Chapter 290: Defense of the city
"Ho, so not all the awakened ones are trapped?" Idan said, watching from a height as the military fought the next wave.
This time, there were Silver-ranked Beasts hiding among the Bronze-ranked Beasts. Their sudden appearance has already caused problems for the military. However, to Idan's surprise, when the situation became critical, unknown awakened ones came onto the scene.
There weren't many of them. From where Idan was, he spotted at least five of them. Their behavior betrayed their secrecy and unwillingness to be recognized. They were all dressed in black clothes and wore masks on their faces. After they dealt with the Silver-ranked Beasts, they immediately disappeared.
"Who are they?" wondered Idan. But as he watched their movements and how they destroyed the Silver-ranked Beasts, he realized that at least two of them were Golden-ranked, while the rest were only Silver-ranked.
Watching the military fight the bronze-ranked monsters, and then watching the unknown awakened ones kill the Silver-ranked Beasts, Idan felt a little annoyed.
With each death of the beast, Idan calculated roughly how many Systems points he was losing. However, despite his irritation, he remained in place, realizing that the most difficult thing was yet to come.
His task was not only to complete the system's task, but also to go to Arabel's aid after completing it. And for this, he needed to keep his strength and not get tired. Therefore, he decided to try to save them as much as he could.
"I wonder why waves of beasts appear in turn, like in games? Why not all at once?" he asked himself.
Remembering his experience in the Forbidden Zone, Idan began to suspect that this was done intentionally by those behind it all. He remembered Geminia sending waves of beasts to test their powers.
"This means that those responsible are watching what is happening," Idan concluded. "But why?"
However, remembering the awakened ones who joined forces and defeated the silver-ranked beasts, Idan began to understand what motivates those who are behind all this.
***
"Nico!" a loud scream rang out, and one of the awakened ones, whom Idan noticed from a height, did not have time to answer the call, as the caller started shouting at him. From this scream, the guy, who was named Nico, took the smartphone aside.
"I did not give you permission to interfere in this matter. I clearly told you to leave the city!" The caller was furious.
Nico did not immediately answer the phone. He calmly looked from the roof of a nearby building at the border of the city, where the military was dealing with the remnants of the Bronze Beasts. The noise of machine guns, machine guns, and explosions was all around.
"Nico!" the caller growled, realizing he was being ignored.
At that moment, the other awakened ones appeared one by one behind Nico. Idan made a bit of a mistake in the calculation when he was talking about the five awakened ones. Together with Nico, there were six of them — three awakened ones of the Golden rank and three of the Silver rank.
When Nico saw his friends, he didn't answer the phone. He just ended the call and, without waiting for a repeat, turned off his smartphone.
The other five, watching his actions, also took out their devices. They understood that if Nico didn't answer the phone, the caller might start calling them. That's why they turned off their smartphones too.
Nico, looking at his comrades, just shook his head, but a slight smile flashed across his face behind the mask.
Before the second disaster, they were just strangers, ordinary people who were trying to survive in this city. But after the second disaster happened, everything changed.
Previously, awakened ones only became after the introduction of the awakening serum, but after the second disaster, natural awakened ones began to appear.
No one knew exactly how the natural awakening took place. So far, it has not been possible to find a single constant that could explain this process.
All six of them were ordinary people, but after the second disaster, fate gave them an unexpected gift — they became natural awakened ones.
Nico and two others woke up right after the second disaster happened. At the same time, the other three Silver Rank holders had awakened after a while and still hadn't been able to reach the Gold Rank to match Nico and his companions.
They weren't familiar with each other before, but after becoming awakened, they joined a secret organization created by natural awakened people like them who didn't want to join the Awakened Association. There they met and at first became just acquaintances, and then, overcoming difficulties and traveling through Junonia, they became close friends.
Nico was their unofficial leader, and all five of them followed him.
Their cohesion mainly consisted in the fact that, unlike the leader of the organization, they possessed an Ordinary System, not a Rare one.
Their cherished dream was to become the Hosts of a Rare System — the chance they would get after overcoming the third calamity. Their own Systems have already provided them with information that all Hosts of Conventional Systems, without exception, will have an equal chance to achieve this goal.
However, their Systems did not disclose what exactly was needed for this. According to their forecasts, all the Hosts of Conventional Systems and beyond will find out about it at the same time. No one will have the advantage and opportunity to get a chance before others. Everyone will have an equal start and equal opportunities.
All six of them waited in silence for the next wave to end, and at that moment they noticed the approach of another group of awakened ones. They weren't the only ones who came to the rescue.
Nico recognized the newcomers immediately: It was a group of Awakened Ones from the Awakened Association. They were led by a young girl with long black hair, dressed in an Association uniform.
All six of them were well acquainted with this girl, because she was a local celebrity.
There were four other awakened ones next to her, wearing an Association uniform similar to her own.
As Nico knew, this girl possessed the power of the Awakened Golden Rank. However, he and his companions had no idea about the other awakened ones. But looking at the girl's leadership, they began to suspect that perhaps the other four were only silver-ranked.
Noticing the gaze of Nico's group, the girl nodded to him without words, and he nodded back. Everyone had one common goal — to prevent the city from falling to the onslaught of a wave of Beasts when the main forces responsible for protecting it disappeared.