The Oracle Paths

A few minutes later, only a little more than half of the freed prisoners actually left Lustris alive. The rest had been mercilessly obliterated by Jake after being deemed guilty. With his current abilities, it was almost too easy to identify the deviants among the Players.

Anyway, he didn't have to play detective for long. As soon as the other prisoners in the process of being freed heard what was happening outside, those guilty of similar crimes only had three choices to hope for survival: Pretend to be innocent, flee, or stay in their cells.

Interestingly, most erred on the side of overconfidence. The Dunning-Kruger effect in all its glory. If they were that good at faking another identity, they wouldn't have been captured so easily in the first place.

It went without saying that those who tried to bolt right away were killed on the spot before they could even get a few steps away. These were the irredeemable idiots, but at least they had the sense to know that escape was indeed their best chance of survival, however slim.

Besides this minority of fools, another minority chose to stay in their cells, thinking Jake wouldn't have the audacity to visit them inside the Conclave Tower. They were right.

Jake didn't visit them. Instead, he simply informed the two women and Anthace that the fate of these prisoners was no longer his concern. If among them were some innocent Players with paranoid tendencies refusing to believe that a stranger was offering a helping hand, they only had themselves to blame.

Staying holed up in the enemy's dungeons could only be a doomed solution that would severely compromise their final rating, as well as their chances of completing their main mission. In that case, they might as well drop dead for all he cared.

Then there was the third category: the scum who thought they were clever enough to fool his vigilance. In the end, maybe some of them did manage to slip through the net without his knowledge. If that was the case, he could only admit his incompetence and let it go.

But the facts spoke for themselves. With more than half of the freed Players summarily executed, Jake thought to himself that he had been admirably efficient. Maybe a bit too much.

The most ironic part in all this mess was that some prisoners, who had nothing to reproach themselves for, didn't hesitate to rat out their comrades guilty of war crimes, which made his job immensely easier.

Among these people, there was a familiar face. Two, including the quiet woman accompanying her.

"Amy..." Jake muttered with a complicated expression as he met the dazed gaze of one of his very first Earthling companions he had met on B842. "I didn't expect to see you under these circumstances."

"Me neither..." The young female flinched with an even more conflicted air than his, while nervously twirling one of her blue-tinted locks. Compared to before, the color of her tresses was no longer the result of a dye, but of a bloodline.

She had never been tall, standing at just one meter sixty at the time. Since then, like all Evolvers, she had enjoyed a second growth spurt, allowing her to surpass one meter ninety, which was modest compared to most. It was a detail in the Mirror Universe, but her small stature immediately identified her as a foreigner in the eyes of both the Underworld Barbarians and Light Warriors.

Her silhouette hadn't changed much either, remaining a generous figure with a slender waist. Her pretty face was still as cute as in his memories, with a small, slightly trumpet-shaped nose and bewitching lips with the right amount of volume. Despite her very feminine form, she still gave off an aura of being small and fragile, especially when compared to more imposing figures like the natives from Twyluxia.

What had changed, however, was that her hair, originally brown with blue strands, had now fully transformed into a deep, vivid azure, a physical manifestation of her current Azure Berserker bloodline. It fell just below her shoulders, flowing and dynamic, reflecting her tumultuous inner power.

Her ocean cyan eyes complemented her hair. They now flickered with an inner fire when her Berserker abilities were activated, giving a glimpse into her enhanced ferocity. The impression of naive purity from before had somewhat dried up, replaced by an edge of hardened determination.

She had long since traded her torn jeans for practical, combat-ready attire that allows for agility and movement, reflecting her growth from a somewhat timid individual to a warrior.

For Jake, their last meeting didn't seem so long ago, but much more time had passed for Amy. Whatever immature image he had of her, water had flowed under the bridge and she was no longer the same person.

As for the familiar woman accompanying her, it was the Korean Lee Yoon, the icy bodyguard of Cho Min Ho. She was currently eyeing him with mistrust and contempt as if he were one of the depraved scum he had just slaughtered. Her on-edge attitude revealed much more about the predicament of the two women within this group than Amy's ambiguous reaction.

"Are these Players... all from King's Idol Alliance?" Jake probed in a neutral tone, ignoring the barely contained hostility of the unlikable bodyguard.

Amy nodded, keeping her lips tight.

"The criminals included?" Jake continued, still expressionless.

"All the prisoners who participated in the assault, whether they escaped or were captured, were or are part of King's Idol Alliance," Amy admitted with a bitterness hard to feign.

Jake stared at her strangely, then said, "Does Cho Min Ho know?"

Before Amy had time to think of a suitable answer, Lee Yoon snapped,

"Of course he knows! After all, he sets the procedures for accepting new members. As long as they follow his orders and respect his rules, everyone is welcome in King's Idol Alliance."

Jake's lips pinched with disapproval, internally congratulating himself on being a much better judge of character than the young female even back then. He might have been egocentric and asocial before, but at least it had allowed him to retain a certain degree of common sense that the fanatical groupies were assuredly deprived of.

Still, he might have matured since then, but deep down he was still the same petty man. A caustic reaction on his part was therefore in order,

"Wow, I understand better why you were ready to drop us to follow him on a whim despite having braved death together."

It was gratuitous malice, sounding like rancor when in reality it had been far too long for him to still feel anything about it. Even at the time, he hadn't seen Amy's decision as a betrayal, their interaction being too brief and his character being too much that of a loner to form a real bond of friendship.

If Jake had chosen his words like this, it was because he was actually curious to understand what her response to his jab would be. Amy's reaction turned out to be more disappointing than expected.

Amy had indeed changed, for the better. She didn't get angry, nor did she lose her temper. She didn't apologize either, nor did she express any regret. What was done was done.

Instead, after making sure that none of the freed Players were eavesdropping on their conversation, she offered him a single warning in the form of an analogy.

"Cho Min Ho... is like an onion." She revealed with a gloomy look. "The more layers you peel off, the more his true nature is revealed. Beneath the layer of charismatic and benevolent leader he displays in public, there is the temperament of a cold and impartial leader he reserves for his trusted men. And even beneath that, there is the personality he shows only to those who have known him too long to be fooled. And if you dig even deeper, there is... the monster. And the truth."

Jake wasn't expecting such a convoluted statement from Amy, and couldn't help but follow up, "What truth?"

"Even if I want to, I can't say it." Amy's visage twisted horribly as she spoke these last words, as if she were struggling with a painful backlash. "I'm already saying too much."

Jake fell silent thoughtfully, deciding not to press her further. He could feel she wasn't joking. Nevertheless, seeing Amy clench her jaw to resist her torment as if she were preparing for an even more violent backlash, the silent Lee Yoon, who had stayed apart until now, interposed between them.

"Don't force her to say more. There are worse fates than death in this world." The Korean declared in a final tone, scowling at him with such enmity that he had no doubt she was serious.

Jake looked back and forth between the two women for a long moment, then retreated with a cold smile,

"At least on this, we're on the same wavelength."