Reward and News

"7 in the morning..."

Ban immediately checked the time after waking up. He the let out a sigh of relief when he saw it was not like the last time.

"Right, my eyes..."

Ban noticed his eyes returned into the usual brown color. However, he was bothered about it because he knew there was something more to that unusual glowing purple eyes.

"Did I miss something?..."

Ban shook his head throwing the matter for later. He didn't want to think too much about it since he is busy for the time being.

"Good morning- Oh? You're eyes are not close like yesterday."

Tina greeted Ban the moment he got out of his room. She was sitting on the sofa while having a nice tea that she brought. She also prepared a cup for Ban.

"Morning." Ban smiled. He continued after a pause, "I kind of realized that my practice wasn't necessary since my senses are improving even if I don't close my eyes. But I will still continue practicing if I have the time in the future."

'Mm. You look handsome when you don't close your eyes too.' Tina commented on her mind.

Ban raised his brow and asked, "Uhh. Did you say something?"

"Yes? I mean, no."

Tina's heart skipped a beat and her eyes turned wide open.

'Did I say it out loud? No, I didn't say anything at all."

Tina shook her head denying the thought.

Ban on the other hand opened his mouth while speechless. He realized something, 'I can hear her thoughts loud and clear.'

Ban then recalled the doing of the mysterious man. The man also mentioned about giving him a reward. He then coughed a little and said, "You already prepared a breakfast?"

"Yeah. Have a bite first." Tina already ordered the breakfast and was waiting for Ban to come out.

"Thanks." Ban smiled and sat down. He took a few bites for himself as he watched the news on the TV.

"What's your plan for today?" Tina broke the silence first.

Ban mused for a second and replied, "I'm planning to visit a special someone for today. Do you want to come?"

"Special someone? I.." Tina hesitated for a while and asked, "Is it okay for me to come with you? I honestly don't have any appointments at the moment."

"Of course you can. There are three others that will be accompanying us for today. You've met them at my house the other day." Ban sipped a tea as he replied calmly.

"Oh? You mean your lovers?" Tina carefully asked.

"Mm." Ban nodded as he also added Sienna who will be accompanying him today.

"May I know who's this special someone that you will meet today?" Tina asked again. Her curiosity peaked after she heard the 'special someone' he mentioned.

Ban smiled gently and was about to reply when his phone vibrated. He saw Vernard on the screen of the phone. He then excused himself from Tina.

"Gramps?"

"Hey kid. Are you busy with something? Did you already met your parents?" Vernard's voice was a little bit hurried at the other end.

"Not yet, but I will be visiting them for today." Ban paused before he continued, "Is something the matter?"

"Yes." Vernard replied. He continued with a heavy tone, "I have three news for you kid. The first is, there's a demon beast at the border of the Angeles City and Fern City. The beast is quite far from the populated area, but we are taking precautions and deployed more troops to isolate the area. The problem of this one is that, Tom gave me an advice not to approach the beast further since Divergents are already eyeing this beast. He also mentioned that he will take in charge for this operation since there's a so called Dark Breed organization members lingered around the area and it will going to be a messy situation when the hunting starts."

Ban frowned a little when he heard the news. His loved ones are still in that City so he was quite worried for their safety if the beast decided to target that City for a rampage.

"Don't worry kid. I already sent my men to double the alert in the city and we are ready to evacuate the citizen if necessary."

"Mm." Ban nodded and he decided to check his loved ones after this call. He continued to asked, "What's the other news?"

"I don't know if this is a good news or not, but ordinary humans became Divergents and this news will not remain secret in the public sooner or later. It is said that 1 out of 100 turned into a Divergent all over the world. If this changes will continue, then there will be a huge power imbalance in the world that leads to war." Vernard said in a heavy voice.

Ban narrowed his eyes. He also noticed the aura of the surroundings is getting denser by the day.

"What's the last news?"

"The last news is very..." Vernard paused as he took a deep breath and continued, "Disturbing."

Ban raised his brow, "Why is that?"

"Well, how should I say this..." Vernard pondered for a while and continued, "I'll just make it short..."

"This world is expanding by a huge margin."

"The world became what?" Ban couldn't believe it. He cleared his ears as if he heard the claim of Vernard wrong.

"You heard it, kid. The diameter of our planet is 20 thousand plus kilometers in original, but this time it is now at 22 thousand plus kilometers." Vernard took another long breath and continued, "The weird thing is that, the expansion came from the sea. It's getting wider and new islands kept popping out of nowhere. Now the country leaders are getting hyped after knowing the news. However, this is a bad news for our country since we are located at the sea where many islands emerged nearby."

"This is indeed a grave news for us." Ban also commented in a serious tone. He squinted his eyes and continued, "I'll call you later, gramps. I have a visitor coming. I'll figure something about this matter."

"All right kid. I'll wait for your good news." Vernard then hung up the call.

Ban then walked to the door and opened the door.

"What brings you here?"

In front of Ban were three individuals. Two ladies and an old man in his seventies.

"Let's talk in private." The young lady squinted her eyes at Tina as she replied at Ban.

"I-I'll be outside then." Tina immediately stood up and prepared to go out of the suite.

"No need." Ban held Tina's wrist and said to her. He continued, "We'll be discussing in the living room. You can go back in your in the meantime."

"O-Okay." Tina blushed a little as she replied timidly.

'Who are these people? Their outfit are so... weird.'

Tina commented on her mind as she returned to her own room.

...

Ban invited the three to sat down at the sofa. He waved his hand to clear the food in the table as the teapot remained.

"Who are they, Ms. Clara?" Ban gave them a glass of tea as he started.

"Mm. This is my aunt, Ariana Walker. And this is our kingdom's Elder Array Master, Senior Tony Lambert." Clara pursed her lips at the formal tone of Ban, but she still replied in a reserved voice.

"Oh. Welcome to my planet. I am Ban Rocks. You can call me Ban." Ban smiled as he introduced himself. He noticed that the weird one was the woman. She wore a white veil that covered her whole face. He wanted to pry on her face, but resisted since even Clara can detect him doing that.

'Mm. Interesting young man.' The old man caressed his beard as he nodded at Ban in response. He also glance at the surroundings from time to time as he nodded in approval.

"..." Ariana also nodded silently at Ban. Her face clearly indicates that she was examining Ban from head to toe making the latter shivered every now and then.

"Well, we came here to ask for some advice." Clara said.

"I guess you're here to inform me about the changes on the planet, right? And the current changes on the planet must have been your doing." Ban squinted his eyes as he sipped a glass of tea.

"Ahem!* Yes. You're right." Clara coughed and her face blushed a little. She continued, "You see. A few hours ago, we made a huge array that is to conceal this planet's aura in order for the outsider to not easily notice it. However..." She paused and glanced at the old man beside her.

The old man coughed as he shrugged his shoulder. He was speechless at the moment since he didn't know where to start.

Ban raised his brow and asked, "Conceal Array? And the purpose is to hide this planet from outsider's detection? Why?"

Clara rolled her eyes at Ban. She replied, "Of course for the safety of this planet's citizen. Even if we are here protecting this planet, we are not available all the time to fend off some curious individual and investigate this planet."

Ban pursed his lips. He thought, 'You guys can't fix your own mistake? Didn't you fuel this planet's energy and became like this?'

"So what advice do you want me to give you?"

Clara cleared her throat and replied, "I want you to create a Conceal Array on this planet."

Ban raised his brow before frowning, "Can't you guys create an array on your own?"

Clara replied while saking her head, "We tried. However, everytime we created an array, it would convert into Profound Energy and dissipate into the air. I suspected that the planet was absorbing foreign energies and make those energies it's own by devouring them." She paused and continued, "I saw your arrays didn't dissipate at all so I realized the people who has been born in this planet wasn't affected by the planet's unusual behavior."

Ban cast a weird look at the trio. He asked, "Then what about your treasures? Did those treasures were also absorbed by the planet?"

"No." Clara shook her head. She continued, "For some unknown reasons, only arrays fueled by profound energies by outsiders like us will be devoured by the planet."

"Profound Energies? Did you try using Elemental and Spirit Energies?" Ban pondered for a while and asked again.

"We don't dare to until aunty Emma gave us the cue. However, I can also feel that this planet can absorb any kinds of energies came from the outsiders."

Ban nodded, "So that means this planet cannot be used by any outsiders instead it was the opposite?"

"Yes." Clara nodded in confirmation.

"Interesting." Ban curiosity peaked upon learning the news about his planet. He squinted his eyes and smirked, "I'll help you create an array. However..." He smile became even wider as he glanced at the trio like a scammer seeing his clients.

"A worker needs payment, yes?"