Level Up Legacy

Chapter 1274 A Hacker

After leaving the sand thieves, Arthur teleported back to his inn. He found the room empty except for their belongings, which Alaric had left there before going with Diana to the library. With nothing to do at the moment, Arthur opened his runic phone and logged into his account. He used a rune to connect his thoughts to his phone, replacing his sight, but he found that the internet didn't work.

"Is it because of the merge?" wondered Arthur as he placed his phone down and leaned back on the couch. "Many things have changed."

Arthur took out his communication device, and after a few rings, it connected him to Julia. On the other line, her sister-like beratement came instantly. Arthur smiled with nostalgia.

"Why is your device unreachable, Arthur? You should stop avoiding my calls!" she lamented, her voice fuming, which made Arthur laugh.

"I had stuff to do," he told her with a smile. "How are things in Runera?"

"Hectic! Runemasters are flooding our workshops after the incentives program, and our walls are expanding by the day to accommodate the refugees. The members of Ascent have scattered throughout the world to aid where they can."

"Give me a summarized report of their work."

"Seraphine, Rae, and Whisker went to Shon to help fight against Kar, but they couldn't defeat him, only push him back. Ilia took Ramiel and Koby to fight against the demi-humans and the Flaming Phoenix, but I have yet to hear of their victory."

"What about our Sub-Guilds?"

"They are working locally to save citizens from monsters," Julia nodded as she read some reports. "Alan and Yuran have increased their guild's size to ten thousand each because of the increase in awakeners, thanks to the Level Up Legacy."

Arthur felt relieved when he heard that, knowing that his sacrifice was still providing humans with the ability to fight. However, there was a lingering question on his mind.

"What is the casualty toll throughout the world since the merge?" asked Arthur as his smile disappeared. Julia hesitated, but he insisted that she tell him. "I can handle it."

"Even with our efforts and the Level Up Legacy, the world is a gigantic place. We estimate the worldwide deaths to be… at least a million."

A million deaths.

Arthur did not betray his emotions, but he could feel his heart clenching. He tried to remain calm, but those million deaths weighed on his shoulders like a crushing mountain.

"But there is something you should know," said Julia with a frown. "I analyzed a different estimate of the number of people that our guild and the legacy saved."

"Saved?" muttered Arthur with confusion.

"Yes," Julia nodded with a smile. "If not for the legacy and our guilds, the death toll would have reached a staggering one hundred million. That is a number we cannot ignore." Arthur was surprised, not knowing that his sacrifice had saved so many people. The entire world's population was almost five billion, and a hundred million was not a small sum.

"But I caused the merge, so the deaths are still because of me," said Arthur with a sigh. "Thank you for trying to cheer me up, Julia."

"You are wrong about that too," said Julia while shaking her head. "It has been two weeks since the merge, and in older reports, the dungeons and monsters throughout the world kill almost a million every month."

"That number is absurd," answered Arthur with a frown.

"It's not," said Julia, shaking her head. "The major nations have it easier, but many of these deaths come from minor nations scattered throughout the world. Dungeon breaks happen on a daily basis. Even without the merge, the death toll would have been the same."

Arthur frowned, disbelieving such a statistic. However, it did work to lessen his guilt about it. Seeing his expression, Julia kept convincing him.

"The Seven Families always wanted to merge the world in order to summon their guardians," remarked Julia with a smile. "But we beat them to it and merged the world in a controlled environment. Do not feel guilty about this, Arthur."

"I wish I didn't," said Arthur, shaking his head. "I might feel guilty, but I don't regret it. I will choose Diana every single time. Does that make me a monster?"

"That makes you human," said Julia with a grin. "I have to go now. The guildmasters meeting is about to begin. I will call you later."

After that, Julia ended their call. Arthur sat there in silence, smiling at her words. She was the first to call him a human in a long time since everyone believed he was not.

Arthur never questioned his origins or his identity after mastering his wrath. He was Arthur Netherborne, a necessity and inevitability of the world's suffering. He suffered because he was the result of suffering itself.

As he was thinking about such useless things, the door opened. Diana came inside with Alaric going into the opposite room. She was surprised to find Arthur sitting in the darkness. "Why haven't you turned on the lights?"

"What does a blind man do with light?" laughed Arthur at her question, rising to welcome her with a hug. "How is my girl doing?"

"You never referred to me as your girl before," she said with surprise but still hugged him tightly after closing the door. "I'm doing fine. And you are not blind."

"What would you call me?"

"A blind person is one who lost sight, but you gave yours to save this world," said Diana as she breathed in his scent. "You saved the world with your sacrifice."

"I feel like you were talking to Julia," answered Arthur with a laugh. "She said the same thing earlier, giving me statistics about how many people I saved. But you guys forget that it was a calamity that I created."

"You forget that your father planned to merge the world before you did," said Diana as she patted his back. "You did it and paid the price. Your father wanted to do it for glory."

"I'm beginning to doubt his actual reasons," said Arthur with a smile. "He hasn't shown his face in a long time."

"I guess he never wanted you to merge the world because he wanted to be the villain so you would be the hero," muttered Diana, almost laughing. "Pathetic ambitions."

"My dad told me that the reason he wanted me to be a hero was because of his father, to prove something I don't know, and my family should be in Sourna."

"Do you want to seek them?"

"A small desire, but I don't need it."

"Maybe your past can help you with your future," said Diana as she caressed his face. "We both need to fight the past that haunts us. You can visit them, nothing more."

"I'll think about it," said Arthur with a smile. "What did you learn from the Wisdom Core?"

"A lot," answered Diana with a frown. "But it just made me more confused."

"What did?"

"Valeria Storm," began Diana as she sat down. "We found reports of people who look like her all over the kingdom, at the same time, without any pattern."

"That's odd," said Arthur with a pondering expression. "And information about her was just accessible?"

"Not really, there were some issues with that," said Diana with even more confusion. "It seems that because of the conflicting reports, the Wisdom Core just discarded them. Alaric hacked into the core and retrieved this information."

"What do you mean hacked the core?"

"I didn't think he could do it either, but he used your Level Up Legacy to hack the core. He said that the legacy gave him a unique game-like class called Hacker."

Arthur was surprised, not knowing that his legacy had such functions. The one to design the legacy was none other than Jizo before his death. If he did indeed add this feature, it might be generated by the legacy.

"Did he uncover anything else?"

"One of the reports was from Hikma," said Diana with a nod. "It said that Valeria Storm visited Hikma and sought someone to guide her to the uncharted lands."

"What for?"

"The report did not say, but after asking Alaric to look up what the uncharted lands had, I was surprised. He hacked into the secret archives of the core and revealed a name I did not anticipate."

"What name?" Arthur asked with intrigue, sitting next to her on the couch.

"A family that lives in the Uncharted Lands," she told him as her voice dropped an octave. "Its name is Netherborne."

Arthur took a moment to process what she said, and then frowned. His brows furrowed in confusion as he tried to think of a way that the name would find itself in Sourna.

It was no secret that his ancestors escaped to Earth to avoid being found by Devaheim. However, he never heard the name Netherborne or figured that they still exist.

"That means my family is not the only one?"

"A Silvera Family does exist, and they are also in the Uncharted Lands," said Diana while grabbing his hand. "It seems the story between these two families stretches back hundreds of years.

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