Return of the Mythic Bloodline

Chapter 514: International Conference II

Once every eye turned toward the stage on Saya, she began, her voice carrying through the hall with practiced authority. "As you are all already aware, five years ago, the Earth changed into a fantasy world of gates, monsters, and Awakeners. Thanks to all of you present here, we managed to avoid the crisis and quickly adapt to the changing world. However..."

She took a deep breath, steadying herself, as the display behind her activated, showing a map of the entire world with numerous dots marked on different parts of the globe. They were colorful marks in blue, green, red, or black, each representing a gate of varying threat levels.

"We still know very little about this changing Earth. How did we obtain such powers? Why do the gates appear? Where do these monsters come from? We still have not found answers to these questions when more mysteries began piling up, the ones which we have no data on. Like the sudden appearance of the Black Gate, or the dungeon break without a gate that occurred in San Francisco."

Her eyes narrowed, her expressions turning darker as she revealed, "The Chairman of the Awakener Association from every major nation collaborated together to research such incidents."

Her revelation caused a ripple of shock and murmurs among the Awakeners. What situation could have made all the nations, which obviously put self interest above everything else, work together in such close cooperation? The very idea seemed impossible, yet here they were.

Once the murmurs settled, Saya continued, her face never leaving the seriousness. "We studied each phenomenon closely, measured the mana frequencies, patterns of the gate emergence, and powers of the monsters beyond them. The chart behind you is the number of gates that appeared five years ago."

She tapped a button on the remote placed on the podium, opening the next slide.

"These are the number and level of gates four years ago."

There were almost double the amount of dots from the previous chart, with more blue and red marks this time. Blue showing B-Ranked Gates while red showing A-Ranked Gates. The spread had widened, creeping into new territories.

"These are from three years ago," she said, tapping the forward button again.

The number of marks kept increasing with each press of her thumb on the remote. The chart of the last year had almost forty percent of the land covered with the marking of the gates. The world was being slowly consumed by these portals, a silent invasion that had gone largely unnoticed in its cumulative effect.

Although the Awakeners had noticed that the frequency of gates was increasing, they did not know that it had become this severe. The scale of it was staggering.

"And these are the number of gates that appeared this year."

As she revealed the final chart, a wave of confusion spread through the Awakeners. Even Aryan had his eyes narrowed at the display, his brow furrowed deeply.

Strangely, the marks on the map were very few, even fewer than the map of five years ago. The reduction was stark and unbelievable.

"As you can see, the number of gates has significantly reduced this year," Saya said, grabbing everyone’s attention once more. "But it does not mean the world has become any safer."

She took a brief pause, letting her words settle before continuing. The silence in the hall was absolute, every breath held in anticipation.

"With advancing technology, we managed to invent a device that can sense the fluctuations of mana in the area to predict the emergence of a gate before it actually appears. The device was already launched into orbit via satellite. It is capable enough to detect the mana fluctuations around the whole world. It successfully detected the high mana fluctuations in San Francisco before the dungeon break even occurred. That was the reason the population of millions was quickly evacuated before the monsters could swarm the entire place."

A man from the audience raised his hand from her revelation, his arm cutting through the still air.

"Yes," she said, looking at him with a steady gaze.

"If the San Francisco dungeon break was already predicted by the data from the satellite, why wait until the emergence of the gate to evacuate the people?"

I also had the same question. I was present there when the dungeon break occurred. Everything in the city had appeared normal, with no visible signs of an impending crisis, the streets bustling with oblivious citizens. Although I did notice that the evacuation took place far faster than it should have when the rift actually appeared, the efficiency had seemed almost miraculous.

"Because we were not receiving measurable readings. The satellite detected the rift but showed a reading of error, which could only occur in two cases. Either the rift was too small, an E or D Ranked gate to be detected by the satellite, or it was higher than the maximum readings the device could measure. Unfortunately, it was the latter case, given the fact that the device was capable of detecting S-Ranked gates that had not even appeared until yet," Saya revealed with a composed demeanor.

Her words caused the Awakeners to turn their heads back, staring at me with a completely new look in their eyes. Shock, reverence, and something pathetic.

Fear.

Their gazes bore into me, reassessing everything they thought they knew.

A team of one S-Ranker and multiple A-Rankers was required to successfully clear an A-Ranked gate. Only a few Awakeners who were above S Rank were actually capable of solo clearing a dungeon, except Aryan, who was still at S Rank and had already cleared an A-Rank gate alone.

How monstrously powerful I must have appeared in their eyes, someone who had defeated a monster from a dungeon break whose rank was above S, something that had never emerged in the world before.

Saya followed their gazes, her eyes falling upon me in the back. A warm smile formed on her face, only for a moment, a fleeting expression that did not go unnoticed by the sharp eyes of Nymeria and Ume.

"Do you know that girl?" Ume immediately asked, the moment Saya turned her gaze away. Her voice was low but carried an edge.

I felt a chill running down my spine from her demand. Even though I had not done anything wrong, it felt like a cheating husband caught red handed by his wife. The absurdity of the situation did nothing to calm my nerves.

"She is a friend from the college where I studied," I revealed, making sure my voice remained confident and unwavering. "She also saved my life... twice."

Aryan silently heard what I revealed, giving a slight nod before turning his focus to the front. I did not know why, but I was having a wrong feeling about his decision to stay silent. His sudden lack of interference was suspicious.

"Hmm... is that so..." Ume murmured, giving me a side eye before turning her eyes ahead. Meanwhile, Nymeria continued staring at me.

"What are you looking at?" I asked, slightly flinching from her unwavering stare.

"The hint of guilty conscience in your words," she said, her creamy eyes not even blinking.

’Damn, why are her instincts so sharp?’ I screamed inwardly while keeping a completely poker face. "You are hurting my feelings now. Have some faith in me."

"In the man who did dirty stuff with not just one but two women behind our backs," she muttered with a retort, her voice dripping with accusation.

My complexion turned pale as I realised whom she was hinting at. Silvia and Aris. The girls who had entered my room in the mines of Forlorn City. My narrowed eyes turned to Ume, the person responsible for revealing that news to Nymeria.

"D-don’t stare at me like that," Ume muttered, flinching under my gaze. "Who told you to bring those wenches to your room? Besides, I will never hide anything from Sister Nym."

My lips turned into a horizontal line, annoyance and hidden anger clear on my face. Nymeria came between the relentless gaze of mine at Ume. "How dare you try to scare her?" She muttered, pinching the skin on my forearm.

"N-Nymeria, that was years ago," I said, trying to clear myself. "I did not even do anything with them because I remembered your faces."

"He went bare with them and even touched them at private places," Ume said, adding fuel to the icy fire of Nymeria.

Her words showed instant result. Nymeria’s hand went lower, where she grabbed my balls, her grip tight and frightening, her voice low yet terrifying. "If I find you messing around with wenches again, I will freeze your balls in the eternal coffin."

"I-I understand, Master," I muttered, my face pale in horror, my voice cracking.

She removed her hand from my crotch with a sharp retort before turning her face forward, her chin held high.

’Just you wait, little vixen. My revenge will come,’ I muttered inwardly, feeling the pain surging in my lower stomach from Nymeria’s grip. I would bide my time.

Meanwhile, at the front, Saya continued her speech, her voice regaining its professional composure. "The reason I have revealed about the satellite is because we are receiving the same level of readings as the reading from San Francisco."

"Is it from India?" Someone from the audience asked, their voice laced with concern. They assumed it because the meeting was held in India and the host was also Indian.

Saya shook her head, her finger slightly trembling on the podium as she revealed with a tightened jaw, "From the whole world."