Chapter 1218: The Mastermind's Problem

A loud, heated voice suddenly broke the cemetery-like silence! The voice came from a public telephone in the airport.

“So it’s you…the Saint of Darkness who wanders the edge of the Realms. Such mysterious abilities…you should be “Bind”, the sixth in order. No wonder those three died in your hands! No wonder I couldn’t take away the life of your Divine Servant even with the power of my Gungnir!”

A skeleton suddenly climbed up from the ground. It spoke with a voice devoid of emotion while it’s lower jaw moved up and down.

“The Apostle Rocky. Your power grows fast. Your party should be a seeded party of your Realm. Why must you make enemies of us?”

“Your Divine Servant was the one who killed my core members! How dare you sling mud at us! Is the JFK Airport your private territory? Why can’t my people pass through this place?” Rocky retorted furiously.

“That’s just a replica, not even a real Divine Servant,” said Bind. “Your members’ bodies are full of filth. I’m here to clean this world, so I can’t allow any filth to enter. Your members weren’t just passing by; they initiated the fight due to their greed for the Evil Sword Apophis.”

“Lies! That’s just your side of the story!” Rocky’s voice from the phone appeared very angry. “Carlos, Razor and Taji also had valuable treasures on them. It’s obviously your Divine Servant who wanted to kill and rob them!”

Bind’s voice turned chilly. “I’m lying? Me, a Saint of Darkness? Would someone of my status deign to lie to a tiny little Apostle like you?

As soon as he said that, some noises suddenly came from a bathroom on the third floor of the lobby.

The water tank hanging on the wall had probably not undergone maintenance for a long time. A rusted screw fell down. As a result, the water tank that was filled with water came crashing down. It fell on a woman who was hiding in the bathroom, scared out of her wits.

The woman screamed in pain. Her dress was stuck under the water tank, so she could not run away. She struggled violently to free herself. Finally, she managed to push the water tank away to run away in terror. But the water tank she moved away was stuck there, the water in the pipe gushing out. The water slowly flowed to the side and came crashing down from the third floor to the ground floor, forming a water curtain.

“I know you can see the situation over here, so open your damn eyes wide and see who were the ones consumed by greed!” said Bind coldly.

Bind was obviously an extremely arrogant person and always viewed himself as superior to others. How could such a person stand being slandered? Images immediately appeared on the water curtain in the form of reflections. It was showing the previous conversation between Carlos, Razor, Taji and the Divine Servant.

Carlos, Razor, and Taji pretended to be persuaded and seemed like they were leaving when they suddenly attacked the Divine Servant, severely injuring him. Carlos even laughed and said that they had finally obtained a godly item like the Evil Sword Apophis. Then…Bind intervened.

Because the airport maintained large patches of grass lawns, especially in the non-runway areas, rats could often be seen here. The rats could not be completely eliminated; they would always pop up again afterwards. Therefore, it was normal to see a couple of rat holes in the lawns here.

The Divine Servant still fought tenaciously despite being badly wounded. He tried to avoid one of Taji’s attacks but it was obvious that he could not dodge in time. He took a step back and suddenly stepped into an abandoned rat hole. His body hence leaned back out of balance, barely avoiding Taji’s strike.

Why was this rat hole abandoned? It was because the ground here sunk down a little, so water would easily accumulate here when the lawn was watered. So when the Divine Servant stepped into the hole, mud splashed out from under his foot and shot towards the face of Razor who had only one good hand left. It instantly impaired Razor’s vision. Coupled with the fact that Carlos and Taji’s strikes just missed, a rare opening immediately showed itself!

The Divine Servant instantly lowered his body and rushed forward. He rammed his elbow heavily into Razor’s lower ribs. The sharp sounds of bones breaking could be heard. Razor’s broken ribs pierced into his organs. Before he could even scream, the sword Apophis in the hands of the Divine Servant shook slightly. A shadow flashed pass, stifling Razor’s scream in his throat! Razor could only make some gurgling noises with his eyes wide open.

His hands were grabbing the wound on his neck tightly. He let out a stifled groan, then started to spit out bubbles like a toad that was waking up from hibernation. The difference was that a toad spat white bubbles, while he spat blood bubbles.

The Divine Servant himself was injured after giving Razor a heavy blow. He immediately turned around and ran. Carlos and Taji were shocked and angered. They naturally refused to let him go. However, after they had chased him for over a hundred meters, large patches of white glows appeared on the water curtain. That indicated that Bind had personally descended.

Bind had no choice but to intervene. It would be hard for him to explain himself if something like the Evil Sword Apophis was lost. Plus, he had felt the fury of Noah Realm C when he attacked Sanzi, so he could only leave for the time being to avoid the Realm’s scanning.

That was why Sheyan sensed that the enemies had suddenly scattered like loose sand at the second half of the previous fight. That was why the mastermind had suddenly disappeared!

***

Sheyan and his party did not stay there for long because they had no intention of waiting for the FBI to invite them back to their headquarters for a cup of coffee. They went straight back to the base. Sheyan had previously applied for the ‘Non-Combatant Protection’ for Old Charlie, and yet he was still injured. This was probably because he housed Freddy inside his body now, so his threat level was judged to have exceeded the limit of the ‘Non-Combatant Protection’.

They finally plundered enough rare metals from this battle, so their plan could now progress. Their main mission had also been completed because of it.

[ Main Mission: ‘Collection’ ]

[ Mission Description: Obtain 5 kg of tritium, 700 g of uranium, 700 g of mercury, and 1,000 kg of rhodium in 72 hours. ]

[ Mission Hint: Everyone in this world isn’t fighting for their own sake anymore. Their fathers, mothers, relatives and friends were behind them, supporting their will to fight to the very end. Therefore, the intensity of the fights is likely beyond your imagination. Past friendships no longer matter. ]

[ You have successfully collected enough rare metals. ]

[ Please choose your reward for this stage: 3 achievement points + 3 potential points / 100,000 utility points.” ]

After some discussion, almost all of them choose the utility points in order to solve their current financial crisis. Only Zi, who was in urgent need to promote her military rank, chose the achievement points. The subsequent main mission soon appeared.

[ Main Mission: ‘Protection’! ]

[ The main mission of the rest of the contestants in the current stage is to assassinate various heads of state and key storyline characters in order to create chaos. Please try your best to protect the following key personnel. You will receive the corresponding mission points. ]

[ Jackson Curtis (author) – 30 points, Dr. Adrian Helmsley (chief science advisor to the U.S. President) – 30 points. ]

[ Charlie Frost (radio host and conspiracy theorist in possession of a map showing the arks’ location) – 20 points, Carl Anheuser (White House Chief of Staff, the fat man who will later become the acting commander-in-chief) – 20 points. ]

[ You can also get mission points by personally surveying and obtaining data from the following areas: ]

[ First-hand data of the Megaden Copper Mines, India: 10 points. ]

[ First-hand data of the bottom of the lake in Yellowstone National Park, USA: 10 points. ]

[ Temperature data 10,000 meters deep under the Mariana Trench: 10 points. ]

[ …… ]

[ The total score of your party must be no less than 100 points, or your mission will be deemed as a failure. ]

[ The higher your score, the better your mission evaluation. ]

[ Warning: At least one of Jackson Curtis and Dr. Adrian Helmsley must survive, or your mission will be deemed a failure no matter how high your score is. ]

[ Mission failure penalty: All the benefits you have gained in this world will be taken away. Your data will be restored to the state when you first enter this world. ]

***

[ Because you have chosen the Salvation side and have reached this stage, a new milestone has been unlocked. ]

[ New Milestone Unlocked: ‘The Great Collector’ ]

[ This milestone can only be triggered and accomplished in the apocalyptic world of 2012. ]

[ Attempt to collect the following precious, world-famous cultural heritages, and help them survive the 2012 apocalypse. ]

[ A: Peak Asian cultural works of art: “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” / “Ghost Valley Downhill” / “Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion” / “Heirloom Seal of the Realm” / “Ramayana Engraving” ]

(TL: I did my research: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Along_the_River_During_the_Qingming_Festival , https://bzdww.com/article/33866/ , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantingji_Xu , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_Seal_of_the_Realm , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana )

[ B: Peak European cultural works of art: “Mona Lisa” / “Venus de Milo” / “Winged Victory of Samothrace” / “Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross mounted with the Star of Africa”. ]

(TL: You can probably google these yourself. )

[ C: Peak African cultural works of art (including Egyptian relics): “Benin Ivory Mask” / “Rosetta Stone” / “Golden Coffin of Tutankhamun” / “Sphinx” / “Golden Contract Slate”. ]

[ B: Peak American cultural works of art: “Crystal Skull” / “Dagger of the Golden Priest” / “Eye of Quetzalcoatl” / “Indian Chief’s Fanged Mask” / “Ancestor Doll of the Voodoo Religion”. ]

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The milestone could be accomplished by a party or by a single person.

If it was done alone, the person would only need to collect one work of art from each continent, making it four in total, but the person could not use two or more works of art from the same continent to make up the total.

For example, if you got the “Along the River During the Qingming Festival”, the “Mona Lisa”, the “Sphinx”, and the “Crystal Skull”, you would complete the task. But if you got the “Along the River During the Qingming Festival”, the “Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion”, the “Sphinx”, and the “Crystal Skull”, you have not completed the task because even though you have four works of art, you lack one from European culture.

If it was done in a party, at least three cultural works of art from each continent must be collected.

The Realm had even revealed the properties of ‘The Great Collector’ title in order to entice Party Ace to accomplish this milestone:

[ ‘The Great Collector’ ]

[ Bronze-class title. ]

[ The holder of this title has proven their formidable strength and protected the treasures of human civilization. ]

[ The holder of this title will obtain the special effect of 10% increase in high-grade equipment drop rate and equipment strengthening success rate. ]

[ Using this title for synthesisation will definitely not result in failure. ]

***

Party Ace was moved seeing these two properties.

The benefit of 10% increase in high-grade equipment drop rate and equipment strengthening success rate goes without saying. And the guarantee of not failing if the title was used in a title synthesis was especially precious.

Sheyan had tried to synthesise several seemingly useless titles before, so he knew how difficult a process it was. The fact that one had to burn other titles to provide energy for the synthesisation process was hard to bear, and still, the success rate was unbelievably low. Even a monster like Sheyan dared not be rash in matters of title synthesis.

If Sheyan could get his hands on this title that guaranteed success in synthesisation, he would go all in and fuse several of his most important titles at one go. Although he would burn quite a number of titles by doing so, he would only need to do it once. Sheyan did not say anything, nor did he need to. Everyone else knew he would try to get this title at all costs.

After the previous battle, Sheyan had actually obtained two more titles:

[ ‘The Awakener Butcher’ ]

[ Iron-class title. ]

[ Condition: Kill ten Awakeners. ]

[ Effect: Damage done to Awakeners increased by 10%, damage received from Awakeners decreased by 10%. ]

***

[ ‘Sanitary Pad Friend’ ]

[ Hidden title, unable to evaluate. ]

[ Effect: The holder of this title will acquire a peculiar ability. When the title holder faces a contestant who is infected with the holder’s bronchitis disease and displaying the symptom of coughing blood, the holder can tell the infected person keywords such as “Tampax”, “Playtex” and “Sofy”. The symptom will immediately disappear and the disease will be eliminated. ]

(TL: I did the research for you. Those are all tampon brands.)

[ However, when the infected contestant hears the keyword, they will immediately be stunned for three seconds and will lose 10,000 utility points. The title holder will obtain 5,000 utility points. ]

[ The title holder can only take a maximum of 50,000 utility points from a contestant with this method. If the contestant did not have enough utility points, utility points would not be deducted. ]

[ The stun effect caused by Sanitary Pad Friend cannot be weakened or resisted. This effect has domain precedence. ]

***

When the legendary figures in the base saw that there were deaths among Party Ace too, a lot of them came over to offer their condolences and comforting words.

Although every faction in their alliance had suffered deaths, but at least they did so fighting for themselves and their loved ones. On the other hand, Party Ace had willingly take part in this mess in order to save them. There was a great difference between the two.

Sheyan could not take his mind off the mastermind. He knew that this time, the mastermind had likely come to this world personally, so the best chance to kill him was in this world of 2012.

KD was a wise tactician who was really good at psychology. He could calculate Sheyan’s actions like he could read Sheyan’s mind. That’s why, even when he knew he was going to die, he still forcefully told Sheyan how to locate the mastermind. Sheyan could only sigh at how delicate and vicious KD’s mind was.

Whenever two tigers fight, at least one would be gravely wounded. Regardless of whether it was Sheyan or the mastermind who died, KD would still have achieved his revenge.

There was no reason for Sheyan not to make use of the power and social network of the legendary figures by his side. He told them that the people who were trying to correct the course of history had arrived, and his companion had died in their hands.

Sheyan did not say too much, but when the native legendary figures heard the words “correct the course of history”, their killing intent were obvious. Even the mild Professor X had a murderous air about him after killing a number of people in the past few days.

According to history, their families and them would all be dead in the 2012 apocalypse, so they had to change history. Those people dare to come to correct history?

They thus spared no effort to help collect information and search for the whereabouts of the other contestants.

But their main focus was still in protecting the base. Now that they have enough materials, they could shrink the defensive perimeter and focus on defence. Many of them bitterly regretted letting the previous attack on the base happen, so the base defence now had become as solid as gold. In addition, Professor X and Jean could take shifts now. Therefore, even though the base suffered many high-intensity attacks afterwards, the loss they actually sustained was minimal.

Dr. Octopus’s talent was now fully on display. The project he presided over finally had an abundance of raw materials; all his needs could be fulfilled. Furthermore, the survival of his family was obviously a great motivation for him. It was for these reasons that he actually managed to produce an entire airship formation according to their design in four days.

The seven behemoths looked just like floating islands when they drifted in the sky. In order to not get discovered, they only ascended about seven or eight meters above the ground, but even so, they were already quite the amazing sight. If it weren’t because of the approaching apocalypse, they would surely have attracted the attention of the authorities.

Seven floating giant ships joined together had provided additional buoyancy. After a few rounds of testing and calculations, if the ships only had to fly for two months, the number of people that could be carried exceeded their previously most optimistic estimate by more than 20%. According to the final calculations, if all of them worked overtime until the day of the apocalypse, they could build a total of 52 airships, forming seven airship formations!

This level of productivity sounded shocking, but it was in fact due to the social environment in this world to some extent. Airship technology started in World War 2. It had been nearly a hundred years since then, so the various manufacturing processes and technologies had fully matured. In addition, they also had legendary figures helping in the manufacturing with powers that were beyond science. Hence, they only needed to make breakthroughs in a few key aspects, and the production would progress smoothly.

While in New York for the past few days, Party Ace had focused on searching for relevant information while paying attention to the movement of their target. They knew that the mastermind was still here, hidden in the dark like a thorn in their backs, so they had to be careful.

Party Ace discussed among themselves and agreed that the opponents could probably guess their main mission, so they decided to achieve only the bare minimum of the requirements to make sure they would not fail the mission.

On the other hand, ‘The Great Collector’ milestone was worth trying.

The opponents did not know the specific list of treasures they had to collect, so it would be really difficult for them to wait in ambush. Although Party Ace had lost a member, Sheyan and Reef succeeded in breaking through, and they had also obtained a lot of equipment from the enemies. Their strength could be said to be even slightly higher than before.

The element of surprise was key in an ambush. Now that the enemies had already ambushed Party Ace once, Party Ace were already on high alert. The next time the enemies tried to ambush them again, it would inevitably not work very well. It would be even more difficult if Party Ace stuck together.

The mastermind would probably find it very hard to gather people to besiege Party Ace again after ten lives were lost to Sheyan’s hands. Those who could become Awakeners were no fools. No matter how attractive the reward was, they had to be alive to enjoy it!

***

The first thing to accomplish with regards to the main mission was without a doubt to get either one of Jackson Curtis or Dr. Adrian Helmsley to their side. If anything were to befall them, Sheyan and Reef would have to pay a heavy price.

It was no longer a matter of utility points, mission points, or equipment. If they were restored to their condition when they first stepped into this world….they would turn back into Growth Hunters again! They had finally managed to break through to Awakeners after so much hardship. If they lost that, they would not be able to bear it.

But some things could not be rushed. No matter how hard Party Ace searched for news of Jackson Curtis and Dr. Adrian Helmsley, they could find nothing useful. The only news of the former was that he had left on a holiday, while there were no news on the latter at all (the White House’s ark project was led by Dr. Helmsley). This could only mean that the Realm did not wish for them to be found yet.

As the apocalypse approached, more and more news started leaking. There would occasionally be some well-informed people who would come to them to enquire after noticing the abnormalities in their base.

According to the idea of six degrees of separation, it was in fact not hard for one to get in touch with someone in the base. More and more people came to them to try and buy a “pirated” ark ticket.

With regards to these people, their alliance would take them in as long as they were healthy, had a field of expertise, and could pass Professor X’s examination. Driven by this common interest, the forces of the base began to expand. As for the authorities, they chose to turn a blind eye to the base’s actions. It was now a critical transitional period, so maintaining stability was of the utmost importance to them. As long as Sheyan’s alliance did not publicly announce the coming of the apocalypse, did not cause chaos within society, and did not force a direct confrontation with the authorities, they could be tolerated.