The Magician of Sound

In the southeastern Pacific Ocean was a vast island, untouched after a few centuries. Only Brent, who thirsts for knowledge, finally dared to venture to this island.

Kai and his group also stepped on this island today, feasting their eyes with the peaceful green scenery. Although the grass was slightly longer as it had grown for so long, the situation on the runway was mostly subtle.

The small breeze wind brushed their skin and swayed their hair. Kai didn't say anything about this and simply closed his eyes, checking if there were any magical beasts nearby. Isabelle also did the same, observing every single detail in her surroundings.

"This is interesting…" Kai smiled mysteriously as he opened his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Michelle glanced at him.

"Nothing. The island is just too quiet for me." Kai sighed. "For an island inhabited by magical beasts in the past, it is too quiet. At the same time, there is not a single living being or their remains here. Never mind, let's rest first, and we will settle everything later."

As much as they wanted to say something, the group nodded and went toward the hangar where they were supposed to meet with the current leader of this island. But Kai suddenly turned around, finding a middle-aged woman walking toward them.

This action surprised her a little bit before smiling. "As expected from the person recognized by the president, even though I was walking without presence and little to no sound, it seems I am still incapable of passing your defense."

"!!!" The group turned around and realized someone just got behind them.

"It's echoing in a high volume in my ears." Kai shrugged and asked. "So, why would a person with a high level here? To use your wind to camouflage your presence and hide your footsteps, you must be one of a kind."

"I am Carissa Mel." She brushed away her purple hair to her back and slightly bowed her head.

"Carissa Mel…" Evan widened his eyes, having met her. He wasn't sure before, but after hearing her name, he was convinced it was her.

"Oh! Our little hacker here finally recognizes me." Carissa smiled at Evan.

"You know her?" Kai glanced at him and asked.

"Yes. She is President Brent Joseph's Cousin. If you can say the president is the one leading in the open, she is the one manipulating in the dark. I sometimes clashed against her if I wanted to learn some information."

"Fufu… My record is 20 wins, 10 draws, and 16 losses. Well, just brush this matter off me, since I also help you in the dark to make sure you are not arrested from learning many top secrets."

"… And those wins and draws were the ones with the highest authority level. You just let me win when you think the information is not a big deal."

"Just say that I am curious about your potential and train you a little bit. Don't you realize that your skill has grown since that time?" Carissa smiled gently, but she released an aura that scared Evan.

"…" Evan gritted his teeth before hiding behind Isabelle. He wanted to say that Carissa had once appeared before him and told him about herself, including the offer to become her disciple. However, Evan refused because he was going for the zodiac project. Hence, she didn't have a choice other than giving up on him. But he was too scared to do that in case she released the information about him.

"Anyway, you haven't answered my question." Kai stopped them and looked at Carissa, wondering if she had a hidden agenda.

"Oh. That is rude of me. The reason I am here is to make sure you don't break anything valuable in this place. You can say that I am the protector sent by that Brent as well as your guide here. I have been here for two years, so you can ask anything you want to know."

"Is that so?" Kai thought for a moment. "In that case, we will have twelve people in our group. Isn't that too big?"

"Not at all. Because we are careful here, we usually have a group of ten every time we venture to this island. Although most of the magical beasts here have been exterminated, there are still potential threats from the ground and the sea. Hence, we are just putting countermeasures for this."

"Then, how many people currently reside in this place?"

"Twenty researchers and sixty fighters. If you add me and your two groups, we have a total of ninety-two people."

"Is that any recent finding?"

"You have seen it all in the information database. Everything in that place is updated every day."

"We have a plan in our exploration, so should we follow your instructions or do what we want?"

"I will follow your schedule. However, you need my permission first if you want to go outside this place." She pointed at the metal fence in their surroundings. "As long as you pass that fence, that is my territory, so I need to follow you. If you are inside here, you can do anything you want."

"I understand. I will give you our schedule later and seek your opinion. For now, I think we can come inside first?"

"Sure. We have set up four tents for this occasion." Carissa nodded with a smile, guiding them inside.

Even though she said four tents, it was military tents that were usually used for ten people. If they just sorted it by group, they would only need two tents. Unfortunately, there was already a secret order from higher up.

"Kai Carter, Michelle Graham, Tasha Carter, and Kudo Ayaka will stay in the first tent. Evan Young and Isabelle Fisher will stay in the second tent. The rest of the Eagle group will stay in the third tent. And miss Sofia will have the fourth tent for herself."

"What?!" Sofia walked toward Carissa and glared at her, ready to flare up at any moment. "Why am I the only one to stay in the fourth tent? You might as well put me in the first tent!"

"We can't do that. Miss Sofia is revered in the EU Base, so we don't dare to treat you lightly. Hence, to avoid you having any weird rumors that can probably ruin your reputation, we can only do this." Carissa explained with a sad look as if she had decided something hard.

"You! Don't you think it's a waste? The tent can hold so many people, it's better for me to squeeze myself inside."

"No, no. How can we do such a cruel thing? Just like how you treat the VIP from other bases, we will also treat you as a special guest. Unfortunately, this is the level that we can do due to the lack of resources."

Sofia was raging and cursing this woman. She even added thought that this woman had the third job, which is to separate Kai from her.

Kai glanced at Sofia for a few seconds before saying to Carissa. "We have brought our daily necessities here, so we won't need your supply, including water. I will take all of them from the plane after this."

"I will help you with the job later."

"We will explore the island from the southern side and go counter-clockwise before making our way to the center of the island and the two volcanoes. Will that be fine with you?"

"Yes. Most of the shattered statues are in the southern area of the island, so I think that will take the longest. Unfortunately, most of the buildings here have collapsed and are unusable. If not, we can use them as our shelter. Anyway, I will guide you around this southern area for a day, then go to the northern area for another day. Then the other part on the third day. We will then check the center of the island, including the volcanoes, for two to three days before we are moving to the statues in the center."

"I will leave it to you in that area." Kai nodded. "For today, I think we will try to get accustomed to this island first and rest. It's still 3 PM, so we have time."

"I understand. My place is one hundred meters from here, so you can go there if you need any help." Carissa nodded and pointed her hand to the west.

"Alright." Kai nodded and instructed the girl to help him set up everything in this place.

He then went toward the airplane that was going to stay for a week here. Of course, Carissa had been appointed to be their caretakers as well. Luckily, the pilots didn't really have any complaints because a job like this was normal.

After having loaded off their luggage, Kai distributed everything and went around the base. He also wanted to check whether there was a magical beast on the island, but his range was too small to cover the entire island, considering the base was built in the southern part.

When he returned, Ayaka, Tasha, and Michelle had cooked their dinner. The Eagle Group and Sofia never tasted their cooking, so they were immersed by the taste.

Kai tasted Ayaka's cooking and thought it was fine. Although it wasn't at Tasha's and Michelle's level, she had surpassed her mother, despite having little to no time to cook.

Sofia ended up sulking because her pride just got hurt, knowing that she couldn't fight them in this area. She then went toward her own tent and retired.

The others also did the same as they reviewed all the information regarding this island for one last time.

As for Kai, he visited Carissa to have a great talk with her. They discussed what they could do and couldn't do on this island, the details of their plan, and Carissa's real mission.

It turned out not only Brent, but Ria Ross also asked her to take care of him. The reason was simple. The unknown is the most dangerous threat, and the two couldn't leave Kai unprotected in this type of thing.