Max had been trying to find someone that was an Awakened the same as them but never was successful in finding one.
He wanted to see another awakened that he didn't know of. He didn't have any plans of befriending them, only that he wanted to watch how they live their lives.
He desired to know whether their actions were different from them. Do they prioritize doing something? How do they spend their days? What are they trying to achieve by doing that? Those were only some of the questions that he wanted answers for.
Max wants to find out how they live and compare it to how they were living to see if they were doing something wrong, or they were missing something.
…
Saying goodbye to Lydia, not after catching her off guard by kissing her in front of their house. Max turned away as he saw her closing their door.
Leaning on the wall, covered by the shadow of a lamppost, Max pondered on what he should do. Should he go back to satisfy his curiosity, or should he ignore it?
Eventually, Max decided to go back right now, not after assessing the strength of the guy and thinking about him being only Level 12. A Rank 1 Early Phase Awakened was nothing for someone like him.
"Whatever I'll go. He's weak anyway. What's the worse that could happen, right?"
…
"So I'm back, huh?"
"I'm really an idiot."
"But this is going to be fun right?"
Max reassured himself that this was going to be okay. His blood was pumped faster as he readied himself to go in.
[Hmph! Wait till Yu'er scold you until morning after you get home!]
Little Dou spoke out her thoughts as Max wasn't paying attention to her warnings to not go to these kinds of places alone. She was sulking on his hair, turning her head to the side.
"What do you mean? I'm just going to look! I won't start a fight, you know?"
"I'm even going to use a Face Mask for this! I also have Time Stops and enough Points for a lot of Invisibility Potions that can last me for more than a day's worth of invisibility. Maybe."
Max fully believed that everything that he had was enough for him to go to this place alone. He wasn't wrong about this.
If Max were to use everything that he has, Skills, Items, and Points, he would almost be unstoppable. The exceptions were if there was something unexpected happening like a strong figure showing up which wasn't probable in his current situation.
Using his Face Mask, Max's facial appearance changed to a middle-aged man's face. This was entirely different from his last appearance with a Face Mask.
Last time, he changed to an ordinary, easily forgotten face, but there were still some people who attempted to try something to him.
Max figured that it might be because of how he looked. At that time, he looks like a teenager. Now, he had a mature face that would make people think twice before thinking of coming up to him.
After making sure there weren't any problems, Max made his way inside, blending with the groups of people.
"Wow!"
"They are really rich!"
"This is so… I don't even know what to say."
"Layla said that Xiao Ming's family had a lot of these kinds of business. How rich were they?!"
Max's eyes almost showed dollar signs in them, checking out the shiny furnishings, massive chandeliers, expensive antique paintings, and other decorations.
A long list of evil ideas flooded his mind while looking everywhere. Seeing all these things made Max feel something on his chest that was telling him to take all of it for himself.
All of these were his enemy's properties and Max being himself, started to use his brain to think whether he could do something to bring some good stuff home.
[Haha! They will definitely catch you! Max! Run! Run!]
Little Dou was making fun of him. Inside, she was confident that Max could get away with whatever he planned to do. But she wasn't going to say it out loud, not wanting Max to mess things up from being overconfident.
Max followed where everyone was going. Most of them were going in the same direction that he became curious about what's in there.
'There must be something in there, right?'
The place that they arrived at was a vast theater. This theater was most likely where plays, concerts, and shows happen. Most luxury hotels have a place like this. This as after all, extra income for them.
'What are they doing?'
'Hey, Little Dou. Can you go inside and see?'
Max was stuck outside, as the lines were pretty slow. He doesn't even have an idea where he's going to. What if it's a private gathering? He would surely be kicked out, showing up uninvited.
This was the last thing he would like to happen. Getting attention to himself was going to be a tragedy for his plans.
Not long after, Little Dou came back flying from inside. From how her appearance, moving towards his direction, Max determined that he won't be in any trouble, waiting to know what was occurring inside.
[Uhm, it's some auction?]
[I'm not sure how it works, but they will sell some things later!]
[I saw people from the backstage with their items. They were passing it to the person in charge!]
[Those items seemed to be different! They all look expensive or valuable!]
[I saw some jewelry like necklaces and bracelets, and scrolls, I think they were paintings? I'm not sure about it! Oh! Oh! There were also antique vases and some gold items. There were moving it so carefully!]
Every time Little Dou said what she saw, the brighter Max's eyes were becoming. At this point, he was almost salivating, picturing the treasures that were back there in his mind.
'This is Xiao Ming's family hotel, right? If those items for some reason disappear, if those items disappear…'
Max's lips curled upwards as he thought of how good would it be if he got all of this, already thanking Xiao Ming for his generous gifts.
