“Oh my, was that your little secret?” Old Luke teasingly looked at the sulking Hao Xu, who was sitting on the chair shirtless, looking out of place.

“What do you think of my keen eye?” He pointed one finger on his left eye, before wrapping his other arm around the back of the chair with a smug face.

“...” Hao Xu took his arm off the table, intending to get up from his seat and leave.

“Don’t you want to know more about Stellar? From the look of it, you’ve only recently awaken your abilities… Is that why you’re in that state?” Old Luke observe Hao Xu head to toes, letting out an innocent out-cry as he lamented.

“For an old man one foot in his grave, you sure talks a lot of nonsense.” Hao Xu sat back down, sneering inwardly to himself.

‘Keen eye your mother, It’s not Stellar I’m telling you! It’s Interface! Interface!’

However, Hao Xu did not correct his misunderstanding, clearly for a reason, and just to let the old man get ahead of himself.

“Ahem. Stellar, lets just say ‘we’ are special.” Old Luke returned to topic, unaware of the curses in Hao Xu mind.

“We?” Hao Xu came to a realization from his wording.

“Ain’t I awesome? I’m a Stellar like you, Hahaha!” Once again, Hao Xu couldn’t help but smack his smug face as he was laughing.

At this moment, the pub was quite noisy, crowded as all the table filled to the brim. The bartender at the counter pour an array of liquid, with some red, some yellow, and green together as he mingle them together, like kneading a dough.

The sound of the shaker dangling left to right, was little in the midst of all the noise, but it added a little charm to the atmospheric ambience to the pub as Old Luke laugh barely attract any attention.

“Here’s your serving of Bloody Mary…” The waiter handed a glass filled with blood, with greenery sticking out from the top, pausing his word when looking Hao Xu.

“And a Coffee.”

“Thanks.”

After the waiter left, Old Luke took a sip from the glass, staining his otherwise already cherry lips.

“Stellar are quite extraordinary, in fact, some would even call them Extraordinary, and some—” He paused, moving his face closer to Hao Xu.

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“Call them Devils.” Hao Xu almost spit out his coffee on his face as Old Luke moved back. He couldn’t help but cough for a moment to digest the drink down his throat.

“We are granted some peculiar little tricks. At a cost.” He ignored Hao Xu struggle to breathe and continued as if Hao Xu wasn’t dying at the moment.

“There are those who gain power through training, we call them Grade. Then there are those who are Stellar, but even Stellar are graded. Not even the first Stellar have a clue about what Stellar is, why they exist.” Hao Xu nodded. This is the first time he have encounter this information ever since coming to this foreign land.

This explained why Moriarty was shocked at the fact that Hao Xu was a Stellar. No one know what Stellar is, how Stellar came to be, and why they exist, therefore, he can conclude that there’s no possible way to intentionally produce a Stellar.

From what he know during his restrained state, [Vial D] is an experiment related to Stellar, and through some method, it’s possible to make a Stellar — To which he could only shake at his head at.

Only he himself knew that he was not a Stellar, or 01 for that matter, he was Hao Xu — A Quantum network user.

In the eyes of Moriarty, 01 became a Stellar due to [Vial D] drugs. Therefore, he must be captured at all cost to eliminate any living evidence, moreover, using his body as living rats to figure out how and why the drug worked.

“What’s with that look? You want more coffee?” Old Luke wave his hand back and forth in front of Hao Xu, seeing the frown look in his eyes as he sip the last drop of his drink.

Hao Xu snapped back, gazing at Luke's mellow silver pupil as they make an eye contact.

“Price?” Remembering Old Luke words, he intentionally spoke out loud.

“All Stellar have a price. From the look of it, you’ve only recently awaken, so your price is not apparent as of now. When you grow stronger, stepping past that door, you will know.” For once, Hao Xu saw the gloomy reminiscent look on his wrinkled face, a demeanor he was not used to.

Hao Xu thought about his words for a moment, then simply cast it aside. He was not a Stellar, simply someone with a Interface. Others might misjudge what he is, but that’s also not half-bad, this way, he can blend in with the rest.

Meanwhile, Old Luke reach into his chest pocket, where the bottle of alcohol was sitting. Hao Xu saw the hesitation in his eyes, lasted for only a split second but he continued.

“Is that money for the drinks?” Obviously, it was not a normal coin he pulled out, as it looked way too exquisite for it to be a common currency. Right beneath the coin, was a piece of parchment, white in color and smaller than the size of his palm.

“No. This place… have the answer to your question, it’s up to you if you want to go there.” Old Luke slide the coin with the piece of parchment on the table toward Hao Xu. From the look of his rough textured finger, he was no ordinary businessman nor thug, this left Hao Xu wondering more.

Before he could make think about what he just said, Luke stood from his seat.

Ding!

A coin flicked from Old Luke finger, very small when floating in front of Old Luke thin stature, but looks eye-catching as it protrudes from the dark-tone of his cloak color.

After Luke left the hub, Hao Xu sat at the table by himself, fiddling with the coin in his hand, while taking the parchment away from the table.

“Why did he just leave so suddenly?” Hao Xu picked up the coin and put it closer to his eyes, remembering Old Luke words as he was left with a choice to make.

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