Start as a Spiritual Planter: I Have a Game Panel-Chapter 209: Cleaner’s Association II

A stunned silence fell over the room.

The Harvest Festival was one of the Cyber Core District's largest annual events, a massive, city-wide celebration that drew crowds from every sector and nearby small survival camps.

It was a chaotic mix of street fairs, black market expos, underground arena fights, and public gatherings, all culminating in a grand, district-wide light show.

Security was notoriously lax during the festival, with even the Shadow Society's guards stretched thin trying to manage the sheer volume of people and illicit activities.

"The Harvest Festival?" Sid echoed, his brow furrowed. "That's... in three days. And it's pure chaos. How would that help us?"

"Exactly," Ram said, a faint smile playing on his lips. "During the festival, the entire district is a mess. Security is a joke, and everyone's distracted."

"Shane's forces will be spread thin, trying to keep a lid on everything, especially their own illicit operations which usually see a surge in activity then."

He continued, "Sesh's diversion, if timed with the peak of the festival's celebrations, won't just be a minor distraction; it'll be amplified tenfold."

"We can use the crowds and the chaos as cover to move, to strike, and to disappear before Shane even knows what hit him."

Su Mu, who had been listening quietly, nodded slowly. "The density of the crowds would make it difficult for him to use large-scale attacks without risking massive collateral damage and drawing the ire of other factions, possibly even the Shadow Society if their 'harvest' is disrupted."

"And," Su Mu added, her eyes thoughtful, "the festival attracts all sorts."

"Strangers, mercenaries, opportunists... Our presence, even with Korrin and Nyra's group, might not seem as out of place as it would on a regular day."

"However, have you forgotten that we are still under the control of the Shadow Society, they might be monitoring our activities… Once they find something odd."

Ram nodded his head in agreement, but he then smiled as he continued speaking. "Don't worry about the Shadow Society, I have just the right gift… they were waiting for."

Mai considered Ram's suggestion, her fingers tapping lightly on the console.

"The risk of civilian casualties would be high," she said, her voice laced with concern.

"And moving through those crowds, even with the festival as cover, won't be easy."

"We'd also be giving Shane three more days to prepare, to reinforce his defenses, perhaps even to call in more of his own backup."

"But," she conceded, a calculating look in her eyes, "the potential payoff is also higher."

A coordinated strike during the festival's peak... it could cripple Shane's operations significantly if they hit the right targets.

And the city-wide chaos Sesh can create would give them the perfect window.

Liam grinned. "So we turn their party into our playground? I like the sound of that. More targets, more confusion, more fun."

Ram looked at Mai. "It's a risk, yes."

"But waiting gives us more time to prepare as well. We can gather more intel, Korrin can summon more Half-Drows, and I can... cultivate a few more surprises."

He thought of the source power he was accumulating and the potential to upgrade more of his Wood Spirits or even attempt to grow the Heart Wood Root fragment or upgrade to Tier 4.

"Three days can make a big difference for us too."

Mai was silent for a long moment, weighing the pros and cons. Finally, she nodded.

"Alright. We'll wait for the Harvest Festival to begin. But we use these three days wisely."

"Gather every piece of information we can on Shane's movements, his reinforcements, and the layout of that subway base that we have."

"Sesh's people can help with that too."

Su Mu interjected, "Yes, we need a flawless plan if we're going to walk into the heart of the Blood Hawk's new den during the biggest damn festival of the year."

Ram found a relatively quiet corner, the glow of a monitor casting faint light on his cloaked features.

He leaned back, observing the intense discussion unfolding around Mai's holographic console.

Sid was gesturing emphatically, Liam was offering a wisecrack that actually held a sliver of strategic sense, and Mai was coordinating it all with her usual sharp focus.

Even Xiao Mu was present, her youthful face serious as she absorbed the details.

A soft smile touched Ram's lips.

They were all so focused, so driven to take down Shane and the Blood Hawk gang.

Their anger, their desire for revenge for being hunted, it was palpable.

He understood it. He even shared it to a degree.

The Blood Hawks were mostly assholes, and Shane was a direct threat that needed to be dealt with.

But they're a symptom, not the disease, Ram thought, his gaze drifting towards the flickering city lights visible through a grimy window.

His true target, the one he hadn't voiced aloud, was far larger, far more insidious: the Shadow Society itself.

The Blood Hawk operation, as dangerous as it was, was a stepping stone.

A way to gain resources, test his growing power, and perhaps, just perhaps, draw out the real players.

His eyes instinctively focused on his wrist, where the faint, almost imperceptible mark of the Shadow Contract still resided.

He had managed to neutralize the Mind Shadow Parasite, a significant victory, but the contract itself remained a tether, a leash he was determined to break.

And now, with the parasite no longer clouding his senses but instead subtly attuned to his will, he had a potential key.

He believed that by carefully leveraging his connection to the subdued parasite, he could trace the source of the contract, find the one who held the other end of that cursed chain.

His intuition, a gut feeling that had rarely led him astray, pointed to one individual: the Shadow Messenger.

That cold, imposing figure he'd briefly encountered in the research facility right after waking up in the Shadow Society's research facility.

It has to be him. Or someone very close to him.

But knowing, or suspecting, was one thing.

Acting on it was another entirely.

A cold dose of reality always followed that thought.

With his current strength, even with his recent upgrades and his small army of Half-Drows, confronting a Shadow Messenger, a being likely deeply entrenched within the Society's hierarchy, was tantamount to suicide.

He was still, in their eyes, a low-tier operative, someone to be managed and controlled through missions and the ever-present threat of the contract.

'Patience,' he reminded himself. 'I still need to stay hidden, play their game for a while longer.'

He needed to grow stronger, to accumulate more power, more allies, more resources.

The Harvest Festival plan was a good step.

It would cause chaos, provide cover, and if successful, deal a significant blow to one of Shane's, and by extension, the Shadow Society's illicit revenue streams.

He would continue to walk the tightrope, pretending to be their loyal, if somewhat troublesome, asset, all while secretly sharpening his claws.

The moment a real opportunity presented itself, the moment he was strong enough to face the puppeteer rather than just the puppets, he would strike.

Until then, the Blood Hawks would serve as a convenient, and necessary, distraction.

With the immediate planning for the Blood Hawk confrontation temporarily settled and the others deeply engrossed in their preparations, Ram found his own thoughts drifting.

His gaze fell upon the monitor in front of him. It was an older model, but functional.

He idly tapped a few keys, bringing the screen to life.

It seemed to be connected to a local network, likely with access to some public or semi-public databases of the Cyber Core District.

Curiosity piqued, he typed "Cleaner's Association" into a search field.

A surprisingly mundane list of entries appeared.

Business registrations, sanitation licenses, a few old advertisements for industrial cleaning services targeting warehouses and corporate buildings.

There was even a "Meet Our Team" page with stock photos of smiling individuals in generic uniforms.

It all looked perfectly legitimate, boringly so.

"Effective camouflage," Ram murmured to himself, a slight smile playing on his lips.

The name itself was a stroke of genius—so bland, so utterly uninteresting that no one would look twice.

Who would suspect that an organization dedicated to scrubbing floors and disposing of industrial waste was actually a covert operations hub?

He dug a little deeper, sifting through archived news snippets and business directories.

The Association had been around for decades, a quiet, unassuming presence in the district.

There were a few commendations for "community cleanup initiatives" that seemed almost comically timed around major city-wide events or known periods of gang unrest.

Making things disappear, one way or another, Ram smiled.

It was likely an organization that specialized in the less glamorous side of covert work, sanitizing compromised locations, disposing of unwanted evidence, facilitating quiet disappearances, and perhaps even offering secure transport and lodging for those who needed to stay off the grid.

Sesh's involvement made more sense now; a network like this would require deep connections within the city's underground, the kind that knew how to operate in the shadows without drawing the attention of entities like the Shadow Society and other major corporations or guilds.

There was no direct mention of Mai or Sid, of course, nor any overt hint of illegal activities.

The digital footprint was clean, almost too clean.

But between the lines, Ram could see the outlines of a sophisticated operation, this "safe house," was likely just one node in a much larger, well-hidden network.

It was the perfect place to disappear, and the perfect place to plan.