Chapter 124 Before They Part Again



After briefing the goal in front of the entrance to the hunting field, Zio and Shannon set up their foot into the forestry field filled with low-rank common monsters such as goblins, wolves, and kobolds.

The purpose of this reunion was simple. Shannon wanted to see how far Zio had improved in six months. After that, they would spend a full-day activity together before they had to part again.

Even though it was supposed to be an international holiday, Shannon was unlucky that the Chrysalis didn't follow the custom so she still had to work for her apprenticeship.

Fortunately, she got permission to be absent from her apprenticeship task only for today. So she had to make sure that today would be a day filled with memories and happiness.

Though, the perspective of what made people happy could differ depending on the individuals.

She had planned everything for today's schedule. The first activity of the day was a hunt. The others would be ice cream time, VR time, watching a movie, and dinner at the end of the day.

Sounds like a date…

They finally arrived at the first level area of the hunting field where low-rank common monsters were normally spotted. Just as what it was called, the first level could also mean a beginner area.

The beginner area, obviously, was swarmed by Enhanceds whose affiliate was unknown. They could be a hero, a villain, a mercenary, or unaffiliated like Zio who was a student.

If the Ruin and Dungeon (Rift and Flash) were a lawless zone where Enhanceds could kill each other for treasure, then a hunting field was a neutral zone where Enhanceds were not allowed to kill the other, No matter whether you were a hero who had a grudge against a villain or vice versa, you could not kill.

But, there would always be someone who didn't abide by the rule.

Just as this random guy who stood in Zio's and Shannon's way after they— Zio defeated a group of five goblins and was about to get his loot from them.

"Stand there! Give me your loots or I'll kill you!"

Zio and Shannon raised their eyebrows at the man, scanning him from head to toe.

The man in ragged armor was pointing his spear at the two youths, which was a normal thing to do to threaten someone. But, his trembling body was the problem. If there was anything that one should avoid when they were trying to threaten someone, it was to make sure that they stayed calm and don't show any emotions.

The man seemed to fail to do that. So, rather than got threatened by him, the two youths were taking pity on him instead.

The two looked at each other and nodded together. One of them, Shannon, stepped forward.

As she took a step, the man flinched in terror. Though he was trembling and sweating like crazy, his wit ensured him he wouldn't be frozen in place.

Extending his spear reach toward Shannon, he spoke:

"Stay there!"

Noticing the man's fear, Shannon stopped and raised her hand simultaneously, gesturing for the man that she wouldn't do anything.

The man narrowed his eyes, seemingly cynical about the situation. In the end, he thrust his spear as a warning that he was serious.

"Just give me the damn loots!"

Because he was too focused on Shannon, the man didn't realize the other one was taking out a rope from the storage cube.

Then as Shannon said that she would give him the loot out of pity, the man's face delighted for a while before returning to a cynical expression again. But, as he approached the goblins' corpses, a rope was thrown at him, and quickly wrapped his fragile body.

When the rope tightened around his body, he was pulled back several meters from the corpses and shoved onto the muddy ground on his back.

"Ugh!"

Appearing in the man's vision as he opened his eyes was a young man with jet-black hair and black hair that he thought was a grim reaper because of the color. He was about to scream but Zio quickly muffled him with a silencer serum he stored in his storage cube.

"!!!"

Realizing no voice came out of his mouth, the man panicked. He began to regret his decision.

"Listen here, man. I don't care about the loot, but since you've threatened to kill us, you should pay the fine for that, understand?"

The poor guy started to wriggle like a worm, trying to escape from the Grim Reaper but it was to no avail. The rope was too tight for his weak strength. He kept opening his mouth to plead but his voice just wouldn't come out.

"Don't worry. You'll have our loot, but you still have to get your punishment first."

Zio picked up the spear he had dropped on the ground and then brought the blade to his other hand. Then as soon as that, he sliced his palm. Immediately, his palm was covered with red blood color.

Shannon who wasn't expecting that grabbed Zio by the shoulder and pulled him away.

"What are you doing?!"

Soon after that, she took out a bottle of potion and uncorked it.

"No, don't!"

Zio grabbed her wrist and held it, stopping her from pouring the potion on his wound.

"I just want to make sure this guy won't do this kind of thing again."

Narrowing her eyes, she scrutinized Zio.

"By hurting yourself?!"

She was completely confused by Zio's action. Why would he hurt himself just so the guy would never do that again?

But, when Zio explained his plan to her in a whisper so the guy wouldn't hear them and that obviously would make him panicker even more, Shannon finally calmed down. 

So to say, his idea basically was to frame the guy so he would get the right punishment from Omega. And to do that, the living proof was needed to make sure he got what he deserved for trying to kill someone in the neutral zone.

By making himself bleed by the man's spear would serve as proof of his action. But, only one bleeding wound wasn't enough to convince the judge so Zio sliced himself more in the other part of his body such as his left arm, back, and right cheek, all of them was deep cut slice.

After all of that, all he had to do was to endure the stinging pain as they brought the man to justice!

Upon bringing him to be judged, Zio had perfectly played his role as a newbie who was fallen victim to a suspect killer. On the other hand, Shannon played along to be someone who accidentally saved him from harm and successfully subdued the suspect killer.

"No! They're lying! I never harmed them! They're framing me!"

No matter how hard he tried to defend himself, no one would believe him. Between a man who had a dirty appearance and ragged armor as well as bloodied weapon and a young man whose body was in a miserable state, being covered by wounds and bleeding, the official would obviously trust the 'victim'.

Also, since it was not an official court and the accused was someone of no importance, they immediately decided to prison and labor the fragile Enhanced for a year.

When the problem was done, Zio healed his wounds with potions and they continued to hunt some low-rank monsters and collected the cores. Shannon was satisfied by how fast Zio was improving his skills. But, one thing she hated about him was his change.

'He slowly returning to himself…' she thought as they were on the way to have fun in Virtual Reality Game World.

The game they were playing was a 2v2 fighting game where they teamed up and dominated the bronze and silver ranks. 

Time flew by as they immersed themselves in their game. The moment they noticed it, the sky color had already turned orange in color. The sun almost set.

After visiting their house for a shower and bath, they immediately went to a cinema where they watched the latest released movie starred by a famous actor as well as <A> ranked heroes, Rio Milles and Anna Gillie.

Soon after the movie, they had dinner at 9 PM in a simple restaurant.

"How was it? Did you have fun, cousin?"

Zio took a sip of his drink, gently placing it back in its original place before saying:

"I did. Thanks to you."

Shannon leaned forward, putting her elbow on the table to support her chin on the back of her hands, smiling.

"That's good to hear!"

They finished dinner and it was time for a goodbye.

Zio silently walked beside her, occasionally taking glances at her.

Her beautiful place was illuminated by the soft glow of the moonlight, casting a gentle shadow across her features. What was already beautiful was even more beautiful at this moment.

Then as they reached the Skyliner station, Shannon turned to Zio with the wide smile Zio had ever seen coming from her.

At first, they didn't say anything for a solid 30 seconds, just staring and examining each other's expressions. But then Zio finally broke the silence.

"Ah, right! I forgot I was supposed to ask you something."

Bringing her eyebrow up, Shannon replied:

"What is it?"

"The candy. Do you still have them? Also, can't you just give it to me directly rather than asking Ember to do your task?"