Chapter 338: Rumors
The word about Sam's disappearance spread like wildfire. Sam is kind of a celebrity within the western continent. Even though, not many people know about his involvement in killing Oscar directly.
They do know him by the wanted notice place on him by the former emperor of the Orion, his involvement in causing war, his rampage which destroyed almost half of the resources of the empire, and the most recent thing about him is his latest inventions in the communication device field and the railways.
Almost every person in the western continent has heard of his name if they didn't see him.
He has disappeared from the public scene over a year ago. But the commoners and low-level officials don't know that he went to the thunder-god temple, because they don't even know the existence of that place.
All they know is that Sam stays in that majestic skyscr.a.p.er and there are not many people who can meet him.
At first, when the news spread out, the high-level officials didn't care much about this, but later even they felt panicked because they knew of the secret behind his actual disappearance in the Beast faction.
But unlike the six major powers, these people got second-hand news which mostly portrayed the impossibility of Sam's survival.
Many people in the higher positions of the working network Sam created are anxious for some reason and some high-level people went to Arc to confirm the news about this.
Arc who is also unable to access the first- hand information like the major power, couldn't help but feel uneasy and visited Moriya to confirm the news.
"Mr. Moriya, May I know if Sam is okay?"
Moriya stayed silent for a little bit and replied.
"He is not in the thunder god temple currently and we don't know where he is at. But from the information we received, he visited another major power named Beast faction and encountered an incident after which no one knows his current status."
Arc felt numb after listening to it.
"Is there no way to confirm if he is alive?"
"As of this moment? No."
Arc didn't know if he should publicize this news outside, but before he could decide on his next course of action, the news already spread out.
For some reason, some higher-ups in Sam's city who manage the factories and the communication network contacted him and asked whether Moriya really said that or not.
This left him quite puzzled. He was already wondering who spread this news in the first place and he is already troubled by this now such sensitive information leaked and he doesn't know if he can handle the repercussions.
The authority Sam held is not something that can be replaced and once its presence disappears there are a lot of people eyeing the piece of meat that he has left behind, the whole network and a source of income he created will be completely destroyed, there is no way another person can take over this unless it is under the control of the empire itself, it is hard to maintain the balance.
But it is impossible for the empire to take over that, because the four major towers are extremely involved with this project and there is no way they are going to let the empire take away this piece of fat meat from their hands, particularly in this kind of situation.
While he was brainstorming on how to think of a solution in this kind of situation, the whole network is already in chaos.
The factions are already formed and the four major powers who are responsible for the most workforce are completely divided into four major factions to get a major share apart from that there are some other minor factions that are formed by people in various professions. Some management staff is already selecting which faction to suck up to.
Arc almost fainted from the tension. Many people from these factions are trying to get in touch with him to get support.
They are trying to use his force to suppress the rest of the voices because Sam's presence is the only thing that hindered them from trying anything funny and now there should a similar deterrence and the emperor be the perfect one.
They don't want him to take over the whole network but they still need his strength to take over that themselves.
Anyway, Arc is not particularly enthusiastic to take over the network, because he has his own responsibilities and a lot of them as an emperor, he doesn't want to burden himself more.
But he still must find a way to get away from this pestering.
And this exact moment, he got a visit from Arman.
"I heard there are some problems caused due to Sam's disappearance. May I know the exact situation?" He asked with an amiable smile.
Arc who was being pestered every day wanted to vent and started telling everything to Arman.
After saying everything, he couldn't help but ask.
"Can you tell me what are the odds of Sam permanently gone?" He asked hesitantly.
Arman wore a sad face as he said in a heavy tone.
"I don't know, it is actually a very dangerous situation. Contending with a major power is no joke after all and it is even more so if they are hell-bent on killing them. I really cannot imagine what kind of situation Sam really is in.
We actually had a great relationship, since the last time he visited the thunder god temple for the competition. I tried to talk him out of this situation several times, but he still insisted on leaving like that.
He didn't even go directly, he actually sneaked out of the place and we only knew that he is missing after two days."
His voice and the expressions made his words feel extremely genuine.
After a slight pause, he said.
"He didn't tell me that he was going because he didn't want to alert the thunder god temple, you might not know this, but he never really joined the thunder god temple, it was actually a deal with the temple-head.
Since I and Nicholas are part of the thunder god temple, I think he didn't feel comfortable about telling us and now both of us are extremely worried about his situation. I just wonder if there is a way for me to help him out of this situation."
He left the room with those words.
Arc looked at the back of Arman with a scrutinizing gaze. At first, he felt really doubtful of his words no matter how believable they sounded.
Because, he knew Sam doesn't really make friends that easily and his circle of friends is extremely small, his three close friends are always with him at all times.
But he felt his words a little believable when he heard the words about Sam not joining the thunder god temple truly.
Because he knew of this situation. Sam has specifically told him this to make sure that neither he nor the members of the network will have any ideas of taking over Sam's place.
He went into deep thought for a while and just let the things be, for the time being, he decided to keep the thoughts of this network aside for a while and will deal with them when the situation turns desperate.
While the situation is like this, Arc suddenly encountered another situation. He was looking through the criminal records of the various places. He does so occasionally, from time to time so that he could analyze and improvise the way the city guard handles the law and order of the empire.
And to his surprise, the crime rate decreased a lot, there are not many robberies as before and there are at most some beatings in public and even these victims are former bullies.
He doesn't know how the situation suddenly turned this good, but he suddenly felt relieved as this is the only great news he heard in a while.
Another person who is roaming the empire in a while doesn't think so.
That is none other than Sirona.
Since she came to the western continent, she has been roaming all over the nation, to just explore and she noticed some peculiarities in the villages and lower-level cities.
And these peculiarities are similar to what Philip, Watt, and Jack saw in the eastern continent.
The unnatural absorption of the energy and an unnaturally higher number of the cultivators who are popping out of nowhere.
She has been observing this more than the trio because she doesn't have any tension attached to her and she who was curious discovered something they didn't.
Most of the cultivators who are having this strange condition are actually not cultivators at all, they are people who didn't awaken at the age of fourteen and are destined to live like commoners without any power.
But all of a sudden, they are awakening out of nowhere without any visible signs. A commoner a day is turning into a cultivator at the Novice stage the very next day.