Fate Online: Shadow

Ten o'clock in the morning, Central City.

Michael, Genesis, Ripley, and the others are currently in the living room in the mansion with gloom plastered on their faces, and surprisingly, there's an addition with them.

There she is, Amanda, sitting stiffly on the couch at one corner of the room, silent, knowing how stiff and dangerous the air is in the room right now.

Right now, they are gathered at the mansion because they received news that Zero had just left the Continental Hotel and left the country in his plane.

And all of them know where that plane is headed.

"Is the news reliable?" Genesis asked Viper.

Viper glared at him, "Of course it is! Charon told me himself"

Michael wasn't even surprised about that, as he knows that Viper and Charon go way back.

In fact, both of them actually joined the Continental Hotel at the same time, and he had already met Zero a long way before the latter even became the leader of the organization.

"Is he really coming here to meet you?" Genesis turned his head towards Michael and snickered looking at his horrible expression right now.

Michael glared at him and snarled, "What?"

Genesis just snickered and said, "This is happening because of the ruckus you've created the past few weeks"

"Hmmph!"

Michael snorted in annoyance, he won't even be troubled if Zero meets him if he was still in his peak, but right now he's still a fledgling. He's not dumb not to know Viper and the others are deliberately letting him win whenever they spar.

In fact, his current ability and power aren't even comparable to any of them right now.

He's so weak compared to any of them that they could easily kill them, even Robin who looks like a frail old man wouldn't even break a sweat if he decides to kill him.

This is the reason why he was troubled after knowing that Zero is on his way here and wanted to meet him.

After all, if a fight breaks out, then it would certainly cause him a headache.

But of course, even if it happens, he knows Zero wouldn't kill him.

'F*ck, he'd probably beat me up though. Dammit, I really should've just taken Steve's bounty, the moneygrubbing bastard!'

'He's probably coming here because he lost out of millions of dollars because of it!'

Michael then glanced at Amanda who happened to be looking at him, and can only smile at her.

'What a headache!'

Not only was he troubled with Zero, but there's also Amanda who had suddenly been wanting to know his secrets!

Of course, he can't hide it from her knowing that she witnessed what happened that night.

Lying to her would just complicate things, so he can only tell her some secrets about him, but at the same time...not all of it?

"Is it really okay for her to know all of these things?" Miya who was sitting beside Michael leaned towards him and whispered in his ear.

"It's fine, I can't do sh*t about it because I got careless that night and let her see me" Michael whispered as he also doesn't have much say in this now that they are already in this point of their life.

Not like he can tell that Amanda was just seeing things that night, not even an idiot would believe a stupid excuse like that.

"This is all your fault, you took Steve's bounty from the group but then you suddenly rejected it last minute. Do you know how much of money-grubber that bastard Zero is?" Miya glared at him and couldn't help but feel indignant.

After all, they know how troublesome it would be for them. It would have been fine if they haven't still retired, but they are and it would certainly expose who they are if Zero turns up at their place.

'Godammit! It's not my fault! I just completely forgot about it!'

Michael was pulling his hair inside his head in anger.

'Dammit! How could I have forgotten that that bastard Zero loves money so much that he would even fight someone over a cent!?'

Meanwhile.

Amanda is looking at the scene in front of her with a confused look on their faces.

'Just who is this Zero that makes them so worried about?'

She couldn't help but ask that question in her mind as she had never seen Michael that worried ever since they met except for when they are inside the game.

'Is it okay for me to even be here?'

She's now really wondering if it was right for her to follow Michael, as she's not dumb to know that they are talking about something worrying right now because she can feel like the words like Zero, Continental Hotel and whatnot are things that ordinary people should not even know about.

'Just who the hell is this Zero that's making them all so antsy that they even temporarily stopped playing Fate Online?'

She is genuinely curious about who the person is, as the only thing that Michael had told her until now is that Genesis and the others were all retired people from the underworld, but he on the other hand is active, who takes on assassination missions which truly surprised her at first that she didn't know how to take it all in that she even thought of breaking up with him.

But...when she thought about it, it's not like she was ignorant of the dark side of the world as she's even best friends with someone whose father is part of a huge organization, who operates on both sides of the coin.

"Should we gang up on him if he truly does come here?" Ripley who was doing something on her phone suddenly looked up and suggested something which made the others lit up in interest.

But the light in their eyes quickly died as they know that doing that is just asking for more trouble.

"Come on, no use to dwelling in troubles that's not even here right now. Come, lunch is ready" Olivia suddenly came out from the kitchen wearing an apron.

The rest looked at each other, then shrugged their shoulders as Olivia has a point. They'd just deal with Zero when he��s here.

Olivia's eyes flashed as they walked past her, clearly not unaware of their real identities.