Chapter 147 146: The Fake Remains The Fake [Pt2]



"See, this is a true ticket. I am sure your 'ticket' is incapable of anything like this."

The clocked female had a twisted expression on her face. Somehow, Keith could tell that she was not happy with what was happening.

Her cloaked face tried to glare at Keith but the obstruction caused her glare's effect to be cut in half. Keith could not find it in himself to be afraid of this clocked female.

Rather, he was worried about his ticket right now. It had been burned by the man in front of him without any hesitation on his face. And that made Keith doubtful of his future.

"Oh, by the way, you passed this round so you can do what you want to from here on. If you want to help other people out, then you can even do that."

The white-masked man spoke to Keith and it helped calm his nerves down. This announcement caused Keith's biggest worry to be smacked down.

The female cloaked figure was tenser than before. The intensity of her glares increased but she decided to stop wasting her time in the end. 

Keith watched the female go away with a conflicted expression on his face. He was not sure if he wanted to chase after her or to stay as far away from her as possible.

"Hmm, humans are truly fascinating beings. Won't you agree, my dear traveler? They can be rather bitter, or even resentful. I feel like they do their best when they are in a pinch."

The white-masked man spoke up suddenly and Keith almost has a heart attack before he realized that the masked man was speaking to him.

Somehow, that eyeless face was pinning Keith in his place and Keith was unable to move an inch.

"I do not know what you are talking about. In the first place, are you even talking to me? I do not have any idea what any of your words mean."

Keith tried to get out of this conversation but the masked man only looked even more amused than before. If anything, that eyeless stare had sharpened from before.

"Hmm, so you would deny me this pleasure of conversing with you, huh? Then, let me ask you another question. Why did you decide to steal your partner's ticket? I am sure she would have a better chance of winning this competition than you."

Keith froze where he was standing. Everything in his body was yelling at him to deny what the white mask was saying. 

There was no way he had been caught by an unknown entity when even the most attentive and cautious people had missed it.

"Ah, do not look at me like that. I can feel the presence of fallen gods all over you. And anyone touched by the fallen gods loses their mana. But your soul also does not feel like it belongs to this world and it makes me curious. What an odd combination you make."

The white masked man seemed to not be human. Or, he had some special power.

Keith gathered his magic in his earring to blast this person. He did not like that his secret had been exposed by someone.

"Hey, calm down now. I have no desire to tell anyone your secret. Rather, I want to observe you more to see what you can and cannot do. It has been a rather long time since a divine object chose a master. So, I am curious to see what you will do in the future."

The masked man jumped back before Keith could attack him. 

"See you in the next round. I hope you survive until the end. And if you do, then we can talk."

The floating form of the masked man disappeared in thin air. It left Keith with more questions than answers.

He cupped his earring and his mind decided to work in overdrive.

'What did that white mask mean by 'chosen master?' I thought the reason I can use this earring was because I lacked mana. Was there another qualification to use this earring?'

It was all becoming too complicated for Keith. And thinking so hard had never been his strong point. 

Besides, Keith was also running out of time. He needed to head back to Amelia and Sara now. He also had to ask himself why he decided to prioritize himself over Amelia in this competition.

What the white mask had asked him was right. When Keith thought about it, Amelia had a better chance of winning this competition than him.

She was also luckier than Keith and her end goal was the same as him. Whether Keith won or Amelia, the mother pearl would have ended up in his hand.

'So why did I want to qualify so badly for the second round? Why did I take the ticket myself when I could have given it to Amelia?'

Keith did not know the answers to his questions. He could only summarize it as an 'impulsive' action or even 'to remove the bad taste' in his mouth.

But in the end, even he was not able to justify his actions.

Keith clenched his fist, and only then he noticed the small piece of paper in his hand. 

At first, his heart skipped a beat. He thought he had a ticket in his hand and it caused his emotions to become twisted.

But a deeper look at the slip showed that Keith had been mistaken before. It was not a ticket but a map of the forest with small marks highlighted on it.

Keith decided to check these spots out since he had a feeling, they would be important.

He had no idea where he had picked up this map from. He had no recollection of ever having come across such a piece of paper. But since Keith did have it, he decided to make use of it.

From a faraway branch, the white-masked man grinned at Keith's action of noticing the map. The white-masked man had been the one to give Keith this map in the first place.

There were many interesting people in this forest but this weird man was the most interesting one by far. Especially when he smelled so heavily of the fallen gods.

"Make things interesting for me kid. I want to see heaven be shaken and those old coots realize they are not the supreme beings they think they are. I know it is too much to ask of you, but I hope you do not disappoint me in the future."

Of course, the kid could not hear anything the man said. The masked man finally took off his pure-white mask and his face was a mixture of dark spots as well as red rashes.

It was a reminder of what happened if you went against heaven and did not end up as a fallen god. 

......

Somehow, neither Sara nor Amelia had moved from the place Keith had left them. They seemed to be searching for the tickets in the nearby vicinity but found nothing.

Keith looked at his map but he could not spot any highlighted area nearby.

"Hey Noah, you are back? So, did you find any ticket for yourself? We tried looking around for one but we were unable to find it."

Amelia sounded regretful about this fact but she had not given up.

Keith had an option of lying to Amelia right now and telling her that he was in the same boat as her. But for some reason, Keith did not want to lie to her right now.

"I found a ticket when I went to the washroom and the white mask was nearby and ended up taking it. But he said I can still help others out if I want to."

In the end, Keith ended up telling Amelia what happened. He expected her to be angry and disappointed at him but Amelia just looked the same as before.

"Ah, I see. So, you are already done, huh? Lucky for you then. It seems I will have to pick up my pace as well now."

Amelia sounded determined but Sara seemed to have a problem with Keith.

"You! You are a traitor, Noah. If you found a ticket, then you should have brought it back here. We should have decided among ourselves who would have gotten this ticket. You cannot just go and snatch a ticket for yourself. That is selfish-"

"And why cannot I do that? As far as I know, this is an individual competition, not a team-based one. The core principle is - every man is for himself."

Sara looked taken aback by Keith's sudden rebuttal. She had not expected him to contradict her this openly. Especially not in front of Amelia.

Since it seemed like Keith was not going to cooperate with her, Sara changed her tactic and decide to go after Amelia. But Amelia avoided Sara's eyes.

"So, Noah, you will still help us out? That is good. So where do we start our hunt from? Do you have any solid ideas?"

Amelia did not see, nor pay attention to Sara's eyes.