Eric did not react immediately after hearing Victor’s question. Instead, he stood there silently while staring deeply into Victor’s eyes, as though he was trying to see something hidden beneath that calm expression.

After several moments, Eric finally spoke in a slow voice.

"Have you learned anything about your mother and sister?"

Victor’s expression remained completely unchanged. There was no anger on his face, yet there was no warmth either.

"What does that have to do with you?" he asked calmly.

Eric inhaled deeply before answering. His shoulders appeared heavier than before, as though the weight he had carried for years had finally reached its limit.

"If you become strong enough someday," he said quietly, "will you bring them back?"

Victor frowned slightly while looking at him. He still could not understand why Eric had suddenly come here.

"Why are you here?" Victor asked once again.

For several seconds, Eric remained silent. The atmosphere around them became strangely tense, and even Rudi quietly watched from inside the shop without interrupting.

Then, unexpectedly, Eric lowered his head.

"I know that I failed as a father," he said in a low voice. "Every time I looked at your face, I remembered the day your mother and sister were taken away while I stood there powerless and unable to protect them."

His voice gradually became heavier as he continued speaking.

"I hated my own weakness more than anything else. In the end, I became someone who could not even properly care for his own son."

Victor listened quietly while staring at him. His eyes remained calm, yet there was still a coldness hidden within them.

Eric continued speaking with difficulty.

"If necessary, I can kill myself here to atone for how I treated you. I do not expect forgiveness from you. I only wish that if you ever gain enough strength someday, you will bring them back."

At that moment, Rudi slowly stepped out from inside the shop.

"There is something you should know," Rudi said quietly while looking at Victor. "Your father secretly gave me enough money for us to survive for at least a year even if the shop completely failed. He asked me not to tell you anything about it."

Victor fell silent for a brief moment after hearing those words.

So Eric truly had cared about him all this time.

He simply never showed it openly.

However, Victor honestly hated people like that the most. In his eyes, people who buried their emotions until they destroyed their own family were pathetic. By the time they finally revealed their feelings, the damage had already been done, and nothing could truly return to the way it once was.

"What a pathetic way to care for someone," Victor thought coldly.

Finally, he spoke in a calm voice.

"You do not need to die for anything," Victor said quietly. "I do not hate you anymore, but I also do not feel anything toward you."

Eric’s body stiffened slightly after hearing those words. That indifference hurt him far more deeply than hatred ever could.

Victor continued speaking while maintaining the same calm tone.

"If you want, you can stay here and help Rudi manage the shop."

Then his gaze gradually turned colder.

"As for Mother and my sister, if I become strong enough, I will find them. But whether they return to someone like you or not will be their decision."

After saying those words, Victor immediately turned around and walked away without looking back even once.

Eric remained standing there silently for a very long time.

Ever since his wife and daughter had been taken away, he had considered himself worthless. Every day of his life afterward had been filled with regret and self hatred.

And now, Victor’s words had only reminded him once again of that same worthlessness.

That was the reason he had never shown Victor warmth properly. Every time he looked at his son, he was reminded of his own failure.

A few minutes later, Victor arrived once again in front of the shop where Arthur and the others were waiting.

Arthur casually waved his hand, and a massive black jet suddenly appeared before them.

The aircraft looked extremely advanced and intimidating. Its surface was completely black, and countless metallic patterns were engraved across the body of the jet. Even standing near it gave off a heavy sense of pressure.

"This is a King Class jet," Arthur said calmly. "It has a fully automated pilot system and weapons powerful enough to destroy A Rank monsters."

Victor looked at the aircraft with interest.

"From now on, this jet belongs to you," Arthur continued. "The northern battlefield has a total of five bases that are quite far from each other. This aircraft will allow you to move between them quickly."

Then Arthur’s expression became solemn.

"However, if a beast tide occurs and you feel that you cannot handle the situation alone, immediately contact the other bases for reinforcements. If the other bases are also facing the same situation, then run away without hesitation."

Arthur looked directly into Victor’s eyes.

"Your life is more precious than the battlefield itself."

Victor nodded slowly.

"Thank you, President," he said respectfully.

Soon afterward, Victor boarded the black jet. Vice Commander Luke and the others entered another flying aircraft behind him.

The two majestic jets quickly rose into the sky before disappearing into the distance.

Many pedestrians on the streets below looked upward with shocked and awed expressions. Even in modern society, King Class military aircraft were symbols of absolute power and authority.

Inside the jet, Victor took out the martial breathing technique manual he had received earlier.

The technique was called the Fire Breathing Technique.

Victor began reading the contents carefully.

According to the manual, once someone completely mastered the breathing method, a special energy called fire qi would be born inside the heart. That qi would then circulate throughout the entire body and continuously strengthen muscles, bones, organs, and even blood.

At the higher stages, a practitioner could even use simple fire elemental abilities such as creating fireballs or coating their fists with flames.

Victor narrowed his eyes thoughtfully while reading.

According to his research, there were many other elemental breathing methods as well, including water, wind, lightning, earth, and darkness.

"Why did this entire power system completely vanish?" Victor muttered quietly. "What happened to those people?"

There were almost no proper records about those civilizations in modern history. Only ancient ruins still existed, and even those ruins were classified as highly confidential information controlled by governments and powerful organizations.

Something catastrophic must have happened in the distant past for such powerful civilizations to disappear so thoroughly.

"If only I could truly understand what qi is," Victor thought regretfully. "Then maybe I could recreate a similar power system myself without wasting so many points."

Around ten minutes later, both jets finally arrived above the Third Base of the Northern Battlefield.

Victor stepped down from the aircraft and immediately noticed hundreds of soldiers standing in neat formations.

"Greetings, Commander Victor Walker!" they shouted together.

Victor calmly nodded toward them.

"Luke," Victor said while looking toward the vice commander, "bring me detailed information regarding the dungeons and the last five years beast tides. Also investigate whether there are any criminal activities occurring within the nearby wilderness."

Now that he had officially become a commander, Victor felt that he should at least take the role somewhat seriously. Besides, he was currently facing a bottleneck in his own growth, so battlefield experience could prove useful.

"Yes, sir," Luke replied immediately while saluting. "Please wait in your office. I will arrive within thirty minutes with all the information."

After Luke left, a nervous female soldier suddenly stepped forward.

"Your Highness, may I have your autograph?" she asked excitedly.

Victor blinked briefly in surprise.

After news spread that Commander Luke, the grandson of the President himself, had been demoted to vice commander while Victor became the new commander instead, the entire base had practically gone crazy with excitement.

Victor could already see many soldiers gathering nearby while holding pens and notebooks.

He smiled helplessly.

"Fine," he said. "Give me a pen and paper."

For the next half hour, Victor walked around the base while signing autographs and observing the camp. Soldiers followed behind him enthusiastically as though magnets were pulling pieces of metal together.

The entire atmosphere felt bizarre for a military base.

Thirty minutes later, Victor finally arrived at his office.

The room itself was fairly ordinary. It was neither large nor small and contained only a desk, chairs, cabinets, and several confidential storage lockers.

Victor sat down quietly as Luke entered the office carrying several paper files.

Victor was not surprised that confidential information was still stored physically. In modern society, digital systems could always be hacked or leaked.

He opened the files and began reading carefully.

There were a total of thirteen Green Dungeons within the Northern Battlefield region.

Five were D Rank, three were C Rank, two were B Rank, two were A Rank, and one was an S Rank dungeon.

The A Rank and S Rank dungeons were personally cleared by higher ranking military officials every month. These dungeons belonged entirely to the army, and normal hunters were not allowed access.

Victor then read the reports regarding the surrounding wilderness.

The region contained countless vicious monsters that had escaped during previous dungeon breaks and eventually adapted to living naturally within the wilderness.

There were even reports suggesting that an S Rank monster might exist deep within that dangerous region, although nothing had been confirmed yet.

"Things can become truly dangerous on these battlefields," Victor thought quietly while closing the file.