Collecting Titles In The Apocalypse

The next day, as he was heading to school, he was abducted once again by the same organization.

"So what's the meaning of this, Manager Sai Grayhams?" He asked the person in front of him who was interlocking her fingers under her mouth with her elbows on the table, looking like a mafia boss.

"We are short on personnel and decided we'll use you," she replied in a flat tone. Straight forward and straight to the point.

He sighed.

'Short on personnel, my ass!' He cussed deep inside. 'Did she think I would believe that?' But anyway…

"Use me?" He frowned as he asked. "So I am someone's usable tool now, where's my right as a person?" He felt like his worth as a person had decreased even more.

"Stop overreacting, Dante."

His brow quivered in unconcealed displease from her unconcerned reply. 'This woman… did she not reconsider what I'd feel?'

"In the end, you want to discard me, isn't it?! That's what you mean, right?" An expression of helplessness was on his face as he repeated his question. 

"You're jumping too much in your conclusion. We are not discarding you so rest assured, but we're resuming the program," she sounded exasperated.

He felt relieved upon hearing it, but wait—

Something from her words caught his attention.

"Resuming the program?" His voice trailed off a little. He continued without minding it. "Even though it already failed?!"

He was surprised. He saw her eyes squint slightly.

"You got it wrong," her expression turned a little bit stiff.

Dante frowned.

"Wrong? What do you mean? The experts who tested me clearly stated that I am a failed subject."

"What failed is not entirely the program, but the training and the test."

"Isn't that what the program meant?"

Manager Sai smirked. One side of her mouth raised slightly.

"Heh! There's a big difference in training and actual combat."

He couldn't remember how many times he blinked his eyes upon hearing it.

'Actual combat?'

"That sounds like you want me to fight for real!" His voice carried an unhidden agitation.

He peeked in her expression and noticed a grin. It seemed like a bucket of cold water poured on him at that moment. A bad premonition was slapped on his face. Her reaction alone was enough to tell him that what he suspected was right on the spot.

"Wait! That's against my rights as a human being!" He stood up from his seat.

But Manager Sai didn't mind it and continued.

"I will say it again, the moment you're entangled with us, your rights as a human are no longer in your hands," she said coldly.

"Err…"

A helpless groan came out of his mouth when he heard it.

"This happened because of an agent who failed her mission so don't blame me. Tsk! Now we're late in schedule."

Biting her nail, Manager Sai muttered it in a barely audible voice but he heard it. He wondered what she meant by it and who that agent was. 

Initially, he didn't care about other people's business. But since it also affects him, he wanted to know who that agent was.

Now his life would be at risk once again.

Sadly, he had no say in the matter. They could easily dispatch him if they want. That item they planted in his head was like a shackle that binds him with them. As long as that thing was in him, he couldn't say no to anything they said. He needed to find a way to remove this thing from him to free himself from this group.

For now, he could only follow what they want even if it was against his will.

'What am I supposed to do?'

After he questioned what they wanted him to do this time, they instructed him to go to the other room. It was a VIP room that only a few chosen personnel were allowed to enter.

There he heard something that shouldn't be heard by ordinary folks like him. In short, they told him a highly confidential secret.

In summary, according to Miss Kendra (aka Assistant Kendra), the person who was responsible for explaining the matters to him, in the large vast ocean of South China Sea, a cluster of islands that was supposedly not there a decade ago had suddenly appeared, it wasn't artificial islands but islands that suddenly appeared from out of nowhere.

According to her, the collaborating experts from all over the world mentioned in their report that these islands contained miracles that were way above human understanding.

It was full of resources that would surely be useful for humanity's advancements. Not only in technology but also in other matters such as the supernatural.

The way she said it was like it was already a proven fact. Now that he thought about it, there was a time that it suddenly sparked a lot of discussion, especially on social media.

A cluster of islands said to appear in 2050, however, in the following days, there were talks about it being not real and just a diversion tactic to diversify the populace from the main problem which was the economic collapse of many countries due to inflation.

On top of that, the media administrator took down all videos regarding it. And even banned those social media accounts who persisted on propagandizing it. Their accounts were banned because of inciting fake news.

Because of that, the talk about those islands slowly diminished until it disappeared in people's minds. With its disappearance, another trending topic had become popular in social media. Then it was followed by another. Such is life.

"Isn't it not real?" He asked.

Miss Kendra gave him a knowing look, as though she understood his shallow knowledge.

Of course, before their meeting, she strictly warned him to never reveal to the outside world what he would learn inside the VIP room. There was a sudden change in temperature inside the VIP room after she said.

"Can I choose not to learn about it?" He tried asking. He had a feeling that the secret they were about to reveal seemed like it would bring him into trouble which he could not get out ever again once he learned about it.

Manager Sai and Assistant Kendra gave him stern looks. He scratched the side of his face with a finger and said, "N-Nevermind, please forget what I said," he backpedaled.

He couldn't do anything but agreed with them. Manager Sai told Assistant Kendra to continue explaining.

She nodded and then fiddled her tablet. And after that, something happened. The light projected on the whiteboard showed an image of an island which was surrounded by ominous mist. He could also see some big shadows of flying creatures flying above the island's hemisphere from time to time.

'Wait, what are those? They looked like dragons.'

Their silhouette looked identical to dragons but it was hard to tell because they looked like moving shadows only.

"Is this a new movie? I'm not particularly in the mood to watch movies right now."

He saw Manager Sai sighing. As though she had a headache.

"This is not a movie!" Assistant Kendra tapped on the image on the whiteboard, forcefully. "It's not hearsay or anything, but real islands!" She said while raising a brow.

"For real?!" Just then Dante's voice came out higher.

She nodded and said, "This cluster of islands was known as the Apocalypse Islands."

"Why the apocalypse? It sounded so edgy."

"Shutup and listen," Miss Manager sneered at him.

Dante turned quiet all of a sudden.

"It was because it was inhabited by different kinds of hostile creatures that were very dangerous to humans. There were even confirmed appearances of undead in one of those islands…"

"Wait what? Undead? Like z-z-zombies?" His flesh trembled when she mentioned it.

"Yeah."

Assuming she was telling the truth, he asked, "Uhm, based on your words, I assumed that you've already sent some personnel there."

She shook her head and said, "This organization hadn't sent any personnel yet. But the other organization did."

"What? So there's other organizations aside from yours?" He asked, slightly bewildered.

"Of course! Every country has three to five—"

That surprised him.

"Ahem, let's put aside this topic about the organisation," Manager Sai suddenly interjected and put a stop to their off-topic conversation. She wanted them to fucos on the main topic only, which was about the Apocalypse Islands.