After entering the living room and sitting down on the sofa, Su Yun fiddled with the system for a while.
He took out the Fantasy Crystal he had just condensed, and a character panel appeared.
It was the panel for Artoria, his Operator.
[Operator: Artoria Pendragon] [Gender: Female] [Age: 16] [Template: King Arthur (Fate)] [Level: 10] [EXP: 0/1900] [Mood: 98/100] [Health: 100/100] [Mana: 97%] [Current Status: Idle]
That was Artoria's panel. Her level and experience needed no explanation; they were standard features, easy to understand at a glance.
As for her mood and health, they could be understood as the sum of a character's ability to act, physical vitality, and other functions.
Mana indicated how much usable energy remained. The template Artoria possessed was her own, so the power she used was the same as that of the Servant King Arthur: mana.
In other words, different templates used different kinds of energy.
After all, the real world wasn't a game. No matter how much Su Yun gamified things, he couldn't make everything appear as numbers. So the system used this method to assess an Operator's condition.
The personal panel also included a body diagram. If anything went wrong with a part of the person's body, it would be marked directly, making it clear at a glance.
Su Yun was very satisfied with Artoria's condition. Putting on a stern expression, he said, "Young lady, you bear the great responsibility of destroying Mystery and saving the world. How can you be so slothful? So, fight! Young lady! Tonight, your journey into the extraordinary begins!"
"Start by taking down a Mystery!"
Inside a special room at the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office, Artoria was fast asleep.
But all of a sudden, the girl seemed to sense something and snapped her eyes open.
A look of astonishment appeared on her face, then turned to understanding, and finally settled into a complicated expression as she accepted the strange situation.
A transparent panel had appeared before her, displaying a string of text.
[Newcomer Mission: Eliminate Mystery] [Mission Details: As a contractor of the Planetary Will and an Operator of Destiny, you are duty-bound to eliminate the Mystery on this planet. Since you are currently only a Trainee Agent, this mission will serve as your introductory task.] [Mission Objective: Eliminate the Mystery at the designated location.] [Note: You may enlist the help of the ordinary world to complete this mission. There are no restrictions on how you complete it; simply act as you see fit.]
The message was simple and easy to understand. There was no riddling nonsense; it was simply telling Artoria to complete a beginner's mission.
Artoria wasn't surprised by the references to the Planetary Will's contractor and Destiny.
When she received King Arthur's legacy, she had also received certain information.
King Arthur had signed a contract with a mysterious organization called Destiny, which acted as an Executor of the Planetary Will and had an impressively grand background.
The terms of King Arthur's contract with this organization were that if the planet ever faced a terrifying threat it could not resist, King Arthur would join the effort to save the world as an Operator of Destiny.
As an Executor of the Planetary Will, signing a contract with Destiny was effectively the same as signing one with the Planetary Will. That was why the message directly called her a contractor of the Planetary Will.
The information was scant, offering only a few details at face value. It said nothing about Destiny's inner workings, who its members were, or how long it had existed.
But Artoria wasn't foolish. She knew that an organization capable of acting as the Planetary Will's Executor and signing a contract with an ancient figure like King Arthur must have existed since time immemorial.
Obviously, King Arthur wasn't the only one who had signed a contract with Destiny.
That was why Artoria, having only just gained her powers, was carrying out an introductory mission as a newcomer.
But there was another question. If Destiny had truly existed for so long and was so powerful, why had no extraordinary people ever appeared to stop the Mystery since its resurgence?
Until the Mystery attacked the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office, Destiny had never appeared. Nor had there been any extraordinary people on humanity's side.
The first time humanity had used extraordinary power to defeat and destroy the Mystery was when King Arthur appeared—the remnant of Artoria's will from her previous life.
So what had Destiny been doing all these years?
Was it unable to act because the Planetary Will had forbidden it?
Or...
Had something happened to Destiny?
It seemed hard to believe, but when she considered the worst possibility, it made sense. As the planet's guardian organization, Destiny's prolonged failure to act could very well mean that something had happened to it.
"If I could meet other members of Destiny, I could confirm these suspicions..."
The girl was troubled by the thought, but she didn't dwell on it.
Now that she had received a mission, she would simply carry it out. Having long been prepared for this and trained professionally by King Arthur, Artoria lacked neither the courage nor the strength to face the Mystery.
At most, she was full of questions and curiosity about Destiny. She also found the way the mission had been issued rather novel and completely unexpected. Anyone who didn't know better might have thought they were playing a VR game.
Still, its style was consistent with the Light Screen projections. Both clearly came from the Planetary Will's side. She just didn't know whether the Planetary Will itself was behind it, or whether someone else had made it.
The former was easy enough to understand: she could simply think of the Planetary Will as a disembodied god.
If it was the latter, then it implied a lot more.
After taking off her pajamas and changing into her regular clothes, Artoria pressed a communications button.
A moment later, there was a knock at the door. When it opened, a beautiful female staff member from the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office appeared. She had been assigned specifically to liaise with Artoria, and Artoria could bring any requests to her.
For now, the woman would fulfill any request she could handle directly. If she couldn't, she would report it to her superiors immediately.
In fact, she wasn't an administrative employee but an elite investigator, one of the Strategy Room's aces. She had extensive experience dealing with the Mystery and had been assigned as Artoria's liaison because of Artoria's special status.
The woman was clearly mixed-race. Her hair was a rare shade of purple, and she had the delicate features of an East Asian woman alongside the tall, strong frame of a Westerner. She was quite curvaceous; the Strategy Room's uniform accentuated her figure perfectly.
A beauty mark beneath her right eye gave her an alluring, mysterious air.
Seeing her, Artoria spoke politely but seriously. "Ms. Baal, I have an urgent matter to attend to and need to leave. Please inform your Chief, Murata Himeko."
The investigator named Baal paused slightly. "Right now?"
Artoria nodded. "It's sudden, but I have to go. It concerns a Mystery!"
At the mention of the Mystery, Baal immediately nodded. "Understood. I'll report it at once."
Although she had plenty of questions and had been given almost nothing to go on, as an elite investigator, she wouldn't ask about things she didn't need to know. She would simply carry out her duties like a Shadow Warrior.
Even though it was three in the morning, the workaholic Murata Himeko responded quickly. She immediately gave the order: the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office's emergency operations division was to mobilize, the Nine-Tailed Fox Squad would assist Artoria, and a transport plane was to be prepared. They were to help Artoria reach the Mystery's location as quickly as possible.
There was only one objective: assist the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office's special advisor, Artoria Pendragon, in eliminating the Mystery!
That was right. Artoria was now a special advisor to the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office. She had proposed it herself that afternoon, and it had been one of the topics she discussed with Murata Himeko in the conference room!
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A note: being the Archbishop of Destiny doesn't mean the protagonist has Otto's template.
In fact, it's just an alias for his organization. He chose it simply because it sounded good. Compared with Chaldea, Rhodes Island, command centers, and harbor fortresses, Destiny immediately stood out—and the word "Destiny" suited the protagonist's current situation best.
Before you continue