Chapter 2077 Capture

After the two students left, Dean collapsed back into his chair in exhaustion.

He thought for a moment, before contacting someone through the communication token. An old man who had a scholarly aura walked into the Dean's office after a few minutes.

"Greetings, Dean."

"Greetings. How is the research going? Is there any progress?" The Dean asked.

The old man sighed and shook his head.

"I am really sorry, Sir. We have already used up every metal puppet we have access to including the wristbands. But we are unable to crack it."

"Are the inscriptions and formations built into them really that difficult to crack?"

Dean asked.

"To be honest, the formations and inscriptions used are not exactly of the extremely high level. But they are arranged and implemented in such a complicated manner that even Peak Stage Divine Plane Cultivators will have a hard time dealing with them."

Dean was dumbfounded. He cannot think of a formation that could stump such a cultivator.

"One of the reasons they are so difficult to crack is that they are designed to be annoying and exhausting. There are almost two thousand layers of formations inscribed and each of these formations is further enhanced with a dozen different kinds of illusory and concealment formations.

Technically, the Divine senses of a person at our cultivation should directly access the core of it and not be affected by the formations of this level, but this complex array of formations and the sheer number of them obscures our senses as it has to pass through so many layers.

The worst part is whoever made this set up almost half a dozen triggers to each of these layers. These act as restrictive conditions. We need to figure out these conditions to break the layer. If we don't and just try to use normal methods, the layer will explode and it will create a chain reaction, destroying the whole device.

The only reason they took such a roundabout way is because they might be throwing out a challenge to us and everyone who wants to open them and crack it."

"So, in short, there is no progress as of now."

"No, Sir and I doubt we will have it any time soon. Because all the restrictions I mentioned just now are just to cover the outer surface. Who knows what's inside the device? Whoever it is that made these things, they have my respect just for the patience to make this."

"Is there any way that I can help you with this? Any resources?"

The old man thought for a moment before replying.

"Not resources actually, rather we need more information. It would be great if we could get more information on how the Hub works. Even the person's information on how Joker operates, the way he uses energy could be helpful.

If he really is the creator, it will help us get to know his mindset better and understand his creation."

Dean thought for a moment and nodded.

"Okay, you can go now. Just let me know if you have any progress.

But try to think outside the box. Sometimes you might want to empty everything in your mind before tackling situations like this."

"Thank you, sir."

The old man left and the Dean once again sighed in exhaustion.

This is the old man who was put in charge of dismantling the wrist bands and the metal puppets. On the surface the Academies might just be accepting and welcoming of this new entity called Hub.

But the Deans are not idiots, they have enough awareness to understand the possible implications of the introduction of such a new entity to their environment.

The only thing is they are actually smart enough to not voice their resistance out loud. Particularly when they saw the great inventions involved. Looking at such great things they all wanted a piece of it, but Joker is smart enough to not pledge any allegiance. Now they are trying to dig some information on Hub meanwhile trying to reverse engineer the devices to see what they can gain.

But there is no progress.

Suddenly, he thought of what the old man wanted. Information.

Then he though of the special training program, Vidyuth, White. He got an idea.

He immediately contacted the instructor who was used by the Noble league to do the announcement.

"Instructor, I hope I didn't disturb you in your busy schedule."

"No, no. Dean. What are you saying? How can your calls be considered disturbing. Please tell me what you need me for?"

"I want to talk to you about joker and the Hub. It seems like you have a great relationship with them, since your recommendation even let the Noble league enter the special training program."

The Dean and the instructor are in for a long discussion.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Pearl made all the preparations to leave the Academy realm. She assigned all the tasks to her lackeys. Right when she was about to leave, Vidyuth and White appeared in front of her.

"Are you leaving?" White asked.

"Yes. I will be back in a few days. It won't be longer than a week. In this week, the Noble league will ask for your cooperation. Both of you, try your best to drain as many benefits as you can if you decide to help.

Even if you don't it is fine."

Vidyuth and White nodded.

"So, how did the meeting with Dean go?"

Vidyuth told the small discussion they had.

"He might try to think this through. You wouldn't be able to contact me during this trip. So, you can just update me about the progress when I come back."

"Be careful."

After that, Pearl left the Academy realm. Of course the news came to Sam.

"Did she give any news about where she is going?" Sam asked Vidyuth.

"No, she didn't."

"For some reason, I cannot sense the link to her wrist band. It seems like she might have removed it. Anyway, let her be."

"Okay Sam."

Sam hung up the call and thought about how his plans are progressing so far. Ivar's side is doing very well even though Stone's side is still a bit subpar. The Zeus Academy is not retaliating as fiercely as he wanted.

The introduction of flaming skulls into the mix made the academy and noble league go silent for a moment for some weird reason.

He really wished they acted more impulsively. He still continued with the preparations though. He needs to increase the pressure of the Zeus Academy and other Olympian Academies after that. When all hell broke loose, he should be tear the forces of Zeus Academy as much as possible.

They should have many fronts to fight against.

As he was speaking Sam suddenly got a notification on his wrist band. It is glowing with red light and his eyes lit up.

Not just his, even the wrist bands of all of his friends lit up and a holographic map was displayed to all of them.

It is the map of the whole city and there is a red dot glowing in the middle of it showing the location of their target. There are also several green dots along with the names of the people that these dots are representing.

These green dots are Sam and his team.

The remaining yellow dots are the people that are just around that area.

Sam immediately made his move. He disappeared into the shadows and used his full speed to reach the location of the red dot.

The rest of his team also mobilized. They tried to be as sneaky as possible and they all took different routes to make sure that their intentions of going to the same spot wouldn't be noticed by anyone who could possibly be keeping an eye on them.

Sam is the first one to reach the target location. He ran through a dark alleyway and was heading towards the main street. From the map, he could see that the target is about to come to the intersection. *SWOOSH*

With a swift movement, he crashed into the target and took him away into the alleyway on the other side of the road. The people in the street didn't even notice that a person has disappeared.

He pinned the target to the ground and closed his mouth forcefully.

"Long Time, no see. Dayus."

Sam whispered into Dayus' ears making him tense up. He looked at Sam's eyes and tried to use his lightning to get out, but the next moment a group of people surrounded him directing their auras at him.

"You know my friends, right? You have met them before. You might want to rethink using your abilities. You will regret it greatly."

Dayus hesitated a bit, and that was all Sam needed, he knocked him out and took him away.

Soon, within the depth of the hub, Sam tied Dayus up to a special chair designed solely for this purpose and the chair is attached to a special set of tools that Sam hasn't used in a long while.

The chains that are used to tie up Mia's mother. The Variant Hydra.

Now, Dayus is safely captured and restrained.