"I will never forgive you if you leave me. No drinking from now on!" Alice told Ryder, bringing him out of his daze.

"I won't give you any opportunity to complain," Ryder said to her, while he kept his arms wrapped around her.

"Hmm," Alice whimpered before she freed herself from Ryder's embrace.

"Soo... Should I order food from outside?" Ryder asked with a confused look on his face.

"There's no need. Go and rest," Alice let out as she turned back.

"There's one more thing that I need to tell you. I suddenly got a business call today. I need to go to Washington tomorrow to attend a meeting. I won't be back for 2-3 days," Ryder told her abruptly.

"You're going away?" Alice asked as she looked back at him.

"Yeah, for a few days. I have a flight early in the morning. I need to attend this meeting to ensure the smooth operation of my business. It's just for a few days. I'll be right back before you even realize that I'm missing," Ryder comforted her.

Alice didn't answer, but she nodded her head.

"Thanks. If this deal went well, many of my problems would be solved," Ryder smilingly said.

"I will pray for your good luck," Alice said to Ryder.

"The gods are corrupt. There's no need to pray to them for me," Ryder let out without even realizing what he was saying. It was as if these words came out of his mouth out of nowhere. They sounded familiar, though, like he had said the same words before.

"Don't talk bad!" Alice scolded Ryder as she glared at him.

"Ah, I was joking. Thank you for praying for me. I'll be in my room," Ryder replied before he hurriedly walked back to his room.

He laid on his bed as he held his head.

"Am I going crazy? What the heck is happening with me? Current when touching that girl and words coming out of my mouth? These strange illusions and dreams... Just what is happening?" Ryder muttered as he looked at the roof.

"Janus, are you the one that's messing with me? You need to cut it out!" Ryder exclaimed as he thought that it was Janus doing these strange things. He was the only mysterious thing that had the power to do anything, according to him.

Janus answered Ryder.

"Am I going crazy then?" Ryder asked again.

Janus answered Ryder again, refuting his assumption.

"Why is that happening then?" Ryder asked him.

"What will go wrong? What do I need to find out? Do you have an item that can stop these things from happening? I'm willing to do any mission. Anything is better than not having the control of my own body. Strange words coming out of my mouth without my permission reminds me of my time as an NPC. I don't want to go through that again," Ryder said, hoping to find a solution.

Ryder wondered what Janus was saying. He was like a powerful system according to Ryder that could do anything, but Janus' words didn't make sense most of the time.

"It's fine as long as I don't become like an NPC. I can handle these strange things if they happen once in a while, but it would not be good if they become common occurrences. I don't want people to think of me as crazy," Ryder let out as he sat up.

He turned on the Air Conditioner and took off his clothes. He changed to more comfortable clothes.

He brought his phone outside and started reading any news he could find about the organization that was stealing the dead bodies. He wanted to see if the government authorities found any clue about them.

"Nothing. The dead bodies keep going missing from different corners of the country, and no one knows what's happening. Just what is the FBI doing? It's been quite some time since these things started," Ryder muttered as he shook his head. He did not find any clue about them.

*****

Far away from Ryder and the city he stayed in, there was another city.

It was the new city that had become the new capital of the country.

The city was filled with tall buildings.

One of these tall buildings was the FBI headquarters that housed the senior agents of the FBI that were not out on the field at the moment.

A woman was sitting on a chair before her computer, looking at something on the screen in a decent-sized room.

The woman looked like she was in her late 20s. Her dark hair matched with the black coat that she was wearing.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," the woman said.

The door opened. It was a man who was dressed in a similar manner.

He had an ID card on his chest, which had FBI written on it.

"Riya, Come quick. There's a briefing on the missing bodies' case in a few minutes. Captain will be there soon," the man said before he closed the door and left.

Riya closed the laptop and stood up as she left her room and walked to the briefing room.

The briefing room was on the same floor but still far away from her room as her room was on the south of the building while the briefing room was on the other side.

After some time, she reached the room.

She opened the door and found it to be almost full. She and the captain were the only two people that were not here yet.

"Ahmm, are you going to enter or not?" A man's voice came from behind.

Riya looked back only to find a red-haired guy standing there.

"Ah, Captain. Sorry," Riya apologized as she entered the room and took her seat.

The man walked inside and stood at the other end of the table. He opened his laptop and connected it to the projector.

"Ok, guys, so there is news that I have for you guys. You already know that we have been dealing with the missing bodies' case for quite some time. Our teams are spread out in most of the country where the cases of missing bodies have been discovered," The Red-haired guy said.