Parallel Memory

The Authority closed the case because they didn't want to spend much time finding the murderer of their traitor.

The most important work after finding out that Ulv Sylvester was a traitor was trying to figure out how much information was leaked and if any vital plan was given to him. They needed to find them and change the plan.

They had to reduce the damage done by Ulv as little as possible.

As for the murder, with their assumption that it was either Devil or Devil Contractor, they had to increase the security of the SpiritMeadow. If the Devil killed without discrimination or just came to cause trouble there, there will be many more victims for the Devil.

As soon as that happens, they will catch him and they will naturally solve the problem. But if the murderer does not show up then they know that they can't do anything. As for the victims, The Authority had to look at the bigger picture.

Anyway, it was going to be a busy day for them.

******

Zero was lying on the bed playing with his phone.

He also looked into TwitFlick which had the post on the tournament. TwitFlick posts were mostly fights from the tournament.

Zero's fight was a hot video with one of the videos reaching 10 million views and 20k comments.

The other fight was between Hiro, Misha, Sylvia, Lisa, Zion, and Ren. The comment section was especially active with many complimenting the beauty of the fighters, while others were extremely surprised to find that first-year students had such power.

'When we were at Ace Academy, the most that a first-year student could accomplish was Rank-D. Now, they even have two Rank-C students. Looks like the younger generation will surpass the old. Anyway, congratulations Ace Academy!'

'I didn't believe it when the news said that the Golden Generation was here! Now, I see what they mean. I hope they can grow safely and protect us.'

'Weak! I would defeat everyone in a second.'

'Stop Bragging!'

'Stop Bragging! +2' …

'Stop Bragging! +212'

Many complimented the Ace Academy but there were also many who were not happy with that.

Zero watched the news and changed channels and tried to see whether there was any news about Ulv's murder but there was none. As he considered, he knew that The Authority would not take any action that would increase the possibility of information about the spy leaking.

Zero waited for the whole day and nothing happened. No one was conducting any investigation and the hospital and SpiritMeadow were as peaceful as before.

This was the same for the next day and after that. The Authority acted as if their people had not been killed.

Zero expected such an outcome and was satisfied with that. And today, even his parents woke up which was good news for him.

They were confused about where they were at first but Professor Mia explained the situation to them. As to why Professor Mia was there, she said it was to monitor him or something.

Well, Zero was okay with having someone do the talking. After some time, Zero's parents understood the general situation and were surprised that they were kidnapped.

Professor Mia asked what they remembered.

Zero's father started telling the story. According to him, they were asked to come and meet the Tournament Management member because they had suspected that Zero was using some illegal artifact to win.

They were called for that reason and as they had the badge to show their identity, Zero's parents followed. But they didn't expect that the moment they were in an isolated place, they would use some kind of potion to make them fall asleep.

Zero's parents were ashamed. They let down their guard seeing that the two people were from The Authority. They should have been on their toes.

Professor Mia left after saying that the family should talk to each other and outsiders should leave.

They talked to each other. Zero's parents apologized saying that they made him worry and also that they caused trouble for him.

However, Zero felt more guilty when his parents apologized. He knows that all this happened because of him. If he had not participated in the tournament and had kept his power hidden then his parents would not be in danger.

He didn't speak for a long time and his parents found him odd. They knew something was making their son depressed, so they tried to change the topic.

"What happened to your fight?"

Zero started describing how he beat all of the participants. Of course, he didn't say that he was threatened and injured. He said that he easily beat them but that the referee was corrupt and disqualified.

His parents were naturally angry but Zero said that he didn't care about that. His parents looked at their son and found that he was not really sad and forgot about it. They also didn't care about fame and all that.

They just want their son to be able to do everything he wants. As long as their son was happy, they were also happy.

They talked about all kinds of things and spent time together as a family.

Although Zero smiled and didn't let his parents worry about him, inside he was being eaten by guilt. After a long time, Zero returned to his bed.

He lay on the bed and was contemplating what he should do from now on. He still lacked the means to protect his parents and it seemed that he was causing trouble for his parents.

He needed something, something extremely strong to protect his parents even when Rank-SS tried to assassinate them. The best method was to make his parents stronger.

However, he was already providing potions and other resources. It would definitely help them but it would take time before they reached Rank-S and even after that there was no guarantee that other strong people would not go after them.

That means that as long as Zero's enemies exist, their parents would always be the target. Then there was only one way for Zero to protect his parents and that was he had to stop trying to stand out. He should step out from the Novel story and should involve as little as possible with the MC path.

He assumed that Tournament of Academies was one of the arcs where MC gets involved. That's why there were lots of enemies in this tournament which prompted his parents to be involved.

Whatever things MC got involved in were connected to the interests of lots of powerful organizations. For him to avoid making more enemies, he had to stop becoming involved in future conflicts.

As for getting powerful, it was a must. Whether it be the future war or the many problems that will involve everyone, which he can't avoid even if he wants to. For those scenarios, he needs absolute strength.

He also needs to increase his influence and get as many allies as possible. He also had to increase the strength of his parents' guild and Night Shade.

He also had to upgrade his information agency, so that if anyone was scheming against him or his parents, he would get the information beforehand.

He didn't need information from everyone, as long as he had some kind of way to get the information from the major organization or from those who could threaten him, he would be a lot safer.

"There is so much to do. But to protect everyone I care about, I need to do it!"