Chapter 132 - The Hunt3rs Alliance

  The chamber, still cloaked in the aftermath of destruction, had gone eerily silent save for one very persistent sound: Meera’s heavy sobs muffled against Adam’s chest. At first, the boy had stood still, letting her emotions run their course. It was understandable—after all, the mental overwrite he had inflicted on her was not a light process. But after several long minutes, it started to get awkward.

  She wasn’t letting go. Not even a little. In fact, she had tightened her grip around his waist, her face buried against him with such intensity that her breath fogged the bloodstained fabric of his hoodie. And she kept sobbing—loud, pitiful cries that echoed awkwardly across the shattered floor and cracked marble walls.

  Adam stood there stiffly, eyes darting to the corners of the ruined room as if searching for salvation. His arms hung limply at his sides, unsure where to place them. Every time he tried to shift even slightly, she clung tighter, as if afraid he would vanish the moment she blinked. He grimaced. This was getting ridiculous.

  “…Alright.”

  He finally said, clearing his throat and lowering his voice to a more serious tone.

  “Meera, right? That’s enough. I need to—uh—talk to you. There’s something important we need to discuss. Now.”

  The sobbing dulled slightly. She sniffled loudly and raised her head just enough to look at him. Her eyes were red and puffy, her mascara having bled into smoky smudges under her lower lashes. But even through the mess, she smiled. A fragile, beautiful, impossibly relieved smile.

  “I thought you were dead…”

  She whispered, still clinging to him.

  “All those years… I thought you died in that accident. But you’re here. You’re really here, aren’t you, big brother?”

  Adam blinked, speechless for a full second. Big… brother?

  There was a pause—one that hung so thick in the air that it nearly strangled him. The [Soulcrusher Virus] skill, of course. That was its design: to overwrite the victim’s most important memories with his presence. In Meera’s case, he hadn’t just replaced a few mentors or allies. No. Somehow, he had replaced someone core to her psyche. A sibling, her own brother. It was a disturbing testament to how deeply the virus had taken root.

  “I… yeah.”

  He replied slowly, choosing his words with the best precision he could.

  “I’m here.”

  She nodded furiously, smiling through tears.

  “I knew it. I knew it deep down. You were always the strongest, you know? Even when we were little. You’d protect me from everything. Even when those awful kids used to bully me back in school, you were the one who beat them up and pretended it wasn’t you.”

  Adam opened his mouth. Then closed it. Then opened it again. He has done none of that, obviously, but the images flashing in Meera’s eyes were so vivid, so genuine, that denying them would be pointless. She believed every word she was saying. Her mind had filled in the blanks, weaving fiction into a story that matched her emotions. And yet, every so often, her brows would twitch slightly, like a part of her knew the timeline didn’t make sense—but the plague-infused memory had smothered that part rewrite.

  “You know what kept me going?”

  She continued, her voice still shaking.

  “After you… After I thought you were gone? Nothing. Nothing mattered. I just wandered. For years. Emptiness. And then I was here… this place. This realm, the system. All the fighting, all the battles—it was the only time I felt alive again. Because it reminded me of you. How we used to spar in the backyard. Remember that?”

  Adam didn’t even try to respond this time.

  “I’m so sorry, I should’ve known it was you. I should’ve seen it the moment I laid eyes on you. But I was too wrapped up in… everything else.”

  She whispered.

  “Well, we can talk more about that later. Right now—”

  Adam said, attempting to gently shift the topic back toward something useful, however he didn’t get to finish. With a sudden burst of strength, Meera pulled him even closer and pressed his head directly into her chest.

  “I missed you sooooo much!”

  She cried, nuzzling her cheek against his hair while rocking slightly from side to side.

  “Look at you, all grown up! You even smell the same!”

  Adam’s face was entirely red. Not from blood this time, but sheer secondhand embarrassment. His arms flailed awkwardly, trying to push her off without seeming too aggressive.

  “O-okay! That’s enough! Personal space! We need to focus!”

  But Meera wasn’t listening. Her arms were locked tight around him, and she continued to stroke his hair lovingly, whispering how proud she was, how much she’d missed him, how glad she was that he was alive. Adam’s eye twitched.

  Without another word, his body suddenly dissolved into pale, flickering mist. The warmth around him vanished as he slipped effortlessly out of Meera’s embrace using [Spectral Mist Step], reappearing a few meters away with a gust of spectral air at his heels. He stood there, adjusting his clothes and brushing himself off with exaggerated calm. Meera blinked, confused.

  “H-Hey! Where did you—?!”

  Adam exhaled sharply and turned toward her, voice flat.

  “Focus. We’re not done here.”

  Meera’s lower lip trembled slightly.

  “But… I was just happy to see you again.”

  Adam sighed.

  “I know, I’m… Ugh, I’m happy to see you too… Sister… But we can be happier later, okay? Right now, I need answers.”

  In the back of his mind, Malzaphir’s laughter finally resumed, lower this time, rumbling like thunder in a crypt. Adam didn’t respond this time. He simply ran a hand down his face and mumbled under his breath.

  Meera finally settled into a more composed posture, her breathing even and her smile still embarrassingly wide as she sat cross-legged on the polished floor amidst the wreckage of divine architecture. The soft glint of broken pillars and scattered divine dust clung to her figure, but she didn’t seem to mind at all. Adam, meanwhile, kept a short distance between them, arms crossed, eyes narrowed in thought. He needed answers, and he needed them now.

  “Meera, first of all, when exactly did you and your team arrive at this scenario?”

  He began, his voice calm but firm. The woman tilted her head slightly, eyes lighting up with joy again as if she were being asked to recount an exciting memory.

  “Oh! That was just a few days ago, I think? We used a Plot Device. It’s called ‘Early Access’. Pretty cool, right?”

  She giggled.

  “It let us skip the normal entry queue and jump into the scenario right away.”

  Adam’s expression darkened. That confirmed it. The worst-case scenario was the truth after all. ‘Dragon Utopia’ had bypassed the countdown, and they were already inside the scenario long before anyone expected—and worse, they were acting right now… Trying not to let his concern show too obviously, Adam pressed further.

  “What have you been doing since then? I need you to tell me exactly what the team has done here and what your objectives are.”

  Meera beamed, not noticing the serious tone in his voice.

  “Well, we started by getting a read on the layout. Solène had us split up to scout the points of interest and contact nodes across the scenario, just to cross-check the system’s parameters. Then, once we knew what kind of setup we were dealing with, we updated our target list.”

  Adam blinked.

  “Target list?”

  “Oh yeah!”

  She nodded, clapping her hands like she’d just remembered a birthday.

  “We made a list of valuable opponents to track down and hunt. Solène said it’d be more efficient to take their rare skills and signature abilities now before they could level them up too much. And apparently, your team—you know, ‘No Name’—had the most promising profiles.”

  She paused for a moment, tilting her head in confusion as her smile wavered slightly.

  “Wait… that means… oh my god, I was supposed to help hunt you down, wasn’t I?”

  She blinked several times, visibly troubled for the first time since regaining consciousness.

  “That’s so dumb! I can’t believe I didn’t notice. I mean… You were right there! My brother! Ugh, I’m such an idiot!”

  Adam stared at her in disbelief.

  “You mean to tell me your team planned to ambush us and steal our abilities? Like, actually extract our skills?”

  Meera nodded cheerfully again, mood instantly rebounding.

  “Mhmm! We have this thing we learned from another alliance—this new group we’re part of now. It’s called the ‘Hunt3rs Alliance’. Solène negotiated our entry last month. They’ve got access to methods that let you forcibly take skills if you can beat the target in combat. They’re amazing! The Hunt3rs team leads the Alliance, they are ranked number three in the entire system now!”

  Adam couldn’t keep the disbelief off his face. Hunt3rs Alliance. Skill theft. Strategic pre-scenario access. The pieces were falling into place fast, and the picture they painted was ugly. They hadn’t just entered early to gain footing—they had come in with the intent to cripple and dominate. Adam glanced away for a moment, feeling the weight of their situation sink deeper into his chest.

  Meanwhile, Meera had brought her knees to her chest and was now idly twirling one of her chakram with a dreamy expression.

  “Don’t worry, though. I don’t care what Solène says anymore. I’d never let them hurt you. If they want to take your skills, they’ll have to go through me first!”

  She added, smiling as she looked back at him. Adam didn’t know whether to feel relieved or more alarmed. Either way, he had to keep pressing for details. The clock was ticking, and the path forward just became much more dangerous.

  Adam raised his hand slightly, cutting Meera off mid-sentence before she could spiral into another overly cheerful tangent.

  “Wait, this ‘Hunt3rs Alliance’. I need you to explain it properly. Everything, and how does this stealing skills thing work?”

  He said firmly. Meera blinked, then let out a dramatic sigh, resting both hands behind her head as she leaned back.

  “Okay, okay, but it’s a long story, so you better sit down or something.”

  Adam’s eyes narrowed.

  “We don’t have time for long stories. Summarize it, please.”

  “Fine…”

  She said, sticking out her tongue playfully before straightening up a bit.

  “So, the ‘Hunt3rs Alliance’ is something that started a few months ago. The team Hunt3rs began pulling together strong, independent teams from all around the system. They started showing up a lot on the social forums, even popping into the Trade Nexus and offering all these unique contracts. At first, nobody took them seriously. But then… well, they started showing results.”

  Adam listened silently, committing every word to memory.

  “Results?”

  “Yeah. They developed—or maybe found—a method to forcibly extract a skill from another user if you beat them in a controlled scenario. Not just copying. Stealing. The original user loses it permanently.”

  She leaned in with a whisper, eyes glinting with dark amusement.

  “Of course, it requires specific conditions, permissions, timing, and a few Plot Devices that are almost impossible to get, but with the resources the Hunt3rs have? They made it work. And now they’re sharing that tech with their allies.”

  Adam’s stomach twisted.

  “And they gave that to Dragon Utopia?”

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  Meera nodded cheerfully.

  “Yup! Solène was thrilled. It was her idea to join, actually. They promised us all sorts of benefits. Better equipment, system protections, access to black market cooldown resets, and that method. We were one of the first to be invited.”

  Adam rubbed his temple, already dreading the implications, but Meera wasn’t finished.

  “Anyway, the real reason they’re recruiting so aggressively is because they want to fight against a new power that’s rising in the system. You’ve probably never heard of it. It’s called the ‘Eden Alliance’.”

  Adam’s brow furrowed.

  “Eden Alliance? That’s another group?”

  Meera tilted her head as if surprised.

  “Wait, you don’t know about Eden?”

  “I’ve heard the name maybe once, I’m not familiar.”

  She sat forward, fingers intertwined as if preparing to recite an important tale.

  “Okay, so team Eden is… different. Nobody knows exactly how it works, but they only recruit users who have reached the absolute top. We’re talking the best of the best. It’s invitation only, and from what I heard, you can’t say no if they choose you. The people there aren’t just powerful—they’re absolute monsters.”

  Adam remained still, his mind spinning with everything being dropped on him.

  “They recently got a new leader, he has a funny name, but I don’t remember what it was… Goulash or something like that. Whatever, what we do know is that after that new leader showed up, team Eden started moving. They formed their own alliance. Not a small one either. They’ve got ‘Zenith’ and ‘Aeternum Exilium’ under their banner now.”

  Adam nearly flinched.

  “Wait… Zenith? Aeternum Exilium?”

  He said, remembering seeing those two names when Katya showed them the team rankings.

  “Rank one and two. Now both are allied with Eden and are monopolizing every big event rewards. And here’s the kicker—apparently, that new Eden leader personally crushed the entire Hunt3rs team once. Alone. Completely wrecked them. No warning either, he just showed up during a scenario and erased their presence like they were nothing.”

  She paused, tone briefly darkening.

  “So Hunt3rs has a vendetta. They’re trying to build up enough force to strike back. They call Eden a tyrannical threat that annihilates everyone who opposes them. They say the ‘Eden Alliance’ wants to rewrite how the system works. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but Solène believes them.”

  Adam took a slow breath, eyes sharp, mind absorbing every single word. It made a twisted kind of sense now. This realm, the system, the scenarios, everything, was far more complex than just surviving hellish worlds. There were politics, vendettas, shadow organizations, and alliances forming as military factions, like in the real world.

  Adam let out a long breath through his nose, the weight of what he had just learned still settling like dust in his chest. The web of politics and system mechanics was already more convoluted than he had imagined, but he couldn’t afford to let it overwhelm him. There was too much at stake. He glanced back at Meera, whose cheerful expression hadn’t faltered even once throughout their entire conversation. She looked at him like a sister talking to her favorite sibling—excited, eager to share everything.

  “All right, then tell me. How do you choose your targets? And how exactly do you steal the skills? I want details.”

  Adam said, his voice steadier now. Meera’s smile widened, and she raised her hand with a theatrical wave.

  “Let’s start with the easy part, then! The actual stealing part.”

  With a flick of her wrist, a strange object appeared between her fingers. At first glance, it looked like a small dagger, but the more Adam focused on it, the less it resembled any conventional weapon. It was too thin, too elegant in shape, the blade almost like glass but tinged with a sickly iridescent shimmer. Not metal nor plastic, but something in between.

  Adam’s eyes narrowed instinctively. His ‘Cursed Vision’ activated on its own, flooding his mind with system prompts. Text burned across his retina in pale crimson.

  Adam stared at the floating information, his expression hardening. He said nothing for a few seconds, trying to process just how something like that could even exist. The system had always hinted that with enough creativity, the right combinations of abilities and points could create phenomena bordering on impossible. But this… this wasn’t just a clever build. This was a weapon of designed malice. This was a tool for surgical theft. A perfect mechanism for erasing another’s effort and claiming it as your own.

  He blinked slowly, and the text faded, but the implications lingered like a bitter aftertaste. Adam’s eyes narrowed. His tone sharpened slightly, despite the calm mask he maintained.

  “Have you ever used that dagger before? I mean… Actually tested it?”

  Meera tilted her head, humming thoughtfully as she twirled the deadly instrument between her fingers.

  “Not me personally, but Solène did. Once. Just to make sure it worked. And yep, it worked perfectly.”

  She admitted with a cheerful shrug. Her voice carried the kind of casual enthusiasm someone might have when talking about a new gadget or toy. But to Adam, it sounded like a distant thunderclap. His thoughts raced behind his expressionless gaze.

  “We have three of these, by the way.”

  Meera continued, beaming.

  “One for me, one for Solène, and the last one with Konrad. Isn’t that great? I was so excited when I got mine!”

  Adam’s jaw tensed slightly, but he let her keep speaking.

  “Oh, and guess what?”

  She added, leaning in with a conspiratorial grin, as if sharing some warm family secret.

  “We were planning to use them on members of the ‘No Name’ team. Specifically… you, big bro! And two others—Emir, that kid, and the old man, Sebastian. Your three were the top priority.”

  Adam didn’t move. His breath didn’t even hitch. But a flicker of something darker passed through his eyes.

  “Why us? What made us the targets?”

  He asked, voice low and deceptively calm. Meera chuckled, wagging her finger in mock disappointment.

  “Tsk, tsk. You don’t even know what you’ve got, do you?”

  She leaned back slightly, tapping the tip of the dagger against her chin.

  “Let’s start with the easiest. Emir. That boy has some insanely rare titles. I mean, there’s one that specifically gives him advantages in capturing and controlling divine entities. You know how huge that is? Some users would kill a hundred people just for a passive like that. Especially the leader of Zenith.”

  She paused, her smile widening.

  “You know him, right? The famous ‘God Tamer’? Yeah, he’d sell half his guild just to get something like the kid’s ability.”

  Adam’s mind was already grinding. He knew Emir had obtained some weird titles. Powerful in ways he hadn’t yet understood. But to hear it laid out so bluntly, with such casual greed, made his blood simmer. Still, he kept quiet and let her talk.

  “Then there’s the old man… Sebastian has something that’s honestly a dream come true. A skill of the ‘Aberration’ type.”

  Meera went on, her eyes lighting up even more. Adam blinked.

  “Aberration?”

  Meera nodded quickly.

  “Yup! Impossibly rare skills. The kind of reward the system gives only when someone does something it considers impossible. And I don’t mean ‘hard’, I mean impossible by its own rules. When that happens, the system freaks out and rewards the user with something illogical. Something that doesn’t even make sense in the structure of its laws. That’s what an Aberration skill is.”

  She leaned forward again, lowering her voice like she was sharing a priceless secret.

  “There’s maybe… twenty of those in the whole system. At most. Every one of them is terrifying. So, to find a new player with one? That’s not just luck. That’s a miracle. Either way, it’s a walking treasure chest.”

  Adam didn’t reply. His mind flicked back to all the times he’d seen Sebastian tinkering, fighting, and commanding that monstrous mechanical construct. The way the Steamtread Goliath moved was like it had its own soul. The way Sebastian could adapt and upgrade it in seconds. That eerie resonance between him and his creation. Maybe… maybe that was it. But before he could dig deeper into that theory, Meera continued.

  “As for you, brother, we wanted your race.”

  She said brightly, pointing the dagger at him like it were a teasing finger.

  “My… race?”

  Adam’s brows rose slightly.

  “Of course! You’re listed as a ‘Sacradevil Demi-JiangLich’, aren’t you? I’ve never even heard of something like that. That combination alone is a jackpot. It must give you crazy resistances, probably synergy with forbidden energy and divine types at the same time. That’s like having both ends of the spectrum in one body.”

  The tone of the conversation shifted. What to Meera seemed like a lighthearted and amusing exchange began to wear thin on Adam’s nerves. His expression grew colder with every word she spoke, and though he kept himself from visibly reacting, the disgust beneath his skin coiled tighter with each casual revelation. Still, he said nothing. He couldn’t afford to, since information was more valuable now than any weapon. If this version of Meera saw him as a beloved brother, then he would use that illusion for as long as necessary.

  The woman noticed something in his expression and tilted her head with an innocent smile, her tone almost scolding.

  “Are you making that face again? I told you, remember? I won’t let them touch you. No matter what. You’re my brother, and I don’t care what my team says.”

  Adam exhaled slowly, forcing his shoulders to relax as he reined in the churn rising in his gut.

  “Thank you, I’m fine, but I don’t want them to lay a finger on my team either.”

  He said quietly, though his voice held weight now. Meera blinked and looked away, clearly thinking about it. After a moment, she tapped her chin and gave a slightly reluctant nod.

  “Well… if that’s what you want, then okay. I won’t touch them either. I can’t promise what the others will do, but I’ll stay out of it.”

  That was enough. Adam straightened and locked eyes with her.

  “Then please tell me everything. I want to know who I’m dealing with—names, personalities, skills. All of it.”

  Meera pouted, lips pursed as she looked up and away like she was weighing the fate of the universe.

  “Hmm… I don’t know if I should…”

  She said with a faux-serious tone, even tapping her chin dramatically. Adam already felt the dread pooling in his stomach. He knew exactly what was coming, so he closed his eyes for a second, breathed in deeply like a man preparing to walk into fire, and then let out the most reluctant sigh known to mankind.

  Slowly—painfully—he shuffled over to her side, his back stiff and his eyes hollow.

  “…Sister, please.”

  He muttered like it physically pained him… It worked like a charm. Meera gasped with glee and immediately lunged at him with the speed of a cougar spotting prey.

  “Awww! You said it again!”

  She squealed, hugging him tightly and violently ruffling his hair like he was a ten-year-old at a birthday party.

  “You’re such a little gremlin when you want something! But it’s too cute, I can’t say no!”

  Adam did not respond. He was too busy mentally retreating into a cold, quiet void where there was no such thing as overenthusiastic fake siblings. Somewhere deep in the recesses of his mind, he heard Malzaphir cackling again.

  And then Meera talked… Oh, she talked a lot.

  While the boy endured her arms wrapped around his neck and her cheek resting against his head, Meera began to describe every detail of the team known as ‘Dragon Utopia’. Her voice was bright, affectionate, and filled with fondness that didn’t belong in a real interrogation—but that made it all the more effective.

  She spoke about each of them like childhood friends, detailing their quirks, battle styles, and personalities with unfiltered honesty. Adam listened with strained patience, nodding occasionally while trying not to look too uncomfortable about the fact that she was literally stroking his cheek..

  When she finally finished, Adam gently pulled away and began muttering under his breath. He recited the key points of what she had said one by one, eyes closed in focus, as if studying for a test. It was a technique he had used since his school days—repetition, internalization, mental hooks for long-term memory. He wasn’t going to forget any of it.

  “What were you doing in this scenario after arriving? What’s your team been up to?”

  He said once satisfied, opening his eyes again and clearing his throat.

  “Oh, that? Let’s see… after choosing who we wanted to hunt, we felt a really weird concentration of energy somewhere. So we went to check it out.”

  Meera tilted her head, then tapped her chin. Her tone was still cheerful, almost nostalgic.

  “There was this giant temple. I don’t really remember what it was for, but apparently it belonged to the paladins in this region. They got upset with us for poking around, like, really upset, and Solène lost her temper. She broke a wall. Maybe two, three, or four.”

  Adam’s eyes twitched. She said it like someone who’d accidentally spilled a drink.

  “And then this huge monster came out… Four arms, gold wings, crazy huge aura. A real pain in the butt. I think someone called it a Paladin Paragon or something.”

  Meera continued, rolling her eyes. Adam had stopped breathing, but the woman went on, oblivious.

  “It was really rough, but we managed to bring it down. Took a lot out of us, though. Luckily, Konrad turned it into an undead right afterward, so at least we didn’t waste it.”

  She stretched her arms lazily.

  “After that, we just rested. I got an oracle from Zha’vrin a bit later and was brought here. And then I saw you!”

  But Adam hadn’t heard any of that last part. His brain had stopped functioning the moment she said the words “Paladin Paragon”. His chest tightened. His heartbeat roared in his ears. Everything made sense now—the goddess’s sudden outburst, the divine beasts’ rampage, the unstable transformation of the paladins. They hadn’t been random. It had all started because of them.

  His teeth clenched, and his knuckles went white. However, before he could speak, before he could scream at her for the mess they’d caused, a deafening crash interrupted them.

  The wall beside them exploded inward. Debris flew across the chamber as a figure burst through the dust cloud, eyes wide in panic, her voice already screaming—

  “Run!”

  It was Kazue, and right behind her, floating with frantic wings, Euphemia soared through the breach, her face pale and trembling. They didn’t even glance at the ruined state of the room or question the awkward embrace they had just interrupted. All they knew was terror, and Adam could feel it.

  A pulse of something vile swept through the air like a wave of pressure. From the hole in the wall, dozens—no, hundreds—of elongated, glowing limbs crept inward like tendrils. They slithered and coiled over the ground, stretching along the shattered marble like pale worms, grabbing at everything they touched. A guttural cry echoed from beyond the light, a sound that did not belong to anything sane.

  Adam’s body tensed, and his thoughts froze for just a moment as something monstrous began to emerge through the broken wall behind Kazue and Euphemia. It wasn’t the sound that struck first—it was the sensation. A low vibration was crawling through the floor, rising through his legs, and curling around his spine. And then he saw it.

  A divine face, impossibly large, pushing forward through light and debris as if reality itself were trying—and failing—to keep it hidden. It was unmistakable. Adam had seen it countless times before in statues, in temple murals, etched onto the divine armaments of Arianka’s champions. That symmetrical beauty, that ethereal stillness. The face of the goddess, worshiped across the human empire as the goddess of humanity.

  But this was not that face exactly, it was warped

  The serene expression was gone, replaced by a gaping maw stretched far beyond what flesh should allow. Her mouth was frozen in an eternal scream, one that vibrated in the bones but never reached the ears. The cloth over her eyes—usually pure, symbolic of divine justice—was stained with thick trails of black ichor. It dripped steadily from beneath the blindfold, sliding over perfect cheeks now twisted in agony.

  Adam’s body acted before his mind could catch up. He lunged forward and seized Meera by the wrist.

  “Run!”

  He shouted, the force behind his voice breaking whatever paralysis remained in his limbs. Without hesitation, he tore forward, dragging her behind him as Euphemia and Kazue flew ahead in blind panic. The divine face continued to push forward, tendrils of searing light stretching from the wall like grasping arms, dragging across the marble, leaving grooves of liquified stone in their path.

  The sobbing, the scream, the crushing aura—it all crashed behind them in a wave of divine madness, sweeping through the broken chamber like a flood, chasing after them.