Endless Vertex

{Have you ever compared yourself and that picture in the wall? You look like a slightly darker and younger version of that man with similar features to that woman.}

[I've actually never bothered to notice. We'll discuss that later, this house's previous owner is really picking up my interest.]

Atlas was in the living room, the sheet of paper held in hand. When usually a letter would have the receiver's name on top, this one didn't, showing only an empty bar.

Curiosity consumed Atlas. He dialed a number. "Hello, how you doing Percy? Ok in Blood Hound?"

"I'm doin fine Mr Atlas." A young voice with Texas accent projected from the other end of the phone.

Percy is Blood Hound's computer technician. In mercenary term, a Hacker. He is a new recruit from last year, enlisted for hacking into a military system just for fun. Back then, he just turned 13 years old. According to him, he graduated his local high school at 12 to pursue IT as school was too boring and useless. He took cyber security classes and somehow managed to discover its algorithm. Being a hacker comes with extraordinary talent, but it was not the only thing special about Percy that attracts multiple organizations. Luckily, Blood Hound was in town for some business and reached out to him in time, or else he would have been devoured by other lunatic mercenaries.

"Great. I need you to look up on the owners of the mansion in Daxrim city District 8 Anold Street. The owners are really special and got my attention."

"So sir, do you want me to assemble the team and kill them?"

"What? Why would I want that? That's an insult, I'm not bloodthirsty at all. It's just for research purposes."

"Yeah... That just sounds more suspicious..." Atlas heard Percy murmur quietly.

"Watch out for your salary Percy. I'll minus a zero when you say negative things to your perfect boss again."

"Yes boss. I'll call you back when I get all the information." The phone hung. Percy is always serious about his job as a hacker.

Atlas was tinkering with his new Aura between his fingers when the phone rang after a minute later. "Good news?"

"I'm sorry sir. But no. I only managed to get one word."

Atlas frowned. "One word? How? Your hacking skills are unbeatable."

"No need to praise me. As a hacker, I still have a long way to go. I went through a lot of stuff, which you won't understand, and clicked into the classified information of the male property owner. However, I only caught a glimpse of the first word before it got locked out of my mainframe. It's the work of multiple experienced hackers. Whoever you're searching for must be very, very important."

"I see. Never mind, you can just tell me the word you saw."


"Male. I saw the gender male." There was laughter from the other side of the phone." Just kidding, I saw the first word of his name. Think it's pronounced as Qin. Q, I and an N. Hope that'll be useful."

[Qin. Qin? Qin!] Atlas stared down at the pendant on the sofa's armrest, the large character "秦", Qin, maintaining its golden, sacred appearance.

"Thank you for the information. It is extremely useful. Maybe you could also search up Qin, report about any breaking incidents or enormous organizations relating to it."

"You sure aren't up to date boss. You know Qin is a Dynasty right?"

"Yeah. Obviously."

"Huge Dynasties die, yet their bloodlines may still be alive. Qin is one of them out of the many. I'm only a Tier 1 Beginner, but I know a lot more than you do. There are 8 ginormous Class 1 families that Warriors acknowledge in the Capital of China. Qin is the third greatest of the 8, below the Draco family and the Lin family. Qin used to be the crowning family, but sadly things didn't go well for them for the past ten or so years. Thus they are now at No.3, replaced by Draco and surpassed by Lin."

"How do I not know such interesting shit?" Atlas leaned aback, suspecting whether he has even been living life to the peak.

"I don't know. Ask yourself. Anyway, these families are crazily powerful. Mercenaries like us are nothing to them."

"Think twice. I've got good news. I'm a Tier 1 Axonn now."

There was dead silent for a few seconds before Percy started yelling his lungs out on the other side of the phone. "You are a god! With an Axonn like you, who could probably compete with someone a Tier higher, Blood Hound can now be officially a Band 1 mercenary! We can have a better reputation, more income and customers, so that I can buy myself that component I've desired the most!"

"Percy, are you crazy again?" Atlas heard a different voice on the other side of the phone.

He heard Percy exclaiming. "Serpent! Atlas is an Axonn now! Isn't that great?! I'm gonna go tell everyone now!"

"Slow down." Serpent stopped Percy. "Don't let this spread out, we don't want to take any risks. Right boss?"

Atlas smiled warmly. "Certainly, you sure know me well."

"Ok Percy, you can tell Blackbear and the cool squad after this. Atlas, good job, you should come back soon so we can celebrate."

"Of course. Of course. I'll find the time when my job right now is over."

"Great." The line shut.

"Can I go out now?" An American boy with smart green eyes asked carefully in a technology filled computer room, lights of all sorts blinking in different colors.

"Go ahead." A grin formed on Serpent's pale white face.

"Mr Blackbear! Where are you? I've got awesome news!" Percy ran out.

"That boy levels up so damn fast. I might not be able to defeat him anymore if it weren't for my inventions." Serpent switched to his cold blooded face. "Roses oh Roses. Why does it have to be like this..." A speck of flame took form of a rose. "Such a backstabbing hoe with deceiving appearance."