Chapter 1365 (2/2)

RUMMMMMMBLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEE!!!

The crowd shuddered as the noise slammed against their bodies. Naffur cleared his throat lightly and folded his arms behind his back like this sort of phenomenon was quite normal. “Thank you all for accepting the invitation of Kharon to come live and work here. I am Naffur Suite, the Acting Leader of the Order Ducis. For those of you who haven’t heard that name before… we are an independent police force that makes sure other Orders or governments don’t oppress their citizens. For that reason, we intervened directly and chased away the Blighted Paragon that you used to follow.”

Helen twisted side to side with her feet planted and shivered in pleasure as a series of satisfying cracks ran up and down her spine. Because the Order Ducis had been the second Task Force to clear their Danger Zone, the whole force had been back when Vye’s follow up report on Howard Boltmer had made it to the Ghosthound. And Helen had the great pleasure to lead a group of Riders back to the headquarters of the Blighted Paragon to perform a more… thorough investigation.

Unfortunately, the former-Russian got wind of what was going on and fled with about ten thousand of his closest supporters. Although teaching the man a lesson was important, the half a million people that he had abandoned were more important in the eyes of the Order Ducis. So Helen’s excitement had turned to bitterness as she baby-sat the group until Kharon itself arrived on the scene.

Zone 7 and Zone 11, both of which needed additional population to fill out their land area, had combined their wealth to purchase a portable teleportation array from a Village and sent an elite group to bring it to Kharon when the Order Ducis had spread word of the huge group of refugees. With the array, Kharon had simply needed to gather up the drifting population and send them to be someone else's' problem.

Of course, they also combed carefully through the group to find anyone who seemed to have great potential or special skills. Most of the fighters had gone with Boltmer, but that was fine; if anything, the one thing Kharon didn’t need was more warriors. The one thousand people gathered in front of Naffur now were those that had passed the initial tests and interviews, were invited by various organizations in Kharon, and had accepted those invitations.

“After listening to you speak for the last several days, allow me to address a few of the common questions that I’ve heard,” Naffur continued to speak to the crowd, ignoring the fact that he wasn’t the main object of their focus. Honestly, Helen supposed this might be a normal occurrence for Naffur. He often was cast in the roll of a foil by simply being relatively solid and dependable while Randidly Ghosthound made large waves. “One, Kharon and the Order Ducis is a unique existence on New Earth. They were both founded by Randidly Ghosthound, the most powerful man on Earth. As you were informed with your invitations to stay in Kharon-”

BOOOOOOOOM!

Helen snickered as the rumble from above forced Naffur to pause in his speech. But now that I think about it, we basically all have to deal with the messes that bastard leaves behind… After the noise died down, Naffur continued.

“-there was a portion of Earth that was connected to each other, unlike the bubble cities. These were called Zones. Unlike bubble cities, they were only beset by monsters at the beginning. But the population density was much lower and the people there had to pass both a Tribulation and a Raid Dungeon in order to connect to New Earth. From what we’ve gathered, there were fifty Zones made on Earth… and only six have survived to this point. As you have seen, the people of New Earth are genuinely far more powerful than those from bubble cities.

“Two, I’ve heard a lot of people ask why we are powerful. The answer is simple: it’s because of images. You can consider Skills to be a preset image gifted to you by the System. People who master image can use Skills without using Skills, as it were. Which essentially means that those from New Earth can utilize two Skills at once, while people stuck in bubble cities are currently stuck with the preset Skills from the System. You can utilize half as much power as we can. That is why you are weak.”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!

As if to emphasize the last line of Naffur’s speech, an extra ominous explosion rocked out from the island floating above. The explosion was so loud the concussive force hit the people below like a slap to the face. Helen clicked her tongue in annoyance and looked upward toward the source. Most disturbingly, there wasn’t even the smallest bit of change happening to the silver mist swirling the floating island.

Naffur cleared his throat and continued. “Three, because you’ve accepted an invitation of various organizations of Kharon, you will be required to stay on Kharon and participate in certain mandatory evaluations for the next three months. You will be trained in this period, but a lot of the training is voluntary. But I’ll say this: all your invitations were preliminary. If you do not perform well in the training period, you will be asked to leave Kharon when that period is over. And do not be surprised if higher-performing peers take the jobs that were tentatively offered to you.

“Kharon is a place of hard work and merit.” Naffur’s face was suffused with obvious pride as he spoke. “Based on your potential, you’ve been given the opportunity to join us. When not training, I would encourage you to explore the city and meet new people. Feel the spirit of the Wandering City. You won’t regret it.”

There was a smattering of polite applause afterward, causing Helen to roll her eyes. These fools had no idea the opportunity they were being given.

But how could they? Helen reflected. That first time that I fought against Randidly in the Regional Qualifier for the under Level 25 tournament, I really had no idea how much he would affect my life…

Her mocking attitude vanished quickly as she reflected on the woman she had used to be. Very quickly, her thoughts drifted to her mother. In front of her, other applicants to the Order Ducis stepped forward and began guiding the thousand people into Kharon. Despite the power they had achieved within the System, these one thousand people trembled with nerves as platforms wreathed in emerald energy floated down to carry them up to their new life.

Afterward, Naffur walked over to Helen and let the exhaustion show on his face. “Finally done… I really hate giving speeches.”

“You are getting better,” Helen offered. Perhaps it was the stray thought about her mother, but she felt like prodding at the obviously overworked young man. “But we aren’t done yet. We need to head up to visit Randidly. Did you think you wouldn’t be participating in the attack on the Epic Raid Dungeon…? The planning meeting starts in an hour.”

Naffur blinked and looked at Helen with a blank expression. Then he groaned.

Helen smiled wickedly. “Oh? Did I forget to tell you…?”