Kisha rushed to the building but no matter where they go, they can't find anyone. There was an ominous feeling bubbling in her heart the longer she walked around the building, in the end, she decided to head and seek Duke.
Hawk led her to the conference room where Duke was having his call with his subordinates. Kisha pulled the nearest chair and sat, she waited for his call to end before she asked. "Care to explain what's going on?"
Duke was silently thinking with both his hands intertwined under his chin. His frown could squeeze a fly in between, he doesn't seem to hear Kisha's question because his brain seems to have come to understand some possibilities of a certain situation.
Kisha repeated her question only after she had gotten his attention.
Snapping out of his spiraling thoughts. Duke answered. "The convoy that was supposed to bring my family here has been intercepted. And we have lost contact with them. Including Tristan." He exhaled deeply and continued. "My people have been looking for clues around.
But because of the chaos outside, our network has been paralyzed."
"When did it happen?" Kisha inquired.
"Last night, I presume."
Kisha remembered that Duke mentioned that he couldn't contact Tristan anymore. She then fell into deep contemplation. If her memory serves her correctly. Duke has never mentioned his family in her previous life and not just that, she could not remember seeing Tristan, Hawk, and the others. Not even once. 'Could it be?!'
"Do you at least have a clue where they were before they disappeared? Or did Tristan leave any clues? Any rendevous location?"
Duke tried to think again to see if he missed some important information or clues. Aside from the last text message Tristan sent him at dusk, nothing else could be used as a clue.
"I have sent my people to the last known location to investigate." He appeared downcast as he spoke.
"I have a suggestion, do you want to hear it?" Kisha said, neither cheerful nor hopeful but informative.
Duke stared at her for a full minute before he nodded.
"Send Sparrow to investigate."
Sparrow who was silently standing on the side, was jolted in nervousness as to why he was called. Kisha continued when she saw Duke's probing gaze and looked at Sparrow. "Have you noticed some changes in your body like getting better eyesight during the day or night?"
Sparrow deliberated in his head before he nodded in confusion. "I have seemed to feel that way." He looked nervously at Kisha, wanting to consult something, he only continued when he saw her nodding in his direction. "I can also feel my footsteps getting lighter."
"Which means?" Duke stared at Kisha, probing for an answer. He had a conclusion in his head but he needs to confirm it with Kisha.
"This change is the indication of his talent and gift."
"His awakened ability?"
"It is greatly associated with his awakened ability. Talent and gift are perpendicular to awakened abilities, but not all awakened have them. It is highly likely linked to a person's potential." She pointed at Sparrow. "In his case, he awakened the wind ability and was also gifted a hawk eye, which compliments his talent in reconnaissance."
Understanding her point and what she wanted Sparrow to do, he answered. "If that's the case, it is indeed our best choice to send him without alerting the enemies."
Sparrow was wondering when he mentioned his awakened ability to Kisha? But unlike him, Duke had an epiphany about Kisha's ability. He did not pry any more than necessary and directly agreed to send Sparrow out on a mission together with Vulture as a safety measure.
He has many enemies and this is sure a great chance for them to strike, his expression doesn't look angry but inside his head, he was already planning how he would skew and torture his enemies so that they would regret that they did not die out there and instead decided to provoke him. He was not called a tyrant for no reason.
Feeling his growing blood thirst, she tapped his shoulder and consoled him. "It's better not to have any news than having bad news, doesn't it?"
Seeing the worry in her eyes and the gentleness in her voice, his bloodthirst dispersed and he returned a smile to assure her that he was now feeling better.
But they did not stop getting busy, they quickly sprang into action to check all possible locations where they could be hiding.
A lot of possibilities and outcomes had already crossed inside Duke's head, his brain was running a few miles in seconds and Kisha felt bad for him. She knew that this must be the tragedy that happened to Duke in her past life. She did not pry much about it because Duke never wanted to reminisce about his past that much, he would always try to avoid the discussion when the topic was brought up.
Who amongst the people who survive the apocalypse does not have a tragic life? Everyone has, and she fully understands it but she doesn't want Duke to experience the same tragic end he had experienced before, this is what she owes him.
She is determined to help Duke find and rescue his family, so she asks 008 to look for an item that can be used to track people without concern about the cost, she would keep the item aside for emergencies. 008 understood how much sacrifice Duke made for its host that's why it did not oppose the idea even when it knew how hard it would be to gain those points back and immediately went into action in searching in his vast sales channel.
After leaving 008 in charge of the item, she excused herself and let Hawk lead her to her room, not forgetting to remind him to keep her updated about the investigation.
Once she felt Hawk's presence getting further, she closed the door and made sure that it was locked before she turned to her system interface. She opened her Territory pack, and what greeted her was a holographic version of the mountain and vast forest, floating in front of her.
She felt the novelty of the futuristic and magical vibe it presents. She savored the feeling for a bit before she started studying it, she could zoom in and out of any place she desired and the infrastructure was very life-like, so she poked it a little, right after her action, a notification popped up.
[Do you want to place the territory in the chosen location?]
Just below the message were the buttons.
[Accept] or [Decline]
After clicking accept, the interface showed a loading page and just after 5 minutes, the holographic map showed a green flag where the building was and it was surrounded by a dome-like grid that expanded to the whole valley which is a hundred thousand square meters in size.
She then tried to click the green flag and another option showed.
[Territory Management]
[Territory Upgrade]
[Relocate]
She giggles like a child as she busied herself getting familiar with her new toy.
As time passed by, her brows started to crease in dissatisfaction. It turns out, that her subspace facilities did not offer 100 acres per facility but it will start from 1 acre and will only increase little by little through an upgrade. So what she saw before was the fully upgraded version and if she wanted to upgrade it over 100 acres, then, she needed to buy the territory upgrade that cost 500,000 points.
"So that's what it meant when it says upgradable?!" She mumbles through gritted teeth. But she could not do anything anymore since she already bought it. She then clicked the
Territory's status window again.
[Territory Pack (Divine Grade)]
1 acre of land (subspace type - upgradable)
1 acre of pond (subspace type - upgradable) Full
1 acre Salt Marine Tank (subspace type - upgradable) Full
1 acre of orchard (subspace type - upgradable) Full
1 acre of rainforest (subspace type - upgradable)
Poultry (subspace type - upgradable) Full
Pigpen (subspace type - upgradable) Full
Cow shed (subspace type - upgradable) Full
Show more ...
As she scanned through the interface, she noticed that some facilities were full so she checked the upgrade requirement, and she was relieved to see that it only required 1000 points to upgrade to level 2, so she upgraded the pond first and was instantly infuriated when it only increases to 2 acre after the upgrade and it was still showing full!
In the end, she used up 100,000 points to upgrade all facilities needed.
[Territory Pack (Divine Grade)]
1 acre of land (subspace type - upgradable)
15 acres of pond (subspace type - upgradable)
10-acre Salt Marine Tank (subspace type - upgradable)
15 acres of orchard (subspace type - upgradable)
1 acre of rainforest (subspace type - upgradable)
Level 12 Poultry (subspace type - upgradable)
Level 13 Pigpen (subspace type - upgradable)
Level 15 Cow shed (subspace type - upgradable)
Show more ...
She inhaled and exhaled deeply as she tried to repeatedly tell herself that it was useful and no need to be stingy with points. Once she had fully calmed down her aching heart, she started looking at the holographic map to decide where she would place the facilities so that others could help her tend to the livestock.
After forming a plan in her head, she started to get busy again while waiting for news from Sparrow and Co.