Shane sneaked after Dirt's footprints left on the ground with light steps. He didn't want to make anyone aware of his presence. So he also used the cloak he always would for such cases. He walked over at a fast speed until he found Dirt opening the door with his magical powers.
Since Dirt's attribute was time, he could turn anything into its past or the future self. No matter whether it was an item or a living being. No one could escape the robot's hands.
So he could easily open the lock by turning back the time when the lock was opened first. After opening the lock sneakily, Dirt entered the room.
Shane also walked inside. As soon as he entered, he saw Dirt's steps pausing as the robot turned back, glancing at where Shane was hiding.
Shane's heart jumped to his throat.
Wait, it couldn't be that the robot figured out his presence, right?
As he was thinking about it, he saw the robot walking over as the latter passed through Shane's body, heading toward the door. Only then did Shane sigh in relief. He stood beside them without moving. He even held his breath to ensure that people in this room didn't hear the sound of his voice.
Max was sleeping soundly without making a sound. Dirt reached the man and pulled out a weapon.
Shane instantly reacted and blocked the attack, showing himself finally.
The robot gritted his teeth and started fighting with the other man wholeheartedly. Shane had always wanted to fight with the robot, even when he was in the institute, but back then, he was held back because of all the restrictions that had been forced on him.
But now he could do anything he wanted and try his hand against the robot.
He attacked the robot with his sword, using one of the techniques he learned as a thousand-year-old demon king. The robot's head was blasted with electrical and thunderous dark power.
But Dirt wouldn't be Dirt if he got scraped up by that puny attack. He directed the attack outside, destroying the tree from the root. Afterward, he glanced at the man sleeping soundly and tried to attack Max again.
When Shane saw the situation escalate, he flashed in front of Dirt and took a protective stance in front of Max. Dirt saw this and made a gesture to go out.
"We wouldn't want this young man to wake up, would we?"
Shane didn't care about Max; he just didn't want the house destroyed."
He nodded and expressionlessly walked out after Dirt.
When they went to a secluded place again, Dirt faced him and said, "Why are you doing this? If it weren't for that day, Ed would also have been fooled by you. But it can't change the fact that you still made him kill many people and monsters. Those also weren't really monsters, were they?
Shane didn't reply as he gave another blast of the dark energy attack, making the other person grit his teeth and use blocking magic to defend against Shane's powers.
Then the robot turned toward Shane and said, "You can't be the same girl as before. Who are you?"
"You finally realized this?" Shane glared at the robot. "Because of our past friendship, I'll let you go this time. Just go and tell your master that I don't want him to participate in this case anymore. He better stay silent for a while like a good boy."
God, that felt good to say such a thing against his own teacher.
Dirt nodded and finally left that place.
Shane's body relaxed before he remembered what Dirt had said. Then he directly confronted Hope.
"Hey, Hope, you made Ed kill people before trying to touch the officials? How come I didn't hear anything about it before? You didn't do it in front of me."
Hope acted innocently at this time and said, "What do you mean by those words? I didn't do anything."
"Really? Cut it off!" Shane got angry after saying that. "You know how much I hate it when you lie. And you still continue on! How can you be so shameless?"
"I stay silent because I can't tell you everything." Hope sighed as if she were a tragic teacher who couldn't handle her student anymore. "Seriously, I hate it when my own son does it."
Shane's anger reached a spike when he realized she was mocking him by saying her son! "What the f*ck are you talking about? Who's your son?!"
Hope said coolly, "I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about my future sons who wouldn't be born anymore because you're getting angry with me."
Shane was silent for a moment. She was flirting with him, wasn't she?
If it were any other girl, he wouldn't have minded. But this was Hope, for God's sake! He didn't even want to imagine sleeping with her!
God, even the image caused Shane to cringe until he felt like puking. He took a deep breath and said, "Can you be a good system already? I'm getting a headache from your antiques."
Hope chuckled and finally acted like a proper human being—nope, a system. "It's not my fault you're so easy to tease. As for your question, I made them kill people, but that was a practice. C'mon, how can you even imagine them turning into villains without killing their conscience?"
Shane realized exactly when Hope had done this kind of thing behind his back. She might have done this when she time-traveled before ordering her past self.
Sure enough, he shouldn't underestimate this girl anymore.
"Fine, now what do we do?"
"We wait, of course!" Hope felt excited for some reason. "We will surely achieve the ending we desire this time around."
Shane felt those words were ambiguous for some reason, indicating another meaning hidden in the world's depths. He shook away his doubts and focused on what was happening in front of him.
Dawn broke as Max woke up instantly.
Seriously, just how much can this guy sleep? He didn't wake up despite the blast next to his ears!
It looked like the man had slept well as Max yawned and cleaned himself up. His eyes lit up when he saw Shane standing in the middle of the practice arena. He rushed and stopped right in front of the man.
"Master, what are you doing here?" he asked.
Shane responded in his mind, "I just wanted to see how much you have improved," he said.
Max excitedly said, "Then let's have a fight! I want to see how much I have grown!"
"Sure," Shane said, his lips curling up.
He felt that he was getting luckier and luckier as all of his wishes were being fulfilled these days. He picked out a very ordinary-looking sword and pointed its tip toward the other man.
"Go on. You start."
Max rushed toward him with all his power, yelling while he attached. Shane simply dodged with utter ease. After that, Max attacked again.
This time, it was a dark energy tornado aiming at Shane's face.
Shane used his sword and uttered a spell in his mind. Blocking energy empowered his body and surrounded him from all sides. Now the tornado came closer and closer, but it couldn't touch the man at all.
After seeing this, Shane let out a scoff. "You're powerful, but your mind is still that of a kid. Use some brain while fighting."
Max gritted his teeth. "Master, how can you be so mean to me?! I'm really doing my best!"
"Shane," Hope sighed. "Don't blame him. I deliberately made him like that, turning him into my pawn. Don't argue."
"Shut up!" Shane was angrier after hearing Hope's words.
He literally wanted to strangle the girl to death. Everything was basically her fault!
He successfully shifted all the blame onto her shoulders and continued fighting with Max.
At the end of the fight, the winner was still Shane, who didn't even have a single drop of perspiration on his forehead. He looked like he was still full of energy and could fight for another twenty-four hours without stopping.
On the other side, Max's condition was tragic. His clothes were tattered and burned. Injuries covered his body to the point of dripping blood. He took deep breaths as he tried to stand on two feet.
Shane sneered. "Is this how you're going to defeat the System God?" Good luck!"
After saying that, he ran away from that place, not even turning back.
Hope hesitated before saying, "We never wanted a person who could fight with a brain. Don't you remember our plan? We just wanted a weapon, and Max is already a weapon."
Shane shook his head. "Still, seeing such a fine man turn into this gives me a headache."
"Let's fast-forward then," suggested Hope.
Shane also didn't refuse as they traveled a few years later. Hope wrote down some warnings as she took control of the body this time around. Shane finally rested in the mind space as he bought a bowl of popcorn.
This time when they time-traveled, it was time to kill the System God.
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