Maya's hand was subconsciously raised on its own before she tucked the locks of her hair behind her ear. She was taken aback by Eren's ninja way of complimenting her.
There was some part of Maya that was pleased with Eren's compliment. She could only blame Sansara Sage's perfection in artificial intelligence for her self-appeasement.
However, she quickly decided to retaliate against her feelings by criticizing Eren while looking him in the eyes.
"Hehe. Are you trying to flirt with me?
You are a hundred years too young to do something like that, Eren."
Eren's trick worked. Maya's tension was diffused by his comment. The butcher chuckled before replying.
"Heh! As I promised, I would provide you with a variety of life experiences. This is part of my commitment to you.
Besides, age is just a number."
'Yeah… and prison is just a room,' said Alphee in Eren's head right away.
Eren had it with Alephee at this point.
'Alright. You certainly seem to have a bone to pick with me. You know what? Deep dive into that damn blood pool of yours and don't come out until you are completely healed.
And stop talking to Argo. That guy's a terrible influence on everyone.'
Saying this, Eren severed his mental connection with Alephee while the latter cackled in the background. He then looked at Maya with hopeful expectations only for him to receive a heads-up from her.
"Alright. Jokes aside. Your plan is worth a shot, Eren.
But it all depends on the assumption that you win my father's Legacy. There's no cooperation between us if you can't win.
And speaking of winning– here comes the guy who almost won the Legacy for himself."
Eren turned around to see that a spatial channel had appeared not too far away from him. A slightly exhausted man stepped out of the spatial channel.
***
Someone had finally found the array key.
This guy was looking over his shoulders. His wary eyes were trying to locate threats that he was yet to feel.
This participant needed to personally hand over the array key in his hand to Maya. Only then could he finally claim Sage Lehan's Legacy for himself.
This was none other than Gondel the geek– the metaphorical dark horse of the test Eren had bet on.
Gondel had worked hard to find the array key. He had made use of every bit of knowledge he had regarding the field of arrays to overcome countless obstacles.
Gondel was sure that nobody among the participants would be able to achieve what he did. Despite this, he felt that his efforts would be in vain. He could only curse at the way the whole test was structured.
Gondel's frustration wasn't baseless. His position appeared on the Sansara interface of other participants free of charge as soon as he laid his hands on the array key. The previously inactive mapping function suddenly became active, directing the rest of the participants toward Gondel.
Even the shadow creatures, who were easy to deal with for Gondel before finding the key, had suddenly gotten too aggressive with him. They attacked him in groups and his previous tricks weren't as useful as they were before.
At first, Gondel felt that he was completing the test in easy mode. But he soon found out that there was a nightmare mode that he would be forced to play in after he was this close to winning the whole thing.
Gondel prioritized escaping over engaging with anyone. He knew that engaging with shadow creatures was useless. And fighting approaching opponents would land him in even bigger trouble.
Thus, Gondel started using spatial channels to his advantage by summoning the array fabrics near them before interfering with their parameters.
Gondel wasn't that skilled at altering spatial runes. So he couldn't completely control the spatial channels' destinations. The most he could do was make sure he didn't get teleported outside of the city. So he started using random spatial channels to keep his enemies on the toe.
Gondel's live location was tracked by the Sansara interface. As a result, the participants knew exactly where he was at any given point. He constantly appeared and disappeared across the map, forcing the participants to change their routes to get to him.
Gondel also ran into a participant after using a spatial channel with a random destination. He had to run for his life and use various Trump cards he had to get rid of his pursuer.
In the end, he finally found a spatial channel he could use to teleport straight to the city square– the destination he wanted to travel to.
Gondel knew that time was of the essence. Other participants could use various Perks at their disposal to get to him if they found out that his location was unchanging for more than a few moments. Hence, he hurriedly approached the fountain in the city square, with a bit of excitement on his face.
Gondel was jubilant when he found out that Maya was still where he had last seen her. However, he was forced to stop in his tracks after finding out that there was another participant accompanying her.
***
"I can only hope you stick to our plan, Lady Maya."
Eren said to Maya while looking at Gondel from a distance. The butcher had a welcoming smile on his face as he looked at the geek. His back was facing Maya.
Maya chuckled before commenting.
"Don't worry. I have your back."
Eren gave a nod to Maya without turning around. He started walking towards Gondel the geek while staring at the array key in his hand.
"Gondel… Hahahaha… I finally found you."
A participant appeared at the scene out of the blue. The butcher wasn't surprised that someone had teleported directly into Gondel's vicinity using a Perk. He continued his stride toward Gondel without worrying about the incoming participants.
"Where… where the fuck is he?"
"Damn… this is the place from which we began the test. Don't tell me Gondel won."
"Hahaha. Wrong. That geek is right there. Look! He is holding the array disk as well. We arrived at the perfect time."
Two more participants appeared at the scene at the same time. In another second or two, four more participants appeared out of the blue. By the time Eren stopped in his tracks, all the participants had come to "greet" Gondel.
Eren opened his arms and spread them in a welcoming manner as soon as he found out that all the participants were present at the scene. He looked at the participants intently and smiled before activating his Ability.
"Mark of the Seven Sins: The Domain of Gluttony."
The butcher activated his Ability right away without further ado.
