Chapter 61: Entry Examinations
The night was dark and silent in the empty clearing where the token had led Nioh. Lying on the cool grass, he gazed at the stars, their distant lights flickering against the vast, unending sky.
The clearing was deep within the expanse, yet strangely devoid of feral biocores. The grass was untouched, the air still, as if the place had been maintained over the years for a specific purpose. Nioh had been here for an entire day now, waiting. But there had been no movement—neither from the clearing nor from the token in his hand.
Then, without warning—
"I can’t believe someone actually came to the expanse entry point," a voice spoke.
Nioh shot up, muscles tensing. He hadn’t heard the voice. But he had seen it—the sudden spike in harmonic sound waves. His breath caught as his body instinctively took several steps back, eyes snapping toward the source.
For the first time in a long while, real alarm settled in his chest. Despite his heightened senses, he had failed to detect a single fluctuation until the man spoke. In a real battle, he would have already been dead.
"You cannot defeat him. Don’t even try," Ekoh warned in his mind.
The man lifted the torch he held, casting an amber glow over the clearing. Nioh, still on high alert, took advantage of the light to study him.
He was tall and fair-skinned, dressed in a pristine navy-blue military uniform—jacket fitted neatly, pants crisp, polished black boots planted firmly on the ground. A long spear rested on his back, while a sidearm was strapped securely at his waist. His dark, almost ink-black hair was long, cascading past his shoulders, his demeanor calm, polished—an image of discipline.
In contrast, Nioh was wild. His hair was short and uneven from old burns. His body was marred with scars, and a rough bandage covered half his face. He must have looked like a feral scavenger in front of the man.
The stranger examined him in silence before speaking again. "Show me your token."