The First Store System



Chapter 1168: The Final Quest(36)

The central city was several million miles away from Fring City, and it would easily take a few months for Laney to travel. Since there was only around a year left before the deadline for Aakesh's test arrived, Laney felt that it was the right time to start her journey.

An army of individuals that Laney had recruited stood behind her. The skill [Enigma's Embrace] helped her bypass the adverse effects of the aura of resentment.

It didn't mean that weak beings were no longer affected, but Laney was able to put them under the illusion that nothing was wrong. Once they accepted the recruitment token, the effect would automatically disappear.

As for those who weren't selected and yet were made to ignore the adverse effect, Laney could only pray for them.

The illusion would only disappear once she had left the Fring City, so she wouldn't be able to know what happened. Even if anything happened, Laney didn't care. She only worried about whether that could affect her trial.

Considering those factors, Laney ordered the recruits and began her march to the central city. Zoric stood beside her, as he was the most trusted one and second in authority to Laney in the army.

***

"NO!"

Screams filled with hatred rang in the area as the effect of the illusion died out. People were taken aback by how they looked at that moment.

Just coming in the presence of Laney had made them insane monsters. The illusion had kept the facade of sanity for themselves and everyone else, but once its effects ended, the truth revealed itself.

The next moment, a heartbreaking scene played out in the area as those insane monsters began to tear each other apart to vent their hatred. Laney kept walking, unaware of the situation inside the city.

The bird also watched the scene calmly and flew away after taking a look at the direction in which Laney left.

There was a punishment, but it was under the condition that Laney failed to pass the trial. Her actions in the city didn't matter if she completed the last quest successfully. The creator of the cities wasn't a kindhearted person who would care for the deaths inside the cities. Her intention behind creating the cities and the trials associated with them was to find an inheritor. As for the lost lives, it didn't matter.

***

After two months of travel, Laney finally reached the last barrier in her destination, the ocean. There was a bridge ahead of her. Laney and the recruits had to cross the bridge to get into the city.

Swimming in the ocean wasn't possible since even the weakest life there was Level 300. Laney had seven Level 300+ recruits, but that was nothing compared to the endless number of enemies in the ocean.

Traveling on the bridge wasn't an easy task since it would test the resolve of everyone walking on it. Laney didn't worry about her but about the recruits.

There were twenty-seven thousand beings, varying between Level 50 and Level 200. They could be the ones in trouble.

Those 27,436 beings were the canon fodder for what Laney was going to do in the central city, so their survival was necessary for her.

But since there was no other way, Laney had to stop worrying and begin the journey. She became the first to step foot on the bridge.

The next moment, a hot wave of air hit her face, forcing her to close her eyes. When she opened them, she found herself back in her home.

"It will be good for you, my princess," Laney's father gently said.

Laney pouted in anger since she didn't want to go to some store in another Kingdom. It would be too much of a hassle for someone like her, who didn't like working hard.

"If you keep acting like that, I will become mad," Laney's father sternly responded, seeing the lack of reaction from his daughter.

"What a disappointment," Laney exclaimed suddenly, and the innocence in her eyes faded, and a ruthless chill took its place.

The sudden response from his daughter surprised the father. "How dare you talk to your father like that?" At that moment, a third voice rang, and it belonged to Laney's mother.

Laney didn't even look at her mother but only looked at her father, or whoever it was in his guise.

"At first, I thought it was an illusion, so to live those moments, I acted as I would have during that time. But what a disappointment that it is no illusion!" Laney continued and stood up.

The moment the man talked about getting angry, Laney understood it was no illusion. Her father would never say those words to her but would coax her further, and the same happened in reality when she refused to go to the store.

The next moment, her power level suddenly exploded and reached peak Divine Lord from early Divine Transformation in less than a second.

"You shouldn't have disguised as my father. I don't like it," A chill erupted in the area as Laney coldly uttered those words. She then took a step forward, reaching the creature in the next moment.

The creature disguised as her father attempted to run away, but it seemed he was frozen. Laney's hands, which seemed to move in slow motion, came to him and grabbed his throat.

There was no hint of emotion in Laney's eyes as she crushed the creature's throat. The next moment, her hand turned black as the creature turned into pitch-black liquid and began to slip away from Laney's hands.

Laney didn't act and kept looking on. When the creature thought that he had escaped, Laney acted.

A red glow appeared around her hand, and the slippage stopped. No matter what the creature tried, it failed to slip out of Laney's hands.

"Did you think you would be able to escape after disguising as my father?" Laney coldly commented, and soon a wave of fire engulfed the beast.

To Laney's surprise, she had found that she was able to use the skills she owned in reality, and that was way stronger than Panagea's version.

After that, screams filled with pain and hatred rang out, and the source of all that was the creature.