"Arthur..." Mel's voice rang out softly in the back of my mind, sensing the turbulent storm of my emotions. Inside the subspace, the usual rowdy atmosphere had vanished. Leo, Cero, and even the fallen S-Rank Wilong were deathly quiet; they were warriors and monsters who knew how to kill, but none of them knew how to console a man who had just found his family's names carved into a memorial stone.
"Umm, excuse me..."
A hesitant voice pulled me back from the abyss of my thoughts. It was one of the RMB staffers who had followed me from the research center. He looked small and uncertain under the weight of the grief radiating from me. "Mr. Tempest? We... we have some belongings. Items recovered from the evacuation attempt. Since you are the only survivor recorded for the Tempest family, protocol says they belong to you."
He led me to a cramped, sterile storage room adjacent to the Research Center. On a cold metal table sat a single, old iron box. My breath stopped as I looked inside. There was my mother's silver locket, dulled by the Tower's 'Energy wavelengths'; my father's worn leather shoe; and several small trinkets belonging to my siblings, objects I recognized with a sharp, stabbing familiarity.
I couldn't bring myself to pick them up, my heart feeling like a lead weight in my chest. But as my fingers grazed the rusted edge of the box, the system's interface flickered to life with a jarring, crimson glow.
"[Notice: A Hidden 'Chained-Quest' has been triggered!]"
"[Quest: Singularity of Chaos.]"
"[Details: Investigate the 'Irregularity' that occurred in this sector during the Tutorial Phase. Something more than a simple monster outbreak claimed these lives.]"
My eyes widened. A Singularity? An Irregularity? In the VR game, the Tutorial was a standardized, predictable culling. If the System was flagging this specific sector's destruction as an irregularity, it meant the villagers here hadn't been killed by random, low-level mobs. Something else had been at play here. Something intentional.
I turned to the RMB staffer. My [Red Demon's Eye] pulsed with a faint, predatory crimson light that I didn't bother to suppress.
"Who was the 'Overseer' assigned to this regional Tower during the first week?" I asked, my voice dangerously low.
The staffer swallowed hard, his face paling as he trembled under the sudden, crushing weight of my gaze. "I... I think it was the Guild Master of the 'Reaper' Guild, sir," he stammered, his voice shaking. "The man named Marcus Thorne."
The 'Reaper' Guild again. The name was becoming a recurring curse. First, the battle for the Tower rights, then the attempt to sacrifice Zang Wilong, and now this. Our paths weren't just crossing; they were being paved in the blood of those I loved.
I recalled Wilong's testimony, how the Guild Master of 'Black Serpent' had returned from the 2nd Floor with a twisted energy. If that was the case, then the demons might have laid their hands on Marcus Thorne, the 'Reaper' Guild, and the 'Black Serpent' Guild much earlier than I had realized.
I looked at the rusted box one last time, my grief hardening into a cold, sharp resolve. "Keep these in your custody for a bit longer," I told the staffer, my mind already sharpening into a blade.
I turned and walked out of the room, my destination set. I was heading straight for the 'Reaper' Guild's regional branch office. It was time to see just how deep the rot went.