Chapter 95 - Another complication (2/2)
During this time, Rudra and others went to the gate to make sure it was secure and Slaine positioned him on top of one of the wooden towers. He was observing the surrounding through his scope.
At this time, Shadow was free and decided to check his mail. He had to ones which he had to pay attention to. One was from the Elias Edgerton, Ellie's uncle who asked him to contact him on phone. He was working using the somnium technology overnight in conjuction with Leon in creating virtual armaments and wanted to check if he could actually use a whip which he asked Ellie for.
”Wow! Either Winston is too fast, or Elias was already working with Leon,” thought Balthazar as he saw the mail. If he could convince Leon, he definitely would be able to procure a decent mid-range weapon from Ellie.
The other mail was something completely unexpected. It was not a simple mail but a fairly large mail chain. It was from the military and included quite a few important names along with him. It was from Hector Constantine who presided over all the projects done by Scions of Minerva. It included names such as Victor Constantine, Evelyn Price, Xander Drake, Winston and a few others. The main content of the letter was to keep him secure and not give him any military assignments as he was considered an important test subject and is a necessary person for the biofeedback combat suit project that they are working on.
This was extremely shocking to him. Apart from him, Xander, Evelyn and Winston were also quite confused and immediately replied to it requesting the reason for that assessment of Balthazar. Winston not only sent mail back to Hector but replied on the same thread to Marcus Price for answers.
The only reply they got was to schedule a virtual meeting with Hector Constantine and Victor Constantine, where they could all discuss about it. It was scheduled early morning at 7 a.m that day. He was also asked by Winston and Evelyn on the same chain regarding his involvement in it.
The most surprised person was Balthazar. In his past life, it was a dream to people like him to come in contact with the Scions of Minerva. These were legends in both the scientific and military communities and were responsible for many innovations that simplified the lives and efforts of the military. But right now, he was confused and slightly even afraid of them as he didn't understand what they were talking about.
He immediately called Winston from the game. He was agitated and shocked by this sudden turn of events. He wanted to clear it up with his grandfather at the very least that he wasn't involved with them. Though the conversation was short, his grandfather realized that Balthazar was as shocked as him from the state of his voice on the call.
”Don't worry. If you are not involved, it isn't an issue. There might be a chance of these guys having made a mistake. Even in the worst case that they don't accept it, you can always refuse it. They don't have the rights to make you do something that you don't want to,” said Winston comforting him.
Though he convinced his grandson in the call, Winston wasn't certain either. The Scions of Minerva were very famous and any such contact to people outside of their inner circle would be double and triple checked. They have to maintain their reputation and wouldn't make such mistakes easily. So, Winston believed that there was a high chance of Balthazar being monitored discreetly without his permission.
Even, if it was a mistake, the fact that it was sent at this time implied that someone who didn't want him working with Evelyn, discovered about his meet with Evelyn and Xander and tried to stop it. The part that Winston found most frightening in this case was that they had high level access to the workings of the Scions of Minerva and could have a modic.u.m of control over them. Either way, Winston considered it to be, he couldn't deny that his grandson was being discreetly monitored by someone at the Blyth mansion and even they didn't manage to realize this.
On the other end, Balthazar who had just talked to his grandfather on the call was also confused and tensed. Since he saw the mail, he also had some thought which were similar to his grandfather and was worried and it could be seen clear on his face. Rudra who was right by him, noticed it and inquired.
”I just received an unexpected mail from the military, and it is a bit concerning,” said Balthazar. He couldn't reveal the contents of the mail to Rudra as it was marked confidential. He simply sat down on the floor of the passage and began to think what it could be about. The most irritating thing about it was that it restricted his plans, if they took it seriously. He would have to make some changes in that scenario.
”Don't worry. Nothing I can't handle,” said Balthazar as he noticed that Rudra was concerned about him. Rudra was obviously concerned for his friend whose life had been full of turmoil for the last month. His base was attacked by apes and then, his uncle died just two days ago. Such a situation would cause mental breakdown to most.
Balthazar immediately opened up the mail and began to read it again in case, he missed something. He was quite shocked the first time he read it and immediately made a call to Winston. He noticed that Victor Constantine, the CEO of the Metis Technologies was involved. This suddenly put him in thought.
”The somnium tech was originally a military initiative. There is a high chance that they would be monitoring our performance and other scientific things when playing the game,” thought Balthazar. ”I was good at the game, but I didn't do anything very astounding. I always limited it from going overboard. I didn't even use most of the skills that I learned in my previous life,” he thought.
He pondered on it for a few more minutes and thought about some other alternatives, but none other than this made sense. ”This is the most probable thing that happened,” he murmured as he saw Lizzie, Tetsujin and other members from the guild come to the fort. He realized that it is best to consider his options after he actually comes to know why he is being considered by the Scions of Minerva and got up to open the vault. He still had to meet up with Leon and Elias for them to certify him to be able to use wh.i.p.s.
”Give me a minute, I need to compose a mail,” he told them as he replied to Elias and Leon that he was ready to meet them right now for the certification and that he also intended to talk to Elias a bit more about the usage of samsara framework.
After he sent the mail, he went to the vault and started to pick the lock. These doors were also quite similar to the other vault, made of rock and 4 feet wide each. In a few seconds, the clicks of the tumblers being loosened was heard as the door unlocked. He helped them to push open the door and checked the vault inside, before he opened his mail again. Elias had already replied to him and provided a virtual address for him to go to where he could talk to them.
”I have something to do and would be absent for half-an-hour, maybe an hour,” he said looking at Rudra, Tetsujin and Lizzie. ”Will be logging out now.”
”Now? We need you to talk to that spectre in less than two hours. That much time outside may make you lose the chance to accept it. Why don't you first accept the spectre's suggestion and then log out,” said Tetsujin worriedly.
The time was three times faster in the game and Tetsujin assumed that him logging out of the game to mean, he had to do something in real-life. There were hardly few things that one could do while using somnium tech and none he knew would take that much time.
”It is a virtual meeting using the somnium tech. Just logging out, but will have the same sense of time,” said Shadow as he logged out.