New Game+

The submarine was now docking in the Trading Hub. The remainder of the trip was relatively peaceful. Although the submarines would sometimes fire warning shots if the other had moved in a certain distance, the respective submarines of each nation, no battles or wars occurred that had the same level of the first battle over the Pacific Ocean.

Seeker Carlean was wearing a strange dark-red suit. This was similar to the suit that he was wearing in his previous timeline. The only difference in this suit was the available technology that it had. Seeker also wore a mask that covered his mouth and made him look like a ninja.

"Get over here!" A woman wearing the same outfit but had a bright color of yellow shouted as he imitated an action of one of the most banned games in the world due to its depiction of vast gore and destruction.

"Meryl... you\'re finally here." Seeker greeted.

Meryl ran and gave Seeker a tight hug.

"I missed you so much! It\'s good to be back. You guys have been busy while I was moving from one place to another, visiting Emperors and Empresses after another."

"You look good in that yellow outfit." Seeker praised.

Meryl did a cliche anime pose which she would often do to melt the hearts of men, and earned millions of credits.

"You could do without the mask, though. As expected of the beauty that even the Tyrant Empress took an interest in!" Seeker praised again.

"Too bad the age of streaming is over. We can\'t earn now after everything we\'ve been through. Jeez. You could have waited a few days before destroying the Kraken and causing the world to collapse, you know. We\'ve lost several deals that would have been worth billions of credits!" Meryl frowned.

"That\'s exactly why we had to put a stop at those deals. If all our deals pushed through without any problems, it would be very suspicious to the world and may lead to various conspiracy theories allying us with the WGP. That would make our trading deals harder."

"But all our submarines reached the World Governing Trading Hub! Doesn\'t that look suspicious?"

"We didn\'t start the war, Meryl." Lynd emerged wearing a dark blue attire that matched the designs of Meryl and Lynd.

"Lynd!" Meryl laughed and rushed and hugged Lynd.

"It\'s good to see you, Meryl."

SLAP!

Meryl delivered a harsh slap on Lynd\'s face.

"That\'s for being an idiot. You gave poor Cliff a fright by nearly killing him!" Meryl chastised.

Every Unlocked who saw that scene shivered. Lynd\'s reputation as a berserker had reached everyone\'s ears. And since many Unlocked nearly died fighting this monster, no one dared do anything towards Lynd. Yet now, Meryl delivers a slap that resounded across the hall.

Everyone stopped moving and was ready to make a run for it.

"Why are you slapping me for? If it\'s giving Cliff a fright, you should be torturing Seeker! He made Cliff kiss a guy! With Cliff\'s memories, the sensation of that kiss will haunt him forever! Who knows? He might not even be able to kiss Charm with that traumatic experience!" Lynd argued back.

"Yeah! Well, Seeker was doing all that to make Cliff get stronger! You tried to kill him because you\'re a loser! Did you cry when that Near-Overcomer and all those Ranked Heroes chased you? Did you call your mommy?" Meryl continued a barrage of insults.

"Boo Hoo. I am the Way, and Seeker treated me like dirt! I\'ll go ahead and massacre an Unlocked Army because my feelings are hurt!" 

"I lost an arm and several organs in that battle!"

"Did you lose your first kiss? Cliff did, and he still had the guts to fight a Near-Overcomer werewolf, an Empress, and a World Champion!" Meryl shook her head in disgust.

Lynd couldn\'t say anything and glared at Seeker.

"She\'s right, you know." Seeker just shrugged his shoulders and laughed.

The three continued to bicker and tease each other with everything that has been happening. The conversations they had were different as they joked about world domination and how their plans could lead to wars and holocaust, but the friendship of these three was stronger than ever.

The group didn\'t even hide their conversation as they talked on length about everything that had happened.

For that few stolen moments in time, the three were teenage students again.

But their loud discussions would create gossips.

Days will later pass, and Cliff will soon learn of the rumors that question his sexual identity and alleged claims about Cliff\'s versatility.

"Jeez, for someone who had it easy, you sure know how to insult people!" Lynd complained.

"She didn\'t have it easy, Lynd. It was necessary for her Path."

"I know, I know. It was the one place to train her light. She was seen by Emperors and Empresses and, at the same time, prohibited the Presiders from chasing after her. It was the one safe place that she could stay and would use her abilities to spy on the techs that the WGP had." Lynd sighed.

"That\'s right. You boys had to get stronger so you could protect me! Now with you two, we can finally be together and turn South America into a City of Refuge. So how many Presiders are expected to go on this strange trip?"

"We don\'t know. One Presider decided to pop up suddenly. It\'s a young Presider who I\'ve never met in my past life. He\'s quite scary, to be honest. But luckily, our spies were able to execute a successful tactic. And since Zeraphine got a copy of Lowengren\'s book with modification, she should at least be able to create a good strategy to deal with Lanterk." Lynd smiled.

"Isn\'t it dangerous to give a Presider a book about Lowengren\'s lies? They\'re Presiders, after all. They could bend the world if they want to."

"The book that Lowengren itself wrote is a lie. That\'s why it\'s alright." Seeker explained.

"A book about lies... is a lie?" Meryl was confused.

"It\'s like this, Meryl. By creating a manual on how to lie, it limits the possibilities of how to lie. And since Lowengren wrote that for Zeraphine and other possible Aragarian double agents, we could gauge and predict their possible reactions and lies, they will use. So while they think they are lying and making amazing covert and espionage actions, we actually know what they might do. Take Zeraphine, for instance. The Presider Landerk will most likely fall for three possible tricks. But the most likely option that Zeraphine would use is to present herself as more mysterious and powerful considering that Lanterk has shown himself to be so weak." Lynd explained.

"Wow. Lynd, you did get smart." Meryl laughed.

"You need to catch up, Meryl. You\'re the dumbest among us."

"Oh? But beauty bridges the gap. I got a lot of techs and gifts from the Emperors, you know? What I can\'t make up through intelligence, I can make up by calling Emperors to fight for me. Lanterk is young, right? Maybe I can make him my little pawn." Meryl laughed.

Seeker and Lynd laughed.

"Indigo Blue, Mikado Yellow, and Carnelian Red. The whole teams back together." A familiar voice laughed.

The three saw Charles Lindmitt with a young girl walking next to him.

"You really should change your family name to Carnelian, Zeek. It suits the three of you." Charles laughed.

"Charles!" Meryl exclaimed as she ran and hugged her.

"Countless stars and politicians have embraced me, but it\'s the first time I\'ve been embraced by someone this pretty."

"Seriously, Charles? She\'s still 17 years old, and her birthdays still in two months. That\'s just creepy." Lynd shook his head.

"A 17-year old that assassinated an Emperor and got away with it. She\'s practically one of the deadliest things on this planet."

"Meryl, you better back away from Charles. I can sense several diseases in him." Seeker gave Charles a curious look.

"Diseases? I think my hyperactive antibodies can resist it. Apart from each cell being highly concentrated, my body constantly purges my body with the heat and fire."

"I know. Charles\'s disease seems resistant to heat. Quite an interesting Path, Charles." Seeker praised.

Meryl bolted out of Charles\'s embrace, and a bright light exploded out of her.

"Relax, Meryl!" Charles chuckled.

"It\'s all under control. Every disease in my body has been regulated."

"Just how many viruses and bacteria do you have in that body of yours?" Seeker wondered.

"A lot. Many of which can be weaponized. But the biggest gains are being able to tame Amir Mann\'s lyssavirus and that vampire lady\'s, Anthro-Pteropid lyssavirus are quite interesting things. I was able to replicate both through leukemia and various cancer cells and have a way to use it in battle. But I\'m no Overcomer, though."

"Charles, but that puts you in the rank of Heroes!" Meryl assessed.

"No. Just like you two, I\'m definitely a Champion." Charles boasted.

"You finally have faith, o yea man who doubts." Seeker laughed.

"Faith developed through time. Your cells helped the most, Seeker. We\'re a step closer to getting that Cultivators Body that you need. If we can kill and capture a Presider, we can further understand their science."

"That\'s great. But I think we may need to capture one alive. This is one of the reasons why I need to get close contact with them. The science that they have is something that is like a Skinsuit but far more powerful. Their very body is the tech itself. And that\'s why it was impossible to study how they did that in my timeline. Let\'s make use of this opportunity we have."

"And who is this young lady?" Meryl asked as she smiled towards the young girl.

"This is Precil Hirock. The daughter of Vender Hirock. She also has the same ailment plaguing Ricardo."

"You cured her?!" Seeker was surprised once more.

"This is fun. I\'ve finally reached the point where I am surprising Seeker Carlean." Charles laughed.

"What is that disease? We\'ve lost quite a number of men against this disease."

"It\'s a plague. And it\'s a rather malicious one at that. And no, I can\'t say I\'ve cured it yet. Precil is only active because we managed to Unlock her through your blood."

"Ah. You used my blood to create a drug and used the Placebo effect with Lowengren\'s help!" Seeker realized what had happened.

"Worked like a charm!"

"Thank you, Uncle Seeker." The girl curtsied.

"Interesting. A Ranked Hero in the making! You\'re the youngest I\'ve ever seen! How old are you?" Seeker was amazed.

"I\'m supposed to be six this year. But the drugs that Charles gave me somehow hastened my aging so that I would have a body that could bear the Unlocking. This is why I look like a ten-year-old." Precil explained.

At those words, the three had a complicated expression.

"Are you okay? You\'ve lost your childhood because of us." Lynd asked.

"I got better. So I\'m grateful, Uncle Lynd." Precil smiled.

"What disease was it? To think that her body is this resilient already! Did she reach Surmounting?"

"Yes. She just reached Surmounting Unbecoming a few days ago on the way here."

"What id the ailment that got Ricardo and her? Is it contagious?"

"There is no evidence of it. Honestly, that\'s why I brought her here. I want to see if it is contagious."

Everyone\'s expression changed.

"What do you mean?"

"This disease is caused by a strange virus. I think it started in Egypt. Lennox has shown interest, and we are actually mass producing the virus to spread it right before we officially wage war against the Aragarians."

"What do you mean by experimenting if it is contagious?" Lynd pressed once more.

"The virus has a very specific group of people that it attacks. No one thought of it before, but my experiments proved it. I\'m thankful for Eagle as he helped me understand this."

"Eagle? What does Eagle have to do with this?" Meryl frowned.

"Egypt... You can\'t mean!" Lynd exclaimed.

"I can see it. It seems to be a virus that has its own Realm." Seeker closed his eyes and began to see it through the soul.

"It\'s a soul plague. Everything happening in the body is only a manifestation of what this plague does in that dimension." Seeker explained.

"Is it contagious?" Meryl asked immediately.

"Hard to say. But it\'s not attacking any of us. It seems Precil managed to tame it! Amazing! You could be a powerful soldier in the future, kid." Seeker praised.

"Thank you... Erm. General Seeker." Precil blushed.

"What is it? What does this plague do? I\'m not as smart as Seeker or someone who can simulate the thinking of various geniuses!" Meryl finally cursed.

"The Plague of the First Born.." Seeker smiled.