"This is pretty amazing, actually. You did some great work at it. Keep working hard. I'll give you all the support you need. Once again, congratulations on the achievement," Ryder told Aleson.
"I'm not the one who deserves all the credit. Your ideas played a crucial role. Moreover, my team helped a lot," Aleson answered.
"That's right. Where's your team? I need to congratulate them too. You all did great work here," Ryder inquired.
"I'll introduce you to them. I don't think you've met them since you have the responsibility to hire most of them," Aleson let out as he left the room.
"That's right. I only hired a few big names in the industry. Other than that, I left it all to you. So I actually haven't met most of them. The last time I did come to meet you, but you were busy with some tests. This must be that test," Ryder answered as he followed Aleson.
…
"This is our team," Aleson introduced Ryder to his entire team, which also included John who had betrayed them. No one knew about that yet.
"John, right? You were the one hired by me. I'm glad you're fitting with the team perfectly and achieving such a great breakthrough." Ryder met John, who was standing first in the line, ahead of everyone else.
"Thank you," John said with a smile on his face, but on the inside, he was scoffing at Ryder.
'Don't blame me for what's about to happen next! I'm older than everyone here, and I had the highest experience and the greatest reputation amongst everyone present here! But you still chose an inexperienced kid to lead the branch! You can only blame yourself for what will happen!'
Ryder couldn't hear his thoughts and moved over to the next person in the line.
"I heard many great things about you. Great work," he praised the woman that was also one of the main members of the team.
He didn't shake anyone's hand through since he had a feeling that he'll most certainly break a few bones if he did.
Instead, he joined both his hands together to give a different kind of greeting.
He soon talked to every member of the team and gave a few motivational words before he left.
He wanted to talk to Herriet as well since he was already here, but it wasn't the right time since he didn't have his strength in control.
He wanted to train first.
He left the building and noticed the driver come out of the car to open the passenger side door.
"You don't need to. Keep sitting in the car. I'll just take a walk to the nearby building and come back after an hour or more.
"You can go eat or relax until then. Or rest inside the car."
…
Ryder walked over to the building that was next to his Divine Corporation building.
Even though it was a building right next to his building, there was still sufficient distance between the two.
It was a building where a lot of things had happened. It was where Ryder had killed many men, including some from the Uprising, which was ruled by one of the sons of gods.
Ryder entered the abandoned building, which had all blood cleaned inside. There was no person inside the abandoned building, so it seemed like the perfect place to train.
Still, Ryder didn't train here. He went to the roof instead, where he was going to train in a much bigger area.
"I have control over my speed mostly. I only need to train that a bit more, but that can be done later. The problem is the strength. That's my enemy. I need to understand my strength first to know how I can deal with it and what amount of strength has what effect," Ryder muttered as he clenched his fist.
He had decided to punch with ten percent of his strength. He gazed towards an empty wall, breaking, which wasn't going to affect anything.
After preparing, he punched out.
Boom!
"What the heck?" Ryder exclaimed in shock as he saw the outcome of his attack. "But that was only ten percent!"
He was surprised. Even though it was only a fraction of his power, it was enough to break the wall.
…
"When is he coming back? He said he's going to take a walk, but it's been an entire day. It's already evening, and he still isn't back," the Driver muttered as he looked around while sitting in the car. "I'm getting so bored here! Why was my luck so bad that I got stuck with him."
His eyes were disappointed and somewhat annoyed as he gazed in the direction of the nearby building.
"Should I go and check him?" he wondered as he frowned.
He was thinking if he should go check up on Ryder. He could use the excuse that he was checking if the guy was fine or not.
"There he is! Finally!"
His eyes suddenly lit up as he saw Ryder coming out of the building. He got out of the car and opened the door so that they could leave as soon as Ryder came here.
"You don't need to open it now. My hands are better now. No pain," Ryder told the man as he walked over to the driver's side.
"Sir, why are you sitting there? I'm the driver?" the driver asked Ryder.
"I feel like driving now. You sit on that side," Ryder replied as he entered the car and closed the door.
After the driver sat inside, Ryder started the car, which zoomed off into the distance.
After an entire day of hard work, Ryder had finally learned to control his strength.
…
The car stopped inside the Maxwell Estate.
"That's right, Alice had something to talk about. I should hear her out," Ryder muttered as he stepped out of the car and entered the mansion before he walked over to Alice's room.
"Alice, are you inside?" Ryder asked as he knocked on the door. But there happened to be no response. Curious, he opened the door and peeked inside.
"Sigh, that girl is already inside," he muttered as he noticed Alice lying on the bed. "So she couldn't hear me because she was inside Divinity."
He closed the door again and walked back to his room only to realize that his room didn't even have a door.
A broken door was just standing there, but it provided no protection. A single push was going to make the door fall since it wasn't attached to the wall anymore.
"Cheh, I need to get that fixed too. I forgot to tell them," Ryder muttered as he turned back to find the butler who could arrange things.
"Here, in this direction."
As Ryder turned back, he saw the butler coming in his direction with someone who seemed to carry a toolbox.
"You're back. I noticed the door was broken. I don't know how you made it happen, but I called someone to repair it. It should be done shortly.
"I was just about to call you. Thank you. I was in such a hurry in the morning that I forgot to tell you about this," Ryder told the man with an embarrassed look on his face.
He was technically a guest here, and he was breaking things and not even telling them.
"So should I ask how you did it?" The butler asked Ryder with an amusement-filled smile.
"Not unless you want to hear a lie," Ryder truthfully said. Even if this guy asked, he was going to have to lie. So he vaguely hinted that he would lie to make the butler not ask.
"Alright. I won't ask then."
…
As the butler had said, the for was fixed in less than an hour. Ryder closed the door and went to take a long shower now that everything was over.
He got out and prepared to dive into Divinity.
Walking back to the bed, he laid down and picked up the glasses.
Gazing at the Divinity Glasses, he couldn't help but wonder about something.
"A billion dollar prize… Why? What changed your time for you, Necrosis? Your earning isn't much higher than last time, but your spending is way more. By giving a billion dollar Prize and only making it an exclusive contest between current top ten players, just what are you trying to achieve?"
"You're trying to lure us out. That much is obvious. But the question is, why? The only change in this timeline I can think of is my rise. Nothing else should be different."
"Are you guys after me? Is that what you're trying? Or am I attracting too much suspicion from you by getting to such a high level? Or is it something else? Just what exactly changed…"
"If this contest was open for every player, it might have seemed more genuine and make it seem like you were attracting more people to play Divinity in the lure of rewards, but it's only for the top ten. Shu was right. You guys are suspicious."
