After returning to his office, Cipher opened up his computer and pulled up the earlier report of the raid made by Selene. He observed it - it was really well done. She was quite a professional.
Selene was really helpful. He wondered if there was anything she couldn’t do. Well, he supposed at least this much was needed for the future chairman of the entire association.
Now that he thought about it, how did she become the chairman? The current chairman seemed quite strong. Did something happen? He decided not to think about it for now.
He opened up the report and began editing it, adding more detail that he had gained through Appraisal. He created something like a lookup directory for each of the encountered "NPCs," with important ones receiving their own profile with appropriate information about them.
After he was done, he stretched his limbs. This was quite tiring, and he would need to do this for each world he visited as well as expand it whenever they dove deeper and discovered more information. Well, he didn’t mind it. He wanted all the information available on these worlds to see if he could connect some dots about saving their world.
[Why aren’t you making one for the Murim world? You can just ask me the details,] the Heavenly Demon asked.
"~No, we locked down the Murim world gate as one of the most dangerous locations. It needs to stay that way. If I start making what’s inside public, it will demystify it and people will become less wary of it. It’s said that people are more afraid of what they don’t truly understand," he said.
[I see, you’ve really thought this through,] she responded.
"~Besides, I want to test something," he said.
[Test what?] she asked.
"~I want to see what triggers the loop. Is it really the end of the world?" he said.
[What do you mean?] she asked.
"~Have you ever been in a loop where no heroes came?" he asked.
The Heavenly Demon was deep in thought, trying to recall before eventually saying, [I don’t know. I never really cared for the heroes. I just watched for the first few loops, and after that, I would tell my subordinates how to handle it and spend the rest of the time training and later facing the monsters before everything loops back.] She paused. [Are you saying that the world doesn’t loop if no hero goes in?]
"~It’s a possibility," he said. "~If it really turns out to be true, then we might be able to save those whose souls erode with every loop."
[I see,] the Heavenly Demon responded and remained silent.
Cipher continued working on something. This time, he was working on his system, specifically his ESP menu. He read the valuables list he had received from Iris and used it to populate his ESP.
After some time, the Heavenly Demon spoke up once again. [Aren’t you tired?] she asked.
"~A little, yeah," he responded.
[Why don’t you get some rest? It’s almost midnight,] she said.
"No, I can’t sleep. Even when I’m done, I still have something else to do," he said.
[Something else?] she asked.
"That’s right. I still need to convert my mana into qi," he said.
[What? What about sleeping?] she asked. Cipher was still just a third-rate, barely above a normal human - he still needed sleep.
"I can generate about 60 qi per hour. This only works when I’m awake to do the conversion..." he said.
[Aren’t you forgetting something?] she asked.
"What do you mean? Are my calculations wrong?" he asked.
[Stupid. How are you converting mana to qi?] she asked.
"~Obviously through..." He paused. That’s right - she was the skill. Didn’t this mean she could do it?
[Get it now? Go get some rest,] she said.
"~Wait, if you knew you could do this before, why didn’t you tell me? Do you know how I had to keep checking the time to know if it was time to condense?" he asked.
[I was hoping you would be smart enough to eventually realize. It seems I was mistaken,] she said.
Cipher remained silent. Well, she wasn’t wrong.
"~Alright, I’ll go sleep now," he said, leaving the office.
...
The following day, early morning.
Dozens of squads filled an open park, everyone murmuring amongst themselves.
Cipher and his team stood at one corner, a small distance away from the rest of the noisy crowd.
Selene stepped forward, her gaze sweeping across her teammates. "I know you’ve all gone into gates before and faced life-and-death situations of your own," she began, her voice steady. "But this is different. You’ve mostly faced monsters before - creatures that act on instinct and follow predictable patterns. This time, we’re going to face humans. They’re much more cunning and unpredictable. They can set traps, coordinate attacks, and adapt to our strategies." She paused, letting her words sink in. "Are you ready?"
"Yes!" they all replied firmly.
"Good. Then that’s all I have to say," she said.
She glanced at Cipher, and he stepped forward to continue. "Since our party isn’t as strong as most of the others, I picked the rescue job for us. The others will draw attention, and our party will go into the buildings. Fighting is only secondary - our main goal is to find where the civilians are being kept and bring them out."
"Are there other rescue teams?" Ryker asked.
Cipher shook his head. "No, just us. If a large number of people are seen sneaking in, it’ll draw too much attention and lead to problems. That’s why it’s just us. And since we’re alone, we can’t make any mistakes. There will be no one to clean up after us."
His expression then relaxed. "Don’t worry. Everything will go smoothly. After all, our captain has quite the experience in rescuing people from the church," Cipher said, looking at Selene.
"Anyway, how’s the equipment you guys got? We didn’t have much time to get used to it, so if you have trouble using something, it’s best that you leave it behind so it doesn’t lead to problems later," he said.
Dante raised his huge shield and held a heavy sword in his right hand. "The shield and sword are the perfect weight. Although I’d prefer it was a little heavier, I don’t mind it. The armor is great too," he said. These were the equipment Selene had picked for the team.
Cipher felt the heavy armor looked quite cool, though only Dante had gotten it.
For Maya, armor would hinder her mobility, so Selene had given her a magic staff instead. As for Ryker, as a swordsman, he needed agility, not defense, so he just wore the light armor he already had.
"I’m okay with my sword too," Ryker said, drawing it and making a few swings through the air. With Ryker’s sword-related skills, he easily got used to any sword he wielded, so there was no need to worry about him.
"Although I was worried about the size, the staff is quite light. It helps me conserve mana thanks to the engraved mana crystal. I have to recharge it regularly, but I can manage," Maya said.
"Alright. Since there aren’t any problems, let’s join the others," Cipher said, turning to look at the rest of the crowd that was now moving towards the chairman at the front.