Chapter 259: New General

In his video, a man who looked to be his father was making a last grand stand, just like in the previous clip. But the young man recording was so overwhelmed with despair at the sight that he was spotted, even with the cloaking device hiding his presence.

The recording device survived somehow, but the boy didn’t. Just like his father, he was also brutally killed.

Dennis released a heavy sigh.

"His name is Donovan Jr., boss. He’s one of ours, in fact. Do you remember? Back at the Global Summit, he and his father were present, and he was sent here to Capitol of The Elite along with Black Sun Mateo’s daughter and other promising young ascenders..."

Recognition dawned in Uhtred’s eyes, and his gaze turned even more frigid.

"So he and his father were among the casualties?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Dennis replied, his tone grim. "We had only just allowed some of the students to return home for New Year’s for a short time when this happened."

Silence reigned as Uhtred pictured Donovan Jr.’s bright-eyed, reverent face more clearly. He remembered meeting the kid face-to-face and how truly eager he had been to stand in his presence, brimming with ambition to join the Capitol of The Elite and become a powerful ascender.

Now, that kid was no more.

"The girl from before, too... the one who survived," Dennis added after a short pause. "Sophie Albert. She’s also one of ours. We’ve managed to recover her for now, but she hasn’t spoken a word to anyone since."

"She’s... processing her loss quite differently," Dennis shook his head with a sigh. "She has completely lost herself in non-stop, vigorous training for two days straight..."

Suddenly, he caught himself and shook his head, realizing he was straying off-tangent.

But Uhtred cut him off before he could pull back to the main matter.

He asked Dennis to lay out every detail — not just regarding Donovan Jr. and Sophie Albert, but about every ally and acquaintance affected across the board. He learned the full scope of their situations and the exact circumstances surrounding their deaths.

It took more than thirty minutes of briefing, but Uhtred sat through every second of it. He watched videos where footage was available, listened to frantic audio clips where only sound had been recovered, and saw pictures showing the devastation of the coordinated Ancient Variant attacks.

By the end of it all, his expression was flat. He burned the faces of the "Prime Sapiens" in each attack where images could be recovered into his memory.

That was the only thing he could do now. He wasn’t a hero who would go about hunting these people down — the Ancient Variants clearly knew this. The same way humans had profiles of the Ancient Variant Generals was the same way the Ancient Variants surely had profiles of the powerful figures on the human side, most particularly Uhtred himself.

They knew he was pragmatic. In fact, they were banking on his pragmatism to sow mistrust among his allies regarding him.

But one thing they hadn’t accounted for was the fact that beneath Uhtred’s pragmatism was still a very human side, one that felt immense rage at their action of going after his people.

He wouldn’t go out hunting for these Prime Sapiens specifically. It would not only be unrealistic to do so, but it would also be a huge drain on resources.

So instead, he burned their faces to memory. No matter what, he knew he would cross paths with them one way or another. Then, furiously and thoroughly, they would get to feel his rage.

He let out a long sigh, observing a moment of silence for his dead allies, then reoriented his mind.

His expression shifted into a professional gear, and he redirected back to the main matter of the discussion.

Aside from the families and factions that were killed and wiped out, the matter of the Prime Sapiens remained.

Throughout all the videos, audio, and pictures, Dennis had painted a clear picture. The attack on the Donovan family was one of the first and earliest attacks. The attacks had been simultaneous, but not strictly so.

They had happened in quick succession — fast enough that no one really had the time to react on a global scale, but staggered enough that there was a bit of time between each strike.

"We think they were testing different iterations of these Prime Sapiens," Dennis said.

He explained his line of thought to arrive at this conclusion.

Basically, from the first attack to the last recorded one, the difference between each Prime Sapien was drastic. The first was more like a beast — a craze-fueled version that lacked restraint and couldn’t be controlled.

Compared to the last Prime Sapien, whose attack had been clean and so thoroughly efficient that there had barely been enough of a record of it... the difference was stark.

"We also noticed several children missing," Dennis added. "The Ancient Variants tried to cover it up as kills, but investigations show no signs of that. We believe they’ve been kidnapped. Just like the first time at the start of the integration, they’re using these kids to further their experiments in this ’Prime Sapien’ project..."

Dennis finished his report and analysis with a solemn expression before sitting down quietly, waiting for Uhtred’s response.

The situation was a mess and extremely terrible. Whoever was behind this attack was very, very sly. Their methods were totally different from Krijn or any of the Ancient Variant Generals Uhtred had faced so far.

The information blackout penalty the System had imposed on the Ancient Variants had long since elapsed. The Ancient Variants were now free to communicate and roam between their outposts in Zone 1, Zone 2, and even Zone 3.

Zone 1 was already populated with human territories, and Zone 2 was already being explored.

Humans were getting more powerful — Uhtred, the number one ranker, and even Zara, had surpassed Krijn and the female Ancient Variant General in Levels.

The Ancient Variants were clearly aware of this, which meant a new General was needed — someone from the Ancient Variants’ Zone 2 outposts... or perhaps even from their main base in Zone 3.

So we’re not just dealing with a very sly new General, but one who is at least a peak Nascent Realm powerhouse, maybe even an Awakened Realm already...

Uhtred massaged his temples to ease his deep scowl.

"And here I thought I could catch a break coming back to Earth," he muttered under his breath before standing up abruptly.

"Alright. Dennis, Minh Quan. Here’s the first plan of action..."