-Vol 6: Dusk of An Era-

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That night Kenshin really couldn’t sleep anymore. Throughout the whole night, he was busy reading the notifications and find out the relevant information if possible. Unfortunately, except for what he had seen in those notifications, there was nothing more mentioned anywhere. On the other hand, he researched everything possible with the newly appeared Co-op network. There was nothing to see there either, only a blue screen with a few buttons greyed out, it will only be available if he goes online in the network.

Frankly, he was a little afraid of going online. Take himself as an example, how strong was he, with the help of this system? If he himself could become this strong, then what about all the other people? Won’t they too be as strong or stronger than him? If they turned out to be hostile people, how was he going to fight?

All these thoughts ate away his inner heart, also the mission… it's indicating that he must take part in it no matter what. To date, whenever this type of quest was triggered, and there were actually four quests like this, including this one, Kenshin would always have a suppressed feeling as if the whole world is weighing on his shoulders. But after seeing the newest quest, he no longer had such feeling with this mission. He finally realized that despite what written on the notification, he was not the only one seeing it… not by a long shot.

Like in those MMORPG games, where the same notification would be visible to every player, his system, too, worked in the same way. That means, there is a ‘main server’ that controls this system available to him and others like him. That poses another question, who controls this server?

‘Whether I should believe that the old man’s story or not?’ he was kind of reluctant to fully believe in the story that the old man had spun. While he had no comments about the eligibility criteria of achieving the system, he was more worried about the one who oversaw the control.

‘And that meteor too… why would my dragon sense tingle just by watching it?’ it was the biggest mystery he was facing currently. He had seen this DS at work and now in possession of it… and yet he didn’t know everything about it. He thought it would only activate when danger was very close to him, but after yesterday’s event, he had begun to question that notion. If it was as he had thought, then why would his DS activate and even increase by level just by watching a random meteor streaking across the sky?

‘Ugh, if only there’s a manual to this system, many things would have been simplified by now.’

It was not until morning that he had a wink of sleep. Although with his physique, he didn’t need to sleep for months, he still preferred to do so as it would replenish his mental health. His passive regeneration would regenerate everything except mental fatigue. He could only sleep or rest to get better when mentally fatigued.

The first one to wake up the morning after was none other than Chiba. The sun was just rising from the east, and as the land of the rising sun, Japan was the first one to be shined by the morning light. When she woke up, she found a little weight on her left leg. Looking down, she found her mom was sprawled across her leg, with her face resting on her knee while she was sitting on the comfortable wooden chair.

Her eyes moistened a little when she saw her. Before she lost consciousness, she was still on the battlefield. She had fought hard for half a day, with death literally flying over her head. She was especially scared when that monster targeted her out of nowhere, had it not for Ena coming to her rescue, she would have fatally wounded. Even after that, she had forcefully suppressed those fear and fought with Joy to protect her land as well as incapacitated Ena.

She couldn’t even relax to take a breather, if not for Joy, she would have really had to retire due to fatigue and over-taxation of her magic pools. After coming out of that kind of atmosphere and now seeing her mother’s concerned but calm face, she couldn’t hold back her tears.

Shaking her head, she tried to hide her tears… but… she was just a teenaged girl, how can she do that, especially after such an ordeal? She cried silently without making a sound. As she tried to wipe her eyes, she felt a soft hand caressing her cheeks. Opening her eyes hastily, she saw her mother’s kind eyes. Those eyes that meant the world for her, those eyes that gave her strength to brave even the toughest of the challenge.

“If you want to cry, then cry. No one’s gonna judge you, besides we’re the only ones here.” Her kind words were like a catalyst to a chemical reaction, Chiba immediately exploded she cried loudly while circling her arms around her mother. As she cried, incoherent words slipped past her mouth.

“I… I was so scared mom!! (cries) I was so worried about everyone!! I thought I would never get to see you if I fail…(cries) mom!!”

“Mmm! It's alright. You have fought bravely and saved everyone. Don’t cry, okay? Big girls don’t cry. You are a tough girl, aren’t you? It's alright. You have saved us all, I am so proud of you. It's alright. It's alright.” The kind woman patted her back as she consoled her daughter with a smile on her face. She didn’t cry with her, why would she? She was so proud of her strong daughter, why would she cry?

The door to her room slightly opened as three pairs of eyes peered into it. These three pairs belong to Ena, Kenshin, and Joy. They already woke up before the daybreak, with one being not needing any sleep. After waking up, Kenshin ordered Ena to make him a cup of coffee, then suddenly Joy arrived and ordered a cup of coffee. Their eyes met, and a staring contest was begun. The anger Kenshin accumulated from the last day, due to Joy stealing his car, he had decided to let it out on the baldy’s face… but before it could escalate any further, they heard a faint cry.

Getting curious they came upstairs, only to stop in their tracks after hearing the conversation between mother-daughter pair. As they heard further, both Kenshin’s and Joy’s face turned ugly. This even could be blamed on them. Due to Chiba’s capability, they had forgotten that she was just a teen, a kid. And yet they had sent her to a battlefield of such destructive property. Thankfully there were no gory deaths, or else she would have scarred for life. After that, they tactfully closed the door and stared at each other, then acting like nothing happened. They all swaggered downstairs.

“It seems we are a little too hasty with her growth.” Said Joy as he massaged his bald head. A bitter smile could be seen on his face.

But Kenshin was silent as he thought about many things before replying, “No, I don’t think so.”