Chapter 52: The Association’s Envoy
The dusty smell of years-old papers filled a small cabin. Inside, a beautiful young woman sat elegantly on a wooden chair. Her long blonde hair fell naturally down her shoulders, while her delicate fingers were placed against the surface of the old wooden table ahead.
Although the room itself wasn’t particularly large, there was very little furniture inside. The floor was nearly filled with old books and reports piled upon one another.
Apart from the door, the cabin had three large windows, allowing the natural light to illuminate the room almost at all times.
Since the ’Apocalypse,’ the world had never truly remained the same. The concepts that were previously known to humans were overwritten over years, with some even ceasing to exist.
One such concept was the difference between day and night. Decades after that unfortunate day, the cycle of day and night had undergone a rather special change.
In the day, the sky was painted bright red, almost like a sea of blood. In the center, a giant moon constantly overlapped the distant sun, making it seem like the night had never truly ended. At night, the sky grew dim, exhibiting a faint deep blue hue—just like now.
A pristine white moon could be seen shimmering brightly in the sky, illuminating the world in its radiance. This moon’s size was several times that of the normal one.
Inevitably, it had also been affected by the Nox.
Its bright light entered the cabin through windows, creating a rather ambient atmosphere. However, Christine’s expression said otherwise.
Above the table, a near-transparent screen hovered in the air. On it, a total of five people could be seen simultaneously. Everyone except Christine had hidden their faces behind plain white masks.
Apart from their face, each of them possessed an appearance and presence that clearly distinguished them from ordinary awakeners.
They were the remaining members of the Seven Radiant Stars.
Christine Frost remained silent for several seconds as she looked at the familiar faces projected before her.
"I believe everyone already knows why I’ve called this meeting." Her voice was calm, but there was a faint trace of exhaustion within it.
The disappearance of Jake had already spread throughout the higher levels of the association. And judging from the expressions of the other five members, none of them appeared particularly surprised.
In fact, several of them were secretly smiling.
Christine noticed it immediately. ’As expected, they already knew.’
It wasn’t really difficult to understand why. The other five Radiant Stars had always kept a close eye on Jake, far more closely than Christine ever had.
How?
Jake had always been proud of the group of his ten subordinates, considering them his hand-picked companions who had followed him for years and had proven themselves through countless battles.
But the truth was entirely different and, quite frankly, hurtful. Those ten people had never truly belonged to Jake; they were agents.
Agents secretly planted by the other five Radiant Stars to monitor his movements.
Christine had always known about it, but unlike the others, she had never participated in such acts.
She had never seen Jake as someone who needed to be monitored. If anything, she admired the man’s confidence in his own strength.
It was a known fact that Jake was an arrogant man. However, his arrogance came from genuine ability. Before the incident, Christine had been quite confident in Jake’s hidden strength.
When he announced that he would personally deal with the White Serpent, she had even found herself looking forward to the battle. After all, Jake had never revealed the full extent of his abilities to the others.
’Perhaps he really can kill it.’ That was what Christine had thought.
But the result had been completely different from what she expected.
The moment Jake released that enormous amount of lightning, the entire area surrounding the Blood Ravine had undergone a near-cataclysmic transformation.
The White Serpent had disappeared without leaving behind even the slightest trace. Hundreds of monster corpses had been discovered around the enormous crater that had replaced the once-renowned Blood Ravine.
And among those remains were the bodies of Jake’s ten subordinates.
The five Radiant Stars had immediately understood what had happened.
Jake had gone missing while his subordinates’ deaths had been confirmed. As for the white serpent, it had vanished.
To them, the conclusion only came naturally.
Jake was most likely dead.
In fact, the five had already secretly celebrated the moment they received this piece of intel. They had even referred to it as a festival.
After all, the biggest eyesore among the Seven Radiant Stars had finally disappeared.
Christine couldn’t help but sigh when she thought about their attitude. She had never understood their hatred toward Jake.
Even if he was arrogant, he had never betrayed the association. He had never harmed innocent civilians. In fact, out of all the radiant stars, Jake was the only one who personally helped the civilians whenever he got the chance—uncaring of his own position and authority.
And most importantly, He had always been willing to place himself in danger whenever the city faced a crisis.
’Perhaps that’s exactly why they hated him.’ Christine lowered her eyes, letting out a turbid breath.
The situation reminded her of the past—one that had begun decades ago.
After the apocalypse descended upon Earth, humanity had been driven into an entirely different corner of the world.
The first generation of awakeners had sacrificed themselves to prevent humanity from being completely exterminated, and after years of bloodshed, the remaining humans had finally managed to establish a relatively stable civilization.
For the first time since the apocalypse, people could sleep without expecting a monster to tear through their walls.
They could build cities, establish schools, and create families. But peace had never truly changed human nature.
It had only ever strengthened the natural evil residing within all beings.
As the years passed, a new problem gradually started to emerge: the awakeners.
Those who possessed extraordinary strength began looking down upon ordinary humans. At first, it was nothing more than growing arrogance.
Then, it became discrimination and, eventually, exploitation.
Some awakeners treated ordinary humans as nothing more than tools, while others treated them as toys.
There were even cases where men and women were used for the personal desires of powerful awakeners, only for their bodies to be discarded afterward in public places as though they were worthless objects.
The stronger the awakener, the more difficult it became for ordinary humans to resist.
At that time, humanity had almost fallen into another kind of despair. But then, ten of the strongest and most righteous awakeners stepped forward.
They understood that if nobody restrained the awakeners, then humanity would eventually destroy itself even without the monsters.
Thus, they gathered together and established an organization capable of keeping awakened humans in check while simultaneously providing services that would make every awakener dependent upon it.
And on that day, the "Awakeners Association" was born.
Under the guidance of those ten heroes, the organization expanded rapidly.
It established laws, created systems for registering awakeners, provided resources, handled monster outbreaks, and established defensive territories.
Moreover, it became the shackles that prevented powerful awakeners from freely harming ordinary humans.
The normal population welcomed the organization with open arms, while the ten heroes were praised as saviors.
Their families were granted extraordinary status, and as the decades passed, those families gradually became something close to royalty among humans.
Their influence expanded alongside the Association as new schools were established.
Districts dedicated to training awakeners appeared, and academies were built specifically to nurture talented individuals.
Normal education still existed, but it had naturally become secondary.
In a world where monsters could appear at any moment, knowing mathematics or history wasn’t enough to survive.
No...
It was combat experience, individual strength, and talent that mattered.
Students were sorted according to their classes and potential, and those possessing rarer classes were given better treatment.
Some people called it unfair, and Christine had never disagreed with them.
But she also never denied or protested against such treatment.
’In a world like this, talent is practically another form of wealth.’
The stronger someone could become, the greater their value was to humanity.
Every year, the Association held competitions across different regions to identify the most talented awakeners and recruit them into important positions.
Christine had once dreamed of participating, but reality had quickly crushed those dreams.
She had been born with a D-rank class. Her future had been considered mediocre at best.
Worse still, her class was primarily intuition-based, making its actual potential difficult to determine.
She wasn’t someone who was expected to stand at the top. However, that year, something changed.
The Association announced a new program.
The strongest students from every region would be gathered together and formed into specialized teams.
Those teams would then be deployed to dangerous cities and borders, where they would defend human settlements and, if possible, eliminate the threats surrounding them.
Christine had been selected from the southeastern region, and likewise, so had the other six.
Seven talented awakeners had been chosen to protect Valeria City.
And thus, the Seven Radiant Stars came to be.
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Just as Christine was reminiscing, her thoughts were suddenly interrupted.
*Bzzzt!*
A faint vibration came from her wrist as she immediately looked down.
The bracelet wrapped around her wrist was one of the association’s more advanced pieces of technology.
After years of studying monster remains and the strange energies contained within them, human scientists had developed technology capable of manipulating light and energy in ways that had once been unimaginable.
Holographic communication was only one of its many applications.
Normally, Christine’s bracelet always remained silent. Only a very small number of people knew how to contact her privately. She knew that those people would never contact her without a reason, especially not through a priority channel.
A bright ray of light suddenly emerged from the bracelet.
At the same time, Christine’s expression slightly changed.
She immediately tapped the device with her other hand. Instantly, a holographic screen appeared before her.
The screen wasn’t too big; it was barely the size of a smartphone.
On the display, there was only one message. But the moment Christine read it, her entire body stiffened.
It was a report sent directly from the association’s headquarters.
Her eyes slowly moved across the words.
[Report:]
[After observing the Seven Radiant Stars’ efforts for the past decade, the authorities have determined that the team has failed to eliminate the impending threat within the Valeria region.]
[Furthermore, the threat has continued to evolve into a truly dangerous level.]
[An additional threat has also emerged.]
[The Association has therefore decided that the matter can no longer be allowed to continue.]
[An official envoy will be arriving shortly to take over the situation.]
[Thank you for your service.]
[You may retreat after their arrival and receive your performance overview.]
The message remained suspended in the air, while Christine didn’t move an inch. Or rather, she couldn’t move.
Her beautiful face had gradually lost its color as her fingers became cold. Even her breathing seemed to have slowed down a lot.
For years, the Seven Radiant Stars had been given authority over Valeria City. They had been allowed to make their own decisions and had been trusted to handle the threats surrounding the city.
But now, someone was coming to take everything away.
The Envoy.
That single word carried far more weight than the others could possibly understand.
Christine’s lips trembled slightly as she pieced her thoughts together.
"The envoy is coming..." Her voice was barely audible.
Yet the five holographic figures heard it loud and clear.
The smiles that had appeared on their faces moments ago, much quickly disappeared.