Shane watched as Hope strolled along the path after time-traveling. They had first thought about heading a few years into the future, but Hope rejected the idea, wanting to try her luck. So they entered a random era. They were still determining what time it was. Whether they had reached the time when Shane had arrived or not, none of them knew anything about it. Hope continued to walk onward as she tilted her head, glancing at a poster hung on the wall. Half of the poster fell to the ground, torn into shreds, while the other half was still stuck to the wall.
It looked way too old.
It was a wanted poster of someone familiar: Dark.
Hope raised her brows. Really, the world was so short. She was just taking a stroll and here she found the person from her past.
After that, she let out a smile. "I think I know when we are."
"When?"
"My past self must have used all her means to control Max, but the man should be afraid of his master. He has everything he could ever dream of, status, power, money, and even girls. What more could he possibly want?
"But deep in his heart, he knows this was stolen from his own master. If it hadn't been for her using a trick to defeat the previous System God, he knew that he wouldn't have climbed such a status. So he's a bit afraid of the past me, but I had ordered Hope to stop meeting him as his master.
"So now, the 'master' character hasn't arrived in his life for years, and he has turned arrogant. He might think that no one could defeat him now that his master has disappeared. So imagine what would happen if his master were to suddenly return?"
"He would become even more arrogant?" Shane tried to imagine this situation and shook his head. "No, he'd probably become enraged out of fear and try to show off his newfound power." He'd blindly challenge his master, wanting to kill you."
"Exactly!" Hope smiled. "He's the ungrateful guy who wouldn't care about his family."
"Then let's go and find out exactly what will happen if they were to meet."
Hope didn't wait any longer and headed toward a familiar palace. At this time, ever since Max sat on the throne, Hope, in Echo's form, had made several changes to the world, turning it more like an empty shell. Corrupt people could be found in every corner of the system. So the time to destroy this world completely was close enough.
The preparations would be finished soon.
A glint of excitement appeared in Hope's eyes.
They reached the palace as Hope wore the passthrough cloak. Before wearing another layer of the same cloak for extra protection, she thought about it.
Sure enough. Max had installed the magic users at the entrance. If she were to enter the place with a single layer, she would have been caught.
The little boy from before was sure turning mature.
She continued walking in Jake's body and reached the arena where the System God and Max had fought to the point of tearing everything to shreds. But now, there weren't any traces of that long and heart-wrenching fight anymore. Soldiers were wandering off and about for something. Many servants were preparing the flowers and decorating every corner of the palace.
It looked like some kind of festival was about to happen today.
Hope frowned and continued walking as she heard the voice of an old man yelling at the top of his voice, "Have you got no energy?! Keep up! We need to finish by the end of the day. Tomorrow is his majesty's birthday!"
His majesty?!
Hope suddenly let out a cold laugh. She didn't know her dear disciple could turn into his majesty all of a sudden. At the same time, a servant ended up turning a beautiful flower vase into pieces of shred on the floor, dropping it off by mistake. Her entire face turned white as she trembled from head to toe.
She looked like a frightened bird who didn't know what to do anymore. He turned to the old man wearing white garments with a head crown decorating the man's white hair.
The latter's eyes blazed in anger as he pointed his wrinkled finger at the girl. "Guards, give her a death punishment! Right now!"
"No! Please, sir, let me go! It was a mistake."
Seeing her yell like that, everyone's faces paled, but none of them dared step forward to help her out. Some of the weaker ones trembled from head to toe, doing nothing to aid the little girl. There was a chopping sound that echoed from inside the palace halls. In the end, the voice even came to an abrupt halt while the servant was screaming and yelling like that.
Hope: "Heh. looks like I have to teach some sense into my dear disciple."
"But, Hope," Shane pointed out, "Weren't you the who wanted such a dictator to rule and destroy everything?"
Hope shook her head. "I didn't want a dictator. I wanted a person who could listen to my commands. Max isn't that guy anymore."
"Then, should we go back and fix the mistakes?" Shane ordered a bowl of popcorn and rested against the cold ground.
Hope thought for a while and shook her head. "We have already walked forward in time. "If we continued in this manner, we would leave many time loopholes."
"You should have thought about this before time traveling, you know?" Shane rebuked her as he ate the popcorn that appeared out of the blue from the system menu.
He also ordered a couch and sat back, letting out a satisfied 'ah' roll from his throat. "This is what it feels like to sit on the couch after sitting on a stiff place all day long!"
Hope ignored a certain man in her mind and continued walking down the corridor. She entered the throne room and found it empty.
"However, I need to learn more about that old man. Who is he?"
"You can just contact yourself and ask," said Shane while munching.
"Oh wow," said Hope sarcastically, "why didn't I think of it before?"
She directly entered a door and was satisfied to see her assumption come true. The man himself was hiding in his room, pacing back and forth. Did something happen to make him nervous to this extent?
Just then, someone knocked on the door. Max quickly went over and opened it for the person. It turned out that the person who just knocked was the old man whom Hope had seen earlier dictating to everyone else.
The man entered and closed the door. "Are you okay, your majesty?"
"I'm good, minister." Max's panic visibly vanished without a trace as his shoulders relaxed. "I don't feel good today. I don't know why, but it's a gut feeling."
Hope scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. His gut feeling was right. This person could indeed sense his master's presence.
The old man waved his hand as if he didn't care about that anymore. He patted the man's shoulders and said, "I'm handling your people according to what you said. Even if you don't know anything, I'm here to help you!"
Help? It was more like this person was taking advantage of his status to wreak havoc around the place. No, wait a minute...
Hope frowned as she suddenly remembered something. Then a smile formed on her lips.
"What the f*ck was I worried about?!" Hope sighed. "This is clearly my work. How could I have forgotten about it?"
"You did it?" Shane was a little surprised after hearing that.
"Yeah," Hope said as she walked out of the palace, shaking her head and smiling. "Looks like my past self has been carrying out my orders carefully."
"It's you. So obviously she will carry out the orders carefully."
"I don't have to worry about Max anymore. Echo is taking care of it. Now that we are here, let's find where you have reached."
Shane choked on his popcorn as he straightened his back. "What do you mean? You're not going to meet the past me, are you?"
Hope waved her hand and laughed. "Of course not. I was just kidding. Although we do have to take a look at you, first, let's see my past self."
"Didn't you say you wouldn't meet your past self face-to-face?" Shane knew the answer already, but he still asked.
Why did he have an urge to talk to this woman like this? He shook his head and focused on his popcorn.
"I'll meet her as Jake, not Hope, get it?"
"So, you mean," Shane frowned. "The person I talked to back then was not Jake but you?!"
Hope shrugged. "Maybe?"
"Holy f*ck!" Shane exclaimed and said angrily, "Do you have any idea how much havoc you have created in my life? I really hate you."
"The feeling is mutual." Hope spoke in a cold tone.
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