The next day I completed my daily exercise and got ready. I put on some good clothes which made my perfect body show its glory.
Despite having a godly body my normal face makes me not handsome and not an ugly person or I can say a normal person. Though some girls did try to flirt with me I rejected them. When your life is in danger so have time to mind these things.
At 11 am I reached to the city museum. It's already crowded with people and reporters for the grand exhibition. All sorts of people come here to attend this event.
I take a brief look and find many of David's acquaintances. Some were classmates, orphanage mates and some people from the places where I used to work.
I found some mercenaries who hired me to carry their stuff in dungeon or mutant areas. I wear a mask and cap to hide my identity. I do not want to meet any of the people.
I have only one goal today. If fate allows it I will get the thing I wanted.
Soon main celebrity of the event arrived at the location. It is the leader of the city. His name is Andrew Stone. He is a tall middle-aged person with white hair and blue eyes.
From the information about him. In the novel, there was some small mention of his name a few times but no important role. Some named extra I guess.
The main point about him is that he is the strongest person in the city. From the sources, he is currently peak of A + rank but some say he has already become an S ranker. Nobody is sure of this thing but his strength is something everybody recognizes.
When I was reading the novel it felt like nothing but now I am in this world seeing these powerful rankers makes my body react in some different way.
It is like a mouse seeing a cat. A kind of fear emerges from the depths of one's soul. I tried to shake this feeling but it won't go away.
I feel ashamed of fearing these imaginary characters but my body's reaction is honest. I suppressed the fear and looked at the event.
Andrew makes a small speech explaining some important matters of the city and some information about his personal life. After making some remarks for the future Andrew cut off the ribbon to start the event.
Andrew stayed at the museum took a tour of the exhibition and then left. I guess even high-rankers have their duties that they can not ignore.
Lots of guards are arranged at various locations to maintain order. After using a scan I find the lowest of these guards are E rankers while some ordinary men are also mixed with them.
Well, rankers are still in the minority compared to normal humans.
With the crowd, I also got into the museum. The whole place is decorated in a very good style. The place looks old but clean giving the feeling of returning to the middle age era.
Lots of display items are placed at different locations. Live figures of war heroes are placed at different locations in the hallway.
In front of the display item, their information is written in detail. Every display item is isolated and warned that touching the glass will trigger an alarm so be careful.
Due to the flow of people, some people accidentally touched the display glass and were warned by the guard immediately.
Lots of cameras are placed at different locations which covers the whole avenue.
Only the ground floor Is a public area while the other two floors are off-limit for the public. They are the security area and cleaning area.
I wandered around looking at the items on the display. I used the scan to learn more about them and even found some fake ones placed at the counter. Did the staff know these were fake or did they purposely leave them here?
Why am I using a scan to check every item in the museum? Good question and answer is simple. I do not know what I want.
In the novel, there is very little description or I say almost no description of the thing I am looking for. Only its use is mentioned in the novel and it's also very little.
I found my chances after re-checking my novel memories.
It is related to the famous character but its details are not mentioned.
After spending hours I finally came to the lone display area. Some things are placed in a single frame with little to no information about them.
At first, I do not have much confidence in these items but after the scan results, I have to think differently.
' Got you' ( David )
=========
Name – Shadow stone ( Shadow key )
Rank – F ( S )
Type – consumable (
Buff – increase the shadow element mana recovery by 340 %. ( sealed )
Skills – are locked.
Status – sealed
========
My heart raced like a car or a f1 car. I felt my mouth dry and my eyes may pop out of the sockets. I closed my eyes and calmed my excited mood.
I found the thing I was looking for. Although it is still in the sealed state I know how to break its seal. Once I get this that high-level skill will fall in my bag.
I almost touched the glass in my excitement and then controlled myself at the last second. Fortunately, I stopped in time or else I get warned by guards.
I make sure that the thing I scanned Is right or not. It is a weird stone. It has cracks on its body which glow in purple color.
A strong shadow energy is emitted from it so they named it a shadow stone. Till now nobody can know its function.
Even though my scan showed no way to unlock it explain its difficulty level or know more about it I need to touch the thing and then use a scan I am not sure about.
After checking it for some more time I left it aside and looked at the other items.
Soon it is afternoon and the flow of people is reduced a lot compared to the morning but still there are lots of people present in the museum.
I have checked almost all the items in the museum and found some good ones. Some are also in the sealed state but my scan can see through them.
I want to have them but it depends upon the situation. I arrived at the main attraction of today.
A painting I placed on a glass display. Four guards stood at each corner to protect it. It is close to the wall corner which leaves no way to reach this painting without meeting those guards. There is a meter or more distance between the painting and the people.
In the painting, a beautiful woman whose face is not shown Is sitting by a fountain. Women must be a beauty just by looking at their image. The fountain itself is not ordinary.
Every detail of the painting is taken into great consideration by the maker. I want to use scan on it but something else got my attention.
A voice called my name.
" hey David." ( ???? )
I turned around and found Gina standing at some distance from me. Seeing me she approached me. Gina wore black jeans and a white shirt tugged in. This combo highlights the impressive curves and womanly area of the Gina.
Despite her age, Gina has reached the standards of a beautiful girl. Well, nothing Is wrong with admiring beautiful people. Jealousy will only make relations sour. And by no means I am having any lustful thoughts about her. I swear.
" do you have an interest in art? I do not see you taking part in any of the exhibitions if it's not about weapons or rankers. Why a sudden change of taste or you are feeling bored at home? Are you alone or brought someone over? Is it a girl? Are you on a date? Where is your partner? Do you have a girlfriend and which school did she attend? How do you know her?....." (Gina)
I stopped Gina before she reached my marriage or maybe the names of my children.
" wait wait wait. Will you breathe for a moment? I am alone and planning to stay like this for now. As for the girlfriend, you know better than me how many girls I know even in the class. So stop making things." ( David )
" how rude. Cutting people when they are talking to you is not a good thing. You should learn to respect girls. Never cut off the person when they are speaking. Now that you mention it you are right about the relationship thing. When all the boys in the class were after me only you remained distant. Not that I am boosting but I am more beautiful than the other girls of our class or even school. Given your common looks, I think no girl will fall in love with a loner like you." ( Gina )
Seems to be satisfied Gina indirectly boosted her beauty and degraded my love life and looks. My eyes twitched at her reply. Suppressing the rage building up in me I try to talk to her.
" for your information, many girls confessed to me but I rejected them all as I have no plan to fall in love for now. By the way, why are you here? I far I know your parents do not allow you to visit such places." ( David )
At my simple question, Gina acted in a very flustered way.
" what do you mean by this? Am I a little girl who needs her parent's permission for everything? I am a grown-up girl who is about to attend college. Of course, I can decide what to do by myself. Hump.( Gina )
Hearing her reply I speak in a very plain tone.
"Gina is that your parents behind you" ( David )
Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on Gina turned back and started to speak rapidly.
" I can explain Dad. I came here for research not for fun. Please forget all the things I said before..." (Gina)
While speaking Gina found nobody behind her back. She angrily turned and looked at me with both anger and embarrassment.
I suppressed my laugh. Who told you to curse me for being single and teach me manners? Now suffer.
" I thought you are a grown-up girl who can decide for herself. But looks like I was wrong. What's the matter, are you feeling angry or ashamed?" ( David )
I speak in an evil tone. Gian ignored my comment and remained silent. Suddenly we both started to laugh heartily.
After laughing for some time Gina speaks to me.
" it is like the first time meeting you David. I do not know if you can be this funny person. I thought you only knew some old stuff and liked to be serious all the time and a little cold too. But I see a new side of you today." ( Gina )
"People can be different in different situations. Till now I was serious about my studies as I wanted to be a ranker so I avoided these things. Now I have achieved my goal by admitting to the greatest academy for the ranker so I think I should enjoy some stuff till the academy starts so as not to regret it later. Missing some things may not matter now but in future, it may cause a lifelong scar." ( David )
Gian looked at me seriously like engraving my imaging in her mind.
I do not want to live like an old David. It may be safe but in the long term, it will be exposed so bringing some changes now can be used as an excuse for tomorrow.
The main thing is that I want to live like myself. I want to experience life my way not like someone else.
Me and Gina talked about some normal stuff like how is the academy and what to bring with us. Gina's parents are rankers so she has some inside information which helped me a lot and saved me some trouble.
Suddenly a commotion breaks out near the painting exhibition. A young couple started to argue with each other.
Looking at the ring on their fingers I assume they are married. The man seems to be saying something to calm down the woman but the woman is not listening to him as always happens to the married men.
The commotion grabbed the attention of the security person who came to the couple to solve the issue.
" hello visitor. Please stay quiet and do not disturb other visitors." ( Guard 1 )
The man responded to the guard.
" Sorry sir. My wife is a little spoiled. I will try to calm her." ( man )
The woman or wife of the man cut off his talk.
" Who you are calling spoiled? I just want to take a closer look at the painting but you can not even do that for me. Do you dare to call yourself a man?" ( woman )
Man becomes angry at the woman's question about his manhood.
" what do you mean by this? Where do you think our kids come from and who gets you pregnant. Do you still question my manliness. I will deal with you once we get home so stop causing a mess." ( man )
" am I causing the mess? You can not even do a little thing for me. I knew it was a mistake to marry you." ( woman )
Saying this woman starts to cry causing the man to be flustered. Finding no other option man requested the guard for permission to reach closer to the painting.
Seeing this scene the guard also got confused and did not know what to do. He took out a walkie and talked about the situation in it.
It seems the superiors are confident about their security level as they allow the couple to reach closer to the painting.
Others cast envious glances at the lucky couple. Nobody noticed anything abnormal except for me.
I looked at the man and woman and used the scan on them.
Suddenly my pupils contracted.