Chapter 1269 They Are Puppets

Author's Note: Unedited Chapter

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-"Son, I couldn't even harm them even if i wanted to,"

"Then..."

-"No, I won't be the one harming them..."

Sshhshhhhh~

The dark vicinity immediately lightened up and a scenario of a human figure with dark tattoos all over his body could be seen slaughtering a group.

The group entailed familiar faces... Angy, Gustav, Endric, Aildris, E.E, Teemee, Matilda...

They all stared at the human figure like he was a monster as he ran them through with dark spikes and ripped hearts out of their bodies.

It was an extremely brutal sight as they tried to back away...

"What are you...? what are you...?"

Soon enough every single one from the group had their body parts splattered across the place as the human figure with dark tattoos stood in place with an expression of gratification on his face.

-"You my son, will be the one to harm your loved ones if you keep refusing to accept the crown..."

Fhrriihh~

Falco eyelids flickered before his eyes suddenly sprang open. 

"Ahhh!" He screamed as he noticed he was laying at the edge of a copper colored roof atop a building which was over four thousand feet in height.

The rooftop had a long golden colored pole in the middle which extended upwards. 

Falco had nearly rolled off the top of this building upon his reawakening since he found himself at the edge. He looked around in fear as he quickly jumped to his feet.

It was currently night time so it seemed like no one had noticed the human figure at the top of this building. 

"How did I get here?" Falco questioned with a tone of fear.

Tah! Tah! Tah! Tah!

The sound of liquid dropping onto the copper colored rooftop drew Falco's attention as he slowly turned around with an expression of horror on his face.

Fwwhiii~

A small breeze blew across the rooftop causing a metallic smell to drift into his nostrils as he stared at what was before him with widened eyes.

The golden colored pole poking out of the middle of the rooftop had a figure impaled on it.

The figure had gotten impaled so deep that their body was halfway to its bottom while the rest of the pole had cleanly pierced through their body. 

From the massive width of the poke, the hole that had been left in the chest of this figure was as large as four human heads combined. Dry greenish blood coated the tip of the pole and had also been smudged across the body of the pole.

Blood dropped in clusters from the body as it remained in a stationary position...

Falco's heart nearly broke through his ribcage as it pounded heavily while he took steps forward. 

...Insect like limbs flailed and bloody...

A nauseating mettalic stench had spread across the air from the blood. The dried blood on parts of the pole and the smal droplets falling from the corpse told Falco that it had been hours since this person died.

He gulped down saliva as he came to a realisation, "A Handler...." He muttered while stretching his hand forward in a bid to examine the corpse.

He paused ad he noticed his entire arm coated in greenish blood. 

"Huh....?" Falco raised his other arm and noticed it had dried bloodstains on it as well.

His breathing turned even more hurried as he took steps backward. 

"No.... no.... this cannot be..." Falco noticed more stains on his outfit as he continued taking steps backwards till he arrived at the ledge of the rooftop. 

"No... No.... No...." Falco turned around as dark tattoos appeared all across his body and leapt into the air.

He dissapeared into the distance in the next moment, leaving the corpse in the possession of the silent rooftop.

...

...

...

The next morning, spectators and participants had gathered in the arena once more as the Battle Challenge began for the day.

The computerised syatem began picking out the participants for batches as battles began once more.

Cheers~ Cheers~ Yaaahhhh~ Wooooo~

The entire arena was noisy as usual and happened to be even more excited today since there was going to be disqualifications. 

The spectators speculated about the number of required points but there was really no way to know until Handler One announced it at the end of the day.

Today was also the second to the last day before the Battle Challenge would end. After tomorrow, a new challenge would be announced and the number of participants left at that point woild be significantly lesser.

IYSOP was slowly approaching its finish point.

While the battles were ongoing, Gustav noticed there was a bit of a pandemonium where the Handlers were situated. It didn't last very long and they had managed not to cause a ruckus but Gustav noticed it nonetheless. 

"You were gone all night," Angy voiced from the side.

"Yes..." Gustav answered while still observing the other side of the arena which was more than fifty thousand feet away.

"Why? You've been away more and more lately," Angy said with a concerned tone.

"I was busy," Gustav responded. 

"Busy with what?" She said while placing her hand on Gustav's chin and turning his head to face her.

"A lot..." Gustav replied.

Angy; "..." 

"I'll let you and the others in when I know what I'm dealing with," Gustav knew she was curious about what he was up to but still couldn't tell her yet.

Angy heaved a low sigh of defeat. She already knew how Gustav was so she stopped trying to poke.

While the battle continued, Gustav turned to stare at the Indulus Prime participants area of the arena.

("They seem rather functional now,") The system voiced.

'Hmm... At this point my speculation is half proven,' Gustav said internally as he recalled what went down last night.

...

The Indulus Prime spectators all remained in a stationary state for hours and Gustav was running out of invisibility buttons so he eventually left. He visited the arena and just like the system mentioned, a few of them stayed back.

These ten Indulus Prime spectators seemed a little different from the others and happened to be engaging in a conversation upon Gustav's arrival.

Unfortunately, Gustav didn't gather any tangible information as they seemed to be having a normal conversation about IYSOP.

Gustav couldn't stay for too long since he was running out of Invisibility buttons but at the moment where he was about leaving something unexpected happened.

One of the spectators mentioned a point about the IYSOP participants that he had said before. This spiralled the conversation they were having back to the start. It was like Gustav was watching a loop play out before him as these Indulus Prime spectators proceeded to reenact the conversations from the start.

Gustav was on his last invisibility button and had already gotten himself a great distance away when he felt an approaching figure.

Fortunately, he still had Cognitive Concealment activated and thirty seconds of invisibility left so Gustav stuck around to identify this figure.𝓷𝑶𝗏𝓮𝓵𝒰𝑠𝔅.𝑐𝓞𝑚

'Indulus Prime Vice Captain...' Gustav noticed who it was and despite being thousands of feet, he heard the vice captain lament.

"A malfunction?" The vice captain proceeded to thrust his palm forward. 

A wave of darkness encircled the ten and in the next instant, they stopped their conversation. They stood up afterwards and began to file out of the arena like the ones Gustav had followed hours earlier.

As expected, these ten moved to the same accommodation area and as soon as they arrived within their various rooms, they became immobile like the rest.

Gustav had run out of invisibility buttons at this point and knew it would be unwise to keep observing them on a closer scale so he finally left.

He wanted to make sure the Indulus Prime had no idea that he was onto them. He had to move with extreme caution. 

...

'They are puppets alright... but who is pulling the strings?' This was the question that Gustav continously asked in his mind.

("They have gone back to being lively but I have analysed their speech patterns... it is mostly repetitive... like a program,") The system elucidated. 

'How come you're helping me? This is practically a quest and you've never helped me in a quest before,' Gustav questioned internally.

("Then i shall stop now,") 

'I didn't ask you to stop,'

("Hmph you might as well have,")

'Why are you cranky like a girl on her period?'

("You... You... how dare you...") 

'Proving me right as usual,'

("I have no emotions...") 

'Yeah right...'

Gustav went back to focusing his sights on the Indulus Prime spectators and participants while battles ensued.

The spectators watched as battles got intense with the continous passing of time since many planetary groups were trying their best to raise as much points as they could.

After the thirty second batch of the day, Gustav saw his name appear on the screens as part of the next batch.

"Finally..." Gustav had been waiting for this moment all day.

He stood to his feet, gathering the attention of spectators all across the arena as well as participants. 

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