Chapter 714 714: A Mystery on Top of a Mystery
[Who is this mystery man, and what is his relationship with the universe's most sought-after bachelorette?]
[Hannah Ross, who has remained strong and adamant about her independence, now suddenly lives with a man?]
[This white-haired individual seems to be an albino but—]
"Fuck, I knew this would happen. But I didn't know it would be to this extent, do these people have nothing better to do!?"
Hannah quickly turned off the TV as she once again made her way to the windows. And even though they were at least 50 floors into the air, she could still see how many people were down there, waiting for her to go out.
"I would assume you are used to the popularity by now, Hannah," Riley, on the other hand, just casually turned the TV back on, switching the channels as he took a sip of warm milk, "Also, is there an Italian Mafia Reborn here?"
"...How are you so calm?"
"I am used to the popularity."
"Who even are you?" Hannah didn't know whether to laugh or raise an eyebrow as she saw Riley just calmly sitting on the sofa, switching channels with squinted eyes. Hannah turned to look at the crowd again, but as soon as she did so, a helicopter suddenly dawned on her,
"What the…" Hannah rushed to close her curtains—but alas, with the size of her windows, it would take a while for her penthouse to be hidden.
"The media truly has a problem with privacy," Riley let out a sigh as he lightly snapped his fingers, causing the helicopter to be slightly blown away, "But I suppose I am the same."
"...We need to get out of here," Hannah clicked her tongue as she started running around her penthouse, gaining another layer of clothes each time she enters and exits a room, "Ugh, I wanted to take a shower… but I'll do that at work."
And as she frantically tried to get dressed, Riley just continued to change the channels, calmly sipping a glass of milk and not minding Hannah. But alas, before he could finish his warm and soothing beverage, Hannah suddenly pulled her up and dragged him away.
Let's go, go! We'll just sneak and fly away from the rooftop."
"..." As for Riley, he could really only squint as he saw the TV disappear from his sight—he saw a show that resembled Italian Mafia Reborn, but could it really be it?
"There isn't anyone here, right?" Hannah carefully opened the door to the roof, and once she realized that it was completely empty and the helicopter was just circling around her penthouse, her feet quickly left the floor as her entire body was engulfed in a fiery armor of fire,
"What about you, where are you going?"
"I suppose I should check more of this world."
"...You're leaving the country?" The flames surrounding Hannah became weaker along with her voice.
"No, I am just going to take a casual walk around the city."
"Sheesh, you really have a way to be dramatic with your words," Hannah rolled her eyes, "If you were just going to take a walk, then you should have just said that."
And then, with a small giggle, Hannah made sure to fly up, away from all the eyes of the people. As for Riley, well…
…he went back inside the penthouse to check whether or not what he saw was really Italian Mafia Reborn.
But alas, he lay on the floor on all fours as he found that it was, in fact, not Italian Mafia Reborn. Could it be that like him, Italian Mafia Reborn is a singular existence in the entire multiverse?
Or perhaps it, Hannah, and Aerith could not exist together without him?
"Hm," Riley stood up from the floor, taking in a very deep breath as he closed his eyes in disappointment,
"I am no longer welcomed in the universe where we are created, Italian Mafia Reborn," Riley then whispered to himself as he started walking around the penthouse, "It would seem we are no longer fated to be—"
And before Riley could even start his monologue, he noticed the pictures on Hannah's walls.
"Oh?" Riley tilted his head to the side as he started looking at all the photos. And without even a second of scanning them, he quickly noticed two things—there weren't any photos of her as a child.
The youngest photo of her seemed to be around when she was 14 years old… a year after the Aerith of this world died.
"Hm…" Riley squinted his eyes as he continued to scan the photos. There were photos of her with Bernard, with someone that looked like Prophet, which he could very well be. There were also photos of her posing with Hera, Empress, Tempo, Bulwark, and Whiteking all in their superhero outfits—The Hope Guild.
There was not, however, a single photo of Diana to be seen anywhere.
Is it possible she died early on? Does it have something to do with Aerith being called a traitor?
There were a lot of details in this world that seem to be hidden, unlike the last Earth he visited where everyone was honest with their feelings and discrimination against other species. But once again, however…
…Bernard was at the center of everything.
The Bernard of this world obviously has access to the multiverse, and yet he was hiding it from everyone. Riley also came to know that the civilians did not really know that Bernard is Whiteking.
There was also the fact that the existence of aliens is already known in this world, and yet he could see no trace of them.
"Hm…" Riley placed his hand on his chin as he thought long and hard about what could possibly be going on in this world. But after just a few seconds, he shrugged his shoulders and started walking back to the rooftop.
Whatever the case is, it doesn't really concern him just yet—and so, with that thought, Riley stood at the very edge of the building. He looked up to where Hannah flew toward, before just casually stepping forward and letting himself freely fall from the building…
…landing in front of all the reporters and paparazzi, almost hitting some of them as the floor beneath his feet burst from the sudden force.
"W… what was that!?"
"What just happened!?"
A cloud of dust formed, and sadly for the reporters, Riley was already gone when it cleared. As to why Riley did something like that, well… he was going to kill all of them before he remembered that no one knew him as a genocidal maniac yet—it would be nice to keep a certain level of anonymity for now. And also, he just killed around a trillion people in the previous universe, he feels like that deserves at least a few days' vacation.
And so, Riley just casually walked away from the eyes of the reporters; none of them even realized that the individual they wanted to make a report on just passed by them.
Hannah's penthouse is in the middle of New York City, and true enough, aside from getting small glances here and there, the people tend to just leave him alone. After all, he wasn't the weirdest entity here.
"Ah, Butcher," Riley then pointed at a bald man that was just standing in the middle of Times Square. He was going to approach him, but soon noticed it wasn't actually Butcher and just some sort of street performer pretending to be him.
Riley continued to walk around, realizing more and more how normal this world looked—RIley could even consider it more normal than his Earth before all the aliens arrived.
"Riley."
Soon, however, Riley found himself suddenly surrounded by a number of people wearing suits, or to be more specific, law enforcement. Riley has actually already noticed them since earlier, and they have him completely.
"My name's Officer Grimes, FBI," one of the officers showed his badge as he carefully approached Riley, "We need you to come with us to the station."
"Am I under arrest already, Officer Grimes?" Riley tilted his head to the side as he looked at the officers surrounding him, "Is this because I dragged Jonas Reuben by his face?"
"...You kidnapped him," Officer Grimes let out a small and deep sigh before shaking his head, "But no, you are not under arrest. It is for your own protection—Jonas Reuben has the tendency to… get revenge on people that offend him."
"I thank you for trying to protect me, Officer Grimes," Riley nodded several times; his long white hair, causing everyone to be in awe as it seemed to be even smoother than silk, "But I want to walk around and see the city, I rarely experience freedom like this nowadays."
"That… I'm afraid that's not possible," Officer Grimes shook his head, "You are not under arrest, but you are under suspicion. You don't have an address, you don't have any identification—you don't even exist."
"I was sort of abandoned as a baby, Officer Grimes."
"Please, don't make this any harder for us—we do not want to use force."
"But you have snipers locked on to me, Officer Grimes," Riley turned to look up at the buildings surrounding him, "Do they have special bullets that could penetrate my telekinetic barrier?"
"They're not for you," Officer Grimes once again shook his head, "Please, just—"
"Hostile incoming!"
And before Officer Grimes could finish his words, several voices started screaming in the air; the ground, trembling as the sound of drumming footsteps grew closer and closer to them. And since they were in the center of Times Square, the crowd that gathered all started to panic—with some of them pushing each other to get away from whatever it was that was coming.
"Fuck, they're here, the dogs of the Reuben Family…
…the Jackson twins."
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