[From the way you ran your mouth earlier, one would think you were aware of everything in the world.]
The voice replied to Evan's inquiry with words that made the young hero's brows twitch in annoyance.
"You abominable bastard!"
Evan cursed at him and released a bit of his magic power, making sure to keep it at the level of what an inferior Stage Grandmaster would normally have.
"How dare you curse at Lord U-!"
"Silence!"
One of the Demonic Hand members shouted at Evan as he tried to attack, but was quickly silenced by another Senior Member.
However, Evan had been able to hear one crucial part of his words that made him grin internally.
'It seems cursing at him really worked.'
"Lord U?"
Evan tilted his head to the side with a pensive look, as if he was pondering the words of the man who just spoke.
A moment later, he slammed his fist into his palm and asked aloud.
"Perhaps, you're the one the Eighth Finger called 'Uno'?
Are you the one in charge of this disgusting project?"
He clenched his fist tightly while saying the words 'disgusting project' as if the idea of there being 'Fake Heroes' was something that enraged him.
But the true reality was that in a way, Evan could not really care less.
The existence of the project was not what Evan found bothersome. Sure, he had some issues with how they used Terrok's slave trade to acquire test subjects, but there was nothing he could do about that at the moment.
What Evan was really worried about was their success.
He wanted there to be a lower number of Fake Heroes to reduce their chances of succeeding in their endeavours.
Evan did not want a situation where they looked back on one of their failures and realised a flaw, leading to an epiphany that would lead to them succeeding in creating a real placeholder Hero to occupy a Hero Slot.
The reason was not that he did not want them to take up the Hero Slots meant for the Seven Heroes, but because of something else entirely, something that only he, the one who bore the title of 'Leader' of the Heroes was supposed to know.
'There are more than Seven Hero slots on Aidos.
If the Demonic Hand continue trying and eventually succeed, they'd discover there are more than Seven slots just like in the game.
And if that happens, they could replicate the success and create more 'Heroes' for themselves, and that's bad news for us.'
Emerging from Evan's sea of thoughts, the man who was speaking through the Fake Hero, the one called 'Uno' was surprised as that was indeed the means Dominik referred to him.
Dominik hardly referred to the guy by his actual name or title, simply calling him Uno.
[How do you know about them?]
He asked, with 'them' referring to the Fake Heroes standing in front of Evan, but he didn't really expect the boy to answer.
And indeed, Evan did not answer...
"Hah?? Even if my source of information isn't entirely accurate, why should I tell you about it?"
Evan held his stomach and laughed as if he had just heard something absurd. But suddenly, he spread out his arms and looked the green-eyed fake in the eye while speaking.
"But since you so readily presented your subordinates to allow us to use as experience to become grandmasters-"
His words were spoken with the intention of misleading them into thinking that he, Eliza and his spirit companions, were all Master Level existences, altering their perception of how much power he possessed.
"-I'd be kind enough to tell you how I know about your little delusional project."
Just as surprise was appearing on the face of the green-eyed fake, Evan continued.
"My informant just so happened to sneak in and overhear a little conversation between Dominik Velak and a person called 'Uno' sometime last year, during the earlier parts of your Undead Invasion."
He did not refer to the incident by the name the Demonic Hand gave it: the 'Dullahan Attack'.
"According to what I was told, the topic of the conversation was 'Fake Heroes'."
'Uno' narrowed his eyes upon hearing Evan's words. He thought Evan was going to bullshit him, but the young hero had actually spoken about something that indeed happened.
He and Dominik did have such a conversation last year, but such a conversation was supposed to be private.
The fact Evan knew about this, meant he indeed had an informant listening in.
But as readers, you all should be aware that Evan was just bullshitting.
He only knew about this conversation because of Aidos Online, and the conversation was shown in one of the CGs of the game.
Saying this, was an attempt to make Uno, believe there was else who was working with Evan behind the scenes and supplying information.
It could even make him think there was a mole in the Demonic Hand!
Now this was something that could backfire on Evan, but from what Evan knew about 'Uno', there was only a 20% chance of that happening, so he chose to take the gamble.
"Anyway, I wonder just how high up of a position you have in the Demonic Hand.
From the way I was told Dominik spoke, he was respectful, so I am sure you're at least an Executive like he was."
Evan put his hands in his pockets as he spoke, glancing around at the Demonic Hand members glaring at him like he killed their families, a strained expression flashing across his face for a moment.
"Anyway, although I talked all big earlier, these many opponents are more than enough to overwhelm us even if my spirits chipped in to help.
How about this, if you order your subordinates to pull back, I would not have the information about the Demonic Hand my informant gathered from the Eighth Division when they snuck in revealed publicly."
The boy made such a ridiculous demand to Uno, stunning the man temporarily at how brazen Evan was being.
'What is this kid playing at?'
He was taking Dominik's final advice not to underestimate Evan seriously, but he honestly could not understand why Evan would dare to make such a silly demand.
[Are you trying to Negotiate?]
"Nahh.
I'm simply making you an offer. You don't want your secrets getting out in public, don't you?
So, I'm being magnanimous here, telling you that I'd not spill your dirty laundry if you pull back your forces."
"…."
Silence pervaded the area as the Demonic Hand members who were eager to attack Evan now looked at him like an idiot.
"Are you an idiot?"
And one of them even asked just to be sure!
Evan turned to them and glared at them, trying to pressure them with his aura, but the Level 358 grandmaster only snorted and used his own aura to push Evan back.
He was knocked back by a few metres and Eliza had to catch him to 'prevent' him from falling over to the ground.
Seeing this, Uno only stared on silently before shaking his head and ordering.
[Kill him as planned.]
"WAIT!! Are You Sure You Want to Do This?!
YOU WANT TO KILL ME?! DON'T YOU KNOW MY IDENTITY?! YOU THINK THE EMPIRE WOULD LET YOUR ORGANIZATION OFF?!"
Evan screamed out with a hint of 'fear' in his voice, but Uno had already cut the connection between him and the Fake Hero, evidenced by the fact that the Fake Hero's eyes had returned to being red.
'How long now?'
[Soon.]
After receiving that telepathic reply from one of the Spirits of the Underground Crystal Cove, Evan looked up at the Fake Hero Uno was talking through and then-
"?!"
"Huh?"
"What the-?!"
-he disappeared.
The Demonic Hand members all had their eyes widen in shock as the boy they were about to target suddenly vanished right before their very eyes.
**SWISH!!!
The next instant, all the grandmasters present felt existential fear coming from a certain direction, and when they all turned, the sight they were met with left them dumbfounded.
Evan, who had been 'knocked back' by a grandmaster's aura and was screaming in 'fear' just mere moments ago, was now standing behind the fake hero that Uno had been using as a conduit for communication.
The other three fake heroes instantly backed away, taking dozens of metres of distance, but they still had incredulous looks on their faces.
**PLOP!
A cold corpse dropped to the ground right in front of Evan and in his hands was the severed head of the Fake Hero that still didn't know he had been beheaded!
It was only after three silent seconds had passed that the realisation finally hit him, but the light of life went out of his eyes in the next.
"So those researchers back home weren't bullshitting…"
Evan's calm voice rang out as he watched the life go out of the Fake Hero's eyes.
In his other hand was his weapon, the Unforged, dripping with bright red blood while being coated in two layers of energy.
The blue frost of his 'Harbinger of Ice, and the bright gold of his normal aura.
The third layer, the essence of destruction, had receded back into his body after he deactivated the BoD skill.
"Burn."
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