Chapter 342 A Silent Return

Chapter 342 A Silent Return

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Within a few minutes, Roger and Dale left the strange city, meeting with Mei before returning to the airport where their ticket back home waited to depart.

Albeit his stay was short, Dale's understanding of the world had considerably expanded, and regardless if his worries had increased or not, he could now focus wholeheartedly on his training.

Throughout the last two months of his stay in Azimuth, Dale had difficulty truly focusing on training due to his worries and the expectations for the trip.

And although the impact of that was minimal in his day-to-day life, it was still noticeable for those with keen eyes.

At least now, he could continue to explore Azimuth and train himself while proceeding with his development of Resko and its inhabitants, leading them toward a brighter future.

Everything went according to his original plan, and his goal was achieved, though not everything was crossed out of his to-do list.

Either way, it was now time to log back in and resume his life as a hardcore gamer who spent all of his time inside his Pod...

"..."

'I'm tired.'

Still... Now that he had accomplished what he came here to do, exhaustion hit as Dale felt his eyelids grow heavy.

A desire to yawn slowly crept upon him, causing him to fall into his own thoughts, diving deeper into his consciousness...

'... For the past few weeks, I cut quite a bit of my real-life sleep to maximize my training schedule... But even with my body, I guess I still pushed it beyond its tolerance zone.'

'I need to take a few days off and relax... Well... Now that everything's done...'

'The only thing left for me is to...'

"ZZzzz..."

Closing his eyes, Dale slept the entire way back from South to North America.

It wasn't a long rest by any means, but it gave him some respite nonetheless.

/Tick tock.../

The minutes turned into an hour as the Orbital craft flew high in the skies, parting the horizon as it chased after the sun...

"... Urg."

Meanwhile, Roger and Mei sat at the far end of the craft, having just received an update from their agents back at their destination.

And from Roger's livid expression, things didn't look good.

"... This is bad." Roger said out loud as he closed his eyes, thinking about what to do

'This could lead to a War.'

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/Around an hour and a half later.../

/SHIUMMM.../

Like a gentle swan, the Orbital craft slowly descended onto the ground, landing on the airport it had departed not so long ago, it's rightful home.

Inside, Dale woke up naturally, feeling that something had changed.

"Yawwwn... Huff..."

"Phew... We're here." Dale said out loud as he cracked his neck

He checked the windows on the side, being met with the view of a large structure, there was no need to think deeply about it, he was home.

Well, a few Kilometers from it but still...

"Hm... Anyway..."

There was only one problem, however...

"I thought you were trying to be low-key after last time; can you even be here out in the open like that?" He asked Roger as they left the Orbital Craft through an elevator on the side, Mei right behind them

From everything he knew, Dale believed Roger was someone with not too much freedom of movement, or better put, he was like a large elephant trying to walk through a forest at night.

Everyone of his steps would cause the trees and leaves around him to shake.

And the birds wouldn't appreciate such a thing.

/Bzzz.../

Even so, as the minutes passed and Mei kept changing radio channels, there was no mention at all of any events happening in the city, causing Dale to wonder.

"Well... Doesn't matter, I'll find out eventually anyway." He said with a sigh as he rested his head against his seat

Although he said that, keeping his expression relaxed, Dale felt a severe sense of nausea.

He was missing something and it was triggering his body.

'I want to go home... At this rate I think I'll vomit.'

'Was I poisoned? If this persists I'll tell Roger about it.'

'Better be safe than sorry.'

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/Later.../

After an hour on the road, moving through the heavy traffic, they finally arrived at their destination, just a street away from his home.

Originally, they were meant to stop right next to it, but there was a problem...

That was because...

"!!!"

As Dale left the car, the first thing he felt was the intense smell of smoke and burning objects.

A mix of all kinds of things, from wood to oil.

The sky was covered in dark smoke, the ground was covered in fragmented rocks, and everywhere he looked, he saw some degree of destruction and chaos.

It was just like when he was ambushed.

"..."

Tracing the source of the destruction across the street, Dale's expression slowly went from neutral to sharp, his fists clenching as he began to lose control of himself.

He slowly lost his composure, worry, anger, and other radical emotions began to overwhelm his cultivated patience and calmness.

"Dale... Not here." Roger said out loud as he touched Dale's shoulder, pulling the latter back from his silent thinking

"I'll explain on the way back, don't lose your cool now, there are too many watching."

Just as he said, everywhere he looked he saw people moving and sitting around, some on the windows of their homes, others on the street, on the ground taking cover, trembling in fear, injured, or receiving first aid from medics and doctors on the field.

There were dozens of police cars, firefighters, and ambulances lying around, together with even more drones, helicopters, and even military soldiers on the streets trying to calm everyone down and have them return to their homes.

Even then, they did little to calm everyone down as the people kept screaming, it was more than anger, it was a form of primal fear.

They were getting euphoric.

It was extremely chaotic.

"... Was that why the radio was silent?" Dale asked as his expression turned dark

"... I couldn't have you run ahead of me and escalate this situation even further. These people can't take it."

"Everything's under control and it ended long before we even arrived, so nothing would've changed."

"Follow me, I'll explain the rest when we arrive." Roger said as he closed the door behind him, Mei right behind him

"..."

Dale was silent but his eyes said it all.

He was one step from exploding, and Roger knew that.

In silence, the three of them crossed the police barrier, going deeper into the source of the chaos.

Inside his mind, Dale only had one thing repeating on and on and on...

And for the sake of those around him, hopefully his worries were proved to be nonsense.

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