Chapter 657: The Mass Gifting Confusion Conundrum

The marvelous array of colors left Leo speechless, but before he could admire it for long...

Pulse!

Another pulse through the veins in his eyes, turning the beautiful scene blurry.

’No, wait!’

Aside from being fascinated by it, Leo felt like he could have discovered something important if he kept looking at that colorful scene a little while longer. However...

Pulse!

Once another shock came through, even the blurry blotches disappeared as Leo’s vision returned to normal.

The charming reflection shown in the mirror was no longer there either as Cassian’s gloomy pitch-black eyes took back their rightful place.

’I need to see it again!’

Although the pain from before had left Leo exhausted, he didn’t let up.

He felt that if he didn’t figure out what that mesmerizing scene meant now, then he might not figure it out at all for a long time.

Not to mention that this was likely where the value of this reward was, considering the mechanics of the extra trial rewards; comprehending the nature of that phenomenon had to be the survival master key that Leo desired.

’It has to be!’

The possibility of the reward being irrelevant might have crossed Leo’s mind before, but after seeing what he saw, he was confident that something magnificent had been handed to him.

The problem was...

’Open!’

Trying to activate it again, Leo radiated with the intention to awaken the Enigmatic Eyes Of Influence.

’No response...?’

Unfortunately, intention alone proved useless, so Leo moved on to the next best thing he knew. Pouring Enigma into his eyes alongside these intentions!

Pulse!

’It’s working... Huh?’

Receiving a familiar reaction as well as seeing the change in the mirror, Leo was sure that he had succeeded. Moreover, unlike opening them for the first time, reawakening these mystic eyes didn’t bring with it any form of pain.

However, what he saw wasn’t radiant colors but deep dark shadows, bringing with them a suffocating feeling that almost stopped him from breathing.

’This is... My Enigma?’

Thankfully, that sensation of drowning and the sight that brought it with him didn’t persist beyond a few seconds as another small shock followed.

Pulse!

The new scene that took over was none other than a blurry disarray of colors. Leo wondered if the scene would switch back in reverse. However...

’This is it?’

Nothing changed even after a whole minute had passed. In fact, the disorientating blurriness almost made Leo nauseous, prompting him to withdraw both his Enigma and intentions.

’Is it supposed to show me the nature of Enigma or...’

"Cassian...?"

Before Leo could start brainstorming his predicament, the student who had been speechlessly watching from the side couldn’t help speaking up.

The state that Leo had been in was very bizarre; the constant change in his expression as well as the intense emotions she picked from him were very confusing.

"Ah, yes. Don’t worry, I’m fine."

Resigning himself to further check out his enigmatic reward at a later time, Leo turned to deal with the situation at hand.

"The thing I just received was a bit unpleasant."

Speaking loudly enough for both Kara and Aurora to hear, Leo was both explaining his strange behaviour as well as probing his companions to see if they would reveal how things were on their end.

"Oh, so we all got something. Mine was also very strange! It’s so confusing that I might as well have not received anything!"

’Is that also possible?’

While his very own experience with these special rewards was indeed positive, it was merely a single result; Leo couldn’t really say for sure that all rewards were meant to be useful.

There were also other possibilities, such as Kara having yet to figure out how to use her gift properly. After all, Leo was stuck in this exact same spot when it came to his mystery eye implant.

Of course...

’It seems like she is trying to hide something... This is a first.’

Just looking at the micro changes in Kara’s expression, Leo could tell that she wasn’t being honest with him.

Considering how she told him even her dark past, hiding something now seemed out of place, but Leo could think of a few reasons behind such action.

’If she hasn’t been playing me all this time, it could be something embarrassing.’

This was actually the second thing that Leo picked up from Kara’s face aside from the hint of dishonesty.

Whatever Kara ended up receiving, it didn’t seem like something that she could say out loud.

’Or... This might be another extreme case of fangirling.’

If it really was a meaningless gift or something beyond her understanding, Leo could very much see Kara refraining from explaining, fearing that she would end up disappointing him.

’This... Can also be taken into consideration later.’

In the end, Leo chose not to press Kara for now. Neither the timing nor the place were fit for this.

Besides, no matter how great her reward could be, Leo had no intention of leaving his fate in the hands of others.

When it came to the final battle, Kara could be assigned to an auxiliary role at the very most.

"What about you, Aurora? I hope you had it better than us."

Kara aside, Leo was more curious about what Aurora could have received. As such, he signaled Kara to ask her about it, a role she was very happy to serve.

’It seems that she really wanted to change the topic away from her gift.’

"I don’t know."

Looking at Aurora’s face as she walked toward them, Leo could only see genuine confusion.

Given that Aurora had the exact same look on her face at the end of the first Encroachment Gate, Leo’s curiosity grew even stronger.

What kind of gift made its receiver look this lost? Was the second reward somewhat of an extension to the first one? Or was causing confusion just a common factor between both gifts?

"I remember something like a wheel taking form in front of me, but aside from that, I don’t remember anything else. I only snapped out of it when you started talking, and ever since then, I have been getting a strange sense of familiarity with this place..."

’Seriously, who is supposed to save the world if all three of us are lost like this...’

{ Reward distribution has concluded. You can now exit the Main Encroachment Frontier. }

{ Please make sure to prepare for your first True Encroachment Confrontation. }