Twenty-four hours after Utopian’s defeat, in his room, Iyaz was thinking on how to break Cipher’s defense. It seemed like he was struggling a lot because of such defense and an exquisite force that was acquired by his rivals. He was running out of ideas; from airstrike nor attacking from behind wouldn’t let him get the triumph he thirsts for. Sabotaging the base from the inside was not an option as well. 

The room was now filled with shattered glass and broken furniture. Bullets scattered on the floor as well as bullet holes all over the walls. It appeared that he couldn’t sleep even after swallowing a bunch of sleeping pills lingered on his table where he continuously smashed his head. All he could ever think of was that he would always be defeated easily. He couldn’t even defeat them with his resources alone.

The upper power was informed about the raid, but because Utopian was a high-ranking organization, they ignored all the complaints under its name. Iyaz was spared because of the law forbidding everyone from killing someone with deep grudge. He was also allowed to go because Cipher was only defending itself, killing him as retaliation would make the Cipher to be put into hot water and fall to its doom. All that was in Iyaz’s mind was to have all the greatest workers of Cipher be in his hands to control. But due to the last raid, it might be so impossible.

Not a little while, Hilga entered the room. She had brought bags of cooked food on both of her hands for her no-good boyfriend.

“Come on babe, stop whining about that defeat and eat something”, she handed him the goods that she had.

“I don’t need that, I need an actual plan to defeat Cipher. I need those people that can give more power to Utopians”, He exclaimed like a spoiled child while throwing the packed delight to the trash. 

Hilga let out a sigh while pulling out a recorder and played it, “You'll get what you want.” 

“This is for all of Utopian. We can’t risk people’s lives anymore. Any more bloodshed is a loss for the faction. We can’t let that happen. But we can still do this in another way, we will hold up a game. A capturing game at least. All weapons will be prohibited and will use nothing more but bare strength. It’s so that we don’t lose any lives anymore.”

It was a message from a cipher with the voice of Keisha in it. Iyaz laughed hysterically about the announcement.

“That bitch doesn’t know what she is talking about. She said we can’t risk any more bloodshed when she wanted to kill me so badly.”

“But isn’t this the one you wanted? Force their people to work for us so we can grow stronger?”, his girlfriend rolled her eyes at him; more like having that certain attitude of Karen towards her husband, Plankton.

Iyaz grinned as he seemingly had a hope of winning.

“That’s right, their foolishness will only bring them to their fall. They literally offer us their allies to rule with.” He then walked closely to Hilga and pushed her to the wall, “Thank you very much my love for this wonderful news.”

Hilga had nothing to oppress about but instead answered ironically, “Anything for you.” 

He kissed the cornered lady and got her undressed. It’s how Iyaz celebrated his victory. Even though the match did not start yet, he was too certain that he would win.

A few minutes later, Iyaz went to the plaza where all of the people were having their rally. It was not against him, but against Cipher. Their mind was now completely corrupted by the deceiver’s plans.

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Everyone held up wooden signs with some texts written – all about mocking Cipher and how it killed every loved one they have. Justice was what they were all asking for; though they were just pawns used to all Iyaz’s schemes.

“Cipher should suffer in HELL”

“Cipher should die”

“Their leader should die. He should suffer, he killed many people.”

These were the words you could hear on every person that was living in Utopia. Their no-good leader stood once again in front of them, high and mighty like an alpha wolf on its pack.

“Ciphers used their advantage on weaponry, unlike us that we are trying to live in peace, but they forged their arms against us so that we can lose many more people and have our faction go down to the lowest ranking.”

Jack, who was standing on his side, questioned him, whose eyebrows raised, “What do we do now?”

“The Cipher offered us a game that we all can benefit from. Each victory will give us the opportunity to take their resources as ours. We can take that as an advantage against them. So here is our plan...”, Iyaz confidently stated his schemes with the people who continuously praised him.

…

They spent the whole day devising a plan to eventually over smart their arch enemy. After the meeting, Iyaz left and met up with some unknown people.

“Do you have what I asked you for?”

One of the unknown men handed him a compact disk and said, “Here it is. Now, where is our payment?”

Iyaz signaled a transportation vehicle. As they opened the trailer, it was filled with tons of boxes of cocaine and drugged prostitutes. Then they went their separate ways. Iyaz received a message from the unknown men.

“It’s a pleasure doing business with you”

Meanwhile, in the Cipher faction, Keisha was staring at the window to watch the night sky. Not a moment later, a sudden knock alerted her; it was Zhackary.

“It’s me, can I come in?”

“Oh... It's just you. Come inside”, she welcomingly smiled at him as she let him sit inside.

Zhackary entered with a glass of milk on his hand. The room that the Cipher prepared for her has a very futuristic design. Adding a lava lamp on the side table would always help Keisha to sleep. 

“What was that for?”, she asked, tilting her head like a teacup puppy.

“An offering so the tiger won’t bite me”, Zhackary winked.

Keisha sighed, “Don’t worry, I am not as bad as you think… So, what brings you here?”

Frankly, he confronted her, “I just meant to ask you, why capture games?”

It took Keisha a few minutes to answer. 

“I am only after Iyaz and no one else. He… deserves to have the same torment that I have experienced from him.”

“I won’t let him go near you again”, Zhackary assured.

“He deserves more than just being dead and burning in hell. I wanted to bring the inferno to him”, with her tone, one could be really certain that she’s seeing red.

“You’re really mad at him, I see”, replied Zhackary.

Keisha picked up the glass of milk which her soulmate gave her, felt the warmth of it on her skin. And as she took a sip from it, her spectacles fogged by the heat of her nightly beverage.

“I would not mind his nonsense towards me at all, yet he aims to include my brother here and the entire faction. I will not let him take the chance.”

Zhackary handed her a microfiber cloth for her to use on her fogged lenses, she accepted it quickly. He smiled to her with his voice as serene as the sea, “But it seems like you’re into peace after that proposal.”

“Maybe so… That might be the way to make him stop from tormenting people. Because if he goofs up, he will get kicked out from his position by the organization we were under”, Keisha sighed.

“I just hope he will play by the rules though. We know how Iyaz’s mind runs”, Zhackary added up, agreeing with her thoughts that bothered her all night long.

Then Keisha grunted, “If he messes with us, then it is gonna be me he will face.”