CHAPTER 26: CHAPTER 25: F.O.R.C.E.

Join the organization.

It had been Zaen’s goal from the moment Hina told him about it. However, he didn’t think the opportunity would arise so soon.

As for Zoey, she mistook Zaen’s silence for reluctance. Perhaps the organization didn’t hold much value in his eyes.

Wait, that might be insensitive to say in his case.

Jokes apart, Zoey couldn’t really blame Zaen for being hesitant. Unlike most survivors, he didn’t look scared of anomalies. If he was, he wouldn’t go out of his way to hunt them in the real world.

From her angle, his reluctance seemed to stem from his encounter with the organization. Not only did they fail to save him in time, but they even held him hostage in the mental institute, though the latter part was unavoidable given the circumstances.

Still, the organization had failed him multiple times, and now he was being asked to join them.

If that didn’t work, then there was always another method.

Coercion.

"If you join us, we might be able to do something about your eyes," Zoey said.

Zaen immediately turned towards her.

Seems I was right on the mark.

Naturally, Zoey felt proud of her last moment thinking.

"Is that even possible?"

Zaen regretted as soon as he said those words, because he realized how stupid he sounded. After all, they lived in a world where monsters existed along with humans in a secret realm.

Not to mention the fortune wheel, the stick, and everything else he had experienced. If all that was real, then regaining his eyes back wasn’t impossible either.

"Well... I have seen people regrowing missing limbs, so an eye shouldn’t be too difficult to make, I guess."

I take it back. I’m not the only fool here.

He couldn’t help but sigh in defeat. As a recruiter, Zoey shouldn’t have promised benefits she wasn’t even sure about. Making such promises only hurt the organization’s credibility and trust.

But that Zaen wasn’t concerned about her promises. He had his own reasons for joining the organization.

First, they knew a lot about these anomalies, and working with them would be much better than working alone. They could also prepare him for the upcoming games.

Second, if he joined them, he’d get more opportunities to kill anomalies and gain spin points, which meant he could get his eyes faster. After all, the tasks offered by the system were too limited to his taste.

Sure, he might have to reveal the secret about his ’talents’, a.k.a., the fortune wheel and other things, but it was a small price to pay considering how much he had to gain from them.

"...I guess there’s no harm in it."

"Great! Then please take this capsule," Zoey said, taking a blue capsule out of her case.

Zaen recognized the thing. It was the same EXP capsule he had in his inventory.

So it is their creation, but why is she offering it to me now?

After getting his hands on the capsule for the first time, Zaen immediately thought it was a precious resource. But seeing Zoey hand him one just because he agreed to her proposal seemed... a bit too ordinary.

Zoey noticed him fiddling around with the capsule and once again misunderstood it for his lack of trust in the organization.

"Don’t worry, it’s not a drug or any weird medicine," she said, trying to quell any doubts he might have had. "Given the nature of our work, usual means of communication regarding classified information doesn’t cut it."

She continued, "So our in-house scientists put their brains to making these capsules. As long as you take it, all the information held within it would directly interact with your mind without any worries of leaking information to the outside world."

The description she gave him fit the one the system provided him. So, he nodded and swallowed the capsule. A moment later, his head began pounding as veins bulged on his forehead.

[You have swallowed an anomaly.]

[Sanity -1]

[Previously unknown information is being fed into the player’s mind.]

[Fortitude has increased!]

Notifications flashed before Zaen, but he couldn’t see any of it. The capsule he ate had taken over his mind and displayed what could be said as a mental movie.

It was the truth about the organization.

The truth about the F.O.R.C.E.

***

Fortify. Organize. Restrain. Control. Execute.

Those were the five protocols of the organization, which it was aptly named after. These protocols were the ones protecting the planet from deep within the shadows.

Established in the year 1738, the organization had one protocol. Which was to execute all oddities that are now referred to as anomalies.

Back then, there was no mist, not much interference from the anomalies in the real world. In fact, slaying anomalies helped humans a lot. They even led to strange inventions, biological and technological advances.

They gave humans ’abilities’ to fight back, and to improve the execution rates. But as the understanding grew, so did the realization of the unconquerable enemy they were facing.

The anomalies had always existed in a separate plane of existence. It was just that ordinary people could not perceive or understand them, and therefore could not see such existences.

That was until the first portal linking the two realms opened. For the first time, humans could venture into the unknown realm. However, disaster struck in 1825.

The entire first organization disappeared without leaving a speck of dust behind. All the groundbreaking knowledge and methods of execution were lost with them.

Despite the best efforts to rebuild the organization, things were never the same. The humans left behind weren’t strong enough to take on the anomalies like before.

In time, the organization realized that the simple execution protocol couldn’t be fulfilled under all circumstances. Some anomalies just couldn’t die, while others were too strong to be killed.

New protocols were established then.

Fortify, which meant to prepare and develop facilities to enable other protocols to take effect.

Organize. The protocol meant to ensure that another disappearing act of 1825 didn’t set humanity back into a clueless period of survival.

Restrain. It was a straightforward protocol. To restrain any anomaly, either deemed useful to humans or impossible to execute.

Control protocol surrounded the scientists whose job was to control and research more about captured anomalies and use them to help humans fight back.

As for Execute, it was the core and primordial protocol of the organization. Kill all anomalies on sight.

Thanks to these protocols, things were normalizing when another phenomenon similar to the disaster of 1825 occurred. Only, instead of a targeted facility, humans began disappearing into the mist.

That’s how the Hunter Games appeared for the first time in the history of F.O.R.C.E.’s existence.