Transcendent Gene
Chapter 87: Guided Training [3]

Chapter 87: Guided Training [3]

"I don’t hate you."

"O...kay?"

It was the same day, just a few hours later. After letting his sentence trail off, Raymond didn’t say much more.

Just...

"Your performance didn’t just impress me. Nobody’s going to show it outwardly because everyone has too much pride...except maybe Jax and Amaya, but that’s beside the point. The point is: you did a good thing. That one fight did more for your case than anything else you could have possibly done on your own."

After that, he shooed Gio away, saying that he would get what he wanted soon enough.

And then, this happened.

Ulver walked up to him and stared at him for a second with those judgemental eyes.

"Come with me."

It was a suspicious invitation from a strange man, but Gio accepted it. This was a rare case where it would be a good idea for anyone to do so.

He followed Ulver out of the zephyr, which had landed only a couple minutes ago. When they were in the desert, those were the words that followed.

"I don’t hate you."

Gio really didn’t know how to respond.

"O...kay?"

’It’s a good thing, I guess?"

Ulver side-eyed him as if he didn’t want to keep talking, but continued as if he had no choice.

"A lot of people think I hate them. I don’t hate a lot of people. I dislike people in general. You just happen to be people."

"O...kay?"

Was there another way to respond?

Ulver sighed again.

"You’re just like the rest. I don’t hate you more than them. You also saved Garrison. I’ll help you train."

His vocal tone was like that of a robot. It was like he was forcing every word out of his mouth. It took him actual effort to entertain conversation with another person.

’I know he said he would train me, but I feel like that was a lie?’

Gio’s eyes did sparkle a little when he heard it. As Raymond said, he would get what he wanted soon enough. He just didn’t think it would be coming from Ulver.

"Come this way."

Ulver started walking again without waiting for Gio to finish processing everything. Gio had no choice but to rush to follow him, and before he could question it again, Ulver opened his hand and summoned a purple light.

"This is my ability."

He looked at it and then pushed it towards Gio.

"I’m going to start hitting you with it."

And that was all the time he had to prepare.

In the next instant, as Ulver said, he was being pelted by the mental control ability of that man.

But it was training.

In fact, it was the start of a training that would end far later than Gio ever expected.

After all, Ulver only went first because he was the one who wanted to do it the least.

***

The team had come to a consensus.

They would stop opposing Gio as long as he could show that he was ready to face his ambitions.

It wasn’t because they were awed by his talent or strength. They weren’t recruiters, so they didn’t care much about that part. At most, it gave them a slightly favorable opinion of him.

What changed their mind was his willingness to fight.

He fought to protect Garrison, a member of the Service Crew, and put his life on the line for that purpose.

Garrison had already been deployed again, so he wasn’t able to give his thanks personally, but the team decided to do it in his stead.

If Gio was willing to go to those lengths to protect a team member, their doubts about his personality could be assuaged.

As for the rest, they could judge him personally while getting to know him through training.

Raymond hardly had to ask them to help. He just mentioned what Gio said, and they formed a plan.

Each of them would train him for a month. By the time he finished training with all of them, they would be nearing the end of his internship period. It wouldn’t be wrong to reward him with some field missions at that point.

Gio’s duties with the secondary teams stopped that day.

He tried to ask about what happened during the last mission several times, but everyone evaded his questions.

He could only be certain of one thing.

They were hunting djinns.

"I don’t believe they’re working alone."

The zephyr stayed docked for much longer than Gio expected. While he was still outside training with Ulver, Raymond and Natalia conversed in the main area.

"You had the same thought?" Raymond asked.

Natalia nodded.

"Bloodrend is notorious for its bad leadership. They’re good at mass destruction, but they sacrifice a lot of people in the process. That’s why they always have to recruit large forces before they act."

Raymond hummed in acknowledgement and waited for her to continue.

"The executives of Bloodrend don’t have the capabilities to design the technologies they used, and even if they did, they aren’t willing to invest in research. There’s another force that specializes in that."

It was exactly what Raymond was thinking.

"The Apocalypse Church, huh..."

They were the only ones willing to go to such lengths to develop technologies that worked against humanity.

"The Apocalypse Church has always been the one I understand least," Raymond continued with a sigh.

"Ordinary djinn organizations operate on greed and vice. Asuras operate on subservience to a stronger race. The Apocalypse Church...?"

They were fanatics.

They believed that the birth of Sequences and Original Genes was a sin of humanity. They believed such things were a regression that turned the race back into beasts.

In their minds, monsters were subjects of Heaven who came down to punish them.

But that didn’t mean they supported monsters.

"Their twisted belief is that if Heaven can take humanity, it will never be cleansed."

They had the desire to leave the world populated by only humans without any Sequences, including Original Genes.

It was unreasonable. It just didn’t make sense when only 0.0000002% of the population was born completely ordinary.

’Their penultimate goal is to find a way to wipe Original Genes from humans and make it so humanity is once again born powerless. If they are able to achieve that goal, the monsters will leave as Heaven no longer has a reason to punish them.’

Raymond thought for a long moment before speaking again. He looked through all of the documents and data Natalia provided him, showing him the operation center’s bodycam analysis of the last mission.

"Do you think we should pull back?"

He looked at Natalia, the Vice Captain of his squad, for her opinion.

"No."

And she immediately shook his head.

"We don’t know if that cloud was an experimental technology or not. If it is being developed here, we need to stop it here."

There were two kinds of ground teams in this world.

The first acted on benefits and orders. They would pull back here, report to headquarters, and wait for confirmation before doing anything.

And then there were teams like the Blue Steel Squadron.

They acted not only on orders, but also on a genuine desire to fight. Whether it was to protect humanity or slaughter all enemies of humanity, their overarching mission was salvation.

Raymond had the same thought. He also didn’t think it was a good idea to leave things to fester in the Wasteland just to guarantee their safety.

However, he was a leader. He could not make that decision alone.

"Huu..."

He took a deep breath.

"Call everyone back. We have more to discuss."

To someone who fought on the frontlines, the beliefs of the Apocalypse Church were plain stupidity, but that was another matter altogether.

Whether they were in their right minds or not, they were dangerous.

Much more dangerous than the Bloodrend who they originally set out to defeat.