Shane continued to stand there without uttering a single word. He felt he needed to say something, but at the same time, he didn't want to expose the fact that the owner of this body had changed. So he cleared his throat and tried to act like Hope.
"Listen, you'd better get some sleep. We might have to work more from tomorrow on. There's a pile of lists, including the officials' names." Shane swiftly pulled out two more scrolls and threw them at Max's feet. "Read on. I'll handle Ed's case. Yeah?"
"No!" Max suddenly yelled as he picked up the scrolls. "I'll deal with him. You don't have to butt in on us, brothers."
"Whatever. I just wanted to suggest something. If you can handle him, I wouldn't interfere. Take some rest."
After that, Shane didn't dare stand there and continue to chat. He swiftly walked out of that place and went to his room. He sighed and closed the door behind him.
"Hope, I can't act like you. You better take over before Max suspects something."
"Don't worry about him," said Hope as she chewed something.
"Wait, are you eating popcorn?" Shane frowned as his face was filled with a disgusted expression. "I'm trying to work here, and you're enjoying it?"
"Didn't you do the same before?" Hope dumped all the responsibility on his shoulders. "As I was saying, Mx is dumb. He can't suspect a thing. If it were Ed, we would have to think of a plan, but the guy is too smart. I wonder how he turned into that thing."
Shane spat: "That's what I have always wanted to ask. How did you turn him from someone timid into that?"
Hope finally realized the man was blaming her, so she stopped eating and said, "Don't blame me. I wasn't always with him, you know? I left my old version to deal with the kids."
"In any case, your old version is also you, aren't you? You must also remember everything," Shane retorted as he lay on the bed. "You're just making excuses because you don't want to admit your faults."
"So what? I just made Ed go through a series of tough things."
"Tough? What kind of stuff?" Shane raised his brows.
According to his thinking, such a character development was really off the charts and even illogical. Even in the worst stories, he had seen people develop, but not to this extent. Hope might have done something to these little guys to make them become like that.
In the end, Max became dumber, while Ed became smarter.
Hope sighed and shrugged, finally admitting, "I did nothing. I just threw both of them inside the dungeons every now and then, warning them they couldn't eat if they didn't succeed. Many times, I also stopped giving them food because they failed. So after that, they sharpened it up and started taking dungeons seriously. I really have no idea how the two brothers grew up differently despite being inside the same dungeon."
Shane sighed. He also wondered what kind of dungeons they were in to make these brothers grow like that. After a while, he stopped thinking about it and changed the topic.
"Hope, tell me honestly, why me? There were many systems with dark power. Even Max. Then why me?"
He asked that question because he believed Hope might have an answer. But to his surprise, Hope really did seem to have an answer.
The woman replied in a calm voice, "What if I know?"
Shane was speechless. "If you do, then tell me."
"I won't. So shut up."
"See? I knew you were bluffing," said Shane and scoffed.
Even though he could tell that this was probably related to the third secret that Hope was hiding from him, he didn't have any desire to probe into her life anymore.
Probing had already gotten him into so many difficulties. If he had only continued to be a good system without using dark powers, he might have managed to stand by.
The night passed without any event. When Shane woke up the next day, Ed had already left with his belongings and Dirt. He walked over only to see Max standing in front of Ed's room in a daze.
The man stared at the empty room for a while and blinked his tears. When he couldn't blink it away anymore, he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and sniffed.
Now the fireworks have started. Great.
Shane almost wanted to roll his eyes, but he stopped himself on time and said, "Are you ready for today?"
Max took a deep breath and nodded with a gloomy face. "Let's go. I don't want that brother anyway."
"Good," said Shane as he turned to Hope. "Let's time travel."
"Um, sure. Just a second." He heard Hope typing something on a virtual keyboard before she replied, "I'm ready. How many years should we skip now?"
"To the time when all the so-called corrupt officers had died."
"That's no good. Hold on." Hope paused while typing and said, "We'll have to make a stop in between to make sure Ed's not causing trouble."
"Why would he cause some trouble?" Shane couldn't understand this.
He knew his master well enough to know that once he decided on something, he would do it no matter what. And the most important thing was that he wouldn't waste his time on doing good deeds. The man was extremely aloof and disregarded anyone wasting his time, even if it was for a good reason.
Such a man now, especially, took time out of his schedule to make trouble for his brother, who was trying to become a System God or something?
Shane felt that it was more of a joke or something.
But he still complied with Hope and decided to head over to a future after a few months. Max wouldn't really attack the current System God so soon. So they were safe to travel after a few months.
Shane wrote down instructions for current Hope on a piece of paper, and they started the time travel. In the blink of an eye, they were able to reach them a few months later. Shane was already standing in his room in the middle of the night. He glanced outside the window.
Moonlight descended from the sky, spreading its feathers and wings and illuminating the ground. A few birds flew around the moon, as if trying to reach out their hands and catch it in their palms.
The scene outside was really beautiful. Shane would have wasted his night just staring at the garden outside the window if he hadn't seen Dirt sneaking around that place.
Shane raised his brows as he stared at the robot. It had been a while since he talked about that thing. He instantly jumped outside the window and flashed beside Dirt, making the robot stiffen.
Dirt turned slowly toward him and scratched the back of his neck. "I'm caught."
"Yeah, you were," said Shane with a deadpan expression on his face. "You weren't smart enough this time not to sneak right outside my window."
"What if I wanted to talk to you?" Dirt raised his head and squinted his eyes. "I have long realized that there's something wrong with you. You seem to have three personalities inside your body."
Shane scoffed. This robot was certainly perceptive. Maybe that's why they say feelings only hamper your growth.
This robot sets a good example for him. Dirt really didn't know how to feel, but that didn't stop him from deducing the most basic and common things that most people would unconsciously ignore.
Just now, Shane assumed that perhaps Dirt was the only one who could notice this.
Shane didn't reply and asked, "Where's your boss?"
"Sleeping."
"Then what are you doing here?"
"Sneaking, as you can see." Dirt's eyes didn't even twitch after saying those words.
Shane asked, "Why were you sneaking?"
"A secret mission."
Dirt refused to give out any necessary information at the moment, making Shane almost want to strangle the guy to death. The two of them continued to stand like that until Shane backed away and made a 'continue please' gesture before running back to his room.
Then he knocked at Hope's door and asked, "What's happening? Why is Dirt running here like this in the middle of the night?"
"Well… he came to kill Max."
As it flashed outside the window, Shane's body was instantly alerted. "Shouldn't you have told me about it earlier?!"
Hope shrugged. "I'm telling you now."
"You know you're a hopeless case, right?" Shane gritted his teeth and ran in the direction where the robot had vanished.
Hope finally explained her difficulty: "I can't interfere too much or else it'll cause a butterfly rift, changing the entire trajectory of future events. I can only continue to perform in the same manner again and again until the end of my life. Don't you get it yet?"
Shane frowned. He could tell that there should be more meaning behind those words than just what he had heard just now.
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