92 Comedy and Discord

All of the stones in the architectures were replaced by a material called Synthetic Stones. Synthetic Stone is a type of building material that is as hard as steel. They are composed of atomically modified and synthetic stones, usually quartzite, cleverly structurally mixed with various types of metals to create such powerful material. This was all possible with Component Materializers.

Old-school Filipino chariots, called Kalesa, are omnipresent, pulled by differing colors of horses. There were many banderitas hanging all around due to it being merely a few days past New Year's.

In the present, all of Vigan City was entirely that of Spanish architecture. The reason for this is that Vigan City is hailed as the Historical Center of the Philippines, with many historical artifacts carefully stored in the newly established National Museum of the Philippines in the center of the city.

Somewhere, Hayden popped up from the underground Afterimage Rail Transit. He sported a white dress shirt underneath a gray sweater vest, blue slim-cut jeans, and black sneakers. His sleeves were stylishly rolled up.

As a celebrity meeting up with other celebrities, Hayden made sure to disguise himself at least a little, with a black cotton mask and black shades. Everywhere he went, Hayden was noticed in spite of his disguise. The contours of his perfectly toned body was too attention-grabbing for people.

Checking his phone for Eun-ha's location, it was pretty nearby. Therefore, Hayden opted to walk to the Kusina ni Nanay. Everywhere he walked, heads turned. Good thing he wore the bare minimum of a 'disguise.'

When he arrived at the entrance, the neon sign of Kusina ni Nanay was off since it was 2:17. In front of the restaurant was a muscular man in a suit. Hayden recognized him as one of the famous handsome guards of CHORUS, Jin Taehyuk. He was a fourth of a head shorter than Hayden.

Jin Taehyuk approached him, asking in Korean, "Hayden Emperador?"

Hayden nodded impassively. Jin Taehyuk spoke, "Please come with me."

Hayden followed Jin Taehyuk inside of the restaurant. The interior was all wood. The support beams. The tables. The chairs. The rustic ambience was refreshing for Hayden.

Jin Taehyuk led him to the VIP area. It was a hallway with rooms on the left and right. Hayden was let inside the VIP Room Seven. The first thing he noticed with his Divine Perception was that there were no cameras. That was good.

The CHORUS members all focused their eyes to Hayden's direction. They were speechless of Hayden's stylish clothes. Especially for Sayuri. Hayden was painfully tantalizing for her.

Sayuri gulped. The CHORUS members made way for Hayden so that he'd be seated between Sayuri and Eun-ha. Hayden pecked Eun-ha on the lips shamelessly. Then, he interlocked fingers with her.

He noticed that Sayuri was gawking at him. Hayden chuckled, rotating his head to Sayuri. He said in Japanese, "Miyazato-san. Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, I'm okay." Sayuri woke up from her daze. "H-how about you, Hayden…kun…"

Seeing Sayuri getting teased in this manner, the rest of the members couldn't contain their laughter. Hearing their laughter, Sayuri reddened vehemently. She didn't utter another word.

"That's a sight you don't get to see every day." Aiko was losing her marbles from this occasion. She wiped a tear from her left eye. "Oh… How the tables have reversed."

"You want anything, honey?" Eun-ha openly showed affection.

"I'm good." Hayden refused the offer. The eleven members were shocked upon hearing his next words. "These foods are all… Subpar."

Hayden's taste buds were currently attuned to his own cooking and his mother's. After tasting his own cuisine, there was nothing that can beat it. Anything he tasted can be considered utter trash. In truth, he only eats in the school cafeteria to avoid suspicion.

As for his mother's, that was a different thing altogether. It wasn't as good as his own, but a mother's cooking is always the best.

The arrogance in Hayden's tone was something they've never expected from him. What they didn't know was that his cooking was the sole thing that he is genuinely proud of. This was the one thing that he would not be scared to show and brag about.

"That's new." Eun-ha was surprised of Hayden's declaration. "That's the first time you've actually boasted about something."

"You all tasted it." Hayden shrugged. "Besides, everyone loves food. It is the one thing that people of all walks of life enjoy. Whether you're a criminal, a philanthropist, a general, a regular soldier, powerful, cannon fodder, ill, healthy, it's the one thing that all people, no exceptions, enjoy. Unless you have anorexia nervosa. That's a different topic."

"Huh…" The CHORUS members went into a round of pondering when they heard of Hayden's sensible words.

"On that wonderful note." Hayden smiled. "Who wants to eat an old and authentic Filipino dessert that is popular even in modern times?"

The eleven CHORUS members tilted their heads. Hayden tittered. "I'll take that flagrant curiosity in all of your eyes as a yes."

Hayden stood up in front of the door. A cooler materialized in his hands. He opened it. A sweet smell drifted out from the cooler. Inside were nine rows of twelve biodegradable small plastic cups filled with different colored shaved ice. One row had pink shaved ice, one row had chocolate-color, one had violet, one had yellow, etc.

Blended with each were little marshmallows, Hayden's original chocolate syrup (Yep, you heard that right he created his own chocolate syrup), sprinkles, condensed milk, and a stick of Stik-O. Lastly, three columns of them had pinipig in it, three had Hayden's original blend of tapioca pearls, three had both, and three had nothing.

"These are called 'iskrambol,' or ice scramble if you anglicize it." Hayden explained the iskrambol. Iskrambol, as aforementioned, is an old Filipino dessert that was popular in the streets back in the 1980s up to the rapid advancement of the economy of the Philippines.

In the present, there were dedicated iskrambol shops that sold solely iskrambol. It was quite ridiculous how much iskrambol has advanced, especially at the inception of the store named 'Scramble Up!' It got so popular to the point that it sparked the debate whether the Filipinos copied iskrambol from the Hawaiian shave ice in the 2044. The debate is still going wild to this day.

"It's my own flavoring and all." Hayden quickly expounded. "There are nine flavors. Strawberry, chocolate, mango, banana, Ube, grape, mint, cherry, avocado, and the odd spicy ice flavor. There are also four assortments on each flavor, with tapioca pearl, with pinipig, with both, and with none. Take your pick."

When Hayden's presentation finished, silence ensued. Hayden was strangely similar to those salesmen in malls advertising a product. It was laughable, yet not at the same time.

By this point, they viewed Hayden's food as something that can be depended to be delicious no matter what. Thus, his sales pitch, although a simple introduction, was convincing enough for their mouths to water.

"I'll take the chocolate with both." Eun-ha killed the silence. Hayden handed her one chocolate containing both tapioca pearls and pinipig. Seizing a spoon that she ate her food with, she was going to skim and take a bite when Hayden interrupted her.

"Oh yes, you should mix it first." Hayden scratched his head. He forgot that they were not Filipino. He was too preoccupied with all of their beauties. What more can a man dream of… 'Holy fuck, Hayden! Don't break down now! Wall, wall, go up. Erect it, don't let their beauty and desirable personalities get in the way.'

If it was any other person that was in Hayden's shoes, they'd probably not be able to do so. One must not forget that CHORUS was an international group, one that won a staggering 50 awards during the first year of their debut because of their stunning dance numbers, amazing visuals, and generally wonderful personalities.

However, with the help of Divine Perception and his strong will, Hayden was able to stabilize himself. He shan't fall into the pit that is letting his guard down. He'd hang out with them. Oh that's for certain. That's the extent though.

Eun-ha mixed the iskrambol with an upward and downwards motion of her spoon. A few seconds passed. Eventually, Eun-ha took a bite. When she did, her eyes widened.

The ice was chocolatey sweet. The chocolate syrup and skim milk added more sweetness, making it inexplicably overwhelming and simultaneously mellow. The marshmallow mixed in with her bite was incredible. The pinipig and tapioca pearls added depth to the taste. In summary, the entire dessert was an explosion of sweetness.

"Holy crap!" Eun-ha swiftly took another one. "This is delectable."

With the onset of that, Hayden was urged by the CHORUS members to get one. Ultimately, Hayden didn't get to eat a single bite. Which was okay, since he was Filipino. He can eat that on a daily basis if he ever wanted. Better, he can even make it for himself.

He smiled at the ravenous appetites of CHORUS for his food. It was quite a sight for him. Chilling with… 'Fucking hell Hayden! No. Bad Hayden. Wall. Up. Not. Down. Bad Hayden.'

Returning to his seat beside Eun-ha. Eun-ha kissed him on the cheek. "Wow. Just. Wow. What can't you cook?"

"Nothing." Hayden's tone was smug, which betrayed his impassive countenance. "Next time I'll make you guys halo-halo, the fancier crushed-ice sister of this dessert. As for tonight… What if I cook for you guys true Filipino cuisine?"

"That will be for the best." A calm voice sounded out adjacent to him. It was from Sayuri, who was silently eating her third iskrambol.

"You okay, Miyazato-san?" Hayden's way of address with Sayuri stayed. He preferred that it was this way so that he has some sort of a dampener on his own feelings. Otherwise, he might truly take her in in a heartbeat.

"What's up with your estranged manner of address…" Sayuri looked down, her lips pouted. She gazed at Hayden with her puppy eyes. Her voice broke. "Do you hate me?"

This time, it was Hayden's time to be flustered. He gulped. Suddenly, Sayuri grabbed his arm into her bosom, further dumbfounding Hayden. He couldn't get a single word out of his own mouth.

The CHORUS members couldn't contain their laughter. They held their bellies due to the intensity of their own guffawing. For one, they found Hayden too cute. For two, the tables have re-reversed. It was too funny for them. This included Eun-ha.

He rotated his head the other way and grumbled somewhat begrudgingly, "No. I don't. It's impossible to hate you."

Hearing his response, Eun-ha leaned on Hayden's arm as she convulsed from chortling. The loudness of laughter heightened. It was an unbelievably amusing situation for them. This included Sayuri, who had her head resting on Hayden's arm. She likewise shook and wheezed from all the cackling.

Scrutinizing his surroundings, for the second time in a long time, Hayden felt genuine happiness. Being able to connect with them in this way was something that he'd never thought he'd be able to. He displayed a genuine smile.

Times like these were the reason Hayden briefly forgets what an unlucky son of a bitch he is.

A few seconds later, Hayden let go of Eun-ha's hands and reached for his pocket. He pulled out the silver ring he had custom-made. "I want you to have this."

Hayden showed the custom-made Space Ring for Eun-ha. "This doubles as a Space Ring so that you can store your mask and hanbok in it. I had it custom-made for you."

The rest of the CHORUS members quietened, eyeing the ring akin to hawks. Hayden ignored them, beaming at Eun-ha widely.

"H-how much did this cost, honey?" Eun-ha blinked rapidly in astonishment. Such a beautiful expensive-looking ring.

"Don't ask." Hayden shushed Eun-ha, taking her right hand and inserting it on her middle finger. It fitted perfectly. "You can't put a price on my love for you."

Eun-ha's countenance flushed extremely. The CHORUS members teased Eun-ha by cheering boisterously. She kissed Hayden and hugged him, burying her face into Hayden's collarbone. "You big idiot. We've merely been three weeks into the relationship…"

"Yet you said you love me. A gift is a gift." Hayden embraced Eun-ha, pecking her on the head. "I love you, Gonjunim."

The CHORUS members cheered for another time. It was a cheery atmosphere. Irrespective of that, Hayden can sense that some of the mood of the CHORUS members took a dip. Especially Sayuri. The faint scent of bitterness and sourness intermingled with the sweet scent.

…..

And as luck would have it –Somewhere in Caloocan City. Below a masquerade-themed club named Hiwaga ng Dilim (Mystery of the Dark). There was a 250-square meter space with a height of 15 meters.

It contained shops of varying merchandise. Human slaves? Sure. Functioning organs? They have it. Illegally manufactured guns and drugs? Of course. You simply want to have a good time? There was a brothel here! You want a genetically modified animal for a pet? Don't look further, the shop called Geneticals was there to suit your needs. Or maybe you just want to hang out? There was a bar here despite of it being underneath a club! There was even a black market auction.

Perhaps the most noticeable is the building in the very middle that had a gold emblazoned sign of Dark Haven Guild. This was the hub of all the illicit information, missions, and bounties. This is also where you can exchange Blanks to credits and vice versa.

People donning masks of varying designs were omnipresent. Some wore ordinary color masks. Some sported superhero masks such as Black Panther and Green Lantern. Some exhibited masks from anime. Hell, one wore a dick-shaped mask. Literal dick. It wasn't implied. It was fully explicit.

Anyhow, in the Dark Haven Guild, in one of the circular private rooms is a woman wearing a pure black hoodie, baggy jeans, leather boots, and black leather gloves. One can see a black ring wrapped around her right hand's middle finger. Not a spot of her skin showed at all. This included her neck that was covered by her mask.

Her mask was that of a white porcelain half-comedy half-tragedy mask with black ink flowing out of the black eyes akin to tears. If one was quite nerdy, they'd probably recognize it as an iteration of or tribute for SCP-035, the Possessive Mask, which it was.

Because her entire body was covered, her figure cannot be seen at all. However, if one scrutinized her legs hidden by the baggy jeans closely, it was rather perfectly shaped and slender.

The door opened as a thin man with a plain gray hoodie, cargo pants, and regular sneakers. His mask was a crow's mask that had quite the feminine forehead design. Other than that, it was all the regular crow mask.

"What took you so long?" The woman scolded the man with her melodious voice. "I've been here for half an hour. You fully know that I need this good bit of money."

"I'm sorry, Comedy." The man exasperatedly said with an unexpectedly high-pitched voice. "It's not like you're the only person that has nothing to do."

"No one has time for your sarcasm, Discord." The woman called Comedy shook her head. Two posters materialized in her hands. It was a poster of Hayden and Daniel's bounty issue. The man called Discord sat on the opposite side of Comedy. "These two are our targets for today. We have to be cautious as these two are rumored to be at least Level 2 wielders. Strong ones at that. You watched the news of the attack in Makati Scholar Academy?"

"No, not at all." A yawn escaped from Discord. "It's not like you don't know me at all. We've been working together for a year."

A frustrated groan came out of Comedy. "It doesn't hurt to watch the news sometime, right? The three people who invaded the school is the famous group of Level 2 wielders called Triple Threat."

"And what? They were defeated without casualty at all." Discord talked in a matter-of-factly tone.

"Precisely." Comedy wasn't surprised at all. Discord, disregarding his laziness, was smart. She pointed to Daniel. "This one was ambushed by the disreputable Runic King of another underground guild. Runic King cannot be found at all subsequent to that encounter."

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard the rumors." Discord slouched as he pointed to Hayden. "And this guy was attempted to be assassinated three times. First by that no-name group of hooligans blinded by greed. The second is the Defense Force retiree, Kill-Scope. The third is that psychotic Level 2 motherfucker, Electron."

"All failed." Comedy followed up. "You see, these three are all weak assassins. Since these two are at the same school, this Daniel kid is definitely the one who cleaned that Triple Threat. We can assume that this Hayden is weak, yet has a staggeringly high bounty on his head. We have to assassinate him. If we work together, we can take the five million for ourselves! If anything, you alone are able to."

"Okay, what's the plan?" Discord concurred without much resistance.

"We do the usual."

"Okay."

Shrugging, Discord exited. Comedy tagged along. Outside, what met them was a circular chamber with private meeting places embedded on the wall. There was a huge gathering of people in masks.

In the center of the crowd is a hulking man with nary a clothing on his body, merely exhibiting tattered denim shorts. The man's skin, instead of the regular skin color, was silver in color. His mask was that of a bull's. This was the notorious Iron Bull, one of the strongest among Level 3 wielders in Dark Haven. He was infamous for bullying the weak but dogshit in front of the truly strong.

"What is up with this crowd?" Comedy verbalized her confusion.

"I don't know. When I got here, there was nothing here." Discord said.

Precipitously, a booming declaration was made by Iron Bull. "I will kill Hayden. That motherfucking celebrity kid must be taught a lesson that life is unfair! Any of you that gets in my way or will steal my kill will be killed by my own hands!"

Comedy turned into Discord's direction, who didn't do the same. Howbeit, Discord did mutter a curse. "Well, shit. We can't get that money now."

"Wait. What if we take this chance to pay back Iron Bull from all his bullying?" Comedy suggested through a whisper. Comedy pulled Discord back into the private room. "Think of it. What if we help Hayden first prior to killing him? We can take that disgusting Iron Bull by surprise and rid of that scum in the world once and for all."

"But all of us here are scum." Discord wryly replied. "We're literally in a guild called Dark Haven. A haven for those that are on the dark side. Besides, we're not powerful enough to kill him."

"There's a line between scum and evil." Comedy pointed her index finger to Discord. "Scum are asshole. Evil people are not necessarily assholes. And yes, we do have the power to kill him. Well, you. You're just too cowardly."

"Suuure." Comedy can figuratively hear an eye-roll from Discord. "Fine, let's do it. I'm getting fed up of that guy."

"Exactly. Scummy people are ones who you get fed up with. Evil people are ones that do admirable evil deeds." Comedy did the finger guns to Discord.

Discord grumbled as he shook his head and exited the private room chambers.

…..

RWL, Category: Politics – 2028, General Assembly of the United Nations. The current and first re-elected president of the Philippines, Ethan Puting-Ilaw has proposed a complete restructure of the United Nations and everything that is related to it. He made a speech of how the current make-up of the United Nations was unfair and that all nations should be equal, cooperate with each other, and make peace with each other.

His first proposal was the moving of denuclearization and the coalescence of all the governments to become one entity: The World Government. To gain the backing of all the countries, he released all the agricultural research of the Philippines to the world, which eventually cured world hunger.

Of course, all the powerful countries rejected this proposal, Russia, USA, and China. At that time, with the Philippines financial power, it became one of the permanent members of the Security Council. And with that, the other two members of the Security Council, UK, and France, backed Ethan.

He was also backed by all African countries and many of the presidents who looked up at Ethan for his single-handed retrieval of the Philippines from its state of poverty. When the current presidents of Russia, USA, and China disagreed, Ethan, akin to a de-facto leader, rallied all the presidents to threaten the three superpowers to wage war upon them.

What can three superpowers do against the entire world? Left without any choice, Russia, USA, and China unwillingly agreed. From then on, Ethan has made sure that all countries were equal, and with the cooperation of all the countries, was able to bring all people in the world together equally and destroy all nuclear weapons. Every single country, no exceptions, has become a democratic-republic-meritocratic country. A time of peace has come. At least for the most part.

In truth, a lot of people were skeptical of this. Until it proved itself effective as the rapid advancement of technology has come so far and that global happiness index was absurdly high during the reign of the World Government.

Presently, Ethan Puting-Ilaw is deemed as a global hero, and upon his death in 2040 due to old age, he was honored for all eternity. December 1, the day of his death, is termed as World Peace Day, where all people paid tribute to the greatest leader the world has seen, Ethan Puting-Ilaw.