“They're there, sir.”

  “Good work.”

  Julius leaped from the top of the building. He went down at a rapid speed while looking at the city hall. In his head, he counted from the top floor.

  One immediate drag, and he rerouted his trajectory, crashing through the window. He swarmed through the hallway. His heavy feet smashed the walls, tearing the concrete and interior framework.

  There was a city council meeting in one of the city hall's auditorium rooms that he wasn't aware of. It was scheduled behind his back, and Rebecca gave him the details. With them in hand, he intruded on the meeting with extreme prejudice. He landed on the council floor, stripping the carpet tiles. Other than his empty chair, his eyes were staring at everyone attending.

  Julius' aura subsided, and he turned to the occupied seats. For a private session, there were plenty of guests. As he suspected before breaking in, the police and fire chief were present. He was about to fire them anyway. However, because they were in the council room, their dismissal would be more extreme.

  "Daniel!"

  "Oh, shut it!"

  Some of the guests tried to escape, including the two chiefs. Julius forced the doors shut. With one motion gesture with his fist, the doorknobs tore off. The hole where he came in was blocked by the magical wielders. About fifty were outside the council room. Tess flew through the hole with a few cameras. "I got the ones you need."

  "Thank you, but one is enough," Julius said, grabbing one. He threw it right up to the ceiling and then looked at the magical wielders outside. "Strap them to their seats and pin the chairs to the floor."

  A few went in, breaking more of the walls with just a walk. They strapped all the council members. Once they were finished, Julius summoned a paper and headed to his empty mayor's seat. He started a new session, and every guest had to listen to the entire thing. No bathroom breaks or exits. Nothing.

  Tess, who had recently gained powers in relation to optic technology, used magic to switch the camera on live. "Are we good?"

  Gretel was also present. She took one of the guest chairs and sat down, opening her laptop. Her eyes sparkled purple as she stared at a program, loading five hundred lines of code. "It's all good."

  Julius glanced at the lens and spoke with the help of his notes. Because of Tess' magic and Gretel's programming, the camera became its own broadcasting channel. For now, it was set to only be within domestic regions, so the world outside the United States won't see it.

  He began with a talk about the reactions from the entire country to the few major incidents that occurred in Colemond. Simon was also in the council hall. He handled the graphics and presented them as Julius described varied statistics. The main one was Colemond's population's

  exponential decrease from Terrance's rampage and the rebels' attempt at their first grand presence.

  More than two hundred thousand people had lost their lives, which was more than half of Colemond's total population. The city council didn't know this. In fact, much of the information that they had, as well as the guests were entirely non-essential. Julius was angry at the deal he made with the police and fire chief. So mad that he had a graphic model made. Simon put it up.

  Much of the money was sent to their accounts and family members, rather than boosting the morale and support of their workers. He described everything in condensed form to the camera, hoping the message would get across. All of it took ten minutes before moving to the next topic.

  Julius kept this topic intentionally vague. He offered a public invitation to Colemond if any doubters wanted proof that magic was real and not an edited stunt. If they wanted to stay, then conditions would be made. He didn't reveal them.

  Afterward, he would go on with more of the speech, trying to keep a fast pace while not in a rush. He talked about the events of 2005. The world currently has a tense truce from the Second Cold War, and 2005 was responsible. Julius ended the topic with a statement that the runes and hotspots around the world will be reclaimed by him.

  The conclusion to the live brief was quick and more vague. Tess then shut the cameras off, and Gretel pushed the escape button on her laptop's keyboard.

  Julius crumbled the notes and burned them in his fist. He leaped out of the city council committee table and faced direction right at the council members directly. Solomon arrived in the auditorium hall and strangled the guests.

  "Unfortunately, your time is up. I can't trust you or anyone in this room. If you hadn't summoned a session, I would've given the benefit of the doubt, but here we are." Julius' both hands summoned energy orbs. "Well, you had a good run. This is a goodbye."

  He clapped both hands together, turning energy orbs into a light sword. One heavy vertical slash, unleashing a compressed air beam. It sliced through everything, taking the committee table and the council members. In seconds, they perished into nothing as the beam continued out of the building, fading out in the air over downtown.

  The only ones left were the guests.

  "Now you know the expectations, you are next."

  The guests were allowed to talk. Some gained adrenaline and confidence to speak up.

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  Julius looked at one guest. "Last words now!"

  Silence.

  "You wanted to say something! And now you're not?!" Julius got frustrated to the point where he pulled out a handgun, firing at the guest. A beam of qi fired out of the barrel and struck at the chest. The suit got torn by a burst of blood, and the body flooded a few seats.

  He put his gun away and did not allow last words anymore. With a stare at the police and fire chief, he summoned Valence. "Goodbye."

  One horizontal slash. The wall and entrance were cut in half. Every guest was decapitated.

  "That was a close call! You almost brought an attack to downtown again!" Mother Elaine yelled through Gretel's phone.

  Julius grimaced. "Everyone understood what we were getting into. The job is done here. We are all leaving now!"

  Everybody left the wrecked city council meeting room and the city hall's building.

  Julius, Simon, and Gretel were in the air, hovering a few hundred feet above the roof.

  Kaboom!

  The top floor exploded, and the entire building collapsed. Smoke and debris took over downtown's few blocks. Tens of millions of dollars down the drain.

  Gretel still had her phone on speaker, but in her pocket.

  "You're insane! How are we going to put this on the news?!"

  Julius looked at Gretel's left pocket. "Wow…You had to ruin the moment. Look, the team at home is working on a piece. Don't worry."

  "How will you account for the staff losses inside that building?"

  "Yinhai…I'm not thinking about that right now. And as I said, the team will handle the paper. We need to focus on how to freely lead this city."

  "Fine."

  [System Delay Start Up Ended.]

  [Booting…]

  He saw some holographic projected words. The delay was on his terms, and it was booting up. In about a minute, the system would be online.

  Julius ordered everyone to head back to the residence, while the ones already on the ground in the vicinity remained put. They would handle the damage control.

  The path back home was almost instantaneous. Julius landed on his driveway at the ten-second dot. He headed inside through the front door and sat in the living room.

  [系统授权确认了 → System Authorization Confirmed]

  [Online]

  He got a drink as the system's words flashed. Pulling out the leg extender, Julius sat comfortably on the armchair. Yesterday, he activated the virtual inventory and a map interface with hotspots. It was left to a delayed start-up afterward, as he didn't have time then.

  With a little free time he bought, the system began authenticating.

  [Maldoro's Note Added]

  [Class: A]

  [Overall Number: 12,980]

  [Skill Count: 12]

  [Path: King Julius Level 1]

  [Magic Multipliers: 0]

  [Qi: Rank 2]

  There was no doubt Julius was at a loss for what these numbers meant. Before he chose the Delay Start Up option, he had a brief tutorial on inventory. He went for the virtual inventory and summoned Maldoro's note. A scroll with a wax seal. He untied the knot and unrolled it, revealing a letter.

  "If this happens to reach you, then you're in luck. This is a creation I built in secrecy. Unfortunately, if you received the scroll, I'm no longer in existence. I can only tell you as much, but even I don't know everything this creation provides. However, the basics are what I can give to you below.

  "I'm sure you have already seen the numbers. To get to the point, these are your personal data. Think of it like a journal. It records your history and all your successes. Class statistic is your classification based on skill, qi, magic, and your progress. Class A is the basic entry to the system, unless you have an advanced history. After A, there are many classes to reach. How do you get there? I don't know. You will have to find out.

  "The path has a custom setup, so if somebody else had the same system, it would be different. Magic Multipliers is your boost. Everyone starts off with 0; nothing to worry about. The last thing is Qi and the Overall Number. Qi is organized by rank levels. I remembered it goes to one hundred. And the latter is just a total number classification.

  "Being the first person, I wish you good luck. I don't have any further information left. It is unfortunate that I can't meet you in person for a full training experience. But you'll manage it. Become who you're meant to be.

  "If you're considerate, burn this scroll."

  Julius folded the scroll and tore it into shreds. He clamped both fists together, heating up until smoke emits.

  "What was that?" Empress Cai asked.

  "A personal gift." Julius stood up from the couch. "For all I know, it will help us, but Moon Mother might not be thrilled about it."

  "When is King Valtoris coming?" Daiyu asked.

  "Tomorrow," Hu said, eating a piece of chocolate.

  Julius went to the kitchen. "Mizuhana is also coming as well. I was going to let them over yesterday, but Hu prefers when he arrives." He looked at Empress Cai. For organizing logistics, it put an ease on her, since she was hiding her stress. Her expression was deliberate, if carefully read.

  The news’ reaction to Julius' City Council speech would accumulate for the rest of today. Julius wanted no exposure until tomorrow. To pass the time, he wanted a training session with a fulfilling dinner. Lian, Hilde, and Simon got immediately excited. It has been a few days. Like a chain reaction, everyone in the house wanted a break, so they went out to the backyard. Some went to the front yard.

  Julius wanted more improvement. Especially since the rebel attack during Terrance's rampage, he wasn't really satisfied. The life casualties were another thing. Too many deaths, and if he had more capability, more lives would’ve been saved.

  "You want some gun help?" Qiang Zhao asked.

  He thought for a moment, remembering King Valtoris' remarks during the first five weeks of training. "Yeah, I think I do. I still can't figure out how to do it with a gun."

  "Then I'll be your teacher for the day."

  Julius aimed for permanent improvements over temporary ones. Whether he would get something was up to the session.