326 The Dolls

It was followed by the second and third spark of internal energy which flickered into existence within his subconscious perception.

A while later, the fiftieth and even the hundredth were sparkled before the number increased to that of which one could call uncountable.

…

Twenty-four hours passed. During this time, Virus remained in that unconscious state due to being extremely fatigued. However, when the clock had hit the twenty-fourth hour, at last, his eyelids started to tremble as slowly but surely, they were fluttered open.

"Ah…" Because of the intense headache he was suffering from, however, grabbing his forehead, he couldn't prevent a moan from escaping his mouth.

Then, looking around in confusion for a while, he murmured to himself, "What happened? Did I finally pass out?"

'I have to continue my meditation.' Thinking this line, he directly jumped into a sitting position as he was about to initiate his breathing technique once again. But just as he closed his eyes, he opened them wide-open immediately as he muttered, "What the…"

Closing his eyes for the second time, he promptly checked again.

"Oh…! No way," With his mouth agape, feeling disbelief, he voiced in a bewildered tone, "I-I'm already at the first level of Energy Disentanglement? Is there really this kind of good thing in the world? I tried breaking through and entering the first level of Energy Disentanglement for so many days, but there was no reaction or achievements whatsoever! Then I pass out due to exhausting myself too much. And luckily, I just happen to shatter the barrier and enter the first level automatically? In my sleep at that?"

He was truly feeling puzzled because this logic just felt irrational to him, 'Could it be the answer for breaking the entry barrier was exhausting myself beyond my limits? Hmm…'

'What could it be…?' As this addling notion appeared within his mind, shaking his head in the end, he stood up and left the room.

Sauntering outside though, he couldn't discover any traces of the golden beauty anywhere. So rather muddled, he directly connected to the private connection of 4 Times Square as he tried pinpointing her exact location. And as expected, he was indeed capable of discovering her current position.

'Eh, she's in the highest floor too… she's in the room right beside my own bedroom… but that place used to be empty.' While pondering these lines, he casually strolled before that specific door before pushing it open.

The moment he opened it, however, he was faced with a queen-size bed and lots of similar-looking dolls placed on the bed itself. The golden beauty too was, of course, currently laying on the bed as she was currently hugging one of the bigger dolls.

"Ehem," Seeing this strange scene, in order to notify her of his arrival, he cleared his throat. As expected, this resulted in the golden beauty promptly noticing his existence as she jumped into a sitting position on her bed.

"What's this room?" Virus inquired a bit awkwardly.

"Ah… master! Th-this is my room from now on! Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to decorate it a little. Though right now it only has this queen-size bed and th-these d-dolls alone." By the end of her sentence, her cheeks were clearly steaming red as she finished stutteringly.

"Um… those dolls," with his eyes fixed on the dolls, especially the one the golden beauty was still hugging, slightly tensed, he said.

"Y-yes?!" her tone clearly shaking a little, she bashfully questioned.

"They… am I imagining things, or do they really look like me?" he probed at a loss for words.

Promptly, as if the heat of her face had finally reached its boiling point, with steam emitting off her extremely flushed expression, she initiated a nonsensical fit of words in response, "Ha? What? Hehehe… of course not, master! Just because 'a' doll looks like you doesn't mean I would be buying it! Hehehe… master's being a dummy!"

Seeing her nervous reaction and realizing how distressed, lost, and shy she was feeling at the moment, with an amused grin creeping over his face, he wondered, 'How cute. I never said she bought it because it looks like me, but she's admitting it herself hahaha… but, it's not just 'a' doll, right? I mean, there are so many of them surrounding her.'

'Oh, is that so? Alright then. By the way," deciding to not embarrass her any more than she was already, Virus changed the topic, "how is the progression of the levels of your Purifying Stage? At which level are you currently?"

Letting out an unconscious sigh of relief that was visible to Virus eyes entirely, the golden beauty began answering, "About that… I've already perfected the external phase. Just two days ago, I was done finishing the 9th Level: Cleansing The Nervous System. Now, the only level that remains is the final internal phase level, Cleansing The Cells! But unfortunately, for that, I need to visit the underground world of the atoll since the tool related to that is placed there."

"Oh… is that so? So that's why you had so much time on your hands to…" at this point, once again, he fixed his gaze on the doll the golden beauty was still cuddling without herself even noticing.

Nevertheless, befuddled by his gaze, she lowered her head toward the ending point of his eyesight. But the next instant, this resulted in her face turning completely red again as she threw the doll on the bed in a hurry while trying her best to change the subject anxiously, "A-are you finished with your secluded training, master?"

To that, after a momentary pause, he replied while shaking his head, "Finished? Not even close. You could say I've just started. But… since the auction is going to be held in two days, I will stop for now."

"Oh, I see!" said the golden beauty with an understanding shine glimmering through her eyes.

"Yeah… actually, I intended to continue after eating something, but seeing how you need to travel to the atoll, I'll stop for now and accompany you there." Virus declared.