Chapter 98: Mask of Mediocrity (Bonus - )

Chapter 98: Mask of Mediocrity (Bonus Chapter)

Everyone wants to be a Hunter now?

What bullshit is that?

Did people suddenly have the urge to pick up spears and venture into the wasteland to hunt like cavemen?

Kaelen felt like he’d been thrown into an alternate reality and felt a growing headache.

He immediately took out his phone to browse everything Kenora had just said when he realized his battery was dead.

"Tch. Fine. I’ll do it myself." Kaelen said to himself and was about to leave the World Authority Fragment when SKD called out.

"Milord," he said as he approached with an item in his hand. A mask.

"I decided to review all your loots in your absence, and found this one and thought it’d be very useful for master." The Supreme Elder Dragon said as he handed Kaelen the mask in his hand.

"Huh?"

As soon as Kaelen touched the ugly mask that had a scowling expression, a system prompt appeared in his vision.

[Mask of Mediocrity: A Mythic Mask that makes the wearer invisible in crowds, and irrelevant in groups. Everyone who comes across the wearer would overlook their presence and forget their appearance like a nobody.]

Oh?

Kaelen sure had almost forgotten he was a wanted man, till he read the description and raised a thoughtful gaze at the Supreme Elder Dragon.

"Thank you for this, SKD. And I promise you won’t lose your place in my heart when I achieve a stronger warrior." Kaelen said dramatically and shifted his attention back to the mask.

"Alright, let’s see what you can do..." Kaelen mumbled to himself as he placed the mask over his face, and it melted into his skin.

He didn’t feel anything afterwards.

"How do I look?" He asked SKD.

"You look the same as always, milord." Kaelen’s lips twitched, and he turned to Kenora. Before he could ask, she spoke first.

"Oh? Uhh... okay."

"What’s that supposed to mean? How do I look?"

"Well, you look... average."

"Average?"

"Yeah... Maybe a bit below that. Just a bit. Calling you average is kind of an overstatement."

"What?" Kaelen mumbled to himself.

So he looked the same according to SKD, but below average according to Kenora.

His appearance didn’t change; it just failed to matter, and whoever looked at him now wouldn’t bother to look twice.

Perfect.

"SKD, you’re in charge as always till I’m back." Kaelen said and disappeared from the spot.

"Wait..." Kenora trailed off. She’s been trapped in that castle for three months without earning a shred of evolution points. She was bound to be left behind by her world and die a weakling. She exhaled in exasperation and disappeared downstairs to get her foodstuffs.

Meanwhile, Kaelen used Shadow Step to silently move across the wasteland till he arrived at Stronghold 1, which was the nearest and better choice to sneak into.

As soon as he snuck beneath the walls, he was hit by the festive vibes that threw him back.

To him, it felt like yesterday when he blew up the heart of the stronghold, and today they were celebrating.

What were they celebrating for?

He moved across streets, blending into the crowd where no one spared him a second glance, and several people bumped into him like they hadn’t seen him standing there, till he found an internet cafe and disappeared inside.

He quickly found a booth and plugged his phone in first.

He still found it ironic how strong he probably was but still had to find a charger to plug his phone in to charge its battery. Couldn’t he just, like, speak life into it or something?

He exhaled wearily and immediately grabbed a pen and sticky note he found on the table, and began jotting down the things Kenora had revealed to him, including those he wanted to know himself.

Then he immediately went to typing away at the keyboard and absorbing all the information on the screen with a single glance like a bookworm.

Kenora was right.

Everyone wants to be a Hunter.

Hunter was a profession created barely three months ago by the Hunter’s Association that had become the most popular profession across strongholds. These Hunters were awakeners responsible for clearing out the spatial gates that appeared and spilled monsters into reality.

And with the rise of the Hunter Association, which controlled the spatial gates, several in-game guilds were starting to bleed into reality and register under the Hunter Association.

In other words, reality has become like a game where players cleared these spatial gates that originated from an actual game.

Even as the most risky profession for players under Tier 9, a lot of forums claimed the evolution points and rewards earned in these spatial gates were worth the risk over playing the ’brutally unfair’ game.

Kaelen smiled in amusement.

The game wasn’t really unfair. They just felt that way because of his cheat.

That’s right.

After much thinking, Kaelen had the speculation that Evolution Online’s base world was only a tutorial world to prepare humanity for the real danger.

Kaelen had never been to any other world yet, but from Kenora’s world, there were real people and civilizations—just like Earth—compared to the base world that was mostly PvP.

Hunting beasts who were nine times out of ten fellow players.

If Evolution Online’s base world was only a tutorial world, it was normal for the rewards and gains to be small.

Humanity had one job, and that was to ascend to Tier 9 and escape the tutorial world. Except they sold the one thing that mattered in the universe, Evolution Points, for money.

Kaelen was guilty of this, but compared to other players who entirely dropped the game to become Hunters for the higher gains and rewards...

Of all people, Kaelen couldn’t believe Black Rose was the one making this mistake, unless she had a good reason behind dropping her position at the No. 1 guild for this.

At that moment, Kaelen came across a clip from the coronation ceremony to see Black Rose seated on her throne while a man sat not far to her side. The moment Kaelen saw the man, he immediately frowned, because this was the same man from the Governor’s estate.

What is he doing there?

Kaelen immediately began researching, only to discover the true identity of the man as the first son of Governor Grey and now Governor of Stronghold 3.

That was strangely convenient.

Having a miracle recovery only to become the next Governor, and suddenly there was a Hunter’s Association made by Black Rose, who also became the Emperor after her father conveniently disappeared.

Too many coincidences.

Kaelen leaned back in his seat and stared at the two faces.

He had taken out two pawns of these mysterious figures pulling the strings behind the scenes, only for their two children to take their positions... and their place?

Kaelen began researching more on the strange man, only to discover his predicament had begun after he snuck into his father’s beta test pod ten years ago, went into a coma for ten years, and suddenly woke up to be stronger than everybody else who’d been playing Evolution Online for that long.

Kaelen narrowed his eyes. Except the man had a Talent like Kaelen’s Domineering Body and had been passively cultivating evolution points for ten years, the only explanation for his strength was that when he entered inside that beta test pod, he didn’t get trapped in his head. Rather... he got trapped in Evolution Online.

Except his timing was all too convenient for him, which made Kaelen speculate if he came back to take his father’s place, not just as the Governor, but as the next divine pawn.

But then, did that mean Black Rose was also taking the place of her father, not just as the Emperor?

Kaelen’s brows furrowed as his expression turned cold.

Either way, he was going to get to the bottom of this, and if he discovered Black Rose was now a part of this elaborate scheme... he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her.