Chapter 51: Tough Situations

“Come in,” Director Grey called from inside his office, responding to the four knocks on his door. When he raised his head and saw the expression on Liam’s face, he said knowingly, “I take it you’ve seen the news.” It was as though he had been expecting this visit all morning.

“How do I get away from all of this?” Liam asked, clearly uncomfortable with the idea of being in the spotlight.

“Right now, you can’t,” Director Grey answered honestly. “This is pretty normal for Visors who pull off the kind of feats you do. The only problem is that it could get the wrong people looking in your direction.”

“This has to do with the name thing, doesn’t it?” Liam asked, already guessing the answer.

“Yes,” the Director confirmed. “Though I sent Kent out this morning. He’s making sure to clear any traces of your life from before you joined USOV.” He paused, then added, “Let’s hope that will be enough for now.”

Liam sighed, realizing there wasn’t much else he could do except accept that he was famous now, whether he liked it or not. The Director then decided to bring up another topic. “Regarding what Lucien told you the other day—”

But as soon as Grey was about to get into it, Liam interrupted him. “Director, you have to understand why I’m not really interested in being part of any of that,” Liam said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “These are gods we’re talking about here. For all we know, they might very well be our creators. The only reason I’ve been given is that one day they might change their minds and decide to kill us all. Do you see how little sense that makes?” His face showed complete disbelief at the situation he was being asked to consider.

Grey sighed heavily. “Well, I hope you make the right decision before it’s too late, Liam,” he said, continuing to sign off on the documents in front of him.

Liam realized their conversation was over and turned to leave. He headed back into the lobby, where he noticed the stares lingered longer than usual, but he paid them no mind. Instead, he walked straight to the cafeteria, hoping to at least start his day with some good coffee.

When he arrived at the cafeteria, he spotted the members of Team C sitting at their usual table and Sarah made it obvious she’d seen him by waving with a big grin on her face. Liam however, first approached the counter to order his coffee.

The woman behind the counter poured him a steaming cup, which he gratefully accepted. Cup in hand, he walked over to Team C’s table and took the fourth empty seat.

As soon as he sat down, Sarah began teasing him. “Now you really are a hotshot, my boy!” she joked, clearly referring to the social media situation that had dominated the morning.

Liam shook his head slightly and let out a brief sigh, while Elaine and Amir chuckled softly at Sarah’s remarks.

“Where’s Silas?” Liam asked, noticing he had taken what should have been their last team member’s seat.

“Kent dragged him out this morning,” Elaine replied. Liam immediately understood why, especially since the Director had mentioned sending Kent to eliminate traces of Liam’s past life where he was publicly known as Velmont.

It made perfect sense to bring Silas along, given that Silas used to manage a wrestling arena where the announcer had regularly introduced Liam into the boxing ring as “Liam Velmont.”

“Bet you didn’t see this coming,” Amir chimed in.

“Not in the slightest,” Liam replied. “Waking up to social media chaos was definitely not on my agenda for today.”

…

Meanwhile, across town, the sound of a key turning in a lock echoed through an empty hallway. A door opened, and Silas pushed it backward to reveal himself and Kent entering a dark office. Silas walked toward the light switch and flicked it on, illuminating what had once been his office at the Midnight Circuit.

He approached his now very dusty desk and bent down to pull out the bottom drawer, and from inside, Silas retrieved a flash drive, then stood up and handed it to Kent. “There you go,” he said. “The last live records of all the matches that happened in the arena.”

Kent took the flash drive and asked, “You’re sure this is everything?”

“Yes,” Silas confirmed. “Every other recording from before this, I handed over to the Director the day I got employed at USOV.”

Kent nodded, and they both left the office behind. The Midnight Circuit was now nothing more than an abandoned arena.

…

Far from the abandoned arena, on a long stretch of expressway, Lucien sat in the back seat of one of two black GMC SUVs. The other SUV rode ahead of his vehicle, leading their small convoy. They had just passed a green highway sign that read “Addison Village – 50KM” with an arrow pointing forward, indicating they still had about fifty kilometers to travel before reaching their destination.

After a full hour of driving, the convoy passed the “Welcome to Lenawee County” sign as they entered Addison Village.

From inside his vehicle, Lucien let out a heavy sigh, knowing the kind of headache he was about to face. A few minutes later, they turned onto a private driveway that led to a dark, imposing cathedral mansion.

The vehicles parked near the entrance, and the agents stepped out, including Lucien, who emerged from the back seat of his SUV.

Suddenly, a woman appeared at the mansion’s entrance doors. She had flowing black hair and wore a long black robe that swept across the floor as she moved. Most striking of all were her violet-glowing eyes, which seemed to pierce through the dim light, and without warning, violet energy encapsulated both vehicles, lifting them several meters above the heads of the startled agents. The woman stretched out her right hand, which was covered in the same violet energy that now held their means of transportation hostage.

The floating vehicles immediately sent the agents into a panic, frantically looking around as they tried to understand what had just happened.

The only exception was Lucien, who maintained a straight face while staring directly back at the woman he knew all too well.

“Now give me one good reason,” she said, her voice carrying unmistakable fury, “why I shouldn’t kill you and everyone else behind you.” The Black Witch Ophix asked, with fury in her eyes.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep