An slowed down and stopped.
She still held onto Annie. Dragging Annie by her arm, An walked into a building.
Annie looked at the building. In the shape of a beehive, Annie was surprised that An took her to the government building.
On top of the main entrance, big letters marked out the purpose of this building.
WEB
Annie scrunched her eyebrows.
"The building is this old?" She asked. "The UN of the part of the sign is gone."
"Heh," An scoffed. "UN doesn't matter anymore. Soon, WEB will be all the matters."
This struck Annie hard.
UNWEB, standing for "United Nations, World Evolution Board", was the global association that sits under the Xia Government.
It was originally just UN, but after Dr Chu Ling Hou's research, a new department, WEB, was introduced.
Now that the UN and WEB are breaking up again, Annie was afraid something would be happening in the Xia Government.
It was out of her control now. Getting involved in such a big global matter wasn't good, especially since she doesn't know which side she would stand with.
Regarding Suresa, Annie would stand with the UN and fight against WEB, who was probably under Jinx's control. Yet she doesn't know who is leading the UN currently.
This prevented her from seeking support from the UN. She was alone.
Jade, Annie mutter in her head. Do you think you can hide from Jinx?
"It depends," Jade answered. "As long as my level is higher than Jinx, he won't be able to notice me."
Annie nodded. Now she just had to act and find a way out of this situation.
An led her into an open room decorated with dark patterns and ancient symbols. It felt like a snake den rather than a government building.
"Jinx is my Natal Butterfly," An said. "That makes me the leader of WEB."
"Don't worry, we will find a way to make it work for you, sister," she said to Annie.
"Twin sisters step up and rule the world, how perfect," she continued.
"I thought Natal Butterflies exist inside your mind," Annie said. "Why did we have to come all the way to Weiling."
"Jinx doesn't like to expose himself outside, plus we can use the runes we created in this room," An explained.
She waved her hand and a small shadowy butterfly flew out of her.
If Jade represented happiness, joy, and beauty, then this butterfly emitted a cold aura, reminding people of a freezing and gloomy night.
It expanded in size like Jade would do and landed on the throne at the centre of the open room.
"Annie Suresa…" Jinx said with an emotionless voice. "Tsk tsk tsk… How I would never expect it."
"Pass me 300 experience points, quick," Jade suddenly said.
What, how do I do that? Annie panicked. She pretended she was in the game world. Pass 300 experience points to Jade? She tried.
"Did it work?" Annie asked.
"Mhm," Jade answered. "Jinx had a little more power than I expected."
"Jinx," An said. "How do we do this?"
"Do what?" Jinx replied. "You want to make this girl a Shadow's Clone?"
"Please," An begged.
"You know perfectly well this girl has exceptional talent for an Overseer," Jinx said. "I don't have the power and material for a talent reset."
"Didn't you say you can split yourself in two?" An questioned. "That was your specialty as the Shadow Monarch."
"Halving myself means I'm halving my level too," Jinx said. "It means you two will share my power and myself. If you guys are not together, your power will be weaker than usual."
"Twins bond together," An smirked. "It's fine, just do it."
"Ok," Jinx said coldly. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
An suddenly spat out blood. "I'm fine," she said to Annie.
Ghluhhh. "It's normal," Jinx explained. "I'm basically stripping power away from her."
"Be prepared," Jinx warned.
He split into 2 smaller butterflies. One returned to An, who was a little faint from the process.
Jinx took his main soul in An's split of the butterfly and left only a faint consciousness in Annie's split.
It sailed into Annie's mind.
She saw in her mind that Jade has circled herself into the walls of the spiritual space.
Jinx's copy took up a majority of the space and rested at the centre, unaware of the potential threat of backstabbing.
"Should I destroy this copy now?" Jade said.
"No, it's too early and won't create any effect," Annie said. "We will wait until the very end."
Fortunately, this conversation wasn't available to Jinx to hear, so he innocently asked in Annie's mind, "What talent did you get?"
"Talent?" Annie asked. "I thought I already had one."
"I'm too weak to override the original talent, but I managed to plant a second talent in you." Jinx explained.
Annie closed her eyes and searched for it.
She held out her hand, palm up. She made a fist, but kept her ring finger straight.
A strange and unfamiliar dark energy flowed through her veins towards the tip of her ring finger.
She felt her ring finger throbbing and glowing, dark mists twirled around it.
What, this is… Annie widened her eyes.