Ivan couldn't help but feel foolish for trying to hide his Awakened status from the man in the first place. While this man might not have witnessed his previous actions, the others had seen him attack Mark, and he had revealed his exceptional speed just moments ago when running to the elevator with Iris. Ivan knew he had to think quickly to make his words make sense.
"What I mean is, I'm not a registered Awakened," Ivan clarified.
"And why is that?" the man inquired, his eyes scrutinizing Ivan.
"Uncle, can you just let this be? He doesn't want to-," Iris began to interject.
"Stay out of this, Iris. You do know that being Awakened and concealing the fact is a criminal offense?" The man's anger grew apparent as he cut off iris.
The man pondered their situation for a moment before sighing and reclining in his chair. He reached for the phone on his desk and made a call as he walked to the glass plane windows.
Returning to his desk, the man fixed his gaze on Ivan. "Some people will come and get you soon. Follow them and take the Awakened assessment to be registered. It's quick, and you both will be on your way," he instructed.
"Listen, I really don't want-" Ivan began to protest.
"Stop. The fact that I'm only ending it at this is quite lenient, so just go and take the assessment, and I won't hear more of this," the man dismissed firmly. The elevator behind Ivan opened, revealing two men dressed in black suits stepping out.
With a mixture of anger and resignation painted on his face, Ivan stood up and followed the men into the elevator.
Iris followed behind, still annoyed by her uncle's difficult behavior. They entered the elevator with the two men, and neither Ivan nor Iris offered another glance to her uncle before the elevator doors closed.
"I didn't know this would happen. You didn't want to come here or take the assessment, and it's my fault you're doing it. I do apologize," Iris said sincerely.
"Well, apologies won't fix the problem now, will it?" Ivan snapped.
"At least I owned up to my mistake, unlike you with the coffee shop," Iris retorted, visibly annoyed by Ivan's response.
"I did nothing to the coffee shop," Ivan defended himself.
"It was still your fault though, but I'm not here blaming anyone for something clearly out of their control," Iris shot back.
"This isn't just a coffee shop, this could ruin everything," Ivan muttered, his anger fading into uncertainty.
Iris observed him for a few seconds as he fell silent. The once confident and enigmatic Ivan was now shrouded in a shadow of uncertainty, and her guilt for playing a part in ruining whatever anonymity he had tried to keep weighed heavily on her.
"Do you think we can take them?" Iris asked as the elevator came to a halt.
"They are literally right behind us, they can hear you," Ivan replied.
"It won't matter if we can win, though," Iris persisted as Ivan turned to look at the two men behind them. Their lack of reaction to Iris's words made it clear they weren't bothered, and Ivan could see their levels displayed above their heads.
[ Gorman ( Lvl 68 ) ]
[ Manul ( Lvl 71 ) ]
"Well, we definitely can't take them," Ivan replied bluntly. Iris sighed at Ivan's words, knowing that he could accurately gauge people's levels, and if he said they couldn't win, then it was most likely true.
The elevator stopped and opened up to the assessment floor. On one side, there was a line of many other Awakened waiting for assessment, but Ivan was taken past them straight into the assessment room.
Iris stood by to the side as Ivan took a seat in the middle of the room. A helmet was placed on his head with numerous wires leading to various places. The key to this contraption's ability to see a player's information was the Valrian crystal, an extremely rare crystal currently found only on the fifteenth floor of the tower and mainly possessed only by oasis inc. When used correctly with either technology or magic, it could access basic to detailed info on a player.
As the helmet rested on Ivan's head, he awaited his assessment, but his mind couldn't help but spiral with thoughts. Currently, it seemed that only his ex-fiancée had recognized him, but he worried about what would happen if news of him being an Awakened reached Leonard and her.
There was a great possibility they wouldn't care or might still not see him as a threat. After all, just being an Awakened alone was far from enough to challenge a force like Oasis Inc, which harbored some of the strongest Awakened in the world.
What bothered Ivan the most was his class and his skills. The Game Developer class was undoubtedly a game-changer, with boundless opportunities. If word got out about it now, before he could fully utilize it, not just Leonard, but everyone would be after him. It could become a power they must have or destroy.
Ivan noticed Iris and the woman looking at the monitor with surprised faces, and he immediately thought they had seen his class. However, he was wrong.
[ Player data: ¿¿¿¿ ]
[ INFORMATION CANNOT BE PROCESSED ]
"Has this happened before?" Iris asked, both she and the woman staring at the screen.
"No, never. I'm not sure what's wrong," the woman replied.
Ivan remained seated, unsure of what was going on. His mind was filled with guesses at what had them so shocked.
Then a series of explosions began throughout the room, and the sparks traveled through the wire as they led to the helmet Ivan put on his head.
Ivan had not noticed the impending danger, but Iris had, and with lightning-fast movement that was only a blur, she launched at Ivan, pulling him out of the chair and off the helmet before it exploded with a devastating burst of fire.
Ivan laid beside Iris on the floor as they coughed repeatedly while smoke clouded the entire room.
"This is our chance, run," Iris said as both of them got up swiftly, and with the shroud of smoke, they headed for the staircase. As fast as they could, they exited the building.
However, they didn't stop; unsure if they had pursuers, they continued to speed through the streets, zipping through vehicles on the street with a blur of motion as Ivan tried to keep up with Iris.
After minutes of running and being sure they had lost whatever pursuers they might have had, they finally stopped. In an isolated place they had to scale over the keep off tapes to enter, their bodies glowing purple from the light the dungeon portal before them emitted.