"Why is this happening...?"
Evelyn was terrified as she looked at the bodies being dragged off of the stage.
Leah was sitting next to her and was silently trembling.
Evelyn could see tears welling up at the corner of her eyes.
Evelyn wanted to reach out to her and tell her everything would be fine, but she couldn’t even do that.
On one hand, she was currently suppressed and couldn’t even move, much less reach out to her.
On the other hand, the current situation was simply far too hopeless that even she wouldn’t believe herself.
However, although Evelyn was also feeling bad, she knew that Leah was feeling far worse .
Not only was she weak to these types of things, she was also probably being eaten up inside from the guilt.
It was her idea to come to the theater in the first place, thinking it would be fun.
She had originally wanted to bring her here in order to cheer Evelyn up, but after the terrorists showed up, everything quickly descended into madness.
Evelyn really wanted to comfort her friend and tell her it was fine, but she was simply restricted to her seat, unable to mutter a single word.
Staring desperately at the stage, she saw that another four audience members had been dragged up after the last four were removed.
Looking at the smiling woman on the stage, Evelyn couldn’t help but feel how dire the current situation was.
The fact that the woman could easily suppress them proved that she was at least a Martial Master. However, not only was she a Martial Master, she was most likely a High Rank one judging by the fact that she could cover the entire auditorium with her Mana Field.
There was even a chance that she may be of a higher realm, but Evelyn didn’t wish to think of that possibility.
Because if that was true, she knew there was no escaping from this situation.
Thinking of all this, she couldn’t help but recall a figure in her mind.
Originally, she knew nothing about Martial Artists and their power system, but after meeting him, she couldn’t help but be drawn into his world.
She didn’t have any particular interest in the field herself, however, just the fact that he was a part of it was enough to make her interested.
In the end, their relationship ended on a bad note, but Evelyn couldn’t extract herself from that world even after that.
She had fallen into this world and couldn’t climb out, so she continued to dive deeper.
The more she learned, the greater her curiosity grew about these mystical figures who could perform superhuman feats of strength with their bare hands.
The dangerous work they did to protect the lives of countless civilians, even at the cost of their own, had left a deep impression on her.
Now that she found herself in one such dangerous situation, she couldn’t help but wonder if those figures would show up here as well.
All she could do was hope. Hope that those heroic figures would appear before her and save everyone from this nightmare.
In this desperate situation, the name of the figure that had started all of this appeared.
Originally, he was nothing more than a classmate who her entire impression of was just someone who always fell asleep in class.
Everyone had a small amount of disdain for him as he was someone who, by their standards, was reaching far beyond his level.
In the end however, he ignored them and they ignored him in return.
Although she didn’t hold disdain for him like the rest of her classmates, she wasn’t much different as she also continued to ignore him.
It wasn’t until she found herself in a crisis did he appear before her and that was their first interaction.
He saved her from a danger she wasn’t even aware of and for that, she was truly grateful and approached him with the intention of wanting to repay that favor.
However, that was her first mistake.
Instead of approaching him carelessly, she should’ve at least figured out about him even if it was by word of mouth.
Even if she couldn’t find anything useful, so long as she found even the slightest flaw in his character, maybe she would’ve been more cautious when she approached him and saved herself from a pain she didn’t want.
But in the end, she didn’t.
She recklessly approached someone she had thought of as nothing more than a well meaning, albeit lazy, classmate and fell for his lies, his charming fake smiles, and his subtle manipulation.
If it wasn’t for her spotting a minute, almost invisible, crack in his façade, she probably would’ve still been dancing in the palm of his hands.
It was the most subtle of changes in his personality, but she was able to pick up on it easily as she had been paying full attention, unable to extract herself from him.
But with that small hint, her cautiousness was reawakened and more and more cracks continued to form in his mask until eventually, it all came crumbling down in her mind.
She saw him for the cold, calculating and manipulative bastard he was.
When she finally confronted him, fully prepared to expose him however, it was as if he already knew she had figured it out, which only left her more broken inside.
No matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t figure him out.
He told her he was uncaring, yet he said he cared about her.
He manipulated her, yet he said he didn’t want to hurt her.
However, none of this mattered as the most painful thing to her was something else.
He said he didn’t love her, yet she still loved him.
It simply drove her crazy. By all rights, she should hate him and want nothing to do with him, but, even after they separated, she couldn’t get him out of her mind.
It was torturous and made her heart ache. She felt disgusted with herself for feeling that way but she simply couldn’t bring herself to come out of it.
She tried to forget, but she couldn’t. She tried to move on but she felt restricted. She tried to distract herself but always came back to him.
It was painful, unbearable, and only served to fuel her anger and disgust at both Lake, for making her this way, and herself, for being unable to escape it.
Looking at the audience members who were dragged up onto the stage, and the woman who was prepared to begin the second act, Evelyn closed her eyes.
Right now, she didn’t want to think about or witness what was about to happen.
All she could do was to continue to hope that someone would get her out of this situation.
Lake exhaled a breath of air as he opened his eyes.
Looking back down at the stage, he saw that the woman had already begun her second act.
A flash of disgust appeared in Lake’s eyes but he quickly looked away.
He had finally managed to cool his head after upgrading his skill so he didn’t wish to anger himself once more by watching the insufferable play put on by the woman.
[Spellcasting lv 2 - A mage’s basic ability is to manipulate the magical energy within their body to cast spells. At the current level, you can manipulate the magical energy within your body to perform intermediate spells.]
[RP Points = 400.003]
Just now he had upgraded his Spellcasting skill.
If he wanted to do something about the current situation, he couldn’t rely on his martial prowess.
No matter how strong he was for his level, he couldn’t fight a Martial Master.
The only option he had left was to use a more unconventional method.
A skill he had acquired from the system and one he needed to use if he was to deal with the insufferable woman.
"System, that woman, she should be the cause of the disruption in the Web of Fate. I’m not sure how she is doing it, but this should count as finding out the source of the problem, no?"
[Analyzing the host information...]
[Calculating possibility...]
[Congratulations to the host for finding the source of the disruption in the Web of Fate.]
[Does the host wish to claim his reward now?]
[Host confirmation acquired. Beginning the upgrade process...]
[+1000 RP Points has been acquired.]
[Mana Strength has been increased by +1.00]
[Mana Capacity has been increased by +1.00]
Suddenly, Lake felt an incredible change happen in his body.
The mana that was circulating through his veins was quickly being purified at a rapid rate.
He felt the small dots of impurities quickly being removed bit by bit until his mana had been purified and strengthened by a considerable amount.
However, that wasn’t the end as a strange energy seemed to infiltrate his body, mixing with the purified mana before rapidly duplicating.
Lake was slightly stunned as he felt the changes in his body.
He had never used the system to upgrade his stats before so this sudden change was quite shocking to him.
[Mana Strength = 1.91 -> 3.01]
[Mana Capacity = 2.99 -> 4.30]
After adjusting to the sudden surge in his mana, Lake relaxed as he breathed in.
With the increase in his mana capacity and strength, it was time to move on to the second step of his plan.
Turning his gaze towards the mana storm in the sky, Lake prepared himself to perform a completely insane task.
He was going to collapse the rift himself.