Anthony nearly smashed his table to pieces as he said that. "Wait, don't beat yourself up… Nothing's ever gone wrong with the first Branch Director… So what the f.u.c.k is happening these days? It's so hectic…"

Remembering the former Branch Director's lax life, Anthony's face twitched and he sat down. Ever since Hayden got here…

"Ever since Hayden got here…" Anthony took a deep breath, muttering through gritted teeth. "He's literally becoming the eye of a huge storm… Ever since he showed up, ever since he awakened… What the h.e.l.l is up with that kid?"

Seriously, first, Hayden wreaked havoc and destroyed the confidence of 10 genius-level members of Puting Araw ruthlessly… Which he welcomed actually, those kids were getting all over their heads… Second, Hayden's best friend, one of the best wielders he's ever seen in years, has been kidnapped. To make it worse, there is a possibility of a mole in Puting Araw's Ghost Unit division that would jeopardize the entirety of Ghost Unit and Puting Araw itself. Third, Hayden undertook a mission meant for Third Rank Special Agents under the 'supervision' of Apolaki.

"I knew that guy would sooner or later give me another headache…" Anthony remembered Apolaki. "And now in the midst of this mission, Hayden discovered a ma.s.s murder scene that Puting Araw couldn't possibly cover up at all… Those corpses… Holy s.h.i.+t. I almost puked…"

Anthony s.h.i.+vered at the thought of that roundabout. He had years of experience in killing people, but, oh boy, that grisly scene in those houses in roundabouts… What the h.e.l.l transpired in that location? Even those psychopaths in Kamay ng Lagim are more careful than that!

"Well, let's see how he handles it then…" Anthony shook his head. His plate was full concurrently and was busy on arranging a meeting with the Walong Sinag ng Araw and the Board of Directors. Standing up, he muttered and slammed the table softly, "Ahh, what the h.e.l.l, let's meet up with the other directors."

…..

January 3, 2057, 8:00 AM, the morning before Hayden and Eun-ha intercepted the chimera in Pateros. Directly under the renewed bridge atop Pasig River that connected Makati and Pateros, there were three male teenagers crouching and was sniffing white powder. They were all dressed casually.

"Dude, this is some good s.h.i.+t!" One of the teenagers bobbed his head as he finished inhaling the white powder. "Dude, I'm so high that I see a white lady behind you."

The other two laughed and leisurely looked back. "Dude, I see it too… Oh, man, she's transforming, we're so high that a woman is transforming into something else in front of us."

In actuality, they weren't tripping, it was Evers.h.i.+fter behind them and changing into a half-human half-tiger, slas.h.i.+ng outwards, a white-colored razor energy shot out, slicing the three people's heads off. "Tsk, f.u.c.king kids these days… Smarter five years ago… Smarter my a.s.s, they're even worse!"

"I know, right?" An old man in black priest's clothing underneath a white doctor's coat. "How are you, the Evers.h.i.+fter? Have you been satisfying the almighty Saragnayan (1)?"

"Father." Evers.h.i.+fter walked in front of the priest-doctor, genuflected, took the priest-doctor's right hand and kissed it. "I have satisfied the almighty Saragnayan for tens of years, why has he not shown his presence?"

"Don't worry, my child, he will. Soon." The priest-doctor said with reverence in his eyes at the mention of Saragnayan, placing his hand on Evers.h.i.+fter's head. "Let's go to the church, I have something, nay, someone, to show you."

With that, the priest turned to the wall and stretched his hands outwards, pointing to the wall. Motioning his finger downwards, the cement wall slid downwards, revealing a pa.s.sageway. "Follow me."

The priest-doctor walked to the opening with Evers.h.i.+fter in tow. Snapping, the cement wall that lowered itself raised back up. Walking silently on the poorly lit corridor for about half a minute, the two arrived inside a chapel, one that was underground and was gothic in style, the color black omnipresent. The atmosphere was creepy.

There were black hardwood benches aligned perfectly with kneelers in front. There were no stained gla.s.ses, instead, there were paintings of… Gruesome depictions of people killed in various ways, through burning, through crucifixion, through the blood eagle, through mutilation, and many others.

In front of them, in the very middle, in place of a cross, there was a black statue of a man, his arms stretched sidewards, his head staring into the heavens, his mouth open, his seven orifices, the eyes, the nose, mouth, and two ears were all emitting black light. The man's expression was radiating interminable wrath.

His well-carved muscular body was in a genuflecting position, his nether regions covered by a mere red tattered piece of cloth, which, in reality, were still marble, showing how skillfully the statue was crafted. Both of his hands were holding black orbs. If the statue wasn't clearly made of smooth black marble, anyone would mistake the man was a real human being just from the expression that expressed infinite rage alone.

Under the statue was a black marble altar, and lying atop it was a peculiarly handsome man with long black hair and athletic build at average height.

Approaching the altar, Evers.h.i.+fter and the priest-doctor stared at the body. Evers.h.i.+fter spoke, "Who is this?"

"This… One of your siblings, Evers.h.i.+fter." The priest-doctor a.s.severated. "He is of the same kind as you, an Absorber."

"Another Absorber?" Evers.h.i.+fter's eyes narrowed into slits, her voice containing immense shock. "Where did you find him?"

"A Lagusang Itim opened up and he is what came out. He's not as powerful as you," priest-doctor said. "Evers.h.i.+f- That form of address is too long, let me call you Kate."

"No. Don't you dare call me that." Evers.h.i.+fter said, fury evident on her face. "I don't want any relation to you puny human beings. I serve and only serve the almighty Saragnayan. So don't you ever call me like a mortal piece of s.h.i.+t! Call me Evers.h.i.+fter."

"Fine, jeez." Priest-doctor rolled his eyes. "Anyways, take him out there and train him. Satisfy the almighty Saragnayan's thirst for blood. He starves for the suffering of mortals."

"Yeah, yeah." Evers.h.i.+fter was annoyed of this priest-doctor. All she wanted was to devour the suffering of these frail greedy humans and satisfy Saragnayan in the process. "I'm going to take him off your hands now."

As her 'sister,' Evers.h.i.+fter was responsible of training this guy. Disregarding the state of the man, she picked him up and carried him akin to a potato sack. "I'm going to go now."

"May blood be spilled." The priest-doctor bowed. When Evers.h.i.+fter got out of the church, the priest-doctor opened a door on the side that led to a staircase and ascended the stairs.

A few seconds of walking up the stairs, he found himself in a hall filled with people in black hooded robes. On the ground was a crimson circle that had a similarly crimson hexagram on the middle and was riddled with some strange symbols.

"Okay, you all ready?" The priest-doctor grinned evilly, and any angle you look at it, it emitted ill intent.

The people all around stopped the chitter chattering and gathered around, parting way for the priest-doctor, who was strolling towards the middle of the demon-summoning circle. At the middle, he dug inside the pockets of his doctor's robes and appeared a diamond-shaped red crystal. It was an Origin Crystal from a cognizant.

Removing his doctor's robes, priest-doctor shouted. "Children of Saragnayan, we gathered here today to witness a spectacular phenomenon that our almighty lord, Saragnayan, has given us the privilege to see! Now…"

Embedding the Origin Crystal at the very middle of the hexagon and tapping it slightly the crimson lines started to glow, with the priest-doctor retreating. "Witness the rise of the powerful child of Saragnayan!"

A flash of s.h.i.+ning scarlet light illuminated the place, blinding the people in the room with the exception of the priest-doctor. The emanation of light lasted for exactly a minute, and when it dissipated, a naked man appeared in their views.

"Welcome brot-" Before the priest-doctor could finish his sentence, the man slapped him and he fainted. Waking up, the priest-doctor rubbed his head and saw that the others were all dead, with their skulls bashed in, or were slashed with what seemed like claws.

"f.u.c.k, I summoned a berserker Absorber…" The priest-doctor was enraged at such a scene. "Fortunately those were merely non-believers and aren't members of high-ranking society, tsk. Well, let Puting Araw deal with that son of a b.i.t.c.h, I have to clean this up."

…..

Hayden didn't go straight home but to the appliance store. He didn't wear a mask this time as he wasn't scared of being recognized if he wasn't with Eun-ha. This time, he was thinking of cooking a romantic dinner for the two of them instead of sus.h.i.+.

"I should buy a TV for my room…" Hayden muttered to himself, contemplating if he wanted to do so that the two of them can spend time in his room to watch TV. "Yeah, I should definitely move out soon, shouldn't I?"

Hayden sighed as a woman approached him courageously and asking for a picture in the appliance store. Picking out a good 40-inch TV that can be mounted to the wall and the modern console that he never had time to buy, Hayden bought it and got out of there, put both items in the back of his car, and went to a high-cla.s.s grocery store.

This time, there were no people who approached him as he was in a high-cla.s.s grocery store. All of these people were rich and didn't care for celebrities, or were just too shy. Nevertheless, that didn't stop some people to snap photos of him.

Simply ignoring the people snapping photos, Hayden was looking at A5 beef of the breed Apo (2). Apo cattle beef's taste was inherent and with plainly roasting it made Hayden's Ability-enhanced taste buds tingle.

The price, however, was high, and a single kilogram of it costed 10,000 credits. Shrugging, Hayden bought two whole kilograms and a few other high-cla.s.s ingredients. He wanted to prepare a full five-course meal for his beautiful lady, costing a total of 40,000 credits.

Driving home, Hayden installed the TV in his room in front of his bed, and, well, recorded a few more episodes. As he was in a new account, and in account to his skills, he started at C-Rank when he did the Initial Ranking Matches. By the time he was finished recording, he was already at 5-Star Rank, S-Rank at reach.

Needless to say, he still never suffered a single loss, a showcase of his true skill that n.o.body can refute as there was no evidence of him cheating that anybody can dig up at all.

In actuality, he was reported by a significant number of players, enough that he was investigated by the company that created War of Honor. Consequently, at new year's, they released a statement that Hayden's matches were absolutely legitimate, both in his main account, Supremacy, and in this new account, which he named True Emperor, which surprisingly wasn't taken, were all legitimate and fair, with no traces of third-party programs or hacking into their system.

This was proof of Hayden's authentic ridiculously high level of skill, and the reason why Hayden was invited to A Talk Show for Gamers. He just didn't know that this was the root of him being invited due to the fact that he was merely playing normally and didn't think that this would be something worth to be invited for.

Like always, he underestimated the weight of this article that made him trend worldwide and with Ares highlighting him once more, praising his perfect skills to the point that Ares admitted Hayden was superior.

At one point in the video, Ares joked 'If my team and I face off against this monster, I think we'd still lose even if Hayden's team was a bunch of trash. He's that good.'

…..

At 2:00 PM, Hayden headed out and went to the new murder scene on foot in a plain white mask and Puting Araw uniform, albeit, his polo wasn't the Puting Araw standard issue and had no Puting Araw badge.

It was there that he saw clues of a man being torn to absolute shreds. There was no outline of a person on the pavement. Howbeit, there were people, well… Cleaning up pieces of a woman torn to shreds, which is basically how Hayden arrived to the conclusion of the man torn to smithereens.

Afterwards, he went to the Pateros' Police Station, where he was recognized by the man on the counter. The plain white mask indicated that he was from the renowned Ghost Unit, and when he showed the Ghost Unit badge to the counter, Hayden spoke.

"I request to partake in the investigation of the murder last two nights ago." Hayden demanded with a slightly deeper voice. Do not misjudge the weight of the name of the Ghost Unit as they were highly respected by the policemen in the entire country. "Or at least see the bodies or evidences and hear the statements of possible witnesses."

The man at the counter pressed the intercom and spoke to the chief of police in Pateros. "Chief, a member of the Ghost Unit is asking information for the unsolved murder case last night."

"Let him in my office." The man on the other end said. With that, the man led Hayden into the chief of police's office. Inside the office was a gray-bearded man with light brown complexion, his tight-fitting blue police uniform and black trousers accentuated his battle-hardened body.

'The man is decorated…' Hayden thought when he saw the various awards placed on the shelves of the office. Evident from one of the badges in display, the man served time in the Defense Force as well, which was what the military has become after the World Government was formed.

As the name suggests, the Defense Force is, well, the military, just renamed. However, the Defense Force is solely for national defense and is coordinated with the rest of the world's Defense Forces and would respond when trouble comes to a country, such as a lord of the underworld's attempt to take the presidency, or terrorism.

All members of Defense Forces were specially trained in modern guerilla tactics, sea warfare, how to fly an airplane and jet, stealth op tactics, and CQC, or close quarters combat. In other words, they were all human elites, the crème de la crème of fighters.

"You may leave." The chief of police, Chief Borja, said to the man who led him here. When the door closed, Chief Borja stood up. "Chief Borja, and you are?"

"I have no name." Hayden squinted his eyes. He wears a mask, wasn't it implicit that he didn't want his ident.i.ty to be revealed? "Address me as Null."

"Well, Null." Chief Borja slammed his table. "We all know that you from the Ghost Unit are prestigious and powerful, but you are vigilantes. Not part of our police department, nor any police department in the Philippines. You can't waltz in here and demand for yourself to be put in an undergoing investigation. And as long as you have no ident.i.ty, I cannot grant you even the badge of an official bounty hunter of our area."

Hayden has encountered a person with this personality before, rigid, stubborn, and headstrong, a willful person who sticks to the rules. The person in front of him was a person who hated people questioning the authorities and the higher-ups who impose and govern said authorities.

"What if I told you that this murder is tied with murders that's been going on in Pateros for the past few years." Hayden released chilling killing intent that even the former Defense Force member, Chief Borja was surprised with. "Someone, or something, is killing people out there, and your people have made no progress all over the years. Do you really want to smear your name with that kind of shame?"

'What thick killing intent.' Chief Borja thought to himself. He has encountered countless strong people in his life, and he was sure that those people he encountered would be kittens if faced with this Null in front of him. 'That killing intent alone is unmatched. How much battles did this guy underwent to have this much killing intent? And how many people did he kill?'

Coughing, Chief Borja shook his head. The ma.s.sive intimidation factor that Hayden brought out in combination with his sound logic was enough for Chief Borja to grant Hayden his request. After all, there were myriads of unsolved cases in Pateros that Chief Borja and the previous chiefs had a huge headache over. It was all too… Enigmatic.

This was in Hayden's perspective. What he didn't know was that his latent charisma was at work and that it affected Chief Borja, making him feel that Hayden can be trusted.

"What do you want?" Chief Borja sat down and asked. "Wait… Since you're a bounty hunter, and from the Ghost Unit no less, take this."

Taking something out of the draw of his table, Chief Borja placed down an emblem onto the table. Carved on it was the symbol of the Chief of Police in Pateros, a pistol with a three-p.r.o.nged crown, on the middle of the crown was a small seal of Pateros.

Hayden was startled at the sight of this badge as this was a badge that only the trusted of the trusted can possess. In this world, there were two types of bounty hunting badges, the first one is a recognition badge of the area where you want that confers you the rights to bounty hunt in the area. This was the aforementioned badge that Chief Borja said he wouldn't grant Hayden.

Meanwhile the other is the one presented to him, an emblem that states you are recognized, tentatively, as part of the police force and by the chief of police and mayor of the area. This specific badge is recognized as the crowned badge.

"This will get you access to everything in the police department and all of our facilities. Don't abuse it." Chief Borja a.s.severated. "You… I believe you have the capability. Don't let me down."

As Hayden got what he needed, he wouldn't say anything and nodded. He wasn't stupid enough to ask why the guy trusted him, he got what he needed, G.o.ddammit. He didn't want to jinx himself.

Moving on…. Taking the badge, Hayden uttered two shorts words. "Thank you."

With that, Hayden asked the desk where the doc.u.ments of unsolved cases were stored. Hayden felt like he was the protagonist of a detective show, though he threw this out of his mind and almost puked when he thought of it.

'Hayden, what the h.e.l.l is wrong with you!?' Hayden shook his head, disgusted of the thoughts that came to his brain.

With a police guide, Hayden was led to the doc.u.mentary room of the police station, where, obviously, all doc.u.mentaries of crime scenes were stored in it. When Hayden was in there, it was underwhelming as, well, to sum it up, it was a mere small computer room.

All files were stored in a single… Computer with a single 1000 cubic centimeter storage s.p.a.ce that held a singular yottabyte worth of data. Hayden was about to ask a question but stopped when he first looked around.

'Badge-accessed? That's so unsafe…' Hayden saw the badge scanner beside the computer. 'Well, I guess there's nothing really that important here except for the doc.u.ments of murder cases…'

Hayden let it go and sat down in front of the computer, whipping out the badge that the chief of police gave him. As a result, the person who led Hayden into the room was astounded, though he did not speak as Hayden possessed the crowned badge, a badge that only people that the chief of police approved of.

It was a privilege that only a paltry amount of people could enjoy, and all those people are… Well, strong or capable enough to earn the trust of the chief of police.

…..

1 Saragnayan – Saragnayan, in Visayan Mythology, is the G.o.d of Darkness.

2 Apo – Paramount Ruler in Igorot Society. In Ilocos Region and Zambales, it is also used as the t.i.tle of their Chieftains.

Random World Lore: With the implementation of the systemic Ident.i.ty Number, almost every single device in the world is connected through the internet. In addition, ever since the implementation of Ident.i.ty Number, the World Government has come across myriads of problems, such as the Cyber Guard Impersonation of 2055, when Kokou Mhensa found a loophole through the identification system at the World Government Island and leaked the Ident.i.ty Numbers of a couple of international celebrities and presidents. Since then, the Cyber Guards has tightened their security further on the World Government Island, especially when the World Summit was held at the end of January every year and during the week when the Annual Youth Pride, which is at the third week of January.