The clone Stark summoned was an exact replica of his body, face, and even clothes.
He sent it toward the black door as his [Focus] skill warned him that something was immensely wrong.
But there was a slight problem to that plan of his…
HOW WAS HE SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS ON THE OTHER SIDE?
Sending a clone was nice, and he would know if it died, but he actually needed a way to prepare for whatever awaited him on the other side.
He stood there for thirty seconds, rubbing his chin and wondering what he should do until…
[Close your eyes.]
‘…?’ a panel appeared before him, and Stark was confused, how could a panel unrelated to skills or anything suddenly appear?
But it was until looking at his clone that he noticed something: it was turning its head slightly toward him, its eyes locked on his figure, a small smile on its face.
He immediately understood that it was the clone itself that communicated with him as it wasn’t able to talk with its mouth.
Stark followed its advice and closed his eyes.
And the moment he did, another panel greeted him.
[Now focus all of your aura, and think about being in my position as hard as you can!]
‘…’ Stark’s aura began to flow around his entire body, and soon enough reached his eyes.
Then he focused on the clone ahead, sending the aura in his eyes toward it.
[Now open them back up!]
He didn’t understand what any of this could do, it seemed utterly useless in his opinion.
And yet…
“HUH?” When he opened his eyes, he was no longer looking through his own eyes, but through the eyes of the clone.
No… it’s not that he was looking through his clone’s eyes… HE WAS CONTROLLING IT!
He moved his left hand upward to make sure that all his sensations were correct, and as expected, his hand did the exact movement he wanted it to do.
No doubts anymore, he was controlling that clone.
But if he was controlling it, then what was his original body doing…?
He looked behind him, and saw that the original Stark was still standing, he was just looking at the ground, an emotionless and lifeless expression on his face, his crimson eyes void of any light.
‘Creepy…’ he shrugged, but hopefully his body would just stay safe inside of the memories museum.
The clone Stark now controlled moved towards the black door, guided by the consciousness of the real Stark.
The moment he put his hand on the handle again though…
[Imminent danger on the other side, be careful!]
‘That’s why i’m using a clone… duh…’ he closed the panel and opened the door, ‘Here goes nothing…’
***
~FWISH~
Inside of the hotel room, the black door that led to the memories museum appeared back in the middle of the room, fading in like it was always here.
And suddenly, that ominous door with its dark aura opened, revealing Stark coming out from it, a blank expression on his face.
“…” Stark looked around while trying to seem as unsuspicious as possible, but there was nobody around.
If it wasn’t for [Focus] actively warning him about the presence of intruders, he would have surely not known.
‘Are they waiting for me to sleep to finish me off?’ he pondered, but it seemed unlikely.
After all, Stark could sense the aura in the air, and he was confident that they were much stronger than he was, if he was stronger he would quite literally just come out in his real body and beat their asses.
But Stark didn’t like to take risks when they were unneeded, and he was safe inside of the memories museum.
So he did something the intruders didn’t expect him to do: call out for them.
There were 5 of them, and each of them hid somewhere close, yet too hard for Stark to notice under normal circumstances.
It was safe to say they knew exactly what they were doing.
And Stark didn’t think of it before, but their aura felt strangely familiar…
‘Domination…’ he thought of this word as he walked toward his kitchen, there was no denying at least one of them was from the domination class… and maybe even more…?
But no, he didn’t want to just sit there and wait.
“Please come out, if you wanted to kill me you would have already done it,” he spoke out loud, grabbing a drink from his fridge.
He obviously couldn’t drink or eat as he was only controlling a clone, but the goal of everything he was doing was to make it seem like he wasn’t surprised or even scared of them.
His voice carried through the room, echoing off the walls and creating an eerie silence that seemed to stretch on forever.
Stark waited, his senses on high alert, waiting for any sign of movement or a response to his call.
A few seconds passed, and the moment Stark wanted to call again…
“Shit… didn’t know that kid was smart enough to notice us!” a voice could be heard
“Should have expected it from a high potential individual!” another answered.
And then…
Five figures emerged from different spots of his room: each of them cloaked in a dark, swirling aura that seemed to bend the very light around them.
They were wearing casual clothes, and their faces were visible, but their bodies appeared from the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling, it was as if they had merged with the texture of his room to hide.
“Told you it wouldn’t work!” a woman with long black hair laughed, slapping the guy on her left.
“Pss… anybody would of fallen for it,” he was fairly tall, reaching 190cm, and had very defined mucles, his head was balding though, and the light on the ceiling was shining on his empty head.
“I mean… what even is that door, we thought he was out of the city or country, but what the hell is that?” another man with grey hair, yellow eyes, and big circular glasses mumbled, rubbing his chin.
“Portable dimension maybe? Wouldn’t be surprising knowing what he did or must have experienced…” a second woman with a bob cut and purple hair sighed, she had a staff in her hands, and she was spinning it like it was a blade.
“…” the guy on the middle though wasn’t speaking, he had a well defined face although he looked older than the others, and had short white hair that went in all sort of directions, clearly not kept well (or maybe since he always fights?).
But what Stark noticed with him wasn’t his clothes, or even the fact he had a katana in his left hand, but his eyes…
Just like Stark’s original body, which he left inside the memories museum, his eyes were devoid of any light, almost as if he was lifeless.
“Let’s just get down to business,” he sighed, his voice just as lifeless as his eyes.
And then…
~FWISH~
The purple-haired girl used her staff to send a magic arrow at Stark.
‘AH SHIT? THEY WANT TO FIGHT!’
If it wasn’t yet again for [Focus] which allowed him to see the arrow come a few instants before it hit him, his clone would have probably just died.
Stark folded his body backward to avoid the arrow, which came crashing against the wall behind him and destroyed it.
“HEY, I’M GONNA HAVE TO PAY FOR THAT!” he shouted at her while pointing at the damage she had caused.
“Calm down, Yui, we aren’t here to fight…” the leader gently smiled and sat on a chair around the main table, while the other four just stood behind him, staring down at Stark.
