Matt breathed the cold air in. He was back in the dark streets of his hometown. He instantly became nervous, remembering the situation he now had to face.
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[Alert]
You have used the skill Mind Palace [LV. 1] for its maximum duration. Skill cooldown activated.
Cooldown: 24 Hours
__________
‘24 hours!?’
He realized there was no going back now. He had wondered earlier while he was still inside if he could just instantly reactivate it once back in the outside world, but now he had his answer.
‘Casual. Casual.’
He repeated the word in his head as he looked around. He saw the bar across the street and started to make his way there. He didn’t utilize his agility or shoes and just walked like a normal person.
‘I hope my shoes are fine. They just look like normal shoes. There’s no way to tell they’re enchanted right?’
He was only getting more nervous every step he took. He couldn’t even check the map to see how close the other player was. For all he knew, they were already here.
Matt steadily walked across the street using the crosswalk.
‘A model citizen is never suspicious, right?’
He took a few more steps onto the road before he saw something that made his heart jump into his throat.
At the end of the street, a few blocks away, there was a dark silhouette standing there. They weren’t moving, just standing there, facing the street.
‘Ok, no. I’m not dealing with this.’
Matt was starting to panic. There were a few other people on this street, so he knew his cover probably wasn’t blown, but there weren’t many. He wanted so badly to run to the bar or just run away, but he kept his cool.
‘Maybe that’s just an ordinary serial killer and not the one with the system.’
He would be perfectly happy to face a murderer that didn’t have a system. He felt like he could run away or even fight one super easily since he had a system. But he felt deep down, that the figure was the other player.
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Either way, no normal person just stands at the end of a dark street, unmoving. At this point, Matt was around halfway through the street. But something happened that made goosebumps form all over his body.
The figure started walking forward. Slowly. It seemed like they were looking around, but Matt didn’t look their way long enough, he didn’t dare draw attention.
They were heading toward his general direction, but not specifically, so he felt like they hadn’t seen him, or at least suspected him. Matt was so close to the other side of the street, that he wanted to just leap the rest of the distance and sprint inside the bar. But he knew that was just his nerves talking.
He finally placed one foot on the sidewalk, making it across the street. Now all that was left was to enter the bar and relax. He hoped that he would be safe there. It would be a pain to figure out who the other player was in a bar full of so many people.
Now all there was left was to walk to the bar. The only issue was, it was still a block away and to walk to it, he would have to turn his back to the shadowy figure. That was the worst feeling, not being able to see what’s behind you.
He knew if he glanced back, it would only draw suspicion too, so he gritted his teeth and turned right, toward the bar. He took step after step and time felt like it was dragging on.
‘Time feels like it moves faster in the mind palace than on this damn street!’
He was annoyed and just wanted to get to the bar. His fight or flight was kicking in knowing there was someone creepy behind him, even if they may have been far away.
Just as he was about to go crazy not being able to look behind him, he was at the bar. It glowed a bright comforting yellow and he could hear conversations and a sports game playing on TVs inside.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he walked toward the doors. But he felt a hand on his chest.
He looked up and realized he somehow missed that there was a big guy standing at the door. He was too nervous to notice earlier. The man spoke.
“ID?”
‘Shit, he wants my ID! I’m 18.’
“Uh, I lost it.”
He knew that was the lamest excuse ever. Why did this bar have a bouncer? It was just a crappy bar. But as he thought that, he noticed now that he was closer, that the bar was actually very nice. It seemed like a high-end establishment.
‘Why did it have to be this bar!?’
“Kid, you’re not getting in unless you got an ID that proves you’re at least 21.”
The man sighed.
“Wait. I am over 21! Please!”
At this point, he was starting to freak out. He didn’t want to stay out here in the dark with a creep nearby. Especially one with a system.
“Just get lost. You’re not fooling anyone kid.”
Matt sighed and decided he would just stay next to the bouncer. Maybe he could make it seem like he was one as well. But as he was about to stay, the big guy noticed he wasn’t leaving and simply pointed to a sign.
[No Loitering]
‘Oh come on!”
With a defeated look, Matt walked away from the bar. He thought that at this rate he should just walk back. There wasn’t much else to do. A couple of other people were around who also seemed like they were walking home, so it wasn’t a bad backup plan. He still didn’t look out of the ordinary compared to everyone else.
But suddenly he felt chills go down his body. Because he felt a hand on his shoulder.