Chapter 38

Seeing the altar working in front of the group, Chang immediately took charge, pushing the others far away from the altar, and bringing in his security detail to isolate the area. This did not go over well, as the group of influencers began complaining, and threatening to band together, and, “cancel him.” The big, six foot four Chinese man did not seem fazed at all though, as he continued to stare into every section of the altar, memorizing every inch, and piece of the altar, along with its glyph’s. What he didn’t know, was that the moment he came within reading distance, or observed the altar at all, the altar would, and did, change the glyphs: for his personality, degree of selfishness, wavelengths, and madness within. Giving up on fully understanding and memorizing the altar, Chang reset, and moved his thoughts towards the bigger, current problems at hand, calming everyone down, and salvaging their professional relationships.

He was able to turn the group’s minds from their anger and bitterness from his betrayal, and began leading them through a conversation about their rights as the treasures hunters and owners, and how they would all be rich soon. This actually worked quite well, until his plan was derailed by the most unlikely person. Chang’s plot was shut down, by the smallest, youngest, and most innocent looking girl of the group. This young lady was named Hua Jing, and she came on the expedition on accident. She was initially walking to her class in college, when a group sat down next to her, as she was getting her morning coffee, and began speaking of treasures, intrigue, danger, and even mystery. Once one of the men in the group began speaking to her, and she found that anyone could follow along with the group, and would be protected by the large group of guards, and off duty police, she decided to, and even begged to, tag along. However, right now she knew she couldn’t keep silent anymore, “If the treasure is real, then then shouldn’t guardian must be real as well?”

Thinking of the implications, everyone began scanning the surroundings, seeing nothing and no one around the area. Everyone was aware of how terrifying the guardian was, even through the camera, he appeared massive. After the initial video of the man was streamed, there were a few people who watched the video of the man standing and speaking, and took measurements from normal objects in the video, and measured them against the man, stating, with fairly decent certainty, that man was at least eight foot four, and could weigh four hundred, to seven hundred pounds. The tallest man in history, was only eight foot eleven, and weighed four hundred and fifty five pounds. Despite the guardian being slightly smaller than that man, he was much stockier, and seemed able to function at or above normal capacity. This in itself was terrifying, as a man that large, and big being able to function like a normal human, would make him able to do some terrifying things. Discussing our options, Chang suddenly interrupted the group, asking, “Where is Johnny?”

Finally escaping from the group, I dropped off the grid, as they were arguing about Changs bullying at the altar. This was not the reason I came here. Calling out somewhat softly, and afraid to alert my former colleagues once I made my way far enough not to be heard, I began searching the area for the guardian of the altar. “Great guardian, I desperately seek your aid and wisdom, please speak to me!” Walking in an awkward, strange circle, around the edge of the altars periphery, I continued to call out to the guardian. Until, wham! I suddenly felt like I had walked into a boulder, or brick wall, and caused my nose to explode, bleeding everywhere and knocking me down. Looking back up after the collision to figure out where the boulder had come from that I had broken my nose on, I realized, it was not a boulder, but the lower chest of the massive eight foot six monstrous guardian, and he now looked irritated, staring at me in annoyance.

In shock of the massive man in front of me, looking down at me like a child, I began trying to speak to him and convey my intent. “Great guardian of the Altar!” “I wish to follow the creator of the altar, or the root of the magic inside of it.” Staring straight at me before a small smirk came across his face, the massive man in front of me seemed to think I said something humorous, and looked to the sky above me, seeming to talk to something, or someone. After a moment or two of the muttering back and forth, the massive behemoth came to a solution and spoke to me. “Why do you desire to follow the creator of the altar? Would it not make more sense for you to worship and follow the altar itself, and what makes you so certain you are worthy of the chance? Even if he did let you follow him, what could you do for him that he could not do himself?”

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Listening to the monstrous man in front of me, my heart began to skip a beat at the realization that he truly did follow something stronger, and was above the altar that seemed so powerful and mystical. Not willing to lose the chance, I began listing everything I could do for the great god, starting from social interactions, speaking for him, setting up any mundane tasks and going down the line, making a new religious church and dealing with tasks he finds beneath him. The massive man seemed to be listening intently up until the point that I mentioned setting up hotels and places for him to stay, and at that point he didn’t seem to be able to stifle his laughter anymore, pointing to a hill in the distance and asking me if I could find a room big enough to fit him, you would indeed be worthy of serving him. Unable to understand, the massive hill began to stand up, and I realized what I was looking at. It was the gigantic man from the tsunami and internet. Feeling my chest beating frantically, becoming harder to breath, the massive mountain walked down next to me and spoke. “If you wish to follow me then you must first prove yourself on the altar.”

“This is insane, he couldn’t have just disappeared.” Shouted a security man. The group was getting jittery after losing Johnny, and Chang had begun acting more, and more reckless, not letting any of the group from, his, or his securities, view. “Forget it, the important thing right now is to get some sacrifices for full confirmation, and get this altar out of here.” Chang spoke to the group as he motioned the leader of the security and off duty policemen. With a nod as affirmation, the security group turned their guns and weapons into the group of influencers. “What the hell, Chang! What are you doing?” shouted one of his former business partners. “You can’t do this Chang!” “People already know we are out here!” screamed Hua Jing. Chuckling lightly, Chang pulled out his wallet from his back pocket, showing a badge with the insignia, IPA, or Chinas, “secret police.” “Bullshit, shouted Jang, Chi, his longtime business partner.” “We have been making videos together for years and I have never once seen you going to the IPA building, or any other government area.” “We even did a Background check on you when you were first signed on.” Seeing the wallet and badge, the group went silent knowing of the brutal and fierce reputation of the IPA. They were known for their espionage, torture and kidnapping of civilians and foreigners alike. It didn’t matter who you were or where you were, unless you were important to the U.S. or really knew how to protect yourself, and were ready to kill, you would have a horrible fate. “How is this possible?” “We only came here on a hunch after seeing the online video.” Shouted Jiang Chi

Listening to his former partner’s words, Chang couldn’t help but show off. “I was sent to you when the government needed an influencer to slant the media landscape to become pro Chinese and anti-western.” “Making videos with you was supposed to last another six years, and I would be able to return to the command after, but now, I have found a lucky break.” “This altar is the key to Chinese superiority, and domination over the world.” “We will be able to buy out the African nations, and build our warships from the gold we will get from sacrificing the, unclean, of our society.” “We will no longer have to have secret mass graveyards, to dispose of the disease that is the minorities and non-Han of China.” “We will finally be a pure and proud people.” “With no more disease, and homelessness, we will grow our strength and finally destroy japan and Taiwan, and eventually the U.S.A. and the world.” “I didn’t think that this was a real magical relic, but with the emergence of those big monsters coming from the sea and sky, I won’t dismiss anything.” Pointing out a young Korean influencer, he was pushed to the altar with a gun trained to his head.

Slowly walking towards the altar, the young boy began to cry, begging for his life. Explaining how he was the only older sibling from his family, and how his parents had passed away when he was very young, making him look for any means to support the family. Begging through tears for worry about his family he was pressed to the altar, “Please, if you must kill me, then please at least take some of the money from when the altar takes me and give it to my family.” “Please!” “They will have nothing without me, and will end up going into foster care!” without empathy, Chang grabbed the revolver from one of the security details, and walked up the mourning Korean, placing his hand on his temple, and said, “Your family will be the next set of sacrifices for this great country, you should be happy, that I gave your pathetic lives meaning.” “Pop!” the sound of a large revolver went off piercing the Korean man’s skull and splattering his brain and blood on the altar.

Absorbing the blood and flesh from the Korean man, a pile of gold and gems began growing in its place. Laughing uproariously, Chang felt like he was the king of the world.