New Game+

Hours before Harker went to meet with Lynd and with Lara, an important call was being made. Ever since the EMP attack, Pangea had activated several military protocols that would only be approved by the WGP if Pangea encountered a specific level of threat. With this, various satellite links were now made that allowed it to spy on other nations.

But the activation of these satellites was not to have the capacity to do world-wide scanning. This was done to receive a certain call from China.

"Ni Hao Ma?" Seeker asked.

"It\'s racist when you say it." Harker shook his head.

"There are a lot of changes regarding my plan. This Overcomer, Nogard… He\'s far more different than who we thought he would be. It would seem that the Unlocking itself is Aragarian technology. Rather, a technology from one of those who calls themselves a Primordial. What we have is from the Lost Primordial."

"An Aragarian made the Unlocking? Why would he give it to us?"

"Maybe revenge? Who knows. But this seems to be a technology that surpasses the Presiders."

"Did he fled here by accident? Or did the Aragarians already know about Earth for a long time?"

"No use guessing. This, however, gives us quite a good advantage. From what we gathered, the Lost Primordial did a lot to help us in this battle. He planted a lot of seeds for us to harvest. The problem was, he could only do so much and he knew that the Aragarians would soon find this planet and try to take over it through intrigue, manipulation."

"Oh? What are these seeds?"

"His assistance may not be appreciated. As it stands, my future self never managed to connect the dots because the aid he left behind were so scattered and hidden because he feared the Aragarians might acquire it and find out about him. Perhaps every technology on Earth may have been from him."

It was a moment of revelation for Harker. This one possibility had always been disregarded. But when Seeker spoke of it, it made so much sense.

" Nogard Meng? How is he related to this Lost Primordial?"

"Nogard Meng lived from that era. The less you know the better. How do you suggest we deal with this information?"

"We look for those people who the Lost Primordial contacted. I assume you know who they are."

"Naturally. We have our guesses. What else can we do with this information?" Seeker asked.

"Use it against them. But you already have some plan, don\'t you?"

Seeker smiled.

"You are starting to understand me, Harker. Was it because you\'ve been sniffing me for the past months? Still creepy."

"What\'s your plan?" Harker avoided the sensitive subject.

"The problem of the future was that we were so divided and they were so united. They played around with us and caused the Earth to infight and appeared when we had already spent ourselves killing each other. It\'d be nice if they did that so we\'ll have our strength when those stronger arrive." Seeker smiled.

"Will that work?" Harker asked.

"The Aragarians seem like a selfish group doesn\'t they? What do you think they would do? Report the existence of an Aragarian who has techs that vastly outstrip those here on Earth? Or search it for themselves?"

"So you want to use this info to divide them and make them fight each other."

"Isn\'t it fitting? Jesus said that if Satan\'s Kingdom was divided, it would be his end. A perfect picture for this enemy which we call the Aragarians. We divide them."

"How will you do it? Do you want the Pioneers to betray each other in secret? Or are you hoping for the Presiders to do that?"

"Why not both? It will be an interesting scene, wouldn\'t it? I\'ve long explained the organization of the Aragarians. It\'s all about technology for them. The more techs they have or the stronger it is, the more they can climb this social dystopia of theirs. Imagine a tech that could be made available? What we need to do is to sow the right seed. Make us appear more vulnerable, greedy and arrogant. Who knows? We could make a few of them temporary allies who will do our bidding!" Seeker chuckled.

"What does Arthur think?"

"He says it would be fun. Well for him it is. He seemed to like his new state in exploring the possibilities of the future."

"If Arthur approves of it, then who am I to disagree?"

"You actually have a mission you need to complete, Harker."

"A mission? You can\'t be seriously thinking of using this on Lara? That\'s a Presider! Do it yourself! Her techs of mind-controlling nearly got me the last time!"

"It can\'t be me. No one else can fulfill this role, Harker. Besides, your Path is perhaps the one thing that could affect her without her knowing."

"I can\'t lie to her. It\'s too risky! What if she has techs that can tell if I\'m lying to her? it would make her more suspicious than ever!"

"That\'s why you don\'t lie to her. Tell her the truth."

"The truth?"

"Exactly. Bits and parts of the truth. Reveal it to her, precept upon precept. Line upon line. Here a little there a little."

"Now you\'re just misquoting it. It should be precept upon precept. Precept upon precept. Line upon line. Line upon line."

"I know what I said. You can\'t add too many shades on the truth otherwise it would be a lie. Isn\'t that the root of your Path? You are deemed to be trustworthy by those you interact with. You use truths to make them trust you, but in reality, those truths are vastly incomplete. Isn\'t that how you got me to trust you? And I trust you well enough to complete this mission."

"You\'re testing me aren\'t you?" Harker gave Seeker a wary gaze.

"That\'s right. But it\'s not testing rooted on mistrust. But testing with the hopes of improving." Seeker gave Harker a thumbs up.

"Do you have suggestions as to what truths I\'ll reveal?"

"You are the one that treads that Path. Shameless Audacity, isn\'t it? A mysterious Path of Trust and Truth. Arthur had the impression that you can be trusted with this. So here I am, calling you and asking you for your greatness, oh Honest One."

Harker fell into deep thought. He explored the probabilities and possibilities, keeping caution at the forefront of his considerations.

"I will reveal that an organization has been fighting against the Aragarians first wave. Since we know that both the Aragarians and the Lost Primordial had some secret wars that even the Aragarians didn\'t know of… I could use this as a truth which would make the Aragarians conclude that although the Lost Primordial is here, it isn\'t as strong as it once was."

"Sounds logical. If the Lost Primordial had any more power, it wouldn\'t have relied on such secretive methods but would have been more aggressive."

"I will reveal the truth of how the Lost Primordial operated. And since we are acting as the Lost Primordial now, I can also reveal how we have been manipulating this world. Creating a purpose to follow, allies who will gather around our banner and gathering resources. The best way for them to feel that they are at the advantage is to lure them into thinking about how we have been manipulating the world. They do not know of the Paths like Eagle\'s, Lowengren, or mine. If we present to them an image of the enemy that they will seek, they fall into the mistake of underestimating us."

"Impressive. Since revealing the Lost Primordial causes these Aragarians to take us more seriously, you\'re still making it look like that our power is not so high." Seeker smiled.

"You truly are a paragon of caution. What about the history of the Lost Primordial?" Seeker asked curiously.

"You haven\'t told me the specifics. But its better this way. I only need to learn the general concept so that my lies will work." Harker smiled.

"You plan to tell them… Wouldn\'t this lead to more problems? They know that history more than we do. They knew what was going on during those years."

"Truths can lead to lies. If you handle it properly, even the biggest truth can be twisted and presented as a lie, though it bears the full essence of the truth."

Seeker frowned. It was as if Seeker felt a strange urgency to understand this principle that Harker said.

"I\'m curious. Eagle can convince people based on the Truth he knows. Lowengren is a liar, but he claims that there is a limitation to the lies he can make. It cannot escape the truth. And now, you\'re here telling me, that you can tell truths and make it a lie?"

"You\'re still a little wet behind the ears to talk about truth and manipulation. Lowengren knows of this and that is how he uses it. You see, Lowengren is limited by the truth. He cannot make a lie that is so disconnected from facts. He cannot go to a person and say that he is a seventy-five-year-old woman. My Path lies in the presentation of the truth. It\'s similar to Eagle, the difference is what we do with the truth. I made people trust me because they believed I was trustworthy. And it might have been because I had a way of manipulating the truth to my benefit. If I were to put a distinction, Lowengren deceives, while I mislead."

"What\'s the difference?"

"Lowengren tells lies to paint something in a different picture. I tell the truth but the emphasis or the disregard of these truths will lead them to a misunderstanding. That way, I will tread my Path and indeed gain her trust. But it will also deceive her."

"Now I\'m confused." Seeker gave a laugh.

"Let me keep it simple. Lowengren lies. I tell truths. But my specialty is telling truths that can be abused or taken for granted. Isn\'t this the issue pertaining to the vast divides between religion? I\'ve been studying more and more of the theological views that are prominent today and even observed the various views that became lost after the Third World War. In the Christian denomination alone, we have Pentecostals, Baptists, Reformed, Catholic, Presbyterian, Liberal, Lutheran, Evangelical and so forth. Each has studied the same Bible but ended up with different doctrines focusing on certain specific principles. And though some would try to balance it all out, they still will have their leaning to the truth which they abuse."

"Just like other religions, huh?"

"Exactly. Which religion does not have these denominations? Aren\'t Buddhism divided into three distinct fields? Even the Jews hold to two different religious interpretations of the Scripture and the Talmud. This is the truth. I can give them the truth, but I will give it in a way where they can abuse it. In the end, truth isn\'t so truthful."

"What is truth?" Seeker asked,

Harker gave Seeker a strange look.

"Are you seriously asking me? Or are you quoting Pontius Pilate?"

Seeker snapped out of it and laughed.

"Alright then. You seem to have this whole thing under control. Go for it. You have passed the test. Try to record your conversation with her so we can build our plans from it later on."

"You don\'t want to listen to the specifics of what I will say?"

"I\'m confident that you will do the right thing. And even if you do the wrong thing, don\'t disregard your allies. Arthur and Lowengren pretty much followed my plans back then. That is their confidence. It isn\'t that they can form the perfect plan, but that they can make perfect whatever plans are thrown at them."

Back in the present, Lara was just about to make the call.

"Remember, if you say anything else other than what we discussed, we\'ll kill you." Harker coldly reminded as several soldiers aimed their guns at her. Charm was frozen with fear at this site while Lara glanced as if it was nothing.

The call finally went out.

"Presider?" A voice called out worriedly.

"Gereny? Tell mom and dad that I\'m alright. However, I will need you to contact the council to tell them that I have information that will change things. I am currently being detained and protected by General Harker Cipril of Pangea. You must have seen the attack on T.V, right? I want to use my authority as Presider to call for a meeting for all of Pangea. And this is to subordinate ourselves under Harker. This set-up will also force us to put our entire network and show all our technology and business operations to Harker. Someone\'s controlling things in the background of this world. And we either have the choice to be thrown around by the wave or fight against it. Is this call recorded?"

"Er… Ye-Yes. Presider."

"Good. Have my mom and dad, and the rest of the families hear it. I am safe. I will contact you when it\'s safe. For now, I am urging the council to prepare for our networks to be placed under General Harker\'s blockchain. You have three hours to complete the link. If you cannot do it, I will kill myself. That is all." Lara then ended the call.

Charm was dazed at the words that Lara declared at the call. Was this the dainty, teasing, and love-chasing teen she met?

"Impressive demands."

"It\'s to keep you from suspecting me. Three hours should be the fastest time when you can send your men to the EAA and establish a link between our networks. I know that you would have shot me if there was any delay."

"You make me look like some criminal. If it was anybody else, yes. But you\'re a little teen girl. I could not, for the life of me, take the life of someone\'s daughter." Harker chuckled.

Lara gave Harker a surprised look and sighed.

"I misjudged you."

"As did I. Now I will be sending my soldiers there. I already have some of my men based on China. They will be there in 30 minutes. Since you offered it, I will have to take advantage of it."

"That should be of no problem. Now tell me the second half of your tale." Lara asked seriously.

"It\'s very simple really. For some reason, right when the war grew chaotic, the winners of today managed to kill the leaders of the other organization. All of them were killed in an instant."

"How? I thought these two organizations were so well-hidden and so covert. How can one side, just utterly kill the other party?"

"It\'s really simple. Someone from the other side was a traitor." Harker laughed.

"What technology can this organization have to achieve this?" Lara was stunned.

"I don\'t think it\'s any technologies like that. You seem to have little idea of how greedy people are. Someone on the other side was greedy. This person or a group of them betrayed their organization with the hopes of acquiring more. Whether or not the traitor was eventually backstabbed is unknown to me. Of course, since this organization is now planning on betraying me... I\'m assuming the traitor is dead. Or... more improbably... that traitor is now the new head of this organization."

Lara was silent. But even she could not hide the anger and frustration that arouse from her hearts. She even started to grip her fist tightly.

"A traitor amongst the Pioneers… As expected." She thought to herself.

"You seem… angry?" Harker asked suspiciously.

"Of course I am!" Lara erupted.

"I thought there was something behind this! Some technology, some brilliant scheme! I sacrificed my own network for that information! What is there for my family in all of this? What technology can I get if I allied with you?!"

"Technologies? I\'m sorry you had that impression. But you were way off. This organization is not strong because it has specific technologies or things that go beyond the known technological possibilities. They have been in fact, trying to conquer the World Governing Powers to acquire all the technologies they might have developed. They made that monster a little too strong. Maybe there was a fallout between the survivors of this organization but for some reason, their ties with the WGP are not firm. What they do have, is something far more dangerous. They have a way of making even your closest subordinates or even your child and maybe even yourself, to join them. Next thing you know… the people around you are actually your enemies." Harker laughed.

Lara was silent but her face continued to reveal anger and urgency.

"I wonder what she\'s thinking now…" Harker wondered as he turned around to hide his mirth.

As for Lara, her thoughts were very simple.

"Lourca Oviili did betray us!"