Plotter clutched Rayen’s phone as the staff members around him contacted the sponsors and the other non-sponsor Entities located in the places where the participants might have possibly sent.
He would admit it this time. It was a mistake on his part.
He had relied too much on his connection with Propagator and hadn’t even created another central system. Now, it was hard to reconnect with the participants who were currently lost out there somewhere in the world.
At that moment, Propagator was detailing what had really happened. Plotter was afraid that Director would berate him once she heard everything, but he didn’t cower. An Overseer shouldn’t.
"When we left the building, it seemed as though something glared at me," Propagator said.
"Then, I felt like being plucked out, as if I was being erased."
That sensation of being plucked out — he had witnessed it before.
’There really was a tangle...’
A tangle happens when there’s a paradox to fate. Fate’s path was already predetermined, having numerous branches. When none of those branches happen, it would cause a domino affect, resulting in a tangle in fate.
Whenever fate deems that something is causing a tangle on its tapestry, plucking would always happens. It would try to cut off the tangled parts and the cause of it.
It’s like a natural killing spree from the world itself. It wouldn’t stop.
But why was there a tangle? He had already resolved that problem. When he did the grafting, the cut-off fates from those seedless Life Books were reintroduced to create new branches. That’s why there was a momentary shift of fate that day because it was realigning itself.
It shouldn’t have caused any tangling even if the participants reconnected with the people they previously had connections with during their past lives. After all, those people were essentially meeting another person instead of the person they knew who was already dead.
A tangle would only occur if they met people who would recognize the identity of those seedless Life Books. But that’s practically impossible! Plotter had really made sure no one had any connection to those seedless Life Books at all.
Also, if there was a tangle, he should have sensed it. He’s a Scribe, one whose job is to record those predetermined fates.
"Enough of that," Director instructed Propagator to halt his explanations. "Can you pinpoint the other participants?"
"It’s hard," Propagator responded. "They’re quite far away, so it needs time."
"Useless," Director said, directing her gaze to Plotter.
With her sharp eyes, her usual lazy demeanor was gone. Plotter lowered his gaze, his tongue sticking out in awkwardness. Director clicked her tongue.
’You can still smile, I see,’ she mused.
Just then, an excited voice shouted from the room’s entrance. "Overseers! Overseers! We have news!"
One curly haired woman ran frantically inside the meeting room where the staff members gathered. She had a smile on her face as she waved a sleek black device in her hand.
Handing it over the serious Director, she bowed respectfully.
"What’s this?" Director asked, looking over the screen of the phone.
Finally, she realized what this staff member was talking about. Without waiting for the staff to speak again, she assigned Plotter a task.
If he could still smile, then surely, he wouldn’t mind doing something so simple.
"Stop the private challenge for now and collect everyone’s phone," she said before adding another thing. "Do it yourself. Don’t bother the staff. They’re busy."
Plotter, who was just about to open his mouth and instruct the others, pursed his lips.
And so, when the participants who were left inside their own trial rooms were released, most of them were pitifully lying on the ground while the others were coughing.
Among them, Binh was also soaked in his own sweat. Before he was forcefully pulled out of the trial room, he only had 5 more sets to finish.
Binh gazed around and only noticed Minho and Renjiro among the crowd.
Except for Yeo Haru, who was already part of the participants participating in the second segment, two of his other first-round teammates were nowhere to be found.
Did they already pass?
He didn’t even notice that Liam was among the 9 participants before too, because that guy wouldn’t even leave a message on the group chat aside from the three dots he had sent after Rayen invited him to eat with them.
Binh felt a little envy sprouting in his chest. In fact, he was even higher ranked than Rayen and Liam. He was ranked 13th with six sponsors, one more than Rayen.
Although he knew that Rayen didn’t really deserve his rank and should have been higher with his singing ability alone, Binh felt quite proud inwardly that he had one more sponsors than him
So now, he felt like a disappointment. What if those six sponsors thought he’s not worthy?
"What happened?" Binh asked Minho, who wasn’t far away from him.
Minho shrugged, also unaware of the situation. They didn’t ask Renjiro because that guy always had his mind travelling somewhere.
Just as the weary participants were about to descend into panic because of the unusual halting of their challenges, Plotter appeared before them.
Eyes warily glancing at him, Plotter faced them with an eerie smile. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers. The participants’ phones all flew out from their pockets.
In actuality, he was quite annoyed.
’Why am I being an errand runner here? I’m an Overseer!’ Plotter grumbled inwardly.
After Liam sent the message to Adrian, his hand lost control and the phone tumbled down to the ground. He exhaled heavily, glancing toward the place where he had just seen the black smoke to make sure it was truly gone.
After what seemed like ages, he finally heard an ambulance siren approaching from the distance. Soon, Liam was hauled out of the car wreckage.
However, because of his encounter with the black smoke earlier, Liam noticed the strangeness of the rescuers that came to rescue him. They didn’t seem like true rescuers at all as they were quite careless when handling him.
His heart tightened once again, his whole body stiffening while being carried in the stretcher.
One of the strange rescuers noticed it, his eyes turning crescents as he smiled under his mask. "How are you?"