Bzzz! Bzzz!
"Good morning, your Excellency the Hermit!" Like usual, the Star's cheerful voice was the first sound that graced the gathering.
Unlike previous times though, her voice was much more enthusiastic this time. After everything that happened in the planet, and the incredible role that their gathering played in it, the Star felt proud.
Since 3 years ago when she just came into contact with the Hermit, her life had changed a lot. Not only did she grow, she already experienced a lot of things that shaped her into a competent Elementalist.
The World's exploits under the blessings of the Hermit in the war of the Hellfire Mountains was so incredible that he already became a benchmark in the gathering, every other member looked up to him.
They all hoped to replicate his efforts one day.
Everyone else wanted to become like him.
"Good morning, your Excellency the Hermit!"
The Magician and the Justice paid their respects, following shortly was the World and the Emperor also expressing their respects to the leader of the gathering. They didn't start immediately though.
Unlike previous gatherings, they already noticed the newcomer.
Unlike before, apart from the Hermit, there were now 6 members in the gathering. Everyone of them was curious about this newcomer, most especially when he just came after what happened in the Hellfire Mountains.
John felt it instantly as all the attention in this strange shady gathering turned in his direction, this pirate hacker instantly turned tense.
His self-preservation instincts kicked in instantly though, taking a cue from the other members, he spoke for the first time.
"Good morning, Oh Great One, thy servant is at thy service!"
"…"
"…"
"….."
Legolas' lips twitched furiously at this greeting but fortunately, the gray world obstructed him enough for the members to not detect it.
He was not the only one who was taken aback, the others were also flabbergasted as they directed a keener look at the newcomer.
John was almost pissing himself. 'Where did I go wrong?'
'I made sure to put myself down as much as possible while exalting him!'
'Damn, is this a parallel world?'
'Does up mean down here?'
'Does humble mean pride here?!' Crazy theories filled his head.
'Damn, there's not even a single glance of a computer around for me to put my life on the line and try hacking to get myself out of this situation'.
'I'm screwed!'
'Definitely! I'm going to die!'
While all these went through the mind of this eccentric Superhuman, the Hermit was calm as he finally spoke for the first time.
He was precise. "We have a new member in our gathering".
"Wow! Congratulations!" The Star was excited, it's been a fairly long time since the gathering welcomed any new members and she was hyped.
Another reason for her hype was that she could already feel the different aura that the newcomer exuded, it was unlike anything that she had experienced before now. The other members also welcomed him.
"…" John was flabbergasted.
'Are you for real right now?!'
'He promised to save my life, not make me a member of some shady organization!' His eyes widened in horror. 'Is this…, the illuminati?!'
Despite his thoughts, John was a veteran at playing it safe. He forced a smile and a friendly demeanor towards the others and accepted their congratulations.
"Introduce yourself". The Hermit's voice reverberated like it was an order.
John instantly straightened himself up.
The other members were surprised, this was a first of its kind, the Hermit had never asked any newcomer to introduce himself before. This increased their curiosity even more about the real identity of this newcomer.
John's brain worked at the speed of a computer, then he came to his conclusions. 'This is definitely a test, a test to see my integrity'.
'I definitely can't lie or I may die!'
He smiled. "My name is John Gates".
"…oops!" This was the silent reaction from every other member.
Never had they been asked to give their real names, but since the Hermit did not object, they kept quiet and allowed this newcomer to babble on.
"I am a Grade D Superhuman, a patriotic pirate of the Tokic Belt!"
"A legitimate citizen of Konot IV".
"Lastly, I am an extremely competent Virtual Mechanic with years of experience under my belt". Instantly, John already freed up and entered advertisement mood to sell his specialties.
Since his boss was already captured, who knew if he could strike big from this shady gathering and attract the attention of one if they were shady pirates?
"A Virtual Mechanic?!" The Emperor was the one who voiced his shock this time, his eyes widened in shock.
Noticing the sudden strange atmosphere, John fidgeted a bit but he soon laughed it away. "Yeah, Virtual Mechanic…, you know, the hack and hijack kind, not the pew pew mech combatant type, haha…"
Nobody laughed, they only exhibited shock.
By now, John was already going tense again. 'Ok now, what the hell is happening? The f*ck reason are they reacting like this?!'
Unknown to him, the others already came to a frightening realization. Virtual Mechanic, Konot IV, though they were not familiar with them, since their ancestors were Space humans, a lot of myths about space had circulated here.
All of them were shocked. 'Is he from Space?!'
The Emperor's gaze turned even more fanatic as he turned to face the Hermit. 'He has recovered even more! He has risen!'
The Hermit no longer kept the newcomer guessing, on his consent, the World took over and narrated the circumstances to John, including everything that he needed to know about the gray world gathering.
By the time he was done, John was even more shocked.
'The f*ck!'
He soon calmed down though. 'Nice, interesting…'
His brain was already gearing into overdrive as many interesting thoughts filled his head. With the introduction phase done, the gray world gathering finally started in earnest and like expected, John dominated.
All the other members were too interested in him for it to develop in another way, they mostly revealed information that the Hermit already knew about the war while John revealed so much interesting new information to them.
John was also shocked by their information. 'The Nakish Navy?!'
'Damn, their planet must be stacked to attract them!' He was drooling.
'Maybe I can even take advantage of them!' He was ecstatic at the thought.
With everyone so curious in knowing more about him and his knowledge, the gathering was longer than usual even as John discovered his uniqueness.
When this phase of the gathering came to an end and the transaction session began, like expected, John dominated again and like he already planned, he set out to scam these backwater planet bumpkins.
"I have high quality data chips for sale here going for 19 Universal Credits each, hehe…" He smiled. "As members, I can give you guys for a premium discount prize of 15 Credits".
Bzzz!
Only John felt it, the Hermit's overwhelmingly powerful aura!
"…!!!" Alarm hit this Mechanic, sweat trickled down his face.
This was when he remembered that he and the other members were not the only ones here. 'Damn, how could I forget?!'
'Stupid John, you want to kill yourself?!' He felt like bonking his head.
'How dare you try to scam them when he is watching?!' He felt like a fool.
The gathering progressed fast after that as John was much more sincere, the only shortcoming was, none of the other members knew what was called Universal Credits, John was left scratching his head awkwardly.
The transaction phase didn't come to a total halt because of that though, when he heard of Arcanite metal, he finally knew what attracted the Naks.
"I need Arcanite!" It was like he was suddenly possessed.
"No matter how small, I will pay generously for it!"
After the transaction phase finally came to an end, the Hermit took centerstage of the gathering again as he addressed all the members, especially the newcomer, telling him the privileges that he could now enjoy.
After lecturing John enough, the Hermit finally broke the news that every member of the gathering now had access to much more benefits before.
Like now, it was not just their consciousness that was in the gathering, he succeeded in directly dragging their bodies in here.
This could be a last-gasp escape measure when cornered in battle.
Of course, everything had a price.
"You will know the price after the debt is owed". The Hermit was as mysterious and aloof as ever.
The gray world gathering finally came to an end.
R𝑒ad latest chapt𝒆rs at freew𝒆(b)novel.c(o)m Only