The Primal Hunter

Chapter 929: Mysterious Third Party Chapter 929: Mysterious Third Party

William’s revelations about Ell’Hakan and the shit he had been up to were quite something. It sure as hell gave Jake some food for thought, and he did end up asking some more clarifying questions, some of which the metal mage could answer and some he could only speculate about.

One of the things Jake was curious about was how long it would take for people to get what was effectively brainwashed after Ell’Hakan took over a planet, something William naturally couldn’t really know as it hadn’t happened yet.

However, he had been on Ell’Hakan’s planet for over a year. During this time, he had constantly been subtly affected, yet he felt nothing from it, making him believe the manipulation was so subtle that any reasonable level of pushback would nullify the effect. True, William did mention thinking that “maybe he isn’t that bad” a few times, but a quick thought that “no, he actually sucks” was enough for him to remain unaffected.

This made William guess that this passive takeover only really worked if there was no disagreement but pure cultural homogeneity. It wasn’t like he could just take over a Pylon, and suddenly everyone loved him. It was a slow, insidious process that only took hold after continual exposure in a highly controlled society.

That’s assuming the goal was to make them worship Ell’Hakan.

William also reminded Jake that Ell’Hakan’s Bloodline wasn’t to make people feel positive emotions toward him. It was to manipulate emotions. It wouldn’t be a far fetch to believe that Ell’Hakan could manipulate the core emotion amplified by the Pylon of Civilization’s or Planetary Pylons to be anything he wanted… such as to amplify faith toward other gods, factions, or individuals.

Ell’Hakan could also not make it about any positive emotions at all. He could make it about the hatred for others. He could slowly spread a creeping feeling that Jake actually sucked, and if further amplified with some good propaganda campaigns, this hatred could quickly spread, especially to those who didn’t really have any opinion of Jake prior, making all the exposure they ever had to him completely negative. Shit this already worked pretty damn well without any Bloodline-powered manipulation.

Honestly, Jake was even beginning to wonder if maybe Ell’Hakan was the one with the most overpowered Bloodline of the two of them… alright, that was a bad joke. Ell’Hakan’s Bloodline probably didn’t even give any Perception.

To clarify, while what Ell’Hakan was doing did seem extremely fucked up… it wasn’t comparable to something like a plague, much less a karmic plague. It still required direct manipulation. It wasn’t something that could spread on its own and get out of control. Comparing it to the Holy Church and their extreme propaganda was far more accurate, as even their indoctrination could sometimes reach such a level where it was borderline impossible to dispel the delusion. Combining both the indoctrination and the Bloodline, though… scary thoughts.

In any case, William had brought back some pretty damn valuable information. There were still a few things that struck him as weird, though.

“I’ve been thinking… why did you even go to his planet in the first place? What made you decide to go? Because, let’s be honest, you don’t seem like the kind to just do this out of the kindness of your heart. I also doubt you are invested in the good of this planet, so what made you do it?” Jake asked a thought that had bothered him for a while.

“Firstly, fuck that guy. I wanted to know if Ell’Hakan knew I was getting fucked over by Eversmile, and unsurprisingly, he did. So that’s one reason. I want revenge, but I’m also fully aware I don’t stand a chance at taking him down myself, so I’m hoping you can do the job,” William said. “Secondly, I was hired to go explore the planet and report back to you about my findings.”

Jake frowned as he looked at Miranda who just shrugged, clearly unaware this had been a thing. So, definitely wasn’t her or anyone from Haven who’d hired him. On the top of his head, he couldn’t figure out who it could even be. Especially not someone who would specifically ask William to report back to Jake.

“Who exactly hired you?” Jake questioned further.

“I don’t know,” William readily admitted. “The one I spoke to was clearly just a go-between of some kind, and I didn’t ask too many questions. All I cared about was that they helped me teleport to the planet and offered information about when Ell’Hakan and others were gone, and some basic intelligence on the planet. Perhaps I was used, true, but I can accept that as I don’t see myself losing anything doing this. Quite the opposite and I seriously doubt the one who hired me has any positive intentions toward Yip’s Chosen.”

planet for an

happened. I did try to track down who may have been behind it all, but no traces anywhere. I did find the corpse of the woman who had been used as a go-between, though, but that’s where the trail went entirely cold, so they know what they’re doing, even hiding their karma,”

to some extent... and they did this while only telling you to report to me and not anyone else?” Jake said, trying to wrap his mind around everything.

the messenger here, and I’ve now delivered my message. I truly didn’t come for anything else, and in truth, I would probably have preferred only reporting to Ms. Wells,

“Hm…”

was originally meant for Jake, but Miranda took it in his place, as she was actually going to read and study it

obtained without the author's consent. Report

planning on doing next?” Jake asked William after he was done

had actually been beneficial to Jake. He hadn’t done anything to piss

Jake wasn’t going to let him be in his good graces after a single encounter, much less trust the guy. Jake knew it could be argued the current William wasn’t even the same person that had been in his Tutorial… but that didn’t mean the thought of repeating their last encounter of the

help on the perimeter to kill a few Primas,” William answered. “After that, I hope the plan is to do what Ms. Wells said and engage with the Prima Guardian Alliance to assist other planets. The difficulty of the Prima Guardian here on Earth will no doubt be the highest of the entire Milky Way, so if we can kill that, we can kill others. That will benefit Earth as we will get partial

help other planets out after we handled our own, right Jake?” Miranda said, with a look in her

chance to fight a bunch of powerful bosses for cool rewards while even fucking over Ell’Hakan’s

now I’m nearly feeling sorry for the poor planets that will have you storm in and just dominate their event and monopolize the rewards,” Miranda shook

doesn’t get overrun by an army of Primas that kill everything,”

was very much winding down, the metal mage took his

so I’ll be off now,” William said as he stood up. “One last thing… if you ever need to go to Ell’Hakan’s homeworld, let me know. I don’t think anyone knows I’ve been there, at least no one that would warn

all I need when the time comes,” Jake said in a serious tone. “But such

moment before speaking.

said in a curt tone. “Better yet,

toward the exit of the valley. On the way, his form shimmered,

a stealth skill at least at the same level as Unseen Hunter. Probably, no,

had just fucked him over a lot, and now that he was free, it was almost as if he had gotten new wings. Perhaps he was finally doing things for himself and

afterlife, but it did mean he could be a troublesome fellow to hunt down and

any “justice” for what he’d done, and Jake knew that William’s actions

brain fixed physically. Could it be argued this meant William wasn’t even the same person