New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1075: "It Was Aliens!"



Twenty minutes crawled by, with everyone tense about waiting in such an exposed area. Occasionally, a person from each SUV left the vehicle, heading to the belvedere or the shop nearby to make it seem like they were just resting.

Their acting skills were not all Oscar-worthy, and people seemed to find it strange that it was never the same person coming out of those SUVS but did nothing of it.

Such large vehicles were bound to have many passengers, right?

It wasn't until they reached the half-hour mark that things changed.

Violette's head suddenly spun in the direction they had come from, and she stared at the woods next to the road.

She had just felt a mana spike there, but she couldn't see anything.

A second mana spike flashed, and she responded with one of her own.

Those close to her felt it and turned to look at her.

"What are you doing?"

Violette's smile widened as the mana in the woods spiked twice.

"I think they are here. I can feel a mana presence in the woods ahead. But I don't know how they will make it to us without getting noticed," she said, her little smile changing to a frown.

Meanwhile, in those woods, Alex grinned, as he had finally caught up with the rest of the convoy.

"You can let me down now," Kary said, tapping him on the shoulder.

Reverting the meld, Alexander untied the belt around his torso to free Kary's legs and let her down gently, holding her shoulder so she wouldn't lose balance.

They had been flying through the woods at incredible speeds for over twenty minutes, and he could tell Kary's legs had practically fallen asleep, just by how they barely squeezed him anymore.

She stretched her legs a few times, leaning in on Alex's arm, making sure blood flowed properly through her extremities, and once she felt stable, she brushed off her clothes from the dirt and leaf pieces.

"Now we just need to figure out a way to reach them without getting caught," she said, peeking out of the foliage hiding them.

But Alexander wasn't in the mood to wait for her to plan a safe way. They had already lost enough time.

"We don't have time for safety. I'll make sure no one sees us," he said, closing his eyes. Kary turned to face him, ready to tell him off, but before the words could escape her lips, a wave of mana crashed into her, making her feel nauseated.

"What are you doing?" she asked, putting her hand to her stomach, trying to keep it from churning out whatever food was left inside it.

Alex grinned as the mana pressure he was exuding expanded and strengthened.

"Knocking everyone out," he replied, pushing his mana pressure as far as he could.

It wasn't much, but it covered the entire rest area, and people started dropping like flies. The people in the SUVS looked green from sickness, aside from David and Violette, who were a little more resistant to this kind of pressure, and two of Kujaku's men even fainted outright.

"This fucking guy," David said, clicking his tongue annoyedly.

Pained moans and sickly grunts briefly echoed across the rest area before it went deadly quiet.

That's when Alex released his mana pressure, walking out of the brush.

"You coming or what?" he asked Kary, looking back at her with his dumb grin.

Kary felt the unease in her stomach vanish with the pressure, and she growled at him.

"This is your idea of not getting caught? What if the area has cameras and still sees us moving about after everyone suddenly collapsed?"

Alex chuckled.

"I doubt there are cameras here. Kujaku wouldn't have parked in a place with so many digital eyes. Especially not after knowing who was chasing her. Right?"

He was only half sure of his comment, of course, as China was reputed for having CCTV on every corner, assuring safety to all its residents. But he really doubted Kujaku would have picked a spot to wait with anything close to heavy security.

He had a feeling she was of the paranoiac type and wouldn't stop to wait where so many eyes could see her. It was already odd that she had picked a tourist spot like this one, with so many people enjoying their time there.

'Maybe she picked this spot so people wouldn't try attacking them, collateral damage bringing too much attention and all,' he mused.

Kary walked past him, punching him on the shoulder, and made her way to the car she could feel Violette's presence in.

"If anything happens, I'm blaming you. And these people had better all still be alive. If anyone died because of your stupid stunt, I'll make sure to burn you enough that it never fully heals," she growled."

Alex gulped at the threat. He didn't know if that was even possible with his unnatural healing, but he would rather not try it.

Using his divine side, he scanned everyone that had dropped, making sure their souls were intact, and he sighed in relief when all of them were accounted for.

'Better safe than sorry,' he told himself, resuming his walk toward the SUV Kary had already reached.

Once they were both seated inside it, Alex saw the glare Kujaku was throwing him.

"That was so incredibly stupid. I regret taking this job already," she spat, her glare unabating.

Alex shrugged in response.

"It was the quickest way. We're here, aren't we?"

Kujaku looked at him with disdain, seeing Kary roll her eyes as well, and scoffed.

"It's a wonder how she tolerated you for so long. Is he always this stupid?" she asked, looking

at Kary.

"You don't know the start of it," Kary replied, sounding tired.

"Hey!" Alex exclaimed, his feelings hurt.

"You knocked out our driver, you idiot," Kujaku growled, focusing back on him.

"I did?"

Leaning forward to look at the woman in the driver's seat, Sakura, Alex saw her glazed-over

gaze and the bile running down the side of her mouth.

"Shit... Oops?" he said, sitting back down and making an apologetic smile.

"Fucking idiot..." Kujaku whispered as she leaned toward Sakura.

She gave the woman a few light slaps on her cheeks, but it did nothing to her semi-vegetative

state, so she sighed loudly.

"Fine... I'll drive," she groaned, pulling the woman toward herself.

In an elaborate series of pulls, twists and pushes, she managed to swap places with the unconscious woman and started the vehicle.

Flashing the headlights twice, then once, then twice again, she waited a moment, and nodded

to herself when the two other vehicles started their engines.

"Let's get out of here before people come back to and wonder what happened," she groaned,

glaring at Alexander in the rearview mirror.

Kujaku turned her gaze to Kary, and she looked at her curiously.

"Why do you even stay with that dolt?"

Kary took a second to think before responding with a shrug.

"He's strong, reliable when needed, and he's loaded, I guess?"

Kujaku's eyebrow cocked upward, wondering if that was it.

"Oh! And he has a big d-

"AaaAAHHH!" Alex shouted, covering Violette's ears.

"They don't need to know any of that!" he snapped, looking at Kary desperately.

She chuckled at his reaction, winked at Kujaku, who had already grasped what she was aboutn/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

to say, chuckling to herself as well, and shut her mouth.

"I think that sums it up pretty nicely," she added, before looking out her window like nothing

happened.

Up front, Kujaku shook her head again.

'I guess she isn't as innocent as she looks. No wonder she picked a man like him, then. He's

stupid enough to be easy to manipulate, but strong enough to defend her if needed. If he's good in the sack, too, it's not an overall bad apple.'

Alex could almost hear the derisive thoughts going through the Japanese woman's head, and wanted to throw himself out of the now-rolling car.

But he knew it was pointless. It would only hurt him temporarily and wouldn't fix the issue.

'Why do I surround myself with scornful women? All I ever get are derisive looks and mocking smiles. Do I have a type?' he wondered, shivering at the thought.

The three vehicles left the rest area, and it took around five minutes before anyone there started waking from the forceful pressure that had knocked them out cold. Confusion echoed across the rest area, as people started asking each other questions, wondering if anyone knew what had happened. But their queries returned without result, as no one knew what had happened.

It only took moments before a man started patting himself down, ensuring he was still in one

piece.

"I think aliens abducted us!" he cried out, finding no logical explanation for their lapse in

memories.

Everyone looked at him weirdly, as if he had lost his mind. Even if there was no logical answer to be found yet, it was a bit of a stretch to scream out about aliens like that. People looked at the man with worried looks, calling the cops to the scene, but there would be

no answer to be found about this mass fainting incident. It would remain a mystery for years

to come.

As this all happened, the three vehicles containing the culprit to this incident were already well on their way north, their destination already still over half a day away from them. This already long trip had been stretched by hours they didn't have, and everyone's worry about Gu Fang only grew. Would this incident make their trip end up in vain?

Would they get there only to find Gu Fang dead and discarded?

They could only hope this wasn't the case...