Chapter 47: See You On The Other Side

Chapter 47: Chapter 47: See You On The Other Side

Derrick thought about lying. Thought about it hard.

If I lie now, she’ll find out eventually. Then what? She might even trusting me before we even start. If we want this to work, I have to tell her some things about myself.

He weighed it for a second longer.

"I am in the... Middle Stage," he said finally. " of the Physical Strengthening Realm."

Silence on the other end for a beat.

Then Keira’s eyes gleamed sharp through the console screen, something calculating flickering behind them. "Middle Stage... huh?"

Staring at the serious look on his face on the screen, she inclined to believe him even though she wanted to think he was lying.

It had only been a few weeks since he was last tested on the school grounds. So either the records were lying or he had someone reached the realm others took a few months or more to reach.

"As expected of someone with such a high BPI."

Not to mention his power is beyond his realm. Which can only mean one thing.

She leaned forward slightly, elbows resting against the desk. "You’ve gotten your hands on high purity pills, haven’t you? The higher the purity, the more strength someone gains from a pill. Also you would need fewer pills needed to break through each stage."

"Not everyone has this knowledge but everyone who is close to the inner circle of the government or the guilds knows about it."

"That also means just how difficult it is to get your hands on one such pill. Does that mean you know an alchemist who knows how to make them?"

Derrick’s jaw tightened.

Here it comes.

"I can’t tell you where I got them."

Keira didn’t push.

She just nodded once. With an unreadable expression, she leaned back in her chair, the motion slow and deliberate.

"Figures." A short, humorless laugh escaped her.

"We’ve known each other one day. Meanwhile I already know your academy drama, your body purity index, half your medical file." She shook her head with a mocking hurt tone. "Your love for ass too."

Is she still focused on that?

Keira might have joked about it but in her heart she knew how one sides their situation was.

While she had looked up on Derrick, he knew nothing about her. Which made it clear why Derrick was not trusting her.

"Never mind. Forget I asked."

Even though she did not like to admit it but it hurt her a little.

The first student she ever had did not trust her. An edge of bitterness slipped through her words.

Derrick caught it but didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing at all. "

"You don’t need to run the sword next," Keira continued, voice snapping back to business. "The spear gave me enough data for both. Similar mechanics, similar reach requirements."

"And the shield?"

"Not you." No hesitation in her answer. "You’re not built for standing still and blocking. I could tell that much just watching you dodge."

I was hoping you would say something like that.

The grassland around him dissolved without warning, colors bleeding out of the simulation like paint washed away by rain.

New surroundings snapped into place the same way the mammoth appear before.

Gray concrete replaced green grass underfoot.

He was no longer in an open area but standing at the entrance of the ground floor of a multistory building.

The building appeared to be under construction and no one appeared to be working inside of it.

Dust hung thick in slanted beams of light filtering through broken windows, catching every drifting particle like tiny suspended stars.

Derrick felt something shifting in his hands.

He looked down to find a gun had materialized there, matte black. It had all sorts of glowing parts like an energy was flowing through it.

At the center of the gun, he noticed a serum like fluid hovering in a glass chambers.

Just then...

"There are enemies hidden throughout the building," Keira said, voice steady through whatever channel connected them. "You mission is to make it to the top floor without dying."

"Human?" Derrick asked, eyes already sweeping the ground floor, cataloguing exits, debris, potential cover.

"Does it matter?"

A slow smile spread across his face.

"No," he said. "It doesn’t."

He stepped forward, boots crunching against loose gravel and scattered dust.

Even though I said it to sound cool, I don’t see anyone in sight. Where—

Woosh!

Something prickled at the back of his neck.

He sidestepped on pure reflex, at times like this Derrick was glad he had spent those 40, 000 Social Credits.

Glancing to the side, he noticed a scorched mark embedded in the ground, hissing and letting out smoke.

"You would have died if that had touched you." Derrick’s jaws tightened hearing the mocking voice in his head.

"Shut it. Don’t distract me." He rushed to take cover behind a thick crate of raw materials lying on the ground floor and searched for the attacker on the upper floor.

From what he could tell, the attack came from the higher angle. So he focused on the gun and it changed right in his hands.

It evolved into an automated riffle as he took grip of it with both hands.

He peeked around the edge of the blocks, scanning the direction the shot had come from.

There...

A figure crouched near a shattered window on the second floor, covered head to toe in black tactical gear, mask and goggles hiding every inch of his face.

The barrel of his weapon was already tracking, adjusting, locking back onto Derrick’s position.

"See you on the other side angle." Keira’s voice came one last time before it disappear.

Derrick did not reply to her and his own weapon came up the instant, sights lining up on the man’s shoulder.

Time seemed to have slowed down, even without the All Seeing Eyes which the VR failed to replicate, he could see every slow movements of the man.

The moment he breathed in, the moment his fingers twitched.

He had fast movements. Way faster than Kenny.

If Derrick had to assume, they were almost the same in terms of physical prowess.

But... Derrick was faster.

Inhale...

And his reaction speed was even faster.

Taking a deep breath, Derrick’s finger pulled the trigger first aiming directly for his head.