It was late into the afternoon when Layla came back from work. Kate opened the door for her and in return, she grinned mischievously, immediately asking, "How was your night?"
A furious blush reddened Kate's face. Layla didn't let up, however, and appeared behind Kate.
Even with Kenny's high stats he still couldn't see Layla's movement, leading him to guessing that she had some kind of teleportation ability.
Meanwhile, Layla, who had once again trapped Kate within her clutches, held her waist with her right arm while her left arm slowly crept down to her lower regions.
"So… did you sleep well? I hope you didn't keep Kenny up too late," Layla teased, rubbing Kate through her shorts. A wet stain soon darkened the denim cloth.
"Oh? So it looks like you know how to enjoy yourself now."
Kate bit her lip in response. Unwilling to admit anything, she wiggled around in Layla's grasp. However, this stalemate didn't last long.
"I get it, okay? Please don't bully me anymore," she finally cried out, her arms grasping at the air. Layla's fingers dug into her cave at that point, rubbing it to the point where Kate could barely suppress her moans.
Giving her a bite on the ear, Layla let Kate go and backed up with her hands up.
"I hope I can spend some quality time with you and Kenny tomorrow night. It wouldn't be fair if you kept him to yourself," she giggled.
"You-!" Kate growled, her teeth grinding against each other. However, she knew she couldn't beat Layla in a fight so Kate ended up stomping away to her room. The door slammed behind her.
Still sporting a childish grin in her face, Layla turned to Kenny. "Well then, why don't we order something to eat. I don't know about you, but I'm starving."
"Sure, I'm pretty hungry myself," Kenny said, already used to the pair's antics.
"Let's eat then and we can go over stuff afterwards."
Layla then ordered food and fifteen minutes later, Kenny was patting his stomach in satisfaction. Kate, who had left her room due to the appealing aroma of the pasta dishes that Layla ordered, was sitting next to him at the kitchen table.
"Ahhh," Layla exhaled, before wiping her mouth. "That was great."
Kate nodded in agreement, however, she caught herself and frowned comically. Although she refused to speak, Kenny could tell that she was merely being stubborn. The two friends' fights were just another daily occurrence at this point.
"Well then, I'll start with what I plan for you to do in the future," Layla said, breaking the silence and looking at Kenny.
Kenny nodded seriously in return, making eye contact with the beautiful black-haired woman.
"I've already gone over this with Kate prior to your awakening, but now that I know your gift and potential, I've had to make a few changes to the plan. Kate, let me know what you think as I go over it."
She continued after making sure Kate was looking at her. "As you know, tomorrow I'll take you to get registered at the Association's building. I have a good friend who works there and we'll be taking a back route so there shouldn't be any issues. If there are, however, just listen to me and don't say anything."
"Fine."
From there, Layla continued to tell Kenny and Kate her ideas for what she planned for him to do going forward. Kate occasionally interrupted her explanation with a question, but that was few and far in between.
The basic gist of it was that Kenny would get registered and from there he would start participating in the games while hiding his identity. Anonymity was crucial for him as someone with his talent could not be backed by Layla or even the Association as a whole.
They simply didn't have the strength to keep him if his capabilities were exposed.
Talent poaching was not something new. Especially those with rare abilities, they would be snatched by some other, more powerful solar system or even galaxy.
Kenny naturally wouldn't want this to happen. If he got discovered, he would immediately be investigated and that could spiral down to a point where his memories were searched by some rare ability user.
Thus, Kenny obtained a new priority even greater than gaining power as fast as possible: do so while not letting anyone who didn't already know who he was learn about him.
Thus, the day came and went like that. As Layla and Kenny had to wake up early in the morning for the opening of the Association's building, they went to bed early. The sooner he registered, the better after all.
Kate stayed up late, saying she had something to do in the lab and she wouldn't be going with them anyway.
The next morning, Kenny woke up to a chime ringing within his mind. Apparently, the microchip within his mind could connect to his phone, so he set up an alarm that would wake him up no matter what.
He got up off of the bed, stretching his limbs and looking to his left. Once again, Kate was sleeping besides him, her shapely body sprawled all over the place, the blanket twisted around her in such a way that left little to be desired.
Shaking his head, Kenny exited the room after putting on a pair of white shorts and matching bucket hat. It still felt strange to be going commando all the time, but with how advanced clothing was, issues like sweat or dirt had no effect on the light fabric.
With how bright the sun would be once it rose, wearing a hat was the best option for Kenny as well. Shoes, however, were not worn often due to the cleanliness of the city.
Every day, many robots automatically took care of any garbage and even dirt or dust. With his stats his feet wouldn't be hurt much from anything that he stepped on anyway.
A knock on the door soon brought Kenny out of his thoughts. He opened it to find Layla standing there, wearing tight denim shorts similar to the ones Kate wore yesterday, a cream sports bra that matched the color of her skin, and a white baseball hat.
Looking at him through a par of large-rimmed sunglasses, she smiled. "You ready?"
Kenny nodded, casually saying, "You look great by the way."
Layla laughed, "So do you. You know..."
She leaned in closer to him, putting her hand on his abs and having it trail down to his crotch. Putting her mouth to his ear, she whispered, "I hope you're ready for tonight. I'm going to get my full worth of that dick."
At this, Kenny had nothing to say in return, opting to idly fix his long hair beneath his hat. Although his skin was rather thick, it still was difficult for him to handle someone as shameless as Layla.
And just as quickly as she finished saying so, Layla patted his shoulder. "Let's go. The whole point of going so early was to avoid as many people as possible, after all."
The two then left the apartment, heading down the hallway and entered a pair of glass elevators. The rising sun shone in the distance, lighting up the sleeping city.
Heading down to the ground floor from 33rd only took a couple seconds. The pair arrived at an empty lobby, the only person there being an average-looking man wearing a pair of black dress pants and a tie who manned the front desk.
Once again, Kenny viewed the strange "formal" dressing habits of this world, but he guessed it was only strange to him. For the people here it was normal.
Leaving through the front door, Kenny stepped out into the city for the first time.
It was a view not unlike that of a futuristic New York City. Towering buildings stabbed into the flame-lit sky, the sun making its way up slowly past the horizon. There was more greenery though, with trees providing a layer of shade for those who walked beneath them.
Various people were already making there way around, with alien-like levitating cars speeding up and down the road. The sight that caught Kenny's interest the most, however, was the different species that he could see.
Although he had already heard from Kate that humans were not the only intelligent creatures out there, seeing was much different than just hearing about them.
Not even thirty feet away from Kenny was one of said beings. Their build was rather short, barely reaching Kenny's waist, and appeared to be made of a tightly woven cluster of stones that loosely formed its body.
"That's a rock-man," Kate explained, noticing Kenny's gaze. "They are formed when a high concentration of mana is absorbed by a group of stones over the course of many years."
Layla then turned to her right and headed down the sidewalk with Kenny in tow, the opposite way that the rock-man was going.
The distance to the Association wasn't far so it only took a few minutes to arrive at what looked like a wider but shorter Empire State building. On its stone wall was a bronze sign that read "Sol Association" with a symbol of the sun above it.
Layla entered through the rotary glass door and Kenny followed. He was greeted by a fancy, polished lobby, with a red carpet and green marble walls. Various golden furnishings decorated the room, giving it a high-class flair.
Wasting no time, Layla took off her sunglasses and headed to the front desk, saying something to the man there. Kenny saw the man nod his head quickly before tapping his temple. Realizing that the man also had a chip implanted in him, Kenny watched on as Layla walked back to where he was standing.
"Let's go," she said, and walked past the front desk to a side door. Entering the lone elevator behind that door, Layla pressed the number twenty button on it, which happened to be the highest number there.
The pair shortly arrived at the top floor and Layla confidently led the way to a wooden door at the end of the hallway. She knocked twice on it and without waiting for a reply, grabbed the nob and entered it.
Kenny followed and he found himself within a spacious, homey office. Bookshelves lined the walls, funneling into a large window. In front of that window was a large desk and at it sat a woman wearing a pair of thin-rimmed glasses.
"Barging in again, I see," the woman deadpanned. Layla chuckled in reply.
Entering behind her, Kenny finally got a good look at who they were supposed to meet.
Although Layla looked rather mature, she had a sort of fiery energy about her. This woman was the total opposite. Her stare was icy, with sharp eyebrows sharpening her already dignified features.
Her hair was white and eyes a silvery-blue. Kenny gulped involuntarily when she looked over him, a chill running down his spine.
"This is..?" he tentatively asked Layla, but it was the woman who responded.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Kenny. I am Amelia Luck, the head of the Association here in Nile City."