Chapter 223: A win-win situation

Kaelen overlooked one little problem.

His plan was to push from the Third Floor all the way to the Ninth Floor without touching back down in the lobby. But after each floor, the elevator went back down to the lobby, and after searching around, he found no floor buttons to control the elevator and keep ascending beyond the Third Floor.

That was a problem, because if Kaelen returned to the lobby, the Herald had every right to discipline him for his actions, and killing him outright might be among the options.

The elevator number had just ascended from 1 to 2, meaning he had a few minutes before his inbox was locked.

He quickly navigated through his system and sent Felix a message.

Me: Yo, is there a way to control the elevator in the angel’s gate to keep ascending after each floor?

He paused for a moment, having doubts that Felix might have an answer.

The best person to ask was Emir, but his last message was still on read with no reply, which made him reluctant to send another message.

’Why did she have to leave me on read?’ he complained internally and forced himself to enter her inbox.

Me: Why did you leave me on read? You could simply say you’re not interested instead of ignoring me. You lack proper communication skills...

By the way, is there a way to control the elevator in the angel’s gate to keep ascending after each floor?

I’d appreciate it if you left a reply by the time I’m done with the Third Floor—in a minute.

He exhaled a breath he didn’t realise he was holding in.

He couldn’t understand why he was acting strangely over being left on read. He pretended not to care, but it kept lurking at the back of his mind, slowly gnawing at him.

Maybe it was because his message was cringe, and he was only beginning to realise how bad it was.

Sigh.

"Hey," a deep voice called out beside him.

"..."

"Hey, boy. I’m talking to you."

"..."

The voice scoffed. "So now you’re avoiding confrontation after destroying our cabin. You think you can get away with that?"

"Huh?" Kaelen turned to face the man. "Are you talking to me?"

The man shuddered with simmering anger. "Who the hell would I be talking to? Who gave you the right to destroy our lobby? Do you think we’ll let you get away with it, huh?"

Kaelen stared at the man blankly for a moment. He recognised him as the only man in the party who worked out every day, just like him, and seemed to know how to carry his own weight, unlike the other two men, who were randoms and didn’t dare speak louder than they were supposed to.

"We?" Kaelen asked and tilted his head to look at the two men, who avoided his gaze, then at the two girls: the ding-dong-dash girl, who held his gaze with a blank expression, and her blonde friend, who was more interested in sizing Kaelen up at that moment, as if she were unaware of the tension.

The man groaned in rage, understanding what Kaelen had just done. If it came down to challenging Kaelen, he might be alone in that.

Then he scoffed as his expression relaxed into a mocking smile. "You’re as cocky as I made you out to be. Do you know why you met a dead body upon your arrival? He made a fuss about not wanting to be here and charged at the Herald with the intent to cause harm. You might be temporarily safe in here, but do you really think you’ll survive the Herald’s wrath after pulling that stunt? In my opinion, that’s more reason to kill a candidate than a harmless one who simply tried to throw fists at the Herald. Can you still be this cocky when you stand before the Herald, or are you going to go down on your knees and beg for mercy?" he said in a sympathetic tone.

Kaelen shrugged lazily. "That could happen, but you know what else could happen?

"...The War Demon." Kaelen’s lips slowly curled up.

The other candidates immediately frowned.

"Most people think my relationship with Emir is simply a transactional marriage contract. But they’re all wrong. That woman is obsessed with me and will go to any lengths to avenge me if anything ever happened to me outside the floors. And before you think she lost most of her strength after her encounter with your so-called Creator, I’d like to tell y’all to think again. I’ve been to her domain. I’ve toured her Empire. And I must say, if the War Demon were truly weakened, the royal family wouldn’t have gotten involved the moment she joined the Grand Tournament. Even they know what she’s capable of. So, if your Herald has a problem with me racing to the elevator and mistakenly destroying everything in the process because they tried to sabotage me, then they’d have more on their plate after killing me, because I assure you, my wife will stop at nothing to come after them and everything they love, even before your so-called Creator rises a second time to stop her."

The man’s expression turned uglier with every shameless word that escaped Kaelen’s lips until he couldn’t hold back his rage. "You aren’t even ashamed to say something like that on live!"

Kaelen tilted his head to the side as if checking whether they were actually live. "Oh, we’re live. I guess I might’ve spilled a little couple secret," he said with a sheepish laugh.

Of course, Kaelen knew they were live, which was exactly why he exaggerated every single point he made.

If there was no way to control the elevator to keep ascending after the Third Floor, Kaelen would be sent back to the lobby, where his Herald could do whatever they wanted with him, as his life was at the tip of their fingers. Hence, Kaelen used Emir—once again—to send a message across because he was fully aware that their Herald was watching them.

In addition to that, he was also hyping Emir up to the universal audience to increase her influence. It was obvious that after her encounter with the Goddess, people now looked down on her to the point of throwing trash at her at the aristocratic gathering. But after what Kaelen had just said, coupled with the fact that no one had been to her domain in ten thousand years, there was no reason not to believe everything Kaelen said about her Empire and army.

From that moment onwards, they should view Emir with more fear rather than disgust, so that before they tried to sabotage her in any way, they’d think twice about their actions.

This benefited Kaelen even more because the more influential and feared Emir was, the more people he could threaten and get away with it.

A win-win situation.

[You have received a message from Empress Rime]