Chapter 105: A Way Back

MIDWORLD

The city was still on high alert, everyone searching for the twenty-one-year-old boy they now believed was an enemy of Midworld.

And in the darkest parts of the city, that was exactly where Jamie was walking.

Any place like that made him nearly impossible for the search teams to track down. Especially now that he was hiding his magical energy just like he did back then when he was with Kasa and Sandra, searching for the Genki that had been kidnapping kids.

From where he was, the Grid Lions HQ was only a few streets away.

But at that moment, it wasn’t his immediate destination like he had told the shop owner’s family.

It was still his destination.

Just not the first one.

Before that, he was heading to the black market of Midworld to find an engineer—someone capable enough to modify the device he had used in the fight against Captain Ron.

That device had swallowed his chains into a distant dimension even if it was originally designed to send fighters into a different dimension were they could fight without causing damage.

Now he wanted it changed into something else entirely.

Something that could send him to another dimension.

If not Earth… then somewhere else.

Anywhere that would take him far away from Midworld.

That was the exact reason he hadn’t told the family the truth. If he had, they would’ve only blamed themselves even more and thought they were the reason he had ended up stranded in Midworld in the first place since he gave them the device he wanted to use to go back to ASTRO.

After a few more minutes of walking, Jamie finally arrived at the black market.

It was an underground town packed with some of the wildest items and shadiest deals you could ever find on any planet.

And thanks to the system he had used earlier to jam the entire Midworld media network, he had managed to identify several hidden locations he never knew existed before.

The black market was one of them.

[Transaction successful -20 Midbucks]

He bought a large red scarf from an old granny near the entrance leading down into the massive underground gate of the black market area. Swiftly, he tied it around the lower half of his face, keeping his identity hidden.

Inside the black market, there were no clan members actively searching for Jamie.

It wasn’t because they didn’t want to.

And it definitely wasn’t because they couldn’t.

It was because the black market was packed with some of the biggest scammers and most money-hungry snakes in Midworld. The kind of people who would sell out their own shadow for enough cash. If even one person thought they recognized Jamie, word would spread instantly.

So the officials had already ticked the black market off as a green zone.

A place too dangerous to search carelessly.

Swing!!

Jamie pushed open the door to a wooden-built shop with the words:

GARY’S FIXES

written above it.

Exactly what he had been hoping to find all along.

He stepped inside and found himself in a large building that looked way emptier than expected. There were only two metal waiting chairs inside, the kind you’d usually find at an airport.

The bulb lighting the room kept flickering on and off.

Not enough to plunge the place into darkness.

Just enough to give it that unsettling, gloomy feeling.

You would expect the owner of the shop being an engineer to fix it but somehow that was not the case in this situation.

Like some villain hideout straight out of a cheap movie.

At the far end of the room was another door, tightly shut.

Probably where the owner was.

That’s a black market shop for you. Exactly like the movies.

Jamie didn’t let the weird atmosphere get to him, so he started walking around the place.

“Hallo.”

He called out, trying to signal to whoever owned the shop that a customer had arrived.

But after a few moments, no one came.

“Hallo.”

He called again.

Still nothing.

It was starting to feel like everything he was doing was pointless, but deep down, Jamie could already tell the engineer was somewhere nearby.

Watching.

Listening.

Just refusing to show themselves.

And honestly, who could blame them?

This was the black market.

Trust wasn’t something people handed out here for free.

And a guy wearing a scarf over his face wasn’t exactly the kind of customer you’d rush to greet with a smile either.

This is going to take time. Might as well wait.

Jamie sat down on one of the chairs, looking mildly irritated by the strange vibe hanging around the room.

Then after about twenty minutes of waiting, he suddenly felt it.

A presence behind him.

Jamie could sense it immediately—the shadow of bloodlust hovering right over his back. Whoever it was had something metallic in their hand, and judging by the slight tightening of their muscles, they were getting ready to attack.

Now I get it… all this while they were waiting for me to lower my guard. I shouldn’t react yet. I should wait and see what they do.

He stayed still, pretending he hadn’t sensed a thing, allowing the stranger to move even closer.

Every passing second, the person crept forward with slow, careful steps.

Even their breathing was controlled.

Tight.

Silent.

Like someone highly experienced.

That alone showed just how dangerous people in the black market could be.

Jamie kept playing along until—

Grab!!

He spun around in a blink and caught the attacker’s wrist just before the metal bar could come crashing down onto him.

His grip tightened instantly.

The two of them locked eyes at close range, their faces only inches apart.

But then something happened Jamie absolutely wasn’t expecting.

The engineer…

was a woman.

And he had just grabbed her wrist like some creep in a drama scene.

Jamie’s face flushed immediately, shock and awkwardness crashing into each other so hard his arm reacted before his brain did. He instantly let go of her wrist like it had burned him.

“Ah—I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

He was quick to speak first, scrambling to defend himself before she could get the wrong idea.

The engineer pressed both hands against her waist and shook her head while looking at Jamie like he was somehow the criminal here, completely ignoring the fact that seconds ago she had been trying to cave in his skull with a metal bar.

“That’s not a valid point. You just wanted to touch me.”

“I saw Gary’s Fixes on the shop title, so I assumed it was a man.”

“My name is Gary. And you’ll pay me cash for holding me.”

“Nuh. It’s not like I slept with you or something.”

Jamie shut that down immediately, without giving her argument any room to breathe.

Her point simply wasn’t strong enough to force money out of him.

If he had grabbed her breast or something, maybe that would’ve been a whole different issue.

But a wrist?

That was something one normal conversation should solve.

She clicked her tongue, then threw the metal bar to the floor.

Clang!!

The sound rang all across the room as the metal hit the tiles, the emptiness of the shop amplifying it even more.

“Alright. Tell me what you want.”

She walked from behind the chair and stopped in front of him.

Jamie stretched out his hand.

And in it, a miniature remote materialized.

It was the exact same device he had used during the battle against Captain Ron.

“This device was originally made to be used only twice,” Jamie explained. “The first use was to open the dimensional gate and enter. The second use was to bring the user back out.”

He paused for a second, then lifted the remote a little higher.

“I already used the first function. What’s left is the return round. So I want you to reprogram that last activation. Instead of bringing me back, I want it to send me somewhere else.”

The engineer narrowed her eyes slightly.

Jamie continued.

“And I want it to send me to any dimension close to Earth. Or at the very least, somewhere outside Midworld.”

The engineer stared at him with growing curiosity.

The scarf over his face made it hard for her to get a full read on him, but from the request alone, she was already starting to piece things together.

One plus one.

Then two plus two.

And just like that, she had likely figured out exactly who he was.

“Wooh. That’s a huge order,” she said, folding her arms. “It’s gonna cost you.”

“Money isn’t a problem.”

Jamie answered without hesitation.

The engineer blinked once, clearly thinking over the offer that had just landed in her lap.

Then after scratching the back of her head for a few seconds, she finally reached out and took the device from Jamie’s hand.

“Alright. Just wait ten minutes. I’ll tell you the full price after I inspect it.”

She turned around and walked toward the shut door at the far end of the room, casually waving the device in her hand like some prized possession as she disappeared behind it.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep