Chapter 1709: Preparations

"So now what?" Master Reina asked him.

"Now we wait," Rui replied. "The assassins have probably already begun shadowing me, keeping an eye on me. I can't do anything too suspicious."

He turned to Master Reina. "You're sure none of them can see you, right?"

"Of course," She nodded. "Nobody except for you two."

Master Reina had the ability to selectively choose who could or couldn't see her. This allowed her to speak to them normally without worrying that anybody would see her.

"Good," Rui nodded. "As for me, I'm going to have to spend the next two weeks just living life normally for Rui Quarrier."

He needed to ensure he didn't deviate from his standard daily schedule and travel pattern to ensure that he didn't throw them off.

"You, on the other hand, are going to have to spend some time pulling off a perfect Voidreaper persona," Rui noted. "As long as you can do that, that's good. You'll be able to fool all of the Master bodyguards of the royals."

"How many will there be?" Master Gurren raised an eyebrow.

"Probably no more than three to four per Royal," Rui shrugged.

"That's a lot..." Master Gurren narrowed his eyes. "The two of us cannot fight off sixteen Kandrian Martial Masters. I'm just not strong, and she's a strong assassin, not a strong warrior."

"She doesn't need to be a strong warrior," Rui turned to Master Reina. "She just needs to be a strong assassin."

Master Reina smiled as she understood what Rui was telling her. "Sounds fun. It should work."

"Good," Rui replied. "As for me..."

His eyes narrowed. "I need some time to train."

Although the data that he got on each of the many assassins that had been called to take him down was not too much, it was enough for him to get started.

He had avoided creating a predictive model during the briefing. That could be done later. What couldn't have been done later was gathering data on them. That was why he had focused on observing them like a hawk every millisecond of the briefing.

Now, he could get started on not just the pattern recognition system but also the other strategic and tactical systems of thought. These were a large variety of practical combat considerations and lines of thought that included even the voidlet techniques in their own way, adjust for his circumstances.

'I also need to form some very specific counters to some of them,' Rui narrowed his eyes as he thought about the Maneater.

The epithet was befitting an apex predator that only hunted human beings. It was not something he could expect to refer to a seductress Martial Art who had sealed away being effective against most women for the sake of being extremely effective against most men.

He had confirmed that her Martial Art was quite powerful. She had only displayed a small speck of it in the briefing by accident, and it had been overwhelming. If he didn't do anything about her, he might end up getting 'eaten' by her.

'I could go to the Beggar's Sect to learn more about her, but...' Rui heaved a sigh. 'That would be too suspicious in my currently surveilled circumstances. I'll just have to stick with what I know.'

It would also alert the Beggar's Sect about what was going on. He didn't want them to find out if they hadn't already.

'Considering the royals know about how dangerous the Beggar's Sect can be to them, they should have taken the extreme measures needed to keep the Beggar's Sect at bay,' Rui noted.

Martial Masters thoroughly and individually vetting each and every person was one way, but having them involved with each and every single step with the utmost stealth precautions taken. This was the bare minimum to prevent the Beggar's Sect from learning, and even these did not guarantee secrecy. Thus, even more measures would need to be taken to be completely safe from the Beggar's Sect.

'However, the royals should already know the necessity of these measures,' Rui narrowed his eyes. 'Unless they have forgotten about the fiasco that Princess Raemina suffered when all the strategic and tactical plans cooked by her and her advisors were leaked,' Rui mused.

when all the strategic and tactical plans cooked by her and her advisors were leaked,' Rui mused.

He, too, did not want the Beggar's Sect to know about these assassinations.

While his relationship with the Beggar's Sect had always been cooperative and cordial, that did not mean that they were his friends. They were an astronomically gigantic organization spread across all human civilization. It probably was not possible to be 'friends' with them. To them, he was an asset worth befriending. To him, they were just a convenient source of information.

He shook his head as he began working hard to form specific counters and adaptively evolved manners of combat.

That was what consumed most of his mind in the days that followed. He meditated, simulating outcomes and scenarios as he dedicated immense time to the Martial Artists that had earned his highest priority. Some of the assassins were obviously easier to deal with than the others. He spent less time on them.

However, none of them were 'easy.'

They were all high-grade assassins.

Worst of all, he would be facing them in an assassination, which was their domain of expertise and specialty. Not his. All of their techniques. All of their Martial Bodies and prototypical Martial Minds would be centered around assassination and killing; precisely the circumstance that they would be taking him on in.

On top of that, he was not going to be facing one but many, one after the other. Overcoming one could leave him too drained to face the next, causing his death. He needed to defeat each and every single assassin without rest or rejuvenation.

Even for a powerful high-grade Martial Artist like himself, these were extremely dire circumstances.

However, he had several advantages.

The first was, well, he was strong.

Extremely strong.

He didn't know how strong. But this opportunity served as a good way to test the newfound power he had gained since consuming the Roaring Dragon Blood Potion and developing his newfound Yggdrasil System.