Chapter 203: Alumera (2)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Frost Pine Village was a poor novice gathering point. Poor meant there were many missions; therefore, although the players had low-quality equipment, they had accumulated a lot of experience points. Many players bought abilities from Han Xiao, and they were taking photos with him from time to time. He was like a celebrity; the crowd appeared wherever he did.
Han Xiao left Frost Pine Village in a plane after staying for one day and harvesting experience points. He brought along all his equipment and went to the Alumera family.
He did not feel a sense of belonging to the family of his original body, but he was unavoidably curious about it, so he wanted to ask around about it. Since Alumera was still pursuing his original identity, Han Xiao was very interested in making contact with them.
Alumera Family, a big warlord in the Northern Continent, they were partners with Theseus. Within the planet, they have 24 colonies of which five are large territories. They are very rich; they are registered as a legal financial organization in Theseus.
They are involved in businesses, politics, and many other fields, which are controlled by different factions in the family. The Alumera family is separated into four factions internally, which consist of the home faction lead by Darryl, the Xiao faction led by Xiao Jin, the red island faction led by the third chair Se Qi, and the more relaxed local alliance northern faction.
Alumera is a warlord organization made by the alliance of organizations from dead countries, the Home faction controlled the big picture, and the other factions are under them. They took in many loose warlords and became one of the strongest warlord organization in the Northern Continent. Then they accepted the request from Theseus to be part of the government forces and acquired government backing. They have not made any big movements recently and have mostly been settling tricky problems for Theseus, especially regarding Raylen.
The situation in the Northern Continent was different from the other continents. Unlike other nations that were peaceful, the conflict between Theseus and Raylen was very intense. Killing happened very often, and soldiers, agents, and superhumans battled in secret. Hatred was deeply rooted in both nations. Theseus and Raylen were both very invasive countries, and one mountain could not fit two tigers. For more than twenty years, they had not stopped trying to defeat and erase each other.
Only recently when they decided to work together for the expedition to conquer the Germinal Organization did they pause.
Alumera’s headquarters are full of danger. They dread my identity and strength only because they have a huge influence, but I am their enemy nonetheless, so there might be a fight.
...
A large colony sat halfway up an ice-covered valley—Alumera’s headquarters. It was a great strategic location as it was easy to defend but difficult to invade. There were only two routes into the colony—one was through the mountain, and the other was by climbing the cliffs at the side—both were heavily guarded.
The mountain rocks were black-green, the snow was white, and the wind was piercing.
At the juncture on the way up the mountain, a sentinel wearing a thick cotton coat was scanning the area as usual. He then suddenly saw a shadow in the snow far away.
“Someone’s coming!” The sentinel warned his friend to stay alert. The shadow soon revealed itself fully and appeared in their sights. The sentinels straightened their faces—it was none other than Black Phantom whom the leader had ordered them to keep an eye out for.
Han Xiao’s eyes twinkled. The juncture was heavily guarded just as he expected from the intelligence that he had gathered.
He wondered what Alumera’s attitude toward him would be.
Before long, he was given the answer to that question.
After a short wait, the juncture opened, and a man surrounded by a team walked toward Han Xiao. He stopped in front of him and said with a fake smile on his face, “Mr. Black Phantom, welcome to the Alumera family. I’m Ummil, here to lead you in. Please follow me, the leaders have been expecting you.”
Well, looks like the fight will not happen so soon, and from the way he was talking, they are probably planning a Feast at Hong Gate 1.
Sigh, how troublesome, couldn’t it just be solved by the simplest solution, violence? That wouldn’t be barbaric; it’s going back to the basics, skipping what was in between and starting the fight right off the bat. It would save everyone some time.
Time is money. Sigh, I’m already here anyway.
Han Xiao lifted the single shoulder backpack that was filled with machinery and followed Ummil up the mountain path.
The path wound among clouds, and the guards followed beside the duo as they passed one juncture after another.
Han Xiao kept a serious face all along. Ummil kept wanting to ask him questions but did not dare to because of the expression on Han Xiao’s face. He contemplated again and again, then asked with a laugh, “The leaders were very surprised when they heard you are coming. After all, there was some discord not long ago.”
“You guys are very curious about why I’m here?”
“Yes, we are not exactly friends, but since you are coming, I believe you have a friendly motive,” Ummil said.
“I’m here to look for trouble. I have yet to decide who to kill. How about we start with you?” Han Xiao asked.
“Hehe, with your strength, you wouldn’t have to visit if you wanted to kill us mid-level cadres,” Ummil said without changing his expression. “That’s not a funny joke.”
“Is that so?” Han Xiao scanned through the guards beside them. They were expressionless, their fingers were placed at the trigger at all times, and they looked cold, hard, and masculine. But the cold sweat dripping down from their sideburns and their short and rapid breathing showed that they were not as calm as they looked.
The guard captain secretly looked over and was immediately caught by Han Xiao. He looked away the next second with horror in his eyes.
“But they seem to find it funny.” Han Xiao expression resembled a smile yet not a smile. He patted the captain on the shoulder, and he clearly sensed the captain’s body tighten for a moment.
Ummil was smiling on the outside but was angry on the inside. He’s not here for a friendly reason. Not sure why he’s here.
Han Xiao squinted his eyes and asked out of the blue, “Ummil... right? What faction do you belong to, Home or the others?”
Ummil’s expression became unnatural. He coughed and said, “I’m a member of the Alumera Family, that’s all.”
Han Xiao smiled and did not say anything.
They kept silent till the door of the territory appeared in sight.
Ummil was relieved. “We’re here. The leaders are waiting for you in the hall.”
The door opened, and hundreds of soldiers came forward, staring at Han Xiao. They seemed to have confidence in numbers.
Ummil was leading the way in front. He walked very slowly on purpose to spend more time in the middle of the armed forces with the motive of planting fear in Han Xiao.
Han Xiao understood what was happening, but he was not affected. Suddenly, he saw a floating ID outside the crowd. There were players here.
Makes sense. Alumera is not far from Frost Pine Village, so some players that left the novice village will have come here. Han Xiao narrowed his eyes. There are already players in Alumera, so why are they still capturing Inhumans?
There were many possibilities. Han Xiao did not think much about it and left the thought in the back of his head. His goal was Alumera; it did not matter if there were players present.
...
“What are these soldiers gathering for?”
Dozens or so of players discussed the situation softly from afar as they looked at the crow. They all had a ‘Bamboo Rain’ before their names. They were members of the Bamboo Rain guild, a small casual guild with less than a hundred members who were all young people.
The guild leader, Bamboo Rain Fragrance, was a beautiful young girl with long hair. “They seem to be welcoming someone. Is this an unexpected event?”
“Let’s go and take a look. Maybe we can trigger some missions,” the somewhat handsome Bamboo Rain Fly said. Then he looked at the rest of the members inquiringly.
Of course, no one objected. This group of players from Bamboo Rain guild was the only players in this colony, and they had only found it by chance. There was not much information included on the maps of this place that were sold in the novice village.
The map on the player’s Interfaces was full of fog. The places would only be revealed if they went there themselves or bought a map for it.
They walked toward the crowd, and Bamboo Rain Xuan yelled with surprise, “That’s Black Phantom!”
The group was shocked. They took a closer look and confirmed they were right, then looked at each other in awe.
“Why is Black Phantom here? The people here seem to be hostile toward him.” Bamboo Rain Fragrance frowned and pondered aloud. “He just appeared in various novice villages a few days ago, so there must be a reason he’s suddenly here.”
Bamboo Rain Xuan’s eye brightened up. “This is an unexpected plotline! There might be hidden missions!”
“Lucky, I have yet to see Black Phantom. Now I can learn abilities from him without going to a novice village.”
“I remember there are some video posters looking for footage of him.”
They stopped in front of the hall as they saw Han Xiao entering it. The hall was a high-level area that was not open to them. They needed enough relationship points to enter, but Black Phantom could just go in. They were frustrated.
“Let’s all wait outside,” Bamboo Rain Fragrance said. “He might come out very soon.”