"Everyone, did you find him?"
Placing two fingers on his left ear, a man in a black uniform with black glasses spoke through his communication device.
In a second, a voice responded.
"Reporting to the chief security of the Player Management Office. The player... the player has fled!"
Crack!
The dark-skinned man in a black uniform punched the wall next to him so hard that cracks spread like a spiderweb for several meters from where he hit.
'Damn it, that kid's background is quite troublesome. If the attacker flees, then...' Beads of sweat formed on the dark-skinned man's forehead before a new hope reignited within him.
"Tell me, have you checked his identity? We already have him on camera, so he can't escape us."
Although the man knew that the Player Management Office was unlikely to inflict severe punishment on the kid, they still had to catch him!
'If he flees, then he will actually be in more danger.' The dark-skinned man couldn't help but feel sympathy toward the kid.
Such situations had occurred before, and that fat kid always bullied people who didn't move out of his way. However, if one retaliated, then the consequences for that person would be nothing like the punishment imposed by the Player Management Office.
"I can't let another kid get crippled!" The man clenched his fists so hard that even his knuckles turned white from the intensity of his power.
"Reporting back to the leader. The kid has no identity whatsoever, and all information that could be provided is locked down temporarily... we suspect that he is..."
Before the underling could finish his words, the dark-skinned man continued.
"A gate survivor!"
***
'Ehm,' clearing his throat, a young man stuck in a white wall inside a dark alley couldn't help but ask, 'System, what kind of messed-up timeline did you bring me into? Haven't I told you I wanted gates and monsters?'
"Host, your strength was too strong for that timeline, causing an error to occur, and you had to be placed here. That was out of my control, since the world order had made a move." The system's mechanical voice, devoid of any emotion, replied.
Sigh...
Shen couldn't help but shake his head as he listened to the same reply over and over again; a headache formed from the problems he would have to deal with.
"Also, Host, I have always warned you about your bad temper and anger issues. The situation before could have easily been avoided if you had respectfully moved out of the way."
'Here we go again.' Shen rolled his eyes, listening to the system nag for the millionth time. "Yes, yes, the difference between you and my mother is merely the soul."
"That kid was just too much to be left alone; he needed to be taught a lesson. If his parents couldn't teach him manners, I would gladly take upon that role."
-_-
Listening to the usual words of its host, the system didn't bother replying.
"A lost cause..."
Hearing that comment, Shen felt an urge to beat his system up, but recalling its state of existence, he could only suppress that desire and change the subject.
His face turned serious as a flash of light passed through his pupils, his being transforming into a completely different person as his playful expression vanished.
'This world is much more trouble than I initially thought. Also, this Empress AI or whatever—they seem biased against strong people.'
Swoosh!
Crack!
Might of a thousand, lizard of the abyss world...
Casually retracting his merge with the wall behind him, Shen cracked his neck, stretched his hands a bit, and locked onto his phone.
"Request declined. Help cannot be provided for Rank 1 citizenship. Shen Lost will have to raise his authority in order to request such aid."
Tsk!
Clicking his tongue, Shen chose to look up information on these Empress AIs. Although he had expected such a situation, he still needed to learn more about this world.
Soon, a few concluding lines from that same person on the forum gave him yet another brief explanation.
'This person truly knows what should be done with information.' Shen chuckled before quickly reading through the contents. With each line he read, his understanding of this world deepened further, and an impending doom loomed over him.
Over more than a thousand years of the Cosmic Sea Era, human civilization developed further into space, eventually stumbling upon aliens, and confrontation immediately began.
Human survival was due in no small part to the work of the three Empress AIs.
If not for the three Empresses' absolutely selfless handling of affairs, cosmic human civilization might have perished in internal strife long ago. How could it have developed into such a vast, splendid, and dazzling civilization?
Humans have emotions, can possess cognitive biases, and can be influenced by feelings to make incorrect decisions, but the three Empresses do not.
The stance of the three Empresses is always for the entirety of human civilization, with no selfishness, always maintaining fairness.
'Now this is quite troublesome.' Shen suddenly felt that he was merely a pebble in an ocean, his existence meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
Scratching his head, a thought surfaced in his mind. 'Don't tell me Earth is merely a low-level zone.' That conclusion seemed the most plausible explanation he could reach. Still, he quickly brushed the thought aside, as it wasn't important to his immediate situation.
A sudden sense of crisis enveloped Shen. Without hesitation, he decided to rent a room in a hotel using the money he received from the Empress AI for daily needs.
Sitting in a bathtub, Shen tilted his head upward, his gaze seemingly passing through the ceiling and into the starry sky beyond Earth.
'It seems I'll have to employ that risky method in order to deal with this seal.'