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New Mission Added (1):
Register for the Lake of Towering Greens’ Arena and participate.
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When the last few hundred yards were some peace and quiet as the entire group braced themselves before the arena began, only for a mission popped up right within Julius’s visuals nearly triggered him. It has been days since the first ever mission appeared and was about figuring out the problem only for it to come up. He felt disappointed with it since the world had changed quickly in the past few days, despite working on a lot of paperwork and official acts.
Hu came through the telepath, the first in a long while. At least she is doing well. Julius bluntly thought.
“What’s with the silent treatment?” Hu said.
Julius’s eyebrows twitched. “I didn’t even say anything. Also, you’ve been dead silent for the past few days. Not even a hello?”
“I’m busy. I have my reasons.”
“Busy…Ok, then. So, what were you doing this past week?”
“I was working on the time distortion problem. I knew you had a two-week gap at that moment, so I went to work. It was only until recently during this week I might have a lead. The solution I crafted will be applied tomorrow if it goes to plan.”
Julius stopped and went looking for a spot, as he was right outside of the arena’s premises.
“Where are you going?” Celeste asked, catching up to him from behind.
“I need a moment,” Julius replied, pointing to his head before turning away. He found an empty bench right at the concrete fence, bordering a part of the lake that connects to the arena’s walls. He sat down on the bench, continuing the conversation with Hu. “Is it not two weeks anymore?”
“I expected it to be a day’s margin of error.”
“Wish it could have been less, but that will have to do. One more thing before I go in there, about the missions. Why only appears now?”
There was a brief silence. During the moment, Julius stared back at the group, appearing impatient.
“Did I not tell you? Shoot, alright. I’ll make it short. The whole update changed the distribution of the missions outside of the Merit Universe. It becomes more focused on it rather than the world of Raal. Only a few would matter, but that’s the easiest way to say it, as it is a kind of complicated and unpredictable.”
Julius sighed, sharing no sense of enthrallment. “Complicated. Geez, thanks for telling me. Let me interpret this. So, missions are more for the Merit Universe. Got it. While every other feature or the system capabilities remained the same but better, right?”
“Yes, that I can guarantee. All the primary functions are more updated to supplement your journey and adapt to this world fairer squarely.”
“By the time you are certain you are ready, should I bring the others in?”
“If you can, yes. They needed to be updated, too.”
“That’s all I needed…thanks.”
“Are you mad at me?” Hu asked.
Julius ignored her comment, standing up from the benches. He walked up to Celeste and his two cousins, nodding and ready to enter the arena. Others impatiently waited and walked in circles, feeling thrilled, and sped through the crowd, leaving Julius and the three staring at them marching right in.
Tang Cheng turned back right to Julius, wanting to blurt out as he was holding it in behind his bloated mouth. “Be careful going in there. Our family has some of the most menacing and cruel relatives around. If you have to, do what you have to and help our mother too; your aunt.”
“I’ll try. But we only met for nearly half an hour. Why are you trusting me?”
“Remember when I said, ‘testing you’, that’s literally what I meant. I had noted you didn’t budge to fight, and we were both still lost. That alone is enough for me and Tang Li-Mei to make that decision.”
“Anything else you need to tell me?” Julius muttered while noticing the attention from the entrance right at him.
Tang Cheng saw Julius’s attention focused away, and he turned right at the entrance, noticing a few cultivators began to look away when he saw them. “It seems you have made some potential enemies. To be expected, when our fight drew wide attention.”
“Enemies are always certain. It's only a matter of time before they give up being the enemy,” Julius said, sensing multiple traces of relics. “More relics, I sensed, over there. Hmmm.” He strolled right to the entrance, picking up the pace. The rest sprinted along.
He swiftly passed through the open spaces of the crowded traffic, dashing through the entrance to find a long line. Julius scanned the premises, realizing that he and others had to cross through to the right side of the columns of lines. Written in characters right on the board high up in the air like a menu display, the left was for the customers, which was where he is currently at. On the opposite side was where the register for contestants took place. Bizarrely, that side was slow. This section of the arena was enveloped, as Julius felt the lack of air circulation. The lack of proper lighting was also tedious. A minute of standing in a line was all the time needed to give a shower feeling, soaking sweaty amounts of water. He had to wipe around his eyes as it was disturbing.
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It was dangerously quiet. Everyone in front of the line looked dreaded. They were more suffering with the aliment than Julius was. He glared back at his group. Tang Li-Mei started to breathe hard, appearing in desperate need of oxygen. She got the worst of the symptoms from the ailment, whereas others only experienced sweating.
Julius’s heart was racing, not from conditions but from stress. His eyes constantly staring and pinpointing everywhere he could see. Nobody is moving. Far ahead, where he could barely see the first person of each line, the staff at the counters looked robotic. Not appear as one but acted like a textbook, following directions one by one as if it was programmed to do the duty. He doesn’t even need to zoom his optics. He has had enough, not wanting his cousin to be feeling sleepy.
He slid his hand to his hidden holster, underneath the flap of his dragon-vinyl overcoat. As he was about to grab the hilt, the line began to move. A couple of people came out from their prior lines, and all walked through the center hallway that was directed inward, dividing the two counters. Screw this.
Bang!
The entire line startled and leaped down a second after the first few bullets fired from Julius’s SIG P210. He shot at a couple of walls; two directly above the entrance and one above the counter. The sound of air came swirling inside, loud as an AC. Cool air came in and quickly healed the suffering lines. The synergy of the crowd immediately increased, the robotic workers became human again, and normalcy returned to talking abruptly throughout the lobby.
“What the fuck is going on?!” a loud voice echoed from the hallway, followed by rapid thumping along the tiled floors. He looks pretty mean. Julius thought after a few moments of staring at the man, who was dressed in more elegant clothing. A ragged beard and a bull-punching face, if that is the nicest Julius could think of.
Julius gave Tang Li-Mei a water bottle. As she grabbed it, Tang Cheng told him about the man. It turned out he was one of the managers that hosted this year’s annual fight at the arena. His reputation was historical in the worst ways. Nobody liked him and regular viewers tended to freak out if he blurted out in rage at their faces, similar to the ones’ reaction who have a phobia towards insects.
While listening, he felt a tap on his shoulders, and he turned back. There he was, standing at almost eye level with Julius, and everyone in their lines turned their eyes right at the two. Julius was unfazed by the supposedly fearful presence this manager emitted to others.
It went tranquil again. Julius and the manager didn’t let their eyes go away an inch. No blinking or a single flinch. Nobody knew for sure what was going to happen next. Not to mention, the vibe was so eerie that Julius’s mind became dangerously impatient. He was certain his neurons were gonna trigger any moment, and his right hand was still holding onto the grip with the index finger tickling the trigger.
Bang! Bang!
“Grhh!” The manager’s beer body tumbled rock hard to the floor. He gasped from the pain at the wound inflicted by the preciseness Julius’s pistol shot through. Julius went up right at the spot he fired, witnessing the bloody dripping squirts of a jug. The manager’s scream was unique, not as a compliment but as pretty insulting. All it took was two bullets, ending his role in this mysterious society. Julius analyzed the infliction, quickly concluding to be fatal. So, he casually shot him in the head, splattering the brain and entire skull. He left the headless body lying on the floor, moving away from the spot.
The vibe switched again, a few jumping out from the crowd and went for the shot at Julius. He danced through the empty space, pumping out his qi before firing the remaining rounds of his magazine. The qi traced bullets strike at their arms, near the shoulder. At the moment of being struck, they were knocked out cold, followed by a dashing speed that spewed them right to the entrance doors, shattering the wood into shards and crashing hard on the concrete.
“Dude! That was unnecessary!” Tang Cheng yelled in distraught.
“Oh, please. Don’t tell me you have morals when you are about to get attacked?”
“I need you to relax. We haven’t got through the registry of the arena, and you are putting yourself in the spotlight too much right now!”
“I don’t want to hear you saying that when you and Tang Li-Mei ‘tested’ me back near the intersection leading back outside.”
“Hey! Don’t bring this into—”
“That’s enough,” another voice coming from the hallway. The echoing of feet tapping among the tile floors was calmer and at a consistent pace. From the darkness void of the hallway, an hourglass silhouette appeared. The lighting from outside dispersed the dark, revealing a lady with her prominent oval-shaped face and a unique type of flawed beauty. She wore the exact cloak Tang Cheng and Li-Mei had but did not cover her head like a hoodie. Her sense of fashion was also her notable feature. A few back on earth would call it strange. They called it strange only because she wore a long turquoise dress with a navy-blue coat. Adding along with ankle-high black boots.
“Mother,” Tang Cheng muttered and bowed.
So, this is my aunt? Julius gauged her of any other facial features for similarities. Tang Cheng wasn’t lying. She had a deformity spot at the back of her right jaw. It was wider and hollower to see a darker shade in contrast to her complex olive skin. She purposely showed it to Julius when she caught his eye, analyzing her. Julius nodded, prompting her to pull the neck part of the cloak back up to that side of her face.
“Hello, Aunt,” Julius greeted while placing his pistol back into his holster.
“So, you are his boy,” she muttered in a motherly tone similar to Mother Elaine. She positioned her entire hand under his jaw, touching his neck. Like how he analyzed her face, she did the same thing. “You surely are him. Got the strong jaw and mouth. However, you got the eyes and nose of your mother.”
Julius’s aunt suddenly gripped hard like wanting to hold him by the neck, triggering Julius by thrusting his arm and grabbing her wrist tight like a clamp. “What’s wrong with me? You look disappointed. Is it because I’m his son?” he questioned while raising his qi’s pressure.
She suddenly let her grip go while Julius refused to let himself depart from her wrist.
“You wouldn’t know a damn thing about what your father has done,” she grunted through her motherly tone of voice.
“Of course, it has been more than fifteen years since he died. What do you expect from a young teenage child who never got the opportunity to bond with his parents in desperate times? He had been living alone ever since without any hidden family secrets and thought a large family of relatives was a lie. Either accept it or I’ll make you and the whole family will.”
“I’ll give you credit. Now let me go,” she insisted.
Julius held it for a little longer before a tap from Tang Cheng, which was when he finally let go.
“My name is Tang Yifei,” she added and twirled away, inviting Julius and others to join for a walk.
“What about—”
Yifei glared at Cheng. “Son, don’t worry about it. I already put your names and others in.”
Julius followed right behind her as she took the group into the dark void of a hallway.