Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 34 Complacent And Oblivious

One of the two remaining policemen who was wrapping up his report, said "Thank you so much mister Atid for being so cooperative! I've set everything straight with these youngins who are unfamiliar with us."

"No problem, it was just a small incident with only my property damaged."

"Hahaha… Of course, of course..."

Suddenly, Atid's phone began ringing. The policeman who was talking to Atid subtly moved away while saying "Well, we're about done with our work here, so I'll leave you be..." He then went over to get the last remaining policeman and left through the dojo's entrance.

Atid smiled as he looked at the departing policemen. But upon looking down and reading the name of the caller on his phone, "Phil's Hyper Deluxe Moonlit Real Estate Agency," the joy he had from getting through with the police's busywork dimmed backed down to neutral.

Atid answered the call, sighing as he asked "Luca?"

From the other end of the line, a sigh could be heard as Luca said "Yeah… I've got some good news and bad news..."

Amused, Atid said "Ho? Let's hear it then."

"Well, the good news is we already have a good idea of where Sun is. The bad new being he's probably being held captive by that scheming Jhan. My team scanned through the area you mentioned last night and found evidence of a covered up battle site. It's likely that after Sun had a fight, he was taken away or something. We only just now learned that Jhan or some of his cronies are probably the culprits behind the fight as one of my contacts informed me that three of his underlings were missing from their usual posts in the gym. So far, I've found no evidence that any other faction has behaved out of the norm, so it's likely that even if Jhan isn't directly behind Sun's disappearance, he at least knows something about it..."

"Actually, Sun's already back and in perfect health at the dojo."

"..." Luca was shocked into silence as he waited for Atid to elaborate.

"Though it's true that he's back…" Atid's eyes narrowed as he said "You are right in your assessment that Jhan was behind his disappearance. Last night he and another one of my students were assaulted by a group of four. Probably the three people you mentioned along with an ally of Jhan."

"Mhmm? So… what are you going to do about it?"

"Nothing for now… I mean the guy's already lost last night's skirmish." A chilling smile blossomed on Atid's face, as he said with an utterly joyful voice "Shouldn't we cut him some slack?"

"..." Luca, on the other end of the line shuddered as he felt the sinister aura hovering around the current Atid; its potency tainting everything from the air around him, to the intent behind his words.

"Whatever… I've already done my job, so call me when you have another issue." Without waiting for Atid to respond. Click! He hung up…

Atid dispelled the cold air that was gathering around him from that sudden change in intent, as he continued to resolve other issues through the phone. He could be seen walking to his room on the second story as he talked to contractors, to get the ruined room back in working order.

…

On another corner of the living space in the second floor of the dojo, Elizabeth was putting the finishing touches to her pre-Shadow Realm meal, when her Cooking Skill leveled up.

[+450 Cooking Exp

Cooking Level 2 → Level 3 (755/1,750)

Current Effect: Increases the buffs received from Low-Mid grade Mortal-tier meals by 30%.

Status

Name: BLT Deluxe

Grade: Low-tier Mortal Grade Meal

Description: Crafted by the user, this is a magical meal imbued with Inner Strength and various Sub-Basic level principles of the path of cooking. For the mortal world, it can be treated as a delicacy, as it provides mild empowerment effects.

Effects: For Level 5 or below: + 0.7 Strength + 0.7 Speed + 0.7 Endurance + 0.7 Defense + 0.7 Intelligence for 4 hours and + 550 Inner Strength recovered.]

For this bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich, Elizabeth managed to create a much more complex "meal" as she had improved from her first attempt at magical cooking. Not only were there more ingredients involved in the creation of this meal, but Elizabeth also got to try her hand at Heat Control. Given this was her first time using the principle in action, the amount of experience points she received were a bit inflated and would thereafter drop significantly as she had set a baseline for herself.

After Elizabeth ate her sandwich, she washed her dishes and the cooking utensils used to make her meal and left a card detail that she had used the communal kitchen of the dojo. Jane told her that she wouldn't have to pay based on how much she consumed, rather, the system of leaving behind cards every time someone used the kitchen was used in determining how often different dojo resident needed to do errands for the dojo. Like how Sun was chosen to do groceries yesterday.

Elizabeth found it odd how a communal anything could be kept so nice, clean, and tidy. But considering the rest of the building's amenities, it made sense for the kitchen to be as well kept as it was. She left the kitchen and returned to her room.

After changing into her beginner armor set and organizing all the items she would be taking with her into the Shadow Realm this first time, Elizabeth took a deep breath and used the Shadow Realm Gateway magic for the first time.

She used her status functions to forcefully use the passive version of the skill, whereby she would teleport over to the Shadow Realm with no way out for the next 24 hours. After confirming that she indeed wished to use her sole time magic skill, Elizabeth's body began to turn illusionary, as the world around her gradually slowed down; the colors all around her desaturating as time grinded to a halt.

When everything around her turned monochrome, Elizabeth's body completely vanished from where it had previously been sitting; atop her bed. And before Elizabeth could notice or rather, before she could comprehend, she found herself standing in a picturesque version of a forest. All around her, trees, plants, insects and wildlife could be seen running away as if their life depended on it at the mere sight of her.

Within seconds, she found herself completely alone and with only the sounds of rustling bushes around her. Uneasy by the lack of noise around her, Elizabeth stood static as she took in the new world around her. She noticed that the air seemed cleaner, filled with more life, even spiritual.

Unlike on Earth, the same white energy she could sometimes detect on regular people was abundant in everything from the ground the sky. The wildlife, from the smallest bug to the largest deer she had caught a glimpse of, retained Inner Strength. None had enough to even register as Level 5 by her books, but the fact that ALL of them had Inner Strength helped Elizabeth better understand the kind of world she had just intruded on. She came in with certain expectations based on her conversation with P, and so far all of them had been met.

When Elizabeth finally had enough of just standing around, she picked a random direction and decided to walk until she found either a source of water or a sheltered area to conduct her breakthrough. It was after all the sole reason she came to the Shadow Realm when unprompted.

As she walked and thirty minutes came and went, feeling as lengthy as a couple hours, Elizabeth became bored and a little too complacent as she actually started refining some dirt bullets; it was one of the other objectives she had given herself for this first trip. Wanting to compare how her refined dirt bullets compared with the ammunition she could create of a dense metal like Iridium.

It was with much disappointment that P watched Elizabeth roam around the forest blissfully unaware of her surroundings even though this was both a foreign and strange world to her. Still, for all the grief P developed when watching her Chosen act like a total idiot, she didn't bring the matter up and just let Elizabeth face reality when her current decision came to bite her back. Reasoning that lessons like these could only been instilled in those as oblivious as Elizabeth through hardships.

And as if the world was acting in accordance with P's thoughts, before ten minutes passed since Elizabeth entered the Shadow Realm, hardly noticeable breathing accompanied by slightly vigorous bush rustling sounded off all around Elizabeth. But never mind Elizabeth who was currently engraving critical markings on her first dirt bullet, even the most aware and vigilant common man would be caught totally off guard by the incoming hostile beasts that lingered around Elizabeth at the moment.

These creatures though small like dachshunds, where impeccably stealthy within the forest biome. Possessing claws and sharp canines, as well as lean and tough muscles. They were no doubt top-tier predators in this rather docile environment and soon, Elizabeth would find out exactly what kind of world she had gotten herself into...

Chapter end