Child of Destiny

...

Swoosh!

Shin logged back in the game and immediately appeared in the last place where they logged out earlier.

Right after he appeared, he immediately saw the others who were already checking their respective gears. They also paused what they were doing when he noticed him and slightly nodded their heads before continuing.

Shin nodded back at them and immediately swept his gaze to look for Cloe. He heard what happened earlier when he was gone. He thought it was not a big deal, especially that the result was a draw. Neither of them won nor lose, so he didn't know why the others were urging him to console Cloe.

But since he promised to tell her what he discussed with Alice earlier, he still had no choice but to console her before he could bring that topic to her, especially when he was completely aware of how she was acted whenever she was sulking about something.

"Did you eat? You didn't I didn't see you at dinner earlier, I told you to wait for me," greeted Shin in an attempt to talk to Cloe.

Unfortunately, he was greeted with a shoulder as she didn't respond to him. In fact, she completely ignored him while browsing on the virtual screen in front of her.

Seeing that, Shin felt that he was currently standing in the middle of two cliffs with a thin line of the soil as his footing. He remembered that he experienced this kind of situation before, it was definitely telling him to choose his words wisely, or else a disaster was going to befall him.

The others immediately noticed the heavy surrounding the two, so they stealthily distanced themselves away from the lovebirds as they didn't want to get swept away by the storm that was about to come. But at the same time, they still stuck their ears as they could tell that this was good material for gossiping.

In the meantime, Shin currently didn't know what to do as he continued to stand in front of Cloe. At a time like this, he wished for Arthur and the others to arrive as soon as possible so that he could dodge this situation.

"A-are you mad at me?" asked Shin cautiously as he was trying to test the waters. He immediately got his answer when he saw Cloe give him a cold sidelong glance.

'Yeah, you are mad, without a doubt,' he said inside as he gulped a mouthful of saliva.

This time, he chose to be honest and said. "Can you at least tell me what upset you, so that I can have an idea how to console you? You know me, I am not good at these kinds of things."

Cloe narrowed her eyes as she stared at him. Then she turned her head away, indicating that he was on his own this time. "Hmph!"

Shin pursed his lips as he didn't know what to do. He could only release a helpless sigh apologizing. "I am really sorry. But I'm really don't have an idea what to do."

While he was saying that, someone suddenly arrived and immediately asked. "What is happening?"

Alice headed over to this place as soon as she could after getting the coordinates from the others. She felt bad for not being able to participate until now due to what happened in the real world. So, she wanted to start working as soon as possible to compensate them for her absence.

But when she saw the others gathered around at the entrance of the particular rundown house, she couldn't help but feel a little confused which was why she asked.

Shin couldn't help but turn his head towards the opened door when he heard the voice. He slightly knitted his eyebrows but didn't look into it since he was currently stacked in a sticky situation.

On the other hand, Cloe suddenly flinched when she heard the voice as she could immediately identify who was it. She unconsciously extended her hand and grabbed at Shin's cloak.

Shin raised his eyebrows when he sensed her actions and quickly turned his head back to her. He didn't know what happened, but seeing the anxious look that she currently had, he couldn't help but smile at her and patted her head. "What's with that look? It is not like I am going anywhere. I am not going to disappear, alright?"

  He was not sure what was going on. But he was thankful that he didn't have to deal with the troublesome situation that he had. "Let's go. The others are waiting."

Cloe slightly nodded her head and stood up before following behind him. Looking at his back, she suddenly felt a strange feeling. She didn't where this sense of crisis was coming from, but she followed her intuition and asked with a soft voice. "You are really not going away, right? You will stay by my side like what you've promised, right?"

She suddenly halted his steps when he heard those words and quickly turned around. He looked at Cloe with a slight frown before saying. "I really don't know why are you acting strange right now. But you should know me better than anyone else. I always keep my promise."

Cloe slightly nodded her head. She then urged Shin to continue walking as she followed right behind him.

When they got out, they immediately saw the others who were currently having an awkward look on their faces while Charlotte, Alice's identity inside the game, stared at them with a strange look on her face. She didn't know why, but she felt a tightening feeling in her chest.

...…

Not long after, Arthur and his group finally arrived and joined the others. And right after their arrival, they immediately sensed the strange atmosphere surrounding the other group.

Arthur quickly headed over to Shin and asked. "Did something happen?"

Shin slightly shrugged his shoulders. It was as if he was saying that he also didn't know.

Seeing his actions, Arthur gave him a skeptical look before turning to Owen who was currently signaling him to come over.

Arthur quickly walked toward the knight and started inquiring about what happened. When he heard the details from Owen, he could help but shake his head and mutter to himself. "Looks like I really need to teach him the 'Skills of Lures'!"

Shin had no idea what they were talking about, so he quickly asked. "What you doing? I thought you want to clear this quest as soon as possible? Hurry up and fill us the details!"

"Tsk!" Arthur clicked his tongue when he heard those words and thought that this brother of his was really close to the boundary of' beyond salvation'.

He then shook his head before answering. "I already told you during dinner earlier that the old man really lost his mind, he became a crazy person. If not for the token that we had, then I doubt that he was going to follow us here."

Hearing that, Shin turned his head at the extra person that Arthur brought alongside their group.

He observed the NPC with his 'True Sight' activated, trying to see if the old man was currently under a spell. But after discovering nothing, he couldn't help but shake his head as he felt that they hit another dead end.

The old man lost the focus on his eyes, his mind was definitely not with them. Talking to him was going to be really troublesome.

Then he heard Arthur's voice beside him. "Fortunately, we are currently inside the game. A crazy person is not really a crazy person here. As long as we find the 'keyword' that can trigger the quest, then we are going to be fine."

"We already tried everything earlier, but that old man really didn't respond to us. Tsk! Tsk!" he added while glaring at the old man.

"Are you sure that he is the right person that we are looking for?" asked Shin with a slight frown.

"Yeah, we are sure. The sub-quest that we have earlier is immediately cleared when we meet this old man," said Leonard as he joined the conversation.

Shin fell into deep thought when he heard those words before opening the quest panel once again. He was trying to look for a clue on how they were going to proceed on this quest.

After a long time of thinking without a result, he decided to put this quest on hold for a moment and deal with it later. "Let's drop this matter for now. How about we proceed on the other quest that we have. It is quite related to the original quest anyway, so we may get some clue along the way."

The other two quickly nodded their heads in agreement since they knew that they didn't have another choice at hand.

Seeing that the two of them agree, Shin quickly gathered everyone and told them what they were going to do next. "We don't have much clue right now, so let's proceed with what have right now."

He paused for a moment and turned to Alucard before continuing. "We are going to track a suspected vampire for now."

....…