Jacob looked at the stoic Sofie in front of him and was quite pleased and completely relaxed since he had achieved his goal.
"Open the surveillance footage, but turn off the sound system until I say so." He ordered.
Sofie did as she was told and manipulated the star watch with magic and then nodded. It was done!
Jacob then sat down on a chair and told Sofie, "Sit." And she sat right in front of her like a statue.
"Alright, you may speak freely but only speak nothing else. If you try to scream, shut up; if you try to relay a hidden message, shut up…" Jacob gave a long string of commands to make sure Sofie won't play any tricks.
He was quite familiar with these sorts of tricks and loopholes as he was thinking about them all the time because of his own status as a slave.
Sofie's stoic expression finally cracked into a horrified and then hatred surfaced as if she wanted to kill Jacob with that look. But because of Jacob's command, she can't speak specific words, scream, or even curse; her body would instantly react, and her lips would be sealed the moment she even thinks of going against Jacob's command.
In the end, it took her quite a while to arrange her thoughts and calm down so that she could speak.
But only one word came out, filled with hatred, "Why?!"
Jacob knew what Sofie was feeling right now, too well. He sighed and replied, "You should know, in this place, strong prey on weak. For what it's worth, my target was not you but your status. This is the only explanation you will get from me."
Sofie ground her teeth so hard as her gums were on the verge of breaking. Jacob's meaning was clear. She was just unlucky and weaker than him, nothing else.
Jacob then said, "I will give you freedom if you do as I told you. You should know better than anyone that there is no way of removing the Advanced Epic Rank Parasite Gem unless you become a Unique or are willing to die trying. Even if by some miracle you survived for only turning into a vegetable, I don't think it's worth it.
"Cherish your life and do as I say, and you'll be free once I achieve my goal. If anything, I can promise you I won't put your life in danger. I think it's worth it for freedom, right?"
Jacob's words pierce right into Sofie's messy heart. She knew her fate was sealed now, and even if she didn't want to, Jacob could easily make her do his bidding. She could either do it willingly or forcefully; that was the fate of a slave!
At least she might become free one day, which she clearly didn't believe, but hope was something that could make anyone do things they couldn't even imagine, and Jacob just gave her that hope!
Calming her chaotic emotions, she said, "Who are you, and what is your purpose?"
She was still clueless about how easily Jacob had subdued her and even had an Advanced Epic Rank Parasite Gem, which meant she was someone with a massive background and probably far more powerful than he was showing.
She heard there were some extremely rare scriptures that could hide one real magic prowess, and Jacob seemed to be using it, or Jacob's aura was only of someone with a 1-star epic magic core.
"My identity is not important, and my purpose is something you won't understand. Let's just get straight to your purpose. First, tell me, can the three leaders of the hegemonies track someone with their star watch? I want nothing but the truth." Jacob sternly questioned.
Sofie didn't expect this question, but she had to reply, "I don't know about what kind of authority the three leaders enjoy with their status. I only met the Vice President once but never the President. In fact, those three rarely made public appearances or met someone.
"However, as far as the matter of Star Watch goes, the Star Network would never disclose this sort of information like live locations. Or do you think all those criminals like the Killer Skull Society or enemies of the three hegemonies' leaders would boldly condemn them on the Star Network?
"All they can do is place bounties or keep an eye out for their Star IDs. The Star network is completely safe. Even if there exists such a method, it should be related to Star Privilege and even that in case the target's own star privilege is far lower than the privileged user."
'I think so as well. Or those guys would be searching for me now in this place after I posted that star news.' Jacob thought as he was quite sure his star privilege might be equivalent to or slightly below the three leaders' own privileges, so how could the star network be biased towards them?
'Then how did that wily bitch know I was in the epic plains the moment I appeared?' This was the only thing he didn't understand.
But he also had a suspicion related to this as well, and now that it was confirmed the Star network was not giving away his location, he asked about it.
"What is a Bronze Invitation that the Vice Guild President could use?" Jacob's voice contained killing intent when he asked this.
Sofie replied with uncertainty, "I don't know much since only the Vice Guild President or Guild President had the authority to use them, but I do hear gossip once, and there were also some rumors about them on the Star network as well.
"According to them, a Bronze Invitation can help someone directly join any three hegemony without any test or skill.
"But the Bronze Invitation Inviter would also become eligible for something called a Bronze Invitation Benefits (BIB) once the Bronze Invitation Acceptor would step into Epic level ranks of any hegemonies.
"One of the Bronze Invitation Benefits is Inviter would receive 40 to 50% of the Acceptor's earnings, future achievement, and some other benefits from the guild as well. The Inviter might also have other rights like they might be able to kick someone with epic ranking in their organization, which is impossible unless you have committed an unforgivable crime against the organization and someone can prove it.
"But they are just unprovable rumors, and only the three leaders or the three vices would truly know what other functions these invitations had."
Jacob's expression was clouded after hearing about those facts about the Bronze Invitation, and a murderous urge was rising within his heart as he thought, 'Don't appear before me, Vice President, or….'
