Chapter 99: That Player is Kaelen Cross
Aside from the public information on the Hunter’s Association, Kaelen couldn’t really find any useful information online, when he remembered President Hunter might have an idea and decided to give the man a call.
He was about to dial the man’s number, when his thumb froze over the contact.
If he could clearly remember, President Hunter had admitted helping the assassins into the estate and should be wanted as much as him for whatever charges they placed on him.
Also, if Hunter was still the President of the Central Bank, there was simply no reason for him not to be at Black Rose’s coronation Kaelen was now watching live.
Kaelen dropped his phone to input President Hunter’s name in the search, and the first result that popped up made him lean back on his chair.
Just like he suspected, the now former President of the Central Bank was in the highest level of security prison at Stronghold 3. But what Kaelen found strange was the fact that the man hadn’t been taken to court and thereby had not been convicted, but was already in the most dangerous prison with a bail of one billion dollars.
Kaelen suddenly laughed softly.
"I see how it is..."
If the former Emperor never returned, it simply meant that President Hunter was put in prison by Black Rose, who also raised the bail to one billion dollars.
One billion dollars was an amount very few people could afford, and no one would be willing to pay such an amount to bail a man already blacklisted by the stronghold to avoid getting a bad impression from the Empress... except a certain someone who had much more than that and didn’t care about the Empress’s feelings.
That was Kaelen Cross.
That man was him.
Black Rose seemed to have figured Kaelen out well enough to use Hunter as bait, because Kaelen still remembered his debt to Hunter—not to mention he still owed him one for the expedition information—and his natural instinct was to go bail the man out to clear the debt.
The moment he did, Black Rose would be notified, and only she knew what she planned from there on.
Kaelen found it amusing, because even though the woman had proven once more to be sharp-minded, she still greatly underestimated his capabilities.
Kaelen cleared his search history before picking up his phone and paying for the service at the counter, before walking out of the internet cafe.
His next destination, Stronghold 3.
But first... he had to pay his respects to the newly crowned Empress.
Kaelen’s lips slowly curled up as he snatched a mascot hat from someone and disappeared into the crowd.
***
At the coronation ceremony, Black Rose sat at the large chair prepared for her as she looked at the entire ceremony with bored eyes.
She didn’t understand why all this had to be done just to become the next Governor of Stronghold 1 and Emperor over the seven Strongholds.
Her eyes kept on drifting around the crowd, scanning the faces of people who she thought looked familiar before she immediately lost interest and moved on to the next.
The truth was, she wasn’t really looking for anyone in the crowd, but at the same time was expecting a familiar face she hadn’t seen in three months to show up.
After Kaelen had clashed with her father and then went after the Governor who had disappeared as well, just like the Emperor, she put her all into finding his whereabouts across the strongholds and at the same time consumed every single clip of him out in the public, studying his patterns and battle techniques.
The result... nothing. If he didn’t blow everything up, he simply overpowered his enemy with his vast arsenal of stolen skill sets, making him even deadlier than the infamous Crimson Purple when it came to abilities.
She was still lost in her thoughts as her eyes lazily scanned the crowd, when they landed on a man with a mascot hat, staring straight at her.
Everyone was staring at her. But there was something about the man’s gaze that made her pause on him.
He looked familiar, but the longer she looked, the harder it was to pinpoint where she might’ve seen the man. Because every time she tried to take in his appearance, it was like she was staring at a new person, and the only reason she was still looking at him was the gaze in his eyes... and the stupid hat.
At that moment, the entire blank screens surrounding the square suddenly changed from displaying the events for those who were far back to a news channel, instantly drawing the attention of the entire crowd as they began murmuring to themselves.
What news could possibly be more important than the Empress’s coronation? It could only be a life-threatening matter like an incoming beast wave, because even an instance dungeon appearing shouldn’t be making the headlines at times like this.
"Breaking News: We have just received multiple reports from sources currently active on Evolution Online, and have verified from other sources who just entered the game, that the biggest form of broadcast, the Universal Announcement, had just been made a few minutes ago..." the newscaster made a brief pause.
The crowd instantly broke out in angry jeers at the newscaster and media team, calling for them to be sacked immediately for disrupting the ceremony over the stupid game many had dropped long ago.
"Who gives a fuck about Evolution Online?"
"Yeah. What the hell is this bullshit!"
"Do people really still play that trash game? I even tried to give it a one-star review on their official page, only to realize they didn’t even have one. What a low-budget waste of time."
"Boooo! Go home and think about your life."
Unlike the crowd’s reaction, Black Rose’s brows furrowed as she focused on the news channel. Not just her, but everyone of the stronghold’s top officials seated all had serious expressions on their faces.
The newscaster finally resumed. "Evolution Online has only ever seen one Universal Announcement, and that was triggered by the infamous Kaelen Cross when he conquered the Dragon Lair’s ruins. And today, the player behind the second Universal Announcement for, I quote, ’climbing the ladder of immortality’..."
As soon as the newscaster mentioned the title, the eyes of the seated officials widened in shock and disbelief, and they immediately sat up to hear the name.
Several of them could already be seen whispering orders into their assistants’ ears, while the young master and Governor of Stronghold 3’s brows shot up in surprise.
"That player... is Kaelen Cross."