available once again. The servers would be up in just a couple of days.

Because their elders repeatedly emphasized that this game was not simple and involved a big secret, Shin and the others put more serious thoughts into it.

This time, they were no longer playing just for fun. They now had to consider looking for the clues about these so-called secrets and fighting the experts that the other forces had sent to join the game.

Given the latest update of the game, people with high attainments in their respective disciplines would be joining the game, such as those Void Manifestation Stage Martial Artists, Ruler’s Realm Mentalists, and Swordmasters.

Most of them would be much older than Shin and the rest of the geniuses from the younger generation. They would most likely be battle-hardened veterans with vast experience.

In the meantime, Shin, who knew a bit more about these so-called secrets, would have to constantly look for the clues that would point him to the true secret that his parents had hidden in the game.

Even though he could not actively look for them since he would most likely arouse the suspicions of some people, he was still free to look for certain clues so long as he acted that it was just some regular quest from the game.

However, he was also unaware of what the right clues were that he needed to follow, so he had to carefully and thoroughly investigate every quest that he would encounter from now on.

“Speaking of quests and clues, I guess it is better to ask Molton about the history of the world within ’Destiny’s Fate» Online,” mumbled Shin before adding. “I heard that he has already become a Grand Scholar of the Royal Library of the Divine Empire. Maybe I should start asking him for some materials that I can use when looking for those clues.”

He was currently sitting right before his computer, browsing through the game forums and looking for interesting topics, while waiting for the servers to be opened once again.

He just finished accompanying his mother and barely escaped from her.

He could say that he had a relatively relaxing time these past few days compared to before. After all, his daily schedule circulated between his regular training and sparring with the others, accompanying his mother while also cooking some meals and preparing snacks for her in between.

He did not have to worry about any kind of mission or special operations given to them, especially given the current situation. They could not even leave the household while waiting for the situation to settle down a little, much less do more of such dangerous missions.

Aside from being annoyed by Arthur from time to time and playing with Laura, who was also brought back to the household for safety reasons, he did not have to worry about dealing with any troublesome situations.

“Coincidentally, the game servers will be up a week from now, which happens to be the same as the estimated day that we are supposed to come back to the academy,” mumbled Shin while browsing through the official website of the game.

He was currently checking if any interesting updates could pique his interest.

At the same time, he was also reading through the quests and historical backgrounds of the game, looking for possible clues.

Naturally, this would take him quite a long time if he read through them one by one, especially when there were a lot of historical backgrounds recorded on the website.

They might not be as deep and detailed as the ones recovered in the books within the libraries of the game, but they could at least provide him with decent information.

The only problem was that he did not know what exactly he was looking for.

Aside from the vast lore recorded here for the game, there was also the other information that his father had inputted in the mix, which was also about real treasures and ruins of the real world.

He must admit that such an idea was quite clever of them.

While browsing, he suddenly came across a certain topic that piqued his interest. “The Secret Realms?”

Seeing the title, Shin suspected that it must be about the different worlds that the players in the main servers meant to discover and unlock.

While having such thoughts, he was about to click on it when an idea suddenly struck him. “Wait-… realms?”

“A realm-… a world-…” he repeatedly mumbled these words, seemingly trying to figure out something.

It was right at the tip of his tongue, which he felt would lead him to what he was looking for.

“A realm-… a plane-… a world-… a different world-… That’s right! Each of these worlds has its own history! They should also have unique historical backgrounds and rules of heaven in them!”

“Just like the difference between the ’Hell’ and the Atlas World! There is also that mysterious world in the Abyss Brink that Commander Longinus has mentioned when I am taking the trails set by the Mysterious Instructors!”

“What if one or more of these worlds or realms are a reflection of the real world, or at least a place which had the setting of our world or the previous era!?”

The more Shin thought about this, the more convinced he became about it. After all, this was the most reasonable setting that he could think of when putting these ’clues’ within the game.

“For other people, these worlds can only be one of the clues that will point them to the treasures and inheritances that the previous era had left behind.”

“But for me, who knows more about it, such places are the perfect place to ’set’ an independent world that has our history without arousing any suspicion.”

Thinking about this, Shin knew that he was currently on the right path. “This may lead me to just one of those clues, but I at least have a direction to follow now.”

With that, Shin started browsing through the different realms posted on the official website of the game and skimmed through their respective backgrounds.

Even though he knew that not all of them would be released after the current update, learning about them ahead of time would always be helpful.

Who knew if he could stumble upon a certain clue about them within the game?

…

At the same time, somewhere in the Eastern Sea Region of the Soaring Continent, a certain group was currently having a secret gathering.

This group seemed to be divided into two smaller groups, which represented the respective organizations behind them.

One of the group was the said Three Kings of the East of the Magic Ace Academy, the trio of Jean Camus, Thomas Brooks, and Simone Bartholomeo.

Right across the trio was Diel Hendirckson and Falcon Hawkins, who were from the same class at the opposing party and Shin’s group.

“Why do you want to meet us, Diel? From what I know, we never have a good relationship with one another,” said Jean while squinting his eyes.

Diel grinned widely when he heard that, but did not immediately respond. He waited for quite a while before opening his mouth. “Don’t play dumb. I know that you are aware of my other identity now, just like how I learn about yours.”

Jean narrowed his eyes a bit further but did not make any move. He patiently waited for the other party to reveal their intention first before deciding what to do.

Diel naturally knew what Jean was thinking, so he stopped beating around the bush and went straight to the point. “Let’s team up.”

“Both here in the real world and inside the game,” he added, clarifying his intentions.

…