Chapter 67: CH-67: Foundation Establishment Realm!

In the bed of a well maintained room, slept a lustrous figure. The sun shined on her face, telling her it’s morning already.

Her eyelids trembled as she woke up slowly.

"Hmmm~ what a great dream I had!"

She slowly whispered, remembering the dream she had last night.

"Suzie, a new day is ahead of you. Freshen up."

A soothing voice came from the door as it reminded her what she needs to do.

"Roger that, Mamaa~"

Suzie replied to the voice in a mischievous tone which earned a light chuckle from her mother.

...

Few moments later.

Suzie slowy walked down the stair. Her silky pink hair cascading down to her shoulders, her amber red eyes glittering with mischief, adored in a whirt shirt and black jean, she looked like a kid filled with trickery.

She drooled at the delicacies placed at the dinner table, just as she reached out to grab a handful, her hand slapped hers away.

Her mother, Sophia, glared at her as she reprimanded her.

"Hey, back off. First, go get Reed. He is very tormented these days. We should support him."

Suzie eyes dimmed a little at that. She nodded and walked out of their house.

Walking for a few steps, she came in front of the house next to their and rang the doorbell.

After a few moments of silence, no one answered. She panicked a little, reaching in her pocket for the spare key Reed has given her. She opened the door and hurriedly went to his room.

Without hesitating she entered the room, but when she saw Reed still sleeping, she completely relaxed. Huffing, making her to him, she lightly slapped his arm.

"Hey, sleepyhead! Wake up or you gonna be late for work!!"

With her nudging, he slowly woke up. Seeing Suzie by his bedside left him stunned, so did the surrounding.

He looked at Suzie, then his gaze turned to the room, understanding this was his own.

A while later, turning his gaze back to her, he asked.

"What time is it?"

"Its 10 O’clock already."

She answered, puzzled by his odd behaviour.

"No, what I mean is, what... year is it?"

He countered as he shook his head slightly.

"It’s 2035. What you are on about?"

Suzie replied, this time very much annoyingly.

A glint of understanding flashed in his eyes, after pondering a little, he told Suzie go back and that he will come after he freshens up, which she happily complied.

As she was leaving the room, Reed’s eyes reflected various emotions—Affection, relief, worry. But unfortunately, or fortunately, she don’t know of the turmoil going inside his head.

*SIGH*

He sighed lightly, pondering upon what exactly was happening? Just a few moments ago, he was fighting that ’creature’ whatever that was, and now he was in his room, before the apocalypse, the true hell even began.

"Don’t overthink it, human. It is I who brought you here."

Just as he was pondering what to do next, a robotic voice sounded, tilting his head towards it, Reed saw a small robotic elf just centimetres away from his face.

He was flabbergasted, not understanding what is she nor where she came from. Not like he had any artifact capable of reversing time, and this elf is it’s AI assistant... Wait a sec...

"The CUBE!?!"

He called aloud, asking for confirmation.

"Well, Yes and No."

The elf replied, a little disappointed at his stupid little brain. Watching her expression, he became somewhat annoyed and simply closed his mouth.

[A/N: Sometimes, Silence deals more damage than Violence. (? •?_•?)?]

"So the thing is, when you stabbed me back then, i panicked and tried to activate the prism of incarceration, trying to hide inside it. But, YOU...! You somehow triggered the self defense function and almost killed us both. I literally had to leave my body and try to hack into the artifact’s core, in which I succeeded."

The little elf, unable to bear the silence, finally yielded and explained.

"So YOU are that slime or it’s consciousness to be exact? But then again, where’s your body?"

He cross questioned, understanding most of it.

"What do you mean ’SLIME’!?! Huh!?! I, Elise, am not some slime!! I am GOD!! Got that? As for my body—"

Enraged by his term of address, she retaliated fiercely, then pointed her finger at him.

"Me?"

He intoned, understanding what she was trying to say.

It wasn’t just their consciousness that came back breaking throught space and time, it was their body too. But as Reed’s human body wasn’t strong enough to face the energy burst produced by the tearing of space-time fabric, it turned to ashes in an instant.

Reed’s soul in turn, chose to merge with Elise’s body which was ’abandoned’ already. And somehow even manage to merge successfully.

As for how he appears to be human, Elise is unable to answer that.

...

Dinner table.

Suzie, Sophia and Reed were having their breakfast together.

Suzie munched at the delicacies as if hungry for three days, Reed calmly watched her as chewed down a huge chunk of meat, having already finished his own.

"What? Am I so alluring that you can’t take your eyes off me?"

She asked while half of her mouth was filled with food.

"Yup, it’s just that, you look very cute today."

Reed answered with a chuckle, shamelessly flirting with her.

Suzie blushed, turned her head away haughtily, but a small smile adorned her face.

"So, what’s your plan?"

Sophia asked Reed, not minding the little mischiefs between the two of them.

"I am going to sell majority of the companies."

Reed’s parents had recently died in accident, leaving behind the billion dollar business empire they worked half of their life off for their son.

He had decided to sell most of it and aquire a huge amount of supplies, as in the apocalypse, money, fame, reputation doesn’t matter.

Sophia wanted to say something but she didn’t insist, it was his decision to make after all.

After breakfast ended, Reed excused himself.

Suzie waved lazily at him, her cheeks still faintly red, while Sophia reminded him not to skip lunch again. Reed smiled, nodded, and stepped outside.

The door closed softly behind him.

The moment he crossed the threshold, the warmth faded.

The street looked the same—clean roads, parked cars, distant chatter, a normal city, but he... He had changed. Reed stood still for a few seconds, letting the illusion settle.

Calculating the time, he was reborn 86 day prior to the apocalypse, giving him almost 3 months of ample time to prepare.

He walked back to his house, unlocked the door, and went straight to his room. Once inside, he shut the curtains and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Alright, Let’s stop pretending."

Reed muttered, rubbing his temples.

A faint shimmer flickered in the air.

Elise appeared, floating cross-legged, her tiny hands folded, golden eyes watching him closely.

"What were you trying to say back then?"

He asked, majorly concerned about the ’Cube’ that hadn’t yet made its appearance.

"My child, Do you want to be strong? Do you desire to be on top of the world? Do you want a grand opportunity, young one?!?"

Elise haughtily inquired, acting like a old grandmaster, all while stroking her non existent beard.

Reed: "???"

’Where’s this came about? Opportunity? One that can make me stronger?’

Reed, even though doubtful, decided to play along for now. Knowing full well they were now like two tigers in one Mountain, unable to throw the other out. So he had to compromise.

"So, what’s this opportunity of yours?"

Poor Elise didn’t know that a certain son of a b*tch is cursing her right under her nose.

Snapping her fingers, she made a translucent black panel appear in front of them.

『You should feel blessed, human, for it is I, the great Elise, who through great affords, has created the Heavenly tribunal primordial origin profound mystery... bla... bla... bla... apocalypse system.』

『hahahahaha *cough* Ahem, sign here to proceed—』

Handing him a pen, Elise gave him an expression that said ’hurry up’.

"No."

He outright rejected it.

"Why?!?"

Elise looked at him in disbelief, unable to understand this hairless ape.

"The name’s... kinda cringey. How about we just call it system, and skip this hustle of signing."

Reed, not want to sign, made up an excuse and probed her, trying to determine her purpose.

He wasn’t the one to trust, how could he, when in the apocalypse, trusting is not just a mistake, it’s a crime. One whose lightest sentence is death.

Maybe he was being paranoid being this signing stuff being a trap, but it’s better to be cautious.

"Hmm, i think the name ’Heavenly tribunal primordial origin profound mystery... bla... bla... bla... apocalypse system’ is quite good, don’t you think so."

Poor Elise didn’t know a certain son of a b*tch is doubt her. She, feeling the name wasn’t bad at all, tried to persuade him.

"Ok, you can keep the name. Now tell me about the system, what can it do, how can it make me stronger?"

Seeing his goal of distracting her had succeeded, let her be. He also felt guilty about not trusting her. Wait! Why is he guilty towards her, he shouldn’t—

Stopping his rain of thoughts, Elise began to explain.