"Hey, I was about to-"
As soon as Daneel announced his decision, the Underlord spoke out, making Daneel turn around and fix him with a gaze which made him remember what had just happened before they had embarked on this mission.
This resulted in the man gulping, and cursing the world because of the fact that for some reason, all of his decisions seemed to mirror this guy"s. It would have been fine if he had been stronger, but because that was sadly not the case… He had no option but to adjust. He almost felt like an older brother who wanted the same things as the younger one, but was never given what he asked, because the parents were extremely biased towards the other.
The only good thing was that he had said so in a low voice that was not heard by his subordinates who were all absorbed in picking who they wanted, so he got back to the list.
Daneel felt like laughing as he saw this, and he did pity the guy a bit.
Well, he had only himself to blame.
Each of the choices had to be unique, as each ident.i.ty belonged to a specific individual of whom two could not exist.
With his free time, Daneel decided to further study everything, and that was when he realized that it was probably a fact that their ident.i.ties were only secondary in importance.
The reason behind him making this conclusion was that all 150 ident.i.ties… Did not have the power levels written.
This meant that they would be allowed to do their own thing after infiltrating with these ident.i.ties, and that they had to only take care to align with them so that they could blend in, at least until they launched whatever plan that they picked to succeed in the mission.
Daneel also noticed that the mission was called a quest in some places, which was interesting. He didn"t know why this sort of dual naming was present, but it was one of those things that had to be shelved away as no reason could be found behind it.
At this moment, he felt really glad that he had brought his sovereigns along, because he could expect right away that there would definitely be a need for different kinds of skills. There was no group more varied in skills than the Nine Sovereigns of Angaria, so he looked forward to seeing what they would have to tackle.
Of course, part of the reason behind that was the peak reward that they could get, and because of what he knew about the items that were present in the 5-start tier rewards… He could almost feel himself salivating as he thought about the incredible G.o.dbeast weapons and formations that he would be able to obtain if he was able to pick what he wished.
The only way he could indulge and get what he wanted rather than what he should take was if he managed to get more rewards, so Daneel"s eyes were set on getting the best outcome.
The only worrying thing was that they would be watched, but Daneel realized that he shouldn"t care about this, because he had already decided just what kind of persona he would display in the Order. The powers he had picked to expose would become obvious later, anyway, so there was no reason to consider now even though people might be watching.
Soon, the ten minutes were up, and everyone was done picking. Because of the deduction he had made, Daneel hadn"t really supervised what his sovereigns were picking, but still, as each of them announced their options when they were asked by the display panels that appeared in front of them, he wasn"t really surprised.
Ca.s.sandra had picked the ident.i.ty of a barkeep who was known for her sharp tongue, and was a loner who was pursued by many in her town. Aran had curiously picked one of the regular admirers of the same barkeep, and Daneel was quite certain that the confession which he must"ve heard during the episode with the Golding Lightning was definitely at play here.
Regarding that, he had yet to speak with them because he hadn"t gotten any time, but Daneel didn"t know what to say, either.
Aran"s other qualities were that he was a veteran, and that he was a miser who saved almost every penny of his pension.
Eloise was the daughter of a rich merchant, and she had been educated from birth in the manners of etiquette and various other things that a lady should know. This was pretty close to her real upbringing, and when Daneel had seen the ident.i.ty before itself, he had known that she would definitely pick it.
Elanev was an upcoming soldier in the Army of Creylia, and he was from a long line of soldiers who all had ill.u.s.trious careers.
Finally, Faxul was a farmer with good talent who was training his powers but also loved his occupation so much that he was doing both the same time.
These were all common ident.i.ties that would be present in any city, and as for the others, they had picked various things such as merchants and workers in different occupations.
The Underlord"s final pick was that of a different retired general who was p.r.o.ne to bad luck, and Daneel wondered whether his present situation had played a role in him making that pick.
As soon as all of them had announced these things, they felt their vision blurring, and the next thing they knew, they had been split apart and were in different locations.
Daneel found himself waking up in a hard bed, and as he looked around, he saw that he was in a room that barely had any furniture. There was a dining table with a bowl on it onto which rainwater was dripping from the roof, and through the windows, he could see that the weather was quite bad. There was not a single light in the room, and as for storage, there was only a single cupboard whose door was slightly ajar, allowing him to see the few pa.s.sive clothes that were present.
His ident.i.ty was, after all, that of someone who believed that luxury would only weaken people, so it made sense that this was the kind of house that he would find himself in.
Right as he was about to discover more, another panel popped up in front of him, and it said, "The mission has begun. Each individual has been transported to their respective ident.i.ties, and they are all in different places around the island. Each individual has also been presented with a trinket that they can use to communicate with each other. Apart from this, nothing else is given. Please be aware that this is also mission filled with danger, and if you find that you are about to perish, you must crush the trinket which will allow you to be teleported outside. There have been cases of people dying because they entered situations that were completely out of their control which did not allow them to do this, so you are warned that your life is in your own hands. Spectators.h.i.+p has also begun. All outside sources of information have been blocked. This is the last instance in which you will obtain any information in this manner."
With that, the panel disappeared, and in its place, a trinket in a very strange shape fell out of where it had been onto Daneel"s lap.
He picked it up and saw that it was actually a circular sun with tiny replicas of his own face plastered all around it, and it was pretty d.a.m.n creepy.
Of course, it was a replica of the body of the Overseer.
This was almost like a subtle reminder of the fact that that thing was also watching, and Daneel had to try hard not to grit his teeth with anger due to that thought.
Suppressing his emotions and telling himself that there was a time and place for everything, Daneel touched the trinket and instantly felt the 29 other people of the team.
He could even feel their locations weakly, and he knew right away that if he followed the directions which were being indicated to him through the trinket, he would be able to reach them. A messy kind of conversation followed, with each and every one speaking at the same time, that led to no one understanding what anyone was saying.
Daneel decided to shout to stop this, but the Underlord beat him to the chase.
"Everyone, shut up! We talked about this! The trinket is working, so drop it for now, and get out of where you are and gather information! Even though we have three months, it"s actually supposed to be quite a short period of time to accomplish the task that we have been given, so we should not waste even a second! Let us all speak together in three hours to decide a plan of action!"
Daneel considered for a moment whether he should also say something, but the man had already covered everything. That was the best thing that they could do, so as each of them gave their a.s.sent, Daneel did so, too, albeit in a strong tone.
Seeing this, the sovereigns responded too, and it was obvious by now to the others that they would only listen to him.
Still, they put aside their concerns regarding the team"s unity for the moment and started their mission.
Daneel did so with quite some energy, because even though he had been quite appalled after finding out about the purged that had been carried out, he was really curious to see just which kind of government had been deemed to be so successful that it had even become a commodity that was worthy enough to be sold in the Mainland.
He walked out of his house and cast the spell to stop the rain from touching him, and he felt glad that he had picked someone who was known to be a Mage.
The simplest thing to do now was to find a way to Mind Control someone, but that would also be the dumbest thing to do while others were watching. It was true that Mind Control might be something that the elites in the Order could use, but as for a newbie like him… It would draw too much attention, so it was not advisable to go down that path at the moment.
Still, there were other, cla.s.sic methods of collecting information, chief of which was obviously to go to a place that people gathered.
And of course, in any form of society, this place… Was a bar.
There were many things different in this place from Angaria, such as the style of architecture, the quirks of the people and to a certain extent, even the people themselves. Yet, Daneel decided that these were things that he could notice and think about more later, so he just observed everything on his way.
Soon, he arrived at the only place which was bustling even though the weather was harsh, and as soon as he entered, a small hush fell over the area.
For a moment, he wondered why that was the case, but he soon got the answer when he remembered what his ident.i.ty was.
"Master Rayleigh, a good day to you, Sir! Your table awaits you! Please follow me!"
He was someone known for his power and his righteous ways that allowed him to command respect of the kind that many could only dream of, and it was only after he sat down at the specific table that had been reserved for him that everyone continued what they were doing. That silence that had fallen was the symbol of that respect, and Daneel had to admit that he quite liked it.
With this, he settled in, and after telling the man who had welcomed him to bring him the best wine and food, he asked the system to record everything while he also began to eavesdrop on conversations left and right.
The food and wine soon came, and although the taste was quite different, they were all exquisite.
Yet… Daneel could hardly pay attention to them, because of a very startling thing that was continuously becoming clear to him.
The more he listened, the more he became bewildered, until it reached a point where he started to fear whether his mind might have been secretly scanned in some way.
And the reason behind that…was that the government in this place reminded him quite a lot of a different place that was very familiar to him.