Vincent took the phone Autumn Summer handed him and studied it carefully.
On the screen was a sketch.
An older man, looking forty or fifty, with deep wrinkles across his face. Yet his complexion looked strangely healthy, almost too smooth, with a glossy, well fed sheen. At the bottom were notes like estimated height and weight.
Vincent's eyes widened.
Because the person in the sketch was him.
No, not him exactly.
It was the version of him from yesterday, the one he'd reshaped his face into.
The authorities had released the image publicly, stating that this man had exited the Forbidden Zone yesterday.
And beneath that was an enormous reward.
As for why they wanted him, there were no details.
Autumn kept staring at Vincent, head tilted slightly to the side.
"He looks like he's already in his forties or fifties, but the second I saw him I thought of you."
"Are you wearing some kind of skin mask or something?"
As she spoke, she raised her hand and started poking and tugging at Vincent's face.
Vincent chuckled helplessly and caught her hand before she could do any real damage.
"You know what I look like. Don't you?"
"Also… why are you even paying attention to stuff like this? Don't tell me you scroll these posts for fun."
"No way!"
"Yesterday I was looking up Zone Eight info, and then this started flooding my feed… which you still haven't answered. Is it you or not?"
Vincent sighed, smiling, and still didn't answer.
Instead, he simply shifted the skin on his face, reshaping his features into a completely different look.
Autumn froze, stunned.
"How did you do that?"
It was so eerie that she instantly pulled her soft hand back.
Then curiosity won anyway, and she reached out again, touching his face carefully.
Cool to the touch, but still carrying the warmth of a living body.
Not an illusion.
After that, Vincent explained what had happened in Forbidden Zone Seven.
By the time he finished, the girl looked like her heart had been on a roller coaster.
"That's way too dangerous… thank god I chose the first mission and left as soon as I cleared it…"
Autumn was talented, and among people her age she was definitely strong.
But compared to Vincent, she was still nowhere close.
A Forbidden Zone where one wrong step meant death was something you survived by being careful.
Nothing mattered more than staying alive.
"Oh, right," Vincent said, remembering something. "Earlier you said you were browsing Forbidden Zone info online. What do you mean?"
"Oh, that?"
Autumn took her phone back, tapped a few times, and pulled up a new page.
"This is something our school built recently, an internal website. During winter break, a bunch of students kept coming back to campus like they hadn't even gone on vacation."
"So the teachers got together and pushed for this. Now we don't have to keep bothering Professor Joe all the time."
Vincent nodded.
The information was surprisingly detailed. The breakdown of each Forbidden Zone, the warnings, the mechanics, the recommended routes. It was basically the same as what they learned in class.
This was convenient.
From now on, if Vincent wanted to enter a Forbidden Zone, he could just look it up online.
No need to waste time running to school.
Still, Vincent had no intention of jumping into Zone Eight immediately. He and Autumn hadn't seen each other in a month.
Today, he wanted to spend time with her.
They rested at Vincent's place for a bit. After he ate breakfast, the two of them went out.
They stayed out until late at night, reluctant to part even then.
When Vincent finally got home, he pulled out his phone and checked that official post again.
No doubt about it.
They were looking for him.
As for why…
The golden top rating had been appearing across Forbidden Zones again and again. Anyone with half a brain could do the math and realize it was probably the same person.
Someone might even have started suspecting him specifically.
And their goal?
Simple.
Recruitment.
If they couldn't recruit him… things could get ugly.
Someone capable of repeatedly earning the gold rating was undeniably dangerous. If the military could bring that kind of strength under their control, it would be perfect for them.
But if they couldn't…
They might slap some grand label on him, turn him into a "threat," and make him a problem that needed to be "handled."
That would be a headache.
"As long as I don't show my face, you won't find me," Vincent said with a quiet laugh, completely unconcerned.
With his ability to reshape his appearance, even if they moved heaven and earth, they'd still have a hard time catching him.
He pushed the thought aside, tapped his screen, and opened the academy intranet.
If nothing else, every school probably had something like this now.
He entered his student ID and logged in.
Then he selected Forbidden Zone Eight and started reading.
After a long while, Vincent exhaled slowly.
"I was wondering what it would be… so it's The Avengers."
"But… what does 'chain instance' mean?"
He tapped the term.
A note popped up, and after a quick read, he understood.
"So if you clear Avengers 1, then later instances will include Avengers 2… and 3 and 4 as well?"
He also noticed something else that made him grin.
Beneath Zone Eight was a forum like section.
Students from the same academy were spamming posts nonstop.
"Anyone need a teammate? I'm super experienced at doing nothing and yelling 'let's gooo!'"
"'Let's gooo?' I can yell that myself. What else you got?"
"Give it a rest. Zone Eight might be a modern world, but it's still dangerous. Who's gonna drag a deadweight along?"
"Brothers, I asked someone who cleared Zone Eight. The mission is really simple… I mean the beginner mission."
"What about the final mission? What's the final mission?"
"Didn't ask. Also, don't tell me you're thinking about clearing the final mission and getting the 'golden legend' achievement."
"A guy has to have dreams. What if it happens?"
Watching the comments refresh like a live chat, Vincent chuckled.
The difficulty of each Forbidden Zone varied wildly. Even if the overall data pool still wasn't complete, who could guarantee that Zone One Hundred wouldn't end up being easier than earlier ones?
And based on Vincent's judgment, the final mission this time probably wouldn't be that hard.
At least, not compared to what he'd just survived.
He was confident.
As for the team invites on the forum, he ignored them completely.
Like that guy said.
Who would bring along a burden?
Vincent did, however, pay attention to when most students planned to enter.
About two days from now.
"I can go in with them," Vincent murmured with a faint smile. "That'll make me harder to track."
A Forbidden Zone packed with hundreds of people.
Then a golden legend appears out of nowhere.
Good luck figuring out which one did it.
If he was bored, causing them a little trouble wouldn't hurt.
Vincent smiled innocently.
He shut off his phone and flopped onto the bed, limbs spread out like a wooden plank.
"Today was exhausting," he muttered. "How can Autumn walk that much? She's a menace."
----------------------------------------------------
The deeper he goes, the more the truth unravels. Don't wait read ahead and witness Vincent's rise before the world catches up!
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"