Lev followed the woman along with many others that came to surround him. Which seemed odd at first.
A suspicion that got worse when he noticed that he was not being taken to the stage but instead the room above the stage. Causing him to put his guard up.
'This might be the moment.' He thought. The warnings from before are still fresh and seeing that FIX can't talk to him. He knew that this might be the time he was attacked.
And without his weapons and poisons, he is also not much of an opponent of the blue star hunters that surrounded him.
But as if fate was playing a joke on him, he was soon brought to a room with one eyed man drinking champagne all alone in his room.
"Your guide is normal… there is no need to eyes her throat like that." The man said, causing Lev to silently look at him.
As for his guide, she was horrified at the connotations of the old man's words, and looked at Lev deeply, holding a bit of fear.
She has been working here for long and understands that if some is capable of being called into the old man's room. Then they are dangerous individuals.
Meaning, her life really was at risk.
"She is normal, hence I targeted her." A leverage or a scapegoat to hold off the men that might attack him. This was his plan due to the lack of his tools.
"Good, FIX didn't lie about you." The old man laughed, shooing away others from the room and then gesturing to Lev to sit with him.
"No need to keep your guard up. I don't want anything from you… for now that is."
Then old man Wulfer took out a briefcase in which the serum was kept. "And you should be aware that FIX won't give this to just anyone."
Opening the briefcase, there were a total of 10 bottles of serums kept in it. Each contains just enough of the awakening agent to help a single human awaken.
One of which belonged to Lev.
"I was wondering why I was not asked to bring these here. So FIX gave this job to you."
"Yes and now, I will give one to you."
"But coudln't we do it on the stage directly?"
"Well, it is true, but I just wanted to meet the man who killed three purple star hunters on his own."
Then with a child like innocence Tikhon asked, "By the way, how did you do it?... FIX never told me the details."
"..."
*****
Lev didn't expect that the patriarch of the Wulfer family would be so weird. Though what made this small meeting feel odder was that the old Patriarch seemed to be friends with FIX, and a dependable friend at that.
And one shan't forget, this old man is one of the top three snipers in the whole world. A person who has killed even golden star monsters in his peak.
So why would FIX, someone with such powerful connections choose to let him be so free?
He can obviously see that FIX might be one of the strongest in the world, that is unless she is collecting young talent for some unknown reason.
Talents that might be weak now, but may become useful in the future.
Not to mention, there was a high chance, DreamMachine was just another false identity that FIX uses to fool other users.
A dummy account that let FIX order other members around while taking part in their life in an attempt to assess their value.
Lev was not such a fool to not notice what happened to Impala. How suddenly his activity on the group meetings dropped down.
But Lev knew that he was thinking too much. So with a bottle of the awakening agent in his hand. He got on the stage as Bella Wulfer, the current manager of the auction, introduced him to the crowd.
Of course, she didn't use his real name and just called him Mister Husky.
"Mister Husky was chosen by the owner of the Awakening agent as a test subject. To prove the efficacy of the serum."
"Yes, you heard it right. The owner of the serum had allowed a demonstration and hence, they gave away one of the serums for free."
Hearing these words, the crowd started to talk among themselves.
Many were curious, some were looking forward to the owner of the serum making a joke out of them.
And few of the fools were even calling this whole thing a scam. Not even thinking if this was a scam, why would a notable family promote something like this?
But those kinds of people are everywhere and one can't stop them from gossiping.
As for Pragati, Luvi's older brother. He looked at the man named Husky deeply.
He read his build, his breathing pattern and the way he was standing on the stage.
'A killer, but still a mortal.'
Lev to him seemed like someone who had lived a similar kind of live as him. And the amount of blood Lev has seen can be smelled even to Pragati that was more than hundred meters away from him.
Not to mention, in this hall filled with killers. Only one smelled so strongly of human blood. The rest of the strong people only hunted monsters.
"Calm down, this is the stage. No one would dare attack you on the stage. Now focus on the serum."
A voice said from his earpiece, making him know that FIX was really active on this stage. But FIX might give a good suggestion, it doesn't mean following it is easy.
At the end of the day, no matter how many he has killed, he was still a normal human.
The suppression of the higher life forms that are awakened in normal humans is strong. And with all the attention of these high lifeforms focused on him, for the first time in a while, he found it hard to breathe.
But this feeling was still not as bad as the many times his father had trained him on how to defend against choking. Which just consisted of Lev being choked by his father again and again until Lev created his own methods to defend against any kind of chokehold before they tighten their grip.
And in case they failed, he understood how to harden his neck muscles if the tussle is active. Or how to act dead by relieving his neck muscles and giving in to the grip so that his target puts his guard down.
So even if the stage felt suffocating, he silently sat down on the chair that was in the middle of the stage.
"As you can see on the screen, the chair will monitor the state of Mister Husky in real time."
"Its even able to detect traces of mana in the body." Bella pointed at Lev's hand and asked. "Mister, do you mind if I pinch your hand a little?"
Having been given the whole play since the start, Lev nodded. Knowing what Bella wanted.
Which was really super simple. She just pinched him as she had asked.
But one can easily look on the screen that the place where Bella pinched had some blue remnants left on it.
"And it's very sensitive. I only put in a bit of mana in that pinch."
With this, it was proven. Or at least it looked on the surface.
There were few who wanted to go on the stage and check it for themselves if the stuff on the screen is truly real time or just projected play.
But knowing the background of the Wulfers, none dared to do it. They just waited for the full presentation to be over.
"Please Mister Husky, you can drink the awakening agent."
Drinking sounded odd to the people here. The efficacy of the drugs would change tremendously when taken as an injectable, instead of an edible.
But none of the people in the crowd even think about it. Their eyes were focused on the screen as well as Lev who after getting the confirmation, ingested the potion and closed his eyes.
And on that screen, the internal workings of the mana were for everyone to see.
"Remember the process as DreamMachine has told us. It just gives you temporary access to feeling mana. In that time, you have to take the mana in your body and make it your own." With those words, the earpiece also went silent. Giving Lev the chance to breathe and think calmly.
'Its warm.'
It was then that he felt a warm energy floating from his stomach and into his mind, which made him smile for some reason.
But this smile was hidden due to the mask. But none of it mattered as the people in the crowd were surprised at what was going around Lev's body.
"He is attracting mana."
Someone said as they noticed the tidbits of blue entered Lev's transparent body on the screen.
'So this is what they feel like.'
On the other hand, Lev smiled brighter than before. Even though his eyes were closed, it was as if a new world had opened up for him. A world filled with floating lights that existed all around him. But his senses were too weak before to ever notice them.
But now that is not the case.
Simple tendrils made out of smoke flew into the air and slowly grabbed the lights, forcefully dragging them into his body.
And bit by bit, he can feel that the more he collected, the closer he was to one of the awakened beings.
Because at this moment, he can feel the same smell from his body that he has smelled on the awakened beings.
Though, this smell was ruined.
As Lev took a loud fart, which was amplified by the mic next to Bella.
Bella: …
Tikhon: …
FIX: …
Crowd: …
*****
Luvi: Surely I am not forgetting something… right?