Chapter 697: Meeting Garcia at Night


    Trantor: TransN Editor: TransN


    ...


    After finishing his dinner and waiting for Zero to return to her room to do her homework, Rnd arrived at the doorstep of apartment 0827 as promised.


    The door creaked open after he knocked on it a few times.


    Garcia, still wearing that ice-cold expression of hers, said, "Come on in."


    After entering, Rnd found that the decoration of her apartment was much more luxurious than his. The flooring was changed into real wood. There was a shoe shelf by the entrance, and a crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling. Even the walls were painted over with fine white paint. It was definitely not the original cheap paint that covered the walls of this tube-shaped apartment building before.


    "I don’t have extra slippers. You can wear mine for now." She pointed to a pair of slippers decorated with furry rabbit ears in the bottomyer of the shoe shelf. "I love wearingrge slippers so they shouldn’t be too small for you."


    Rnd put the slippers on. They were not small but they were winter slippers. He felt hot the moment he put them on. He could not stand the pair of furry rabbit ears and could hardly imagine what Garcia looked like when she wore these cute slippers.


    She seems so standoffish. How can such a pair of slippers match her dry personality?


    He walked to the sofa and sat on it. "By the way, could I have some water? Dinner was a little salty."


    Garcia frowned and gave him a look. "Only cold water."


    "Cold water is fine."


    When she turned around to fetch water from the kitchen, Rnd held his head up and looked around the room. All the apartments in this building had identicalyouts. Every two adjacent apartments were symmetrical. Based on theyout of his own apartment, he was certain that this corridor facing the entrance must lead to the storage.


    As he expected, he saw a simr room at the end of the corridor, but Garcia had redecorated it. She even changed the door into a louvered sliding door. Normally, this type of door could not be locked, which was good news for him. But he was still worried that she might have also dismantled the iron door and refurbished the outer walls when decorating.


    When Garcia returned to the living room with a ss of water in her hand, Rnd had stopped looking and leaned on the sofa to watch the TV.


    "Thank you!" Rnd said as he fetched the ss. "You live here alone? But in the parent’s meeting this morning, they all said that you’re the daughter of the Clover..."


    "No, I’m not. I’ve got nothing to do with the Clover. You could even say that they’re my enemies." Garcia interrupted in a cold tone.


    "Enemies?" Rnd was stunned. "Then your cousin..."


    Garcia seemed somewhat depressed. She exined, "They’re taking advantage of my cousin by getting him to talk me into going back, but if I leave here, the Clover Association would demolish this building."


    "So it’s the Clover Association thatunched the mall expansion project next door?"


    "Who else would dare to demolish such an ancient building?" Garcia looked confused and asked, "You live here. Why don’t you know this?"


    This is going to be bad! She isn’t Zero. She’s a mature grown adult. If she inherits the characteristics of Princess Garcia, it would be even more difficult to fool her.


    "Ahem... I’ve paid little attention to what’s going on around this ce. Plus, I’ve lost my job earlier and haven’t stepped out of my apartment for almost six months." Rnd shifted the topic in a hurry. " You’ve told me that a martialist has some other jobs besides participating in contests?"


    "Yes. For a martialist, to participate in a contest is just equivalent to training. The most important mission of us is to fight against erosion from the outside world instead of winning prizes and publicizing the martial arts to the audience."


    "What erosion?" he was stunned and asked.


    "You should know the Fallen Evils. They’re one kind of the erosion and also the mostmon. They aren’t people who lost their control over the Force of Nature after awakening. Instead, they’re those who were eroded by the outside world, thus turning into another lifeform. Conventional means can barely harm them, so we need to stand up and fight against them." Garcia exined to him with a low voice.


    Rnd swallowed hard as a sense of unease grew in his heart. "The Dream World is eroded?


    "What’s the meaning of the outside world?"


    "I can’t tell you more about that unless you join the Martialist Association and obtain a hunting license."


    "Why?"


    "Because not all people who have awakened their Force of Nature will choose to side with the martialists." Garcia pronounced her words one by one. "Some people even hope that forces from the outside world would break into our world. These people are hostile to all human beings. Hence, a hunting license would not only allow a person to fight against Fallen Evils, but also permit martialists to kill those awakened people who want to destabilize the society."


    "So that’s why it’s called the hunting license?" Rnd was frightened upon hearing this. In other words, if I confirm that I’ve awakened with the Force of Nature and refuse to join their Martialist Association, wouldn’t I be considered as their mortal enemy?


    Garcia shook her head as if she saw through his concerns. "A small part of the awakened refused to join the Martialist Association or to work for those forces of evil. They’re called the centrists. Our Martialist Association won’t take action against them, but the Fallen Evils are different. Most centrists act alone, so they would frequently get attacked by them. If you don’t n on joining the Martialist Association, you’d better hide your power forever."


    Seeing as Garcia had told him so much, Rnd could not help but feel awkward. He initially thought that she was a callous person, but actually, she was not that difficult to talk to. When they first met each other in this world, he had even thought that she was an arrogant woman who thought she was above everyone else.


    "When we first met each other, your immediate reaction was to reach for the weapon on your back, so why should I be nice to you? You should feel lucky that you didn’t actually pull your weapon out. Otherwise, you would already be lying in a hospital bed." He finally loosened up and let go of his earlier doubts, but all he got was a nk stare.


    Just at this moment, Garcia’s phone started ringing. She nced at her phone and frowned, saying, "I’ve got to take this call."


    After saying that, she took the phone into her bedroom and closed the door behind her.


    Apparently, she did not want Rnd to overhear her phone call.


    "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" Rnd thought.


    He stood up right away and took off the slippers fashioned with furry rabbit ears. He then quickly walked to the end of the corridor with bare feet.


    Through the gaps in the louvered door, he was able to get a glimpse of what was inside. Garcia had redecorated it into a walk-in closet where there were various types of female clothing, including some female underwear.


    However, nothing could stop him from exploring the truth of this world.


    He pushed the louvered door without hesitation, and while smelling the fragrance of those female clothes, he walked into the closet.


    After walking throughyers of clothing, he found a dark turquoise gate at the far end of the closet. He noticed that it was unlocked and its handle was covered with a thickyer of dust which stood out of ce among the clean surroundings.


    Has Garcia never entered this Gate of Memory?


    But this was not the time to think about this. Rnd took a deep breath and lightly turned the handle.


    The smell of seawater immediately filled his nose, and the sound of wavespping the beach came from afar. The deep blue sea slowly unfolded in front of him like a vast curtain.