Chapter 146 Headmaster
"Yes, little Zion. You are right. We should be discussing the infiltration."
The headmaster of Ward spoke amicably.
However, no one in the room was fooled by his warm expression.
Even Leon could tell that he was dangerous. His instincts were blaring alarms at him to get away this instant.
The times Leon felt vulnerable to this extent could be counted on one hand. The only person who made him feel so helpless was his master.
Zion looked at the Headmaster with narrowed eyes and retraced his pressure.
The Headmaster the world knew was Tanya Giacometti, a woman known for her ideals and righteousness.
Only a few knew about the truth.
Seven years ago, the Headmaster of Ward died in the Elven and Barbarian ambush while helping her fellow pioneers return even a minute early to help Earth.
The Earth had already suffered due to the Third Disaster and the morale of the ma.s.ses had hit an all-time low.
In that situation where chaos could"ve erupted at any time and the lawless were running rampant, it was decided to hide the news about the death of the Earth"s strongest awakener.
Her husband and the next strongest pioneer took her place.
Yet, he was the exact opposite of her. Unlike her, he was ruthless, someone who wouldn"t hesitate to take any measure to bring his enemies down.
Zion, who knew a lot more than others, frowned. Headmaster was supposed to stay at least a few more months away.
Scanning the room one time, Headmaster opened his mouth.
"Aegis will give Umbra three Stage-0 Dungeons."
"What!? This wasn"t wh-"
Techno stopped speaking when he looked into the Headmaster"s eyes. Those eyes weren"t asking for their permission, but giving an order.
Knowing that the fault lay with them for breaking the rules, he had no choice but to back down.
Zion also didn"t refute.
No one knew how to hatch or raise a divine beast egg. In exchange for that, getting three Stage-0 dungeons was a better deal by a large margin.
Wrapping up the discussion, Headmaster signaled Techno to start the real meeting.
A new hologram appeared in the air.
Everyone who saw its content leaned closer to get a better look.
It was the scene where Huntress crushed Nathan in the arena until the point where he used [Zero].
By the time the video ended, almost everyone had a dazed expression.
"…That"s an Iota-rank?"
Techno uttered in disbelief. This was also his first time watching this clip.
"He looks strong."
"Nah, no way that"s someone with Iota-rank can do. But that isn"t the clutch here…"
Knuckle and Tempo commented on their opinions.
Tempo, who was relaying the video on his device, gave his honest opinion.
"The reports say he turned into Enma-rank mid-battle. But solely going by the ability he has shown his combat ability reaches at least low Tesla-rank."
The room was plunged into silence.
The people present in the room were among the best of the best. In their respective specialties and rank, they were at the top of the world. It was rare that such a gathering would occur, but when it did, the matter discussed affected humanity"s survival.
Yet at this moment, they could not believe what they were witnessing.
Fighting one rank higher is known to be almost neigh impossible, yet Mr. Pepe had jumped two ranks.
Albeit his increase in fighting prowess was only at low rank and it came from his diverse abilities, it was still shocking.
Techno displayed more details on the hologram and continued.
"To top it off, he knew everything about our plan. From the timing of our attack to our escape route."
"Is he working with others?"
Techno gulped before answering Zion.
"From my a.n.a.lysis: No, he is working alone."
The video paused at a few different scenes and zoomed in on Nathan.
"He was fatally injured and on the verge of being captured. If he had backup, then it should have arrived long ago. Yet he kept fighting until the bitter end, going to the extent that he forcefully increased his rank and combat ability by two ranks."
"What about his diverse abilities and how did he know about the infiltration? It shouldn"t be possible if he is by himself."
For the first time, Iris spoke.
Her doubts were correct. Mr. Pepe shouldn"t be working alone. He must have someone supporting him from behind to have so many skills.
The answer came from Zion.
"[Foresight]"
Techno nodded.
There had been a few cases similar cases in the past. But all of them had a very low level of foresight.
Only a single awakener had a high level [Foresight] and she was the one who told the first three Irregulars to hide their abilities.
In the end, her predicted future came true and Irregulars saved humanity from extinction.
"Headmaster and I believe the same. This will also explain why he had a weak companion with him. He is most probably gathering future powerhouses. The question is…"
He looked into everyone"s eyes before speaking up.
"Is he on our side or not?"
No one answered.
The situation with Mr. Pepe was perplexing, to say the least.
If he was an Irregular, why had he been hiding till now? Was the divine egg important to the extent that he decided to reveal himself? Or was there another motive for exposing himself?
However, this wasn"t the source of their worry.
"What if he is planning to go against humanity?"
"What if he has a similar reason to past Irregulars to hide his ident.i.ty?"
The last two questions made them nervous. Whatever the answer was they knew one thing.
A change was coming.
And it would affect the whole of humanity even if it wanted or not.
Headmaster pa.s.sed his decision.
"Aegis and Umbra will stop their existing tasks and focus their complete manpower on locating the 5th Irregular."
He stood up and walked to the door.
"The existence of 5th Irregular can become detrimental to Earth. As such, if either of you two does not cooperate, I will take it as a direct opposition to my authority."