Child of Destiny

Pssh!

Shin climbed out of his gaming cabin and fell into deep thought. He had been training under Cecil within the game for almost a week already (real-world time), yet he still had yet to fully comprehend the secret behind her mysterious abilities.

He only knew that she always disappeared in an instant and erased her presence, which made his lost track of her completely.

Other than that, he could not find anything else.

“The complete disappearance and erasing of her presence are one thing, but how can she erase her killing intent all the time?” he mumbled, still wondering about this matter.

This was the only thing that troubled him until now. He could still exchange for quite a few minutes against Cecil in normal circumstances, but whenever she disappeared and entered that mysterious state, he was unable to do anything against her.

Death was the only outcome whenever she used this card against Shin.

Even up until now, Shin was unable to find any answer to this problem despite always focusing his mind and senses during their exchanges.

“This can’t go on,” he then shook his head before asking. “I guess I can only ask for some insights from others.”

The others were out of question since they were not familiar with this area.

Moreover, Arthur and Leonard seemed to have finally found a way to escape from the inheritance dungeon with Lawrence’s help, who had been successfully rescued from the hands of the Black-Market Organization.

Shin had yet to meet this person since he had been brought by the Springfield Forces straight to their headquarters for further protection and a bit of questioning.

Lawrence knew that he still held a lot of information in him, so he understood why the Springfields put a lot of importance on this matter.

He first thought that the Springfields were just using the pretext of ‘protecting’ him to put him under their custody and get what they wanted.

However, aside from basic information, the Springfields did not force him to give anything else.

He still felt a little uncomfortable in the headquarters of the Springfield Forces, but he understood that it was meant to protect him well, so he could not do much against it.

Moreover, Arthur repeatedly reassured him that there was nothing much to worry about, so he just had to follow the arrangements that the Springfield Family had prepared just for him before he could regain his freedom.

…

Shin could only think of asking some elders for some advice on his current predicament within the game.

He first thought of General Samuel and Nathan, but swiftly disregarded the idea after remembering something.

Heard that Nathan fought against an extremely powerful powerhouse from the Black Serpent Mafia during the operation, which pushed him toward the next step toward the Transcendent Realm.

Even if it was just a half-step toward that boundary, it was already huge enough to make a difference.

After all, the members of the Elders’ Council, like Professor Plum, Grandmaster Benn, General Samuel, and the others, were currently in this realm, the half-step Transcendent Realm.

The elders had various reasons for not being able to fully take that final step, such as being heavily injured by something, lacking the perfect method to cross the final barrier, or being less talented and too old for it.

Nathan was different from all of them. He was extremely talented and effectively hardworking. He was also completely healthy without any hidden injuries, so he was not having the same problems as they were.

Along with the unique methods and powerful martial arts of the Springfield Family, taking this final step would not be a problem.

After all, the Springfield Family had effectively produced multiple Transcendent Realm Martial Artists already, so they were extremely familiar with this situation.

Nathan was currently consolidating his gains from the last battle, so General Samuel re-assumed the Supreme Commander of their forces once again and was currently overseeing all their operations for the time being.

With the current situation, Shin could only ask for some advice from his other elders. Unfortunately, his Martial Arts Master and Mentalism Teacher were currently busy once again due to the series of events that happened these last few weeks.

…

Looking at the time, Shin saw that it was still early for his usual training time. However, he still got up and went to do his morning routine, planning to head to the academy earlier than the others.

He wanted to consult Professor Henry about his current predicament within the game.

The classes had resumed for quite some time already, and today was meant for department classes and activities, so he could ask some seniors about this matter.

Professor Henry also happened to be available today as well, so he could guide everyone from the Research Department later.

“I can also ask some advice from Brother Vincent and Brother Jerimiah as well when they log back into the game later as well,” he mumbled.

***

Magic Ace Academy, Research Department.

All the members of the Research Department were currently gathered in the conference room, which somehow did not look like one due to the broken furniture and collapsed walls.

Every time Shin saw such a scene, he could not help but heave a helpless sigh, unable to believe that this was one of the main departments of the academy, which also happened to be the main headquarters of the Sleeping Dragons, an elite club.

Of course, this was just the outer appearance of the department.

After all, the secret labs and training rooms underneath were highly advanced and extreme on their own right, which would not lose even when compared with the facilities of the World Research Center.

However, having such an appearance during important meetings like this was still quite uncomfortable.

The others did not mind since they were already used to it, but Shin still could not bring himself to ‘reach’ their level.

Looking around, Shin found that there were only a few members present, even though it was one of the rare times when Professor Henry gave his lectures.

Aside from the ones that he was most familiar with, such as Dayna, Benedict, Rock, Dominic, Selena, and Mahon, the others seemed to be not keen to attend such lectures.

However, after putting some thought into it, he also found it quite reasonable since most of these seniors were always away and regularly sent out of the academy for special missions.

The others could also get some personal guidance from the professor from time to time, and they could also train underground whenever they needed it, so attending such lectures was not that important.

As for the group gathered here, they were the ones who were staying within the academy most of the time, particularly Mahon, who always treated this place as some sort of dorm.

Benedict was Professor Henry’s assistant, while Dayna had some duties that she needed to deal with within the academy since she was the named president of the club.

Rock, on the other hand, was a muscle training junkie, so he was always in the training room whenever he did not have anything to do.

As for Selena, she was someone that Shin would never figure out. She always did whatever she wanted out of whim.

She also always wanted to tease him whenever she found a chance, which was why Shin was quite uncomfortable around her.

He first thought of asking her for some advice regarding assassination techniques, especially when her methods were unique as well.

However, when he thought about her teasing him further, he immediately disregarded such an idea.

…

While waiting, Shin recalled the events that happened not too long ago. “Senior Benedict, how’s Wade these days? I rarely see him online as well.”

Benedict thought for a moment before replying. “He should be fine. The professor is taking care of him after the incident.”

“He just can’t leave the facility for quite a while because he is being targeted by some annoying people, which is why he also does not have any access to any gaming cabin.”

“But he should be clear after a couple of days,” he added, reassuring Shin that everything would be fine.

Shin heard that it was quite a huge operation, especially concerning quite a lot of spies that had been booted out, particularly the ones with higher authority.

Even though most of these spies were just tails that had been cut off by the higher-ups of their respective organizations, taking them was still quite huge.

They chatted idly for quite a while until Professor Henry entered the room.

The professor ignored the current state of the conference room, seemingly already used to such a scene, not minding it at all.

He just walked straight to the still intact platform and started his lecture. “Last time, I discussed the energy convergence, so I will be teaching you about the process of conversion this time.”

“Let’s start with a brief review for now and differentiate the classification of energies first.”

…