Sylas grabbed hold of the necklace, his expression indifferent. He hardly seemed to hear the petite woman at all. Feeling the necklace in his palms, he made a move to shatter the man's head for no other reason than having a more convenient way to take it all.
The woman seemed to realize that Sylas was the same sort of person as her. Just because he had been alright with her not proving herself didn't mean that he was some sort of pushover. He just decided that she was already more than useful enough without it.
As confident as she was in controlling herself in the near future, Sylas was just as, if not more, confident. While she had failed to change the fate of Earth, he had done so with his own hands despite having far less information, far less preparation, and far less training.
In Sylas' opinion, he had every right to not take the woman seriously, whether now or in the future.
Who cared about what decision Legacy had made? Wasn't he in a position to crush Legacy themselves right here and now?
The results spoke for themselves. He had no need to prove himself to anyone else.
Without a choice, she could only continue to explain herself.
"Just wait and let me explain. Legacy isn't what you think it is. It represents a small faction of an otherwise enormous intergalactic organization, but they're separated into countless branches, each one of which is constantly in competition with one another.
"According to the doctrines of the organization, there can only be 9999 of them total across the universe. However, there are new ones formed and created every year. So once every cycle, there will be a culling.
"There is a certain randomness to these cullings, so we need a representative with higher Luck to hopefully avoid it."
Sylas looked over to the woman. What did whether Legacy got culled or not have to do with him?
While this was a question on his mind, his hand had obviously stopped. That was because this woman didn't seem like a fool, and she also didn't seem to care about Legacy, so why was she saying this?
As expected, she continued.
"If a branch is culled, not only will they send a representative here to do it personally, but this representative will also complete an investigation to add to their reports. Legacy exists first and foremost as an information-gathering system, and second as a talent-gathering system.
"They go across the universe, implanting themselves into targets of interest to collect information on Genes that have never appeared before. There is an upper echelon of branches that will always be free from the risk of a culling because of how well they perform, but for obvious reasons, Earth's branch has shown no such potential.
"Maybe once they did, but after the Third Summoning, we stopped producing Genes that would be of any interest to the other branches and have been on the chopping block. It's only because of the time warp that we haven't been culled already, and now there's no other choice but to rely on a method like this one to hope we can make it through the next cycle and show some results."
"And his Luck is the highest here?" Sylas asked, as though more making a statement than anything else.
"Yes."
"And what is it?"
"… I can only speculate, but probably somewhere around 200. 300 at most, according to my deductions."
"And yours?"
The woman didn't respond.
The man's head exploded.
"You…?!"
"Why do you not want to stay with Legacy?"
The woman froze.
It was an odd and random question, one that didn't seem to make sense since she had already answered it. But judging by her reaction, Sylas had certainly hit something on the head, even if it wasn't necessarily a nail.
"…"
"Answer my question, or die here. Those are your two options."
For someone else, they might have taken the woman's story at face value. But the moment she tried to save the man for the sake of his Luck and what trouble the other Legacy branches might bring in the future, Sylas' antennas went up.
Logically speaking, from the woman's explanation, Legacy wasn't necessarily targeting Earth—at least not in the same way their other enemies were. All things considered, so long as she continued to grow stronger and increase her influence over this branch, she would likely be able to one day toe the line between protecting Earth and being a member of Legacy at the same time.
At least from what Sylas was hearing, these two things weren't mutually exclusive… at least not yet, and certainly not from the information she was sharing.
This meant one of two things. Either she was hiding more information than she was letting on, or she wanted something in particular from him.
Maybe it was even a combination of both.
And Sylas wanted the answer.
The woman took a deep breath. Stay tuned to My Virtual Library Empire
"They are too dangerous," she eventually said.
The answer was simpler than the truth. She didn't feel like she was anywhere near being able to dictate and control things in Legacy. But she felt like she might have a chance to do so soon if she went with Sylas instead.
Once she controlled Sylas and understood the secrets to how he had grown so powerful without any support, then she might be able to one day return to Legacy and take hold of the reins here. At that point, she could lead this branch to become the spearhead of Earth.
This way, they would have their cake and eat it too—keeping Earth and having a path to truly improve at the pace of the highest echelons of the outside world.
"Is that so…?" Sylas nodded, then ignored the woman, tapping a finger against the man's headless corpse.
At that moment, a great amount of fear surged in the woman's heart, and she hurried to take several steps back. It wasn't on purpose… it was instinctual.
The long line of silvery black that was ripped out of the man's body made her feel as though she was watching the birth and end of the universe all at once.