In a small cozy café, located on a bustling street, the figure of a handso young man could be seen drinking tea from a cup as he played with a strangely colored Rubik’s cube in his other hand.
The young man’s appearance could be described as both stunning and dashing, stealing the glances of nurous passers-by who saw his face through the window of the café.
Thanks to the existence of the young man, the café had an unexpected boost in custors as many young females would walk into the shop just to get a closer look at him.
Every now and then a few brave young won would walk up to the mysterious man, trying to strike up a conversation with him. However, it seed like the young man had no interest in talking to them and would politely turn them down, returning to the original peace he had found in the small corner of the shop.
This young man, naturally, was Lake, who was passing the ti by playing with the strange Rubik’s cube in his hands.
A week ago he had managed to successfully escape from the rift along with Roro and the rest.
When the group exited the rift, they found themselves right outside the underground tunnel where the entrance to the rift was originally located.
Due to the events that had transpired inside the rift, Lake had forgotten about a crucial detail about traveling through rifts. When he exited the portal a deep nauseating sensation that Lake thought he would never have to experience again had hit him.
Imdiately, he felt like vomiting again as his face turned ghastly pale. Leaning on the floor, Lake took the chance to catch his breath and recover as he deeply resisted the strong urge to vomit.
Roro and the rest of the party were also outside the rift and were standing next to him. Since they couldn’t see Lake’s ashen face due to his mask, when they saw him resting on the ground, they thought that he must have had a harder ti dealing with the injured Skylark than they expected.
If they knew that Lake was actually going through rift sickness, a common phenonon that only beginner hunters would go through, their reaction would’ve been completely different.
Outside the rift, there were also a few creatures that had most likely escaped through the various portals that had appeared inside the rift. These creatures were relatively weak, with the strongest among them only being in the early stages of Rank Two. Since Lake was incapacitated for the ti being, Roro and Eliza who had recovered enough mana to fight took it upon themselves to deal with the surrounding creatures.
Lake passed his sword to Roro who imdiately used it to make quick work of the surrounding creatures.
With a weapon in hand, his previous lack of damage was completely negated, and without hesitation, he started a massacre.
The creatures were quickly being dispatched under Roro’s relentless attacks as their strands of fate disconnected from their heads. Every ti Lake saw a strand of fate fly away, his heart would ache but he honestly couldn’t care about the loss of RP points at this point. The nauseating headache made him feel like death would be a rcy.
Thankfully, it didn’t take Lake long to recover his strength. After a few minutes, he had managed to find the strength to stand back up, although his face was still slightly pale.
By the ti Lake had recovered, Roro and Eliza had already finished wiping out the creatures in the cavern. At that ti, Lake had barely managed to sense the presence of the Empress appear from the rift before she disappeared in a flash. If it wasn’t for his sixth sense, Lake doubted that he would’ve even noticed her appearance.
Luckily, It seed like she didn’t wish to waste ti with Lake or the other creatures and was in a rush to return to her nest, most likely to devour the Fruit of Evolution.
After the creatures were dealt with, Lake and others took the chance to rest for a few minutes. During that ti, the rift, which was around 10 ters tall, quickly began to shrink and after a few monts it completely disappeared.
When the rift finally vanished, Lake knew that the Garden had been destroyed and there was no going back.
After the rift had disappeared, Roro returned Lake’s sword before they quickly made their way back to the Hunter’s Stronghold on the outskirts of Star City.
Upon arriving back, Lake exchanged contact information with the group before splitting. Since Lake was still under the effects of the King’s Pact and couldn’t continue to hunt the spiders, the only creatures left for Lake to kill were the few and far in-between low rank creatures of the field.
Hunting them would be far too inefficient for Lake at this point so he decided to just return back to Sunset City. He had been hunting for almost 3 weeks by then and felt that it was ti for him to head back.
The other matter he had to deal with was the issue of Bloom. Looking down at the strange Rubik’s cube in his hand, Lake felt that he really didn’t understand the technology of the Architects.
That’s right, this strange Rubik’s cube was actually the storage device that Bloom used to transfer its data to. From what Lake had heard from Bloom when he first received the device, it was actually a children’s toy for the Architects.
They would give it to their young as a test of intellect to see how fast they could solve it and only by solving it, would they be able to access the contents within.
Lake had spent the last week trying to figure out how to solve the cube but had no luck. The cube wasn’t like a regular cube with 6 colors and could only rotate in fixed paths.
Instead, the cube had over 100 different colors, could be rotated in a full 360 degrees motion, and had parts where you could push in certain points of the cube, resulting in a complete shift of the entire layout of the cube.
When Lake asked Bloom why it couldn’t have stored the data in a simpler to use device, Bloom replied saying that the cube was the most simple device for the Architects to use and also had the largest storage among them.
When Lake heard this he imdiately gave up and decided to just take the cube and move on.
After pressing down on a certain point on the Rubik’s cube, causing its entire layout to reset, Lake decided to put down the cube for the ti being. He would co back and attempt to solve it so other ti.
At that mont, with the sound of chis ringing out, a beautiful young lady with thick fra glasses and a cute bunny hair pin walked into the building.
She looked around for a bit before spotting Lake and walking towards him.
"It’s nice to see you again, Evelyn." Lake said the young lady with a smile on his face.
"I haven’t seen nor was I able to contact you for almost a month and that’s all you have to say?" Evelyn said as she sat down opposite Lake. She had a gentle smile on her face as she spoke.
Lake was slightly surprised by her causal response. It showed a level of maturity that he didn’t rember her having when he last saw her. It made him feel a strange sense of distance and unfamiliarity.
"I was busy." Lake said as he sipped on his tea, "Anyway, what did you call out for? I saw you sent a few ssages asking to et up a few days ago."
Evelyn looked at Lake who casually replied to her with a calm and unfazed look.
"I’ve been aning to have a conversation with you for a while now but you suddenly went and vanished. Since you’re here now, I guess we could have that conversation now."
"What a coincidence, there was also sothing I’ve been aning to tell you as well for a bit now. However, I think it would be better if you go first." Lake spoke as he placed down his cup of tea, a calm look on his face.
Out of habit, he had gone through Evelyn’s fate and happened to see sothing he didn’t expect.
"...Very well," Evelyn took a deep breath before speaking, " Lake Egoven, do you love ?"
"No." Lake replied almost imdiately. He could see that Evelyn’s face distorted a bit but she continued.
"Did you decide to play with my feelings knowing that I would have genuinely fallen for you?"
This ti Lake took a bit to reply but he eventually spoke in a calm voice, "...Yes."
"Your replies are calm and honest. Did you figure out that I was going to ask these questions already?"
"I didn’t figure it out until you greeted . Your speech was different from normal and your tone was serious. Although I couldn’t be sure about what you were going to ask, I figured you must have co here with so evidence or hunch to back up whatever it was, so I might as well answer honestly."
As Lake spoke, he took a break to sip so more of his tea. His face was still calm, and his voice was even as if none of this mattered to him. "Was that your last question?"
"No... The next one would be the final question," as Evelyn spoke, tears started to well up within her eyes, "Which one is real? The Lake that deceived into loving him with sweet words and smooth manipulation, or the monster who took joy in the slaughtering of other living beings?"
When Lake heard Evelyn’s final question he paused for a mont as he tilted his head downwards.
He knew what she was referring to by "slaughtering others" by looking through her fate. It was also the reason that made her finally see the flaws in his "mask".
During the Martial Arts Course Exam, Lake had shown a side of himself he did not understand at the ti when he was killing the goblins.
The feeling he felt when he ended the life of another in order to snatch their strand of fate wasn’t sothing that could be described as normal. At the ti, Lake wasn’t sure what that feeling was but after so much ti had passed and having Evelyn say it out loud in front of him slowly revealed what it was to him.
Joy, ecstasy, bliss, excitent, all of it. He felt an emotion he didn’t know he had when his bloody hands clutched onto those strands of fate that made him want to kill more to the point where he couldn’t help but smile during the exam.
That smile was labeled as the smile of a demon by those who saw it and it seems that Evelyn had realized this too.
After what felt like a long ti, Lake slowly spoke without raising his head.
"The Lake who deceived you was indeed a fake. I never did love you nor did I an to deceive you. I was simply doing what I thought was ’normal’. As for the one who enjoyed killing others... I don’t know."
Evelyn looked at Lake who kept his gaze hidden from her. After wiping the tears from her eyes, she looked at Lake with eyes filled with hatred and sadness.
"I see... You said you also had sothing you wanted to tell . Since you listened to what I had to say I might as well listen to what you have to say."
Lake stayed silent for a while before he spoke plainly, "...No, it doesn’t matter anymore. Ever since I was a young child I was taught to apologize when I hurt soone. However, looking at you now, I feel like I don’t have the right to apologize."
Evelyn continued to look at Lake for a while, "You’re right, you don’t, but I have to ask, earlier, you could have chosen to lie and continue to deceive when I asked my questions. Although I wouldn’t have fully believed you, I didn’t have any evidence to back up my claims, so why did you answer honestly."
"Didn’t I tell you? I just assud you had sothing to back you up so I chose to be honest."
"No. That wasn’t what I ant. I’ve co to realize that the way you interact with people is completely off when I compared it to the you in the video. Instead of behaving like a normal person and acting off of impulse and emotions, you act off of logic and patterns. The safest response to reply to was to continue lying as I didn’t have any evidence and you could have walked off scot-free from my accusations, although I still wouldn’t have trusted you. However, instead you chose to tell the truth, why?"
After hearing Evelyn’s reply, Lake paused for a mont before smiling as he chuckled.
Raising his head, he shifted his gaze to look her in the eye.
"It seems you understand quite well, Miss Evelyn. We barely interacted over a short 3 month period yet you were able to figure out to such an extent. I must say that I am impressed. As for why I told the truth, it was because whether you had called out or not, I was going to tell you the truth today anyway."
Evelyn was slightly surprised by Lake’s response as she looked at Lake with a slight astonishnt.
"Things have changed recently. You were right in assuming that I interact with people based on logic and patterns. I would look at them, analyze their behavior and words before coming up with a ’normal’ response to their action. This was how I interacted with people for as long as I could rember. You could say that I was wearing a fake mask all my life. However, recently I found a way that allowed to experience emotions I never thought I could feel. Granted, it only allows to feel from a limited number of actions, however, these actions were slowly increasing in variety and nature and it made start to think. In the future, I would most likely grow to experience a range of emotions and at that point, would my actions and words still be the sa as they were now? In the end, I couldn’t find an answer, however, to prevent myself from doing sothing I might co to regret in the future, I was going to cut off all relationships with you."
"Why?" Evelyn asked in slight surprise.
"Because strangely enough Miss Evelyn, for soone as cold and calculating as , I feel that if I were to hurt you any more by continuing our fake relationship and co to learn how to feel in the future, I would risk hurting myself because I have co to care about you."
"Huh?" This ti Evelyn was completely shocked but she quickly readjusted herself as she looked at Lake with a look of disgust.
When Lake saw her response, he smiled, "There is no need to look at like that Miss Evelyn, I am not trying to woo you like I did before. I am simply speaking the truth. Besides, after this, I want both of us to not have any lingering regret or feelings regarding this matter so that we can both move on. If possible I would like for us to start over at a later date when I have learned to comprehend this spectrum of emotions I have only just co in contact with. Although, I don’t mind if you don’t want anything to do with after today as well. The choice is yours."
After Evelyn heard Lake’s words, she paused for a bit as if she was in thought. Lake waited patiently for her reply.
After a while, Lake saw Evelyn suddenly smile before getting up from her seat.
Just when Lake was wondering what she was going to do, his sixth sense went off as he saw a hand flying his way.
*SMACK!*
"Lake Egoven, after today, I don’t want anything to do with you!"
...
Lake walked out onto the street as he rubbed the side of his face. Although Evelyn’s slap couldn’t harm his body, it still left him slightly stunned as he didn’t suspect it.
"I guess that’s the final burden off my shoulders..." Lake thought to himself as he looked up at the cloudy blue skies.
Ever since Lake got the system and realized what it was doing to his personality, he knew he couldn’t continue to live on like he did before. Evelyn was right in what she said, he never did things based on emotions and feeling, instead he was cold and calculating, almost like a robot.
It was only during the exams had Lake unintentionally revealed a bit of his true nature, letting Evelyn put the pieces together after watching the video a few tis and comparing it to so of the discrepancies she had noticed in his behavior.
When they first t, Lake was like a playboy and had also taken advantage of her, however, he had different intentions from Luke at the ti and eventually saved her, so she decided to just treat Lake like a benefactor.
However, after that, and unbeknownst to her, Lake had gained the Observer of Fate skill and was then able to read her like an open book. Lake took full advantage of this and used it to get closer to her. He didn’t do this because he liked her or wanted her, instead he was more interested in her slightly unique green fate.
He wanted to get closer to her to continue his investigation of her fate which was different from others at the ti. His original plan was to get close to Evelyn before performing so experints to see how her fate would react to it before eventually leaving for the academy and fading out of her life.
However, Lake had severely underestimated Evelyn’s intelligence. He truly didn’t expect her to figure him out after only observing one video and comparing it with her impression of him in real life.
But Lake wasn’t like this because he chose to be this way. As far as Lake was concerned, he was just born that way. From the mont he was born, he couldn’t feel a single normal emotion, relying only on his basic instincts and the teaching he received in his youth in order to survive and develop into the person he was today.
However, things were different now, with the existence of the system, Lake had already experienced two different emotions he had never felt before, joy and anger, and now he was addicted to feeling them.
The primal pleasure he felt when he claid a strand of fate or drastically changed soone else’s fate was sothing he couldn’t get enough of.
Lake wasn’t sure what the system had in store for him in the future but he knew that he was definitely going to continue to get more roles which would most likely alter himself in so way. Lake could predict that he would most likely end up in an unstable ntal condition if he were to continue gathering roles like he was now.
Lake felt that there was no need to take any risks by exposing his unstable self to others till he sorted out everything and until then, he would have to slightly change how he acted around others. He couldn’t continue to play the role of Lake Egoven, a narcissistic playboy with no regards for others. If he were to continue down that old path while his mind was unstable, Lake felt that he would soon co to regret it.
In the future he would be attending the Martial Academy so it was better to be careful and choose a safer approach with how he interacted with others.
As Lake thought of this, he smiled. His life had certainly turned interesting now that he had the system. Speaking of, Lake also unlocked the new system upgrades alongside the update.
When he rembered this, he was also reminded of his new role and started to wonder how it was going to change him.
Opening the system interface, Lake looked at the new role. It was only a low tier role, but he could tell that it was going to shake things up a lot.
[Low Tier Role - Mage.]
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