Fate Online: Shadow

While Shadow and his crew are trying to pull away from their pursuers and the war between the six guilds is slowly intensifying.

There's a new development happening somewhere in the world.

Knock! Knock!

"Come in"

A dark-skinned man wearing a pair of glasses opened the door and walked inside a victorian style room with shelves full of books, and in the middle of the room is a table where a bald man with a huge scar across one of his eyes is sitting behind the table, reading something on his laptop.

His being exudes the air of authority.

And his name is...

"Mr. Zero, your plane is ready," Charon said the moment he stepped foot inside.

Zero raised his head and looked at Charon and closed his laptop, and slowly stood up from his seat, and walked around his table to the front where Charon handed him a coat.

"It's finally time to meet this unruly newbie who's been causing a lot of ruckus in the underworld lately" Zero said as he took the coat from Charon and put it on.

"Is this really necessary sir? After all, it was just a prince" Charon asked, and from his tone, anyone would feel like he doesn't even have an ounce of respect for someone who has a princely status.

"Of course, it's not about that! He clearly knew that there's a bounty on that brat's head, but he didn't even take the job in the end and just killed him. So tell me, Charon, didn't he just cause us to lose a few million dollars?"

Zero laughed as he walked out of the room with Charon following behind him.

Charon has a question mark floating above his head when he heard his boss's reasoning of wanting to see and meet his newbie called Shadow.

As sharp as he is, he already figured out that Zero is just making excuses to see this newcomer who's been causing waves in the underworld. Of course, there's also the fact that Shadow had taken with him a few retired elite assassins and even invited them to play a so-called virtual game.

The two of them walked on what looked like the hallway of the hotel, and people dressed in hotel uniforms would greet them respectfully with a bow.

"But what should I do with Princess Violet, sir? She's been constantly asking to meet you" Charon said, the tone of his voice was tinged with annoyance.

In fact, he even has this urge to meet her personally and slap her face hard for always disrupting his peaceful days of work.

"Should I personally take the field and kill her, sir?"

Charon's voice was so calm that even Zero who had seen every dirty thing in the world couldn't help but feel a chill. In fact, it's been a few years since he had heard the word "kill" from this trusted friend of his, so the only explanation that he could think of is that Charon had been really fed up with Princess Violet's constant nagging.

"What? No, employees of our Continental Hotel are not allowed to kill anyone directly or indirectly. Only if your life or those important around you are you allowed to retaliate and eliminate them" Zero quickly said, afraid that Charon might really take the field when he's away and cause them trouble.

After all, the Continental Hotel isn't an omnipotent group who could take on everything that their enemies throw at them.

Both of them left the five-story building that has a triangular structure, and in front of the building are three black Range Rovers, and the streets around the building are packed with people of various attires moving towards their own destinations.

Zero boarded on the back of the middle car while Charon took a seat beside the driver's side.

A couple of minutes along the road in silence.

Zero suddenly stuck his head between the driver and Charon and looked at the latter and asked with a serious tone, tinged with a bit of worry.

"You're really not going to do something stupid while I'm away, right?"

Charon slightly turned his head towards Zero and wore a smile and replied, "Relax sir, I'm not that hot-headed and rebellious youth anymore"

The driver who heard what Charon said almost choke on his saliva and Charon saw that and gave him a deep stare which made the former shiver and quickly told himself to mind his own business and just freaking drive!

"You're not sh*ting me, are you? You're clearly still making a lot of troubles, especially when you helped hid the tracks of Shadow from the people who wanted to find out about him. If you didn't do that, then Princess Violet wouldn't have been nagging you continuously these past few weeks" Zero snorted and went back to his seat.

He didn't even care that he just blurted out an important information in front of his driver.

Why?

Because these people who are working for the Continental Hotel have all been working for the organization for hundreds of years now and their loyalty is not something to be questioned.

And even if they do betray them, so what?

Zero will just send someone and eliminate them!

In fact, these people who are working for these organizations have already been trained to close one eye and turned a deaf ear to whatever they see or hear while on the job.

"That Shadow...his talent is wasted on playing online games" Zero muttered under his breath while lightly shaking his head.

'Pity...if I kidnap him then train him, then those two old hags would certainly make me pay' he smiled bitterly thinking what troubles would happen to him if really does what he's thinking right now.

'And those people! Jesus Christ, they are already so old but why did they follow Shadow all the way to Northern Rica Principality and even started playing that virtual game? Just what did that the little brat tell them that they willingly followed him?'

Zero had always been curious about the reason why Genesis and the others left their peaceful life and followed Shadow all the way to the other side of the globe.

After all, even he got rejected by them when he tried to hire them to instead work at the hotel when they retired from their jobs.

He just didn't expect that a person three decades younger than he is, is able to convince those stubborn fools.

'Could they be missing their youthful days?'

Zero thought while tilting his head.

What he didn't know was those retired assassins only followed Michael due to curiosity about how he knew things about them, things that even their comrades don't know about.

But as their stay became longer and them becoming engrossed playing Fate Online, their purpose changed, and now, they just wanted to enjoy the game, have an adventure, and fight formidable foes that could make their blood boil with excitement.

That, they had seemingly forgotten why they even followed Michael in the first place.

What they didn't realize is because they had been living in seclusion until they met Michael.

Living like ordinary people, meeting new friends, hanging out with friends, going to the mall, buying groceries, and meeting their future partners.

Their lives had changed because humans weren't born to live in solitude.