“Yes. What did you feel?” Someone asked from behind.

Victor turned to find a pair of silvery eyes staring at him. A black mask conceal his face and he was in a black and white costume that looked like leather armor. He was also wearing a heavy coat and a wide three-point hat. Victor silently cursed. He knew this hero. He is a tactician, a strategist, and widely known as the best investigator on Nexus. He was also the leader of the Fraternity of Heroes.

Moon Protector.

Victor stilled before one of the most influential heroes on Nexus. Moon Protector was staring at him, and Victor willed himself not to break. As he returned the stare, Victor tried to think of a way to get out of this mess.

He could tell the truth.

He could just tell everyone the connection he felt with the monsters, but why should he? As a follow mystic martial artist, the Old Man of Pui would be interested, but Victor did not want to give it out for free. Also, the connection would not help in fighting the monsters. The connection gave Victor a general sense of where the monsters were, but that is hardly a concern when they are planning to attack the Gap itself. As the maps and photos showed, the whole valley was filled with monsters so telling Central Command was not a priority.

Victor mentally nodded.

He was a villain. He was here to fight, to enhance his reputation, and to keep his son-in-law safe. None of which could be done by giving out free useless information. Worse, Central Command may force him off the front-lines if they believe his information was worth protecting. He needs to avoid that. The question was how.

Then, Victor remembered his current position. He was a mysterious mystic martial artist that had popped up out of nowhere. A mystic full of secrets and mystery. Victor guessed it was time to be mysterious.

“You are Moon Protector, right?” Victor asked firmly while glaring at the hero. “You were saying something?”

As he expected, Victor’s attempt at intimidation fell flat. Moon Protector had faced things far worse than him. “You said you felt something when fighting these monsters. What did you feel?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing that would affect the fighting.” Victor waved at the Old Man of Pui while maintaining his stare, “My follow mystic might be interested in what I have to say, but it is not relevant to the matter at hand.”

“Why don’t you tell us and let us decide that.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“No.”

“What do you mean by ‘No’?” The mask totally covered his face, but Victor would swear that Moon Protector was grinding his teeth in anger as he spoke.

“No.” Victor glanced over to the Old Man of Pui. “Some secrets are not offered for free.”

Moon Protector’s silver eyes narrowed. “You want to be paid? We are in an Emergency, and you are looking for-”

“Gentlemen!” The Old Man of Pui spoke, prompting both Victor and Moon Protector to turn and face him. “I believe what Master Fist is saying is that some information could only be understood by people who practice the Arts. Master Fist do not wish to…confuse the situation with irrelevant information.”

“That's not what it sounds like to me.” Moon Protector scoffed.

The Old Man of Pui nodded in response. “If the information is relevant, I shall inform Central Command about it.”

The meaning was clear. The old man was asking Moon Protector to let him handle the matter. The leader of the Fraternity of Heroes turned back to face Victor, who returned the stare right back at him. The two were now facing down each other. Both kept up their unwavering facades, and all Victor could think of was regretting the fact that no one was taking any picture. If Candice was here, she would immediately snap a photo and paste it over every newspaper and social media site in the world. News channels would report about how he almost came to blows with the leader of a superpower and the rights to the image would make probably him a multi-millionaire. It would also make his agent famous. After what happened at the photo shoot, Victor had been thinking of ways to give his agent some gift for all her hard work.

“If I discover that you were withholding information, you and I are going to have another talk. One that will be much less pleasant.” Moon Protector finally said before turning his back to Victor and walking away. Victor kept his eye on him, while letting out a breath of relief.

“He is right, you know.” The Old Man of Pui whispered to Victor. “If you have information, you can just share it. Central Command would compensate you for it.”

“I have less need for money than information." Victor kept a relaxed expression and whispered back to the veteran mystic martial artist. “I shall tell you some of mine if you tell me some of yours.”

“You expect me to tell you the secrets of my Arts?” The Old Man was clearly bemused by this. “Well, you’re not the first-“

“Not for free, and not everything.” Victor quickly said. “I won’t tell you everything either, but enough to point each other in the direction we are taking. Let’s call it ‘exchanging pointers’.”

The Old Man of Pui had a surprised, and intrigued, look. Victor let the old man think about the proposal, but he had no doubt the old mystic would agree. The proposal was too tempting.

Victor got the idea from the stories Reunion told him about cultivation worlds. Cultivators do not give out their techniques for free. They exchange them, and even then, cultivators keep the most important part of their techniques. The System had been surprised when Victor understood the practice. To Victor, it was like two companies exchanging business technology. No one truly expect the companies to give everything, that would be bad business, but they gave enough to satisfied the spirit of the agreement and that was what Victor wanted.

According to Reunion, the practice of exchanging information was so prevalent cultivators even had a term for it; ‘exchanging pointers’. There was no reason why mystic martial artists on Nexus could not do the same.

“Well?” Victor finally asked and he was very glad to see a small nod from the old man. Moon Protector finally reached the podium at the far end of the room and turned to face the assembled heroes and villains.

“Welcome everyone. I am Moon Protector, the leader of this operation. Before we set off, I want to brief everyone on what we need to do.”