Chapter 810 5-Star Mission: Infiltration 1
As soon as Daneel and the others were done reading the title of the display panel that had just appeared in front of him, they turned to the image that was presented in front of him, and as one, they all… promptly dropped their jaws.
This wasn't limited to just Daneel and his sovereigns, either. Even those from the team of the Underlord, as he was now newly named, were all also in extreme shock, even though they had been grumbling about the fact that two of them had had to be left behind just a few seconds ago.
This went on for a few seconds, until finally, Daneel was the one who broke the silence.
"Where…the f*ck are we?"
He said this under his breath, and in the process, he exposed what each and every one of them was thinking.
As the spell was broken, the others started to speak, and eavesdropping on them made Daneel understand that he was still very new to the Order, and that there was still a lot that he needed to collect information about.
"I only heard about it… But this is the first I'm seeing it!"
"Shouldn't it only be reserved for the peak of the peak of 5-star missions? Why did we have to draw this?! I thought it would be a simple shark hunting session! We were prepared for that! Dammit!"
"Hey, don't complain! It's better than that Hell Dungeon!"
The sovereigns all also started to listen, and were infinitely curious now about just what they were seeing. They did not want to ask this group who still obviously held animosity towards them, and thankfully, the display panel soon refreshed to give them more information.
At the same time, they all also assessed what they were seeing once more with less shock and more attention, and in the process, they realized that it was more unique than they had imagined when they had first lain their eyes on it.
It was… an island, and a very colorful one, at that.
They were up above in the clouds, and from where they stood, they could see everything clearly. From an initial assessment, the population of this continent seemed to be around 10 million people, and countless buildings could be seen all over the place in various sizes.
It was colorful, with many shades of paint adorning the houses and even streets, and the people also wore colourful robes. Of course, they were too far up to see anything except this clearly unless they used zoom spells, so they first observed the other general details before focusing on the display panel.
The one thing that would strike anyone when they saw this island…was the tall wall that surrounded the entire area.
The entire thing was barely the size of a force in the Central Continent, but its walls were taller than even those that had been famous in Lanthanor. It was almost as if one of the forces had been picked up and then dropped in the sea, after adding an infinite amount of ferocious sharks and fishes in the area around it.
Indeed, this was the second thing that anyone's gaze would be attracted to, and even as they watched, they would see the natural cycle of life where a fish was eaten by a bigger one, and a shark then proceeded to devour that fish even while the latter wasn't even done digesting the one that it had just consumed.
The shores of this island were almost bare, and the walls only seem to be a couple of kilometers away from this extremely dangerous see. The entire island couldn't be more than 10,000 km²(3860 sq.miles) in area, which was comparable to the size of the famous New York metropolitan area back on Earth.
In terms of population, though, it was clearly only half of that famous place, and on first glance itself, one could find out the reason behind this- there were large tracts of farming land on which dots that represented people could be seen moving around, and it looked like spring was in full session, as all of these farms shone brightly in the sun with beautiful produce that was ready to be harvested.
Daneel observed all this, and finally got to the display panel to find out just where he had come, and just what this mission was.
Soon… He understood that he had really underestimated the Order until now.
"Welcome to the Infiltration Mission! What you see before you is the Island of Creylia.
Population: Approximately 10,578,000.
Land mass: 11,000 km2.
History: Once an independent island that was split up into multiple forces which all vied for power, the Island of Creylia was invaded by the Church as soon as its location became known when its protective barrier that had been hiding it from the eyes of the forces in the Mainland dissipated due to the after-effects of a disastrous civil war. Using such a perfect opportunity, the Church of St. Rectitude invaded the island and managed to take control before any other forces from the Mainland intervened. They proceeded to thoroughly implement defensive measures which would have made it difficult for any force to target afterward, which led to the others admitting defeat and looking for other places to take over.
As is common knowledge among those in the Order, the objective of the Church is to align the Will of the World towards it so that it can benefit from the incredible amount of power that one can harness if they control a majority of the Will. Hence, a purge was carried out which was 100% effective. Unlike in general areas that the Church occupies, no survivors were allowed to remain.
Afterward, in a span of 24,000 years, three different types of government were implemented by the Church on this island. The first was a one government plan which established the Church is the highest office. Children were taught in schools to always only follow St. Rectitude, but due to free-thinking becoming prominent, this government suffered a lot of unrest which resulted in another purge as the Will was not able to be properly harnessed. In the second government, the Church used an approach where its own name wasn't used directly - instead, a different force that was said to be for the people was implemented which everyone had to follow. The reasoning here was that having to follow a set of rules and an entity that they did not connect with might have been too ambitious, but even this government failed as rebels started to rise again. The third government is currently in reign, and it is widely known in the Mainland as one of the most successful forms of government to have existed. It is the research into this kind of government that was carried out which was sold to multiple forces for high prices that allowed the Church to gain much of its power on the Mainland.
Details of the third government are part of what participants in this quest are supposed to find out by themselves. All this information was intercepted by the Order from the mainland, and this entire quest has been set up using an ancient spell which requires copious amount of resources to be used. As such, the purpose is that it will motivate those who are taking part, and those who are watching to fight as hard as they can so that our own content will not have to suffer the same fate.
Hence, this is a mission where there will be a select audience, and also active Heroes who will monitor and manage everything that is going on. This is necessary, as although everyone you will interact with and see on this mission will seem lifelike, they are but projections of individuals that are somehow created using this ancient spell which even the Order does not understand, but possesses in its archives.
Your mission is as follows: infiltrate the Island of Creylia and massacre the true ruling force of the continent to take it into your grasp.
Time Limit: 3 months.
Hidden criteria will be used to judge your progress.
Minimum reward that can be obtained: 1 five-star reward for all those participating.
Maximum reward that can be obtained: 3 five-star rewards for prominent performers, and two five-star awards for all others.
The preparation phase will end in 10 minutes. Each member of the team who are participating shall be given different identities to choose from with which they can infiltrate the island. Identity must be picked by the end of the preparation phase. If not, identity will be randomized.
Good luck."
Daneel finished reading the panel along with his subordinates, and when they were done, they couldn't help but stare among themselves with dubious looks on their faces.
Could this… Possibly be true?!
If so, it changed everything they had assumed about the Order, because the feat of simulating such a large place with millions of unique people… Was something that they couldn't even think about.
Daneel was so flabbergasted that he needed to take a few seconds to even ask the system just what kind of spell would be needed to do such a thing, to which the answer was actually quite surprising.
[Combination of Peak Hero level spells can possibly result in such a simulation if actively managed by multiple Heroes.]
So the Hero realm was so magical that even this kind of complexity could be handled?
Daneel was quite shocked by this, and he could detect right away that there might be some sort of catch that even the system was missing, as it was still only at the Peak Champion realm.
And also...two purges? Really? Were the Church so evil that they didn't flinch from killing millions multiple times?
Still… That was not what he should be thinking about right now, as they had only 10 minutes.
He glanced at the others whom they had come in with, and after seeing that they actually all had clarity on their faces, he wondered what was up.
This was when the Underlord turned in their direction and said, "Alright, although this is the first time that we are taking this mission, it doesn't mean that we're helpless. From the records that my fam- Err, I mean, a little bird told me about all the times that others have taken part in similar missions, so I know a very effective method that can be used. I'll explain after we are inside the Island. For now, look at the list provided and choose an identity which fits you the most. This is important, as there is a chance that you will be outed as someone from the outside if you choose an identity that does not go with your own character. This is one of the pitfalls that many fall into at this stage, so because we have the wealth of knowledge, we should endeavor to not do so."
Daneel raised his eyebrows as he heard this, as he couldn't have expected that this slimy guy would be in possession of such top tier acknowledge. He could tell already that this was definitely a very important type of mission, and that information regarding it was definitely tightly controlled.
The fact that he knew it, and that he had mentioned a family made it clear that he was very well connected, so that brought his unique character all the more into the question.
For the moment, though, Daneel decided that he was probably right, as it made logical sense. During infiltration, it was always best to choose identities that one could enter easily, and that was why spies back on Earth were said to take extensive acting classes so that they could mimic anyone that they were concealed as effortlessly.
Unfortunately, he and his sovereigns could not go through such a kind of training in such a short amount of time, so they had to make do with what the Underlord had suggested.
Daneel nodded at the rest, indicating them to choose, while he also started to flick through all of the options that were available.
There were around 150 options to choose from, which was definitely more than what Daneel had thought there would be, but because they had 10 minutes, it was enough time to go into the detail of each and every one and pick one that was suitable for that person. For each identity, their background occupation, hobbies, and family details were given, and this was more than enough information.
While going through the list, none of them especially stood out, but a second later… He spotted the perfect one, and he even got the feeling that he would probably not need to go through the rest, either.
Indeed, even after reaching the bottom, there was nothing else which fit Daneel better, so he announced it right away, with a satisfied expression flashing across his face.
"Retired Army General, used to being in command, held in high esteem by his society, loves to help others in his pastime and perform vigilante justice, known as being domineering in nature. Oh…that's definitely me. Everyone, I'm picking Rayleigh."