Dead Ren?

The sound of the wind being cut by the blades of the helicopter as it spun reverberated in the air.

Blake and Sophie sat beside each other while the family of Ren, Rina, Zen and Sera sat together.

It had been a few minutes since they left the island and Sophie was in the midst of reporting the situation to Blake.

"W-wait! So you're telling me that all the members of Gabe's 12th Squadron were all in the hands of the U.S. Government!? But how could they have responded so quickly to our plan!?" Blake started to panic a little. "Is it possible that there's a traitor among us?"

"No, I highly doubt that. The people of our Eden Republic hate all the governments that participated in World War III. As such, the chances of betrayal were nigh-impossible." Sophie replied.

Ren, who had a sleeping Rina in his embrace, interjected from the side, "Excuse me, may I propose that we delay this discussion for a while. I also have something to say to Margareth. It has been a very hectic day for us so I hope you understand."

Hearing this, Blake smacked herself in the forehead, "I'm sorry Master Ren, please rest."

Ren's eyebrows arched up. It was the same for Zen who was listening to the side. Rina and Sera were sleeping deeply because of exhaustion.

'Master?' Zen thought curiously. He remembered that when the helicopter landed, the woman called Blake had been acting quite suspicious. Especially whenever his father was talking to her.

"I'm sorry Ms. Blake, but what did you just say?" Ren asked in confusion.

"O-oh no, it's nothing. Please pardon me." Blake hurriedly dodged the question and closed her eyes.

Ren turned towards Sophie, hoping to get some sort of explanation.

Succumbing to the awkwardness, Sophie said softly, "I apologize but Lady Margareth told us to keep our mouths shut. She said that she'll explain everything to you once you meet."

Ren didn't have any choice, so he could only close his eyes and rest like his wife and daughter. 'I have a bad feeling about this. I wonder what Margareth has in her mind…'

Zen, on the other hand, kept looking out the window while thinking silently.

He thought of the matter regarding the appearance of random islands all around the world.

'Is it because of the game? Or because of the disaster that was mentioned in the coded message…'

He gave up after a few minutes of thinking about it.

'I don't know. Either way, what's sure is the fact that the world is really changing. Since I can directly get powers from the game, I have the advantage. I don't know if there are other people besides me, but there's a low chance of them existing since I am the only one with cancer in the world…'

'Even if there are people like me… I highly doubt that they will be able to instantly get the powers of their game character. At most, they will be able to receive their powers a little earlier than the average person…'

Zen silently admired the view of the moon hanging above the sky as the ocean produced waves below it, looking like a beautiful painting.

'The world is really beautiful…' Zen thought in admiration.

***

Tap!

A tap noise sounded in an empty room as a middle-aged man in a suit loudly closed the laptop in front of him.

The middle-aged man, or rather, the President, grumbled loudly, "Argh! Those fucking old foxes really wouldn't give me a break!"

The meeting between the presidents had just finished. Because of the U.S. President's actions of firing a missile, various countries reached out to him the moment they learned of it.

The U.S. President had no choice but to give benefits just to keep them from interfering too much.

"Just thinking about it angers me! I only hope that all my sacrifices aren't in vain…" He cursed as he remembered the meeting that transpired earlier.

Ring! Ring!

The President took his phone from his pocket and answered it.

"How did it go?" He asked with a hint of worry.

[Good news, Mr. President! The missiles we have launched earlier have hit the aircraft where Ren was!]

"Hahaha! Good! Good! You're not as stupid as I thought!" The President smiled widely, clearly happy that Ren was finally dead. However, he thought of something and asked, "Did you send a team to investigate the site where the missile hit Ren's aircraft?"

[Yes, Mr. President! We have already confirmed that the entire body of the aircraft exploded and was thoroughly destroyed by the missile. We have also sent some surveillance bots underwater in an attempt to search for any pieces of their body. Though we haven't found anything yet, it is to be expected since there's a high chance that they were directly turned to ashes by the missile.] The voice on the other side of the phone explained carefully.

"Haha! Good work! But keep looking, okay! Just in case." The President said as the twinge of worry in his heart vanished.

[Don't worry about it, Mr. President!]

"Ok! I'll have Secretary Jones double your pay!"

[Thank you, Mr. President!]

The President hung up and laughed loudly.

"Hahaha! Ren! This is what you get for disrespecting me! Haha!"

However, after a while, the president also showed a look of relief.

"Thank god, Ren is finally dead. Just thinking of the things he did during the war scares me. Oh well, no matter how great the "Clairvoyant Tactician" is, he won't be able to do anything in hell! Hahaha!" The President laughed non-stop.

The two guards outside the room heard the President's laugh. However, aside from glancing at each other, they made no moves, as if they were used to it.

***

In the helicopter…

After admiring the scene of nature while being submerged in his thoughts, Zen finally saw the so-called base.

Earlier, even with his enhanced eyesight, the island where the base was located seemed blurry to him.

This confused Zen because although he couldn't perfectly see something tens of miles away, he could still clearly see some details.

Now that they were nearer, he seemed to see slight ripples in the air, looking like some sort of forcefield.

Realizing this, Zen widened his eyes in shock.