"Alice, wake up," Ryder said as he tried to wake up Alice, who seemed to be lost in a deep sleep.
He even tried shaking her to wake her up, ultimately breaking her sleep.
"Huh? Are doctors here? Wait, I'll eat that pill right now," Alice said as she sat up. She couldn't help but run her eyes that were barely opening as she was still so sleepy.
"You don't need to take that pill anymore. We're not going with an excuse. We're leaving openly," Ryder told Alice. "Get prepared. We're going to Japan."
"What? What happened to the old plan? And why are we suddenly going to Japan?" Alice asked as the shock made her open her sleepy eyes.
"I have something important to do in Japan. It suddenly came up. Since I don't want to leave you behind, I'm taking you with me," Ryder told Alice. "Not get up and get ready. The tickets are booked. We'll leave from here."
Alice nodded as she got off the bed.
…
Within half an hour, Alice got ready for travel. Ryder carried the bags as he left his room with Alice. He had just left the place when he stopped as he caught the sight of guards standing right before their rooms.
"What are you people doing here?" Ryder asked, frowning.
"We are from Necrosis. We were sent here to guard the rooms of the Players to make sure that nothing happened to them. Think of us as your personal guards," the black-clothed man told Ryder.
"I'm sorry, but we don't need any security. One of our relatives has expired. We can't take part anymore. We're leaving," Ryder told the man as he started leaving.
"Wait. We don't have any such information from the higher-ups," the guards said as they blocked Ryder's path.
"Have you informed them?" They asked. " Please do so if you haven't. As long as they give us permission, we'll let you leave."
"You'll let me leave?" Ryder asked, frowning. "I think you might be in some misunderstanding here. You're not keeping us hostage here. We were guests, and now we want to leave. We don't need anyone's permission to leave. As for contacting your higher-ups, I'll inform them later."
" We're getting late at the moment, so step aside. I'll call them. When I'm in the cab," he said, gesturing to them to move.
"I'm sorry, but we can't. Wait, I'll call them myself and ask," the guard told Ryder, not moving at all.
"My friend, please move. If you treat me like a prisoner, I'll treat you like a kidnapper. And trust me, I don't treat kidnappers nicely. You can ask the ones that tried kidnapping her last time," Ryder said, squinting his eyes.
"We can't let you leave unless we have orders from above. That's final," the guard told Ryder, not worrying in the least. "Also, we also worked in special-ops. So please don't think threatening us is a good idea. Please cooperate with us."
"Fine. You want it the hard way, let it be the hard way," Ryder said as he turned to look at Alice.
" Hold my bags and step back," he told Alice as he gave her the bag.
"Don't fight, please. Let's call the cops," Alice told Ryder as she looked at him with concern.
"We don't have time to wait for the cops. As I said, I will be late, and I can't afford to miss my flight. It's really urgent to get there," Ryder said, smiling wryly. "Don't worry; it doesn't take long."
Alice gave up as she stepped back.
Ryder looked around the hallway to make sure that there were no cameras there. Unfortunately, there happened to be two cameras there.
"Well, it's the old trick then," Ryder muttered as he placed his hands in his pocket. The guard looked at him carefully, wondering what he wanted to take out of his pocket.
As Ryder brought out his hands, he was holding nothing. But he had already done what he wanted to. The cameras in this entire hotel were disabled for a few minutes.
"Alright, you, the special-ops. Let me see what they train you," he said as he stepped towards the man.
The guards didn't react or hit Ryder, just watched. As Ryder got close to them, he didn't attack them either. Instead, he tried to walk past them. He knew they would try to stop him, and that's what they did.
A fist landed on Ryder's shoulder, pushing him back.
Unfortunately, the man who was trying to push Ryder back couldn't help but frown. Ryder was like a road roller. His strength wasn't enough to stop Ryder.
As he was about to use another hand, he saw Ryder grin. A fist advanced towards him, cracking the ribs of his stomach while making him fly away.
The other guards tried to intervene, but they also ended up the same way. Nothing worked on Ryder. His body seemed to be made of stone. No attack of theirs worked while his single slap was enough to send them flying.
Within seconds, all guards were lying on the ground except one. The one Guard was so scared that he was shivering in his boots. He didn't dare move either.
Alice tapped on Ryder's shoulder as she asked, "Why are none of them moving? They're all standing like statues?"
Ryder glanced at Alice as he responded, "Don't worry about them. I think they're meditating."
As for the guards, none of them had actually died. They were all standing where they had been. In fact, what they saw previously was nothing but an illusion that Ryder had shown them inside their heads since he didn't want to attack anyone in front of Alice.
"Let's go," he said to Alice as he caught her hand and walked past the guards easily.
He entered the lift with Alice and went to the ground floor, where a cab was already waiting for them. They entered the cab, which took them straight to the Airport.
From there on, the process was much simpler as they boarded a flight.
The flight took them straight to the airport in Japan.
….
"Sir, we have news," An assistant entered the cabin of Ion.
"Yeah, what news?" Ion asked lazily.
"Alice and Ryder Flynn aren't in their hotel. They left," the assistant told Ion.
"What do you mean they aren't there? How can they leave? What were our guards doing?" Ion asked, frowning.
"They were, ah, standing there in a daze. I don't know what actually happened, but they claim that Ryder beat them up. But there's not a single wound on their body. I think they were dreaming. But it's strange. All of them dreamt the same thing at the same time," the assistant answered.
"It's either that or they're trying to use this story to escape punishment," she further added.
"Interesting. Showing a dream to all at the same time. Very interesting. Get me the footage of that entire floor. I want to see it myself," Ion told the assistant, who nodded as she left.
"This Ryder Flynn is getting more interesting by the second. Aura of Aluren and Adrian and being able to use dreams like Itsuki? Intriguing. I wonder why he ran away, though. Wasn't he here to investigate me? Or could it be that he found out about me already?" His frown deepened as he placed his forehead on the table again.
"Maya, get me the details of this Ryder Flynn. Where exactly is he right now?" he said.
"Right away." Maya's voice echoed in the room.
Within seconds, Maya appeared before Ion.
"He booked a ticket to flight 107, going to Japan. He went with Alice. At the moment, he should be on that flight," Maya explained to Ion.
"As expected. He has some relationship with Itsuki too. Japan is the domain of Itsuki, and he is going there. Keep an eye on his location. Use the satellites if you need them. I want to see his every action," Ion told Maya, who nodded before she disappeared.
"I also need to see the Trials. This Ryder Flynn just had to make a mess at a time like this. Couldn't he have waited one more day?" he muttered, frowning.
….
The flight of Ryder landed in the land of Japan. Ryder and Alice left the airport and went to an ordinary hotel that Ryder had managed to book in advance.
In any case, he didn't mind not getting an expensive hotel since he wanted to stay under the radar, and this place seemed the best.
He had only booked one room in the hotel, but that one room itself was very big.
"Alice, I'm going to take a shower. I'll be right out. You stay here," Ryder told Alice as he hastily stepped inside the bathroom.
After entering the bathroom, he closed the door before he finally brought out the body of Aluren. It was here that he wanted to absorb the body of Aluren.
