An hour later...
A cool breeze whispered through the open balcony of Echelon’s private club building. The city below still roared with the echoes of celebration; flares, car horns, and chants in the night as fans reveled in Echelon’s Promotion Tournant triumph.
But within the darkened conference room, lit only by the soft glow of monitors and a dim overhead light, the atmosphere was still, almost reverent.
Noah had awakened.
He sat at the center of the room, cross-legged on a leather couch, dressed in clean clothes, hair slightly damp from the de-thaw process.
His skin was pale, but his eyes, those cold, sharp, calculating eyes were alive. Watching. Absorbing.
The rest of the team was gathered around. They still couldn’t believe the reality before them, and so they kept on staring at him with different expressions on their faces.
Aria stood with her arms folded, posture tense.
Caleb paced slowly behind the couch, muttering calculations and theories to himself. He was clearly also tense.
Benjamin was slouched against the wall, silent for once.
Genevieve sat beside Noah, her eyes never leaving him almost as if in fear that if she took her eyes off him, he would disappear again.
As for Nightingale? He stood aloe at the back, cloaked in the shadows, unreadable, giving the friends a little privacy.
Noah broke the silence.
"Co on," he chuckled. "It’s not like I died or sothing".
Benjamin looked at him, suddenly able to smirk again. "Says the bastard that has been in a mad scientist’s lab for 5 months".
Benjamin shook his head, muttering under his breath. "How did I even get to know him? Crazy bastard, how did I make friends like this?"
Noah looked at him. "Huh?"
"Nothing". Benjamin waved his hands in exasperation. Noah chuckled.
And then, Caleb finally spoke, a solemn look on his face. "How was it?"
Noah looked at him, already knowing what he ant. He sighed.
"...It’s like waking from a long dream. I rember pain, then nothing. A void. Then... your voices".
His hand clenched unconsciously, fingers curling into his palm.
"Where was I?"
Before answering, Caleb looked at him seriously. "What of Lord Doom?’
"Ah, Lord Doom". A distant look ca over Noah’s face, and then he sighed. "I really thought I was transmigrated into the world of Warstar". He laughed.
His friends didn’t laugh though, all looking at him.
He sighed again. "Living months as Lord Doom, it was a novel experience. I don’t know how they did it," he hesitated. "But it felt like reality".
"In a way, it was the life of my dreams, if it was not so scary".
"Huh?"
He looked at Genevieve, smiling. "You know, I once dreamt of living inside the world of Warstar once. I love the ga, in many ways I’m obsessed with it, so getting to live in it, it was an unforgettable experience".
"But now that I know I was kidnapped, I don’t know how to feel about it".
"When Nightingale told us about the operation, at the back of my mind, I still felt that he was wrong and that I was truly gone, stuck in the ga forever".
Aria looked at him. "Your last monts as Lord Doom, what was it like?"
Noah leaned back on his chair, a wistful expression on his face. "One mont, I was Lord Doom, still integrated with the world and the next, it felt like I was fading away from the world".
"Everything beca blurry, then it all disappeared".
"Everything turned dark".
He raised his hand, looking at it. "I’ve been out of touch with my body for so long that it feels so foreign to now". He shivered.
"It feels weird, and creepy. Scary too".
At that mont, Nightingale finally stepped forward, a serious look on his face. He finally answered Sam’s initial question.
"You were in an isolated facility. Offshore. Hidden behind five levels of false registrations and dead-end shell corps".
"They abandoned it. All records were wiped".
"And ?"
Nightingale looked at him. "Perfect condition. Stasis. As if they were... preserving you".
Caleb’s voice snapped in.
"It doesn’t make sense. You don’t accidently freeze one of the greatest Warstar minds of the generation and just walk away. This was calculated, precise, surgical".
"Whoever they are," Aria added darkly. "They didn’t expect us to win".
"Heck, they didn’t expect us to make a coback. Just like Marcus did, they expected us to just scatter after the forced retirent, no longer staying in touch".
"If that happened," her eyes narrowed. "We would have never t Nightingale and we would have not known about Noah’s strange state".
She hesitated for a few monts, then said coldly. "They expected us to rot in retirent, hide in sha. They didn’t expect... vengeance, our resurgence".
Noah’s eyes flickered toward her. For the first ti since waking, a genuine smile cracked his lips. "Good job not letting it go".
"Of the others, apart from Marcus, I thought you’d be the most adamant about not coming from retirent. Thank you for responding to my call".
Aria didn’t respond and Noah only smiled, he was used to her.
Then, Genevieve finally asked the question hanging heavy in the room. "But why you, Noah? Why take you? What did they want?"
At that mont, Nightingale spoke again. "I think... this went further than just Noah. You guys saw the video, apart from the room where Noah was held, there were other restraints spread across the building".
"Whatever experint they were doing, it went beyond just Noah".
"And we didn’t stop them, all we did was rescue Noah".
Nightingale’s face turned complicated. "Those other guys, I think they took them with them".
"The only reason they didn’t take Noah is because we went for him".
He hesitated. "I think... they don’t want attention".
"They want to stay under the radar". Nightingale eyes glead. "And this tells sothing. Whatever they’re doing, it’s illegal".
Noah sighed and leaned back. And the mont he closed his eyes, it hit him, mories, fragnted mories.
Not images, not scenes, but impressions.
"There were voices".
All eyes turned towards him.
"There were voices. Always distant. chanical, testing sothing". He looked ahead, as if trying to rember. "They kept asking... ’How does he think so far ahead?’ They didn’t want my strength".
He looked at them. "I think they wanted my mind".
Noah’s expression beca complicated, his eyes slightly cold now. "Warstar is just the surface. They’re building sothing else. The ga, the tournant, everything... it’s a data farm".
"And they wanted to study the apex predator inside it". He sighed, not feeling as proud as he would have expected. "And I guess that Apex is ".
Benjamin muttered. "Sh*t..."
Caleb turned sharply to Nightingale. "We need to trace the shell corps. Whoever pulled this off has more resources than most countries".
Nightingale nodded. "Already working on it. But this goes deeper than we ever imagined. They didn’t just want Noah, they wanted what he represented, adaptability, precision, leadership under chaos".
"...They’re building a profile of war".
Aria slamd her fist on the table. "Then let’s tear it all down".
Nightingale hesitated, and then he added. "Don’t you guys think the coincidence is too much?"
"What coincidence?"
"I an," he sighed. "Noah disappears, and the next thing he becos the first to get the very first ever SSS-Rank unique skill".
"His disappearance aligns too much with the update to the ga".
Genevieve’s eyes widened. "Are you saying...?"
Nightingale nodded. "I’m saying exactly that. The tifra of the Warstar update to Noah’s disappearance is too close". He shook his head. "I can’t shake the feeling off that there’s so connection between the two".
Nightingale’s words made the room even more silent. Now, there was an eerie tension in the air as the weight of his words settled among the others.
Noah broke the silence.
He slowly stood up. His body moved fluidly, no stiffness, no weakness. Only quiet, calculated motion.
He looked at them all, his voice low and iron-clad.
"Our plans didn’t change. We still built a new club, Echelon, we’ll still compete in the Pro Alliance next season".
"We’ll still win the Warstar RPG Champions League one last ti, and we’ll also win the Warstar RPG World Championship".
"But still," he looked at the glass window, at the boisterous world reflecting below. "Still, they kidnapped ".
Noah exhaled, his back suddenly as straight as an arrow. "They dragged into the shadows. Now we drag them into the night".
"One way or another, we’ll discover them... and expose them".
A solemn silence settled on the room, Nightingale and the others looking at Noah, complicated emotions hidden in their eyes.
The cara on the wall flickered briefly. A distortion.
Unnoticed, far away, soone was watching.
And recording.
Just as the silence stretched too long, Aria casually stretched and suddenly stood up, looking at Noah with a crazy look on her face.
Noah looked back at her. That look... he recognized it.
Noah sighed. "Really?"
Aria laughed. "Let’s PK".
"I literally just escaped being kidnapped".
"You in or not?"
Noah smirked. "Of course, I’m in".
He cracked his knuckles. "I’ve missed the keyboard and mouse, let’s go shore up on the basics".
He grinned.
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