“Are you kidding me?” Haru slammed the table and pointed fingers at the woman in the hologram. Her black uniform was too eye-catching. Especially, in recent times.
Enigma.
Even though she was just a hologram, her presence inspired fear and rage.
“You appear out of nowhere, tell me she’s a victim, really now?” Haru looked at Dreamer in displeasure.
‘Well, I shouldn’t be showing this yet. But since you…her father, I am willing to trust you.’ Varian in the hologram thought and tapped on his comm.
“What are you—” Haru stopped abruptly as a file popped up in his comm.
It was a lengthy, extremely technical, and arduous proof of a signal block. It was the proof made by the scientists under Sovereign Irene after testing the ‘Blocker’.
“This!” Haru’s eyes widened and he scrambled for a holographic pen.
After an hour, Haru slumped in his chair and looked vacantly at Enigma. “…I’m sorry, girl.”
“…” Enigma didn’t know how to respond to a guy who wasn’t even one-tenth her age referring to her as a girl.
“We need your help,” Dreamer stressed and pointed to the vials of blue liquid.
“I can give you some readings from the lab’s hologram and Enigma will tell you crucial information about the original potion and…the original crucial ingredient—a girl’s blood,” Dreamer said in a serious tone.
Haru widened his eyes as he felt an ominous premonition.
Enigma, who was silent until then, spoke for the first time. “I have a feeling this gamma potion is a bit off. I have the information, you are the expert. We need to find out what’s wrong with the potion.”
Haru opened his mouth to reject, but recalling the fact that his daughter Maya always liked Shadow Guardians, nodded helplessly.
“Good! Let’s get going!”
A difficult task began.
*** *** ***
Across the solar system, social media was on fire.
Given the size of the federation, there were multiple solar social media platforms, but also many numerous regional platforms.
Unless it was a very special occasion, the trending news on the regional platforms didn’t align with the solar platforms.
An example of a special occasion was the Gamma Expo.
Since it had been a few hours since its end, billions of people watched the Expo.
Most of them couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
Awakeners breaking their bottleneck and advancing an entire level!
Even if it was peak level 5, they reached level 6!
It was a miracle, something out of a fairytale.
But now, they saw in front of their own eyes.
For a while, people kept crying in gratitude and thanking ‘Xanders’.
The status of the prime family went from guardians of the earth to guardians of humanity.
It was only a short period of time, but the effect of gamma potions had profound ripple effects.
The Xander family had always been trying to expand its influence onto other planets.
Venus and Mars already had a significant presence. The next targets were naturally Mercury and Jupiter.
Until now, these two planets were under the heavy influence of the most senior Sovereign—Albert and the second strongest prime family—the Caron family respectively.
But with the success of the gamma potion, the regional powers were swayed. They called up the Xander family one by one and started to discuss win-win co-operations.
Some of them even explicitly stated they were willing and even hoping to be vassals of the Xander family, given that they get a quota of gamma potions.
The Xanders were arguably at their best. Not even Julius’ father, Ceaser Xander commanded such influence.
Now, both publicly and privately, Xanders were emerging as a power beyond the prime families.
The Xanders themselves were elated. While they knew that ‘Dreamer’ caused drama and even kidnapped an important scientist, such trivialities faded in front of their rising status.
Of course, Julius was unhappy. He kept breaking things in his room and even slapped a butler to near death. Now, no one dared to congratulate him.
But they themselves were celebrating.
While they were at it, unknowingly, two names started to frequently appear on social media.
Cail Xander, the deputy head of the Xander family, was a peak level 9 Beast Morpher.
He was also the brother of Ceaser Xander and uncle of Julius.
Unknown to everyone else, he was the one responsible for striking a deal between Julius and Kreo to erase Sia’s existence from memories.
Of course, he was also the same man who opposed Shadow Guardians’ extermination and was called out by Julius for his hypocritical double standards.
The other was Princess Iris Xander. A level 7 Beast Morpher and one of the possible candidates for the next Sovereign. If not for Charles Xander’s sudden rise, she would’ve remained the number one genius of the Xanders.
Now, these two people were experiencing what could only be described as wild fame on steroids—their previous interviews, press meets and social media posts exploded.
One was the established giant, while the other was the brightest rising star—but they had one thing in common.
Their strong language on Shadow Guardians.
Since the start of the event, they demonized the guardians while painting the Xanders as the forces of good.
Cail Xander personally didn’t want this, but as the deputy’s head, he did it for the family.
Princess Iris Xander did it for influence.
Regardless of their reasons, their previous posts under the intervention of an invisible hand were suddenly made famous.
“Cail Xander is a true hero of humanity!”
“Princess Iris, I’m your biggest fan!”
“I want to be like you when I grow up!”
“+1”
“+2”
“Princess Iris is the future Sovereign!”
“Shadow Guardians are exterminated. Their relatives should be tortured in the cruelest way so that no one even dares to think of betraying humanity!”
“Agreed!”
“Do it!”
“Oh, a guy already proposed it in the gamma expo. I think you saw this video already, it’s everywhere.”
Slowly, in every post regarding Cail, Iris also started having posts of Varian brutally beating up the Shadow Guardian’s relative.
The public sentiment started brewing.
In a matter of hours, the reputation of Cail Xander and Iris Xander reached new heights, only under the unreachable Sovereign Julius.
The Xander family also made use of the momentum and announced that Cail Xander was the one who overlooked and spearheaded the extermination of Shadow Guardians.
They originally wanted Julius with the role, but due to his bad mood, no one dared to approach him.
Thus, as his position elevated further, Call Xander gave a heart-to-heart interview describing his views on Shadow Guardians.
“I will personally oversee the torture of the Shadow guardians’ relatives. They’re the vilest scum of humanity.”
‘I tried to stop Julius, but they’re dead now. I don’t like what I’m saying, but it’s for the family my brother built after all.’ Cail Xander comforted himself, hoping his conscience wouldn’t find his actions despicable.
‘Yay! I finally got some recognition! It’s not just Charles in the family, alright? Before his sudden rise, I was the biggest genius. Notice me!’ Princess Iris Xander was finally happy with the attention she was finally getting.
As the two got more and more famous along with the post of Varian beating up the guardians’ relative, a narrative was slowly consolidated.
Xanders became the heroes, with Cail and Iris leading them, while guardians became the villains, with Enigma at the helm.
As their reputation reached a peak, Varian’s comm rang.
{We found the undiscovered effects of Gamma potion. They are…}
Reading the message, he smiled.
His lips arched into a bloodthirsty smile as he let out a roaring laugh.
“It’s finally time!”