CHAPTER 304: CHAPTER 304

Aaron couldn’t make a decision. So, he pushed to think about that for later. It was almost noon, and it would be time for his shift. He quickly grabbed lunch and ate it before going to punch in for his shift, indicating that he was doing his job on time. That was very important, especially in jobs like this.

From noon to evening, he patrolled along the Goblin Dungeon. With the cults taken care of last night, even the smaller criminal elements were nowhere present in the city. They all stopped their activities for now.

No one in the area was causing any stir for the day. He completed his duty and returned home, but there were a few things that were troubling him. It has to do with the things that he heard during his patrol duty.

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After what happened the previous night, everyone is talking about what happened last night, but a few conversations drew his attention, the most.

"Did you see the news? I can’t believe what happened".

"Yeah, I would have thought that was a lie, but I have a cousin who works in the city security. He said that it was true. There were many raids last night. A lot of cultists were either killed or caught".

"How did Rock City survive as the only one that came out unscathed?"

"Don’t tell others, but I heard that someone on patrol accidentally caught some mid-level cultists, who were the operational leaders of the city cult division. Using them, the alliance got the news about the attacks. If not for the accidental capture, there would have been even more deaths in other cities, and our own city would have been painted in red", one among them whispered.

"That can’t be right. We are not that lucky, right?" another person questioned about the absurdity of the situation.

"I believe it to be true. I heard from a friend, who heard from a trusted source. So, I can say 100%, no 70% guarantee that what I said is true", the one who whispered about how the city thwarted the attack due to a lucky chance, stated.

Hearing those words, others who were around the man praised the patrol member who made the arrest and indirectly caused the failure of the Cult’s mission.

Aaron, who heard these conversations, should be happy or at least what others would think he would, as they were praising him, but Aaron was not happy at all.

Aaron frowned when he heard the conversations. Though they are praising him indirectly, without knowing who he was, he couldn’t accept that. Information such as this should have been classified as secret.

If the cults hear about this, and if one day they unveil who destroyed their plans, then the people Aaron cares for would be in danger.

For now, he has yet to hear his name mentioned. They all mentioned that some patrol members had caught some cultists, which saved the city indirectly—his name had not come up in those conversations.

For now, his name has not been leaked out and was hidden, but how long would that stay like that if the cults seriously tried to find out the reason behind their failure?

Though the cults would look around to see why they failed, they probably would have put most stakes on Rock City, as no civilian deaths were reported and with every attack being thwarted before it happened, but the cults would approach it as an Alliance Setup to catch more of them.

Now, with these rumours, they would certainly start with Rock City first and put every effort into finding who caused their failure. Whether that was a direct effect or not, it wouldn’t matter to them.

The cult has to make a statement. Mess with them and there is a price to pay.

As almost every city is now under high alert, they may not make a move for the days to come, but that would be for a few months, nothing more. Once the cooling-off period ends, they would be on the lookout for the "patrol member".

"Each sector was assigned a few patrol members. If the cults knew where those five were, it wouldn’t be long before they could find out about me. I want to smack the idiot who gossiped about me around, but that would be just a waste of time and resources".

"Even if I find out, that wouldn’t make the damage done go away. The rumours would spread and one way or another, the cults would hear about this, if they haven’t already", Aaron muttered as he thought about how to deal with this upcoming crisis.

Even though the city authorities have claimed to clean up the cultists for good from most cities, that is not 100% true. The alliance only cleared out the members that were known through the five Aaron caught or from the information that the subsequent members gave.

There was no guarantee that those were the only ones present in the city.

The cultists are, after all, traitors to the human society, and when caught, there was no guarantee that they would give up the other cultists for a reduced sentence.

So, no one would have any idea about the others in the area, unless it was necessary.

Most the teams that were supposed to cause chaos in the city had no idea about the leading five, who Aaron caught, was even in the city. When they saw the five after receiving the announcement about the mission, they were satisfied with their wait and location.

Many knew that these five were on their way to reach high-level positions in a few years at most. So, if they were allocated to them, it means that the mission was critical. They all believed that they would get rich and powerful after the mission, but no one thought that they would be caught before they could start it.

Though Aaron might not have any idea about this matter, he might think that it’s impossible that every cult member, even in the city, was known to others. There should be a lot who were not at all known to each other.

Even within the alliance, not every person was known to the others, especially the low-level ones. It would be absurd to know every person. Unless they work together on something, it would be almost impossible to know everyone.

This was a simple logic that most wouldn’t think about or ignore on purpose.

If the people think that there are even more cultists than the ones they cleared, they would always live in fear, always thinking about whether every cultist was dead or not, even if all the cultists are removed. So, most people subconsciously ignore that, but Aaron couldn’t.

He has to think in ways that others don’t, as the lives of his parents may depend on that.

He had to assume that not every cultist was caught and had to make sure that even if they resurface, they can’t harm his parents. There was only one way to do that, and that was to increase their power as quickly as possible.

There was only one trouble. They belong to the crafting profession, and that too, cooks.

If they were Blacksmiths or professions like that, they could have produced the goods continuously and improved their power, but food expires quickly, even if it is placed in space storage.

So, he has to find a different path to help them grow, such as resources that can directly increase their attributes or skills.

He has only one crystal, and to make it powerful, he needs a steady supply of those resources. There are also those skill booster stones, which can give SPs or directly increase the rank of a skill.

"As long as I can find a source, I am golden, but how to find one?" Aaron wondered to himself.