Chapter 401 A surprise visit? From who?
Chapter 401 A surprise visit? From who?
3 WEEKS AGO
"Fuah!"
Alex let out this shout of his mouth as he felt himself falling down on a soft object. The momentum that has been pulling his body down earlier has now disappeared, as he only felt a springy sensation behind him.
He slowly bounced up and down from his current place, with his befuddled mind slowly regaining some clarity. He did not move from where he was at all, as he slowly savored the comfortable feeling that he was in right now.
He even appeared to be deep in thought, as the complaints and shouts of his Companions beside him did nothing to break Alex’s currently calm façade.
"So after being dragged away from the Immortal World, the first thing that I felt is a soft bed behind me? Hmm... I have seen worse things before." Alex thought sourly to himself as he took a deep breath. He then let this breath out all at once as his body continued to relax.
"Fuuu..."
Even though Alex appeared to be satisfied right now, there were some tinges of unhappiness on his face, which made him look like a person who was frustrated with himself.
This frustration became more apparent when Alex continued to ruminate on his inward thoughts.
"Sigh... I should be feeling happy right now, since I just finished a mission. But why am I feeling this sad? Was it because I went back here?" Alex thought to himself as he closed his lips. "Or was it because of the fact that I was easily suppressed by the unknown power that dragged me away earlier? Ah whatever. I will just deal with this weird feeling later. For now, I must deal with the more important issue!"
After he had these thoughts appear in his mind, Alex began to move his head around as he decided to observe the place that he was currently in.
With all of his experiences as a Traveler, Alex has a high certainty that he and his companions were back at the Four Moons World right now. After all, this world was the place where they were meant to appear in. For them to appear in a different world was highly improbable, as it was the Endless Monarch himself who decreed them to come here!
But even if he was sure about the identity of the world that he was in, Alex has no certainty at all about the safety of their current location. After all, they had already left this world for several months, so some changes were bound to happen in this world.
Whether these changes will be helpful to Alex or not will have to be discovered yet later, so Alex knew that he and his companions had to act carefully for now.
And this careful act includes a serious observation of their surroundings.
"I am inside a house. That I can surely say." Alex muttered to himself as he saw where he was in right now.
An assortment of objects that was similar to furniture appeared in his line of vision, with sofas, tables, television screens and other household items showing themselves.
He can also see a kitchen at the right corner of his eyes, with an array of cooking tools and ingredients already gathered there. As for the left corner of his eyes, he could vaguely see a door for what seemed to be the shower room.
Add the bed that Alex was lying in right now, and he could definitely say that he was currently inside a place that was meant to be lived in.
"So instead of dumping us back to the Red Moon, which was the last place that I have been in this world, we were brought inside a house, which appeared to be similar to the house of people from Earth..." Alex mused as he saw that the technological level of the objects that he saw was way more advanced than the ones that he expected to see in a world like the Four Moons World.
As he saw these objects, Alex narrowed his eyes as he knew what these objects represented one obvious thing. And that is that the technological level of the Four Moons World had advanced by leaps and bounds.
This realization made Alex feel suspicious, as he realized that something big must have happened on the Four Moons World for its technology to reach this level.
"We have been only gone from this world a few months, and yet it already became like this? Something wrong... is happening here!"
As he reached this conclusion, Alex gritted his teeth as he decided to scan the area all around him with his Esper Sense. He knew that if he wanted to know more, he must also observe the condition of the places around him. Maybe this house was only an isolated case, and the whole Four Moons World were still at their original state...
With him already reaching the Sixth Stage of Power with his Esper Ability, Alex knew that the range that he can observe was way larger compared to before.
In fact, Alex was confident that he can now observe an area as large as a country, or if he really cranks it up, an area as large as a continent!
"!!!"
But before Alex could even release the power that he had built up inside him, his whole body froze in tension as he felt the sensation of death brushing behind him.
"...."
Cold sweat began to pour out of his skin as he felt a hollow pit inside his body. His stomach then began to turn as he felt something stirring his insides right now.
"..."
This cold and nauseous sensation made Alex feel extremely weak, and if it were not for the comfortable sensation of the bed, he could have fallen down on the floor.
"...."
To anyone that can see Alex’s state, they might think that he was experiencing an illness or even a malicious attack. However, that was not the case, as what Alex was experiencing right now was something that he was familiar with.
This feeling was actually Alex’s Danger Sense at work, and it was now blaring loudly inside his head, reminding him that danger was imminent!
If this was the only thing that Alex felt, then he could say that his luck was bad. But unfortunately for him, Alex realized that the danger that he was feeling right now was way more different than the ones that he had felt before!
All the dangers that Alex felt before with his Danger Sense only made him feel slightly cold, which meant that those dangers were things that he can still avoid. But the danger that he picked up with his Danger Sense right now was almost enough to leave him petrified!
For him to feel something this strongly only means that some kind of extreme danger was about to approach Alex right now! And this danger was so extreme that even Alex’s current strength has no way to fight against it!
"F**k!"
As he felt his body giving in to the sensation of death, Alex gritted his teeth as he immediately deactivated his Esper Sense. Since his Danger Sense was triggered after he tried to activate his Esper Sense, then maybe the trigger for the danger is his Espser Sense himself.
He did not think of any more options as this was the only thing that he could think of right now.
"Fuuuh..."
Fortunately for Alex, the feeling of imminent danger faded away after he deactivated his Esper Sense. This made him feel relieved, as the cold and nauseous sensation on his body disappeared quickly, leaving him back to his normal condition.
"You three! Don’t use any kind of power to scan our surroundings! I do not know why, but something dangerous will happen to us if you will scan our surroundings recklessly!" Alex did not linger on what happened to him as he immediately warned his allies about the danger that he just felt. "I almost felt the sensation of death when I tried to activate my Esper Sense. If that was like that for me, then it could also apply on you!"
"Something that dangerous already exists even when we just came back in this world? Alex, what the hell is going on here?" Alina blurted out as she and Alex’s other companions saw Alex’s flustered appearance. She appeared to be irritated about something, although her attention right now was more focused on the words that Alex just said. "And why are we inside a house, instead of the Red Moon?"
"Alina, I do not know. Yet." Alex replied as he made himself sit on the bed. He then cupped his chin as he looked around him, taking note of anything weird inside this house.
"Something radical must have happened in the Four Moons World during the time that we were gone." Alex slowly said as his eyes landed on a nearby bookshelf. His eyes then focused on the books on that shelf, hoping to see something that will pique his interest there. "As for what that change is, we have to discover it immediately, or our lives will be put at extreme risk."
"Alex, you are right about that." Alina quickly replied as her eyes furrowed. She then looked at the ceiling with an unfocused gaze, as if there was something bothering her right now.
"Alex, I do not know why, but I could feel that there’s something different about the Time of this world." Alina slowly said as her eyes glowed green. "It is only subtle, but I can certainly feel a faint difference..."
"A difference in Time? That’s not good..." After Alina voiced out her observation, Alex immediately tensed as a small idea began to form in his mind.
He then continued to scour the bookshelf with his eyes, as he felt the urgency to discover the truth.
He took a few more seconds of scouring before he stopped, with this eyes now focused on one book.
"Thud."
Alex quickly left his bed as he approached the bookshelf. He ignored the sweaty appearance that he had right now as he pulled out the book that he had zoned in.
"Creak..."
The bookshelf let out a loud creaking sound as Alex pulled the book, as if this was the first time that the book had been pulled out.
Alex did not pay attention to this creaking sound as he looked at the title of the book.
"CALAMITY AND PROSPERITY: THE DIFFERENT ERAS OF THE FOUR MOONS WORLD...." As Alex read the title of the book, his expression turned worse as the idea that he formed earlier has began to further grow. "F**k... this book talks about different eras. If this book is true, then that means..."
"Swish swish."
Alex did not waste time as he began to read the book. He used his upgraded mental power to quickly read the pages, bringing him to a reading rate of 1 Page/Second.
Rustling sounds filled the room as Alex powered through the book. Alina and the other women inside the house did nothing to disturb Alex, as they knew that Alex was nearing the precipice of his investigation
"Slam!"
After 10 minutes of non-stop reading, Alex closed the book with such a force that its spine almost came out unbound from its body.
Sheer irritation could be seen on his face as he threw the book back on the bookshelf, making the nearby Asteria wince.
There was no doubt that what Alex saw in the book made him extremely pissed. Just the fact that he could barely keep himself together was already a feat, as Alex looked like he was about to destroy anything that he could put his hands on right now!
It was only when Alina took the initiative to approach Alex that he calmed down, and even at that moment, traces of rage could still be felt from him.
"That s**ty Emperor.... If I see him again, I will make sure to kill him into oblivion" Alex slowly said as he clenched his fists. "That s***y old man... Just you wait!"
"Alex, I know that you are angry right now, but we need to know why you are like this. Did you discover the reason for all the weird things here?" Alina asked in a soft tone as she patted Alex’s back. "If you don’t want to answer, it’s fine. We will just read the book later."
"Pardon me for my outburst. I was just so taken aback by what I had read, so I found it hard to keep myself calm." Alex replied as he took a deep breath. He then let out a sigh as he kneaded the bridge of his nose. "Oh, and don’t worry about me. I can still talk."
Alex then stood taller as he began to explain what he had seen on the book.
But before he could even start talking, a sudden knock on the door interrupted him.
"Knock knock knock."
Everyone immediately backed away from the door as the knocks continued, with each one of them arming themselves up.
This sudden knock on the door brought their already tense nerves to the limits, and they could only look at the door with wariness as they waited for what will happen next.
Will someone try to attack them? Or is this just a friendly neighbor trying to talk with them?
If they can use their powers to scan outside the door, then they can quickly assess what the ’threat’ really is. But because of what Alex said, they could only wait for what this ’threat’ will do.
They did not have to wait that long, as the sounds of the door knocks were quickly replaced by a spoken question. The voice that uttered this question was calm and serene, which in normal situations, could be something that can calm Alex down.
However, this question made Alex and his allies tenser instead, as the question was something that they did not expect to hear right now!
"Hello? Is Traveler Alex here? I want to talk with him."