Eternity
Chapter 3/4 of the week. If we reach 80 (number of) patrons within 9 days, all of which stay until the start of next month where payment is charged, 2 bonus chapters will be released, as Patreon will give me a small bonus being a new creator. Head over to Patreon and pledge as low as $1, that counts!
After such a long day where so many things had happened, Yang Chen felt rather replenished when he reached home.
Since it was late at night, Lin Ruoxi and Wang Ma had already went to sleep. After bathing, Yang Chen turned on the computer in his room. He arranged to meet Sauron tonight.
As he entered the endlessly long and complex web address, a video call window popped out.
The notification was indeed blinking, but something surprised Yang Chen. There were two notification lights blinking. Except the blue eagle, there was a picture of a red pirate ship jumping around.
The corners of Yang Chen’s lips revealed a smile as he clicked into both the video call windows.
Two men appeared on the screen. Except the red-haired Sauron dressed in a military uniform, the other guy was wearing a white nightgown. Looking 40 to 50 years old, his moustache curled up at both sides, his yellow-brown hair was sparse, revealing a huge area of baldness. He wore a black eyepatch on one eye. Currently, he was smiling at Yang Chen kindly.
However, even if these two men were smiling, any ordinary person wouldn’t feel much kindness from them.
“Your Majesty Pluto, reporting from Makedon!” the one-eyed Makedon said passionately using fluent Hebrew language before drinking an unknown beverage.
Yang Chen leaned on the bedside as he looked at the relaxed fellow on screen. Smiling, he said, “Makedon, it should be afternoon at your side now. Did you get a hangover again?”
“Of course not. I’m just experiencing a different time zone,” Makedon said smilingly.
The red-haired Sauron snorted in disdain. “Bullshit! Vulture, all you think about all day is grape wine and fat women! Your Majesty Pluto, I strongly suggest that you transfer his entire intelligence network to me. He’s wasting every opportunity you give him to perform!”
“You’re rude Red-Feathered Eagle! You’re only expressing your utter jealousy! All my children bear the most sincere belief and the most devoted faith! Except me, no one else can lead them to rush through the sea waves!” Makedon said in disdain using English.
“Sauron, you should be used to Makedon already. Also, I’m sure you know it’s least possible that Mossad changes his faith. No one can replace Makedon for his job,” Yang Chen advised.
“Your Majesty Pluto, I know that it’s hard, that’s why I passed the investigation work to him. It’s just that I feel this old fellow is getting fatter and fatter, and his hair is getting lesser and lesser,” Sauron said, displeased.
“Hey! Red-Feathered Eagle, we’re reporting the results to His Majesty Pluto today. Do you want to start a fight?!”
“Do you think that my nuclear warhead would be afraid of your pirate ship?!” Sauron shouted in contempt.
“Enough! Do you guys have to fight every time you meet?!” Yang Chen exclaimed to stop the two immediately. Scratching his head while having a headache, he said, “Sauron, you start first. How’s the situation?”
Sauron got more serious after this. “Your Majesty Pluto, although you only required Sea Eagles with ordinary power levels and exceptional disguise and communication skills to be sent to China, I really couldn’t find teammates with low power levels. All of my Sea Eagles have the power level of a top-of-the-world secret agent. The first batch of twelve will arrive in Zhonghai China tomorrow night, at the south-west harbor.”
“Great, have they given you a way of contact yet?” Yang Chen asked.
“Yeah, but…” Sauron frowned. “But Yellow Flame Iron Brigade from China has detected the whereabouts of our corvette. I guess I’ll need Your Majesty to aid them in entering the country tomorrow night. Although this is impolite, I’m worried that my teammates would get into danger if it’s not done this way. Erm… Please trust me, Your Majesty. While Yellow Flame Iron Brigade isn’t necessarily the strongest secretive defense organisation, they are definitely the most troublesome one, not ‘one of’.
Yang Chen smiled as he thought, It seems like Dragon Group has brought headache to Sauron’s people after all. He nodded to indicate he got the message. Turning to Makedon, he asked, “Makedon, how did your investigation go?”
Makedon took a piece of paper from the short redwood table beside the rocking chair. Glancing through the details, he said, “Your Majesty, according to the data accumulated, the chief of Yamata Sect is Noriko Okawa, an expert that has reached the peak of Chinin level, which is estimated to be the same as the power levels of 800 top secret agents combined. Of course, due to the fact that Japan’s Ninjutsu is highly versatile, this number is only our conservative estimate. There’s also something worth taking note, Noriko Okawa used to be one of the core killers in Zero. This also means that he definitely has sufficient understanding towards God’s Stone.”
Yang Chen’s eyes shone. Without any expression, he said, “Although the original Zero doesn’t exist anymore, I couldn’t annihilate them since they have too many branches. If Noriko Okawa wants to die earlier, I can grant him that wish.”
“For the other investigation, Your Majesty Pluto, I feel like this job is too easy. Miss An Xin that you wanted me to check on, is currently working on international flights. Her main routes are Tokyo, Japan and Paris, France. I think it wouldn’t be too difficult for you to locate her,” Makedon said with a smile.
Yang Chen smiled, satisfied. He only wanted to make sure if An Xin met any trouble. However, she seemed to be living a considerably great life now.
“Pay close attention to her for me. Check if anything abnormal happens,” Yang Chen said.
“Always glad to serve you, Your Majesty,” Makedon said happily.
As Yang Chen thought that there wasn’t anything else, he wanted to bid farewell to the two, but Makedon suddenly said something. “Your Majesty Pluto, there’s still something I want to say. Since you’re living in China, especially in a coastal city like Zhonghai, I can’t help but to remind you something.”
“What is it?” Yang Chen asked out of curiosity. When this playful leader of pirates suddenly got this serious, it mustn’t be anything simple.
Makedon stopped smiling. He said, “According to the data collected by my intelligence network, Holy Grail has finally appeared. Moreover, it appeared in China!”
Yang Chen stunned for a while before he felt that it was rather absurd. “Does that thing really exist?” he asked.
Frowning, Makedon said, “Legend has it that during The Last Supper, after Jesus Christ got nailed onto the cross, the cup he used got filled with his blood. The legend also says that if someone drinks holy water served in Holy Grail, he would gain eternity…”
“Vulture, how is it possible that something like that exists? Even if it does, it should appear in Balkans, Mediterranean Sea or Middle East. How is it the far east China?” Sauron said as he refused to believe Makedon.
Makedon snorted. “Before you met His Majesty Pluto, did you believe in gods or ‘Treaty of Gods’?”
Sauron pondered as he shut his mouth up.
Yang Chen sighed. “The Olympians aren’t really gods. At the very least, I don’t live forever. But there truly exists unimaginably queer things in the world. Continue what you were saying, Makedon.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I didn’t believe this information at first as this does sound overly absurd. According to the data, back in Yuan Dynasty, the Mongolian calvaries brought the Holy Grail back to China when they were robbing a treasure house in the Middle East. After that, it got buried together with a Chinese noble. Recently, archaeologists discovered a graveyard near Zhonghai during an excavation. Devout Christians said that the Holy Grail looked exactly the same with the legendary one. So it got sent to the Vatican,” Makedon said.
“How do you know if the existence of Holy Grail is real solely based on this information?” Yang Chen asked.
Makedon answered, “Although we don’t fully understand the history of Holy Grail, the Vatican and their enemy seem to be very familiar with it.”
“Are you referring to the Dark Council?” Yang Chen asked with a bitter smile.
Makedon got shocked apparently. “Your Majesty Pluto, have you possibly met them before? I’ve always thought that you don’t know about their existence!”
“I met them before many years ago while I was doing a mission. Those guys aren’t as exaggerated as the rumors. But they do have strong superpowers due to their special ancestry. A normal special agent definitely can’t defeat them. If ‘Pope Escort’ and ‘Crusaders’ from the Vatican really go against them, they’d definitely have the ability to shock the entire Europe.”
Yang Chen recalled the various occasions where he met them, he couldn’t help but to get a headache. If those people came to China, he reckoned that he definitely had to show up. Otherwise Yellow Flame Iron Brigade would fall. When that happened, the defensive umbrella of China would be gone. If the defense of the China weakened, he wouldn't be able to stay in the country comfortably anymore.
However, facing those people wouldn't be an easy task.
"You are indeed the mighty Pluto. My intelligence network can't even track their actions in general. We only managed to find out that the Vatican and Dark Council both sent their elites to China… At this point, we can see that the appearance of Holy Grail probably isn’t fake,” Makedon said. He suddenly smiled. “I hope that the Middle East still holds sufficient mysterious power. Otherwise, this war might become a contest of power level difference.”
“If that’s the case, where’s the Holy Grail now?” Yang Chen asked. If he could toss the Holy Grail to another country, or even into the ocean, a meaningless war could be avoided.
Eternity? I don’t care about that!
Makedon smiled bitterly. He said, “I’m really sorry. Your Majesty, my intelligence network is particularly weak in China. Yellow Flame Iron Brigade is really tough, without ‘one of’. I agree with Red-Feathered Eagle on this surprisingly…”
“What’s the use of being tough? The traditional way of raising power level in China is destined to produce strong people at a very slow pace, much different with the western power-user,” Yang Chen said before shaking his head helplessly. “Your information is really useful. I’ll look out on that. We need to pay close attention to this from now on. Regardless, if the Holy Grail is really so magical or not, the contest in grabbing it mustn’t destroy the peace between various organizations in the world.”
“Your Majesty Pluto, I’m really curious about something,” Makedon said.
“What is it?” Yang Chen asked smilingly.
After pondering for a while, Makedon decided to voice out. “Your Majesty, since gods really exist, why can’t the other gods come down to make constraints on disruptive forces, like you did? Won’t that help the world stay in peace?”
Yang Chen lowered his head and let out a smile. “Do you think that I stood out willingly? Have you ever seen me forcing anyone to obey me?” he asked.
Sauron and Makedon stunned. Both of them shook their heads, they followed him voluntarily.
“When I obtained the Ring of Pluto, I asked the same question to the former Pluto,” Yang Chen said.
“The former Pluto?!” Makedon and Sauron exclaimed together. It was evident that they didn’t know there was a former Pluto.
“Actually, the answer is very simple, but complex at the same time.” Yang Chen seemed like he was talking to himself. Faintly, he said, “If there really is a reason, it is…
“We have to love this world deeply, more than everyone else.”