14 Beast Spirit Alliance

The perpetrator was none other than Nash, his pod senior!

As mentioned before, Plato didn't have a particularly negative impression of Nash. During the pod meeting, he hadn't seemed like someone who would involve themselves with the radical thinking of the global syndicate.

It should also be pointed out that the "All-Seer" hadn't indicated that he had joined the syndicate. This fact was of utmost importance to Plato. He realized his own shortcomings. Although "All-Seer" could see into someone's past, it couldn't see into their future. If Nash were to, instead of joining the global syndicate, be embroiled in a plot against Plato, he would not have known.

He had been complacent, thinking that scanning them once and noticing no shady behaviour in their past was enough to guarantee their permanent neutrality. Now that this had happened, it dawned on him that he had to systematically scan everyone he met, whenever he met them; even if they didn't talk, even if they just walked past each other.

His almost-paranoid sense of self preservation had dulled after he got used to living in a relatively safe environment, but it had suddenly sharpened itself again.

Plato felt lucky. Lucky that he had reawakened his senses, and lucky that the incident this time was not related to him. If he had only realized this when he was caught in another's scheme… Plato did not want to imagine the ending.

In the end, it could be said that Plato only benefitted from this incident. He was seriously starting to doubt his danger sense. Nothing had happened to himself or those around him, so why had it activated? But on second thought, he realized that it wasn't something that would only activate when he was in direct danger.

There was one time in his previous world, when he was still roaming the lands. His danger sense had activated while he was en route to the Alliance army headquarters to sign up. His vigilance had been raised, but in the end, he had only been treated as a suspicious individual. After fighting a few rounds with the guards on duty, the Imperator of the army had taken a fancy to him. That was what placed him in the First Century.

After that, his journey had only been fraught with danger towards his person. Perhaps that was why he had forgotten the real purpose of his danger sense. It wasn't to detect life-threatening situations, but danger to himself in general. Sometimes, that danger would lead to a good opportunity.

It would also only activate if the situation was dangerous for his current strength. He didn't have a chance if he were to fight the entire army, so his sense had activated. This time, he was still somewhat physically weak, and if Nash had done something up like bomb Bruce Hall after hearing of the lockdown, there would be no doubt about Plato's death.

Cold sweat dripped down Plato's back as he thought of this. So far, he had been living relatively safely. There were no dangers here, and no beasts that might attack him on the road. Heck, there weren't even any dangerous beasts in the vicinity of small townships, let alone a big city.

Yet in this sort of era, in this age of information, the most threatening existence was other humans. Abuse of power could spark reckless revenge. Posturing and showing off could spark jealousy and envy, which would lead to rash decisions.

Human emotion, when it has too much free reign, causes more disasters than nature ever would. If the humanity of Earth had the same cohesiveness as humanity on his previous world, their advancement would be unquantifiable.

Alas, such was the ignorance of humanity. Unless an imminent threat to the entire planet was delivered to their doorstep, they would not act.

Plato was well aware of that fact.

He shook his head to once again escape from the memory that had been dredged up. Now that the suspect had been apprehended, there was no longer a lockdown on the ANU, and the AFP were gradually withdrawing their presence. As such, Plato was free to go training again.

His training provided Plato with a sense of purpose, since he felt attached to nothing else in this world. If anything, it would at least serve to distract his mind from any bad thoughts.

Daily university life was indeed very boring, but Plato was absorbed with training, so he did not notice as the days flew by. And just like that, the rest of the week passed by.

The Saturday after the major arrest, the police announced that Nash had confessed to being part of the syndicate. At the same time, they released some minor information about the syndicate itself.

It was called the Beast Spirit Alliance. They claimed to have received an oracle from Mother Earth, in the form of an extra-terrestrial beast. The beast was unable to be touched, but could communicate well in human languages.

It claimed that the humans of Earth had been ignorant in the past few decades, desecrating the land on which they lived. It did not call for environmentalists to come forward, or for the people to respect nature; instead, it asked for the people to rise up and depose the governmental institutions of each country.

By doing so, it would venerate Mother Earth, and in return, the people involved would gain its blessing.

This was obviously a bunch of hocus pocus. No-one would have believed it if not for the photo which was provided on the Beast Spirit Alliance's main website. Experts had analysed it, and concluded that it had not been edited in any way. The news report also displayed the same image.

When he saw it, Plato's pupils shrank as he gazed at the screen like a bloodthirsty lion. Even without "All-Seer", he would be able to identify it. He had encountered similar beasts numerous times. They were the troops of the Beast Emperor!

Its very existence made Plato tremble. Despite still being ethereal, it was very clearly present! It might be that the transfer between a high-ranked realm and a low-ranked realm required too much energy, or because Earth couldn't handle their power without blowing up. Either way, it did not change the fact that they had preliminary contact with Earth.

The spirit itself had said that it would take at least another thirty years before it could materialize properly. It asked that everyone who received its message should act immediately, and await his arrival thirty years later. This might seem like a long time, but it truly wasn't. For someone like Plato to get the world's powers to co-operate without any tangible proof of the imminent disaster was one mean feat.

Furthermore, in this age of science, no-one believed superstitious things like oracles or ghosts or spirits. There was simply no good reason for them to listen to Plato. They might as well be more inclined to listen to the Beast Spirit Alliance if that was the case. After all, they had proof that the Beast Spirit existed.

It had to be known that the earliest oracle his previous world had received was also thirty years before the Great Calamity. However, those oracles came from trusted sources, while this time it came from the mouth of the enemy. The higher beings of that world had already detected its signs rather early, but the process of the oracle took too long. By the time it was complete, ten years had been wasted.

Even then, as Plato knew, the humans did not prepare.

Immediately, Plato started calculating the remaining time frame. It would take him this year, plus another four years, to reach the peak of his physical body. After that, he would need to train his vital energy. There was also the need to develop troops that were capable of fighting these beasts; and Plato knew that one would require vital energy for that.

He would have to poach the leaders of ancient families, or the best martial artists in the world to his school of thought before he could train them. And to poach them, the best method was to show them directly what vital energy could do. But that was another five years away.

Plato felt suspicious as to why the beasts would announce their own arrival. Then, he suddenly became enlightened. Surely, they had felt that lower-ranked realms would not pose much of a challenge for them. It was unknown, then, as to why they decided to descend here. However, since they had decided to do so, they would definitely do it.

They were also most probably unaware that Plato had also arrived here, otherwise they wouldn't have been so fearless. At least, that's what Plato hoped. If it was just a ruse employed by the Beast Emperor to catch Plato off guard, then he had fallen for it.

In any case, since the Beast Emperor and his troops had once again appeared before Plato's eyes, he would no longer dilly-dally with his leisurely daily life. He had to get prepared as soon as possible. This time, he was out for revenge.