Baek Daechul had a conflicted look on his face. In all history, only two people had left the Empires, and none of them had ever returned.
"T... There is land outside of the Empires?"
Seth smiled darkly and folded his arms. This was the kind of people that fell easily to internet frauds. From the moment the guy had declared his name, Seth knew that he was overconfident in his own strength. And the only thing a person confident in themselves feared, was someone whose strength they did not know.
"Of course there is, stupid. Its a terrible place, filled with thousands of feet tall giants that scraped the sky, strange monsters made out of steel that carried people about, yet emitted poisonous fog that could kill you at the same time, and a force that shocked people like they were struck by lightening. And there are fearsome creatures too, the worst of them all is a beast known as the mosquito. This one would visit every single night to drink your blood..."
"Enough!"
The guy's face had paled considerably. However, this was exactly what Seth was aiming at.
"But despite all this, we lived there like kings. We made the giants our homes, forced the monsters to serve as a means of transportation, and killed the fearsome mosquitoes with one clap of the hand..."
The greatest emotion of man was fear, right? And the oldest fear was the fear of death. Nobody wanted to die. In turn, the fear of death leads to the fear of the unknown since you cannot defend yourself properly against what you don't know. Seth was aiming to play out on this dude's fears.
Baek Daechul trembled slightly, and then quietly released Seth's hair from his tight grip. Seth plopped on the ground, but then quickly stood up.
"Did you have to drop me so hard?!"
The ground was slightly hotter due to the shift in the direction of the beach umbrella due to Baek Daechul's disturbance. Suddenly, the red haired youth grabbed Seth by the hair once again.
"Wait a minute. How can I tell that you're saying the truth? For all I know, you could be lying..."
'Damn it...'
It seemed like the dude wasn't as stupid as he thought. Luckily, he had prepared for the probability of such happening. Quickly, the beach umbrella vanished from its spot and a dagger slowly formed in his hand. Seth stalled for a minute or two, and then poked the guy on the shoulder with the newly formed weapon. Baek Daechul scoffed, did this guy think that a meagre dagger would be enough to hurt him? He clenched his fist to kill the liar here and now, but then he paused as a warm trickle was felt over his chest. The red haired youth widened his eyes, as for the first time since he had reached the Qi reinforcement realm two weeks ago, he was bleeding.
"Is that enough evidence for you?..."
Seth grinned slyly. He was still very weak in reality, and would lose hands down in an actual battle, but the red haired youth did not need to know that. All Baek Daechul needed to know, was that he was someone who had the potential to be strong.
"... Well, I suggest that we form an alliance."
This was his original plan all along. The Imperial Sky Emperor stated that only ten people would survive at the end of everything. Seth would definitely need some strong allies if he wanted to survive, and what better ally was there than someone who was easily deceived, and thought that you were strong?
Sure, it could turn out to become a problem in the future, but he would definitely grow stronger before then. By the time, the Baek Daechul guy would realize that Seth was actually a scam, the black haired youth would be strong enough to defend his words. But for now, he would use the red head as a meat shield.
Baek Daechul considered for a minute or two, frowning and mumbling something to himself, then he suddenly let out a toothy grin.
"I agree to your alliance..."
Then his gaze turned sharper as he glared at Seth with unconcealed malice.
"...But if I ever find out that you're not really as strong as you say you are, then I'll kill you with my own two hands. Agreed?"
Seth steeled his resolve. His plan was full proof, a plan made with a foundation of over three hundred eastern fantasy webnovels, and built with the guidance of at least fifty novels of the survival genre could not fail, right?
"I agree."
And just like that, Seth had procured himself a bodyguard who didn't know that he was a body guard. It is usually said that people found out the worst parts of themselves in desperate situation, and Seth had discovered that he had a knack for manipulation. His original plan was to survive the day, travel at night, and find other people in order to survive, but if the plan turned out to work out backwards, then it was fine with him.
***
Soon enough, the night had fallen once again. However, this time, there was a red haired guy sharing his beach umbrella. Seth shook his head as he glared at the snoring red head in annoyance.
'Why the hell did it have to be THIS kind of person...'
Baek Daechul had done nothing but sleep the entire day. Technically, there wasn't really anything to do in the first place, but Seth had been expecting it to rain because of the thunder he had seen. Unfortunately, the rain did not pour, and Seth had been in a bad mood ever since. Well, he could now let out some of that annoyance, since he spotted a particular creature out in the distance.
"Hey, Daechul..."
Seth tapped the slumbering beef bag only to receive a long groan, before the loud snores resumed. The annoyance of today had finally reached its boiling point.
"Wake up, idiot!"