White got into the deal Pearl proposed and as soon as it started, he was given a team and a bunch of tasks that he should focus on.
On the same day, after White left with some brand-new information and his team some other guests arrived at Pearl's courtyard around noon. Pearl is sitting outside under the shade of a large tree in her courtyard with a table full of dishes.
And a man sat across her in a purple robe.
If Sam or anyone from Dusk was here, they would have recognized this guy from a mile away.
"Nice to finally meet you Vidyut. I have been dying to meet you for a long time."
Pearl said with the same sweet smile she always had.
Vidyut took a sip from the wine glass and spoke expressionlessly.
"Nice to meet you too, Miss Pearl. I am sorry for not meeting you much earlier. I was still trying to get accustomed to this new place and the new rules. I couldn't fit in your appointment in that schedule."
"No problem. No problem at all. In fact, I quite like it that you just didn't move everything in your life to accommodate my appointment. I have been quite sick of everyone doing it to suck up to me."
"I could only imagine how that feels. Anyway, how may I help you?"
"Well, I am forming a team. As you must have heard, this year the freshmen are indeed a bit more competitive and of high quality than the previous few years. And you must know how competitive our academies are…"
Pearl went on to pitch the same idea to Vidyut and he didn't even show as much resistance as White.
"I agree. I like this idea."
"That was easier than I thought. I didn't even use my charm yet."
"I prefer a well drafted plan over charm any time of the day."
"Oh, seems like you had bad experiences with Charm? A broken heart?" Pearl asked with the same faint smile.
"Not really. I have seen lot less people die by a plan compared to charm. Anyway, if you don't mind I would like to take my leave. I need to go and train. Send my team members to my courtyard along with the list of the tasks that I need to do."
Vidyut left even before Pearl could answer him.
Pearl didn't mind, in fact she was intrigued. Sam was the first one who is completely immune to her sweet nothings. Second is White. Even if she did manage to gain enough good will from White, she didn't even begin to think that she had him in the bag.
Now Vidyut, this guy couldn't make it more obvious that he has zero interest in getting close to her.
She is actually feeling refreshed.
What she said to Vidyut hasn't been a lie. She got pretty tired of every person that is trying to suck up to her. Now that there are three characters, she is feeling stoked.
After Vidyut left, she walked back into her house alone and entered a room in the basement.
The walls of the room are filled with pictures, information and even the table in the middle is the same. There are several brushes with ink all sprawled over different areas. This is the place where she does her homework.
Right now, she stopped infront of one corner of the wall where the first step of their plan is going to start.
With all this information and sketches, one might think that it is a very complicated plan. Even though it is in a way, it is also very straightforward.
She has picked several candidates from all the academies and created a list. She considered this her hit list. They are not her killing targets of course, instead their growth is.
Everyone who is on her list is going to be watched by her and her teams every single day. If possible, she is even trying to get a report on every second of their lives. She wouldn't rest until she knows everything about them.
Routines, their habits, tastes in food, people they like, places they visit, their attack patterns, thought process, training duration, pleasures, desires.
She is going to keep a watch on everything both inside and outside of the academies. And lucky for her the Hub opened up and most of these targets are also spending a lot of time there. It would be easier for her to gather this information.
Once this information is in her hands, she will them commission the same teams to attack them mentally and emotionally.
Before they knew it, they should be under her complete control.
She opened up some reports that got the latest information. The people who held the current high scores in the arcade.
She looked through the names and a smirk appeared. Her estimation is not even off in the slightest. It is very accurate and all the people that she marked are on the list. She started sorting the names out and assigned a few in a different list along with a bunch of other tasks that needed to be done.
She sent the scroll to Vidyut.
Vidyut looked at the scroll. He felt surprised and amused at the same time. The list has a lot of familiar names. He took out a communication token and called someone.
"What the fuck are you doing back in that academy?"
On the other end Watt is standing in the middle of a training ground. He just came back an hour ago from the Arcade after a good session of training. He broke several high scores in different machines and came back to have some combat practice.
And even before he went looking for trouble with someone, he was already greeted with a bunch of people who craved for a good beating.
Right now, there are a bunch of people around him, lying on the floor as they slowly bled out. Their tendons were cut and they are unable to get up and there are a bunch of silver cards poking out of their tendons and a weird kind of inscription is glowing over that card.
The inscriptions disrupt the natural healing of the cultivators and now they cannot get up.
Watt casually wiped the blood off of his face and walked away leaving them like that.
"What happened?" Watt asked in a very calm tone.
"Well, someone from Zeus academy is keeping tabs on you.
Since the start of the academy, you have fought with more than fifty people. And twelve of them are young masters of different areas. On top of that, you are on constant odds with the Student Union and the seniors.
I thought you tried to assimilate with the Student union of Hermes academy?"
"I tried to assimilate, but there is still some friction. Some assholes kept on yapping their mouths, so I had to teach them a lesson. I think they will kick me out of their inner circle in a couple of days.
And the count is not exactly accurate. Just now I dealt with ten more people, one of them is a young master. So, Sixty people and thirteen young masters.
Anyway, how do you know these details. We didn't have our first meeting yet."
"Well, I have some interesting things to say to you in the first meeting. We will talk then. Anyway, just keep an eye open for some rats. They are sniffing around you and collecting information."
"Got it. See you at the meeting."
Watt cut the call off and looked around vigilantly. He doesn't know who is spying on him. In fact, only he knew that he beat fifty people, because a lot of these fights are picked secretly and the result of it was not leaked.
In fact, he planned it that way.
But it is not as leak proof as he thought. He needed to be careful.
As he was thinking, Vidyut kept on making a few more calls just to warn some more people from Dusk. He didn't call Sam though. That talk has to wait until their actual meeting.
It will only be a few more days.
Their first meeting is going to happen the night before the academy towers are going to open. They have a lot of discuss, meanwhile he just needs to grab this opportunity and gather as much information as possible.
With the flamboyant and massive opening of the Hub and the burning competitive spirit of all the students, the time passed slowly and quickly at the same time. And before they knew it, it is already the night before the academy tower opening.
And the first meeting of the important people within the Dusk is happening.
The region itself is bustling with activity and the Hub is fuller than ever before. The instructors and Elders are also excited because this is the time the decisions about personal disciples would be made.
Everyone is excited and as Pearl explained, for most people this would be the first accolade and starting point of their glory as a student in these Demi God academies.
But what they don't know is, the Dusk has arrived long ago and it is about to throw a very large shadow over their glory and all of it is going to be decided in this one meeting.
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