The Offer...

Aiden's mind was all over the place. Even if he wanted to calm down, he couldn't forget the black circles around his father's eyes or the fake or the forced smile on his mother's pained face.

"Those shits…"Aiden's curses resonated in the enclosed space of the virtual room, "Could it be that something has happened to Arya?"

His mother had said that Arya had gone to another city to study. However, Aiden was having a hard time believing her.

"What the fuck they want from me? Do they want me to die?" Aiden knew they will use a roundabout way to put pressure on him, but he had never thought it would be so severe. "And what is about the video they were talking about?"

[Request to establish a contact…]

The notification on the large screen in front of him attracted his attention. Looking at the unknown contact address, Aiden wanted to reject it. But the words got stuck in his throat while he accepted the request.

At the next moment, a door to the private domain appeared in front of him. Aiden was a little worried about the identity of the person, yet he still walked into the room.

What had greeted him was a giant screen that was hanging from the top. Before he could realize what was going on, things came back to life on the screen.

It seemed to had been recorded by someone who was hiding in the woods. After Aiden took a good look at it, he had no difficulty understanding what was going on the screen.

"I don't think that could kill Alex." With the doubt from a childish voice, Aiden's hand penetrated Alex's chest, and the video stopped. "He used something like a clone, right?"

"Who are you?" Aiden did not understand why Aaron appeared before him. But he was sure that whoever the child is, it is not Aaron.

"What?" Aaron shook his head as his body began to change. Soon, the body transformed into Lucas, "I thought having a known face would help you relax."

"What do you want?"

"Come on, relax. I am not here to fight you." With a smile on his face, he said, "I am here to help."

Looking at the smile on the natural stone-face of Lucas, Aiden's lips twitched a little, "Why don't you show me your actual face if you really want to help?"

"Okay, let's see," the body of Lucas morphed again. Then the man with a bald head and chin full of beard smiled at him and asked, "Will this do?"

'Could he be someone from the top?' Aiden had no idea whether the man in front of him was a Director or a Councilman, but he knew one thing to change the shape of the body with a blink of an eye… 'He must be someone with a lot of authority.'

Greeted with the questioning look on Aiden's face, the man said, "It is not like you are going to believe me even if I show you my genuine face."

"So what does an important man from the top wanted from a criminal like me?"

"An important man?" The bald man was quite amused by the choice of words.

"It's not like anyone could change their face on a private domain, as much as I know that violates some kind of security law. Yet..."

"So? Will you answer my question if I am an important person?" The smile never left the face of the bald man, yet the more Aiden looked at it, the more irritated he became.

"Are you the one who spread the video?" Aiden tried his best to keep his calm, but with every passing moment, it was getting harder for him to do so.

"Come on, you can do better than that." The man didn't care about the frown on Aiden's face and continued, "I thought at least you could understand the difference between good and bad. Do I really look like someone who's going to do a bad thing to you?"

"Huh? Last time I believed in something like that, I ended up with only six days to live." Aiden didn't hide his irritation and said, "what do you want?"

"I really want to hear about your story but…" Without continuing his words, the bald man pointed to the giant screen.

On the screen, there was a giant creature with sharp blue scales and horns. It was carrying a giant pillar on its back.

And the picture changed. This time, the beast was a little smaller one. However, unlike the last beast, this beast was covered with well-crafted scale armour instead of hides and they were carrying something that looked like metal hammers.

The pictures changed again, and it continued to show beasts that Aiden had never seen before. And it stopped at a picture that looked like a silver wolf, but with enormous pieces of ice crystal coming out its back.

"Do you know what all these beasts have in common?" the bald man looked at Aiden with curious eyes.

Aiden had no intention of satisfying his amusement, but something in pictures had really attracted his attention. "They are from someplace with ice and snow." It wasn't just an assumption, but there was snow under their feet in all the pictures.

"Huh!" his lips curved up as he heard Aiden's words, and he said, "I want to go to that place and do the things you have done on Earth. Some rescue missions and gather data on them and likes."

Aiden was having a hard time believing what he had heard. Yet the man smiled at him and went on to say, "You can keep all the rewards you have amassed on Earth and you will be forgiven for the murder."

"Fuck off." Aiden spit out the curse and turned to leave the room.

"I can help you to take revenge on all those who have done you wrong." The words reached Aiden's ears, but his foot didn't stop.

"I can help your family, too." As soon as Aiden's step came to a sudden halt, the bald man continued, "Who do you think has let you talk to your family?"

The pair of red eyes didn't even phase him, as the bald man said, "It's hard if you want to change the public opinion, but I can keep them safe and happy."

"Have you leaked the video?" Aiden's voice sounded like a growl, but the bald man ignored it and moved his wrist to look at his watch.

"For those easy questions, you should talk to Lucas. He is waiting for you in the previous address that Owen had given you." Ignoring Aiden's stunned expression, he added, "Let's talk at the same time tomorrow."

And he turned back and walked to the other door. "I will be waiting for some pleasant news." With his last words, he vanished on the other side of the door.

"Who was he?" Aiden couldn't help but mumble those words in silence.

'He must be someone from the council.' Aiden was not confused about that. 'Lucas had told me he was going to get a director to help me, instead he was banned from meeting. That couldn't be done by the director, it had to be the work of a Councilman. Yet, this man…'

'Who is this person, actually? Aiden wanted to know, but there was none who could answer him.

[Do you want to receive the file?]

The sudden notification startled Aiden, but he accepted the package nonetheless.

When he opened the files, he found that they were pictures of the beasts he had seen a moment ago.

"This…" The voice in his head stopped for a moment before continuing, "this beast must be from a middle plane. Even in the worst case, it is from a high-grade lower plane"

Mraz's confirmation stunned Aiden. Aiden knew it was impossible for that place to be Planet Will. Mraz called Earth a primitive plane but compared to it Planet Will would be considered as something below a primitive plane, yet this beast… 'could it be that they want to send me back to Earth?'

In this private domain, he didn't dare to consult with Mraz and decided to leave. 'Let's talk to Lucas first.' After making his mind, Aiden left the domain and connected to the address given by Owen.