The fairy paused. She stared at Liam with her complete undivided attention, and something twinkled within the depth of her eyes. She let out a deep, raspy breath and, unexpectedly, started leaning forward.
She inched closer to Liam, holding her gaze, and covered the distance between them. She was once again so close to him that he could feel her cool breath mixed with her scent on his face.
To Liam's surprise, she then parted her lips and came further closer. Her cherry red lips glistened with an enchanting charm as she placed her mouth right on top of Liam's!
A soft, wet, flower petal-like sensation assaulted him. However, it was only for a brief moment. Just as he was about to react, the fairy quickly pulled back, her lips merely brushing past his.
"I am sorry, Mr Liam. As a store manager, I have to remain neutral towards all my customers, and I am afraid I am not allowed to participate in the events of your world."
She gave a charming wink and then stood up to walk back to her chair behind the desk, putting a distance between herself and him.
Liam's gaze turned cold. This was something he had already expected, but he had still hoped that he would be able to forge some sort of relationship with this fairy.
Instead, the other party only seemed to be interested in teasing him. If anything, she made that clear today.
Or perhaps his strength was just not enough to tempt her into forming any sort of relationship. Either way, this path was not going to get him too far at the moment.
Liam decided to leave this for later, maybe after he reached Level 100.
"Of course. I understand, Miss Tilia. I wouldn't want to force you to do anything that you are not comfortable with." He flashed a smile and stood up. "I will be taking my leave then. I have quite a few quests to hand over."
As if nothing had happened, Liam casually walked out of the manager's room and went over to the quest board section.
The fairy's eyes trailed behind him with an odd glint, but then she closed her eyes and remained silent as if she were contemplating something deeply.
Back inside the shop, Liam opened his quest interface and started submitting the few quests that he could. Even though the quests this time involved gathering materials from elite beasts, specifically portal bosses, the quest submission was still a merciless grind.
Liam did not observe any change in the quality or quantity of quest content, even after spending quite a bit of time on this. But that was fine. He was also prepared for this.
Given how dungeons are now so much more valuable, he had already made plans to search the entire country for the rest of the dungeons.
These were the most important resources at the moment. The two locations that he was most familiar with were not nearly enough. They needed to find more dungeon portals and take control of those territories as well.
After all, China is a vast country. There was no way that these were the only two dungeons in the vicinity.
Liam finished up the quest board business and then proceeded to walk out of the store. Several people waved at him and respectfully greeted him as he passed by.
Currently, the various customers littering the magic shop were all mostly Crimson Abyss guild members or wannabe guild members.
"If I want to expand the territory, then I might have to recruit more people." Liam made a mental note as he walked out. He returned to the hotel right after that, as he still had the rest of the day to burn.
And while he was waiting, there was something else that needed his attention. "It should happen anytime now," Liam murmured to himself as he went back to his room and looked outside the window.
Just so that he did not miss out on anything, he also unleashed his soul minion army to patrol the city. To see the seven hundred plus undead minions walking around the living was a terrifying sight.
Everyone would have started panicking and attacking these weird things or shitting their pants and locking their doors, except by now, news had already spread mostly through word of mouth.
Thanks to the popularity of 'Evolution Online', there was at least one person on the street who knew about the video game and the famous S-Rank guild Crimson Abyss.
Because of this, the line outside the hotel was getting longer every day, and everyone naturally assumed that these minions belonged to the guild in some way or another.
Moreover, the soul minions seemed harmless, as they did not pay any attention to anyone. They simply walked about minding their own business, so it was easier to get used to their presence.
There were also some who still dared to attack the undead, but most of them had by now leveled up a few times, thanks to the beast wave. These few attacks were insignificant in comparison to the beasts, which could flee much faster than the Level 0 humans.
This went on for some time until the long night ended, and a new day began. As the first rays of sunlight hit the city, Liam finally received the signal that he was waiting for.
"Let's go, Luna." He immediately summoned the fox, and the duo took off from the hotel, reaching their destination in just a few seconds.
Luna landed in front of a poorly constructed apartment building in what looked like a very congested area with several low-cost buildings squished together in the same neighborhood.
"So we start off in the slum area, huh?" Liam sighed with a chuckle.
This sort of thing was to be expected, as people who are already weak, malnourished, or sick from some ailment were the first to fall.
Their bodies were unable to withstand the new energy that they were not accustomed to, and therefore they have a higher chance of not being able to successfully adapt to mana.
This was precisely why Liam was here.
Mana zombies! The next threat that the apocalypse posed.
It was time these creatures started showing up one by one, and it looked like the first one was already here.
Rawwrrr! A loud, enraged sound echoed from within the small apartment as everyone poked their heads out from their small windows and small balconies in confusion and worry.
What was happening? Are there more beasts once again coming out?
Suddenly they found themselves looking for the creepy undead that had been patrolling their street just a couple of minutes ago.
However, to their dismay, neither the creepy undead nor the person to whom the creepy undead belonged was anywhere to be seen.
Liam did not plan on intervening just yet. He simply stood on the side and continued to observe the situation from the outside.
This meant that there could potentially be some casualties, as he did not exactly have X-ray eyes and couldn't prevent any mishaps from happening inside the apartment without being present there.
However, he still decided to do this because this was a very sensitive issue.
If Liam intervened and saved the people from the apartment building, then there were two ways things could play out.
He would either be praised to the high heavens and called a savior or be cursed and condemned to hell.
Most often, the affected person's family would reject their situation as reality and instead place the blame for their death squarely on the shoulders of the savior, claiming that this was an injustice committed by him.
He would be branded as a power-hungry psychopath out to mutilate everyone by the same people who begged him for help.
Liam had seen a lot of this happen in his last lifetime, and he wanted to avoid this sticky situation at all costs. So he took his time before going in.
Meanwhile, a thin young man who appeared to be in his late 20s or early 30s suddenly clutched his head and began yelling or, more accurately, roaring loudly in agony inside the small apartment.
Everyone in the surrounding houses could clearly hear this guttural shout.
But it did not stop there. The young man screamed in pain for a few seconds, after which he lifted his head up and looked at his wife near him with reddened eyes.
Something within him had cracked.
The woman could sense it. The person in front of her was her husband, but at the same time, he was no longer the same person whom she knew and was familiar with. Her gut instincts said so.
He was staring at her like a rabid animal was staring at her. She only felt fear, not even concern. It was just a human instinct.
"Arrrggghhh!" The woman screamed and banged open the door. She started madly shouting and running away.
The few people who had opened their doors to take a look at what was going on immediately became alert upon seeing this. Everyone quickly started closing their doors back up again and silently hid inside.
