Regardless, throwing one last glance at the corpse of the butterfly monster, Virus turned around before taking his leave. He didn't even bother trying to sell its carcass for some meager profit, because honestly, he didn't value that amount of money in the least.
Frankly, not even billions of dollars attracted his attention to itself these days because to him, money was merely just that. Money. Countless pieces of worthless paper. Something completely worthless when you had too much of it.
After that, coming to Chicago city, he spent the night in a luxurious hotel until the following day.
…
Siiip~
Drinking one last mouthful of his tea, standing up, Virus went into motion as he left the hotel toward the four-star Rift. He was having great expectations for this particular day of importance.
…
'Hmm, the Rift should be activating in around ten minutes…' While standing before the Rift which was still irresponsive, Virus quietly calculated the rough amount of time before its anticipated eruption.
'If my hypothesis is proven to be true after this, in order to experience a fast rise in my cultivation, I will have three optimum options to pick from. But prior to that-'
Before he could even finish his train of thought, however, a loud alarm interrupted his peace. "GUILD MASTER REIGN, HE'S HERE."
Looking in the direction of the source of the noise, Virus eyes met with a man who was screaming toward a seemingly expensive van at the far distance.
And indeed, as a result of his shouting, the door of the huge van was pushed open as another man, followed by two ladies, exited it as they began walking toward him in a leisurely manner.
Soon, led by the man, the trio was standing in some distance very close to Virus.
Meanwhile, after a brief examination of the face of this 26 or 27 years looking man, Virus's line of sight moved on to the two women.
However, that immediately kindled some flickers of surprise in his expression. That was because he recognized the faces of both women.
He was somewhat disturbed because one of them was the 'Thread-mistress' while the other one was 'her'… Ella.
At the same time, the two women also clearly flinched as if they had just recalled or realized something.
"Are you the one who bought out our Rift, young man?" Taking on a cold tone which was screaming arrogance, the man in the lead questioned next.
Withdrawing his focus from the face of the two women due to the interruption by this arrogant man, while pointing at the Rift behind himself, Virus finally opened his mouth, "If you're talking about this bad boy right here… then yes. It was me."
Finished introducing himself, as if he could already see Virus's hilarious reaction of escaping with his tail between his legs, while gesturing 'you are dismissed' with his fingers, he declared, "Now that you know me, you can go away. The Dominators will take it from here on. And don't worry by the way, I'll be the bigger man here and let it slide this time around. So… just know that no offense was taken. You can leave totally relaxed."
By this point, Virus wasn't even listening to the nonsensical gibberish of this so-called leader of the Dominators guild who had named himself Reign. This was because he felt like his IQ would drop if he listened to this man's crap any longer. Instead, his eyes were once again focused on the face of the woman on the right, aka Thread-mistress, as he said with a wide grin, "It's been a while, how have you been, I wonder?"
This, however, instantly forced the Thread-mistress to flinch as she recalled a certain unpleasant memory. "So it is really you! I thought my mind was playing games with me after seeing you… but it really is you! You crazy pervert bastard!"
"Haha… nice to meet you too. I've been great as well, thanks for asking." Feeling amused, Virus responded with a burst of loud laughter.
Meanwhile, the other woman's expression seemed to have long gone pale as she could only stare at Virus's face without taking them off, not even for a second. She was frozen still in that position.
'It's really him! I had my doubts at first… b-but that face, those dark eyes, and dark hair… it's that face from that time, i-it's definitely… him.' She pondered simultaneously while great waves were wreaking havoc inside her.
'W-What should I say to him now? B-but why isn't he even looking at me? His eyes only lingered on my figure just for a second before he retracted them entirely. He hasn't even spared me a single glance since then…'
'Could it be… he feels like I don't even deserve his mere glance anymore?'
Indeed, just as the woman on the left, Ella, had noticed, Virus's eyes had merely grazed past her face for the briefest of time before he no longer looked her way anymore. It was as if she no longer existed there at all.
This was because after catching the sight of those mesmerizing green eyes and long hair of hers, Virus had promptly shed light on her identity. And having already identified her, for some unknown reasons, his eyesight began avoiding her entirely.
"Why are you still here, lad? Quit bullshitting my companion and leave instead, do you hear me?" Being ignored once, Reign didn't feel much and instead assumed that he must've behaved like that due to spotting the Thread-mistress, therefore, he urged him to leave once again.
Unfortunately, however, he was ignored once more as Virus talked to the Thread-mistress again.
"So you've joined the Dominators, huh?" There was a shallow smirk being exhibited from the corner of his lips too.
"Yeah! But so what! What does that have to do with you exactly?!" Came her rude reply immediately.
"Y-You! Are you fucking ignoring me, lad?" In the meantime, being ignored not only once, but twice, Reign's facial expression was contorting so much that it had an odd resemblance to the face of an angered wolf by this point. The thought of being ignored like that was making him so enraged that he was even considering attacking him directly.
This was because watching Virus's body language and tone, he had now confirmed that he was intentionally disregarding him as an act of rejecting his offer of leaving the area peacefully.
Meanwhile, the body of the woman on the left, Ella, was shuddering somewhat while she wondered, 'Why is he ignoring me like that?'
'B-But, p-perhaps, could it be… every question he asked the Thread-mistress was in fact directed at me?'
'Although it sounds crazy of me to say this, it really felt that way, I-I can feel it.' Unconsciously putting her hand on her aching heart, Ella assumed.
Today, once again, the lovers of yesterday were finally going through another reunion. A reunion followed by possibly many undefined connotations and undertoned feelings.