Blind Box World - SSS-Rank Eye of Truth

A few days later.

Early afternoon sunlight shone down on the courtyard behind the guest residence of Silver Moon City. This place sat close to a cliff wall, separated from the crowded streets below by a row of low trees. In the middle of the courtyard was a rectangular swimming pool that was not too large, its clear surface reflecting the distant neon signs.

Ethan lay stretched out on a lounge chair beside the pool.

He wore a loose white T-shirt, black shorts, and sunglasses. His right leg was crossed over his left, his head rested against a soft pillow, and his entire body was so relaxed that he did not look like an Awakened who had just received one thousand C-rank Energy Crystals to prepare for an important competition. He looked more like someone on vacation.

His left arm, covered by the Primordial Armor, rested on the arm of the chair. The purple-black lines that had appeared many times on the surface of the metal over the past few days were now quiet, leaving only a very faint burning sensation near the joint close to his shoulder.

Laira sat right beside him.

The lounge chair had originally been wide enough for two ordinary people, but once her nearly two-meter-twenty body sat down, the remaining space immediately became cramped. Laira’s long legs stretched past the edge of the chair, and her crimson hair was loosely tied behind her to keep it from falling onto the plate of fruit resting on her lap.

She picked up a peeled grape and brought it to Ethan’s lips.

"Open your mouth."

Ethan kept his eyes closed behind his sunglasses and cooperatively parted his lips. The grape had just entered his mouth, and he had not even had time to swallow before Laira bent down and kissed his cheek.

Chu.

Ethan did not react at all.

Laira looked at him for a few seconds. Seemingly feeling that it was not enough, she leaned over and kissed the tip of his nose as well. This time, Ethan frowned slightly, but she treated that reaction as encouragement and directly lowered herself further.

Her soft lips touched his.

Ethan raised his right hand, held her chin, and pushed her face slightly away as she was about to press down further.

"Are you still feeding me?"

"Yes." Laira answered very naturally.

"Then feed me first."

Laira looked at him, then looked at the peeled slice of apple in her hand. In the end, she brought it over. Ethan took a bite, and just as he finished chewing, he saw her face lowering again.

He immediately raised his hand and blocked her lips.

"Laira."

"Hmm?"

"You just kissed me."

"I know."

"And you still want to kiss me?"

A clear look of confusion appeared in Laira’s orange-red eyes. She pulled Ethan’s hand down and answered as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "How could one time be enough?"

After saying that, she lowered her head and kissed him once more before finally sitting upright in satisfaction.

Ethan no longer knew what to say.

Ever since he confessed his feelings in Spring Village, Laira had almost completely abandoned the last bit of restraint she had. Before, she already liked hugging him, leaning close to him, and occasionally taking the initiative to kiss him. Now, as long as Ethan was within reach, Laira wanted to touch this place a little, kiss that place a little, as though no amount of contact would ever be enough.

From the middle of the pool, a sigh rang out.

Ruo Yan was lying on a white floating raft. She wore a dark swimsuit, with a thin outer layer draped over it, and her black hair was tied high behind her. Her sunglasses covered most of her eyes, and her legs dangled in the water, occasionally kicking lightly to keep the raft from drifting too far.

She pushed her sunglasses up onto her forehead and looked at the two people by the shore.

"I want to ask something."

Ethan tilted his head toward the pool. "Go ahead."

"Are we really fine like this?"

Laira, who was choosing another grape, immediately paused.

Ruo Yan propped her elbow on the edge of the raft and frowned at Ethan. "Xue Ji gave us one thousand C-rank Energy Crystals and asked us to increase our strength as much as possible within one month. But these past few days, you have been sleeping until almost noon, lying here in the afternoon, and going out to eat or stroll around at night."

She shifted her gaze to Laira.

"And as for her, aside from eating, sleeping, and clinging to Ethan, she basically does nothing."

Laira immediately refuted, "I also kiss him."

Ruo Yan fell silent.

Ethan turned his face to the side, his shoulders trembling slightly.

Ruo Yan immediately looked at him. "And you are still laughing?"

"No."

"I saw it."

In the end, Ethan could not hold it in anymore. He laughed, pulled his sunglasses down a little, and looked at her. "All right. No need to worry. I know what I am doing."

Ruo Yan kicked the water and guided the raft closer to the shore. "Then explain. The one thousand C-rank crystals are still untouched in the storage room. You have not even absorbed a single one."

At that moment, Laira brought another slice of apple over.

Ethan naturally took a bite, finished chewing, then sat up straighter. "Because now is not the time."

Ruo Yan stared at him.

Ethan took off his sunglasses and placed them on the small table beside him. "There are still fifteen days left."

"What?"

"I will be forcibly returned to the trial space."

This time, Ruo Yan truly froze.

Even Laira stopped peeling the grape and lowered her head to look at Ethan.

He propped his elbows on his knees, his voice calmer now. "The ninth floor of the Abyss Tower is an anchor point. After clearing that floor, I was allowed to leave for thirty days. Once the time is up, no matter where I am, the system will forcibly pull me back."

Ruo Yan frowned. "Why are you only telling us now about something this important?"

"I told Laira before, but too many things happened afterward." Ethan shrugged slightly. "The Strange Coordinate, Spring Village, Owin’s ruin, Ryan, then Silver Moon City. It was not until Xue Ji gave me one thousand crystals that I recalculated the time."

Laira brought the slice of apple to his mouth, but this time, she was no longer joking. "You are afraid that leveling up too quickly will cause the trial to change?"

"Correct."

Ethan looked at her, then turned to Ruo Yan. "We still do not know what the tenth to nineteenth floors will be like. But what I experienced before shows that the trials are not completely fixed. The strength, condition, and abilities of the participants can all affect the difficulty. If I swallow a large amount of crystals within these fifteen days and force myself to advance several stages, the benefits may not necessarily be greater than the increase in danger."

Ruo Yan thought for a while before asking, "But being stronger is still better, right?"

"If we only look at level, then yes."

Ethan raised his left arm. The sunlight reflected off the Primordial Armor, and a very thin arc of electricity flashed through the metal gaps before vanishing.

"But our current level does not reflect our full strength. I have the Primordial Armor and half of the Thunder Wings. When resonating with Laira, the Thunder Wings can recover strength close to their complete state. As for her, she has stepped into Silver Rank. The first seal layer of the Sunfire Divine Seal has also opened, and she also has Thunderfire now."

Laira lifted her chin slightly, clearly very satisfied at being mentioned.

Ethan looked at Ruo Yan again. "You have Owin’s inheritance, the Necromancer, and Soul Thread. Those things cannot be judged by the words Silver Rank alone either."

Ruo Yan no longer refuted.

Ethan continued, "I want to enter the next trial in our current state. If we can clear it without leveling up, then after we return, there will still be almost half a month left to use Xue Ji’s crystals. At that time, I will not need to worry that the tenth floor trial will increase in difficulty because my level has just risen."

Ruo Yan lowered her eyes and calculated for a while before nodding. "That makes sense. But not absorbing the crystals does not mean you have to lie here all day. We can still practice combat, test skills, or at least train our coordination."

Ethan put his sunglasses back on and lay down again.

"I do not want to."

Ruo Yan looked at him. "What did you just say?"

"I want to rest."

"For all fifteen days?"

"Mm."

Ruo Yan seemed unable to believe that he could say that so calmly. She looked at Laira as if trying to find someone who would object, but the Red Dragon had already picked up another grape and brought it to Ethan’s mouth. Her attitude clearly showed she was on his side.

Ruo Yan frowned. "I am starting to understand why the two of you suit each other."

Ethan bit the grape, the corner of his mouth curving slightly. "It is only fifteen days."

He looked up at the sky.

The smile on his lips slowly faded a little.

"Since I was young, I have never truly had a period of time like this."

Ruo Yan was about to say something, but in the end, she remained silent.

Ethan continued looking at the blue sky through the dark lenses. "Before awakening, I had to earn my own tuition. I studied during the day and worked in the afternoon or at night. Sometimes my shift ended near dawn, and after sleeping for just a few hours, I had to rush to Aurora Academy again. Even for a good meal, I had to think about whether I would still have enough money left at the end of the month after eating it."

Laira slowly lowered the fruit in her hand.

Ethan did not speak with resentment. He only sounded as though he were recalling a period of time that had already passed.

"I once thought that as long as I held on until the day I opened my Blind Box, everything would get better. After that, I did indeed open Laira."

The corner of his mouth curved slightly again.

"But from that day until now, the number of times I nearly died has been greater than the number of days I got to sleep peacefully. The Abyss Tower, the Strange Coordinate, those who wanted to seize Laira, the Council’s pursuit, the Void, Owin’s ruin, Ryan..."

Ethan exhaled, his whole body sinking back into the soft chair again.

"Now I have a decent room to sleep in, food whenever I want to eat, no need to wake up for work, and no need to worry about whether I will have enough money to pay tuition tomorrow."

He tilted his head and looked at Laira, then at Ruo Yan in the middle of the pool.

"And the two of you are here. I feel like I deserve fifteen days of rest."

Laira looked at him for a long time, then bent down, her crimson hair sliding across Ethan’s shoulder. This kiss was not placed on his lips, but gently touched his forehead.

"Then rest. If you want to lie down for fifteen days, then lie down. If you want to eat something, I will get it. If you want to sleep, I will sleep with you."

Ruo Yan, in the middle of the pool, narrowed her eyes slightly when she heard the last sentence.

"Why does that last sentence sound like you are the one benefiting more?"

Laira did not deny it at all. "I never said I was losing out."

Ruo Yan looked at the two of them for a while, then finally exhaled and pulled her sunglasses down to cover her eyes. "Fine. Rest, then. Fifteen days will not change too much, and once we enter the trial, who knows how long it will take before we can come out. But if you die from laziness fifteen days later, I will turn your corpse into a Puppet."

Ethan laughed. "I will try not to give you the chance."

"Remember that."

The atmosphere had just become quiet again when a shadow appeared at the edge of the pool.

Because Ruo Yan was lying on the raft, she was the first to see it.

The Necromancer was standing beside the water.

Its dark robe covered its entire body, and its face was hidden beneath the hood. It stood still for a while, as if observing Ruo Yan drifting in the pool. Then it suddenly took two steps back.

Ruo Yan immediately sat up.

"Wait."

The Necromancer rushed forward.

"Don’t..."

Splash!

A heavy body smashed straight into the swimming pool.

Water splashed up nearly two meters, raining down on Ruo Yan from head to toe. The raft was spun around by the wave, the sunglasses on her face tilted to one side, and her neatly tied hair was almost completely soaked.

The Necromancer sank.

Two seconds later, its fully hooded head emerged from the water.

Its two arms began flailing wildly, and its legs kicked the water stiffly without the slightest rhythm. The entire Puppet looked like a person drowning, but it clearly did not need to breathe, which made those panicked movements even more meaningless.

Water was splashed all over the pool.

Ruo Yan wiped the water from her face, then slowly turned to Laira.

The Red Dragon’s shoulders were trembling.

"Laira."

Laira immediately turned her face away. "It was not me."

"Did I ask whether you did it?"

"...Not yet."

Ruo Yan narrowed her eyes. "Then why are you explaining yourself?"

Laira pressed her lips together, but the corners of her mouth kept lifting.

At that exact moment, the Necromancer swung its arm hard again.

Splash!

A sheet of water hit Ruo Yan directly in the face.

She froze.

Ethan, lying by the shore, saw this scene and finally could not hold back his laughter.

Ruo Yan immediately turned her head. "Ethan."

"I did not do anything."

"You are laughing."

"Am I not allowed to?"

"You are."

Her voice suddenly became terrifyingly calm.

Ruo Yan braced her hands and tried to stand up from the raft, but the surface of the raft was still tilted because of the waves. As soon as her foot shifted to the side, the entire raft instantly flipped over.

Splash!

Ruo Yan disappeared beneath the water.

One second later, Laira clutched her stomach and burst into laughter.

Ruo Yan surfaced, her soaking black hair sticking to her face and shoulders. She slowly brushed her hair back, her gaze locking straight onto Laira.

"You are dead."

Laira’s smile stiffened.

She bent down, slipped one arm around Ethan’s back, supported the backs of his knees with the other, and easily lifted his entire body from the chair.

"Laira, put me down."

"No."

"Why?"

"She will catch you."

"Ruo Yan is chasing you."

Laira held him tightly against her chest and answered seriously, "But you laughed with me."

Behind them, the sound of water had already rung out.

"LAIRA!"

The Red Dragon turned and ran.

Held in her arms, Ethan could only watch as Ruo Yan climbed out of the pool and chased after them with her hair soaking wet. The Necromancer was still waving its arms in the water as if it had no idea what had just happened.

Laira’s laughter echoed throughout the courtyard.

In the end, Ethan laughed with her as well.

He could no longer remember the last time he had laughed this freely.

Fifteen days.

Perhaps this was good too.