Free Web NovelChapter 71: Taking actions
By the time the artificial sky shifted from a deep, luminescent violet to a bright, prism-scattered gold, signaling the start of the Atlantian morning cycle, Victor and Diana were already walking the silver-alloy promenades. To any passing patrol, they were simply Kaelen and Lira, two low-tier citizens heading toward their respective labor shifts.
But beneath the surface, a silent digital war had already begun.
Inside Victor’s vision, a steady stream of data flickered as Nova worked continuously in the background.
[Analysis complete,]
Nova’s voice chimed smoothly.
[Cross-referencing imperial debt registries with ancestral bloodline demotions. I have isolated three high-probability targets within the mid-tier nobility. The most viable candidate is House Valerius.]
Victor maintained his steady, rhythmic stride, his eyes sweeping across the towering structures that floated above. "Give me the breakdown on Valerius."
[House Valerius was once an elite clan of the Second Civilization, historically commanding the western oceanic defensive lines,]
Nova reported.
[However, over the last three centuries, their bloodline purity index has dropped below the imperial threshold of 75%. Under the Emperor’s current decree, they were stripped of their military command two decades ago and forced into commercial logistics. Furthermore, their current heir, Corin Valerius, failed the Sage-level mage advancement last year due to a deliberate restriction on imperial resource distribution.]
"A proud family forced into manual commerce, starved of the resources they need to advance, and watching their lineage systematically erased," Victor thought, a cold smile touching the corners of his mind. "They don’t just dislike the current regime; they are actively suffocating under it."
"We have eyes," Diana murmured softly beside him, her voice barely a breath. Her gaze didn’t waver from the path ahead, but her heightened senses had picked up a shift in the crowd.
Two blocks away, a squad of Imperial Arbiters was moving through the promenade.
Unlike the ordinary citizens, these enforcers were clad in heavy, deep-blue power armor integrated with ancient inscription lines. Each carried a halberd pulsing with high-frequency mana. Their metallic irises gleamed with a predatory sharpness as they scanned the crowd, occasionally pulling a citizen aside to scan their biometric chips.
"They’re tightening security," Diana noted, her posture remaining perfectly relaxed, adhering to Nova’s behavioral algorithms. "The Emperor’s announcement of the beast tide has given them an excuse to increase martial presence even in the lower tiers."
"It’s a classic consolidation tactic," Victor replied quietly, stepping into a transit terminal. "When you prepare to strike outward, you ensure the domestic front is paralyzed by fear. But fear is a fragile glue. If you apply pressure in the right spot, it cracks."
They boarded a commercial transport vessel, joining a dozen other lower-tier workers. The atmosphere inside the craft was heavy, almost suffocating. The citizens sat in silence, their expressions weary, staring at the holographic news feeds projecting the Emperor’s grand speeches about cleansing the surface world. None of them looked enthusiastic; they looked like gears in a massive machine, waiting to be ground down for a war they had no say in.
Ten minutes later, the vessel docked at the Sector Four Logistics Hub, a sprawling industrial zone where massive aqueducts delivered raw deep-sea minerals to the city’s refining cores. This was the territory managed by House Valerius.
Victor and Diana disembarked, seamlessly blending into the workforce. Following Nova’s navigation markers, they bypassed the primary sorting bays and slipped into a restricted administrative overlook.
The security lock to the private office was sophisticated, utilizing both genetic sequencing and a localized mana signature. To a surface hacker, it would have been an impenetrable wall. To Nova, who possessed the foundational source code of the First Civilization, it was a lock with the key already turning.
The door slid open with a faint hiss. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
Inside the dimly lit office sat a middle-aged Atlantian man. His hair was a dull silver, and his eyes, though carrying the characteristic metallic sheen, were bloodshot and filled with exhaustion. He was Corin Valerius.
He snapped his head up as the door opened, his hand instinctively dropping toward a concealed kinetic disruptor beneath his desk. "Who authorized you to enter? This is a restricted..."
He stopped.
Victor had already stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. With a flick of his wrist, a localized dampening field expanded from his device, completely isolating the room from the external surveillance network.
"Corin Valerius," Victor said, his tone conversational yet carrying an undeniable weight. "Former commander-in-training of the Third Fleet. Currently reduced to counting mineral crates while the Emperor starves your family of the primary mage serums."
Corin’s eyes narrowed, a flash of dangerous mana flaring around his body. He was an Epic-level mage, far superior to any ordinary citizen, but as his aura expanded, it hit an invisible wall. Victor stood entirely unfazed, while Diana merely shifted her weight, an icy, lethal pressure emanating from her that caused Corin’s breath to catch.
"You aren’t lower-tier workers," Corin hissed, his gaze darting between the two. "Who sent you? House Merova? If the High Council thinks they can fabricate a treason charge to seize our remaining logistics contracts..."
"The High Council doesn’t know we exist," Victor interrupted, stepping closer and placing a small, crystalline drive on the desk. "And neither does your Emperor. We aren’t here to steal your contracts, Corin. We are here to offer you a future where your house isn’t systematically dissolved by the state."
Corin looked at the drive, then back at Victor. "Amusing words. But Atlantis is absolute. The Emperor’s will is backed by thirty-four Sages. No one can alter the trajectory of this empire."
"An empire is only as strong as its supply chain," Victor said calmly. "And right now, you control the logistics for Sector Four through Six. You know exactly how much mana is being diverted to the military shipyards for the upcoming surface campaign. You also know that if that campaign succeeds, the elite houses will monopolize the surface resources, leaving House Valerius with nothing but the scraps of an empty ocean."
Corin’s silence was telling. His fingers twitched near the desk drawer, but the sheer confidence radiating from Victor stayed his hand.
"What is on that drive?" Corin asked, his voice dropping to a low whisper.
"A gift," Victor replied. "The complete, uncorrupted genetic restoration sequence from the First Civilization’s archives. The exact formula your ancestors used before the High Council altered the distribution laws to favor the royal bloodline." freeweɓnovel.cѳm
Corin’s face went pale. His chest heaved as he stared at the glowing crystal. To an Atlantian noble, a pure bloodline sequence was worth more than an entire sector of land. It was the key to absolute power, longevity, and survival.
"Why?" Corin whispered, his voice trembling with a mixture of desire and terror. "What could you possibly want in exchange for something this valuable?"
Victor leaned forward, his eyes locking onto the noble’s metallic irises with terrifying intensity.
"I don’t want you to fight the Emperor," Victor said softly. "I just want you to ensure that when the military transport fleets are ordered to launch for the surface, a critical ’discrepancy’ occurs in the mana distribution grids. A delay of just three days. A momentary lapse in coordination."
Corin swallowed hard. "That... that would be seen as incompetence at best, sabotage at worst. The Arbiters would execute me."
"Not if the blame falls on a rival house," Diana spoke up, her voice cutting through the room like a blade. "We will provide the digital trail linking the failure to House Merova, your primary political rivals. They will be investigated, your family will be tasked with fixing the ’error,’ and the Emperor’s invasion schedule will fall apart."
Corin looked at the drive, then at Victor’s cold, calculating expression. He realized, with a sinking feeling, that he was looking at an apex predator who had snuck into the heart of the ocean.
"You’re from the surface," Corin realized, the truth hitting him like a physical blow. "The surface humanity... you aren’t primitives."
"We are whatever we need to be to survive," Victor replied smoothly, turning back toward the door as the dampening field began to lift. "You have twenty-four hours to analyze the data on that drive and make your choice, Corin. Keep it, use it, and help us delay a war. Or hand it over to the Arbiters and watch your family line become extinct within two generations by the Emperor’s own laws."
Without waiting for an answer, Victor and Diana stepped out of the office, the door sliding shut behind them.
As they walked back out into the vibrant, prism-lit streets of the logistics hub, Diana glanced at Victor. "Do you think he will bite?"
"He has no choice," Victor said, his eyes scanning the grand spires of the distant Imperial Palace. "Greed and the desire for survival are far more reliable than loyalty. He will analyze the drive, see that the genetic sequence is flawless, and his ambition will do the rest."
"Now, complete the sage rank spell. I am going to enter seclusion!", Victor said to Diana.
