Stark was now back at the place he was in before even entering the Secret Rift, and around him was still a fair amount of people as many were still discussing their next move with their teammates.
Of course, the moment he exited the rift, all eyes fell on him yet again, but no one said anything, instead it felt like… they were judging him.
“Our car is already waiting for us,” Lana said, her face still slightly flushed from Stark patting her head.
“Thanks, I really don’t like the atmosphere around here,” Stark was extremely tired even though he didn’t let it show, and all he wanted by now was to go back to his house to check out the remainder of the panels that had appeared when he reached level 25.
“Let’s go, then, climb inside the limousine, my friend!” Lana smiled as she opened the door of the black car and gestured for him to enter like a true gentleman, “Lads first!”
“…” Stark let out a quick smile, which almost made him forget about the battle against Judicator and the stare of the three moons that pierced his soul.
“Thank you my lady,” Stark bowed and entered inside the vehicle, then Lana did too and she sat right beside him.
Stark still had his bunny mask on, and he didn’t plan to remove it for a while, there was always the possibility of someone chasing after them to find his identity and get revenge after all.
“You know, Lana,” Stark began as he adjusted the leather straps of his seatbelt, “I think I did good inside the rift!”
“…” Lana was speechless, “Huh… yeah, I think you did good…?”
Was he seriously joking with her?
And so just like that, the car started moving, and the two of them began returning to Fellarburg.
***
“Zzzzz…” Stark slept rather quickly, it had not even been ten minutes since the car started up that his eyes were closed.
Lana on the other hand was far from tired.
She opened the ‘Highlight’ screen for the tenth time and checked all the replays from Stark.
She didn’t know why, but she had just acquired some sort of obsession with Stark’s fights: she found them beautiful.
His techniques, his skills, his ways of getting out of situations, and his unwavering determination, she enjoyed all of it.
Nobody knew that the person behind all of this was Stark Heartsouls except for her and the ‘Crimson Moon Squad’, and she actually felt proud to be able to have such a secret for herself!
Hours upon hours passed, and Lana kept rewatching Stark’s fight against Judicator.
The moment where his cut body suddenly began forming back was hypnotizing, and the way he killed the boss so quickly by completely dominating it was even better.
And yet… the person who did all of this was right beside her, sleeping.
Unconsciously thinking of that, Lana closed the replay screen and approached her beautiful face toward Stark’s.
‘…’ she kept looking at it for a good twenty minutes.
Until…
“We’ve arrived, my lady,” the driver suddenly announced, surprising Lana as she had been in a daze, and it was safe to say she probably would have kept looking at Stark for hours if there were no interruptions.
Lana quickly awoke from her stupor, too surprised to even register the statement from the driver.
She hastily turned her gaze away from Stark.
“Hm~” Stark woke up too since he sensed that the car stopped, “Did we arrive?”
“Yeah,” Lana nodded before smiling warmly at him, “We dropped you off in front of your hotel, so just go rest!”
“Oh? Thank you,” Stark left the car, and just as Lana said, they were right in front of his hotel.
“No problem, I’ll contact you later if anything comes up,” Lana waved goodbye to him with a small smile, her eyes lingering on Stark for a moment before she closed the window of the car and let out a sigh.
“Stark Heartsouls,” she mumbled under her breath, shaking her head slightly as if trying to clear her thoughts, he was a mysterious guy, and deep inside of her she realized that she didn’t really know anything about it beside that he was extremely strong, stronger than his level showed.
She hated to admit it, but he was also much stronger than her, and she felt like that no matter how much she extended her arm to reach for him, she would never be able to do that.
And so she began heading toward her mansion in the luxury district.
Back to Stark, he began to head towards the lobby of the hotel, until a realization hit him.
“Wait a damn minute, how does she know where I live-”
***
Stark didn’t waste time and climbed to his room, opening it thanks to his keys (which he put inside the inventory void) and then jumping on the bed.
But surprisingly, he wasn’t tired anymore.
‘Hm…’ Stark got up, he planned to sleep for a good two days again to make up for whatever happened inside that rift, but his body didn’t respond no matter how long he closed his eyes.
“Did my body adapt?” maybe his increase in level and stats had made it so that he didn’t need to sleep that long after each rift anymore, and that was a good thing.
No.
He was wrong.
And he knew it, instead he just decided to deny the truth.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t tired anymore, it was just that now that he had already slept inside the car, whenever he tried to close his eyes, the sight of the three crimson moons’ pupils looking at him greeted him.
[Funny human… it’s futile]
[You can’t escape us!]
[‘Godless’ will kill you!]
Even when he was far away, in the actual world, he could still hear their voices.
But in the end, it didn’t matter, since this small boost in adrenaline meant he didn’t need to sleep anymore.
And that meant one thing and one thing only…
“Open panels,” he mumbled, and suddenly, the remainder of the panels that he had minimized previously were there.
He wasn’t able to check them all inside the shadow monument since it was falling apart, but now that he was in the safety of his hotel room, he could do whatever he wanted!
He couldn’t deny it, but checking those panels brought immense excitement to him, like a child having to wait the night before opening his christmas gifts.
“First panel is…” his eyes wandered toward the first panel to the left, it was the one he hadn’t been able to read at that time.
[You have reached level 25, you can now initiate the ‘breakthrough’ sequence to increase the skill level limit from 10 to 15!]
‘Ohoh~ I knew that level 10 couldn’t be the last level, it wouldn’t make sense,’ Stark smiled, this meant that he could upgrade [Domination] and his other skills even more.
But he didn’t know what that breakthrough sequence was about, so he would need to check the internet or possibly go to the trader district to buy an item for it (if a panel didn’t explain it to him).
Feeling happy, he immediately looked to the right, toward the next panel.
And that’s when he saw it.
THE panel he had been waiting for…
[You have reached level 25, congratulations, you can now spin the ‘Class Wheel’ again!]
Hate to be that guy but can you (if you have time of course) drop a review on this novel? It would grealty help since you can only get ratings when you reach 10 reviews and I have no real way to get some, appreciate IT :D, any kind of review is okay!
