Chapter 11: Finding Allies
Along the way to the Starlight Academy, Kayn and Natas arrived at a busy circular junction where all roads are connected together. This circular junction, which is also known as a roundabout, is called 'Moon Core' because of how it connects everything in the Moon Dragon City, seemingly acting as its core. Anywhere in the Moon Dragon City, where one is currently staying, standing, strolling, or walking, so long as they follow one of the main roads, then they would find their way either towards the end of the city or at the Moon Core.
Although it is still early in the morning, a significant number of people could already be seen walking around the place, either going to work or returning home. Students could also be occasionally seen going to their respective schools, but there were only a few of them around, obviously because the majority of the students would only start hastily moving around when it is almost late. Whereas some would take a bus or personal car to go to school.
As Kayn and Natas were walking by the sidewalk, a voice from one of the big screens mounted on a tall building nearby caught their attention, making them instantly turn their attention toward it.
On the big screen, a beautiful blond female journalist could be seen standing in front of the gate of the 'Tower' while talking to the camera in front of her.
"Today marks the history of the Human race finally entering the 201st floor of the 'Tower'! To tell everyone the truth, it almost felt like it was only yesterday when the 'Tower' brought devastation and helplessness to everyone on Earth, yet now we are one step closer to the faithful day when we will ultimately be clearing all floors and be free!"
Hearing the journalist's line, Kayn and Natas couldn't help but secretly snicker under their breaths as they both thought inwardly, "Wait until you find out about the truth. By then, you'd no doubt feel the true horror and despair of the reality,"
The female journalist continued to talk, "As you can see, behind me are the countless Heroes from the high-ranking guilds of the Dragon Beasts Republic who intends to be the first ones to experience the 201st floor,"
As the camera moves around to get a closer look at the surrounding area, a man with scarlet-colored hair immediately caught the female journalist's attention.
The eyes of the female journalist instantly lit up brightly as she prompted the cameraman with her hand while saying, "Wait… I think that's Joseph! The Guild Leader of the Red Wing Guild that ranks 48 in the Dragon Beasts Republic! Let's go and interview him, quick!"
In a brief moment, the view of the camera shook profusely as it hastily moves closer to the man named Joseph.
"Excuse me! Excuse me, coming through!"
The female journalist smoothly weaved through the dense crowd of people before finally arriving in front of Joseph and seeing the man up close. On the other hand, the cameraman tried his best to squeeze through.
As soon as the cameraman caught up, the female journalist didn't waste any more time as she called out to the man with scarlet-colored hair, "Sir Joseph! Sir Joseph! Please look over this way, Sir Joseph!"
Because of how loud the female journalist was shouting, plus the cameraman filming behind her, her presence was quickly made known to Joseph by one of the members of his guild who noticed her.
"Oh, beautiful woman, what can I help you with?" Joseph asked as he smiled at the camera behind the female journalist, evidently showing that the camera is more important to him than the woman herself.
"If you don't mind, can I ask you a few questions, sir Joseph?" The female journalist replied enthusiastically.
"Ask away," Joseph finally turned to look at the female journalist.
"As one of the Heroes that will be entering the 201st floor of the 'Tower', what are your current thoughts about entering a new floor?" The female journalist spoke with a professional tone in her voice. She might have been so excited before interviewing Joseph, but as someone who has been working in this industry for a long time now, she knows when's the right time to show personal feelings and professionalism.
"My current thoughts?" Joseph started pondering inside his head.
The interview between Joseph and the female journalist quickly became the main attraction for the people nearby.
"Hehehe…" Joseph scratch his head awkwardly before replying to the female journalist, "Although I have experienced this sort of event plenty of times already, I still can't help myself from feeling excited about entering a new floor inside the 'Tower'!"
"Is it because you're about to enter a new floor, a new beginning, and a new start for everyone?" The female journalist quickly assumed.
"That's just one of the reasons," Joseph smiled again before finally walking away.
Currently watching the interview between the female journalist and Joseph on the big screen, Kayn and Natas quickly realized what Joseph intended to say but choose not to omit it.
"Greedy Bastard!" Kayn was unable to hold himself from swearing at Joseph's disgusting action.
"You mean that damn idiotic psychopath?!" Natas turned to look at Kayn, a bit in disbelief.
What Joseph is excited about was clearly the thought of earning more profits and benefits for his guild, not the sugar-coated thought that the female journalist spoke about just now. Of course, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, since more resources for the guild means their overall strength would increase by another fold. By then, they would be able to clear more floors in the 'Tower'.
The only reason why Joseph or anyone else is not willing to mention the truth is simply that everyone already had a tacit understanding with each other to lie to the masses about this sort of matter. After all, no good will come when they know this kind of truth. Instead, they'll just receive a negative image and public backlash. Not to mention, not a single party would be treated as a Hero if they tell the truth to the entire world, even the one who revealed the information.
However, that wasn't the main point as to why Kayn called Joseph a 'Greedy Bastard' and why Natas labeled him as an 'Idiotic psychopath'.
Kayn and Natas are both aware of what sort of character Joseph has. That guy is so greedy that he once sacrificed an entire floor just so that he could get a single item with a one-time use. And what did he use that item for? Well, he used it to wipe out another floor that was owned by an enemy guild. In other words, he wiped out two floors in the 'Tower' for something as minuscule as that.
That tragedy was later called the 'Greed's Carnage'. After that catastrophic event, the public immediately went into an uproar and gave Joseph the title 'Greedy Bastard'.
"If I remembered correctly, everyone gave Joseph such a title in order to annoy and enrage him, right? Since he was so proud of what he did, thus everyone decided to might as well belittle and undermine his actions," Natas slightly chuckled.
"Well, Joseph did have the right to be as proud as he could be of what he did at that time," Kayn's expression quickly turned from a look of disgust to a look of respect.
"Indeed," Natas nodded in agreement.
What the public didn't know at that time was that Joseph actually had a heroic reason for why he wiped out everyone on those two floors.
"The biggest misunderstanding of all time," Kayn felt pity at Joseph's fate after he saved everyone from a potentially even bigger crisis that could have brought a catastrophic event that would take countless more lives compared to what was already taken.
Truthfully speaking, Joseph actually only wiped out one of the two floors he allegedly massacred. The first one wasn't his doing, rather he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. It just so happens that when the Heroes entered that floor and find out about what transpired, they then found Joseph all alone on that floor while standing on top of the countless corpses and acting as if he was some sort of heroic figure that just saved the world from its doom. He even announced to those Heroes that found him, "Don't thank me, I'm just doing my job as a Hero!" before suddenly disappearing.
"Just whose fault was it, to begin with?" Natas shook his head as he remembered just how ridiculous and humorous everything was.
What exactly happened at that time was, Joseph arrived while a group of Villains was in the midst of wiping out everyone on that floor to create an item that supposedly possesses the power to erase every living organism on any floor inside the 'Tower'. Well, that item indeed possesses such power, but it wasn't as absurd as being able to erase everything. The truth is, it could actually only wipe out everything on the floor that is five levels higher than the floor where it was crafted and is only limited to the floors below the 600th floor. Its overall power anywhere above the 600th floor would be greatly limited.
Anyways, instead of reporting such an event to the World Leader Alliance, Joseph took matters into his own hands. According to him, there was no time to bother about reporting as everything was already taking place.
So, Joseph tried his utmost best to stop the Villains, but the only thing he could do was kill all of them after everything was already completed. After all, he was all by himself against a group of Villains.
That was the true reason why Joseph was seen alone standing on top of the corpses.
However, because Joseph did not bother to make a report once again after doing all of those, but instead he disappeared to take matters into his own hands, just like what typical Heroes in movies do, and was only seen later on in an event with similar fashion to what transpired the previous time, which he again did not clarify. Hence, in the end, he was wrongfully blamed for everything and was forced to take responsibility by the World Leader Alliance for the countless deaths that happened on those two floors, whereas the real perpetrators were long already buried six-feet underground as that last floor that got wiped out was their headquarters.
As for how Kayn and Natas know of this information, the former heard of it from the man himself when he was running away from the World Leader Alliance after experiencing the same fate as Joseph, while the latter watched everything transpire with his own eyes.
While reminiscing about that, Kayn and Natas' eyes lit up brightly as they immediately stared at each other.
In the next instant, both of them muttered, "We first need to find allies!"