Living Life As A Game: Through And Through
/ Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 158 From Humble Origins...
After shaking her head in disappointment, she lifted herself from her bed and immediately panicked. "Where's my fucking armor..." She looked around the room like a dope fiend in withdrawal and almost pounced after locating the closet to her right. Seeing her red and white dress hanging in the closet, a great deal of her worries were resolved, but in the span of a second, two new troubles replaced the source of her concern.
"This fucking bloodline again? And Yrre…" As her internal clock told her she had been unconscious for at least seven or eight hours, Elizabeth could feel the urge to kill slowly building in the pit of her stomach. She could also feel her connection to Yrre through the Law Linking Chains and the worry transmitted to her was enough to make Elizabeth feel a bit of guilt.
In any case, for now, it was best she know what the situation was in her immediate vicinity. So, without thinking much more on the various things she needed to take care of, the first thing Elizabeth did was activate her Transillusionary Return Enchantment and instantly change into her armor set.
Not bothering to make up her hair or anything, Elizabeth activated her crude sensory technique with the activation of Spatial Ripples and began to walk out of the bedroom. Upon leaving, she turned to her right and found a maid shuffling along a long hallway. She was just about to curse internally as her spatial ripples returned useless information, but since there was someone nearby, her nasty habit of cursing didn't surface.
Addressing the maid, Elizabeth asked, "Hey… Where am I?"
Being called on by the fabled "Demon Queen," the poor maid who had only heard rumors of Elizabeth's abilities and strength paled as she nervously said, "W-we're i-in t-t-the Keter Es-state outside t-the T-tour-nament S-square..." As a Mortal Stage practitioner between Level 3 and 4, she couldn't even spectate yesterday's tournament and with only the descriptions of Elizabeth being Demon this and Demon that, the maid's wild imagination pictured Elizabeth to be some sort of bloodlusting fiend.
'Keter Estate? Guess mom was the one to save me~' Understanding almost immediately, Elizabeth said, "Thanks. Care to tell me where I can talk to the 'Estate owner?' They should know I woke up..." Feeling a bit disingenuous by addressing her mother as "Estate owner," Elizabeth coughed as she finished speaking.
"R-right… P-please w-wait in your room and I w-will inform the masters of the Estate of your waking." As the maid watched Elizabeth think for a second before nodding and returning to her room, she heaved a sigh of relief before shuttling in a completely different direction in search of Lady Keter or Sir Keter.
Returning to her room, Elizabeth double checked her spatial ring and confirmed everything was where it was before collapsing. As she sorted things in her space ring's inventory, she addressed Persephone, asking, "Can I ask questions now?"
Without missing a beat, Persephone said, "Sure. Just know that since we are out of time for Divine Transmission, I can't give you any more clues about your new little buddy~" In an effort to chastising Elizabeth, Persephone was talking about Tristan…
"Buddy? You should know its hard for me to accept new 'buddies.' Unless..." By now Persephone had been with Elizabeth long enough to know what kind of "friend" she was, as well as what it took to get in good graces with her. By addressing Tristan as her newest buddy, after Elizabeth fired back with her usual antisocial rhetoric, the idea to check Tristan's Affection Rating spontaneously arose.
Having gained Universal Affection Functions after completing her fifth Choice Quest, Elizabeth could look up the affections of anyone she had interacted with even if they were too far for her to normally conjure up a Status.
[Status
Name: Tristan Fanford
Level: 25
Rank: Peak Phase Martial King
Affection Rating: Hysterically Faithful
Current State: Approaching Insanity (Overtly Worried And Shameful)
Description: After knowing what you did for him, even after everything "he" did to you, Tristan looks at you in a religious light...
Sex: Male
Strength 500
Endurance 515
Speed 510
Defense 502
Intelligence 480
Luck 10
Inner Strength: ~5.17 Million]
Cringing at the description of Tristan's updated Status, Elizabeth thought to herself, 'I guess this is good? Mhmm… Actually, now that I think about it, it does make an awful lot of sense… I brought him back from the dead, healed what should have crippled his body a million times over and even restored his soul. For Earth's standards that is pretty godly...'
Before Elizabeth could develop a god complex, she heard a knock on her door. Walking over to allow her guests to come in, Elizabeth opened her door and found an old wizened man and her masked mother being followed by the maid she had sent out earlier. "Please… Come in..." Elizabeth was a bit confused seeing some random old man accompany her mother, but since she would probably soon find out why he came with her, she disregarded the awkwardness of the situation by waving the helpful maid away and closing the door.
Turning around, Elizabeth was met with the largest fright of her life as she looked at her mother taking off her mask and then to the man standing next to her… She had only taken her eyes off them for a second and somehow, that was enough time for the old and unknown man to change into her father, Kurt Keter!
"What… the fuck?" Unable to contain her confusion, Elizabeth cursed. She only became more disturbed as cyan Time-type Spiritual Qi swarmed around her father, essentially confirming him to a practitioner of Time like her!
"'What the fuck' is what I've been dying to ask you!" Registering her father curse — at her no less… — Elizabeth's jaw dropped as this was the first time in her life that she saw him do that.
"..." Seeing his now-daughter look back at him in shock, Kurt asked, "Where should we start? I'm dying to know your story goes, but in fairness for deceiving you all these years, I'll let you decide if you want to hear how we came to be in, well… in this position, first..."
"Mhmm..." Quickly asking Persephone what she could reveal about her functions and the Cataclysm, upon learning that she could essentially say and do whatever she wanted with the information she possessed, Elizabeth said, "My, uh… 'story' will bring about some serious issues I would like to talk to you two about in greater detail. So, if you could explain why both of you are Spirit Realm cultivators and my little brother is in the Warrior Stage, that would be nice."
…
Looking at Elizabeth with a guilt-ridden face, Kurt first had everyone settle down comfortably as he had a lot to say. Elizabeth's parents sat on the only pair of chairs in the room while Elizabeth herself sat on the bed she had been sleeping on until recently.
With everyone holding steadfast, Kurt began talking about his past. Armed with various gadgets and his skills as a world-class presentation artist as the head of one of the richest and most powerful companies the world had ever seen, as Kurt talked, he would show Elizabeth images to make sure she understood his point of view.
Starting, he said, "Now, uh… Elizabeth? Adrian? How would like to be called now?"
"Adrian's no good… For reasons I'll explain later, it will be best if you just get used to calling me Elizabeth..."
"Anyway, You've probably known me throughout your life as a vagabond CEO and with the face you currently see, that much is virtually true for everyone else. You see, in the beginning, way back before you were even born, that was the kind of life your mother and I never would have wanted. When we were just starting to let our talents in the field of Quantum Physics shine and rising in the ranks of our old company, we had grand ambitions to change the world."
Turning to his wife, Kurt continued, "I remember like it was yesterday… Every day, we would show up to work like a pair of naive kids slowly learning more about the science of the smallest scale. Going to work straight after graduating from our university, we climbed the ranks of the previous incarnation of Quantum Inc. From lowly grunt research assistants, to two of the highest ranking leading developers of Quantum technology, life was essentially all I could ever ask for." Showing Elizabeth some pictures of his younger self with Maria in the previous Quantum Inc. Kurt sighed.
"In just a short five years, I was already being groomed to look after the company and take it to even higher peaks by the previous CEO, when suddenly, our lives changed… forever..." With a look of melancholy, Kurt stopped scrolling through the happiest days of his former life and with the activation of a hologram, what looked to be a miniature boot camp appeared on the floor.
Chapter end
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