After obtaining Black's memories, Louis ordered Beru to dispose of the body without leaving any trace. After that, he dismissed everyone and returned to his private room in the palace to think carefully about the information he had gained.
Naturally, the memories did not contain any details about the Tower stages, even though the man called Black had already passed Stage 50.
And yet…
The High Queen of the Elves, Natalia Forest…
The Seer…
Louis thought for a while, then took out a sheet of paper from his System storage.
It was one of the pages of the Death Note that he had obtained after achieving a perfect rating in the Death Note world.
He had three chances to use it, and he decided to use one of them now.
After thinking carefully, he finally wrote down a name…
*** ***
In the evening, Louis was in his office preparing plans for the safe worlds for his knights when someone suddenly knocked on the door.
"Come in," Louis said.
Robert, his accompanying knight, entered the room along with a young man.
"Greetings, young lord," both of them said with a slight bow.
Louis lifted his gaze and focused on the young man beside Robert.
"Is this him?" Louis asked.
"Yes. This young man is the most talented knight of the new generation," Robert replied.
"My name is Kyle. I am honored to serve you, young lord," the young man said, bowing awkwardly after hearing Robert's words.
Louis did not pay much attention. He handed Kyle a piece of paper with one of the plans he had written and asked,
"What do you think? Can you carry out this plan?"
Kyle took the paper curiously and read it carefully. Suddenly, he frowned and looked at Louis.
"But young lord, with this plan, I won't be able to gain any achievement from the system in this world."
"That is exactly the point," Louis said.
"Sorry?"
"It is well known that if you gain an achievement in any safe world, whether it is rank E or even SSS, you will no longer be able to enter that world again," Louis said, then turned to Robert.
"Isn't that right?"
Robert nodded, already familiar with Louis's plan.
"That is correct. However, the system's rules are not as absolute as people believe."
"Through many sacrifices, the MacLaine family and several powerful families discovered weaknesses in the system's rules."
"Weaknesses?" Kyle asked.
"Yes," Robert continued.
"If you enter a main world, you must take part in the main plot and gain at least one achievement. Otherwise, the system will consider you a failure and you will lose one of your three lives."
Kyle nodded. He already knew this.
"But this rule does not apply to safe worlds," Robert went on.
"If you enter a safe world and do not get deeply involved in the main plot, the system will not grant you any achievements. If you leave later, the system will count it as a failure—but it will not prevent you from entering that world again."
"This…" Kyle was clearly shocked.
Louis continued,
"There is no danger to your life here. And if anything goes wrong, I will compensate you personally."
Kyle looked at Louis's face, filled with absolute confidence, as if he could do anything. Then he looked back at the plan in his hand before raising his head firmly.
"I'll do it."
Louis finally smiled.
"Then… good luck."
Kyle clenched his fists, asked for permission to leave, and exited the room.
Robert watched Kyle leave, then looked at Louis.
"Will this really work?"
"If he follows the plan, it will," Louis said with a smile.
"This is just an experiment. Resources in the system shop are extremely expensive, so we must test whether we can obtain special items from safe worlds instead."
"If this succeeds, we could accumulate mountains of special items and later sell them at discounted prices across the world," Louis said with a wide smile.
*** ***
At midnight, Kyle finally entered the Tower space and immediately headed toward a safe zone without hesitation.
After reviewing Louis's plan one last time in his mind, he selected a world and began the mission.
In an instant, his vision blurred. In the next moment, he found himself sitting inside a bar.
He looked up at a man, and from the system's initial explanation, he learned that this person was Eddie Morra, the protagonist of this world called Limitless.
The system introduced him directly to help him join the main plot, but Kyle ignored the mission and continued waiting.
About ten minutes later, someone entered the bar and walked straight toward Eddie.
After confirming the man's appearance, Kyle immediately left the bar.
According to the plan, Kyle decided to wait outside.
"The young lord said that the main character of this world, Eddie Morra, will soon take NZT. With his enhanced perception, he will definitely notice anyone watching him, and that would be dangerous."
"According to the plan, the best choice is to let Eddie go and instead follow the man named Vernon, who is hiding hundreds of pills in his apartment."
After a while, the two men finished talking. The first person to leave the bar was Kyle's target, Vernon.
Vernon looked well-dressed, upright, and respectable, but this could not hide the fact that he was a drug dealer.
He glanced around and quickly left.
As Vernon was about to disappear into the daytime crowds of Manhattan, Kyle ran after him, already planning the next steps in his mind.
Soon, Kyle found himself with Vernon inside a subway train car.
At the next station, Vernon got off, and Kyle followed him.
Kyle kept a safe distance while tracking Vernon through a residential area. He watched Vernon enter a run-down apartment building and carefully noted the apartment number before retreating.
According to Louis's plan, someone would break into Vernon's apartment to steal the NZT, and possibly kill him, but they would not find the stash.
Knowing what would happen, Kyle found a nearby alley and decided to wait for the right moment.
The next morning, clearly having not slept all night, Kyle stood outside Vernon's apartment exactly as planned.
He was thinking about the plan when he suddenly heard a loud noise from behind the door.
A gunshot.
Kyle's heart pounded. Vernon was definitely dead, shot in the head. From behind the door, Kyle heard furniture being overturned, drawers slammed open, and the desperate sounds of someone searching for the drug.
Using the noise as cover, Kyle quietly moved to the stairwell near the elevator and positioned himself halfway, hidden from sight but able to hear everything.
A few minutes later, the killer exited the apartment, clearly having found nothing.
After hearing the elevator descend, Kyle took slow, deep breaths to calm himself. He then quietly went down the stairs and watched the elevator indicator lights reach the ground floor and stop.
After confirming the area was clear, Kyle approached Vernon's apartment. The door was slightly open. He carefully pushed it and slipped inside.
Vernon's body lay on the couch, a bullet hole in his forehead, his eyes staring blankly. Blood had pooled beneath him.
Kyle forced himself not to stare. He was not here to investigate a murder. He was here for the NZT, and he had to find it before Eddie arrived—as planned by Louis.
The killer had trashed the apartment but missed the hiding place.
Kyle, having memorized the plan, knew exactly where to look.
He went straight to the kitchen and opened the oven. There, stuck to the upper inner panel where heat could not reach, was a large sealed bag filled with hundreds of transparent pills.
Jackpot.
Kyle took the bag, but instead of taking everything, he left several dozen pills behind and returned the bag to its place.
Even though it hurt to leave pills worth thousands of world points, he followed Louis's plan. Leaving some pills would not disrupt the main plot and would not be counted as interference by the system.
Then, without hesitation, he pressed the withdrawal button.
[Are you sure you want to abandon the mission?]
[This will be considered a failure, and you will receive no compensation.]
Kyle confirmed.
A new notification appeared before his eyes:
[You failed to obtain any achievement in this world. Please try again.]
In the next moment, darkness filled Kyle's vision, and he finally found himself back in the safe zone.