Reincarnated Hero System

Cabinet Room A4

Royal Palace

Gerfast, GWE

November 4th

Year 1054

Evan strode through the castle corridors, his attire starkly contrasting with the opulent surroundings.

He wore a grey hooded shirt over black trousers and sneakers. A black jacket was thrown casually over the hoodie, and his slicked-back black hair added a touch of sleekness to his otherwise relaxed look.

As he walked past rows of guards, they bowed respectfully, each one noting that Evan was probably the only person who dressed so casually within the castle’s grand halls.

He entered a spacious room where a large roundtable dominated the centre.

Seated around it were over 50 individuals, though only about five were physically present. The other 45 were magic projections, shimmering images of people participating from various locations across the continent.

It was a gathering of powerful figures from across the Alpha Continent, and people would not even conceive the possibility that they were all here because of one person.

“Wonderful morning to you all.”

Evan greeted these Kings, Great Nobles, Living Legends and Sovereigns as he moved into the one empty seat at the table.

“I trust that you have other appointments today, as have I since I need to be in another country by noon. So, let’s get this wrapped up within the hour.”

With those words, he sat down and slotted a small chip half the size of his fist into the projector in front of him.

An image was projected at the centre of the table, showing various data, charts and long lists of information.

Then, he began speaking.

“First off, I’d like to thank you all who either participated directly or sent forces to assist our Operation yesterday.

The help was very welcome.

With that out of the way, I’d like to give you all a full status report.”

Evan gestured towards the charts in the centre of the room and all eyes turned to it as he began speaking.

“Of 35 Demonic Hand Bases which were targets of yesterday’s operation, we had 19 100% successes.

That’s at least 60,000 Demonic Hand members—soldiers—terminated.”

He pressed a button on the remote in his hands and the projected image switched to the next slide.

“11 had a success rate of around 50-70%.

We had cases of more members present than estimated, stronger Senior Members and the like.”

Switching to the next slide, he continued.

“5 were completely evacuated.

These bases may have been abandoned over the years, or due to certain…complications.”

“Complications?”

One of those physically present, his fellow Hero, Laurene Hayes, questioned with a raised brow and Evan sighed before speaking.

“I may have done a ‘few’ things that made the Demonic Hand evacuate those areas.”

Though no one knew exactly what it was that he did, everyone present knew it definitely not just a ‘few’.

As for what Evan did, it was simple, he existed.

Evan’s mere presence on Aidos was a variable that had caused the future of the planet to change, so not everything was turning exactly out as he had seen in Aidos Online.

The majority of events were still unchanged, but there 25% of things would turn out differently. One of such differences was the fact that the Demonic Hand bases that existed at these 5 locations as of Year 1054 in the game, had been evacuated as the First Finger had relocated the personnel there to other places.

To be precise, they were all in Tarse.

That was over 15,000 Demonic Hand members.

Moving on, Evan switched to the last slide, and looking up at it he sighed.

“The 35th Base…was a 100% failure.”

“…what?”

[100% failure?]

[What location was this?]

Evan’s lips twisted into a frown as he looked up at the projector and switched to the next slide. And answered the questions that came for him.

“I knew there was a possibility, but I didn’t think we’d really encounter one of them.

The Coalition Force we sent to handle the Base of the Sixth Division in Hom Badir, Awhen, led by the GEE ‘Living Legend’ with the epithet of ‘Rock Rage’…was completely annihilated.”

[**GASP!]

“?!”

The expressions of most of the others in the room morphed into ones of surprise and shock, but a select few were unfazed—as they already knew of this beforehand.

[Evan, are you being serious now?]

[He is, Gavin.]

Emperor Isaac Wilson of the GEE replied to Chief Grand Magus Gavin’s question before Evan even had a chance to say anything.

His expression was dark and it couldn’t be helped, his nation had lost a ‘Living Legend’ and it was someone he personally knew.

“Who was responsible?”

Emperor Rudeus Hayes of the GWE question with a narrowed gaze and in response, Evan held up the remote and switched to the next slide.

Upon seeing the image and the data beside it, those who were just finding out about this death understood why it happened.

“That Unit, unfortunately, encountered him…an Executive of the Demonic Hand.

‘Sixth Figer’ Seith Beddoe.”

Indeed, the Sixth Finger was present in Hom Badir, Awhen yesterday on orders from the First Finger, and it was when he was leaving that he encountered the Coalition Unit sent to wipe out his subordinates who were based there.

Naturally, he took action to make sure none of them returned alive, with Evan only finding out about this from the familiar that one of the dying soldiers sent out to report the news.

[If he’s in Awhen now, why don’t we take a force to get him now? I’d personally lead it if need be!]

One of the Sovereigns spoke but Evan shook his head and replied.

“By the time we got the information last night, the Demonic Hand had already evacuated from that location.

There’s no way they’d stay in a compromised location.”

Evan had confirmed this with Artemisia this morning so he knew that Seith had taken his subordinates elsewhere…probably Tarse.

‘But the fact that he killed a Living Legend…this means that Seith has finally regained his real power as a Legendary.’

Like Dominik Velak, Seith Beddoe had suffered a death in the past and though he had resurrected at the hands of the First Finger, the price was his power.

He should have completely regained it in a few years, but with Evan’s interference and the Demonic Hand moving their plans forward, Seith had gone on a levelling spree and regained his Level 700 power.

‘So that’s one more Level 700 in Tarse…’

Evan sighed with an irritated expression on his face, before clapping to quell the small conversations being held amongst the others in the room and draw their attention to himself.

“Please…let’s put the small conversations for later.

I’d also like it if some of us were present for the funeral of the deceased, it’s the least we could do for them.”

He then switched the slide to the next where the total average was displayed.

“With the aforementioned stats, we have a total success rate of 73.14%. This means we successfully eliminated somewhere within 23-27%% of the Demonic Hand’s forces on the Alpha Continent.”

Hearing the total Evan called out, incredulous expressions appeared on the faces of most of the National Leaders present.

[Barely 25%?! After all that?!]

[Are you sure you’re getting your numbers, right?]

[We killed over 100,000 Demonic Hand goons yesterday and you say that’s not even up to half of them!]

In response to this, Evan pulled up a map of the Beast Kingdom and zoomed in on Lacertilia. Seeing this, the Price of said Kingdom, David Thancreed, raised a brow and glanced at his fellow Hero.

“Lacertilia is the largest Dungeon City of the Alpha Continent with an adventurer population in the millions and a civilian population in the tens of millions.

The Demonic Hand targeted such a city, and Lacertilia was just the starting point of their plans for the Beast Kingdom.

You think they’d dare to do that if killing a little bit over 100,000 of them would wipe out half their forces?”

[…]

“…”

Silence reigned supreme after Evan spoke. They all thought about it and realised just how much fighting power Lacertilia had.

What’s more, if what Evan said about them having designs on more than just Lacertilia was true, then the Demonic Hand needed a much bigger fighting force.

“Need I also remind you that the Cheverton Incident was NOT the Demonic Hand’s first plan for the GWE?

Where do you think the forces which were supposed to execute the plan for Dungeon City Merdin go? What about Cheart where ‘Strongest Human’ Rathal killed the ‘Tenth Finger’?

Don’t forget that they still haven’t hit us with their biggest plan yet…”

Evan did not believe it was possible to take out the Demonic Hand on the Alpha Continent.

First off, he did not know all their Bases.

Some were never revealed in the game, some new ones had been created in the time he had been on Aidos, and like the case with 5 in yesterday’s Operation, some had been evacuated.

“Besides, the Demonic Hand never has most of their forces on the Continent.

The ones on the mainland right now are probably about a quarter of the Demonic Hand’s forces allocated for the Alpha Continent.”

[Evan, these percentages of yours are giving me the chills.]

“Tell me about it.”

David and Laurene commented when Evan spoke, and Rudeus momentarily glanced at his daughter before posing a question to Evan.

“Where’s are the remaining forces?”

“The Divider and Dread Ocean Islands. These Oceans have so many Islands that we don’t even know the half of it, it stands to reason that they provide perfect hiding places for the Demonic Hand’s forces.

They only bring their forces to the mainland when they are about to pull off something big.

Because Lacertilia’s Dungeon Break happened before they could get all their plans ready, most of their forces had not yet arrived at the time.”

Evan spoke about one of the reasons why Lacertilia did not have more casualties with a shrug, before switching off the projector at the centre and continuing.

“Regardless of whatever percentage it is, 100,000 is not a small number.

It has dealt a massive blow to the Demonic Hand and would slow down their nefarious plan on our Continent greatly.

Most importantly…”

His lips curled up into an evil grin as he concluded.

“…it’s surely enough to leave the First Finger furious.”

Seeing Evan’s expression, everyone present couldn’t help but think that this was his main goal in organizing the whole Operation.

They were not too far off; it was about 50% of the reason. The other 50% was part of his preparations for Tarse.

“Anyway…I have a few more things to say before I take my leave.

First off, is that for the next few weeks, contacting me would prove to be very difficult, so if you have anything to say to me, please leave it until Laurene’s Sweet 16.”

“Evannnn….”

“What? It’s your 16th birthday. So ‘Sweet 16’.”

Laurene rolled her eyes and gave up on getting Evan to be serious, while the boy just chuckled lightly.

Before one of the Living Legends present could speak, Evan’s expression suddenly turned serious and he spoke.

“I wasn’t joking though.

I would be going Off the Grid, and it’d be impossible for any of you to contact me until I get back.”

“Mind telling us why?”

Felyela, Gavin’s Master and a very close friend of Eliza’s grandmother asked this on behalf of everyone present and Evan replied with an uncharacteristic seriousness.

“Because the ‘First Finger’ is gonna want to kill me. So, I need to make myself scarce until his anger cools off.”

[…dude, I think you’re leaving out a bit too much here.]

David’s comment reflected the thoughts of everyone present, and Evan smiled wryly before replying.