"No! Take me back." Jack screamed trying to get back into the black portal. But it had already closed, before he got the chance to jump in.
"T-that was my chance to talk to her." Jack weakly uttered falling to his knees. His hands were clutched tightly together, digging into his frail skin.
During the times he'd used walker of worlds title effects to travel back to harum city. The thought of going to Kelly's house lingered in his mind, but he refrained from doing so on certain reasons.
First, he wasn't sure she still lived there, but still he had a gut feeling she did. Knowing her he knew she wouldn't just move from harum city, without knowing his whereabouts or location.
Second, he was now an undead with a strange system. And he had a title that allowed him to travel back to harum city, where he died. But it was still on limited time, and even though harum seemed small it wasn't that little.
For all he knew Kelly might be in who knows where in the city, and he didn't exactly have a map or tracker to locate her. Before his 5 minutes here we're up.
And finally, the main and important reason was he was scared to approach her. He'd been gone for like how long, 5 years? It wasn't just 5 days or months but years.
That was a long time and a lot had changed during these times. So he was afraid approaching her now, as an undead, would only further severe whatever little bond they had left.
'It's been 5 long years since I died. Ha.. it feels just like yesterday.' Jack sighed with a complex emotion. He still found it hard to believe he really died and was resurrected.
'None of this would've never happened if I didn't loose my template.' He'd blamed himself for his misfortune, as he felt things might've took a much better turn than this.
'I wish everything would return back to normal.' He hoped time would be reversed, and he could go back and correct his mistakes. But alas, wishes weren't real.
"At least I can still go back to see her in an hour." Jack smiled with a bit of relief. The cool down time for walker of worlds title was one hour. Before he could use the title effects again, for only 5 minutes.
Kelly's street was a bit far from him but he didn't care. With his newfound speed, he could reach her location if he ran like crazy. Just in time before the title effects ran out with some time to spare.
[Unfortunately you can't.] The system words interrupted him making him crunch his shriveled brows.
'What do you mean I can't? Walker of worlds title literally has a cool down of an hour before I can use it again.'
[That's the thing. You can only use walker of worlds title thrice per day.] The system explained making jack frown more.
"Are you sure you aren't having a glitch." Jack asked with with a bit of concern. It wasn't strange for systems to have glitches, infact it was normal. But this wasn't just an ordinary system.
[Am operating perfectly brickhead.] The system coldly said, even going as far as to directly add an insult. Shaking his head jack decided to check walker of world title description.
(Walker of worlds title: Allows user to travel back to his previous world for a duration of 5 minutes.)
"See.. I knew you were-" he paused reading the next line of words.
(Time left till host can travel back: 9hours. Host has exhausted the number of times to use title effects for today. Please wait till another day.)
'What the- is this some kind of conspiracy against me.' Jack was shocked seeing the system timer on 9hours, prior to the former one.
'This wasn't in the description before.' He'd clearly read the title description few times, when checking his profile. And never for once had he seen this in the description.
"Great. Now am stuck here doing nothing for 9 hours." Jack sarcastically uttered in frustration, rolling his eyes a bit. He'd been dead for a whole freaking five years! Having just brought back to life today. He needed some action in his life to escape boredom, but now he had to wait 9 hours doing nothing.
"I wouldn't entirely say it's nothing." A familiar voice spoke from behind. Turning, jack could see the mysterious old man with his black cat.
---------------------
Zephyr city.
Inside a towering complex architectural building, some few crowds of people could be seen gathered at the last room in the top floor. A mixed look of excitement, anticipation, anger were plastered on their faces. All directed to one man in front.
"How valid are your claims harper?" Xia was the first to speak. She had a calm expression underneath her casual poker face.
"Very, miss xia. This orange orb not only has the power to last longer and power our city, but also our machines."
"By machines you mean the sentinels." Fey Chen smirked to which Bryce nodded.
"Who's the arrogant brat now." He sarcastically said earning a darting glare from aldren.
"But I'd like to refer to them as s-companions. It makes the name less invading, if you know what I mean." Bryce joked, earning an applaud from only the arrogant senator fey chen.
"Why do I have the feeling this isn't just about the sentinels aiding us. Governor xia uttered, coquettishly taking a sip from the fancy white tea cup by her side.
"Perceptive as always miss xia." Bryce chuckled but only received a piercing glare from xia.
"Guilty as charged. Miss xia is right, the sentinels are a great companion for we humans. But they aren't programmed as just domestic assistants." A ight grin formed on Bryce proud face as he spoke.
"You see~ when creating the sentinels, I programmed them with a protocol that allows them to adapt to any environment."
"Meanin" Miss pam asked intrigued.
"Meaning not only can they learn, but they can evolve on their own." Bryce explained with excitement written all over his face.
"Think of it like this.. a sentinel performing the duties of a baker, a farmer, a business person, a soldier you name it! Whatever humans can do they do better."
"So technically you're saying we're no longer needed. Tsk. That's a chicc way of portraying machine invasion." Xia scoffed standing up as she'd heard enough.
"Your little discovery is nice but nothing of great value. And I also don't support the idea of lifeless metals reshaping the future of humanity." With that she proceeded towards the door.
'Bam!'
"You don't understand!" Bryce roared slamming his hand to a desk.
"Really? Apart from the whole world domination and your lust for power please tell me.. did I miss anything?"
Sighing Bryce then calmed himself down taking deep breaths. "I know you all don't trust me and think am power hungry. But maybe I am."
He declared, earning some faint gasps from the crowds.
"D-did he just finally admit his lust for power?" Aldren muttered in shock, not expecting that from the cunning Bryce.
'What are you doing Bryce?' Marcus inwardly said, some balls of sweat sliding down his head. Giving Bryce the opportunity, he hoped things would go smoothly for once. And it did at first until now.
"But so what is am power hungry? If it means I get to make the world a better place and save lives, then I'd rather be power hungry." Bryce boldly declared staring at the crowd. He seemed to have lost it a bit, not caring about their reactions or opinions.
"How do you plan on saving lives when you're already destroying it?" Xia calmly asked with a smile. Amused at Bryce sudden change in attitude.
"Look, you all have the power to direct what happens amongst the three continents. Am just a scientist with unfinished goals. And though my ideas are not always a hundred percent, they can still make a difference."
Staring at him for a while xia didn't utter a word, seemingly thinking about something.
"Interesting.." she uttered turning round and walking away.
"A-alright everyone this session has concluded. You all will be updated on the next meeting." Marcus stepped in seeing things were way than awkward.
"Well that was unexpected." Aldren awkwardly spoke. Coming to this meeting he expected a little scuffles as usual, but never something like this.
"We can't possibly trust Bryce. I mean, he just admitted to being a power hungry freak! And also a scientist. What could be more worse, right miss pam?"
"Ugh.. yes, indeed." Pam subconsciously uttered, her hand placed on her chin thinking about something.
"I guess I'll be seeing you two later." Fey Chen smugly said walking out the room.
Getting up from his seat, a man wearing corporate black suit and pants made his way out of the room. Stepping into the elevator he brought out his phone, dialing a number.
"Yes bruce?" A male voice responded from the other end.
"I have news for you sir.."