...
"It must be Diablo," said Zero with a confident tone, making Shin and Faker turned to him with a slight frown.
For Zero to have that kind of tone when naming the mysterious enemy that was hiding in the dark, it must mean that he was very familiar with that person.
Zero knew what they were thinking and quickly answered. "As you already know, I am investigating the Pandemonium Descendants and especially paying close attention to each member of their strongest group, the Pandemonium Troupe."
"I can't say that I am very familiar with each of them since they are skilled at hiding their tracks. But it doesn't mean that my investigation was a failure."
"I managed to infiltrate one of their bases and happen to witness the meeting of their higher-ups. And from the information that I've gotten from that time, the Pandemonium Descendants are composed of 3 major groups, the Elders, the Penumbras, and the Troupe Members."
"The Elders are the ones pulling the strings behind the whole organization. I don't know how strong they but based on what I've seen, they should be at least as strong as the elders of Powerhouse Guilds."
"On the other hand, the Penumbras are the least powerful among the three. Instead, their skills lay in infiltration and gathering information. My guess is they are spies within those top guilds. And with how accurate their reports are, they most likely climb all the way to the high-ranking officials of each guild."
"They have spies everywhere, both in Righteous Factions and the Corrupted Cult. And even though they are leaning more toward the latter, it seems like they are not on good terms with each other."
Hearing that Shin suddenly commented. "They must be related to Demonic Churches. With their Demonification Skill, it is highly possible for it to be the chase. That also explains why they are in favor of the Corrupted Cult but also not fond of them."
"Demonic Churches think that they stand higher than the Corrupted Cult," said Faker, giving out his remarks.
Zero slightly nodded his head before continuing. "As for the Pandemonium Troupes, they are an independent group that is composed of the most skilled players of their organization."
"There are a total of thirteen members of their troupe, the 7 Devils of the mortal sins and the 6 Demon Contractors. They are mostly operating separately as a group of Sweepers are working under each of them."
"They rarely gathered together unless there is a big operation that needs all of them to be present."
Shin and Faker were already aware of the Pandemonium Troupe, so they were no longer surprised about it. Aside from it having more detailed information, most of it was already known to most of the Top-rank Players.
Instead, Shin was more interested in something else. It was to know who was this 'Diablo' that Zero was talking about earlier, and what was his relationship to the Pandemonium Descendants.
Aside from that, he was also quite curious about how Zero managed to infiltrate the base of such a mysterious organization within the game. "For you to 'stumble' upon such an important meeting, I can't say that it is only an accidental encounter."
Zero smiled bitterly as he could see how sharp Shin was when it came to these kinds of situations. Given that, he immediately answered. "The truth is I am led to that place by that guy, Diablo."
Those words made Shin and Faker frown on their brows but didn't voice out their thoughts. They just waited patiently and let Zero continue.
"I am tracking him during that time since he tried to assassinate me when I am facing a group of Sweepers of one of the members of the troupe."
"As you already know, the Sweepers' job is to hunt down the top-rank players of the game to delay their progress as much as possible."
"For him to be present at that time, made me suspect that he was a member of the troupe. But after I exchanged some blows with him alongside the interrogation that Seven had on the captured Sweepers, we learned that he was actually a former member of the Pandemonium Descendants."
"From the information that we gathered about that guy, he first joined the organization when he heard that they are building a special group that will continue the legacy the 'Irregulars' left."
"The 'Irregulars' is a legendary Adventurer Team that conquered all of the virtual games before. Diablo is treating them as his role model, so when he witnesses the battle prowess that the Pandemonium Troupe has become entranced with them and joins their group."
"But he later finds out that their purpose is completely different to the ideals that the Irregulars have, so he has a fallout with them and leaves the organization for good."
"Naturally, the Pandemonium Descendants will not let him roam around freely, especially when he has a lot of information about them. They send some of their sweepers to go after him, which made him be on a constant run."
"And when he learned that I am tracking him down because of his connection with the mysterious organization, he purposely lured me in and led me to one of their bases at the exact time when the important meeting was taking place."
Shin still felt that there was something that didn't add up. "You have too much information about that guy. I can't be sure that you only get it from a simple interrogation on one of the Sweepers."
"What are you trying to hide here?" asked Shin sharply as he looked at Zero with squinting eyes.
Zero smiled bitterly as he found that he couldn't hide anything from Shin. He sighed for a brief moment and answered. "There is this special information merchant on evil faction. He can provide you any kind of information about anyone as long as the request is only about a single person and not targeting an entire organization."
"That guy is very skilled at gathering information, but it seems like he is under a system contract with all of the giant organizations within the evil faction, which prevents him from providing any kind of information about them."
"I have also signed a system contract with him, so I can't tell you any more information about him other than this," he added after a brief hesitation.
"Interesting," muttered Shin before asking once again. "And you are sure that this guy, Diablo, is on our tail because?"
Zero didn't plan to hide anything anymore, so he replied truthfully. "I already cast a sword mark on a few highly skilled players within the Evil Function, so I can sense their presence whenever they are near my location."
"And out of all the marked players that I have, Diablo is the only person that fits the description that Faker has given us."
After that Shin fell into deep thought and muttered to himself. 'A highly skilled assassin that can give even brother Faker some trouble, huh? And he should be moving alone right now.'
'We can definitely get something out of this one if we play our cards right,' he added to his thoughts before turning to Faker. "Brother Faker, can I trouble you to keep an eye on this guy during our exploration?"
"We still don't know how he managed to arrive here and what is his purpose for coming, so we need to be extra careful. After all, we all know that an assassin is very hard to deal with when they are in the dark."
"Moreover, we also don't know if he is really alone or has some teammates accompanying him, please put keep that in mind."
Hearing the task given to him, Faker just slightly nodded his head and didn't say anything about it.
After that, Shin turned to Zero and added. "And please assist him since you have your mark on that person."
Zero also nodded without question since it was a natural thing to do. And after getting the response from him, Shin quickly turned around and headed to where the rest of the group was located. "I will tell the others about this so that they can be aware of our situation."
********
In the meantime, while Shin and the group accompanying him at the Frozen Kingdom were still exploring the area, Shiella was currently suffering an immense headache inside her office.
Right after she arrived at the Hand of Midas Trading Firm, she was immediately greeted by a barrage of problems that kept coming her way.
Everything was still going fine earlier before she logged out of the game, so she couldn't understand why this was happening right now.
It didn't take long for her to realize the main source of her problem, aside from her little brothers, of course.
After browsing through the reports that were submitted to her, she immediately noticed that someone was trying to sabotage their operations. Not only they targeted the supply routes that they had, but those people were also trying to rob a couple of their branches located in the fallen towns.
They didn't suffer any kind of damage but it was still enough to hinder their plans. Whoever those people were, their main target was to delay the supply crates that they were sent to the affected towns, villages, and minor cities from the previous invasion.
"These bastards are definitely trying to slow down the recovery of the Saint Heaven Kingdom," muttered Shiella as she looked coldly at the map in front of her.
She marked the routes and towns that were attacked by the opposing side before studying them. And after a few moments, she successfully learned the pattern of their ambushes.
But despite that being the case, she still looked a little unsatisfied.
She then turned her attention to the isolated region on the map where the Corrupted Cult was trying to build its temporary base.
After that, she opened her friend list and started contacting a few people. And when she was done with it, her lips then formed a huge grin before muttering with an evil tone. "Since you dared to bother me, then let me give you the takes of your own medicine."
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Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om