Chapter 557: Top ten
"At Least I know Lucifer is entering Divinity through a hacked system, but Hades is a bigger mystery. It"s showing that he"s entering through a verified terminal, but I still can"t find him. So strange," the man muttered, frowning.
"It doesn"t matter. Even if he isn"t here so we could use him openly; even his hidden action helps us. So it"s fine. Hide. Hide Mr. Hades. As long as that world is converted, you won"t have anywhere to hide," he continued as he closed his eyes.
...
"Alice! Are you ready? We need to leave, or we"ll be late!"
Standing outside Alice"s room, Ryder was knocking on the door as he called out to her.
He had a bag in his hand which had his clothes and his essentials. Even though he didn"t need any bag since he had his inventory, he still went for one just for show.
"Coming! Just a minute!" A voice came from inside the room.
"I"m waiting in the car. Come out when you"re ready. I"ll keep it on," Ryder informed Alice as he started going downstairs.
"You"re leaving?"
As Ryder reached downstairs, he was greeted by Shu.
"You"re up early today? But yeah, we"re leaving," Ryder replied.
"Take care of the trip and stay alert. Just give me a call if there"s a problem. I have many resources in the New Capital to help you," Shu reminded Ryder.
"I"ll keep that in mind," Ryder answered as he smiled. "You stay safe too."
With that, Ryder left and went inside the car, which he turned on as he started waiting.
"Ja.n.u.s, are you there?" Ryder asked as he started getting bored.
His words received no reply from Ja.n.u.s, not even a yes.
"Cheh, even he"s busy. Whatever."
Ryder turned on the music as he started tapping his fingers on the dashboard while waiting.
"Really a legend when it came to singing. I should meet him one day," Ryder said as he sang along with the singer.
Within what seemed like ten minutes, Alice also stepped out of the Estate with Shu, who escorted her to the car.
As Alice stepped inside the car, Shu once again wished her a safe trip before he went back.
...
The Airport wasn"t close to the Estate, but it wasn"t far either, as Ryder reached that place within half an hour.
After parking the car, he stepped out with the bags and entered the airport with Alice.
After finis.h.i.+ng all the necessary procedures, he entered the flight. Unfortunately, their seats weren"t near each other as they had booked at separate times. When Ryder got the ticket, only one seat was available, which wasn"t in the business cla.s.s.
Despite having money, he was going to travel in the back because he wanted to be on the same flight.
As Alice sat alone in the business cla.s.s, Ryder tried to find his seat.
"The middle one, it seems," he muttered as he made sure once again. He had the middle seat of the three.
All three seats seemed empty, though. He wondered what his co-pa.s.sengers were going to be like as he took his seat.
"G.o.d, why didn"t I get this idea before. Instead of booking my seat on this flight, I couldn"t have booked both of ours in the later flight, which had seats available! G.o.d, sometimes I"m really slow!"
"Excuse me, can you move a bit? That window seat is mine, I think."
As he was cursing his slow thinking, he heard a beautiful sounding voice.
Looking to the side, he noticed a lady that seemed like she was a model. The blonde lady seemed to be in her late twenties, dressed in a mini-skirt.
"Please," Ryder said, surprised as he moved a bit, giving the s.p.a.ce for the lady to get to her seat.
"Thanks," the lady thanked Ryder as she sat down.
"This is the one."
Not even a second had pa.s.sed since the last sat down when Ryder heard a different voice.
Ryder looked to his left side to realize that it was a different woman but the woman this time seemed like a mature woman who was in her late thirties but still, her body seemed to have curves in all the right places. As for her voice, Ryder had only heard a few words, but he found her voice to be seductive.
The dark lady took the other seat beside Ryder.
"Uhmm, I guess all that happens is for a reason. I can"t complain about coming to this flight either. We should get there as early as we can afterall," Ryder thought as he folded his arms.
"h.e.l.lo," the dark haired lady looked at Ryder as she reached out her hand. " I have a feeling that I know you from somewhere? Have we met before?"
"I doubt we did. Because I don"t think I would have forgotten your face if we had met," Ryder answered, smiling.
"Why? Is my face that bad?" The lady asked as she chuckled while covering her lips with her fingers.
"Not at all. On the contrary, you"re just so pretty," Ryder replied.
Cough! Cough!
Hearing the words of Ryder, the mature lady smiles. The blonde lady, on the other hand, couldn"t help but cough as she cringed at that line.
"It might be my misconception then," the dark haired woman answered. "Anyway, I"m Diona Rae. Nice to meet you."
She reached out her hand.
"Ryder Flynn," Ryder answered as he also reached out his hand and shook her hand.
"So, are you going to New Capital on vacation?" Diona asked Ryder.
"Ah, I guess you can say I"m going on a business trip," Ryder answered. "You?"
"Me? I live there. I came here to meet my husband," Diona answered.
"Husband? You"re married?" Ryder asked, surprised.
"Hahaha, what"s so shocking about that?" Diona inquired as she smiled.
"Nothing. I just didn"t see a wedding ring, so I was surprised. Anyway, you live in the Capital, and your husband lives here? For work, is it?" Ryder asked.
"Not at all. We"re separated. Oh right, I should make a habit of saying ex before husband," the lady replied. "I always forget that."
"So he"s your ex-husband?"
"That"s right. That"s why I don"t have a ring."
The short conversation continued as the flight took off.
Through this journey, Ryder had also started a conversation with the blonde lady, who was a little less open. She didn"t talk much with Ryder, but she didn"t ignore him either.
...
As the flight landed in the New Capital, Ryder stood up.
"Thanks for the great company."
"Best of luck with your work."
After bidding farewell, Ryder left the plane with Alice.
Watching Ryder leave with Alice, the ladies couldn"t help but shake their heads. As Ryder was talking to them, they thought he was interested in them, but he didn"t even bother asking their numbers as he left with a different lady.
As Ryder and Alice left the airport, they were thinking about taking a can when they saw a man standing with a board in his hand which had Alice"s full name.
"I think he"s here to take us. He should be from Necrosis," Alice told Ryder as she noticed her name.
Ryder and Alice walked up to the man.
"Excuse me, are you from Necrosis?" Ryder asked the man, who nodded his head.
"I"m Alice, and he"s my guardian," Alice told the man as she gazed at Ryder.
"Welcome to the New Capital, Miss Alice. I"ll take you to the headquarters where you"ll be briefed. Please enter the car," the man told Alice as he opened the door.
Ryder and Alice sat in the car before it started moving.
They were brought to the Necrosis Headquarters straight. The path to Necrosis pa.s.sed through the place where the headquarters of the FBI was situated.
He couldn"t help but remember how he had infiltrated the place. This was the place where he had killed his first king. As he saw that place, he couldn"t help but regret as he sighed.
If only he knew about this strength absorption thing before, he wouldn"t have lost the opportunity. He could have absorbed one more King.
As the two of them reached the Necrosis headquarters, they were greeted by a different team that escorted them to a hall where eight people were already sitting.
"These guys... I remember their faces," Ryder muttered as he smiled.
In the original timeline, he had seen all these players on the news channels since they were big names in Divinity. He remembered their in-game name of that time, so he knew they were the top ten players.
It seemed like everyone was here except for him and Lucifer.
"This is disappointing. I thought that I might finally get to see Lucifer with this, but he still didn"t appear. Will he come late? Or is he like me and didn"t wish to join? It would be interesting if he"s leaving one million dollars.
As the two of them entered the hall, the eight players stood up and approached Ryder and Alice.
"You must be the top two players. So which one of you is Hades, and who is Lucifer?" They asked.