"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, Iâll eat that pill right now," Alice said as she sat up. She couldnât help but run her eyes that were barely opening as she was still so sleepy.
"You donât need to take that pill anymore. Weâre not going with an excuse. Weâre leaving openly," Ryder told Alice. "Get prepared. Weâre 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 donât want to leave you behind, Iâm taking you with me," Ryder told Alice. "Not get up and get ready. The tickets are booked. Weâll 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.
"Iâm sorry, but we donât need any security. One of our relatives has expired. We canât take part anymore. Weâre leaving," Ryder told the man as he started leaving.
"Wait. We donât have any such information from the higher-ups," the guards said as they blocked Ryderâs path.
"Have you informed them?" They asked. " Please do so if you havenât. As long as they give us permission, weâll let you leave."
"Youâll let me leave?" Ryder asked, frowning. "I think you might be in some misunderstanding here. Youâre not keeping us hostage here. We were guests, and now we want to leave. We donât need anyoneâs permission to leave. As for contacting your higher-ups, Iâll inform them later."
" Weâre getting late at the moment, so step aside. Iâll call them. When Iâm in the cab," he said, gesturing to them to move.
"Iâm sorry, but we canât. Wait, Iâll call them myself and ask," the guard told Ryder, not moving at all.
"My friend, please move. If you treat me like a prisoner, Iâll treat you like a kidnapper. And trust me, I donât treat kidnappers nicely. You can ask the ones that tried kidnapping her last time," Ryder said, squinting his eyes.
"We canât let you leave unless we have orders from above. Thatâs final," the guard told Ryder, not worrying in the least. "Also, we also worked in special-ops. So please donât 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.
"Donât fight, please. Letâs call the cops," Alice told Ryder as she looked at him with concern.
"We donât have time to wait for the cops. As I said, I will be late, and I canât afford to miss my flight. Itâs really urgent to get there," Ryder said, smiling wryly. "Donât worry; it doesnât 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, itâs 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 didnât react or hit Ryder, just watched. As Ryder got close to them, he didnât attack them either. Instead, he tried to walk past them. He knew they would try to stop him, and thatâs what they did.
A fist landed on Ryderâs shoulder, pushing him back.
Unfortunately, the man who was trying to push Ryder back couldnât help but frown. Ryder was like a road roller. His strength wasnât 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 didnât dare move either.
Alice tapped on Ryderâs shoulder as she asked, "Why are none of them moving? Theyâre all standing like statues?"
Ryder glanced at Alice as he responded, "Donât worry about them. I think theyâre 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 didnât want to attack anyone in front of Alice.
"Letâs 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 arenât in their hotel. They left," the assistant told Ion.
"What do you mean they arenât there? How can they leave? What were our guards doing?" Ion asked, frowning.
"They were, ah, standing there in a daze. I donât know what actually happened, but they claim that Ryder beat them up. But thereâs not a single wound on their body. I think they were dreaming. But itâs strange. All of them dreamt the same thing at the same time," the assistant answered.
"Itâs either that or theyâre 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. Wasnât 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." Mayaâs 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. Couldnât 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 didnât 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, Iâm going to take a shower. Iâll 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.