Connor then went for a shower and a change of clothes. As he exited the shower with the water still on to retrieve a towel, Connor stopped dead in his tracks.
An eerie feeling of death lurks on the other side of the bathroom door. His lips curve upward to form a small, mischievous smile.
'Finally bit the cake huh, 'uncle'?'
"Sonia, who's in my room?" Connor asks his advanced AI assistant.
*No one, sir. All signs are clear. You are the only one here.*
"Sonia, show me a live view outside my bathroom door with the gamma-ray camera. Broadcast the feed to my father. Also, record and send it to my anonymous account."
With his commands issued, Sonia complied and a holographic video feed of Connor's room projects from the latest Chronos Watch.
The entire room was black except for a blurry white figure standing in front of Connor's door. The shape is slightly feminine.
'An assassin huh? I guess my uncle had failed to kill Jett today and the kill order fell to me instead after he figured out I had no shadow guard with me. With this irrefutable evidence, the Elders in the family won't have any chance to reject the removal of Cona from the family records,' Connor thinks to himself, quite satisfied with making himself the scapegoat.
His uncle especially couldn't stand Connor as he wasn't even a part of the family by blood.
If his uncle knew of this incident, then so too did the Elders and Connor would then be able to know who sides with his uncle and who sides with his adoptive father.
This would mean they probably were okay with the murder of me eventually or even orchestrated it themselves.
How could the assassin get into my room with all the top-notch security of the family and technology?
IT'S A CONSPIRACY!!!
With a plan in mind, Connor turns off the water while drying his hair and singing a new pop song he remembers. He dries off and puts on his night clothes. A pair of shorts and a sleeveless white shirt.
He then brushes his teeth while opening the bathroom door.
Still pretending to be unaware on the outside, Connor quickly notes the assassin is on the other side of the door. He calculates that his room is about 30 feet on all sides.
Walking ten feet to his closet, Connor opens it and walks in, soon disappearing inside a secret passage at the back.
Connor exits the passageway and quickly notifies his father of the situation.
They act swiftly and gather the family's guards which they then surround Connor's room as well as outside in the yard.
The assassin was completely unaware of what was happening outside the room.
Whoever it was still thought Connor to be in the closet for whatever reason.
When Connor deactivates Witness Protection, the guards kick down the door and storm in. Ten guards of the Processor Realm entered quickly. They were all 1-star.
The assassin, caught off guard at the abrupt intrusion, launched an attack.
The first guard to approach is quickly dispatched. No time wasted, they go for the second guard to approach, and quickly knocks them back into the third.
Ten seconds.
Ten seconds is all it took to take down ten 1-star (☆ from now on) Processor Realm guards.
To do that, the assassin would have to be at least ☆☆☆ in order to achieve a feat like that.
Connor expected this to be the case as he had perceived the threat of death the moment he stepped closer to that door.
However, looking at their combat standards, Connor would most likely be able to take them given that the technique he learned doesn't incapacitate him first.
"Don't worry, dad. I'll try this," Connor says to his dad, who is a ☆☆☆ Dissemination Realm Expert and swiftly runs into his room where the assassin attempts to get away.
Upon hearing Connor enter the room, the assassin, ready to escape through the window, decided to head to Connor and finish their mission.
The obvious choice would be to run away. Unlike other assassins, this one is highly trained so much they would prioritize the mission more than their own escape.
Connor's brain then began to go into overdrive, his thought speed increasing threefold.
When Connor gets about 5 feet in front of the assassin, he immediately gets into his battle stance.
Even in the real world back then, Connor fought as though he wore Vibrant Mitigation on his left arm.
Hand-to-hand combat is his main fighting style while not playing the game.
Fighting with a long sword or a sword always allowed him to be more versatile while in battle with monsters on other missions issued by the guild.
"Huh? A ☆☆☆ Mentee dares to fight a ☆☆☆ Processor expert? You really want to die," the assassin openly mocked Connor, their voice masked by a modulator through the helmet they wore.
In every sense, they had the right to feel that way. Not only is their body stronger than those in the Mentee Realm, but even their processing speed is multiple times faster than any Mentee could possibly ever hope to achieve.
Therefore, if Connor was any other Mentee Realm expert, he would for sure die at this assassin's hands.
However, he was a Half-Step Prime Master who thoroughly understood the capabilities of both the Processor Realm and the Dissemination Realm.
With his knowledge, this fight should be over in a minute or so.
Using this assassin's overconfidence in winning due to having a higher realm to his advantage is the best Connor could do in this predicament.
At the very least, Connor should be able to hold his own until his father comes in.
"Eh? You're still talking. You're a woman. You should be like us men and not talk so much," Connor shoots back at the assassin, a playful smirk on his face.
As Connor observed the assassin's body mannerisms and even their body type, he confirmed it was indeed a woman underneath the light ninja-esque combat suit she wore.
Miffed at having been seen through and insulted, the female assassin quickly lunges at Connor with fast speed.
Not one to panic in the face of danger, especially after experiencing death, Connor quickly puts his brain into overdrive.
Being a Half-Step Processor Realm expert, Connor is able to increase his brain's processing speed and make everything slow half-time or even a third time.
Now though, he's also using a secret technique left by some old monster to temporarily increase his processing speed by threefold of his already special brain.
At this moment Connor's processing speed is no different than a Half-Step ☆☆ Processor Realm fighter.
Her punches, as fast as they were, were able to be slowed down to that of an amateur boxer's speed, fast but still able to be dodged.
'This is completely doable. I can only use this with no drawbacks for 30 seconds,' Connor quickly calculates.
Connor is now able to fully dodge and counterattack the assassin. Her punches and actions are extremely clear in his eyes.
Even though this was possible, his attack speed wasn't sufficient enough to be able to land a blow as she saw his every move slowly.
'Not sufficient. Looks like I'll have to call my dad in soon.'
As Connor was about to call off his father, the female assassin jumps back, surprised that this kid not only dodged three of her punches but was able to let an attack off in just that short second.
'What the— No Way. This kid is a Half-Step Processor! His attack speed is slower than the average ☆ Processor Realm fighter. He's only 15. It's also like he understands my battle style. His eyes scanned my entire body in an instant, knowing my weakness just from analyzing.
The intel said he was only at the ☆ Mentee Realm. Even with him being a ☆☆☆ Mentee Realm fighter, it still wouldn't be enough. This kid must have a master. Could he perhaps be a Heaven's Reaction Born? Let me see for myself. I'll go all out.'
The female assassin's thoughts were in disarray for that brief moment before coming back to reality.
A mere Half-Step Processor was able to dodge three of her punches and launch an attack of his own? What a joke she would become.
Logically, he shouldn't even know how he'd died while in the face of a ☆☆☆ Processor Realm expert. Yet, her only thoughts were either he had a master or is one of those Heaven's Reaction born persons.
Heaven's Reaction born people always had been able to react very fast to any danger without the enhancement of cognitive strength training.
The average cat's reaction time is 20-70 milliseconds while a human's is around 250 milliseconds.
However, Heaven's Reaction born person has a reaction speed of 80 milliseconds.
Just below that of a cat's and snake's reaction time. Hence, the reason for her confusion.
Not a single thing in this world could make her believe that an average Half-Step Proccesoor fighter could still manage to keep up with a ☆☆☆ Processor Realm assassin.
Following a hunch, the female assassin quickly approaches Connor, she then lets off a flurry of kicks and punches, each one being dodged by Connor.
Eventually, in about ten seconds, Connor began to become overwhelmed. With every punch the assassin threw, Connor would have to take a step back.
In the end, just as the female assassin thought she'd landed a decisive blow to his jaw, Connor's entire body did a 360° flip that enabled him to deliver a powerful kick to the side of her head.
The assassin flys through the air and slams into his night dresser, completely shocked.
The kick itself wasn't the cause of her shock.
What really made her shocked was the fact that Connor was able to use the force of her punch in order to deliver an equally as powerful kick.
He did this all while shrugging off the pain itself with his jaw being dislocated.
'He's a monster. The Fatale Blades must recruit him!'
Looking squaredly at Connor, the female assassin gets up and makes her way to Connor.
He immediately gets into a battle stance. She takes her combat helmet off.
Connor's facial expression mostly remained the same but a feeling of surprise couldn't help but show on his face as he saw the woman. He couldn't help but think of her name:
'Fatale Lithe, Blade Goddess of Ice.'
As Shattered Realms became more popular over time, so too did the interests of other people increase. Especially the rich conglomerate groups and other parties.
As such, a real-world assassin group, Fatale Blades, also joined the game. During the first few months of playing the game, they hadn't achieved anything noteworthy.
Well, that is until Fatale Lithe, one of their vice guilders, had successfully broken through to the Dissemination Realm.
Once on par with most of the other Powers' geniuses, she quickly rose to fame as successful kill after successful kill gave her and the guild more reputation.
The killing wasn't even what gained her a massive influx of reputation. No, it was the brutal ways she finished off each of her opponents.
Each one was gory and horribly accurate to watch. This style of play earned her the moniker, Slaughter Blade by regular players.
Plus, they even gave her type of finishing moves a moniker when battling a style as well.
No longer was it fighting of life and death, but instead those people would have entered Mortal Combat.
It was nicknamed after a gaming franchise created over a hundred years ago. Somehow, some way, Fatale Lithe will crack some skulls and break some spines… brutally of course.
Seeing her stand in front of him, Connor immediately backed away. This could have ended a very different way had she wanted to kill him.
Nevertheless, she had taken off her helmet and exposed herself which meant she had something to say.
"Um, why'd you take off your helmet?" Connor asks Lithe.
Noting how calm he was, Lithe's opinion of Connor increased even more.
"Well, you see, I'm a bit stuck as to what to do with you. My mission is to kill you, but killing you would be a hassle. Do you perhaps have a master?"
Lithe decided not to hold anything and immediately told Connor why she hadn't killed him yet. She was afraid he had an extremely powerful master backing him.
Her killing him could potentially spell doom for her entire organization.
Not confused but perplexed, Connor immediately knew the cause of her hesitation.
He could use the "insanely powerful master that every elite group knows of but haven't" trope and escape future assassinations but that was too much of a headache to keep up. Connor is a 43 year old man inside, he's learned to be as efficient as possible.
Connor just decided to be honest.
"I have no master. I learned this through basic training and what everyone receives. Why?"
Lithe takes a step back with shock apparent on her. In her mind, he's a Heaven's Reaction Born. She then reaches for something in one of her pockets.
"Here, take these."
Following that, she throws two small objects to Connor. He doesn't even need to see them in order to know what they are. Her identity token and a bottle of Ascendancy.
With this token in hand, Connor basically has the identity of being Lithe's student or even just a protected person under her care that tells her organization that he's virtually "off-limits".
If anyone from their organization comes to kill him in the future, he could just present this token to them and they would have no choice but to leave.
This token represented Protection in the highest degree.
Connor only knew of this badge because a guild leader was able to successfully avoid an assassination attempt by another member of Fatale Blades. The assassin then gave him a token of recognition.
No matter how much money was later offered to them, Fatale Blades did not accept the assassination mission for that guild leader.
Even with his knowledge, him being a teenager from a wealthy family, Connor must act accordingly so as to not let unnecessary info be known.
"What's this badge for? And this is the Ascendancy Potion!! Why are you giving this to me?"
Connor asks Lithe, eyes aglow with pretend elation.
"Consider those gifts an apology from the Fatale Blades Group. You shouldn't have any problems with assassins from my organization as long as you present my token to them. I've wasted enough time here, I'll be going now. Keep training, kid. You're very talented."
With those words spoken, Lithe promptly jumps out the window from the third floor of the estate.
Connor runs to the window to look for her, but she's nowhere to be seen. However, he knows she's just below the window. Her hoverboard is just at the ground below.
Connor then closes the window upon hearing the footsteps of his father.
A look of confusion is written on what he is facing.
"Son, when did you become a Half-Step Processor? You were just a ☆ Mentee yesterday," Conley Lin asks Connor, an expectant gaze directed at Connor.
"Oh, that? I just played the game. I got a big headache after battling monsters for so long. I logged out of the game only to find that I was super drained of energy. I consumed three bottles of A-Grade Solution all while working out and was finally able to feel much better."
Connor left out the parts where he encountered gods, activated legacies, had his race changed, and even his other soul merge with himself.
"Yes, that's fine. But, you were still able to completely keep up with that assassin. How?"
Conley was still confused. His son shouldn't even have dreamed of fighting a person of her caliber.
"The assassin lady said I'm a Heaven's Reaction Born. I don't know what that is," Connor "ignorantly" replies to his father.
His father was at a loss for words.
'F*ck! Just slap me into heaven. My Lin family is blessed!' Conely's mind was still in a muddled haze. Nonetheless, Connor brought him out of his reverie.
"Someone tried to assassinate me. I think Captain Hook wants Peter Pan dead for sure."
Conley, Connor's dad, nods his head in agreement. "That's right. We must present this to the Elders and figure out how to proceed."
Connor then hands his father the Ascendancy Potion.
"I think this is a gift to you from that assassin lady. With this option, you should be able to break through into the Prime Master Realm. Also, Dad, buy a game cabin for yourself.
You should be able to quickly utilize the mental enhancements in the game to a become Half-Step Prime Master within the month. After that, then you should use the potion as you would have a 90% chance of success."
Giving the potion to his father was a no-brainer. At this moment, it would take Connor at least 2 years to become a ☆☆☆ Dissemination Realm Expert.
Conley was about to reject Connor's offer but was stopped by him.
"Dad, the stronger you are, the stronger our family becomes. With your elevation in strength, so too will our family benefit. There are only about 20 Prime Masters in New America.
With you becoming a Prime Master, wouldn't we be on par with the Nation-level Families in terms of Patriarchal strength? Just take it."
Connor's last bit completely melted away any resistance Conley might have put up. The stronger he is, the safer his family would be.
"Alright, son. You've done well tonight. I'll be going to bed," Conley states to Connor, then turns to the guards standing around them looking defeated.
"And you lot, get your as*es back to your posts. You have utterly disappointed me tonight. I'll be talking with the Head of Security about a new training regimen. This must not happen again."
Though he knew they weren't at complete fault, he still wanted to vent in something.
The guards all file out of the room, headed to their respective night posts with shame at their inability to protect one of the people they're paid to protect.
Conley himself heads out but stops at the door, "Connor, don't forget your school's End of Year Test is tomorrow. Representatives of all the major corporations from around the world will be there. After what I've seen tonight, you shouldn't have any trouble with the competition tomorrow."
Connor doesn't reply but is completely shocked. He'd forgotten about that event.
'School? Bro, I'm 43. I do NOT want to go back to school.'
Never has he thought he'd be going back there. At least its just for two weeks. Connor doesn't care about impressing any other representatives besides the one from Chronos Corp.
Undoubtedly, they are the #1 Power in any field. If he were to join them, he would possibly receive access to resources that only the top Corporations and organizations could barely receive.
'I must undoubtedly win the test this year. However, I must be careful not to piss of the rep of Chronos Corp.
He's a douche."