Child of Destiny

Inside one of the high-class training grounds within the Divinity City, Arthur was currently waiting for the other members of the Empyrean Talons to arrive.

He was here to inform them about the next plan that they had to prepare for the upcoming United Cup.

The tournament was already in progress as those who wanted to enter the main stage of the competition where all the top dogs and leading groups were gathered.

The groups with lesser fame and not quite known in the virtual world had to go through a lot of struggles just to climb into the main competition.

As for those famous and widely recognized teams, they were directly sent to the main stage, waiting for it to start.

Of course, these teams were not idle either as some of them were already in the process of preparing themselves for the main competition while the others were paying close attention to the early rounds to take note of those teams with a decent potential.

After all, there were instances where those teams from the early rounds continuously improved while climbing their way toward the main stage. There was even a time when an unknown team climbed to the playoffs and almost won against a top-seeded team.

Arthur usually enjoyed watching the early rounds, but he was quite busy these last few days and too distracted to pay attention to it.

But after being able to pour out everything earlier with the help of Shin, Arthur was able to somewhat regain his usual self and started getting ready for the United Cup more seriously.

He felt quite bad for Cloe, who was so busy due to his unable to help.

Clank!

Not long after, the door of the training ground opened followed by Leonard who seemed to have just finished his training.

Leonard immediately noticed Arthur, who seemed to be in deep thought. “What are you thinking that hard? It doesn’t suit you at all.”

Arthur glanced at him and said in a nonchalant manner. “Shin came back. I just talked to him earlier.”

Leonard could not help but pause his steps when he heard those words and looked at Arthur with an astounded gaze. “Is it true?”

Arthur shrugged his shoulders. “There is no reason for me to lie. You will meet him later once we log out anyway.”

Leonard tilted his head to the side as he mumbled. “Then why he did not greet us earlier? We are just right beside his room.”

Arthur stared at Leonard as if he was looking at an idiot before saying. “Have you already forgotten? You are in the middle of training earlier.”

“Ah! That’s right,” Leonard smacked his head with his palm.

Then he suddenly paused as he recalled something. His eyes turned wide and raised his head, looking at Arthur. “Then-… damn! Cloe Sis will be very upset when she learns it. Will she beat him into a pulp later?”

As he said those words, a silhouette appeared to him.

Arthur felt a sudden shiver down his spine as he saw that person, who seemed to appear like a ghost by not even making a sound.

From Arthur’s perspective, he saw a demon with crimson eyes along with a steaming breath coming from its mouth.

“What did you say? Who should I beat into a pulp?”

“Ah!” Leonard did not even need to turn his head around to learn who it was.

Regardless, he still turned around to face that person. His neck was moving so slowly as if it was a broken toy. The stiff smile on his face looked so ugly as he said. “Cloe Sis, you’re back. How is the application for the training raid from the administrator’s office?”

Cloe ignored his words and pressed. “I am asking you who are you two talking about.”

Leonard wanted to look at Arthur for assistance, but he did not dare to turn his head away from Cloe after seeing those sharp and scary eyes.

This girl had been on edge since Shin had fallen asleep, making them meet Uno for the first time. It felt like she was on that time of the month, making the two walk on eggshells when around her.

What was scarier was she had started showcasing the result of her training under Martial King Lin Huang’s tutelage.

During their little sparing matches, the usual gentle yet cheerful personality of Cloe disappeared as it was replaced by an overaggressive and fearless amazon who they never met before.

It was not even the end as this situation also extended inside the game. Cloe’s style of fighting also somewhat changed. It was as if it was affected by her new knowledge of fighting in the real world.

Her style no longer focused on just supporting every member of the team with her buffs or assisting them with her spells during difficult times. She was now taking the initiative to attack, treating her class as a real mage.

Her previous identities as the ‘Witch of Eternal Night’ and the ‘First Holy Mage’ started to appear once again.

At this time, Cloe was known as the ‘Gentle Goddess Arielle’, the number one priest and healer of the virtual world. But people forget that she was the first player to showcase that the ‘Priest’ or ‘Healer’ class was not just a class meant for healing or supporting others.

This class could also fight on their own and defeat other classes so long as they used their cards perfectly.

It was only possible in theory, but Cloe was the first person to show it to everyone in the previous games that she played.

After being in a bad mood due to the recent events, Cloe had to find a way to vent her frustrations and the poor target were the members of the Empyrean Talons, who were always caught off guard due to her sudden change.

But that was even not the end as the previous style that she usually had did not disappear. Instead, she combined it with this particular style and created a whole different one, which was also quite a headache to those who were dealing with it.

As Leonard was hesitating about how he would reply, Cloe grabbed his shoulders with her hand and asked for another time. “I am asking-… who are you talking about?”

With a sigh, Arthur shook his head and saved Leonard from the hands of this witch. “We are talking about Shin. He came back.”

Hearing those words, Cloe felt like her head cleared up a little, erasing her hot-headedness. At least for a brief moment before her eyes turned sharper and colder. “That guy came back and dared not to tell us anything?”

“Hmph! Let’s see how I beat some sense in him,” she added as she turned around and prepared to log out of the game.

Swoosh!

But before she could even press the button, Arthur and Leonard grabbed her hand, preventing her from doing so.

“What are you doing?”

“Where do you think are you going?”

Cloe snapped at them and glared. “What do you think? I am going to drag that guy out of his gaming cabin and demand him to explain!”

Arthur sighed as he said. “Don’t you think there is a reason for him not to tell us anything yet? You will hear about it when he is ready. Just give him some time.”

“Moreover, he said he would talk to the two of you tomorrow. There is no need to rush,” he added as he let go of her hand.

Leonard, who was on the side, also let go of her wrist and nodded. “That’s right. Shin Bro will tell us about it eventually. There is no rush.”

Cloe slowly lowered her head and hand before sighing.

She was about to say something when Diablo suddenly entered the training ground and found the three of them almost blocking the way.

He tried to open his mouth to ask what they were doing but quickly shut it close when he noticed the gloomy mood.

Then the atmosphere became even more awkward as the four of them stood still and blocked the doorway in silence.

As they were stuck in that situation, the other members of the Empyrean Talons arrived one after another.

“What are you guys doing here, blocking the way?” asked Owen as he arrived alongside Ithilien. It was clear that their relationship had gotten better these last few days given that they were almost insuperable.

“Ahm… we are not late for the meeting, aren’t we?” asked Samael, who was accompanied by his younger sister, Huahua.

As the new members-… or more likely ‘trial members’, he still felt a little awkward when around the other members.

As he was waiting for the others for their response, another duo of the team arrived. It was the so-called ‘father and daughter’ duo as they had introduced themselves when they first met the founding members of the team – Archimedes and Daulla.

They only greeted everyone with an acknowledging nod before entering the training ground.

Then Alucard and Akailu also arrived along with Chaotic Luck, who bumped into them when heading here.

Alice was the last member to arrive as she just come back online after dealing the matters in the real world.

Now that everyone had gathered, Cloe had to calm herself down before signaling Arthur to lead this meeting.

Arthur shook his head as he turned to the others. “I know everyone is busy with your respective training, so I will make it quick.”

He then paused and opened a virtual screen in front of him before sending a program to the group through the team channel.

“This is a special program that we are using for our group training. You can just download it for your gaming cabins, and it will produce a special virtual space where we can train or gather.”

“We will no longer need to go through all the hassle of going from one place to another just like this whenever we are having a meeting. He can just enter this shared virtual space.”

“It took some time to finish the program as we want to add as many features as possible to it. But we can promise you that it is on the same level as those you can find from the top guilds and other organizations out there.”

“We even added a few special programs that are being used by the military, so training there will be equally good when we are playing the game.”

The others did not put much thought into it as they did not have much experience in these kinds of teams, but those who were familiar with such programs as Diablo, Alucard, and Akailu could not help but become impressed.

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But the one that was surprised the most was Alucard when he heard that the training system of this program used the technology of the military. Given his background, he was very clear about how good the effects could be when someone was training inside such a virtual space.

That kind of special program was meant for the soldiers to train in life-and-death experiences in a realistic environment without facing that much risk. It was similar to the battles within the game but to a much more intense degree.

Moreover, these programs could also affect their bodies in the real world to a certain degree, which would somewhat improve their overall physique.

Even if these effects were quite slow and small to be noticed, they would still greatly boost their abilities when accumulated enough.

This was why the young cadets of the military forces had to be trained and undergo this virtual training when they were still young.

Alucard just felt a pity that they could not use the special serums made from worldly treasures in the real world to take advantage of those changes to the fullest.

He was about to sigh in regret when Arthur suddenly added. “Please send us your information so that we can apply for you for the serum enhancers.”

“Don’t worry about it being leaked or about the serums being fake. I can bet my entire family’s honor that it is all safe. We can even apply for special guards to ensure you will be guarded when using the serum, especially when all are still young.”

“We can also assign some trainers in the real world so that you can adjust to the effects of the serums as soon as possible.”

“We have to deduct all the cost of these extra services from your salary, though. But it will be worth it,” he added before raising his head and gazing at everyone.

This time, Alucard could not help but stare blankly at Arthur with an astounded gaze. He also started to wonder just what kind of background these group of youngsters had to be able to provide them such a benefit.

‘Just who are these people?’

…