Child of Destiny

Chapter 1687: The Schemeʼs Aim

...

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The team competition had already been going on for quite a while yet the intensity was only getting stronger as time went by.

What surprised the audience though was the fact that War God Simba was getting more active in his attacks despite somewhat holding back his strength.

The battle underwater was different from those on the ground, especially when the movements of every one were restricted by the water resistance and the strong current that they had. Adding the water pressure that was only getting worse as time went by, such a battle would only get worse the more it progressed.

What the experts who were watching this battle found ridiculous was how Shin and Leonard were taking this battle. They were more like experimenting with a couple of things rather than taking this battle seriously.

Naturally, those representatives of the Seven Seas Alliance had also realized what was going on given their rich experience.

They were not only being beaten one-sidedly on a competitive stage but also being humiliated by being treated as lab rats of their opponents.

Losing against powerful opponents was fine as it was how it was supposed to be. But being treated this way in front of tens of millions of players in the gaming industry was a whole different matter.

Due to Helisung and Jorick being on the direct receiving end, their minds started to get a little loose, making them furious and somewhat lose their reason.

”Donʼt underestimate me!” shouted Helisung as he quickly activated his strongest berserk skills, which also gave him a quadruple-fold berserk state.

Roar!

A ferocious roar came out of his mouth as his appearance started to take some major changes. The surface of his skin was now covered with emerald-like scales while his pupils started to resemble someone from a reptilian race.

A long tail also sprouted on the back of his waist and extended outwards, resembling the tail of an oversized lizard.

A crimson aura also started shrouding his entire body, giving him an eerie and horrifying appearance.

He did not stop there as he also took out a pill from his inventory and quickly crushed it with his mouth, swallowing the fragments afterward.

Not long after, his eyes turned bloodshot as the aura surrounding him became darker and even more horrifying.

At the same time, the sword that he was holding also transformed into a something a bone-like object, which had a huge eye at the spot where the blade and the guard of the sword were connected.

Roar!

At this moment, Helisung looked more like a humanoid beast rather than a player.

But he was not the only one as Jorick had also done the same. Right after activating his berserk skills, he had also taken the same pill, which quickly charged the aura surrounding him.

His already bulky body became even more muscular while a layer of the shell of a sea creature covered the different parts of his body, acting as if they were a set of armor.

Swoosh!

The weapon that he was holding also grew alongside the growing size of his already large build, turning into a huge double-headed axe that seemed to have been made from the spine of an unknown gigantic creature.

Hu~!

A visible hot vapor could be seen coming out from the gaps of the helmet covering his head as he breathed out.

The surrounding water near him was also slowly getting hotter due to the high temperature that his body was emitting.

But even with all those changes, the evil aura he was now emitting was not something that could be hidden. It immediately spread in every direction, further amplifying the already heavy and dark atmosphere that the surroundings had due to Helisungʼs transformation.

The two moved too frustratedly, which made the two girls behind them unable to stop everything.

The two could only look at one another with a helpless look at each other before shaking their heads.

They had been given some special drugs by the Seven Seas Group and instructed to use them on certain occasions to save their lives within the game. After all, each of them possessed something that the organization had lent them for their respective missions, which was something that they could not afford to drop once they had been killed in action.

They could use them anytime so long as they did not display their effects in public events such as regular tournaments that were held throughout the professional seasons.

It was because the organization wanted to hide the effects of those drugs from their competitors as well as some other organizations that were keeping an eye on the game.

The effects of these miracle drugs within the game were somewhat different from what those guys had ambushed Shin before, but they still shared some similar features.

But the main difference that these drugs had was the existence of the artificial seed of hatred that the company in the real world was secretly experimenting on.

The version that those guys had used during that time was meant for the members of the organization, who had ʼvolunteeredʼ to be an experimental subject of the project. Every one of them possessed a respective seed of hatred that was artificially created through immoral means.

As for the ones that the experts of the Seven Seas Alliance had, they were a special version meant to be used in a ʼsaferʼ way. These special drugs did not need someone to have an artificial seed of hatred in them, but they could produce one of the types of hatred the real seed had if they were used regularly and excessively.

The members were not fully aware of its side effects, but they somewhat had an idea about their terrible end if they kept on relying on these evil pills a little too much.

They knew that they were being tricked or forced by the Seven Seas Group, so they were only working with them from a professional standpoint. They were more like a group of mercenaries hired by the commissioner to do a certain job.

They were bound and restricted by their respective contracts, which would cost them serious trouble once they had messed it up.

Naomi and Aliya knew that it was already too late to save these two brutes, so they could only save themselves by performing to the best of their abilities.

They no longer concerned themselves with the overall result of this match. What they wanted to do now was to save themselves by using everything they had while avoiding any suspicions that would link them with those evil drugs.

They did not have to care about how the Seven Seas Group would deal with the aftermath as they were sure that such a huge company in the real world would have countermeasures when such accidents happened.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The two quickly moved as they started casting a spell after another. One focused on buffs and other auxiliary-type spells while the other was preparing her offensive and defensive spells so that they could be used any time.

Now that the two frontline fighters had lost their minds despite gaining such immense power, they knew that this was going to be an even more troublesome battle with much more intense clashes.

…

In the meantime, Shin, who had just finished familiarizing himself with all the offensive and defensive techniques under the Heavenly Black Tortoise Method and combined them with the Boundless Ocean Technique and the Depths Devourer Possession, paused as he watched the opposing side underwent such a flashy transformation.

He quickly understood what was going on, especially after sensing the evil aura that Helisung and Jorick were emitting.

”It looks like they have finally lost it and are forced to use those drugs,” he mumbled before smirking.

This was one of the plans that he was scheming when he told the others to not end the battle as quickly as they could. He wanted to bait the opposing to use their miracle drugs so that they would be exposed to the public much earlier.

Even if the transformation these guys had undergone was masked by their respective berserk skills, which could fool most of the players and other experts watching the match, Shin believed that those who were more aware of what was currently happening both in the real world and inside the game would not miss such a major clue.

Those from the Central Order, which was under the direct influence of the World Government in the real world, and the Dragon Pavillion, which was headed by the Federal Army and other military forces, would most likely be the ones with the greatest concerns.

Such a thing also came with some risks such as being discovered by the underworld organizations, which would surely do their best to communicate with the Seven Seas Group in secret once they became aware of the true nature of the ʼberserk stateʼ that these guys had undergone.

Forces such as those Shin and the others had come in contact with in the real world such as the Shadow Alliance, Hextech Laboratory, and Black Serpent Mafia would most likely take this opportunity to do something later.

Shin had heard from David before that each of these people was trying to create ʼsomethingʼ to achieve the ideal result that Project Genius had failed to achieve.

The Hextech Laboratory was focusing on Unforgiven Ones while the Black Serpent Mafia had created those Artificial Mutants.

Shin had guessed that whatever the Seven Seas Group was trying to achieve, it was something related to what these two dark organizations wanted.

”I donʼt know what Uncle Nathan and those elders are planning in the real world since I am not strong enough to be involved with it,” he mumbled as he fixed his grip on the swords that he was holding before continuing. ”But if what Senior Brother has said is true-… and the virtual world is about to be swept alongside the ʼwarʼ-…”

”…-then I guess our roles are about to be changed,” he continued while a decisive look washed over his face that was hidden by the [Nephilimʼs Gemini Mask].

”Becoming the strongest has always been the answer!”

...…