Etranger

The screen showed that Suki and Beckham completed 67 missions. Suki’s combat power number was 2,588 while Beckham’s was 1,837.

“Yamato and Nami are eye catching, too,” added Null.

Yamato and Nami had cleared 64 missions. Yamato’s combat power was 2,356 while Nami’s was 2,127.

As the hand cycled through the various three dimensional screens, it stopped abruptly on team 27. The screen showed the names of San and Biyeon. They had completed 12 missions. San’s combat power was 425 while Biyeon’s was 410.

The white hand dropped down and started tapping the ground.

“They’re trash. Historically, they’re the worst performing pairing in history. It’s a waste to give these guys nectar. Nectar’s so precious.”

“Outliers are outliers. It’s really hard to even be that bad. It seems like they just entered the first level of awakening.”

“It means that their physical bodies are not compatible. If it’s to this level, we should have already terminated this pairing. But the Master hasn’t said anything. Is it because they have a weird record?”

“They do have quite the number of records. Every other pairing has been resurrected an average of 30 times, but they haven’t even died once. I guess it just goes to show how scared they are. Due to their lack of deaths, we don’t really have any research information or analysis on them. When are they going to use nectar? Are they stupid?”

“Weren’t there others like these in the past?”

“Yeah, but they never made it over 10 days. It’s already been 90 days. There aren’t any missions left that they can complete without the nectar.”

“We’re still not able to control them remotely?”

“It’s pretty much radio silence. They’re consuming the salt every day, but the effects are not taking effect. How could remote brain communication not work at this stage? Look here… they’re still keeping the Hawk around. They’re the only pairing. They’ve also made 23 attempts at escape. That’s once every 4 days. They really are an outlier.”

“There are a lot of quirky records, too. They haven’t even formed a master-slave relationship between the two. Also, that woman is still a virgin.”

“The other pairings are having a hard time keeping their hands off each other. We’ve already extracted a few fetuses from those that became pregnant.”

They both changed the screen. They saw Suki and Beckham’s team. The next screen showed the Yamato and Nami pairing. These were the most exciting and interesting teams for Nil and Null to observe.

On the display, they watched Suki running at full speed. She had a long sword in one hand and a regular-sized sword in the other.

She had long, flowing brown hair and a slim body. She was moving at explosive speeds, hunting the beasts. Beckham was following closely behind.

He was almost two meters tall and all muscle.

In front of Suki and Beckham were three Alchins, 6-meter-tall beasts with large horns on their heads. Suki swung her sword at one of the Alchins.

In no time, one of the Alchin’s heads was rolling on the floor while another Alchin had a sword sticking out of its chest. Suki jumped on top of the remaining Alchin’s head, playing around with it by controlling its movements with its horns.

Beckham’s combat power was also great. He grabbed the Algons with both hands and tore them in half by pulling them from both sides. 

After their hunt, they started taking the purple blood out of the beasts’ hearts. They drank some of the blood immediately and put the rest into bottles that contained alcohol.

Having just drunk the blood, Suki’s eyes turned fierce with desire. She looked at Beckham, unable to control her carnal need. Beckham started running away. However, he was no match for Suki’s speed.

“This is the best! That’s how to do it properly,” shouted Nil.

On the screen, a message stated that they requested another mission. They were addicted to fighting. Suki and Beckham’s combat power numbers started rising. 

Suki: 2,820

Beckham: 1,986

On Null’s screen, life-size images of Yamato and Nami could be seen. Yamato was wearing a traditional samurai costume. Nami had on a pair of short, leather shorts and a baggy t-shirt.

Rather than fighting against beasts, this pair was fighting against other summoned pairs. It seemed like the fighting just ended. The four losers were crucified on makeshift wooden crosses. Their purple blood flowed down from the cross, pooling into the glass jars like wine being poured into a flute.

Yamato took one of the jars and took a drink before handing another glass jar to Nami. Nami respectfully and subserviently accepted the jar and started drinking. Their mouths were stained with a dark color, as if they had just messily eaten chocolate.

Though their eyes were drained of life, they had on satisfied expressions. They were smiling like innocent little school children.

From somewhere, Yamato brought out a chunk of meat. He sliced the meat into thin slices and sprinkled salt on top. He started eating the salted meat with his chopsticks.

Nil gave out an order. Yamato nodded his head. Nami dutifully took off her clothes and set down some bedding in the middle of the open area. Yamato also undressed completely.

The four who lost and were crucified on the crosses could only look in disgust at Yamato and Nami’s victory sex. 

“I like these two. They’re really easy to communicate with. They’re also much more cooperative than Suki’s team.”

On the bottom of the screen, Yamato and Nami’s combat power numbers were changing.

Yamato: 2,480

Nami: 2,156

***

“Hmm-”

The ‘Master’ was rubbing his chin while looking at the screens in front of him. He stared intently for a long time at one of the screens in particular, team 27, summoned San Kang and summoned Biyeon Kim. The screen was replaying observation videos gathered during this experimental period.

What should he do with these two? They were no use to him. However, their off-the-wall records made him hesitate to terminate them. 

‘At this stage, they should have already reached Awakening, but they’re so weak and get tired easily. Also, the nectar and salt weren’t properly working on these two. They couldn’t control these two summoned. Their reaction speed was also too slow. However, they were still alive. Did they possess something special?’

These lingering questions made him delay his decision to terminate this pairing. Over the course of 50 missions, they experienced many battles and killed off many enemy beasts. However, their combat power numbers were horrendous. He had a hard time understanding what was going on.

Were they hiding their strength on purpose? He had thought about this previously and raised the difficulty level of their missions. He sent enemies that were much more crafty, powerful, and tenacious. Even if they spilled a river of blood, those two always survived.

He also elongated the mission times thinking that they would have to die at least once during that period. However, they always found a clever escape. They never pushed themselves to the brink of death.

The Master felt as if they were toying with him. He reduced the break time between the missions and the battle conditions within the missions. He erased their rest and sleeping times, which usually was a break from battles, and included those times into the mission timeframe for battles.

He wanted to make them anxious and nervous throughout the day. He wanted to break their spirit. What he saw in front of him was the result of all these actions. They were still alive. 

The Master’s lips twisted. One could tell that he was immensely frustrated. He had even passed up his meals to see if there were any changes…

After a while, a smirk appeared on the Master’s face. He lifted his hand. A messenger quickly appeared behind him.

“Those two are from Episode 285?”

“That is correct, sir,” answered the messenger cautiously. The person he was speaking to could be called ‘absolute’, so the messenger dare not speak casually.

The Master was even-handed, coldly calculative, and wise. The Master was also able to observe all things that happened in the universe. However, no one knew that he was here.

“Every summoned up to now, without fail, chose to tread either of two paths. They either chose to give in to the command of another or to live in cooperation with another’s consciousness. What path are they on right now?”

“They’re not on any of those paths, sir. They haven’t lost their consciousness, and it seems highly unlikely that they’re compatible to share their minds with another consciousness, sir.”

“Do you mean they’re going against the mutation process?”

“I am not certain, sir. We would need to conduct a full autopsy to find out. However, we haven’t had that opportunity yet, sir.”

“What about their ability and skill level?”

The messenger momentarily paused. The Master wasn’t asking because he didn’t know.

“Based on our estimations, they’re performing the worst in history. The first-place team, Suki and Beckham, are already on their 150th mission. The average missions completed for all the pairings is 116. Only these two are at 50 missions. Though their combat power may be strong relative to humans, they’re useless for the needs of our client. I believe we’ll need to consider whether to continue providing them nectar, sir.”

“So, you think it’s a worthless pursuit?”

“Yes, sir. Nil and Null also agree with this assessment, sir.”

The messenger looked at the Master’s reaction. Though he had served the Master for a long time, he still had a hard time reading the Master’s emotional state.

The Master was like a mystery wrapped in an enigma. His decisive actions always brought about fantastical results.

“I don’t agree.”

“Sir?”

“They’re completing their assignments and fulfilling all the requirements we requested of them. No matter how they completed their tasks, they haven’t died once. I feel that this is enough to continue our research on them. Actually, they might just be the ideal template that I’ve been looking for. This is enough for me to wait and see.”

“If that is your decision, we will need to assign them into a role, sir. For reference, they do not fulfill any of the minimum requirements that the client is asking for, be it combat, sensing ability, quickness in judgement, managerial administration, or synchronization. For which role should we place them into, sir?”

The Master laughed out loud. The messenger felt that the Master’s laugh was truthful. He never thought his Master still possessed this emotional faculty. 

“Then I’ll just use them. Alright? Tell Nil and Null. Tell them to pay special attention to these two. I want to know every small detail and change. If they die, don’t do anything to their bodies. Send them straight to me.”

The messenger gave a slight bow and left. Taking a sip of tea, the Master brought up the multidimensional system with its numerous three dimensional screens.

‘This world will fundamentally change. The gods haven’t found their places yet. The dragon and sages are quickly becoming evil entities that won’t be able to hold onto their power long. The various geniuses are bringing too much instability and danger. The number of Awakened humans are increasing, but they haven’t found the correct ‘path’ yet. Also, nectar is still too dangerous…

The parameters of his experiment were rigidly followed and executed. The experimenter could control the summoned and develop their qualities, but the experimenter should never directly interact with its test subjects.

There shouldn’t be anything foreign introduced to an experiment. It was like watching an evolution simulation. Of course, this no interaction policy applied to everyone, even Nil and Null.

However, none of this applied to the Master. The Master had the ability to change the source of this entire system whichever way he saw fit.

It was a little matter for the Master to directly influence anyone in the experiment. He could even change the individual skills and aptitude levels. Even creating an avatar, in the Master’s image, and putting into the system was allowed.

However, since this was such an important experiment, the Master chose not to directly intervene.