As William watched the cloaked figures depart from the premises, he didn't say a word.
'Lian...'
At this moment, he would be pinged from the Library system. A message from Linen as well as the Ludus Company. In fact, the Ludus Company had sent him a plethera of messages while he was asleep.
He decided to check out what Linen sent him first.
-Hey newbie, I just remembered that your official introductory lesson hasn't been given to you, if you want me to explain some of the important bits, feel free to drop on by, just don't interrupt me while I'm working.
Then, he read what the Ludus Company's customer support line had been sending him.
-Warning, the forces of the Heavenly Sinners Sect's commander are approaching, we are only in charge of protecting you, as for your comrades, they are your responsibility, don't let them down.
This message was then repeated over and over again, however, due to the fact that William had been put to sleep for the past few hours, he hadn't been able to read them.
'This is troublesome...However, it'd be best to prepare first before I make any rash decisions. They currently both outnumber us in manpower and strength, as well as have hostages of ours.' William reasoned to himself.
'I'll head to Linen's place first. Then, I need to formulate a plan to get my people back.'
He walked back to his bedroom first though, to pick up the dead body of the man he had killed, he picked up the archive and began to read it. Hoping to learn of information that could be of use in his future operations.
'This is the story of Ying Panhan. He was born in 2013, March 16th, he grew up a relatively pampered child, his parents spoiled him, not rotten, but not commonfolk either. A healthy balance.....
From this archive he managed to decipher a few things
First, the leader of this operation was indeed the Commander of the Heavenly Sinners Sect known as the Lord of Shadows, or simply, Shadow. He was a strange individual by the looks of it. He practiced gender inequality, prioritizing the women in his faction over the men, although it was unclear for what purpose. Though, this man had his suspicions.
Secondly, that this man named Shadow was in fact the ruler of the nearby cathedral area, although he had his suspicions, this confirmed it.
Thirdly, that this archive had several areas that seemed...off. Some places were cut together like some shoddy editing job. Only noticeable to the sharpest of eyes.
'How strange, I should get over to Mr. Linen's place.' He adorned Xiao Wei as a pair of rectangular, thin glasses, before heading out.
---------------------------------------------
Half an hour of sneaking around later, a disheveled William with deep eyebags under his eyes appeared at the oh so familiar pond. The stress seemed to be piling on him, and his poor mental state wasn't helping whatsoever.
As he stood on top of the earth elevator and began to descend, he mumbled to himself 'Can I get one goddamn guy without any sh*t happening...', however, it was unavoidable. This was simply the price of taking a safe area, a real idiotic move eh?
Upon arrival, William saw a solemn-looking Linen sitting seriously on a desk, with his hand in front of his face as if contemplating something.
He was adorned with his typical thread-woven grey mask, covering the top-half of his face, as well as a nice half top hat.
The lights were all off, making the chamber pitch dark, thankfully William could see in pitch dark, so he took a seat across from the masked man.
William shuffled awkwardly. "Mr. Linen, what was it you wanted to tell me about? Some kind of introductory lesson?" His eyes flickered over Linen's mask.
Meanwhile, Linen stared intently at William's face. "It's interesting you chose to come and see me instead of rushing to rescue your allies. Wise decision, in this business, cautiousness is the difference between an ordinary fool, and a legend. Now, I'll try to get this done quickly, so you can get to your assigned role." He sighed heavily, languidly taking out a scroll of paper.
"You should try to learn from this world's history, it contains information that could save and destroy the Earth." He instructed while unfurling the scroll.
He then began to speak. "Alright newbie, here's Verifier 101. You probably know about the Library and all of its glory, blah blah blah. I presume you know of Ingenuity from that master of yours?" Linen inquired casually.
"Yes, he taught me about it and even demonstrated how to use it." WIlliam replied succintly.
"For someone of his status and skill, it must have been quite the spectacular performance then." Linen calmly hypothesized. "Well, then you ought to have seen at least one colour of Ingenuity then, right?"
William's ears perked up. 'Here it is, I finally learn what the Ingenuity colours mean! At long last!' He nodded hurriedly. "Yes, I've seen a deep-red Ingenuity being used before, do you know what that means, Mr. Linen?"
Linen smiled slightly. "The colors of Ingenuity. A truly unique effect. Each color of Ingenuity has a special effect of sorts. For example, the fiery color of red represents passion, bloodlust, and willingness to kill. It will imbue your Ingenuity will an effect that is closely related to your core ability, and it's domain, which I will explain later."
The scroll of paper showed an Octagram, with the three primary colors, their mixes, and black and white at the top and bottom. Symbolizing each main form of Ingenuity colouring.
'Interesting...It all makes sense now! William thought to himself jubilantly.
Linen then continued to speak while William attempted to decipher the contents of the scroll, which was written in a strange language, though with his skillset, it would prove doable.
"Now of course, the key to achieving this type of colouring, is the ability to summon your emotions and will into reality through sheer belief. This means of course, that someone without strong emotions, or a strong will, will neverbe able to use it."