Curse the Mainframe! 329 Spilling Dirty Secrets II

"What do you know about the company exactly?" Sekai asked, his eyes bright.

Every stifled thought, every stifled word. He was going to get it out today.

He was going to say whatever he wanted without any consequences, and damn if that wasn't freeing as fuck.

Sekai almost wanted to break out into song and dance like one of those Disney princesses.

Alec raised a brow. "I know that they're part of the slave trade, and that they have a branch here as well. I know that the symbol the organisation you used to belong to uses a bird being stabbed through with a sword."

Sekai couldn't help his lips quirking up when he heard Alec say 'he used to' belong to the company. But he was more surprised about the other words that were coming out of Alec's mouth.

Slave trade? What slave trade?

However, he had little doubt that they could sink so low, even if he didn't know about it.

After all, he and the rest of the academy… they were almost pretty much like slaves to the company, weren't they?

Sekai pulled out the cloak that he used to wear daily, showing it to Alec. "This one, right?"

Alec took a closer look at the stylized symbol on the cloak and nodded. "The only difference is that on this continent, the ones they're wearing is white. The symbol, that is. But there's one person I saw wearing a white cloak."

"White?" Sekai muttered, his brows furrowing. "On Kaoriht, it's all black. You can hardly see it on the cloak, so I always thought it was meant to be that way. Wouldn't white just make it stand out?"

There was a brief lull in their conversation before Sekai picked it up again.

"Could it be that the ones using the symbol on this continent are copycats?"

Alec shook his head. "I don't think so. They're too well branched out for that. In the time when I split up from you, Elysia and Dominque, I stumbled upon a slave ring that's been collecting people using the Awakening Magitype, as well as the various people who stumble upon the place."

Sekai's lips pulled into a snarl. "All the better, then. More to go around."

While the ones on the Awerk continent had not done anything to him, they existed alongside the company on Kaoriht, so Sekai was more than happy to savage them.

Sekai never said he was a *good* person.

Besides, they ran a fucking slave ring. As if he needed more incentive than that?

At this point of time, Alec could probably point Sekai at the nearest black-cloaked person, tell them that they were from the company, and he would kill first. No questions needed.

"Do you know someone called Inspector Fade?" Alec questioned.

Sekai's brows furrowed a little, but he shook his head in the end. "Never heard of them, so they're not from the Kaoriht continent side of things. I know all the higherups."

Sekai calmed himself down a little – and wasn't it gratifying to realize that it came so much easier compared to when he still had the brand on him – before getting back on point. "I didn't know there was another branch. The company mainly dealt in the shadows of things. They didn't do covert things like kidnapping or slavery. I suspect it's because it's harder than you think to cover things like that up."

Alec waited patiently for Sekai to gather his thoughts.

"I was partnered with this bitch called Xin Yi, and as far as I can tell, we were kept a sharp eye on in the academy. Because we were transmigrators."

Alec's eyes sharpened at the surprising words that were coming out of his mouth. "What?" he said urgently, his mind racing. "What do you mean? There are more transmigrators in this academy?"

Sekai nodded sharply. "Yes. The entire academy houses the transmigrators they find. It doesn't matter what age it's at. We're all branded. I can see that now. When we were in that madhouse, it's like a haze muddies our thoughts, leaving us feeling blank but mouldable to the company's wants and needs."

Alec's lips pulled into a smile, but it wasn't a nice smile.

This was so much worse than he originally imagined.

Honestly, Alec just thought that 'the company' that Sekai spoke of was trying to run an underground business and cultivating things like assassins or other such things, or in the worst case have delusions of grandeur and trying to rule their planet, but this was a whole different matter altogether now.

What Sekai spoke of was something much graver.

It meant that the company was aware of the existence of transmigrators and had been going around to collect them.

It also meant that they were aware of how destructive transmigrators could grow to become. Yet, if they were all Main Characters like Sekai was, why was it that nothing had allowed them to break free yet?

More than anything, this alarmed him greatly. Sekai spoke of how they were usually collected at a young age before they knew anything, and they were indoctrinated into the cause.

So, they probably didn't even want to break free, in that case.

Which was bad.

Very bad.

What the cause of the company was, even Sekei was unsure of.

But they did know one thing.

They were to follow the orders of the company down to the letter.

And the only way out was death.

And Sekai was the only one who had made it 'out', so to speak, alive.

Alec felt the very strong urge to kick something. Or kill something.

The System took a deep breath as he suppressed his murderous urges, wondering why the world was suddenly going to shit.

Or had it always been going to shit, but he just never realized it?

Was this why the damn Mainframe had placed him down here? Or was he just overthinking it?

The company was in possession of a number of transmigrators. This was the worst-case scenario. Best-case scenario, they were transmigrators but not Main Characters.

Most transmigrators were Main Characters, weren't they?

Alec bit back the swear that wanted to leave his throat.

He couldn't even confirm it now because Ye Sha was gone, and he'd taken the ability to check whether someone was a Main Character with him.

Alec turned to look at Sekai, who looked lighter than he'd ever seen him. "If I manage to get the brand off the transmigrators, will they defect?"

Sekai hesitated visibly, before shaking his head. "I don't know. We're all kept rather separate, and competition is cutthroat there. There may not have been many of us, but the company would pit us against each other at any given opportunity.

"That bitch Xin Yi was my partner because we were always matched in whatever courses they put us through. At the top. It didn't matter to them that we didn't get along, or that we never would. They brainwashed 'us' enough for that not to matter. Not when the mission was on the line."

Alec swore.

Right now, they were potentially dealing with a bunch of brainwashed Main Characters that was under a shady organisation's rule.

It literally could not get worse than this.

"Ah, wait," Sekai blurted out, suddenly remembering what had triggered the start of his journey to freedom. "That bitch and I were on a mission for the company, checking the crack between realms for the monster that they were breeding."

Alec paused. They were talking about Vi.

"King Vampiric Willow?"

Sekai looked surprised. "How did you- wait… it was you!"

Alec nodded curtly. "What were you checking on it for?"

Sekai shook his head. He didn't know. "We're just lackeys. We're the manpower. They don't tell us things. They only need to know that we're following instructions. But I did hear some of the higherups talk about something *more* in that place that they couldn't figure out."

Alec breathed out, rubbing his forehead. This was getting a lot more complicated than he thought.

He had to find Ye Sha. And quick.

Right now, Alec was scarcely better than a normal human down on Incantix here. He couldn't access any of his System abilities, nor did he now have a helper.

It was at this moment that there was a soft crack that reached his ears.

Alec and Sekai whirled around.

Chapter end

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