Chapter 950: Alternate Timeline: The gentleman in another jeopardy?

The Chimera SMG project had consumed much of the beginner package resources provided by the system.

Until Malric returned with news about new material suppliers, all these designs would remain sleeping dragons on parchment.

She stored the blueprints in her inventory and stretched out on the bed.

Mental exhaustion overtook her swiftly, and sleep came like a curtain falling.

When Kiara awoke, the room was bathed in the warm amber glow of sunset. The clock showed six in the evening.

She opened the store as usual.

Customers were scarce.

With nothing else demanding her attention, she sat behind the counter and continued producing 9mm bullets one by one.

Each creation required a small act of focus.

Each success added one more round to her growing stockpile.

At 7:35 PM, a young couple entered.

They purchased a single-shot pistol and ten bullets, thanked her nervously, and left.

As the door closed, Kiara found her thoughts drifting back to Arceus. She remembered the day he had first entered the store, which more or less started her journey to success.

A faint smile touched her lips.

"I wonder if Wester Silver has forgiven him."

She rested her chin on one hand.

"He is his only son, after all. If he does not open his arms now, he may spend the rest of his life regretting it."

Another thirty minutes passed.

No one entered.

The silence deepened.

Kiara finally closed the store.

Dinner came and went.

Sleep did not.

So she returned to her room and resumed manufacturing bullets.

The hours slipped by.

The moon climbed higher.

Her fingers moved almost automatically.

Create.

Create.

Create.

Create.

The repetitive motion became a strange kind of meditation.

Then, at midnight, the familiar sound rang out.

[You created a 9mm bullet.]

By then, she had clicked over two thousand five hundred times.

Her arms ached.

Her shoulders burned.

Even her wrists throbbed with dull pain.

She collapsed onto the bed and shut her eyes.

At that precise moment, another chime shattered the darkness.

[You received an Emergency Quest, Save Arceus Silver.]

Kiara’s eyes snapped open at once. She sat up so fast that the mattress groaned beneath her.

"Arceus?"

A cold weight settled in her stomach.

She opened the quest window.

Quest: Save Arceus Silver

Description: The elders of House Silver are dissatisfied with Arceus Silver’s return. They plan to kill him and disguise the incident as a suicide. Save him and take him under your protection.

Reward: Arceus Silver affinity level +3

[Accept?]

For a heartbeat, Kiara did not move. Then her expression hardened like steel plunged into ice water.

"Killing him?"

Her voice was low and dangerous.

She did not question the reward.

She did not wonder why the system was intervening.

She did not even care what benefits this quest might bring.

Only one thought remained.

Save him.

She pressed Accept without hesitation.

[Do you wish to be teleported to the quest location right away?]

"Yes."

[You can only bring either Noah or Zion with you. Choose the Android.]

Normally, she would weigh the options that suited her more for this mission.

But tonight, she didn’t. She chose the first person that came to her mind.

"Zion."

[You will be teleported to the location in 3, 2, 1...]

Kiara and Zion vanished from their respective rooms at the same instant, as though the world had folded like a scroll and carried them through its hidden seams, and when the darkness peeled away a heartbeat later, they found themselves standing upon the edge of a steep cliff.

The sudden change in terrain made Kiara’s body react before her thoughts could catch up.

Her right foot slid half a step forward, loose pebbles skittered over the edge, and for a terrifying moment, she heard the faint rattle of stones bouncing into the abyss below, each sound growing softer and softer until it was swallowed by the distant forest.

A cold gust rushed upward from the valley, carrying the scent of pine, damp earth, and raw stone.

Kiara instinctively drew back. Zion grabbed her.

"Big Sister, are you alright? What’s happening?"

Meanwhile, Kiara’s gaze was ahead, on the three men. She didn’t answer to Zion.

Two of them were large, broad-shouldered guards gripping Arceus Silver by the arms so tightly that his body hung between them like a prisoner already resigned to his fate.

The third, an elder walking ahead with measured steps, led them toward the cliff’s edge.

Arceus did not struggle.

His shoulders sagged.

His face, pale beneath the moonlight, held the hollow stillness of someone whose heart had been broken before his body was touched.

It was the expression of a candle after the flame had gone out.

Then the elder stopped.

He turned.

His eyes widened. The composure on his face shattered as if struck by an invisible hammer.

"You!"

The word tore out of him like a cry from a man who had seen a ghost.

"What are you doing here?"

Kiara began walking toward them, her boots scraping against the stone, her face colder than the moonlight bathing the cliff.

Zion followed one step behind, silent and steady as an executioner carrying out a sentence already written.

"I knew it," Kiara said, her voice low and sharp, each word cutting through the night. "A noble’s promise is like frost on grass. It glitters beautifully under the moon, but the moment the sun rises, it disappears."

Her eyes narrowed.

"You do not deserve to live."

She raised her hand. "Lightning Clone, activate."

Crackling energy erupted before her. Blue-white sparks leapt across the air, weaving themselves into the shape of a humanoid figure.

The clone stood in complete silence, electricity dancing over its body like restless serpents.

Kiara did not even glance at it or at Zion, who was standing a step behind her.

"Kill them."

Only then did Arceus truly focus on the newcomer. The familiar voice reached him before his mind accepted what his eyes were seeing.

His deadened gaze trembled. His lips parted to speak of the name. "Kiara...?"

The elder’s face twisted. He hurriedly reached into his storage ring and drew out a sword sheath.

But his movements were too slow.

Compared to lightning, human hands were no more than drifting leaves.

The clone vanished in a burst of electric light.

A thunderclap split the silence.

Before the elder could draw his blade, the clone’s hand pierced through his chest.

*Ugh*

The sound was wet and brutal.

The old man’s eyes bulged in disbelief.

For one suspended heartbeat, he looked down as if his mind refused to understand what his body was telling him. Then the clone withdrew its arm and the elder collapsed lifelessly onto the stone.

The two guards froze.

Fear washed across their faces like ink spilling across parchment.

Their fingers loosened, and Arceus dropped to his knees.

The guards turned and ran.

But running from lightning was like trying to outrun the dawn.

The clone blurred again. Two sharp impacts echoed through the night.

Both men crumpled before they had taken more than a few steps.

Silence returned to the cliff. Only the wind remained, whispering through the trees below.

Kiara did not spare the dead another glance. Her entire attention was fixed on Arceus.

He sat on the cold ground where he had fallen, shoulders shaking, his hands limp at his sides as if even lifting them had become too great a burden.

Kiara approached slowly. When she reached him, he raised his head.

Moonlight revealed the tears glistening in his eyes.

His voice broke as he whispered one trembling word. "How?"

Kiara crouched before him and extended her hand. Her tone softened as she replied, "I was afraid something like this might happen, so I asked Noah to leave a tracking mark on you."

It was a lie, but a gentle one, laid over the truth like a blanket over a wounded body.

Arceus stared at her hand for a long moment and then at Zion before lowering his gaze again.

"Thank you."

He did not take her hand.

Instead, he looked at the stones beneath him as tears slid down his cheeks.

"Perhaps," he said in a hollow voice, "it would have been better if you had arrived too late. Then all of this pain would have ended."

Those words struck Kiara harder than any weapon. She knelt fully, bringing herself to his eye level. "What happened?"