"Compared to you, my general, he is still nothing but an ant."
Boom!
Biran felt a shockwave blow him away, sending him flying through the air. He slammed into a tree a hundred feet from the pavilion but ignored his grievous injuries and executed a military movement technique, his legs turning into a blur as he reappeared in front of the general.
At some point, without Biran being aware of it, the general had rose to his feet, now standing straight, looming over Biran like a mountain pressing down on its own earthy foothills.
"And how many weeks is my advantage going to last against such speed of advancement?! What are you going to do about Satell?"
Despite blood flowing from the corner of his mouth and the deep pain in his chest, Biran spoke steadily, "I have already secured a hundred other scientists, some even more talented than him—"
"But none of them are Satell!" The words instantly blasted Biran's eardrums, and he struggled to make out the next words. "I have received a communique from the Supreme Leader's residence. Apparently, he has taken a liking for poetry as of late, and today is the publishing of the first poem in a series that the Supreme Leader has been working on. Let me read it to you: 'The heavens are turning, and man observes. Whoever grasps the mystery it shows shall be gifted everything under the heavens.' That's it. Now tell me, what do you think it means?"
Colonel Biran did his best to ignore the pain and tried to unravel the words, recalling a certain rumor that had been circulating in the higher political world over the past five years. His eyes opened wide, and his breathing quickened when the message's meaning became clear.
The general smirked. "It took you a whole minute, but you finally grasped the meaning. The Supreme Ruler is saying that whoever can conquer and control this new world will be gifted the ultimate prize. That means all factions are on their own with this one. No one will give us even a glass of water on this perilous journey through the desert we're about to cross. Now tell me, my precious right hand that seems to work against me sometimes, what do you think happens to Satell now that he's left our facility?"
Colonel Biran's face turned red as he realized what had happened. He had gone to great lengths to secure contracts for the over a hundred scientists that would lead the research into the transmigrators. Would other facilities established by the other factions also not try to secure Satell?
"I have failed you, general. Please allow me to go after Satell and get him back!" Colonel Biran slammed his forehead against the wooden floor of the pavilion, cracking the wood with his head. But the general immediately dashed his hopes of fixing his mistake.
"I have already received word that his wife has sent him to work for Kaine. That bitch has my treasure in her clutches again. I don't have to specify how disappointed I am that my greatest enemy so far has once again managed to foil my plans."
"I have failed you, general. Please give me permission to kill myself!"
Pa!
Biran's world shook again, and he felt a severe burn assault one of his cheeks.
"You think I'll allow you to escape so easily? Heed my orders!"
"Command, general!"
"Find out everything you can about that world and bring back any useful information. Have the scientists work day and night, without rest, and make them understand the power that world gifts to everyone who enters it! Make those transmigrators loyal, and have them work for us with reverence as if we had given birth to them! Find every little secret of that world. Go!"
Colonel Biran got up and practically galloped towards the garden's exit, but before he could leave the grove of the pavilion, a voice traveled through the air to reach him. "I will kill your whole family if you fail me again."
........................
Ace gave a long sigh and pulled back his sleeve to check the time. He'd been sitting in his bunk bed for nearly eight hours, after enduring twelve hours of interrogation. They had captured him, placed a bag on his head, stripped him of his clothes, and taken a blood sample so large it made him dizzy. Afterward, they gave him a white jumpsuit and shoved him into a ten-by-ten room whose only furniture was the small bed he was laying on right now. Every hour all day yesterday, a woman in a military uniform would come and ask him various questions.
"Where did you grow up? Who are your parents? Did you bring anything back from that world?"
She repeated these questions endlessly, despite his consistent answers. She warned him to be honest, claiming they had his best interests in mind. The woman mentioned that the task force in charge of him was preparing for whatever the countdown would bring, and his cooperation would make it easier for them to keep him safe.
Ace noticed that the question about whether he brought something back was asked twenty percent more often than the others. The woman's tone even seemed particularly pleasant when she asked that specific question, like a mother trying to get her child to confess.
When nightfall arrived, the woman stopped coming, and the lights turned off automatically at ten o'clock. He could only tell it was night because of the countdown, as they never provided him with a means to track time, and there were no windows in his room either.
In the solitary dark, he obsessed over the possibility of his treasure being confiscated. Why would the woman ask that question so often? This question lingered in his mind, but eventually, he drifted to sleep.
Ten minutes before the countdown struck twenty-four hours, he woke, but his worries still remained. He hadn't even noticed that he slept through the night without his insomnia waking him. Even if someone pointed it out, he was too concerned with the wolf meat to care.