「At the border of the Temperate and Tundra Zones.」

"Your Highness, we’re about a day’s journey from the Glacier Region," Renato said, looking down at the map and comparing it to the hills in the distance.

A thin layer of snow was beginning to dust the pale green land and brown soil.

Boulders jutted out from the ground, a desolate air cutting through the lingering signs of life.

As expected of a no-man’s-land, the wind whipping at their faces grew increasingly bone-chilling.

Bader stood his ground, his gaze fixed on a grove of withered trees up ahead. He activated his Intelligent Brain. "Beau, haven’t you and Owen caught that Xenobeast yet?"

A closer look revealed only three people were left standing there, one of them being Anna, who had already bundled up in a coat.

A moment ago, the two men had spotted a pure white Xenobeast. The moment its blood-red eyes landed on them, it shrieked in alarm and bolted.

Beau had been the first to give chase. The Xenobeast was small, but as luck would have it, Beau’s ability allowed him to temporarily change the form of anything he could perceive.

He made the Xenobeast larger, which only made its shrieks grow more frantic and its escape more desperate.

It was enough to infuriate anyone, making him determined to catch the creature no matter what.

Owen’s spiritual power was perfect for locking onto and tracking targets, so the two of them working together should have been incredibly efficient.

But they had been delayed for quite some time now.

Meanwhile, a mechanical eye dutifully tracked Beau and Owen’s movements.

But the Xenobeast was nowhere in sight of the two Alphas. Even its tracks, which had been clear moments before, grew smaller and fainter as they went deeper, until they disappeared completely.

Beau shook his head. It felt heavy, as if he’d had too much to drink.

His vision blurred, and suddenly he was seeing two of Owen.

’Something’s wrong.’ His spirit sea was churning violently; he had been affected by the Xenobeast.

Hearing the BEEPING of his Intelligent Brain, he leaned against a tree and struggled to answer, panting heavily. "Your Highness," he gasped, "get Anna over here. There’s something wrong with this Xenobeast."

He wasn’t sure if his coordinates had sent successfully, so he just managed to grab Owen, who was staggering off in another direction.

"Don’t move!"

Owen shook his head too, his long, dark brown hair whipping across his face.

「Outside the view of the mechanical eye.」

The Imperial officials, who had just received a message from the Federation a few hours ago, all had grim, tense expressions.

"Who inspected and approved the sites with the Federation personnel?" The man at the forefront also had short, blond hair and even bore a slight resemblance to Bader around the eyes.

He was the highest-ranking officer leading the Imperial delegation this time: Prince Robert.

An aide beside him bowed slightly. "Your Highness, they have all been detained."

Prince Robert watched the two Alphas on screen, their spirit seas clearly destabilized by the Xenobeast, and his brow furrowed. "Go find the Federation officials and inquire again. I’m sure they know more than they’re letting on."

The message that had worked its way up the chain of command a few hours earlier had been brief, just a few lines stating that a suspicious presence had appeared in the friendly competition’s zone and that the Federation had already deployed a large number of backup mechanical eyes to patrol.

While the Empire also valued cooperation, they hadn’t been on such high alert before.

Owen and Beau were both S-Class Alphas. They shouldn’t have been affected so quickly, and certainly not with such severe symptoms. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Combined with the Federation’s vague report, it was difficult not to be suspicious.

"What are people in the stream chat saying?" he asked in a low voice.

An official from the media department hurried forward. "It’s fine for now. Everyone just thinks the Xenobeasts in this region are particularly unique and assumes it was placed there intentionally for the event."

Eighty percent of the audience for the friendly competition are Betas, who aren’t very familiar with Xenobeasts to begin with.

Of the remaining twenty percent, a significant portion are Alphas and Omegas who work in fields completely unrelated to Xenobeasts.

Only a scant two or three percent might sense that something is amiss, but because they trust the official channels, they don’t suspect any real issues.

In fact, they’re even marveling at how powerful the Xenobeast’s abilities are and how well its coloring is suited for camouflage.

Since the situation hadn’t spiraled into the worst-case scenario, the tension on Prince Robert’s face eased slightly.

"Keep monitoring public sentiment. And dispatch the backup mechanical eyes to find that Xenobeast. Now."

With the order given, the Empire, like the Federation, hurriedly dispatched a sky full of mechanical eyes.

Meanwhile, upon receiving the message, Bader rushed over with Renato and Anna without a moment’s delay.

Anna could tell with a single glance that both men were in bad shape.

Her brow furrowed as she grabbed Owen’s hand. It took her a long moment to help him regain his clarity.

Then, brow still knitted, she turned to soothe Beau.

As the churning, tangled mess of his spirit sea was pacified, the tension in Beau’s features immediately eased. He could even look at Anna with a teasing smile. "Thanks, babe."

He didn’t need to be reserved with the pet name; everyone knew about his relationship with Anna.

But Anna didn’t smile. "What happened? How were your and Owen’s spirit seas so severely affected all of a sudden?"

"Weren’t you just trying to catch a fox-like Xenobeast? How did you end up in such a sorry state?"

"That Xenobeast’s spiritual power is bizarre. I only glanced at it a few times and started to feel sick," Beau explained. "Judging by its strength, the Xenobeast’s Attack Power didn’t seem high at all, but its spiritual power was on another level."

Owen nodded in agreement.

"Its eyes were strange—blood-red. I’ve never seen a Xenobeast like it," Beau added.

The Federation unit monitoring the Imperial team immediately relayed this information up their chain of command.

Not that they needed to; the high-ranking Federation officials waiting in the ready room heard it all themselves.

Without a doubt, Zoe Pierce and her team had been hinting at this all along.

Bader had no time to dwell on the escaped Xenobeast. They were running out of time.

These successive Xenobeast encounters had already cost them a significant amount of time.

The marker for the Token was still in place, proving the other team hadn’t arrived yet, but they couldn’t afford to dally either.

He glanced at the two men. "If you’re all right, we’re moving out."

"Don’t engage any Xenobeasts unless absolutely necessary."

The points from the Token are what’s most important.

The only way to win without it would be to hunt enough Xenobeasts to surpass the Token’s point value. But the Federation’s squad would also be hunting, so it wasn’t a reliable strategy—not unless they could hunt a Xenobeast worth double the Token’s points.

But that was clearly impossible.

The density of Xenobeasts they had encountered since the start made that clear enough.

Owen helped him to his feet. Beau was still itching with curiosity, but at a time like this, he chose to obey Bader’s command.

He was extremely interested in such a mysterious Xenobeast.

It was a shame, but now wasn’t the time.

Otherwise, he absolutely would have had Owen lock onto the Xenobeast’s trail.

Seeing that the team’s attention was no longer on the Xenobeast, the Imperial officials watching all let out a collective sigh of relief.

This matter couldn’t be investigated openly; it had to be done covertly.

But with all eyes on the team, there was nothing more the officials could do. They could only be thankful that Bader, as team captain, had made the right choice.