Now that both Danielle and I have rested up, we are now ready to get going towards the capital of Nova Crystalist. We quickly made our way the very morning of the following day. Nothing significant happened along the way in all honesty. We did get to see a bunch of scenery around the republic.
"So tell me, Danielle. Why is Nova Crystalist a republic? I wondered.
He then answered, "It's not a monarch, that's for sure. As far as I can tell, the people of Nova Crystalist accepted the Supreme Leader."
"Supreme Leader, huh...sounds a bit harsh there."
"It isn't exactly what you think, White." Danielle shakes his head. "Although she calls herself that, it's merely a title and besides, we're just in a virtual world, right?"
I shrugged, "I guess so. Whatever the case, I can't wait to see why do you decide to follow this person."
Before we realize it, the sun was already blazing above our head as we finally saw city walls at the end of our horizon. We finally stop so that we could observe the main entrance of the capital.
"This is different..." My jaw dropped, not literally.
Danielle smiles, "Well welcome to Chesta, the capital of the republic."
The reason I was kinda amazed was how different it was when compared to other kingdoms and cities like Sam's or Yumiko's. This place feels like a modern city. It had skyscrapers, roads. It even has its own railway transportation. The only thing missing of course, are cars.
"How does the Supreme Leader able to make all of this?"
Danielle shrugs, "I don't know. Maybe you can get the answer from her? I don't know her well but it seems like she has some knowledge of who you are even before this."
"She knows me, huh?" I begin to wonder who could it be.
But I simply shrug it off as we made our way to the Supreme Leader Lounge. Weirdly enough, the main place where the Supreme Leader lives and governs in is the lounge. I guess that's another of those weird naming that she got. This character keeps on getting interesting by the moment. Danielle then finally stops in front of a large red door.
"She'll be waiting for you inside." Danielle guards the door.
"I'm on my own now, huh?" I tilt my head.
Danielle chuckled, "Good luck with the Supreme Leader. She's a bit...hard to understand sometimes."
"I'll be the judge of that." I responded, unrelentingly.
The red door suddenly slides open. It felt like I'm in a spaceship or something. I step into the room where I can see a desk not far from me. The seat is facing the windows outside. Once the red door behind me closes, the seat spins and faces me, revealing a stunningly spunky sharply dressed Supreme Leader.
I sighed, "So it is you."
"I've been expecting you, Cyclone White." the sharply dressed woman smiles as she holds a glass of red coloured drink.
She got up from her seat and moved away from her desk. Revealing most of her attire which was a full-on business attire. She had a sleek blazer with a red tie as well as a black high-school style skirt along with red tights and a pair of not so cheap boots to cover her legs.
I was slightly surprised, "I thought the Supreme Leader would wear something more...supreme. But this is also intimidating to say the least."
"I know right?" She smiles. "Shows how big my authoritativeness is."
Then jokingly told her, "So, should I bow down in respect or something?"
"You should kneel and kiss my boot." chuckled the businesswoman.
"Yeah, very funny." I responded nonchalantly. "I didn't know you also end up in the same academy."
"Same goes to you, White. A bit too late but at least we finally get to see each other now."
There she was, having the same hair colour as Zen, she looks very attractive in many ways. She used to have a different hair colour as far as I can remember but there she was. Izzy Nova Crystalia. An ex-classmate of mine.
"Alright, now why don't you explain to me what's going on right now." I crossed my arm.
"Very well, White." she nods. "I've been wanting to see you ever since I heard of your name and who exactly you are. I'm very glad the Cyclone White I've heard is the one and the same person I used to spent time with during high school."
"Is that really it? Or is there something serious related?" I cut to the chase.
She sighs, "Serious as ever are you?" She took a sip of her drink and said to me, "Nevertheless, I happen to heard that you are no longer working under Yumiko right now. I'm not here to ask you to join me but I do happen to know why you join her. You need information on something, right?"
"Long story short. Yes." I agreed.
"Well then, maybe I can help you with that..."
Suddenly, a telephone can be heard ringing. It was a phone on Izzy's desk. She grabs and answered the call. Her tone suddenly shifted to sound more authoritative than how she was talking to me which was slightly pitched higher. She puts down the phone after a while and turned to me with a stern look.
"What's up?"
"There's been another revolt among the AIs." she explained.
"Revolt among the AIs? What's going on?" I wondered.
She briefly explained, "There have been several cases for the pass few days where these AIs suddenly revolted and decided to cause chaos on other AIs."
"That's strange..."
"Strange indeed. But I don't have time to dawdle around. This time the revolt happens in two different location. I may be able to do it myself on one of them but I fear that Danielle and the others would simply tire themselves out against the other party."
Then I took a stance, "Maybe I can help you?"
"You sure about that? You're just a guest right now." She sternly looked at me.
"Whatever you wanted to say to me, save it for later. The sooner we dealt with these revolt. The sooner we can get to talk."
She smiles and nods, "Very well then, go and follow Danielle. He knows where it is."
"Good luck to you as well, Player 2." I laughed.
"I'm the Player 1 right now, Player 2." she may be smiling but her eyes seems to feel very threatening.
There is a reason why that word kinda ticks her off. But that's for another time. In the meantime, Danielle waits for me outside of the Supreme Leader's office. As soon as I got out of her office, I could feel that the authoritative presence that I felt before have subsided.
"That was fast..." I murmured to myself.
I figured that Izzy have probably jumped out of her office building or something. That's the only possible way her presence can go away in an instance.
I turned to Danielle who is already in his armor, "I'll help you guys, somehow."
"Alright then. Follow me. I know where it is."
And so the two of us ventured outside of the lounge and headed west of the city. Once we arrived, we noticed that there were a platoon of AIs that was attacking other innocent AIs. Another noteworthy thing to mention was that we also witnessed an innocent AI quickly deciding itself to join the other revolting AIs.
"How can this happen? I thought these AIs are loyal being made by the Virtue systems." I told Danielle.
He then theorizes, "There's probably a bug or a glitch in the system. But we can't really confirm that."
"It can even be a virus..." I whispered to myself.
After all, this could all be a part of whatever the other Chaos Champions are doing right now. It could possibly be it. I'm quite sure of that. In the meantime, I better clear this chaos for now.
"So how are we going to do this, Danielle?" I asked.
He replied, "After consideration from the Supreme Leader, she said to just destroy them. No remorse, White. There are AIs."
"Got it."
The two of us dashed into the group of ransacking AIs together with our weapons, ready on our hands.
TO BE CONTINUED