The office of Military Intelligence 9 is located on Belotto Street in the West District. It is a three-story building that looks completely inconspicuous.
There is no sign at its entrance to indicate its identity, only a simple doorplate: "9".
The most crucial part of this office building is underground. The upper floors are mainly civilian staff, and of course, most of the Beyonders belonging to
Xio was now the deputy head of the "Domestic Security and Counter-Espionage Group," directly managing a sizable team of Beyonders responsible for handling espionage cases related to Intis in the
"Here's a mission." Her immediate superior, the deputy director of MI9 and head of the Domestic Security and Counter-Espionage Group, Lieutenant General Pantek, picked up a file and handed it across the desk.
"Is it urgent?" Xio took it and asked cautiously.
Lieutenant General Pantek was a typical Loen old man, with a severely receding hairline. He lifted his white porcelain coffee cup, took a small sip, and said, "It's not urgent, low risk. In fact, this mission will be distributed to all members, in the hope that someone can complete it by luck."
Such a description surprised Xio a little, but she didn't open the file on the spot. Instead, she replied, "I'll inform my team members."
After leaving Lieutenant General Pantek's office, Xio returned to her room.
When she sank into her seat, she seemed to disappear.
Having quickly scanned the documents in the file, Xio roughly understood why the deputy director had spoken that way: The utopia to be investigated didn't seem to be located anywhere on the Northern or Southern Continents, nor on any of the known islands in the five seas.
Over the past two weeks, many people had entered the so-called utopia, but the ways and places they entered were completely different: some arrived during a terrifying storm in the region of the Stormy Sea near the Sonia Sea, some accidentally stopped in that city due to heavy rain on the railway midway from the Dizzy Bay to Backlund, and some wandered in after getting lost in Sevillas County...
So far, no one has been injured or suffered any mental effects from entering the utopia... No wonder Deputy Director Pantek said the danger level was low... Furthermore, the current cases allow no patterns to be deduced, making it hard to find the utopia's true location. Hence, there's no way to send people specifically to enter and investigate. Hmm... indeed, the only option is to inform all members of the details in hopes that someone, upon accidentally arriving at the utopia, can cautiously and covertly gather intelligence... Xio put down the file, stood up with a bit of regret, and prepared to inform her subordinate Beyonders.
She regretted this because the difficulty of completing this task was extremely high, almost hopeless, which prevented her from further accumulating merits.
For the past six months, preparing for the prophesied apocalypse, Xio had been busy every day, handling MI9 affairs while also completing various tasks given by Mr. Fool, thus accumulating contributions on both sides to exchange for the "Law Mage" potion formula and Beyonder characteristic, preparing to become a demigod.
So far, Xio was still a bit short on both fronts, especially within MI9—without a major contribution, she saw no hope.
If not for the decent salary she received from MI9, benefits on all sides, and the ability to use her status to obtain a large amount of intelligence that helped her complete Mr. Fool's tasks, Xio would have resigned and returned to being a bounty hunter, which would give her more freedom.
I can ask about this case at the next
After finishing the instructions on the utopia mission, Xio specifically said, "If the situation is wrong, even if you have the chance to enter the utopia, you may give up directly. That town, real or fake, may not have shown harm simply because it hasn't been provoked."
After another busy period, Xio finally ended her day of fatigue and returned home before 7:30 to have dinner with her mother, younger brother, and Fors, enjoying some limited relaxation.
In the early hours, after washing up, she walked to the bedroom window, grabbed the curtain, and prepared to draw it.
As she did, Xio naturally glanced outside and noticed that the crimson moon in the sky had become round and large, and its color had deepened significantly, like flowing blood.
"Blood moon..." Xio turned her head sharply and looked toward the next room, worried about her friend's condition.
However, she quickly remembered that Fors was already a Sequence 4 demigod and no longer afraid of the effects of the "Full Moon Whisperings."
...
In the next room, Fors was leaning on the bed, enjoying the "blood moon" outside the window while enduring the needle-pricking pain in her head, listening to Mr. Door speak: "Although going from Sequence 3 to Sequence 2, from an incomplete mythical creature to a true mythical creature, is indeed a qualitative change, I believe that going from Sequence 4 to Sequence 3 also has a certain degree of qualitative change. It can even be said that Sequence 3 is the most beautiful level on a Beyonder pathway.
"At this level, you don't need to rely on external forces to resist madness and the tendency to lose control, and you don't have to endure torment every moment. You also have Beyonder powers completely surpassing ordinary people, making you more like a god than a human, and you can even harvest a small number of anchors to further stabilize your mental state.
"If not for the fact that most Sequence 3 lives are not long enough—rarely living beyond 500 years—I think there would be few saints motivated to advance to Angel..."
"Mm-hmm." Fors nodded repeatedly, indicating that she understood.
At the same time, she gave a rather inconspicuous yawn, with a slight twitch at her temple.
She was already somewhat accustomed to the pain brought by directly conversing with Mr. Door.
Mr. Door continued: "Sequence 3 of the 'Apprentice' pathway is called 'Wanderer.' This means that even the Spirit World can no longer trap you. You can enter the stars, travel through the Astral World, go to different planets, and witness true desolation, true barrenness, true grandeur, and civilizations completely different from this one."