Pride Online

Chapter 76: Nemesis (2) Part I

The acclaim of joy from the dome of Tristan could be heard to a place far away to the top of a hill out of the city, where a man was standing tall there.

The sharp ruby-colored eyes were watching the tall man standing in the middle of the stage. Even though he was far from the central city dome, his eyes still could see the image in front of him clearly. His brown hair was messed up by the strong wind and he had to hold up his hand to push it off his face. The pair of thin lips were pressed into a line as he snorted in his throat softly.

“I was wondering where you went. And then here you are, watching the GM’s nonsense event.” A gentle voice of someone said in greeting, making the man look at him. Then he gave a mocking smirk in response.

“How many times have I told you to not sneak in behind my back like this, Nero?” The newcomer just smiled slightly, before he walked up to the other man’s side.

“I apologize if that displeased you, Mister Allen.”

“Well, yeah, I’d get very displeased if I accidentally killed one of my alliances, because he was playing this silly peek-a-boo thing with me.”

The man named Nero only grinned widely at the threat. He did not mind the other one bluffing him a bit like this.

“I did not know you like watching this kind of event.” He started a conversation again. “I usually thought that you disliked those GMs so much. What makes you suddenly interested in them?”

“You know, I did not travel far from the black zone just to see these idiots clowning around, Nero.” Allen corrected him. “The one who got my attention was that guy actually.”

After he finished, the man pointed somewhere, making the shoulder-length blonde-haired man with a pair of pretty purple eyes draw his gaze there.

“You mean the guy named Vincent?” It sounded more of a fact, than a question. And when the other one nodded in response, Nero let out a chuckle that was quite annoying for Allen.

“Is it that funny?”

“Yes, it is.” Nero held in a smile. “I already checked him out for you, didn’t I? The guy is not as pro as everyone thinks he is. His level is low as hell at 38, just another typical player. Why are you so interested in him? To be honest, that guy is not different from a hatchling chicken for us.”

The brown-haired man did not respond right away. His eyes were on the man on the stage from afar still. Then he started a sentence with a plain voice.

“What if he’s not just a hatchling chicken?”

Allen’s question made the other one raise his eyebrows.

“What are you saying?”

“Levels are just numbers, Nero. The important thing is tactics in a fight, and this man had many frightening things in him. I can sense it...”

The serious answer made the tall man next to him pause for a moment. He narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him with an uneasy face.

“What makes him so special in your eyes? For me, he’s just a player that got lucky surviving Lord Inferno, that’s all.”

“You missed something, Nero,” Allen said before he smiled for the first time. “From the battle with Lord Inferno, this guy amazed me twice... no, maybe three times, even.”

“What do you mean?”

“His evasion instinct is ultimate. I think it probably reaches the impulse level, even.” Nero was stunned right away, a trace of tense appeared on his sharp face. Then he replied back.

“You’re saying that the guy has...”

“Signetic Syncro.” the silence covered the area after his words. The blonde man stared at his colleague with a serious look for a few seconds, before closing his eyes, letting out a sigh to end this conversation.

“I think you estimate him too high.”

“No. I’m not estimating him too highly. Oppositely, I’m not able to measure all of his true power, yet.” The calm voice said in a monotone, after that, his emotionless face started to have a smile. “When he was fighting Lord Inferno, there were three moments when he used pure instinct to evade the attacks. And each time, I’m sure that he was unintentionally putting out the signetic from his body.”

The explanation got the other one silent.

“That’s the reason I’m interested in him. If he figures how to control the flow of the signetic, that’s when he’ll become a frightening monster.”

“I think maybe you’re just exaggerating it, Mister Allen,” Nero said eventually. But the other tall guy just shrugged at the comment. “It might be true that he has signetic syncro in him, but why are you bothered? Even the GM Thada or Lavi who is currently the most savage player in the server, are far out of your sight.”

“Well, those two have already reached their limits, but this guy has not yet,” Allen said. “And don’t forget about his online hours as well. It took them almost two years since their first log in to run and control the signetic. But this Vincent guy took only one day.”

The casual smile died of the sharp face of the speaker. His purple eyes caught the fierce eyes of the other seriously for the first time.

“You’re implying that Vincent might have the same level of signetic as us?”

“Or might be above us.”

The sentence got him speechless when he found out the implication of his words. Nero turned to the tall dome in the center of the city again, before he continued with a firm voice.

“I hope that your assumption was wrong, even though you’ve never missed it even once.”

“I hope so, too. If it turns out to be true that this Vincent has the same signetic as us, he’d become our biggest problem that we have to deal with as soon as possible.”

The two of them were lost in their thoughts for a moment before the long-haired man was the first to move. Nero let out a sigh as he pushed back his white cloak, turning away to leave.

“Then I’ll go back to the black zone first. I think I have to report this to everyone. Are you leaving with me?”

“Not yet.” Allen shook his head. “Let me see what the man wants to do, that he agreed to show up in the public eye like this,” he said as he put on a cold smile, eyes continuing to watch the event in front of him calmly.

----------------

“And these are the winners of the Lord Inferno quests, the last events of the year 2008. Please give them applause again!”

After Thada finished his sentence, there was reverberating applause echoing throughout the huge stadium, causing pressure on the two who were in the middle of attention. The man could only force out a dry smile to his fans, before he whispered to Maysa quietly.

“This is more than I imagined, May.”

“Same,” Maysa replied nervously. “Who would have imagined we would be this famous? And look at the crowd, what are they doing here this many.”

They both were not done whispering to each other and got interrupted by a huge party of photographers who were asking for the photo by the stage. They put on a big smile in no time, before a combo of camera flashes shot right into their eyes dazzlingly, making the two get a bit dizzy.

“We’re like the Hollywood stars, aren’t we?” he jokingly told his friend.

“I don’t know why I feel like a serial killer who just got caught instead.” Her innovative reply got Wisana chuckle. But when his golden-brown eyes glanced at the hosts who were running the event professionally, he could not help but feel anxious.

“Well, I actually thought that you wouldn’t be coming.”

GM June jumped in to grab their hands friendlily.

“My apologies, Miss June.” Vincent smiled broadly, after he put his microphone on. “I just finished my personal quest, and I flew back from Nasen as fast as I could to be here now.”

“I already reminded him that he had an event to attend today, but he said he was bored and went on a quest by himself. He’s terrible,” Maysa added while she was hitting on her buddy’s shoulder softly. GM June just blinked at their actions.

“Well, would you mind telling us about your quest?”

“Of course, not. I’m here today for everyone to get to know about me anyway.”

He said with a gentle smile, making the one who saw it blush. As well as those girls on the grandstand who screamed throughout the place when they saw Vincent’s attractive smile on the large screens.

“So, what was the quest about, Mister Vincent?” June asked with a dreamy look in her eyes, getting an amused laugh from Thada who was standing next to her.

“It was a quest in a dungeon around Nasen to hunt this guy.” He finished, before he pointed his finger to the sky, making everyone’s eyes look up at the same time.