MMORPG : Rise of the Interstellar God

Ralfot entered the room with a superior air about him.

He'd just received the promotion of his life and was filled with confidence and joy, despite the worrying political circumstances. Filled with this attitude, he addressed Apophis. "I need to speak with you in private. Do you mind joining me in a more secure room?"

Apophis answered, "Very well, but Antanria comes with me."

Ralfot nodded and led them to a huge glass elevator, from which Apophis and Antanria had an incredible view of the huge city-planet of Terra. There were skyscrapers as far as the eye could see, and the atmosphere seemed to shimmer in the trails of all the vehicles passing by.

The Secret Service building itself was immense, over two kilometers high, and made up of over three hundred floors! The building was expensive and housed even more continuous costs, but it was all worth it. In the immense geopolitical jungle of the galaxy, the Federation relied heavily on its intelligence network to maintain power.

The three former teammates entered a huge room in the basement of the Secret Service building. It was totally soundproof, having been built with the galaxy's finest dampening materials.

In the middle of the room lay a vast table made of ancient stone, carved with markings in an unknown language. Ralfot beckoned Apophis and Antanria to sit down, then theatrically spread Apophis's file on the table between them.

"Multiple homicide," said Ralfot. "Looting, unauthorized military expedition, violation of another country's sovereignty, use of unknown and dangerous technology, failure to comply and finally conspiracy against the state. Your criminal record is impressive, Apophis, especially since you have accomplished all this in just a few months! If you went to court tomorrow, you would never see the light of day again. Nevertheless, I may have a solution for you..."

While Ralfot was giving this monologue of bullshit, which seemed to be pulled right from all the worst detective movies in history, Apophis was thinking about the message which Colonel Zareil had dropped in his cell.

It was a simple phrase in ancient Zetark: "Only the black sun Oralia reigns."

Unbeknownst to Apophis, this was a phrase which the Supremacists used to identify each other, but to Apophis, the message was truly cryptic! He couldn't remember anything about this message or Zareil himself from his first life.

However, Apophis had to assume that, since Zareil had been powerful enough to hide all his system information, that he was truly a Rank A character. That was the higher power tier before achieving divinity, and Apophis had been pretty certain that he knew the identities of 'every' Rank-A character at this time.

After all, there were only three of them!

To be Rank A was to destroy an entire fleet, army, or city all by one's self. It was the power of a real supervillain! The Great Space Nations cherished these people when they rose among them, seeing them as symbols of national power…

But they also watched Rank-A individuals as closely as they would an unstable nuclear plant.

For NPCs, it was almost impossible to achieve Rank-A power. Only one out of a billion people were even born with the potential to achieve it, and the odds of any random person having access to the training and resources to achieve such power were absurd.

To complicate matters further, it was nearly impossible for nations to detect individuals with such potential. Any space nation might have several billion inhabitants at once, so they couldn't easily index every single one of their inhabitants, no matter how hard they tried.

After nine years of gameplay in Apophis's first life, only about twenty thousand Rank-A NPCs had ever been indexed.

Apophis's train of thought was interrupted when Ralfot leaned in close. "What do you say, Apophis? Surely you see what a fantastic deal this is."

Apophis was slightly embarrassed to realize he'd missed every detail of the monologue, but didn't let it show. "Listen, I think I agree with most of what you are proposing, but the details are just blurring together. Give me a quick summary."

Ralfot wasn't expecting such a straightforward response, given what he knew about Apophis. "I am offering you amnesty for your crimes, besides a military promotion, if you help us stop the Supremacist plot."

Apophis nodded. "Very well, but I also want diplomatic immunity for Antanria and myself. Not just protection in the Federation, but diplomatic protection outside it! Also, 10,000,000 GC, right away!"

Ralfot breathed a sigh of relief. That was all? He held out his hand to Apophis. "Deal!"

Apophis grasped his hand. "All right, then! What's my first assignment?"

Ralfot gave a slight smile. "You will kill Grand Admiral Azerof, of course!"