Curse the Mainframe! 141 Incoming!

The System only had to point out a few of the various inconsistencies in the clan's daily life, before he saw the understanding dawn on Tatiana's face.

Tatiana buried her face in her hands, her face red.

Just how blind had she been that she had missed all the obvious signs, ah?! She had been so happily playing around with her extended family that she completely didn't notice anything wrong at all.

The worst part of it was, Cyrus and Zacharias had obviously met up along the way as they 'escaped' and found each other, whereas she had radically hidden herself under the water's murky surface until she was sure that there was no one who was following her. She then escaped in a direction she was sure they wouldn't chase after.

This caused her to miss the crucial period where she would be able to easily find out the truth about the matter, and now that everything had been revealed to her, it caused her a great deal of embarrassment.

Her tears had dried up, and her embarrassment eventually abated.

What she felt left was the rage and annoyance that had suddenly built up within her during these past couple of years. She was pissed! Both at the clan and at herself for missing the obvious.

Now that she thought about it, it was actually painfully obvious, but she completely missed all the signs that had been laid out in front of her!

The Neil Clan's tradition really was…! She was filled with complaints, but she knew that it was also because she had been blinded by the trauma and emotion that she felt that one day.

However, she was noticeably thankful that it had indeed all been an elaborate and cruel clan tradition to test them instead of being real.

If it wasn't for her meeting Dietrich, who knew Alec, who knew just how long it would have taken her to catch on.

Thinking up to this point, Tatiana was grateful that she'd met the man, and her interest had already been stirred up by him and his – ahem – cute reactions.

Alec sneakily stared at the [Plot Route] under Tatiana's name when she reflected on her actions and found that it had suddenly been updated after Alec arrived at this place.

Under [Tatiana Neil and Dietrich Rothschild meet for the first time.], there was a flowery description that Alec couldn't even bring himself to read. For one, that was his sister in all but blood, and two, that was his nephew. Wilful ignorance was the only way he could keep his sanity intact here.

Underneath that, there was a new point updated.

[Mercenary troop ambushed by a monster horde, leading to heavy casualties.]

Alec's eyes immediately widened.

"Dominique, come in!"

Dominique re-entered the tent within a blink, Dietrich still on his shoulders. But Alec didn't have any time to feel amused at that now.

Just how long did they have before they were going to be faced with the monster horde?

Just how had there been no news about this? Was it because they were currently too far out from civilisation?

True enough, there was hardly anyone who was willing to come out here, let alone someone who would monitor the situation outside their city.

But even if that was so, if any of the cities knew about an incoming monster horde, they would tell the mercenary groups that did business with them about the danger.

Alec's mind whirled as he thought about what preparations they needed. It was likely too late for them to try and escape already, so there was no choice there.

He looked through his updated shop, finally finding something that would suit the situation.

An extra function that had become available to buy with points called [Map] and [Danger Sense]. Both functions were exactly as they sounded like.

Like the [Main Character Radar] that was available, this was instead for whatever living things existed instead of just Main Characters. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

[Map] didn't exist as a separate map, but instead it felt like his senses had expanded, and his magic was touching everything.

It was a strange and surreal feeling, but it also felt very natural, like an extension of his current abilities, raised to a different level.

The moment he bought [Danger Sense], all his instincts were raised to the max, and his heart was beating in the presence of incoming danger. Even if he didn't know where it was coming from, it felt like the danger was a looming, physical presence.

Buying both [Map] and [Danger Sense] caused his points to deplete to almost zero, but he didn't feel like it was a waste. For one, the functions were permanent and useful, even if he hadn't needed them before this.

The two functions melded together perfectly, expanding Alec's range of influence.

"Prepare for battle," Alec said seriously. "There's danger incoming."

For once, there was no smile on his face, startling the inhabitants of the room more than the news that there was going to be an incoming battle.

Alec was constantly pinged with the notices that he was losing points, so he had to, however unwilling, smile at them.

Unfortunately, his points were already pathetic enough without him losing points for OOC. If he had to suddenly carry out another penalty mission, he wouldn't have any tears to cry.

It was the right choice since the three visibly relaxed when they saw his smile. Alec felt like facepalming. Just how much was his smiling character already engraved into their vision of him that they felt uneasy when they didn't see him smile?

However, even looking at it now, there wasn't even a single indication that there should be a monster horde or that one was even approaching.

After all, in this barren place where it was a struggle for both humans and other living beings to survive, how would they be able to find so many monsters in a single place to form a monster horde?

The lands were so barren that even the trees weren't able to survive.

Just how was a monster horde going to happen in this place?

"Alec? Can you explain further?"

Tatiana didn't say another word, instead briskly leaving the room, her previously softer and more affectionate demeanour taking a backseat as the mercenary troop leader that she'd cultivated herself into came to the forefront.

Dietrich looked at her vanishing figure with a faint light in his eyes, accessing.

"Shape up! Prepare for battle!" Tatiana's voice wasn't loud, but it echoed throughout the campsite, causing the mercenaries that had been relaxing to instantly put aside whatever they were doing, equipping themselves with their weapons.

Dominique moved outside the tent and pressed his magic against the Spectres' seal, calling for the Spectres to come.

One by one, the Spectres appeared before them, exchanging words with Dominique, confused.

Dominique explained with low voices to Yuki, who spread the word amongst them.

There were a few minutes of silence as nothing happened, but before they could do anything more than doubt Alec's senses, the ground shook under them.

The sky that had previously been a soft, gentle shade of blue faded into a blood red shade, and their surroundings changed.

From the previous barren ground, they were now littered with sporadic, ominous looking trees in the distance. The trees had a very thin trunk, with a large amount of weepy-looking leaves. There were faint veins of red running through out the leaves and tree trunk, causing an illusion that the trees were pulsing with bloody veins.

They swayed even though there was no wind, and the trembles on the ground continued without any signs of stopping.

Dietrich was the one that reacted first. "We've slipped into a crack. This isn't Incantix anymore."

Chapter end