Chapter 335: Earth

Leon blinked in surprise. "...What?"

He definitely hadn’t sensed something like that.

"My mana recovery is slower. Even with the necklace," Selene said, frowning.

Leon’s eyes cleared with realization. "The world is going to die soon, huh...?"

Hearing his muttering, Selene turned to him. "Wait. Could it be because of the Heart?"

Leon nodded, his expression indifferent. "Yeah. Since I already destroyed it, the world will die."

She studied his expression for a while, then muttered. "We need to find Earth’s Heart and protect it from alien psychopaths like you."

Leon laughed lightly. "Hey, that’s some serious accusation."

Glancing at where she sat, he cleared his throat. "Besides, you should stand up, for real. Unless you want to experience the rising of a soaring dragon."

Selene scowled and immediately stood up, intentionally digging her foot into his belly. Leon grunted and pushed himself back up. He turned to the cat that had been staring at them intensely, then said in a serious voice.

"You didn’t see anything. Okay?"

Rune bobbed its head, nodding. Leon’s eyes widened at the gesture. "You can understand me?"

It tilted its head, staring at him in confusion.

Feeling suspicious, he grabbed and lifted it into the air.

"Hey. You aren’t some old pervert reincarnated into a cat, right?"

Selene snatched the cat from him, shooting him a glare as she held it close.

"What nonsense are you saying? Don’t harass Rune."

Leon rolled his eyes and dusted his clothes. "Anyway, I should eat too. When should we leave?"

Selene hesitated, watching as he poured some food for himself.

"Have you checked the Dome for any valuable items?"

Leon took out a Mana Fruit from his storage ring and tossed it to her. "I managed to scavenge two of those. I already ate mine, but it barely added 10 to all my stats."

Rolling the fruit in her hand, Selene created a ball of water and washed the fruit with it. Then, she chewed on it.

"Well, any boost we can find is good." She finished it, then asked, "What about their palace or something? Army area?"

Nothing worth taking," He replied, already eating. "They already ransacked the whole place. I should have just stormed the treasury immediately, but I was waiting for the chaos to cool."

"Oh." Selene’s lips parted. "I didn’t know they’d do something like that."

"Exactly my thoughts," Leon nodded. "So... when are we leaving?"

Selene didn’t answer that immediately. Instead, she asked, "Can we come back later?"

Leon shook his head. "Probably not. This isn’t a game where we can save our progress and come back whenever we want."

She frowned a little. "Hm. Then, let’s wait for a few more days. We should try our best to hunt for soul crystals and level up. I hope to reach Level 75 before we leave."

She paused, then continued. "I also want to see if we can find any Star Wheel."

Leon hummed as he swallowed. "That’s true. But I doubt there’s any. They must have used them all up. Also, we need to be careful. That Tier Four Serpent isn’t dead yet. And it probably wants to kill me."

Selene sneered. "Who’s fault is that? Tsk."

Leon chuckled, but didn’t comment on that. He simply focused on his food and said,

"A few days, then."

...

EARTH

A few days after Leon and Selene’s mysterious, yet expected departure, Gwen received news from Marie that another Brooklyn camp was trying to initiate contact with them.

At first, they had allowed it, but once Eternal Night City’s stance became known, the camp quickly withdrew.

After all, no one wanted to offend the government who had several missiles with them.

Gwen had initially dismissed this as something small, and indeed, it had been something small. At least, until that camp suddenly started attacking the Eternal Night City.

It wasn’t a full-blown attack, but a war of attrition that consisted of sneaky attacks and traps. Swampy had been seriously injured after mistakenly triggering a pile of mines while hunting in the Mutated Forest.

Naturally, humans were the only ones who could set up such a trap so they immediately knew the culprits.

’These bastards!’

Gwen had been livid, as the reports were anything but encouraging. At some point, Marie stopped telling her anything, merely saying that she’d handle it with a goofy grin emoji.

The blindfolded lady was in a bind. She wanted to take the others with her and go support the city, but they couldn’t leave. Leon and Selene still hadn’t returned yet, and they didn’t know if they were going to appear in Bayonne or not.

"Ugh..."

Grunting, she locked her phone and flopped onto the bed, her arms spread wide. That wasn’t her only problem, though.

There was her loving grandfather too...

’God, too much to think about.’

Covering her blindfolded eyes with her hand, she released a sigh.

"I wanna go back to being a student..."

After a few minutes of rolling around on the bed, she stood up and went outside. They were still living in Mark’s mansion, and everyone had gotten used to their new abode.

It was already over a month since they had been here, after all.

Heading downstairs, she found Reymond and Miguel playing chess with bored expressions. Fel sat some distance away, quietly watching them play.

Gwen approached them, lacking her usual smile. "Hey, Reymond, should we go back?"

The young man paused, glancing at her with a look that said they had already had this conversation several times.

Gwen sighed. "I know you want us to wait because of Selene. I also want us to wait because of the two of them, but we can’t let our city be left alone like this."

Reymond closed his eyes, running a hand through his hair. "Fine. Let’s say we decide to go back. Can we beat that thing on Staten Island?"

Gwen fell silent, then sighed. "When we get to the bridge, we’ll cross it."

Reymond’s lips twitched. Miguel glanced at Fel, then asked, "Where’s Cassie? I haven’t seen her recently."

"That’s because you’re always sleeping." Fel shot him a look. "And she’s simply holed up in her room. She’ll come out soon."

Miguel rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. Not until Boss is back."

Gwen interrupted them, her voice low and commanding.

"Start packing up. We leave tomorrow morning."