“Okay,” I mumbled half intelligently between bites of perfectly seasoned ribs, “How the hell did the food here become so good? It was a glorified cafeteria before.”

  Hell, even the decor had changed since I was here last. Gone was the bland motel restaurant feel with its old carpeting and drab dining clothes, and in were the lavish marble flooring, beautifully crafted sculptures, and tasteful, yet simple, seating. Our private VIP room even had a water feature - some kind of glass waterfall thing - to the side and the huge crystal chandelier completed the scene. Yet none of that mattered when it came to the food.

  Cuisine from every ethnicity and region was on display here, and although I wasn’t a foodie by any stretch of the imagination, the stuff I just stuffed into my face was some of the best that I’ve eaten. It was a close second to Shoggoth, and that’s saying a lot. I’d imagine that every member of the Abyss guild would grow obese if it wasn’t for the fact that we had superhuman metabolisms.

  Vadeem grinned, his face a mask of various sauces, “You can thank me for that one! One of the Aspirants had a cooking profession - I know, strange thing to get given the situation - but damned was I going to pass up on someone who could make this stuff!" He pointed to the feast in front of us and resumed devouring everything in sight. “Apparently the food can even provide temporary buffs when the chef gets more levels, and the guy would have probably died if I hadn’t come along! How can those other idiots not understand Chef Michael’s value?”

  “I’ll agree with Vadeem here,” Noel added, “Been coming here way too often since Mike took charge. The guy’s weird, but his food? Perfection! I have a team of super-elite bodyguards looking out for him, so don't you worry little bro. This food's not going anywhere if I'm still alive!”

  Well, that was going a little overboard all for the sake of a chef, but, you know, after actually eating this food, I could see the logic of keeping this chef Mike safe. It was really just that good. Anyway, the others were all voraciously eating their own fill, happy to take this moment to refuel and chat, but once the feasting slowed down, their attention was back on me.

  “Alright, little bro,” Noel started, but was interrupted when she belched, “‘Scuse me. I think I drank too much soup.” She took a sip of lemonade and belched again, louder this time. “As I was saying before my stomach so rudely interrupted, what’s the situation with those crazy admin peeps?”

  I grimaced and retold what I’d just learned at Hope’s Memorial. I tried to leave out as little as possible, and thankfully my friends had enough trust in me not to think too hard about the small lies that I told. Once I was done with my explanation, they had a clear, albeit distorted, idea of what was going on. From their viewpoint, I was tasked with defending one of Q’s ventures from his rival admin, and he had to use us because we weren’t technically affiliated with his site. He couldn’t send his own men to meddle with the organization he was officially affiliated with, after all, or at least not directly.

  “I see…” Jae-Hyun muttered, “I’m not surprised that the admin’s at war with one of his peers.”

  “Is that a common occurrence, brother?” Yoona asked.

  Her brother nodded. “It is.”

  “More so than you can imagine, Yoona,” Marcus added between careful bites of buttery garlic bread. “Living beings, regardless of their species or origin, have the tendency to lean toward greed. They wish to possess more while ignoring what the Lord has already given, and thus, they inevitably steal from their peers to satiate those needs. It is unfortunately too common.”

  Yoona nodded slowly. “Oh…”

  “So this admin guy’s using you to do his dirty work, typical corporate scum!” Noel grumbled, “And you need two of us to go in with ya?”

  “That’s the gist of it.”

  “And it can’t be our boss or the father,” Vadeem added, “So that means it’ll be up to me and Noel, yeah?”

  “Right again,” I nodded, “If you don’t mind, of course.”

  Noel clapped me on the back, almost forcing a piece of chicken out of my mouth. “As if we’d let you down, little bro! Let's go kick some parallel-people butt!”

  Vadeem grinned. “Like Noel said, we have your back. Just let us know what you need.”

  “What about the rest of us?” Yoona added. “Is there anything we can do?”

  I gave the high schooler a tired smile. “I tried to negotiate, but two’s the max, and plus, we’ll need the rest of us here to stabilize Pandora.” I turned to the Regressor. “Have we started chucking the new people into the Omen Machine yet?”

  He gave me a cruel smirk. “We plan to send in the first batch tonight.”

  I frowned. “Is that fine though? Will you be okay without the three of us here once things start?”

  The Regressor gave me a reassuring chuckle. “Things won’t go out of control immediately, Walter. It will take several days to cycle through all of the new Aspirants into the Omen Machine, and they won’t be able to organize a resistance so quickly, not after what they're going to experience. There’s still some time before we have to go on full damage control, so don’t worry about this side of things. The five of us here, with Claire’s help, will be more than enough to hold the fort.”

  I nodded slowly. “Okay… and sorry for all this.”

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  Noel rolled her eyes. “We should be the ones apologizing, little bro. You're the one taking on the burden, and you saved the twins. You're super, ultra important to us!”

  “Speaking of which,” The Regressor continued, “I did want to speak with you about your new role, Walter.”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re our new boss!” Noel all but shouted, jumping from her seat.

  “I’m sorry?”

  Vadeem sighed and shoved the idiot down. “What she means, is that you’ll be in command of the… shadier side of Pandora’s operations.”

  I frowned. "Aren't we already shady? We're forcing everyone into horrible, virtual deaths against their wills, I think that's plenty shady."

  The big man scratched his chin. "Uh, even shadier than that, I suppose."

  “What he means is that you'll be in charge of keeping this guild safe and secure, using whatever means necessary,” Jae-Hyun explained, “I’m too much in the spotlight at the moment, and so is Yoona and the Father. The twins are impossible to miss as well since they're the only kids in all the Trails. It isn’t possible for us to avoid public scrutiny, and it’s inevitable that spies will infest our ranks before long. To combat this, I will need you to work with Vadeem and Noel on the things that I cannot do.”

  “Hence you’re our boss, boss bro!”

  I paused and furrowed my brows. “So… what? I’m in charge of the underground stuff?”

  “You’ll be the Spy Master, or you can take another title if you wish,” the Regressor answered, “You've gone through so many disguises that no one really knows what you look like, or at least the one you’re showing now, hence why you're picked. Vadeem and Noel are to assist because while they are associated with the Abyss guild, they’re still not widely recognized.”

  “They’re missing out on my awesomeness,” Noel pouted, “But we all must make sacrifices.”

  Jae-Hyun rolled his eyes and ignored the redhead’s outburst. “In fact, almost no one knows about you, Walter. I've checked with the residents, and it's as if there's a gap in their memories when it comes to you. I'm not sure what's going on, it could be the influence of the admin again, but we can use that to our advantage.”

  I nodded slowly, taking in his words. “Okay, makes sense so far; I’ve always been acting in the background, so I guess this isn’t anything new. What’ll you have me do?”

  “Coordinate with Noel and Vadeem, figure out who or what is a threat to our authority here, and deal with it in whatever way that you deem fit.” The Regressor stared hard into my eye. “But no matter what, I want you to make sure that your actions are hidden from the public view. We can’t be sure what information will be leaked in the future, not with so many unknown abilities floating around, and I need a guarantee the most important aspects of our operations remain secure. You are the safeguard, Walter. You are free to use any and all of our guild’s assets in any way you wish. Do not tell anyone, not even myself, the full scope of your plans. Can I trust you with this?”

  Wow, the Regressor’s placing a lot of trust in me. I mean, a lot of trust. If I wanted to, I could probably destroy the Abyss guild from the inside out with ease, given the amount of authority he just gave me. Hell, I’d probably be more influential, in certain circles at least, than the Regressor himself when Pandora grows further, yet his reasoning was sound.

  With the Aspirants growing in strength exponentially, it will be impossible to predict what kinds of weird skills or classes they will get in the future. Noel’s ability to spy on people was already impressive, not to mention the things I saw with that Alexis woman from earlier. There was no guarantee that the inner workings of the Abyss guild wouldn’t be leaked or manipulated without some kind of safety feature in place.

  I thought for another moment and grinned. “Yeah, I think I can do this. And thanks, Jae-Hyun, for trusting me with this.”

  The Regressor gave me one of his rare smiles. “There’s no one else I’d rather have keeping us safe. You’ve done more for this guild than any of us, and I think we can all agree on that.”

  I saw the others nod in approval and I felt a blush form. Aw, man, I wasn’t used to this kind of attention.

  “Aww, my bro’s embarrassed!” Noel chimed, poking my side with a shit-eating grin on her face. “Look at him go red! Tell us you love us, little bro, tell us!”

  “Stop teasing him, Noel,” Yoona said with a half-concealed smile. “And we do appreciate all that you’ve done, Walter. My brother wasn’t lying, you’ve helped out more than your fair share.” She took a brief glance at the twins. “A lot of us owe you our lives… We wouldn’t be here without you.”

  “All right, all right,” I mumbled, “Enough of that. This is my first order as this new Spy Master: I want everyone to stop praising me so much! I can’t me a damned spy if I’m beet red.”

  That got a round of laughter from the others, but they did heed what I said after they got the giggles out of their bodies.

  The Regressor addressed us again once everyone calmed down. “Anyway, as much as it would be fun to tease Walter some more, he does need to adjust to his new role. Noel, Vadeem, can you fill him in on what we discussed when you have a chance?”

  “No prob, boss!”

  Jae-Hyun nodded. “Good. The general gist, for now, is to work on a way to minimize the damage of our guild’s transition. Our image will change drastically, I don’t need to remind us all of that again, and I need you, Walter, to find and eliminate any threats in any way that you can. Do you have any questions?”

  “Hm,” I thought for a moment. “Yeah, you said we’re sticking the Aspirants in tonight, right?”

  The Regressor nodded.

  “And discontent would naturally grow once the first batch gets out, yeah?”

  “That should be the case.”

  I processed the information and more ideas started to form. I started to grin. “When do you think about half of the populace will get out?”

  This time it was the Regressor’s turn to think. “In two days time, maybe three. Why?”

  “That’s just enough time for me to work something in before I have to leave…” I muttered half to myself, “Yeah, I think I can make this work.”

  Vadeem shook his head as if already anticipating one of my insane schemes. “Out with it then, Walter. What insane plot’s worming in your head this time?”

  I smiled. “Well, what we’re most worried about after the people see our true nature is that they’ll gather together to form some kind of anti-abyss coalition, right?”

  Vadeem thought for a moment and grunted. “That’s about right.”

  The others nodded as well.

  “So… I think the solution is obvious here,” I said, “If we’re afraid that someone will lead a coalition and disrupt our work, then all we have to do is be the one who starts the revolution.”

  Noel looked at me funny. "Huh?"

  “That... wait, yeah…” Vadeem grumbled, a faint smile starting to form on his features, “It’ll be impossible to stop people from secretly plotting our demise, no matter how much Noel and I work, but if we can get a head start and control the opposition from within…”

  “Not just control the opposition, Vadeem,” the Regressor smiled. “If I'm reading this right, then Walter plans to be the founder. Why allow someone else to come along and take that position when we can be the first to do so? It’s an elegant solution, and if this works, his influence on the rebels would be indisputable.”

  “Exactly! And it’s about time I get started. I don’t have a lot of time before the admins come, I’d like to get the foundations set before then.”

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