Free Web NovelChapter 24: Ch 24: Reunion, Re-dive
Yes, it was the exact person Raidan had been searching for: his uncle.
But apparently, he was currently in some kind of trouble with a group of thugs.
He was being shoved away from his own tent.
Anger rose through Raidan’s veins.
Immediately, he stepped directly into the middle of the confrontation. With his back facing Michael, his uncle was unable to see his face or recognize him.
"Now, who the hell are you, kid? Wanna mess around?" the burly, bald man cackled, a sharp knife gleaming in his hand.
Raidan moved. No, his hand moved.
Paah!
He slapped the man so hard and loud that the impact rang out like a gunshot.
The thug leader’s cheek deformed under the sheer force, blood spurting from his nose.
In the blink of an eye, his face deformed and turned as red as a pig’s liver.
The two underlings were stunned. Michael was stunned.
"Y-You... How dare you hit our boss?" one of the underlings stammered, pointing his finger at Raidan.
Crack!
Raidan grabbed the finger and twisted it as if it were a fragile twig.
"Ahhh!" the underling howled in pain.
The second underling charged like a bull, wanting to tackle Raidan to the ground under his huge body.
Raidan remained nonchalant. To his enhanced vision, ordinary people’s movements were incredibly slow.
So, Raidan merely twisted his body a little and dodged the bull charge.
Next, he delivered a ruthless downward elbow straight into the man’s midback.
Bang!
The second underling fell face-first into the dirt, completely unconscious.
"....."
A pin-drop silence ensued, while the leader’s eyes widened in horror.
He quickly realized that this was no ordinary boy at all. He was a superhuman. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
He frantically bobbed his head up and down.
"Forgive me! Forgive me! I didn’t know this loser of a man would have someone as strong as you backing him!"
Michael scowled. "Hey, who are you calling a loser? I am a lawyer, mind you."
Nevertheless, he turned his attention to the superhuman who had just saved the day.
"Anyway, thank you, sir. I owe you a big one," he said sincerely.
Just then, Raidan turned around.
And upon seeing Raidan’s face, Michael’s chubby face filled with absolute shock.
"R-Raidan? Is that really you?"
His uncle sounded like a man who had seen a ghost.
"Yes, uncle. It is me." Raidan smirked.
Michael’s knees nearly gave away. The last time he had seen Raidan when the apocalypse began and he went out of the cafe.
Nonetheless, he grabbed a tent pole to steady himself, though his eyes welled up with unshed tears.
"My boy... I thought you were gone. I thought—"
Raidan chuckled,
"Thankfully, I’m alive, Uncle Michael. And I’ve been looking for you all this while."
Raidan didn’t want to reveal that he had spent over a week in a foreign world.
It wasn’t because he didn’t trust the man, but because he wanted Michael to be safe and sound. He shouldn’t get entangled in the dangers surrounding Raidan.
Still, his uncle sensed something in his mysterious gaze.
Michael suddenly hugged his nephew and asked in a fearful tone:
"Do you know something, Rai? Just what is happening to the world? Why are we being treated like rats in a cage?"
"I also don’t know that much, Uncle. All I can say is that we have to prepare for the worst," he replied.
Michael was a lawyer and keenly perceptive. He knew his nephew was hiding something. After all, he had seen Raidan disappear when he touched that golden crystal.
And after that, Raidan had returned exponentially stronger and braver.
He was like an entirely different person.
"Anyway, you should come and live in my tent, Uncle. I’ll protect you."
Michael snorted. "Save those cheesy lines for your future girlfriends, boy. You’re making me blush."
Afterward, the duo walked over and settled into the tent Raidan had been assigned to.
"Wow, you’ve been given quite a lot of space, Rai. Mine was much smaller. Did you charm one of those female officers to get this?"
"You know me, Uncle. So stop teasing me."
While joking and bickering with each other, they didn’t even realize how quickly night had fallen.
Raidan was truly happy for the first time in a long while.
But happiness isn’t given freely. It needs to be earned.
So, while Michael was snoring peacefully under the quilt, Raidan mentally clicked, "Log In."
Within moments, he was staring at the familiar setting of Solaire’s Inn.
He was still sitting on the chair where he had eaten his last hearty meal.
As he looked around, he noticed the room was completely dark, save for a ray of morning sun filtering through the faulty door.
When he was forced to log out, it was nearly evening. Currently, it was daytime.
That would mean time flowed oppositely between Earth and the First Olympus.
Night on Earth was day on Olympus.
Engraving this critical information into his mind, Raidan began to look for a way out. It seemed the door was locked from the outside.
If he forcefully tried to open it, he might be suspected of theft or robbery.
Click!
Just as he started looking around, the sudden click of a lock disengaging echoed inside the room.
"Fu*ck!" Raidan cursed his bad luck.
He immediately hid behind an unwashed curtain by the wall, waiting for a chance to escape.
But the next thing he saw made his blood freeze.
He saw several men in sharp crimson attire entering the room.
However, none of them resembled the chef or the owner of the inn he had seen earlier.
When his gaze dropped lower, true cruelty was unveiled before his eyes.
He saw the face of the young boy who had served him and smiled so happily after receiving a tip.
Currently, he was being dragged inside like a dead dog.
What was truly horrific was that his upper skull had been cut open, blood and brain matter staining the wooden floor.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Raidan’s heart started beating uncontrollably.
Not from fear, but from disbelief.
