Tick!
A strange silence enveloped me, I was back in the void.
This time, however, the world did not cease to exist, and darkness did not envelop me.
Rather, time stood still, and the world began to crumble before my eyes as I stood detached from it all.
[Settlement in progress...]
A blue, translucent screen was floating in front of me.
My nerves calmed as I stood in the empty void, a welcome relief after a month of stress in the Tutorial World.
I felt liberated, as if the adrenaline and madness of the mission had been washed from my mind.
Strangely, though, at the same time, a strange hollowness crept into my heart.
Even more so when I saw Maria, frozen in time, her body cracking in many places, getting ready to fade away forever.
"Why... am I feeling this?"
Despite our short time together, Maria had already carved out a unique spot in my heart.
For some reason, I couldn't seem to let go of Maria, the innocent, pure, and righteous girl whom I painted in my color.
The system settlement was still ongoing, but I had some questions to ask in the meantime.
"System, what happens to Maria now?"
[She will cease to exist]
"Can I bring her back with me?"
[No]
A flat, unemotional response in the same mechanical female voice.
Despite knowing that the System was preprogrammed and not making fun of me, I couldn't help but respond angrily.
"Are you mocking me?"
[The system is not mocking the host.]
Unaffected, the system remained the same.
Sigh!
Recognizing that acting on my emotions would be futile, I pushed aside my annoyance and asked, after a sigh,
"At least tell me some way to take her with me, and give me a reason."
[Reply to the host: The host can naturally resurrect her as a human being with enough UC or use the relevant props from the System store.]
The System's answer was somewhat within my expectations, but I had more worries than this.
"What about her memory?"
[Her memory will remain intact. She's a system product, so her soul can never go into reincarnation]
"And what's the cost in UC for resurrecting her as a human?"
[2 Million UC, or appropriate props from the System store.]
"System, are you joking with me here? This cost is even higher than that of resurrecting Seo-ah."
[No, host, the system is not joking.]
[Unlike Seo-ah, Maria never existed in reality. The cost of Casuality to bring her back is higher]
I understood.
Nonetheless, involuntary curses couldn't help but come out of my mouth automatically.
"This dog shit casuality! Fuck!"
Somehow, I felt as if a certain goddess was laughing her ass out, rolling on the floor while looking at me.
"Tsk, it looks like resurrecting Maria has to be put on hold."
Not now, but in the future, I would surely bring her back.
But this situation had made me aware of a major weakness of mine.
"Without Axel's trait, I am really weak mentally, I get attached to people way too easily."
If all this happened in just one month, and that too in a tutorial, I seriously couldn't tell how I would fare in the future in those real worlds.
"This time I go back, I must find some solution to this problem before traveling to the real world."
Sigh!
Just thinking about everything I had to do once I got back gave me a headache.
Suddenly, my eyes were drawn to John's lifeless body as it disintegrated before my eyes, and I was overcome with an unexplainable nausea.
A person killed by my own hands.
My brows furrowed, my breathing became labored, and I clutched my chest with my right hand and covered my mouth with another while muttering.
"Oh God! I killed someone for real."
"But... why am I smiling?"
There was a big grin on my face, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't take it off.
"Hehe..." I chuckled involuntarily and uncontrollably.
Before getting suddenly transmigrated into the body of Adrian Vaiself, I was just a regular web novel writer.
My views were twisted, I knew society's ugly face, and I only cared about myself and my family, but I never killed anyone.
There were many people I held a deep hatred toward, including corrupt politicians, activists spreading propaganda, celebrities promoting vulgarity and unethical garbage while acting all righteous, and even some of my own relatives who made my life a living hell as a child.
However, despite the fact that I hated those people, I never dared to kill anyone out of fear for the law, aversion to ruining my future as a result of my deeds, or a sense of helplessness in comparison to the real predators in society.
But now, I was the predator.
"It feels so good."
I wasn't some sociopathic serial killer, so my joy was not in the killing, but in this newfound freedom.
"Is this the taste of power? Makes me remember that saying."
"The wealthy prosper and the destitute bleed.
Inequality's cycle, an unbroken creed."
Wealth and power were addictive.
But before I could indulge in more elation, the system's prompts abruptly broke my thoughts and brought me back to reality.
I took a deep breath to slow my racing heart.
[Settlement Completed]
[Congratulations! You got the highest grade: (S)]
[Extra Reward: 1500 UC]
[First Time Reward: Time Dilation Authority]
[Settlement Reward: Treasure Chest (S)]
[Transporting back to the real world...]
My mind went blank as soon as I read the System prompts, and without warning or delay, I found myself back in the main world, my senses fully restored, and my body resting on a couch.
Opening my eyes, a white, modern, elegant, and luxurious ceiling appeared in front of me.
Checking the time on the wall clock, it was 8:14 a.m. The sun was out, its rays penetrating through the window sills.
"Only 2 hours have passed." I voiced my thoughts.
It was a calm, composed voice without any ups and downs in it, as if unaffected by, and uninterested in, anything, unlike earlier when I was struggling to keep my emotions in check.
For the first time ever, I felt grateful for these traits.
With that said, I turned my body up, sat on the couch, turned my gaze to Rachael, who was sleeping on the bed, and remembered how I still had to deal with her matter.
Sigh!
I could only sigh inwardly, because an outward sigh was a sign of weakness, an indication of feeling mentally or physically exhausted, which was something unacceptable to me now with Axel's traits.
Traits be damned, all I wanted to do was collapse on my bed and take a long nap, but I knew I had more important things to attend to before I could do that.
'Ah, my life, I just want to be a salted fish, and lay down all day.'
While my brain was having this thought, my body had already gotten up with its usual expression of stoicism, approached Rachael, who was still sound asleep, and gently untied her limbs.
To be honest, according to the novel, she should have already woken up by now.
'Is she pretending to be asleep?' I couldn't help but think so.
Immediately, I checked Rachel's breathing by putting a finger under her nose.
'A stable breathing, but now her expressions are normal, unlike earlier, it also doesn't look like she's awake, but if she really is, then she's a really good actor.'
Given how she fled secretly in the novel, there was a good chance she was already awake and waiting for an opportunity to flee.
To be honest, I really don't want to deal with her at the moment, but I also couldn't allow her to leave like she did in the novel.
That would just be losing the best opportunity, and following the plot, which would result in me losing her forever.
'Anyway, if she isn't awake, it doesn't matter, but if she is and is just pretending to sleep, it will only help me since she will be able to accept the next thing I am about to do.'
Without further ado, I exited the room, opened the door, looked around the corridor, and discovered the red-haired sleeping beauty.
She was half lying on the floor and half leaning on the wall.
A small trail of drool was coming out of the corner of her slightly parted lips, giving her an endearing childlike charm.
But for such a beauty, I reached into my system inventory and pulled out a bottle of water, which I then emptied over her face.
Splash!
While shouting,
"Charlotte! Wake up!"
Charlotte, startled, reached down and snatched the sword from around her waist before jumping to her feet, waving around hysterically, and shouting.
"Fuwaaa! What, what, what?! Flood, flood... It's a flood."
She spoke loudly, and her eyes were narrowed as if she were trying to focus.
"Don't you even recognize your master anymore?" I yelled.
And only then did her movements stop, and she looked at me with her narrowed eyes, which grew wider as she recognized me.
"Oh, oh! Master, it's you? You woke up?"
"You realize it now? You were asleep here in the hallway, what if someone comes to assassinate me at night?"
"WHAT?! No... I."
Charlotte wanted to respond and defend herself, but she knew it was her sleeping that left her master unprotected, so she bowed her head like a puppy in shame.
Of course, she doesn't know the real cause behind her sudden slumber, and since it wasn't I who did it, I had no intention of taking blame for someone's mess if I could.
Even so, it wasn't a good idea to tease her any further about it.
Fortunately, with this, she would be extra cautious in the future.
"Forget it, just remember to be careful next time."
"Huh?"
"What? Something's the problem?"
"No, no." She shook her head. "I was just surprised, you are behaving somewhat differently than before."
"Of course I would be, idiot. It was only yesterday night that I completed my assimilation with my character's traits."
"So that's it."
She smacked her palm as if her questions had been answered, and I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief at my successful bluff as I quickly changed the subject.
"Now, coming to the main topic, this girl inside Rachael,"
I spoke loudly enough for Rachael to hear if she was awake, pointed to her inside the room for Charlotte to see, and then continued.
"She will be living here from now on, have the maids come back and manage her accommodation; she will be my new secretary from now on... Also, have a trained female player from the family act as her bodyguard for the time being."
"What?! But master, the maids were sent on leave by you."
"So? Just give them compensation, and if anyone dares to complain and not come back, they don't need to ever come back again. Replace them with another maid from the company."
"Y... Yes, yes."
Charlotte nodded hurriedly.
It was funny to watch her, who was a high ranking player, act like a docile servant.
I chuckled inwardly at her antics.
After that, I left Rachael to Charlotte since a woman helping her would make it easier for Rachael to adjust, then I went into another room, and sat on the bed.
"Now let's see what I got after clearing the tutorial."
With anticipation bubbling inside me, I spoke the word I was dying to speak.
"Status!"
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[A/N: Shout out to "MindlessFly" thanks a lot for the two gifts.]
**The author fainted from overwhelming gratitude and joy.**