"Waaaa, that's disgusting, kill it, kill it."
Boom.
Kaito threw a fireball at the slime that was chasing Nino, making it explode on the spot.
"Bleghh, that's disgusting, I'm covered in this thing."
The slime exploded, bursting apart and splattering Nino, who absolutely did not like it.
A week had already passed since they became government affiliates, and Makima had explained how everything worked.
The information, however, was fairly normal.
An affiliate simply continues doing the usual work as part of the guild, only receiving special missions directly from the government from time to time. The exception is that they receive many benefits, basically they get paid much more, have access to exclusive information, and are treated better overall.
There is so little difference that the existence of affiliates is basically useless. They could have simply done this with all Lords from the beginning.
At least that is what most people think, since Kaito knows the government's real objective. He knows that the reason there is not much difference with the guild is because they plan to put the guild under their control at some point, so there is no need to make too many distinctions. With the added benefits, the guild basically handles all the work and administration, while the government handles paying more to those on its side.
Those who side with the government do exactly the same thing, but receive more. An obvious bait, easy to understand, but still highly coveted.
According to official information, of the Lords who ascended to rank E, ninety percent became affiliates.
"Hey, what are you thinking about?"
Nino's voice brought Kaito back to the present.
Since that week he could not make progress with conquest, whenever he was not spending time with someone in Gaia he simply did some missions on Earth.
"It's nothing, now that we're done, let's go back."
As he said that, Kaito waved his hand and applied a simple cleaning spell that mixed water, fire, and wind magic over Nino.
"Thanks, that thing was gross."
At that moment, they were doing a personal government mission whose objective was to deal with a slime monster created from sewage in the sewers.
When they came out, they encountered several citizens who had heard the commotion and were watching them with concern.
"It's fine, we already took care of that thing," Kaito reassured them, and everyone began to celebrate happily.
"Thank God."
"I knew that thing was real, but nobody believed me."
"Finally we can sleep in peace."
Among many other voices, one in particular caught Kaito's attention.
"I've been asking the guild to take care of this for over a week, but nobody responded. Luckily I decided to inform the government."
---
"Congratulations, another mission completed perfectly. It seems you make a good team," Makima said with a smile.
"Of course, we're the strongest duo," Nino said, hitting her chest proudly.
But Kaito was serious and replied with a question.
"They said they had been asking the guild for help for a week. Why didn't I see any mission about it?"
Besides the missions given by the government, Kaito had checked the regular ones to see if there was anything interesting. However, he had not seen any mission related to the current situation.
"Who knows." Makima shrugged, feigning ignorance.
"Alright then."
Kaito did not pay attention to her attitude. It was not like he did not know the answer.
"What was that about?" Nino asked once they were outside, having seen their exchange.
"The government making the Lords look bad."
"I see," Nino replied.
"You don't seem very surprised."
"Do you think I'm stupid? My family has connections. Of course I know the things the government does."
"And what do you think?"
"I think that in the end, all these political games won't matter. Everything will come down to who can erase the other, making public opinion irrelevant," Nino replied.
"That's an interesting perspective," Kaito replied, knowing that it was not just a theory, but the truth.
In the end, the government was simply trying to become stronger in order to deal with the other group. Even all the manipulation of public opinion was meant to weaken the other side, so that when they had to fight, they would have the advantage.
"And who do you think will win?" he asked.
"The Lords."
"You sound very confident. Any particular reason?"
"Of course, because both 'The Perfect Being' and 'Lucifer' are in that group."
Kaito looked at her in confusion for a second. "Who is The Perfect Being?"
"'W-who is it'? Are you sure you're a Lord? How can you not know The Perfect Being?" Nino said incredulously. Seeing that Kaito's face was serious and that he was not joking, she looked up an image on her phone.
"Look, it's a drawing," she said, showing him the image.
Kaito looked at the image and was surprised, a completely white being, clearly feminine, with black stars across her body and hair that seemed to defy gravity, floating in the air.
But what surprised Kaito was that it was basically a white, female version of Alien X.
"That's her," Nino said proudly. "She's the secret weapon of the coalition of Lords in the Sacred Forest. Every time they were about to lose, no matter who the enemy was or how strong they were, she appeared and defeated them easily."
'I need to investigate her, or ask Kaguya for information, she probably already looked into it,' Kaito thought.
"And what about Lucifer? If the Perfect Being is that powerful, does Lucifer's presence really matter?"
"That's because Lucifer is just as strong as the Perfect Being," Nino said confidently.
"You seem to trust him a lot," Kaito asked.
"More than trust, it's knowing what he's capable of," Nino murmured. "How should I put it, I know someone very strong, so strong that he has never lost. One of his abilities is strategic battle thinking, he always knows what to do. But when it comes to Lucifer, do you know what his decision was?"
Before Kaito could answer, Nino answered herself.
"He said, if possible, avoid the battle. That means that not even he knows if he can defeat Lucifer."
"And Lucifer is a person, unlike the Perfect Being, who is an ski... Nothing!." Nino cut herself off as if she had said something she should not have.
Of course, Kaito noticed and noted it in his mind.
---
"You have to be kidding me."
The week passed without incident, and now Kaito was once again in the Tower of Worlds, in the waiting room.
Unlike the first time, Kaito was no longer alone, but surrounded by his own group.
Around a dozen people. Although it was not much compared to other groups, everyone in his group was high level, or at least close to it.
However, as Kaito looked at the mission screen in front of him, he wanted to curse his bad luck.
[Congratulations to all Lords who are still alive. You have officially reached the sixth floor of the tower, and also, your first mid level mission.]
[Mission:]
[Destroy the Objects of Death.]
[World Context: In this world, the barrier between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead is weak, causing movement between the two to be easy. This caused the beings of death, bored, to take an interest in the world of the living. Objects from the world of death have fallen into the realm of the living, and by using them, the living have artificially manipulated death in various ways.]
"So I'll need synchronization points for this world, right?"
[That is correct], the system replied with a voice clearly different from the one that gives missions.
"Right when I don't have any synchronization points" Kaito muttered.
In fact, when Kaito lost all his points and went into debt, he thought about simply asking his sub Lords to give him theirs. However, he forgot something.
The system had revealed to him that those points were actually far more important than they seemed, so they were not as easy to obtain as Kaito believed.
Most people only had around five thousand synchronization points each. Only he, who received ten thousand points for every SSS rank mission, had that many. In fact, it was because of that very reason that the system allowed him to take a loan of those points. If someone else, who only earned one hundred to five hundred points per mission, asked for a loan, it would have been outright rejected.
Because of that, Kaito decided to let them keep their points for when they needed them.
"How difficult is this world exactly?" he asked the system, thinking about what to do.
[It is a world and a mission of medium difficulty, therefore the overall difficulty is medium.]
"How does that work?" Kaito wondered. He had never thought deeply about what defined the difficulty of a world.
[First, you must know that difficulty can come from both the world and the mission. You can be in an extremely difficult world like Dragon Ball, but have an easy mission, such as killing a random person.]
[But you can also be in an easy world like Highschool of the Dead and have a difficult mission, such as ensuring that all of Japan survives the apocalypse without a single death.]
[Then there is the difficulty of the world itself. This obviously depends on the world, but there are still details you must know.]
[There are worlds whose difficulty is simple due to their plot, such as romantic comedies, or worlds that are easy due to poor world building. For example, The Fifth Wave is about trust, however the rest of the world outside the plot is not defined, so the world adapts and simply follows the essence of the work.]
[Likewise, there is the opposite. Worlds whose difficulty is high due to the strength of their setting, such as Dragon Ball, or difficult due to their plot, such as Highschool DxD, where even if the plot does not occur in certain places, you know that there are gods, angels, fallen angels, and dangerous Sacred Gear users all over the world.]
[There is a third type of world: fusions. However, due to the fusion, their difficulty varies widely, so there is no need to go into detail. You only need to know that only compatible worlds are fused.]
"Wait, fused worlds, why do I know nothing about that?"
[…]
[I thought you would have already realized.]
"Why...? Ah!, right, I live in one" Kaito said as he realized.
"Since this is a medium difficulty world for the first time, it's best to be cautious and divide ourselves properly."
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
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(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)