Child of Destiny

...…

Shin just walked out of the administration office of the Holy City, which now became the center of the Saint Heaven Kingdom. Right after his foot stepped outside the building, he immediately sensed a lot of hostile gazes directed at him.

He scanned his surroundings with his gaze, trying to look for these enemies. Some of them were quite confident as they stood either in the middle of the street or any place that could easily be spotted while the rest remained cautious and hid themselves in the dark.

Given that they had no idea who this person they were targeting was, the cautious ones chose to hide themselves and wait for the others to test the waters for them.

They had no idea who Shin was, especially when he completely hid his identity with his cloak and mask. One of the special effects of the [Death Shadow] cloak was to hide himself completely, weaken his presence, and further enhance his stealth skills. The [Nephilim's Gemini Mask] also had a similar feature, but since it was one of his signature items, people would easily recognize him.

Fortunately, the cloak was able to completely hide his figure as well as cover the mask under the shade of its hood.

With all these conditions, no other people would be able to know who he was unless he revealed himself.

Shin took a mental note of these people before turning around and walking away. He remained calm despite being surrounded by his enemies. He might look a little overconfident right now, but that was because he knew that none of these people could threaten him in the slightest.

Of course, there were still those people, who were hiding in the dark. But even if he included them, they would only put a little pressure on him and give more thrill in battle.

However, the greatest factor boosting his confidence was the fact that none of them passed their tier 3 promotion quest yet. At least, these people around him and within the area that he could sense.

Even though all of them were experts, Shin felt that none of them were on his level. As someone who clearly understood the difference between the two ranks, he knew that no one could pose any threat to him among these people.

That was unless there was someone among them, who was the same as Mephistopheles of the Pandemonium Descendant. But that guy was an exemption, so Shin doubted that there was someone out there with similar class, race, and skills that could bridge the game between the tiers.

But Shin was also confident that he could take down Mephistopheles now without any problem given the recent progress that he had made. But that was only if the latter did not improve himself.

The other factor that made Shin confident was the hostility that these groups and individuals were showing each other.

He could tell that none of them were on good terms. At the very least, these people would not be working together when chasing after him.

In other words, they were all competitors. Even those people from the same faction would be competing with each other when trying to catch him.

With such a clear conflict and disharmony, Shin did not feel that much pressure from them. In his eyes, these people were only the appetizers that could entertain him for a few moments while waiting for the main dish.

The real thrill of the hunt would only come when the true monsters of the opposing side finally arrived.

"I wonder who those monsters that Big Sis is talking about," mumbled Shin as he led the group of enemies in different parts of the Holy City, 'taking' them for a walk.

From what Shiella had said, there should be a couple of people who he should be wary of from the Supreme Temple and Martial Alliance.

He did not need to think about the Demonic Churches and the Corrupted Cult at the moment since none of them would dare to set foot in the Holy City given the events that happened recently. Due to the disturbance and disaster that they had caused, every city within the Saint Heaven Kingdom was on full alert for them, especially the Capital Rank Cities.

Setting those guys aside, Shin could not help but look for more information from the online forums. He listed out all the noticeable and remarkable players from each faction and compared them to the data from the secret platform meant for top experts of the game, particularly the Titled Godlike Players.

He was already aware of Zero, the Sword God, being a part of the Supreme Temple. If he remembered correctly, the latter also possessed a status within the organization comparable to his Envoy Title in the Church of the Sun and Moon.

Disregarding that information, Shin looked at the rest. The other 'swords' of the Supreme Temple were based far from the Saint Heaven Kingdom. They were either on the outskirts on the other side of the Aurora Continent or staying in a special dimension connected to the said continent.

It would take quite a long time before they could reach this place even if they rushed with all they had. From his estimate, Shin felt that the two-day limit of this 'event' centered around him was far from being enough to cover the entire distance. That was also in consideration of using multiple longest-distance teleportation in the process – that was how far they were.

Aside from Zero, none among them would try hunting him. At least, that was what he guessed. He felt that the trouble would not be worth it.

When looking at the information, and marking their locations on the map, Shin realized that each 'Sword' seemed to be covering a certain part of the continent. It was as if they were divided and assigned to oversee a part of the massive continent.

This piece of information piqued his interest, making him a little curious about how the Supreme Temple operated.

On the other hand, the Martial Alliance seemed to be a little too lax and carefree in comparison.

Unlike the other factions, particularly the churches and temples, the Martial Alliances seemed to be a little too free and more like a larger version of the Adventurer Guild.

They accepted everyone without concerning themselves with the background of every member. They were only thinking about the strength and the number of experts that would be working under them.

Naturally, there were also some differences between the members such as nominal disciples, outer disciples, inner disciples, core disciples, and inheritors. They seemed to be oddly similar to the old sects in every aspect, particularly in how they handled their people, albeit having a few differences.

They also were different from the Churches and Temples when having their 'heirs' such as the Envoys, Saintess, Champions, and others. The Martial Alliance only had their 'inheritors', which were said to be the disciples of powerful NPCs within the organization.

What surprised Shin was that there were only three players on the list despite the size of the organization, especially when it came to their overwhelming members.

"Ashura, Susanoo, Kallavan? Aren't these guys from God's Paradise? They are all from the Martial Alliance?"

It was quite a surprise when Shin saw the information. When he looked further in the list, he discovered that all members of the God's Paradise seemed to be a members of Martial Alliance aside from a few, who joined them a little later.

As Shin was walking in circles around the Holy City, some of the most impatient ones among the people targeting him were already running out of patience. They started moving toward Shin, no longer concerned about the security of the city.

They believed that as long as chaos broke out, the others would not be able to fight the temptation and join the battle.

As for the others, who seemed to be quite used to this kind of job, remained patient and continued to wait in the dark. They would be the biggest fisherman among everyone once they finally made his move.

Shin glanced at a timer in the corner of his eyes and saw that the time that he could stay in a city in a day was already at half.

"It is time to go anyway," mumbled Shin as he sensed the movements of the people approaching him.

On a corner of a street, Shin suddenly took a turn before entering stealth. He hid under the shadows of the buildings while moving at a speed that shocked his pursuers.

The cautious ones among the 'hunters' were marksmen and had already put a mark on Shin as they were already expecting something like this to happen, especially when they did not have any information about the opposing side.

They quickly gave chase as they knew that Shin would be trying to shake them off. But as they ran after him, they saw that the marked target suddenly disappeared among the crowd while the mark itself was removed due to some unknown reason.

They had lost sight of their target!

This was the thought that entered everyone's mind. They tried to look for him, but they knew that it was close to impossible given that there were a lot of people in the street. It was close to being fully packed, but the traffic was not that heavy.

Shin had picked the perfect place to throw most of his pursuers off his tail.

They could do nothing but stare blankly at the busy street right in front of them.

…

Shin walked out of the city while he was still in stealth to make sure that there were no people who would see him leave.

He purposely left at this time as he knew that it would take some time before the opposing side could track him. They would have to wait for at least one and a half hours before they could find his exact coordinates.

But he would also be expecting that there were a few people who would be able to find him, especially the most elite ones. Shin was able to spot a few of them while they were hiding, but he guessed that their skills were not that much different compared to the rest unless they were one of those types who liked to play as a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Shin ran straight to the forest, which would bring back memories – the Shunkai Forest.

Shin this would be a hunting game, he would want to do it in a place that he was familiar with, and somewhere quite historic.

As he was heading toward the direction of the Shunkai Forest, Shin suddenly sensed something strange in the surroundings. The air seemed to be carrying the scent of death.

Realizing that something was going on, he quickly slowed down his pace while sharply scanning his surroundings along with extreme patience.

A few moments later, the one who was hiding in the dark finally lost their patience. They could no longer wait for Shin to drop his guard as they could see that the latter had already figured out that they were stalking him.

"This is a surprise. There are very few people who can sense my presence," said a hooded figure as he appeared a few meters away from Shin.

Shin halted his steps and observed the opposing party, not even replying to what the latter had said.

The hooded figure seemed to have expected that response and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, this does not make any difference as you will be no different to those people who fall in my hands."

Shin slightly raised his brows behind his mask. He could see where the confidence of this person was coming from. But if the latter would only be relying on that, then it would be far from being enough.

Regardless, the first appetizer seemed to have arrived. It would be better to warm up a little before proceeding.

But before he could even make his move, another presence made themselves known. When he turned his head in that direction and instantly realized where the scent of death was coming from.

It must be this person.

...