Unlimited Power 02 - The Ranger's Domain

Ryan arrived on the base at midnight, and even though his senses weren't as good as Femradiel's, he noticed that something was off. The number of guards around had decreased, and when he looked in the distance, Ryan confirmed that the parties guarding the dungeons decreased from six members to two.

"It has finally happened, huh…" Ryan said and then sighed.

After using Search, Ryan found Mark in the meeting room, and despite the fact that it was in the middle of the night, many others were with him there. While Ryan was heading to the room in question, he noticed that there weren't any signs of a fight inside the base. The number of people in there decreased considerably, but those who left did so without starting a fight… that was good. Otherwise, Ryan would have some people to hunt down. He couldn't leave such troublemakers alone, after all.

Usually, when Ryan enters that room, he was received by some faces full of surprise, but to some extent, relief. However, this time, he was welcomed by several sighs. In fact, some people looked at him with pretty annoying expressions. Some of them were Anna, Natalia, and even John seemed pretty displeased.

"It looks like some people here have been sucking lemons…" Ryan said. "Why the sour faces?"

"It is amazing that you can joke around at times like these," Natalia said.

"… Where have you been, Ryan?" John asked.

"Where should I start? I just spent the entire morning taking a sunbath in Hawaii," Ryan replied.

"Stop with this, Ryan," John glared at him. "Not a single person here is in the mood for that kind of nonsense."

"Maybe I will consider that once you stop looking at me as if I am the cause of your problems," Ryan said and then noticed that Alissa wasn't in the room, even though everyone he knew was there, with the sole exception of Zoe and Arthur.

Much to Ryan's surprise, Daniel, who stayed quiet for a while and maintained a neutral expression on his face, seemed a bit annoyed by Ryan's words. It was only natural since he was more or less arguing with his father… in any case, it looked like the idiot finally grew some balls and brains since he didn't change his expression even when Ryan frowned while looking at him.

"Can you sit, Ryan?" Mark asked. "I believe this conversation will take a while since we didn't have time to talk in the last few days. I also believe that you have a lot of intel to sell."

"I guess so…" Ryan said and then sat on a random chair. "I was so busy that I didn't notice that."

"I can't believe some people have the nerve to think about their own gains in times like these…" Anna said.

"I can't believe that despite being a former cop, you failed at keeping the survivors of this place on the line," Ryan said. "I guess you are getting out of shape."

"Why, you little…" Anna got up and hit the steel table, making it crack.

"Anna, if you can't hold back your anger, perhaps you should live," Carter said. "This isn't a place where we should let our feelings get in the way."

It looked like many things really changed… since even the always silent Carter was scolding Anna. Maybe she also noticed that was unexpected, so Anna decided to sit back and stay quiet.

"Your report," Mark said.

Even Mark wasn't being that polite anymore, but Ryan decided to let it slide in the end. Otherwise, that conversation wouldn't go anywhere any time soon. It took a while, but Ryan eventually gave a pretty decent summary about the things he saw and learned after arriving on the next continent. While he stayed quiet about certain things like his domain stone and Teleport, he didn't hide the things he learned about Yahiko and Victor. Yahiko didn't seem like a threat given his absurd power, and Victor didn't seem interested in expanding his theory. He was only interested in recovering the Russian territory from the hands of the monsters. However, not even that, and the fact that three dungeon masters tried to kill the fifth strongest man in the world surprised anyone. It looked like they were too tired to show any surprise, or maybe they couldn't care less since their hands were already full as it is.

"I guess it is your turn now," Ryan said.

"… As you already noticed, many people that once lived here left," Mark said after a long sigh. "Some of them grew tired of following simple rules, and others just left because they felt powerful enough to survive on their own. However, some of them decided to join the enemies' side."

"What about it?" Ryan asked. "Hunting them down is that difficult?"

Finally, Mark's expression broke, and seemed pretty amazed at Ryan's calm words. He wasn't the only one who showed a lot of surprises. Mia, Tristan, and Luke seemed pretty shocked by Ryan's words. He finally understood why… they probably never had to kill a single human being since the monsters appeared. While Ryan could understand those three conflict feelings, Mark's reaction seemed weird from Ryan's perspective.

"What? You tried to capture Alissa and me, don't tell me that you never thought about killing us," Ryan said.

"… I am a soldier… a retired soldier, but I was trained to defend my people, not to kill them," Mark said.

"Well, they decided not to be your people anymore," Ryan frowned. "So, I can't see why you are conflicted about fighting them. While we don't have many survivors on our side, those who joined the enemies' camp don't care about this. They are betting the future of the human race on their lives. Unless you want to trust such a thing on the shoulder of traitors, you should make up your mind about fighting those that were once your comrades. While that seems troublesome, I will stay for a while, so perhaps I should solve that problem for you. It looks like I was wrong about you guys, after all."