17 It's time for action!
It had only been a week since I had entered the mission world, and I had already made great strides towards solving my first crisis – Pill Withdrawal.
The first thing that I had done after my cultivation session a week ago was going to the nearby department stores and spending all of the cash that I had saved up on buying essential tools for my future operations.
The biggest benefit of being in the modern age was the use of electronics.
As nobody dared to enter my room, I wasn't afraid of showcasing my recent purchases in all their glory.
At this very moment, I was leisurely sitting in my room snacking on this week's supply of ether pills (they still brought me some) while staring at the wide array of monitors in front of me.
Some of them were displaying notes full of the research that I had done on the mission world and my mission objectives.
A few others were logged into the dark web and constantly helping me keep track of all undercurrents in the mission world.
A significant bunch of them were hooked up to big data analysis and internet tracking sites running in the background to identify, locate and track the actions of my precious teammates.
The rest were all full of live feeds showcasing every waking movement of my current target.
The target for what?
Why of course!
I am talking about assassination!
It wasn't really my fault that one of my teammates just happened to be located in the same city as me and was just the perfect solution to all my problems!
I pulled up the data sheet I had compiled on my potential victim.
…
Name: Gammon Sylvester
Age: 16
Gender: M
Appearance: 5'9'', Short Black hair, Black-Brown Eyes
Bio: Attends No.3 High School, Upper Middle-Class Parents, No Siblings, Parents are both only Novice level beast tamers as they couldn't get into any of the beast-taming universities.
Routine: Wakes up at 5 am, cultivates for two hours, heads to school by 7:30, comes back alone around 2 pm, cultivates for the rest of the day till dinner time, has dinner at 9 pm, researches about beast taming, soul beasts and evolution techniques till 11 PM before sleeping.
…
Being able to keep track of my opponents and accessing the dark web were just some basic level skillsets necessary when you operated in the dark side of the business world.
While these skills weren't foreign to me initially the Boss (Underground Organization) Class's special training helped me a lot in developing these skills to such a useful level.
I leisurely observed the target's internet activity while mentally listing out the four biggest benefits of taking him out.
First, I would be able to take care of my immediate lack of resources. His parents had recently spent a hefty sum on buying 10 high-grade pills for his cultivation. 1 high-grade pill was already equivalent to 100 low-grade pills.
Second, I will be able to accomplish one of the mission's objectives by killing one of my teammates.
Third, I will be able to take the initiative in this 'game' by making the first move. This was also the easiest time to target others- before they had the chance to develop any of their abilities.
Fourth, The No.1 High School that I went to and the No.3 High School that Mammon attended were bitter enemies. This was considered as taking care of future competition for the jBTEE.
While one might mistakenly assume that the appearance of such a perfect target, the guidance of fate or a freak coincidence, I personally would beg to differ.
This occurrence was nothing but an inevitability.
Magic City is one of the most highly developed centres of commerce, entertainment, politics, and education in the entire world.
If an otherworldly force were to pick out the 99 most eligible hero candidates from Earth, at least 5 or 6 of them were bound to hail from Magic City.
It was the City of Hopes and Dreams.
The most prosperous city in the entire Asian Continent.
It was the city … over which Venenon Industries once used to rule.
Coming face to face with another resident of the city in this mission world was indeed extremely co-incidental, but by no means was it improbable.
I did not drop my guard down though.
6/9 is still only a probability of around 66%.
While it was likely that this arrangement was either just the winning of higher odds or something arranged by the academy, it was also possible that this might have been a trap designed for me.
That was the only reason that I had spent the entire week observing my target and hadn't yet made a move.
I needed to prepare everything from an alibi to a scapegoat.
Nothing could go wrong.
Especially considering the fact that the information that I had gathered on the other candidates was incorrect and my mission world was the one with the second mask.
I pulled up the other monitor to check out the information on the other candidates that I had managed to locate so far.
2 more of them were in the Empire as well.
1 had been confirmed to be within the confines of the Republic while another two were in different corners of the Federation.
Given that there was a total of 9 members in my team, I still hadn't been able to locate two of them.
Sighing in frustration I decided to switch to the monitor displaying my notes regarding the current world situation.
While this world might have been a copy of Earth, the political situation was quite different due to the absence of the 2nd world war.
This didn't mean that there were no power struggles either.
With the beast-taming cultivation race, Saint-level Beast Tamers were strategic resources of much more importance than nukes ever had been.
The highest level someone in this world could reach was the peak of the Energy Realm.
Everyone below the Ether Manipulation (Energy) Realm wasn't even considered a beast tamer, while those in the major realm were divided in between 10 ranks.
Each rank meant an additional soul chain and another opportunity of forming a contract with a soul beast.
It also increased the strength of the contract and the contracted soul beast to your current rank.
The ranks of the soul beasts themselves were usually just referred to as 1st grade Ether realm and so on but there was a unique naming system in place for the tamers:
Initiate – Novice – Adept – Professional – Master – Grandmaster – Lord – King – Emperor – Saint
If the transcendents of the universe were to hear that ants that hadn't even reached the avatar realm were giving themselves titles like Emperor and Saint, they would let all hell break loose.
On second thought, they probably already know and just don't give a shit.
The point was that the world had been divided between 3 major superpowers.
North and South America had been united by the Republic.
The entirety of Asia was under the grasp of the Empire.
The Federation was the weakest with scattered colonies in Australia, Africa, and Europe.
These continents had been hit the hardest by the 'Beastpocalypse' and could only survive by joining together to form a united front against the other nations.
As for Antarctica?
It wasn't abandoned at all.
Instead, it was the home base for the three major evil organizations that terrorized this world.
The first one was called – 'The Crimson Sect'. It was a loose organization made as a safe haven for every single beast-tamer criminal, bounty hunter and assassin on the run. It operates based solely on interests and runs the black market all over the world.
The second one was called – 'Freedom Corporation'. It was founded by a group of crazy scientists that refuse to accept the new world order and instead try to create various artifacts using the remains of soul beasts to give ordinary people the power to fight against beast tamers. So far, it has had extremely limited success and is also the most mysterious.
The third and final organization is not only the most sinister of them all but also the target of the mission.
While calling themselves the 'Servants of God' they actually worship the Demon God of Annihilation.
Taking advantage of the increasing class divide between cultivators and normal people, they run various terrorist activities with the assistance of the other two evil organizations.
In fact, they regularly attack students on the way to their academies after the entrance examination in order to gather more followers and cut off the future of beast tamers for the descent of their god.
Classic.
The setting couldn't get more cliched than this.
Not that I was complaining.
The easier the world was to understand, the better schemes I will be able to prepare.
For the time being, my most important goal was to become the top scorer in the jBTEE and get in touch with the upper level of this world.
For that goal, I needed to reach the Initiate realm by the end of the week.
I pulled up my status from the system to see my progress so far.
…
[Name: Nagi (Nathair Venenon)
Hero Points: 0
Mission World: 1
Objectives Completed: None
Superpower systems: 1
1) Supernatural energy: Ether
Core: Soul
Activated Chakra: Crown Chakra
Energy Storage: 20/20
Major Realm: Core Realm
Minor Realm: Core Strengthening - 4%
Physical Condition: Max Mortal Grade
Cultivation techniques: Seven Chakra Art – Crown Chakra (Harmony Art)]
…
Considering that 26 pills were used up in just binding my soul to the chakra being able to raise my progress to 4% with just the remaining 19 pills was nothing short of a miracle.
When the progress reached 100%, I would officially be able to step into the ether manipulation realm and become an Initiate Beast Tamer.
Glancing at the live feed of my target once again, I picked up my phone to call Jimmy.
It was time for some action!
