New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1064: Neo-Future Syndicate



Kujaku turned her head to look at Kary and smiled.

"You are almost correct. Not all my men are awakened. But a majority are. But you are correct in your assessment that they are after the power in each of us. Sadly, my spies couldn't identify the tail they swear they spotted, so I don't know what they want with it."

Jin-Sil frowned at her statement.

"What else could they want aside from forcing us to fight for them?" she asked, confused.

Kujaku looked at her with a smile filled with pity.

"Oh, my sweet summer child. How I wish everyone was as naïve as you. It would make my work so much easier. There are so many things to do with abnormal people; I wouldn't know where to begin explaining this to you.

"There is forced servitude through drugs and brainwashing, experimenting to see what unlocked the powers, trying to steal the powers away, torture to see how far the powers can develop. And those are just a few examples.

"There is no telling what our pursuers might be, and I don't intend to let them capture us to find out. So, since my scouts can't spot an anomaly, and I can't see anything on our machinery surveillance, I turn to you," Kujaku said, looking at Alex.

"I know you can detect people even when they are well hidden. You've done it to me a few times. Can you do something about this? See if you can find the hidden tail?"

Alex looked at her and shrugged.

"I can try. But I'm not as strong in my detection abilities on this side as I am inside New Eden. Not unless I meld with Sanguinis. And I'm not up to wasting mana on a wild goose chase," he answered.

"It's not a wild goose chase. I trust all my men equally, and if my spies said there was a tail, then there was one. It is not uncommon anymore for people to hide things in plain sight. I wouldn't be surprised if they could hide from my spotters."

"If you insist," Alex replied, closing his eyes.

He reached inside himself, welling up the mana for a wide area scan, and pulsed out twice, forming a bubble a few hundred meters around them.

He held the bubble for a minute, trying to find even minute traces of lingering mana inside it, but couldn't find anything. The only traces of mana inside his area were himself and his allies, along with the few awakened people in Kujaku's men.

But, other than that, it was empty. Surprisingly, he did detect a bit of mana in the air, which surprised him at first, before he thought about it thoroughly.

'No wonder there are traces of mana in the air. I doubt China had only a few players of New Eden. I bet many of them played, and more than a couple had pods. I wouldn't be surprised if cities have a high concentration of mana,' he mused as he pulled in his mana.

"I didn't detect anything other than us with mana. If something is hiding and following us around, it's outside my detection range," Alex explained, opening his eyes.

Kujaku frowned a little.

"How far is that range?"

He looked at her with a deadpan expression.

"In this form, four hundred meters all around? I could go a mile or two if I was melded with Sanguinis. But that is a massive drain on my mana. If you are right and a fight breaks out, you'll want me at my best. So I'm not doing it."

Kujaku wasn't impressed with his detection range and wanted to force him into using his meld, or whatever he called it. She preferred being sure they weren't being followed, and right now, her gut was telling her there was something wrong.

But Kary jumped in before she could open her mouth and ask for it.

"I can detect further, but I won't be as accurate as he is. Do you want me to try?" she asked.

Kujaku looked at her, wondering when her detection skills had surpassed Alexander's. The last time she had infiltrated the tree palace, she made it into the throne room without being detected.

"How far?" she asked Kary.

"About a mile out. It's less precise, and I'll only be able to detect if there is something, not what it is exactly. But I'll see four times further, at least."

They had nothing to lose for trying out her detection. Who knew, if they were lucky, she might even find something just outside the range Alexander could see, and then they would be aware of the tail for sure.

"Go ahead," Kujaku said, preferring to put the chances on their side.

Kary closed her eyes, reaching inside her for a large amount of mana, and similarly to Alex, pulsed out with mana, although only once.

Her bubble formed, reaching a mile out, and Kary instantly frowned.

A little over eight hundred meters behind them, a mass of mana was following them that made no sense in its positioning.

It was hovering a hundred meters off the ground.

"I see something, but it doesn't make sense. It's a hundred meters off the ground as if it'sNôv(el)B\\jnn

flying..."

Kujaku's face immediately darkened.

"Floor it, Sakura," she ordered, pulling out a short-range communicator.

"All units, Hare Protocol. Rendezvous at point Delta. Comms blackout until then. Kujaku

out."

Pulling out another device from the glove box, Kujaku hurriedly pressed the button on it, and everyone's ears started ringing.

Their neuro-phones fritzed up instantly, and they all had to pull them off their ears hurriedly, as the ungodly whine it was making was hurting their heads.

"What the hell?! What was that all about?" Alex shouted, as his ear bled a bit, his hearing already more sensitive than most.

Everyone in the car was pushed into their seats as Sakura accelerated the vehicle abruptly.

"That was a mini EMP. They were tracking us through one of our electronics, so I fried them. We don't want to mess with this organization. If they want to catch us, bailing out of here is our best option," she explained, her face serious.

"Who the fuck are they?" Alex asked, annoyed at being kept in the dark.

"They call themselves the Neo-Future Syndicate. They are well known in the underground world for capturing promising scientists before they get renown and forcing them to work to create new tech they keep for themselves.

"These people mean business, Alex. They once captured an entire Russian mob family in a fortnight without leaving a single broken glass behind in the defensible manor. We still don't know how they did it, but the consensus is that people should stay off their path.

"If they want something with us, it can't be good. We need to get the fuck away." Alex was confused as to why she seemed so serious about this.

"You do realize we have people here who can fight actual monsters, right? What are they going to do against that?" he asked, trying to get her to explain her sudden change of

attitude.

"It won't matter. This syndicate is the one currently dealing with monsters in Germany. Rumour has it that it is the country with the least incidents, and they are to thank for that.

"I bet they have some tech to track down the monsters and capture them before they rampage. Can you guarantee that won't work on any of us?" she asked, looking at him with a

severe gaze.

"Then tell me what the hare protocol is. I want to know what happens next," Alex insisted, seeing she was serious about getting the fuck away from them.

"Hare Protocol is, as its name states. We are hares, being hunted by an eagle, and we need to get the fuck away from open roads. The three vehicles are about to split up and rendezvous at

a pre-established point once we are sure that we are safe."

Alex froze.

"Split up? Are you insane? What if those people capture one of our friends?" he growled.

"That is why the hidden part of the hare protocol, the part my men don't know about, is that I, well, we, are about to be the bait," she grinned.

With a flip of a switch, the roof on the SUV started pulling back, and soon enough, it was open wide enough for the front seat to have complete access to the outside.

Alex saw her unclip her seat belt and grabbed her shoulder.

"Hell no! You think I'm going to let you, the only one who knows your plan, act as bait? Sit the

fuck down," Alex growled at her, untying his own seat belt.

"Kary, we're up. We take this thing's attention and get it off our backs. It's going down or getting away, I don't care, but it needs to go," he said, pulling himself toward the open roof.

Kary didn't hesitate, untying her seat belt, while Kujaku frowned at them.

"How are you going to do that? You can't even see the darned thing."

Alex grinned back at her.

"I don't need to see it. Once it's inside my detection range, it'll be clear as day to me. Plus, if

we mark it, our marksman can take potshots at it, right?" Alex claimed, winking at Jin-Sil.

She smiled back at him, starting to unclip herself as well.

"On it, boss man."

"Let me help. I know them the best," Kujaku tried convincing him, but Alex slapped the top of

her head as he passed next to her.

"Stay here, you twat. You can't fly, can you? Then stay with the car and make sure the others are safe," he ordered, pushing himself onto the top of the truck.

Once there, he crouched down before pushing up with his legs, using wind under his feet to push himself into the air and reduce the impact on the SUV's suspension. "What the hell? Fly? No one can fly!" Kujaku called out, looking at him pounce up fifty meters.

"Wrong. We can," Kary winked before pulling herself up and blasting off in a blaze of glory. "I thought I knew how crazy they were... Seems I underestimated them..."