CHAPTER 24: 18 hours left till Day-2 of Alpha Program

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I reappeared in the same spot from where I disappeared, and once again, I had the urge to vomit from the teleportation, but it was a lot less than the last time.

In a few seconds, the nauseous feeling vanished, and I checked my mini trekking bag to find if the items from Trial World could be brought back to Earth or not.

To my fortune, the 3 [Lesser Stamina Fruits] and 2 [High Vitality Fruits] were still present in my bag.

Talking about my Spirit Items, I still had the [Adhesive Boots] to my feet. The lifelike Golden tattoo was present on my chest, and with the [Stream Wind Sword] floating so close behind me, it looked like I was carrying it on my back.

As to why the [Stream Wind Sword] kept on floating alongside my back was because of a useful function of the passive skill [Wind Sheath].

Because of the bonds, I formed with the Spirit Items; I could feel all the mental connections I have with them.

But the only exception was the Common Grade [Rusty Short Sword], as it was still in Trial World, and I could barely feel the mental connection I have with it.

I thought little about it and moved towards the closest window and opened them as a gentle cool breeze poured through my window.

Mist and fog covered the outside view. Even though it was hazy, I could clearly see farther distances with my heightened vision from increased Spirit Attribute.

In the park across the street, I could see the couples walking briskly in tracksuits and sports shoes.

There were also groups of elders gossiping and laughing among themselves. I saw youngsters wearing earphones and jogging to their favourite songs.

I could hear the leaf rustles of the trees in the park against the cold draught of wind and the chirping of the birds in great detail as they flew from one branch of a tree to another.

Amidst the sheet of thin white fog, the colourful flowers in the park looked beautiful, and I could even smell the fresh fragrance of the flowers in the park just by looking through my window.

I could tell it was the early morning from the surrounding scenery, but to check the exact time and date, I entered my bedroom and picked up my phone from the table beside my bed.

It was sharp 6 a.m.on January 1st, 2022. That means only 6 hours passed on Earth, while I experienced 24 hours on Trial World, and it showed me that the time in the Trial World flows 4 times slower than on Earth.

I looked at the top left of my vision. The mini transparent notification that always indicates the time and day in Trial World was frozen after the end of Day-1.

Alpha Program Day-2 00:00:00

I guessed that the time of Day-2 would resume when I get teleported to the Trial World.

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From that, I turned my attention towards the new transparent notification that appeared just below it, which showed the time left before I get teleported back to the Trial World.

Time left: 17:59:24 (hr:min:sec)

That meant I would get teleported at night at 12 o'clock like the last time. I didn’t know whether this on and off teleportation between Earth and Trial World would happen every day or a periodic event that happens once a few days.

So, In these 18 hours, I had to prepare for the bad-case scenario where I only get teleported once in a week or a month or maybe even a year.

While I was thinking about it, I looked at my reflection in the full-length mirror in front of me.

The first thing that caught my attention was my pair of piercing silver eyes, which had tiny bolts of silver-coloured aura flowing on top of them. Then I looked at the silver-coloured hair that has a bit of dark shade in it.

Similar to my eyes, the tiny bolts of silver aura were also flowing on the surface of my hair.

Back when I first entered [INVERSE] mode, I noticed that my hair colour turned to silver as I could see my hair as it was long enough to be visible in my vision.

But I didn't find the change in my eye's iris colour since I didn't have any mirror in Trial World.

At first, it was quite unusual to look at my silver-coloured hair and eyes but as a few seconds passed; I grew accustomed to my fresh look in [INVERSE] mode.

The reason for me still being in the [INVERSE] mode was because when I was undergoing Tier-2 Evolution in the unknown pitch-black space, the timer for [INVERSE] froze in its tracks and only resumed when the evolution completed.

So, even coming back to earth, I still had 5 minutes left in the duration of [INVERSE] mode.

I tried to exit from the [INVERSE] mode, but that didn’t work, and the only way that remained was to wait it out for the remaining 5 minutes.

But with the dirt and bloodstains that were all over my body, I didn't wait and entered the restroom to take a shower, while I was still in the [INVERSE] mode.

When I was taking a shower, the tiny bolts of silver aura acted up. The water droplets that drizzled over my silver hair instantly evaporated with a hissing sound, and that was the same case when water passed over the eyelids of my silver eyes.

I didn’t know why such a phenomenon occurred, but when I touched my silver hair with fingers, nothing happened to me.

So, I didn’t dwell on it any longer and left it to check out later.

I positioned the showerhead in an angle so that the water droplets don't fall over my head and continued my bath.

For me, who can experience 5 standard minutes as 30 minutes, it was rather satisfying to bathe while watching the water drops fall in slow-motion.

After my bath, I tried to put on a T-shirt, and once it touched my hair; It got burnt to ashes in a fraction of a second.

With that, I improvised and wore a buttoned shirt and reminded myself not to let any object touch my silver hair and wore a matching pant for the shirt I wore.

I still had 2 more minutes before the duration of the [INVERSE] mode ends.

With me being in the state of [Harmony] my body adjusted to the increased time perception, but my mind wasn’t adequately accustomed with the flow of time that was 6.2 times slower.

Even though I could use a trick that fast forwards my thought process, so it brings an illusion of a standard time flow, I didn’t use that since it takes quite a toll on my mind.

So, the remaining 2 standard minutes were equal to 11.4 minutes for me. Instead of just idly waiting, I opened my [STATUS] tab and went through the skill section.

Without going through any other skill that I obtained in the past hour; I concentrated on the Epic Grade Skill, [Personal Soul A.I] to merge with it.

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