"Sigh... finally." Roy sat up on his bed after saving the journal entry on his communicator.

Master Abraham had once mentioned that every Executioner would discover their personal, specialized training regimen since not one executable was the same. For example, Black Zero has to learn and solve an ungodly level of equations daily that should put him on a level higher than PhD holders of mathematics and engineering.

Hence, the act of mentoring was mainly just about giving the initiate the right discipline and mentality for the job of being an executioner. And since Roy knew he would plug into more executables the more he grew, he considered the fact that his own personal, specialized training regimen might have to merge with that of all the system hosts he linked to.

So for now, he had to have an understanding of executables, the crazy structures they followed, and which would be best.

’Master Abraham doesn’t want to tell me more about his system-world. Though I know a few things, it’s not enough. My next entry will be about MATH.exe and FIRE.exe. Yes,’ Roy told himself and nodded.

Casually, he entered his private messages with Nana and Donald, but since he sent the message a week ago—with a few more messages added—they still hadn’t responded.

Roy’s expression was sour. He tried calling, but all he got was a busy line from Nana and ’unreachable’ from Donny.

"Something is wrong," Roy said, standing beside Black Zero as the latter analysed the 3D blueprint of a structure. "They aren’t still picking up my calls."

Master Abe paused and looked up at Roy calmly. "You’re correct. Something is wrong. But it’s the same case here. We can’t leave without making sure we won’t encounter that Corrupted Undead. We can’t win."

Roy had already heard these words from this man a few times in the previous days, but now he couldn’t take it anymore.

"But it’s been a week! We should be getting ready to leave here."

"..."

Aside from the gnawing feeling of worry and abandonment that crept into his mind she to Nana’s and Donny’s silence, there was also the constant training and cleaning. He was goddamn tired!

"Are we even leaving anytime soon?"

"I am not sure."

"Goddamn," Roy muttered and sat down, despondent. "What’s going on with the Association? They said the Witherflower is about to mutate, so how come they’re delaying this much to handle it?"

Master Abraham returned his focus to the projected screen on the windshield and answered, "Because it’s no longer in their hands. The whole world knows about the Witherflower now. Odyssey, Lion Group, and H’s League fought for the raiding rights to the Gate, and Odyssey bid the highest."

Roy, who was always on his communicator, frowned. "That isn’t on the news."

Odyssey, Lion Group, and H’s League were the big three guilds here in the Central Alliance. As told by Donny, Mr. Cross, the billionaire also known as Cash God, was a major shareholder of Lion Group.

Abraham continued, "It won’t be. Everything will remain under wraps until Odyssey chooses the Executioner for the task. However, Lion Group should be creating problems for them by now." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Roy couldn’t wrap his head around what was being said at this current moment.

"What... Lives are at stake, and they’re playing politics?"

"Each of them wants to elevate the status of their top Executioners, gain the resources the gate may provide, and more. You see gates as threats, but for the guilds, they are opportunities. Human greed is inevitable. You can trust it even in the face of destruction."

In addition to this, the gate appeared in the wild; hence, the real threat of the Witherflower won’t be properly estimated by those within the cities, including the guilds. The general public will only be shown edited footage in order not to spike mass fear.

Roy fell silent and was about to voice, "How did you find out?"

But Abraham already answered. "Mr. Professor has already spoken to Sunfire, Dr. Gretsch, and me. Of course, Wolfman and Dr. Sally know by now, too."

Roy thought for a second, and asked again, worry for his remaining family evident in his eyes and voice, "So how long are we going to be here?"

"...I don’t know."

For the first time, Master Abraham didn’t have an answer.

"I have already asked Mr. Professor to send some of his men to reach out to Donald. Let’s wait a bit," he said.

Colour returned to Roy’s face, and he drew a short sigh. It wasn’t satisfying information, but it was something.

Roy activated his Love Sensor, and it picked up on the living person, capable of loving, hiding in his shadow. And in addition to this information, since, of course, way over 24 hours had passed, he also sensed their affection towards him.

And to his surprise, it was a hint of hatred and a lot of aversion, which could be seen as fear.

From Master Abraham, he couldn’t sense anything, even after the 24 hours that’s required by the passive skill to take effect, which he said was due to his ’Complexity’ fortification stat that made him hard to decipher or read.

From Sunfire and Dr. Sally, it was fondness. And from Wolfman, it was respect.

’But why are they here if they’re afraid of me?’ Roy wondered about his shadow, but there was no way to get an answer.

So far, he had gotten more capable in wielding the netherstone dagger. His physical improvements from the stat increase made him sharp and attentive when in combat, but didn’t help him much when it came to the math lessons.

It seemed Black Zero was grooming him to take over from his own system. He taught him about proportion, structures, and shapes, saying this was related to understanding buildings on a deeper level later on. Aside from this, there was also speed, height, and angles, which Abraham said should aid him in direct combat, visualizing and calculating the best course of action, evasion, angle of strike, and so on.

A feat of madness was what Roy called this method of training. No wonder it wasn’t hard for the Association to believe that the D-Class Executioner, Black Zero, had gone mad. Any sane man will if they train like this on a daily basis.

The easiest aspect of training so far was the morning workout and the study of abyss creatures.

And by far the worst was the duel with Master Abraham. He was always getting healed by the man by the end of it.

Roy left the APC and went to the inner area of the bunker.

’What’s Wolfman doing? I wanna hear the backstories of his vampire bosses...’ thought Roy, but he passed by Dr. Gretsch’s lab, with its door ajar.

"You’re not listening to what I’m saying..." Dr. Gretsch spoke in a lowered tone, seemingly on the phone.