Chapter 168: Empty Seat

"We were betrayed," Moon stated flatly, digging his spoon into the cheesecake. "Korr betrayed us."

He placed the piece in his mouth. "It’s good this bitch is here now; saved me the trouble of finding my way back to the first floor," he added.

"What about your group?" Boa asked. "Where are they now?"

"Dead," Moon said, taking a sip of his coffee, acting like it was fine. "They all died."

Dorbish extended his hand to Moon’s shoulder. "I’m sorry," he patted him once.

"It’s fine, these are the rules of the first floor. You die if you’re weak," Moon said with a hardened face. "They didn’t have what it takes to survive."

He exhaled slowly, shaking his head, going for another sip of coffee.

"How are you sure? Maybe they’re alive. Didn’t you ascend—" Lexie tried to say something, but Moon cut her off.

"I only ascended after the last of them was dead," he said. "I was the only one left alive."

Moon closed his eyes, recalling the scene from back then. Himself, 9th Bro... The littered bodies all over.

The wounds they had on their bodies.

Moon opened his eyes again. "When I opened my eyes again, I was greeted by that disgusting eyeball."

"Ss-s-s-s-s-s-sir Saviour, you can’t say that!" Nola suddenly warned.

Ding!

Moon finally saw a notification coming, but it wasn’t Fate Alert. Instead—

[Offensive Behaviour to an administrator detected!][Applying penalty][Error][All system functions are disabled][Unable to apply penalty]

Moon watched the notifications playing; he shook his head. "Don’t worry, that bitch eyeball can’t do shit but scare kids."

Ding!

[Error][Unable to apply penalty]

It seemed to be common knowledge that offending the Administrators would result in penalties that would strictly apply to system functions.

But since Moon already had all of them disabled, there was nothing to fear.

Inventory and Rewards, these are the core of ascension for everyone. For Moon, he was already a bad apple since the day he discovered the world was actually a Tower.

"I’m sorry for your loss." One after another, everyone said these words. No exception.

Even if Moon knew well how to hide his grief, he couldn’t hide his desire to kill Korr. It was evident to everyone.

"Why did he do it?" Talia asked.

Moon shrugged. "Like hell if I know," he said. "One day we woke up getting ready for a new battle; once the battle began, he recalled the army and left us to die."

He opened his hands helplessly. "We were swarmed without end from every direction."

Once again, Moon mixed lies with truths: ’Not until I find him, not until then,’ he promised himself in his heart.

Moon took the last piece of the cheesecake into his mouth, drank the last sip of coffee in his cup, and leaned back in his seat.

"Too bad they all died; we never had anything that tasted that good on the first floor," Moon said casually.

Lexie and Nola were on the verge of tears; Boa went silent, not uttering another word.

Roran had a complicated look on his face, a little understanding, a little recognition.

Colten and Abshi exchanged glances before Colten nodded.

Abshi leaned closer to Moon’s ear. "Boss," he called him for the first time, "do you want another one? Cheesecake and coffee, I mean," he asked.

Moon raised his eyebrow, suddenly remembering something. "Why are you guys standing?" he asked instead, looking at them, Nola and Boa.

"Erm?" Roran wanted to say something, but found everyone exchanging glances. He decided not to speak again.

Instead, it was Talia who spoke. "Meetings like ours centre around the core members and their aides who stand behind them," she explained.

Moon shook his head. "That’s not what I’m asking; they can stay behind, but why standing?" he asked another obvious question that no one had even bothered with before.

"You want them to get seated?" Talia asked.

"You don’t want them to?" Moon asked back, raising his eyebrows.

Talia shook her head. "Of course not." She gestured for Boa, but Abshi spoke.

"I’ll do it," he said before walking away.

Soon enough, everyone was seated around the table. But one seat, since the beginning, remained empty.

The seat between Talia and Lexie—this seat was empty from the very beginning till this moment.

Moon looked at it but didn’t ask. ’Maybe they’re missing a member today,’ he thought in silence.

Talia smiled. "Can you tell us more about the first floor?" she asked.

Moon rubbed his chin; his eyes fell on the empty cup of coffee, then on Talia.

"I’ll bring you another cup," said Abshi as he stood up.

"Um, wait," he called. "Anyone want something to drink?" he asked everyone seated.

Soon Abshi left to bring drinks to almost everyone. "Find Basil to help you if there are too many," Moon reminded him, before turning back to Talia.

"There are too many things you guys don’t understand." Moon began talking of the first floor.

"First, to us on the first floor, this is the world; we don’t know about the Tower, asshole administrators, and such bullshit."

Ding!

[Error][Unable to apply penalty]

Moon secretly and discreetly pursed his lips before proceeding. "Echo and gifts are superpowers from fairy tales; they’re not real. If you tell anyone about these stories, they would laugh at you before beating you up."

Moon looked up. "The sky is grey in daytime, dull and ugly."

He looked down. "Food tastes so bad, too bad to even be called food compared to what we eat here."

Moon shook his head. "It’s so bad that it only keeps you alive and nothing else."

Moon thought for a moment. "Ashspawns are everywhere there. It’s rare to find someone who isn’t an Ashspawn; they’re commanders, soldiers, mercenaries," Moon added. "Though only independent commanding Ashspawns wear silk; they usually have two colours for their identity."

"That bitch, for example, has red and green," Moon explained.

"I think that’s everything about it," he said.

Talia shook her head apologetically. "I’m sorry for this," she said. "We, everyone here, are curious about the first floor. Not many records exist for us, not even in Knights’ Realm."

Moon waved his hand dismissively. "It’s fine, don’t worry though; I won’t ask y’all back a shitload of questions," he assured them.

Talia couldn’t help chuckling lightly.

"How dare you speak to Lady Talia like this?" Boa suddenly lashed out.

"Dafuq you talking about?" Moon raised his eyebrows.

"Enough, Boa. I was rude to him from the beginning." Talia stopped Boa from verbally attacking Moon a second time.

"B-But—" Boa tried to explain.

"Boa, we promised intel, but instead, we’ve only been questioning him," Talia said faintly. "We were rude from the beginning."

Boa rubbed her forehead. "If you say so," she said, still not convinced.

By then, Abshi returned with a large tray of cups, alone.

He went around the table, delivering the drinks of each individual as desired.

After exchanging a few thanks, Abshi returned to his seat again.

"This branch, the southern branch, there’s only us on this side," Talia explained. "You can include the few others from Sir Moon’s side, but that’s about it."

Moon raised his eyebrows. "Should I fight more for affiliation? I mean, the branch is full of people; we’re just too small in numbers."

"That won’t be necessary, for now at least," Talia said, pointing at the empty seat. "This seat is reserved for one of the men on my side, one who’s been gathering intel over the past weeks."

She took off her ring and placed it on the chair.

A screen glowed from the ring, showing a new face that was about to join their meeting.