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Chapter 398: Call for Jeremiah
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At the very last moment, Siva remained silent.
He wanted to play the card of a dubious victim.
Jekiwabbashlu was really mad right now and the supposed red color of his alien skin became a bit paler than before. This poor ‘Captain’ right then and there, began to have his doubts.
—is he messing up with me?
“Show me a map.” Siva suddenly said.
The octopi captain was startled, {What do you need a map for when I’m already showing you the way out of here?}
“I have a good memory… I have a more or less bit general sense of my location… albeit lost. If I see a map of your ship, and study the passage you’re showing me with the map, then I will slightly believe you. But you only have five seconds. If you fail to show me a map within five seconds then I think of it as you trying to create a false map.”
{WHAT?!!}
“Four!”
{Five seconds! You said five seconds!}
“You’re wasting time. Three.”
{This is ridiculous!}
Siva moved to another wall and put his hand on to it that scared the ‘Captain’.
“Two.”
{Shit! SHEEEEEET!!! (Adjutaaaaant!)}
{(I got it, Cap’n!)}
“One.”
DING!!
A different plasma ball of light popped out and in it was a map of the ship. Prepared in haste, there is no way they could have time to edit it.
‘Cortana.’
[Done. Analysing location data! Referencing…]
Siva smiled victoriously behind his helm. He waited for Cortana’s victory call as he looked up at the poor ‘Captain’ of this alien Armada.
{What? There’s your map!}
“I don’t know where I am.”
{Ah, for a devil’s sake!}
Right after the outburst, a red dot appeared on the map, with a ‘cloud’ label “YOU ARE HERE” in huge neon bright colors.
Even Siva was surprised.
The map is updated with the current status of their mothership. There were darkened areas and as he was trying to analyze his location, by himself, it was then that Cortana interjected.
[I’m already done sir. I know where they are.]
Just in time, the map flashed and a green colored corridor was highlighted close to him, matching his current location with another corridor opening just a few meters away from him.
Cortana updated her map and confirmed that Siva’s current location matched the ‘scanned’ range and direction of the open corridor.
{What are you waiting for? Just follow the map.}
“Thank you.” Siva said and then with an illusory flash, he vanished and dashed, going towards a new direction on the same corridor.
{(Captain! He’s heading right for us!)}
{YOU TRICKED ME!!!}
The plasma monitor followed Siva, albeit late, and it showed an infuriated octopus alien with all its facial tentacles standing stiffly in rage.
“Ahahaha… In war, deception is key to victory.”
{SHET! SHET!! SHEEEET!!!}
Following Cortana’s guidance, Siva stopped right in front of a wall that just looked like the rest of the normal walls around him.
{STOP! STOP!!!}
Siva ignored him and put his hand on the wall. In a matter of few seconds… BOOM!!
A corridor appeared.
He beamed widely and looked up, meeting the six pairs of eyes in the plasma monitor.
Behind the octopus captain, the staff in the room is already in the middle of an evacuation.
“Whew… the temperature on this one can cancel the neutralizing output of the PSS Domain.”
With his cursed body, he can even last underwater without needing oxygen. He can feel cold but won’t freeze to death under normal conditions. He can of course feel hot but he won’t get burnt or scorched to a certain degree.
So the fact that he spoke of the new are being a lot hotter than the rest of the ship meant that it was beginning to even affect him. Not only that, there was also the thermometer on his vision.
‘Cortana, double the output.’
[Yes, boss.]
Right after he ordered, multiple small grenades is used around him, guided by small rotating fan and turbine-like ‘parts’ that didn’t dare to get out of the domain controlled by blue smoke.
If anyone would see this scene, they would have fainted on the sheer number of the PSS-Grenades being consumed every second.
And yes indeed… only Siva was capable of being a money-throwing fighter.
He was strong because he didn’t care about all the amount of expenses he was using. After all, they’re all free gifts and… in his inventory, he was also continuously producing stocks upon stocks of it.
Albeit the remarkably slow restocking speeds of his expenditures, it’s not as if Siva was always fighting.
With the topic of allowance… he has millions of the PSS Grenades.
The temperature of the area cancelled half of the blue smoke domain but the rest of it still covered and dissipated at the area around Siva… and even beyond!
Those small fan and turbine ‘constructs’ made from the smallest ‘parts’ of the BMA did the job and with the speed they did it, the domain spread quite fast.
—all of this happened within mere seconds!
[Temperature stabilized, sir.]
‘Hehe… it’s time to hunt.’
*****
Jekiwabbashlu had long cut the connection and the entire control room focused their attention to the emergency procedures of gathering all data —most especially the Intel that could help the Terran Cities fight against their strategic secret locations.
“Move it! Faster!”
“Burn all the papers!”
‘The map! THE MAP!!! Burn the map!”
“Delete all files and data!”
“Evacuate! EVACUAAAAAAAATE!!!”
A few abandoned their posts as they escaped thru the escape pods on the floor and the walls.
Some even went through the Captain’s Bridge that should only be used by ‘Captains’ and Staff Officer-level crew members.
“He’s here!”
“Shet! Run for your lives!”
BOOM!!!
The door of the control room was punched into a few pieces of metal scarps as the cold air from the intruder felt like blistering acid air to these fire-type alien beings.
“Hello, bitches!” they heard the Terran spoke in the Demon Tongue. But because of their horror, none of them minded it since by the time they turned their heads, hundreds of blades was already flying everywhere in the room.
“Gundam it.”
Everyone here was a Commander and they could at least defend with 30 to 50 of them blades at the same time.
And yet there were only round 15 of them in this control room and with all the blades flying off and killing them in concentrated assaults, one by one, it was easy to reduce their numbers than taking them down en masse in one swoop.
Siva’s experiences and Cortana’s archives had put up tactics and countermeasures in a compilation of records, needing only a moment for her to come up with a way to properly deal with any situation.
“YOU’RE FORCING ME!!”
Jekiwabbashlu was totally incensed and he roared, releasing his limiter, putting him back at the level of a true Demon Commander —an Immortal.
‘Cortana.’
[Hacking!]
Cortana scanned the system of the mothership via the closest console from Siva.
Before these demons could even react, they were all already attacked —ambushed— as the blades of terror pierced and sliced their heads and necks.
Siva was like a God of Plague and the [blades] are the pestilence. He slaughtered the enemies by the numbers within seconds from his arrival.
Naturally, Siva noticed the transformed ‘Captain’ as soon as he decided to transform.
“Jackson!”
“JEKIWABBASHLU! It’s Jekiwabbashlu, damn you!”
After a roar of anger, thirty black balls appeared on the vicinity of the octopus head alien, forming into black spears that launched simultaneously towards Siva.
The entire Control Room wasn’t even 4m wide and so the Black Spears appeared and flew for the kill at frightening speeds towards Siva.
“Heh…”
The spears were launched almost at the same time and reached Siva almost at the same time as well.
A tremor rung, shaking the area, the large shield of dark blue colour appeared in thin air and protected Siva who’s behind it.
The Alien Captain didn’t have enough for a second volley as the blades flew towards his direction like intelligent wasps going for a murder.
“What the fuck is this?!”
“Blades.” Siva casually, lazily answered him with a hint of a mockery on his tone.
“Gaaaaaaahh!!” Jekiwabbashlu produced a pair of blurry translucent black wings on his back, hugging him in it, protecting him like a clam does from the stormy assault outside. He then floated back to the corner where he held his fort, occasionally hurling black spears that got blocked by Siva’s shield.
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It was stalemate.
Siva laughed seeing this, “We can do this all day.”
His advantage was obvious, despite those chunks and the obvious damages received by his shield; it was still a torture so the guy’s nightmare continued.
[Shield parts integrity at 68%, sir.]
‘Just keep on with it. He’s running on fumes.’
Siva never ceased the attacks on the ‘Captain’ as he waited for Cortana to finish hacking the system of the entire mothership.
Every attack the shield received rattled the air and shook the room the resounding explosive collision rattled even the walls outside of it. Just the sound of them gave the impression of the force behind a single attack —how much more if there are tens of them repeatedly echoing every second?
Siva had the “demon language glossary” and so it was fairly easy for Cortana to hack their systems.
But this took time. While waiting, Siva harvested all those Commander-class remains inside the control room until what remained were only him and the octopus head captain.
“Aaaah!!! You’re gonna pay for this. I swear it!”
He knew that his release time was nearing but if he opens up his shell, then his life would end faster.
At least this way, he could retain his life.
The blades assaulted him like a Jackhammer —but multiplied by hundreds of blades doing it at the same time in an alternating and unrelenting pattern.
He hurled his black spears, Siva defended but the blades hammered through without stopping while he himself felt that his time is almost up.
The entire control room became tattered with all of his random throws of the black spear but Cortana’s hacking never stopped as long as there is at least one console in the range of her detection.
Eleven minutes…
BANG!
Jekiwabbashlu’s [release state] ended and so his strength dissipated, and the blades hacked him to shreds. He became a useless pile of tattered flesh.
“Hmp. Well at least he’s not the only one from the Octuple Fire Beasts. And he even provided us a fully [released] Black Ball. Not bad. Cortana?”
[External systems have been hacked, sir, but there is also a separate system that runs in an unknown language blocking my access to the core systems of the ship. Ah! A Battle-AI appeared. Rendering appearance on display…]
As soon as she finished speaking, a large face of a woman appeared above them like a gigantic form of a God that looked down a mortal ant.
It was a battle-AI —a Universe Spirit— and it spoke in the Demon Tongue.
{How dare you intrude the personal domain of His Majesty, The Emperor!}
“Fuck you.” Siva cursed at it blatantly. “You don’t even have an internal defensive system, how can you be of a threat to us?”
{You! You damaged the ship! Who are you?!!}
Siva looked at the giant face calmly, “I’m Siva.”
{Siva?!! The abominable traitor of the Gods, Devil Gods, and Immortals…? Hah! That nightmare is long dead! Who are you kidding? You don’t even have his aura, let alone a speck of Immortality in that weak body. Hmp. I may not be able to do any damage to you inside the ship… but I can make sure that if you damage the ship any further, you will all die along our ship!}
Siva felt this amusing. “Hooooo? A mere Ai-spirit dares to talk back to me, eh… very well, I would like to see how you’re going to kill me alongside your precious Emperor.”
{Hmp! His Majesty, The Emperor is the smartest and most erudite existence that ever lived. He had instructed me of a failsafe countermeasure if the ship did ever experience an irreversible damage to it… don’t worry, when the time comes, you’d long be dead and the Emperor will still be alive!}
“We’ll see.” Siva calmly replied and gave Cortana a thought command. ‘Destroy her connection to the rest of the ship and open all partition doors while turning off the atmospheric stabilizers.’
[Done, sir.]
{WHAT! You….!!}
“Enjoy the show.”
{You! WHO ARE YOU!!}
“I already told you my name!” Siva’s fleeting voice rung as he left the control room and followed the path to the right side of the entrance.
He floated fast while yet again increasing the PSS-Grenade output as the further he goes in, the hotter it gets.
And then, a loud voice rung from deep within the ship since that AI had lost her connection to the rest of the mothership, the speakers was now just a useless accessory within the halls.
The AI’s frantic voice rung with hate and urgency in the Demon Tongue.
{Attention to all units! An invader had reached the Imperial Chamber! Defend the Throne! Defend His Majesty, The Emperor! Destroy that heathen who dared to soil His Majesty’s prestige!}
*****
The Box had just been acquired by the Players and NPCs and was enduring the continued suicidal assaults of the Mobile Suits.
On their Jet Planes, they have maximum speed but poor maneuverability, but when they attack using a physical assault, the rank formation of the defense forces immediately dissolved as they couldn’t even endure a single round of thrust.
Many players lost their avatars, many NPCs also died. And so, as the formation of the Defenders fell and the Aviators’ Mobile Suits slowly took back their advantage, the heat of the battle changed yet again as the tides of the war shifted, and victory at the possession of The Box grew near.
It was at this point that an enraged voice rung from deep within the ship.
Just the sound alone was like the grating of metals, an ear-shattering noise that could give one a cringe akin to hearing dry chalk writing on a black board.
Many cried as if they were in pain but it was mere psychological, the feeling of actually doing it.
As soon as the voice finished, the Mobile Suits all paused… before a frenzied change in the tides of war shifted again —this time, it was more ferocious and a lot more hysterical… to the demons’ side.
The assaults of the Jet Planes surged on in tides, paired with the rank formation of bombardment of Plasma Bursts. A wall of Mobile Suits launched full volleys of firepower, opening fire with no cadence and just pure and frantic destructive fervour.
And the weird thing is…
The noisiest warzone isn’t the vicinity of the ship.
—it was in the chatrooms and forums.
*****
[The interior of the giant warship has gone crazy!]
[Demons! Demons everywhere!]
[STAMPEEEEDE!!!]
[A surge of crazy ass bastards!]
[It’s a kill all you can buffet!]
[The Commanders are ignoring players!]
[There are strong Commanders present!]
[I saw Loni of the TOS Guild fighting an incredibly strong Demon Commander! And she’s backed up by a White Knight member from Jeremiah!]
[Hot news! Hot news! I was live in my channel and I got in touch with my best friend whose a member of the Red Crown Knights of The North… he said that the voice that cried earlier spoke of someone reaching the chamber of a supposed Emperor! It said to defend the throne!]
[I just got in touch with a demon language fanatic friend from overseas… he said the same thing! It must be Siva!]
[The same here. My friend said that the voice was ordering all units to defend the Imperial Chamber!]
[DAMN IT!!! Siva’s gotten the big pie again!]
[Ambush him!]
[He’s advancing too fast on the Grand Quest!]
[The missions will disappear again!]
[We have to stop him! The majority of the players in Terroa are not yet ready to these huge events he keeps on triggering!]
[I already lost four mission leads because of him!]
The forums were noisy and information regarding the event of the mothership’s invasion was being updated real time from the efforts of the people in the outside and inside of the ship.
It was then dubbed that this event will, once again, change the landscape of playing RPG: Terroa.
*****
“Shit. Just as we are facing these alleged charges set up by The Union bastards, now we are again facing this problem with this Siva!”
The boardroom was once again in a fiery status.
The people in the seats felt their asses burning as the numbers of complaints continued to flood their official website because of this “another” huge event.
President Ethan, of course, as the one with the job title of [Head of Operations] was receiving most of the laser eyes in the room.
And, of course, Carl was behind him… shivering.
“How many?” the (enraged) calm voice of the Head of the Board silenced the others. He was obviously talking about the current statistics of everything.
Carl gulped and reported, “800,000 rounded units, sir, and with the cancelled orders amounting to a total of 1.1Billion Universal Credits.”
800,000 casualties in three hours
1.1Billion Universal Credits–worth of New Orders
The Board Members flinched at the number. Ever since the rumours of the “deaths” are made public and the news media outlets reported almost all the supposed secret details of the incident, trust in the game publisher and their shares plummeted. Even those supposed “friends” backed out of all of their deals, thus the loses amounting to that much.
1.1Billion Universal Credits wasn’t just an amount.
It was a month’s company gross income. It was a number that could bankrupt any other ordinary company if it wasn’t a supergiant like Panorama Corp. who had a two years’+ worth of monopoly to all the money of the avid gamers of the world.
RPG: Terroa currently had 100+ million players, with most of them contracted into their Insurance Policy System —ensuring the continuity of their careers, for a price, if ever they died in the game.
Everyone knew the dangers of the monsters and the threats of a sudden monster tide and a Demon Invasion… and thus, no matter how expensive the [Insurance Policies] are, players still bought them.
It was actually a gift that the Insurance Policy was not a part of the [Janus Console] and was part of the “Net” that managed the connection of the game to the players, and thus prevented Panorama Corp. to actually losing trillions of Credits on the day they lost their control over the game.
“Haaaaaa… this is giving me a headache…”
“Aye…”
“Aye as well…”
“Yeah…”
One setback after another… now that they knew that “Siva” is connected to their problems, they are also now considering the option of officially ending their misery by his execution —in exchange for a peace of mind during their sleep— with the price being, they knew, is an unsure act of butchery.
They have thrown their aces with RPG: Terroa so they have to move forward no matter what.
Backing down wasn’t an option as [The Union] was outside their fences, waiting for the cow to close in so they could take a bite.
Just one single bite, they knew that they will lose all control over RPG: Terroa and that their planned future for the franchise would abruptly end.
Still, the situation wasn’t totally grim…yet.
It was just on the way.
“Here’s the draft. Please read it.” President Ethan offered a piece of paper.
“We’ve already seen it.”
A few others accepted the memo.
“Does it apply our earlier agreed scenario?”
“Is it explaining the situation well?”
“Yes sir. I’ve edited it and simulated through a few situations that I can imagine many times.”
Reading the contents, the other board members gave him nods of approval.
What they needed is to make an announcement to either deny the ‘event’ or apologize and accept the blames of the players. It was easy, yes. But there was a hole there that The Union will use to connect to the “Alcides Deaths Incidents”.
In fact, news media had already called it the “Fall of Hercules” incident and until now, movements were being conducted for the “Justice for Hercules”.
What if in this event, other players will die as well?
Is the game still safe?
Because of the realistic graphics, people with weak hearts die in their sleep…
Because of the expensive Avatars, many people sell their lives for nothing and end up being killed or being homeless citizens in the end of it.
There are many holes.
If they say the wrong words, their grasp over the game will weaken and The Union will sneak in to act as the hero slaying the villain.
So they had to hold on.
1.1Billion Universal Credits… they can close their eyes with it. 800,000 complaints because of this damned event’s sudden appearance, they can also close their eyes and endure it.
Yes.
This incident, yet again, impacted the image of the game to the general players.
“The words are already prepared. We just have to make the decision.”
President Ethan was still a genius when it comes to these kinds of occurrences. It wasn’t his first kind of grave situation as well, unlike the young Carl.
The Head of the Board breathed loudly as he put his head on his joined hands in the table, massing his eyebrows with his thumbs in turn.
“How much is our projections?”
Carl nervously answered, “0.4% above the limits.”
The board members either slapped their faces or inhaled deeply and copied The Head.
Normally, their profit margin was 5% every month and it was a BIG income. Now, with the emergency, they were playing at the “limits” —the breakeven border line.
”At least we still get an income.”
“But it’s funny because it’s a steep decline.”
No one had the power to refute that.
The Head then heaved another deep sigh.
“Alright, make the call.”
President Ethan stood up and confirmed, “Yes sir.”
*****
Explosive news erupted.
Panorama Corporation called for an emergency press conference to make an announcement.
[We have prepared greatly for this event. And yes, it is part of the Grand Quest. What we didn’t expect is that there is not only one group chasing after the Grand Quest… but five in total. As such, one event after another is happening in Terroa right now as to maximize and emphasize the story of the game.]
Telling a lie right at the beginning of a speech was one of the best ways to hide them from the rest of the words that h should be spoken.
Carl knows there are only around 3 groups, at the very best, chasing the main storyline of the game, but they all knew that given the uncontrollable-kind of situation they have at Panorama HQ, telling the masses about a lie like this shouldn’t pose as a big issue.
[For those who are already aware, we treat Terroa as not only just a game… but also an alternate and self-supporting world. The AIs of each individual are unique and every boss mobs and monsters are intelligent on their own rights.
[It is a magical world… it is an alternate universe. A day in Terroa is a day of adventure. This event was supposed to have happened a few months ago but the skill levels of the players are still too low and an elite division became a private force that monopoly of high-level quests and missions are hogged by the true elites. Terroa is designed to challenge the limits of humanity… the limits of imagination… and the limits of one’s abilities.
[It removes the shackles that bind you in a world of mundane normality. Terroa… is worth fighting for.
[Our point is, of the millions of players of Terroa, only those few elites have seen its true beauty and its real allure. When you give up midway, when you abandon your careers just because you can’t move on and continue, you also abandon your freedom.
[The world of Terroa is big, yes, but to these elites, it’s slowly getting smaller and smaller. The more they see of planet Terroa, the greater they realize that this wasn’t just a mere game. This was life.
[If you quit midway, you go back to the world of the mundane normality… of the world of boring dreary jobs... you can earn money in Terroa, it’s just about you exceeding your limits.]
The reporters were silent.
Are we in a Press Conference to listen to a speech and not to hear something headline-worthy of the news of the latest incidents?
The cameras were rolling. Ethan has a serious face that scared the reporters below the podium. This is a silence that can suffocate everyone… and it was being streamed live.
He breathed heavily, [But we admit. This event has been designed in accordance to the skill levels of those player, or players, who triggered the event.
[According to our estimates, the difficulty level of this event was 30% higher than the projection.
[This means that the participants who triggered the events… were elites of the elites. The hard part is, there are few of the elites who participated in the general defense of Jeremiah.
[Jeremiah… is a central pivoting figure in the whole picture of RPG: Terroa… DO NOT LET IT FALL…]
It was at this point that the hairs of the reporters all stood up as they felt a sudden premonition.
A storm.
This is the eye of the storm!
[As such…]
Ethan had a long pause.
[…we will issue a bounty.]
PANG!
PAHNG!!
PAHNNNGG!!!
Camera shutters rung and flashes brightly lit his face, but President Ethan endured the eye-glaring pain and read the line that he prepared himself to deliver personally and with a loud bang.
He shouldn’t have been the one here given he was a high and mighty name in the company.
But because of the issues pressing upon them all, he needed to be the one to say all these words.
He knew, right now, forums are exploding. Instead of a proud smile, he maintained his poker face and then opened his mouth to utter these legendary words: [30% discount to all the participants of this event, both in Insurance Policies and New Units to be ordered. In exchange, we request of you to go out there and defend it….
[…fight, and heed this call of Jeremiah.]
He ended the ‘announcement’ speech in a low and serious tone. Then, Ethan gulped and turned his back on the media people.
He didn’t entertain any questions.
The conference ended then and there.
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A catastrophe or a blessing…?
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Next chapter: The Central Chamber!!!