The crowd gawked at Mr. Spicer with even more deference and respect, surprised. Feeling quite self-satisfied, he waved dismissively and said, “I was just doing my job. At my core, I’m no different from the rest of you.”Roxanne had been acquainted with Jack Spicer in passing, but he already proved to be the most socially-eminent of her associates. He was powerful, young, and single—all the good qualities every young lady desired from a man. She had been thinking about asking someone like him out for a long time now.Mr. Spicer’s sudden entrance momentarily detoured Zayn’s departure from the reunion, but it only took a minute or so for him to be back on his way. Roxanne noticed him leaving, and immediately called him out. “There, Mr. Spicer! That’s the prick who insulted me and took advantage of my womanhood! I can’t do anything to get back at him, and now he thinks he can just leave unpunished!” she bemoaned. “Please, Mr. Spicer! You can fix this, right? Please help me; it’s so unfai
Jack was so close to hitting Zayn that when the man yelled, he jolted into the air before snapping his head up to see who the intruder was.The man’s identity surprised him even more, causing him to blurt out, “C-Captain?! W-Why are you here?!”Jack was beyond shocked that his distant, high-and-mighty superior would appear in a reunion party hosted by and for ordinary people. This was the kind of top dog who was always busy with top national security and operations! Then, there was the fact that those who accompanied his superior were high-ranking officers as well. All of them were above him in authority!The first thing that leaped into Jack’s mind was: has something big happened?Were these high-ranking people here for him? Had all of his dirty little secrets been unearthed? That should not be possible. Even if his unsavory deeds had been exposed, there should not be this many superiors here to apprehend him. Those were follies and crimes, but they were not sins. Certainly not bi
Zayn already sensed all of their presence before they even showed their faces, so he was not at all surprised. The thing that did shock him, however, was the legend by the name of Ares.He had heard of Ares before—the military’s champion, Rheasia’s premier protector, and rightly the crème de la crème with peerless power and standing. If Zayn would hazard a guess, Ares must have already reached the legendary state of Invincibilis.Admittedly, Ares would have sent someone to him either way. It was either to capture him or to make his stance known.Zayn was not the kind to be oblivious to social finesse. Ares was a legend, a myth-like figure—if someone of his caliber showed Zayn this much respect, then it was only appropriate that he returned the same amount to Ares’s people.He flashed them a smile. “I would never reject an invitation from a living legend like Ares! I do have one problem, though. Mr. Spicer here had demanded that I not leave this premise. He even said he’s going to p
“What’s the matter? Doesn’t recognize me anymore?” Zayn asked with a smile while he and Kaiser left. He could not help but notice the nonplussed, shell shocked expression, as though Kaiser was doubting reality as a whole.Kaiser slowly but surely returned from his trance and gulped loudly. The way he looked at Zayn was that of a stranger who just knew him. “Okay. Who the hell are you?”Zayn was just too… strange to him. He was nothing like Kaiser remembered at all!Zayn chortled. “You know me, man. Zayn Larson, your classmate back in middle school.”“B-But… B-But but but!” Kaiser mustered a protest only to have his tongue tripped. His head was still in a mess because everything had been hard to take.“Okay, that’s enough. Go home for the night and take a good rest. I’ll see you again tomorrow, okay? Then I’ll tell you everything.”Kaiser’s lips parted to form some sort of reply. He had a million questions to ask him, but when he glanced at all of the bigshots surrounding him and
Zayn nodded and said with a smile, “Thank you very much, everyone.”“You’re welcome, Sergeant Larson but this is our duty,” said Bowen. He chatted with Zayn along the way and the more he talked to Zayn, the more pleasant he found Zayn to be. He noticed that Zayn was a matured young man and not a wisp of impulsiveness or arrogance in him. The courtyard before him was huge and it was over ten thousand square meters. It appeared to be aged and Zayn estimated it to be 50 years old at the very least. During his flight, Zayn could sense a powerful presence in Yando City but when he arrived here, he could not sense the presence anymore. In his perception, he could not detect the presence of an unbeatable fighter in the courtyard but only the presence of thirty master fighters. However, Zayn was certain that Ares was in there. This signified that Ares was way more powerful than him such that he could not detect Ares’ presence. It was the legendary unbeatable fighter. Zayn could not
He spoke in a manner that was neither haughty nor humble. He was not disturbed just because the people before him were Ares and Denali. Everything else aside, just his calmness had already earned Paxton and Antony’s admiration. Paxton raised his head to look at Zayn then he cracked a faint smile and said, “Are you any good with playing chess?”Zayn said, “A little.”Paxton said, “Shall we have a game?”Frankly, Zayn thought about all sorts of possibilities when he was coming here, including how Ares would display his power and even attack him in an attempt to soften him a little. However, he did not expect that Ares would treat him so courteously and leisurely. Even Denali was treating him politely as if he was just meeting an old friend. Zayn did not hesitate much. At this point, he was already capable of being calm and composed in all situations. He cracked a smile as well and said, “In view of your invitation, it’s better for me to comply, Ares.”Antony took the initiative t
A look of barely-discernible admiration flashed past Ares’ eyes when he noticed how quickly Zayn focused himself. He did not procrastinate anymore either but he immediately picked up a black chess piece to begin the game. Chess was not new to Zayn because he used to play it almost every day when he was young. He was very skilled at playing chess and his standard was already equivalent to a professional chess player. However, he stopped playing chess after he married into the Carter family and he would only play a few online chess games when he was free in the office of Violet Vision Media Corp at most. He noticed that the so-called grandmasters that he encountered online were only mediocre and they were utterly no match for him. He lost the interest to play anymore afterward. Hence, it had already been a very long time since he played. Generally, his chess skills would have certainly deteriorated over time but this was almost never an issue for him because he was a perfect-class
As time went on, the game between Zayn and Ares grew more and more intense. It had already reached its climax and everyone at the scene were skilled in playing chess so they could sense the intensity of the game naturally.Chess was considered one of the most famously difficult games in this world and players of different skill levels would differ very much from each other. On the other hand, even the current grandmaster in the world would feel inferior upon watching the game between Ares and Zayn now. Their minds’ critical thinking skill had even surpassed a computer to a certain extent. Another hour passed and Zayn could only feel that 90% of his physical strength was exhausted. He had no idea how much he sweated because it all evaporated from the high temperature of his skin. Even though Ares was not as fatigued as Zayn, he was not doing any better. He was sweating profusely and every move he made, he needed to contemplate for a long time. Ever since he became the unbeata