CHAPTER 78: ANOTHER USE OF CORRUPTION

Ever since he had talked about mutation with Akash, Leon had been thinking about the same thing and analyzing every single day of his Academy life.

His life had been a mess, and his mental health wasn’t any better, so he overlooked the matter of his death. Only when he remembered that he was a mutant did he connect the dots and realize how big of a conspiracy was being played in the Academy.

After analyzing everything and running countless simulations on the possible situations, he came up with a guess that was almost sure to be correct.

Leon might have been a little remarkable in the research department, but there were many more students who were far superior to him, so it didn’t make sense if someone was specifically targeting him.

The only thing that could perhaps harm him was his mother’s background, but their presence had always been concealed by Jade. And if it was really that easy to locate her, they would have already been discovered long ago.

That was when Leon realized that he had missed something important.

Jade Cross and Silver.

If they were family, then why didn’t Jade ever come to introduce herself to them? He knew she wasn’t the type to ignore her family, especially not someone like Silver.

The only answer left was that she couldn’t do it. Silver’s childhood was a mystery even to Leon — how did someone of that family end up on the streets in the first place?

It was likely that there were still enemies of Jade Cross and that family out there, and she didn’t meet Silver because she didn’t want to put her in danger again.

She wanted to eliminate all the enemies first before meeting Silver. This was why Jade and Silver got closer later in the game, which meant Jade might have dealt with all her enemies by then.

But if someone could escape Jade’s clutches for so long, it showed how capable and powerful they were, considering there was practically no one in the whole Western Continent who could oppose her.

Leon guessed that the enemy had somehow found out about Silver and was targeting her. But it wasn’t easy under the protection of Jade, and that protection would only be lost when Silver entered the Academy.

Even though Silver would still have people protecting her in the Academy, it would give them far more chances to act against her.

The problem was still—how would they do that?

Even if the Starlink Academy wasn’t on Jade Cross’s level, it was still one of the best Academies in the Western Continent, so acting against their student wasn’t an easy task.

Especially with someone like Amber there.

Only an idiot would choose direct confrontation.

Leon could already see that the enemy was very meticulous and didn’t want to get caught. He knew they wanted everything to look natural, and if Leon hadn’t been infected by the Virus, no one would even know about it.

Amber didn’t ask why he thought it was Silver they were targeting since her focus was still on wondering how they did it. "But they can’t kill her directly, so were they planning to overdose her with Corruption and kill her that way?"

She then shook her head and muttered, "No, that’s something the Academy can track easily and help her with. They wouldn’t be naive enough to do that."

Leon sighed and said, "Amber, there’s another way to kill someone and make it look natural. Where do you think you can find Corruption the most?"

"Obviously, Primordial Expanse..."

Her voice trailed off as realization dawned on her. Her eyes couldn’t help but widen as she finally recognized what the enemies were scheming.

"A lot of Corruption leads to transforming into an Abyssal Creature, but there is another application of Corruption that many don’t know," Leon said slowly. "Why do you think families with Awakened in their elder generations tend to have higher chances of being chosen by the Primordial Expanse?"

"So you even know about it, huh." Amber chuckled softly, though her face was pale. "Just how much do you even know about this world?"

"A little bit of everything," Leon said. "Silver was exposed to very minuscule amounts of corrupted miasma for a long time, perhaps a whole year. It was so faint that nobody noticed, not even Silver herself. But Primordial Expanse is different. It sensed that Silver was constantly in exposure to corrupted miasma and recognized her as one of its inhabitants."

A wry smile formed on his lips as he added, "And how could the Corrupted Land let someone like her live anywhere else other than the Primordial Expanse itself."

Amber smashed the barrier on her right in frustration and muttered, "Whoever the bastard is behind this, they’re too scheming. Just how much did they have to plan to do this?"

Indeed, this scheme was so carefully planned and so subtle that nobody would notice it. Even the consequences were something that appeared natural.

After all, Silver belonged to one of the strongest Houses in the current world, and every single one of them was connected with the Primordial Expanse in one way or another.

It was quite natural that she could be chosen by the Primordial Expanse.

"A whole year... it means they planted the traitors even before that. Such meticulous planning." Leon was very calm on the surface, but it was mostly because he didn’t want to let out his anger.

He wanted to save it for the day he found that bastard and kill them in the worst way imaginable for what they did to Silver. He had thought it was just fate playing with him, or that it was him who granted Silver that fate, but only now did he realize that someone was behind all of this.

His heart burned with immense rage that he kept locked in. That fire would fuel his growth, and it would be used when he found the perpetrators.

All of a sudden, he felt a soft hand on his head, and his emotions calmed slightly. He turned to face Amber and saw a cold smile on her face.

"I know what you’re thinking, but I’ll suggest throwing away that anger." Amber spoke calmly, even though she herself was boiling with rage. "You need to do that."

"I can’t do that," Leon muttered, his fists clenched tightly to control the trembling of his body. "You know what Silver means to me, Amber. So you should also know what I’m feeling right now. I just can’t..."

"It’s because you’re no different than Silver currently," Amber said. "People can be very petty, and I know that very well ’cause I’m one of them. They might have dealt a huge blow to Silver, but there’s still a high chance that she can come back even stronger."

Leon’s body shook as he knew where Amber was going with her words.

"They won’t stop just here. You’ve seen how thorough they are with their plans," Amber said coldly. "Their next target is definitely you. The Dungeon Incident was a safe-case plan to kill Silver if the call didn’t arrive. But if it did, then the Dungeon Incident would serve to kill you instead."

Her grip on his head tightened for a moment before she let it loose and began to shuffle his hair. "Even if one survived the Primordial Expanse’s call, by the time they managed to come back, their mental health would be in shambles. If they find something that affects their mental health right after coming back, there’s a very high chance they will lose control."

She turned towards him and said with certainty, "And they will use you to weaken her, even if she survives there. Their next target is you and Evelyn."