Loading Game

Chapter Forty Two

The elevator dinged, signaling that I had reached the second floor. The doors opened, and I stepped off of the contraption, hearing it close and slide to its next destination. I looped my earbuds and shoved them into my pocket hastily as I walked down the hall. Second floor, second door. It's weird to know that the owner and creator of a highly successful game would stand his office on the second floor. I would assume it'd be for easy access. The second door of the hall was easily spotted to my left, where at least four security guards stood like knights in a castle.

Without missing a beat, I stood in front of them, letting their cold eyes pick on me as my unamused gaze did the same. I pulled off my hood and shook my head, letting my hair loose.

"I'll say this once, knuckleheads," I told them, sneaking in the insult. My eyes glowered at them, and I spat harshly under my breath, "Get out of the fucking way."

"Excuse me, little girl?" One of them questioned in a low voice, stepping forward. I saw the haze of anger in his eyes. "You don't have an appointment here, so don't think you can curse at us like that, punk."

I gave him a smile, making him even angrier, and taunted, "I said I'd only say it once~..."

Immediately, the man was groaning on the floor, writhing in pain after a flash of green went by. The other men stared at him, appalled. "H-Hey!" The one next to him exclaimed. I turned to look up at him. He pulled away a little bit, shrinking. "Y-You need to get out of here.. before we get you out of here."

"Sorry," I apologized in an unapologetic way. My foot stepped on the guard's face, and he let out another scream. Deceiver. Once strong enough, you could make other people believe what they see or feel. I smiled wickedly as their gazes flickered between angered and terrified. "I suppose I forgot to mention that I have an appointment under the name Meredith Faun."

A third one that had remained silent up until now put two fingers to his temple, and I immediately knew what he was doing. Telepathy. For a moment or two, the other two were looking hopefully to see if I wasn't supposed to be here as one of them helped the first. The look of disappointment and shock that crossed the telepathic guard made me smile, and I could feel the tension dampen at the discovery.

"If you don't mind," I said, walking forward to the door, my hand in the knob. The guards immediately responded by backing away from me. "I'll be heading to my meeting, without any interruptions, I assume."

They didn't give me any sort of snarky retort, and I smiled as I walked into the office, closing the door.

The surroundings changed immensely through that one doorway. It was barely lit inside of the modern-appealing office, with the exception of the blue light coming from the windows behind the desk. Sitting at the desk, however, was the shadow of a man, though I was able to make out who he was because of my Deceiver attribute. Another perk of having a high level Deceiver attribute is because I can erase a few things to make it easier for me to see something. I'm not strong enough for emotions yet, but Leo said that's okay. With no one ever seeing William Kei in real life besides Leo, I felt a bit underwhelmed when I saw him.

A man in his early 50s sat at the desk, with white strands of hair growing from the roots, leaving only the tips a noticeable black. The opposite colors gave an appeal to the glowing yellow eyes he had, almost like pieces of gold nuggets had been chucked into his eye sockets. He had on some sort of fancy suit, as if expecting me, and the difference between our ages and clothes gave off an interesting atmosphere. The only thing we had in common, as far as I could tell, were the piercing eyes staring heavily at each other.

William Kei was the first one to break the ice.

"Come now, Meredith," he said, gesturing for me to sit in the chair opposite of him. I gave him a hostile glare, and he flashed a small smile. "No. It's not dangerous. I only taunted you with your alter ego's name to have a chance to talk to you."

"For the record," I said in a warning tone, sitting down in the chair, "No matter what you say, no matter how much you sweet-talk me, I'll fucking resist all and everything you do."

William Kei put his hands together, slightly upset by my words. "Is that how lowly you think of me, Meredith?" I glared at him, staying silent. It said all I needed to say. He let out a sigh, and I became suspicious of how oddly confident and calculated he was. He's acting as if I am any normal consumer of his. "It can't be helped. I did try to murder your parents."

Ah. There it is.

"What do you want?" I snapped, annoyed as I sat back in my chair with my arms crossed. "If you're wasting my time, I'll be leaving."

"What do I want?" He repeated, his eyes widened in mockery as he appeared startled. He leaned over with a smile, his hands clasped together. "Meredith, my question and answer for you is, what do you want?" I must have appeared puzzled to him, because he immediately added in, "Because after all you and your family have done to my plans of creating a better world—" He let out a short laugh, and a sarcastic glance was on me. "—it's funny how the heroism runs in the family, which is unfortunate for me."

"After all they've done, you mean, to make sure your suck ass doesn't rule the world like a hypocritical piece of shit?" I rephrased for him. The spark of hostility flashed in his yellow eyes, but it quickly disappeared, as if he was trying to resist being violent towards me. I let out a huff, saying, "The reason you shut down Parallel was because of the fact that you noticed how I was traveling through the parallel rifts, huh?"

He nodded.

"No wonder I noticed some similarities and consistencies," I said nonchalantly, giving him a sharp and taunting grin as I continued, "Both the Atlas Bomb and Parallel plans were noticeably flawed from the start."

The mood suddenly thickened when William Kei's eyes glowed intensely, as if the anger he was suppressing was too much to hold in anymore. "My plans were perfect," he snapped suddenly. I sat back slowly, letting him go off on a tangent. "They were calculated to be executed perfectly. The only imperfections were your parents, who butted in for no reason!" He exclaimed as his hands clenched each other tightly. I felt the yellow eyes on me. "I could kill you here and now, and no one would hear you scream. You better watch what you say about me and my beneficial plans for the world."

I smiled brightly at him, spitting out harshly, "I could say the same to you. You seem to forget a few important things about me, even though it's clear you've done your research." His eyes stopped glowing, and he became perplexed by my words.

"And what exactly would those be?" He asked calmly.

"I am the daughter of the two elite heroes who've stopped you once already," I responded coldly. His jaw clenched visibly at my words. "Like you said before, the heroism runs in the family, so I'm here before you. You've threatened to take their lives, and now you've threatened to take mine." I kicked my legs onto his desk, and he appeared almost offended by my sloppy manners, though I ignored his reaction. "But do you know what also runs in the family?"

He didn't say anything, but I knew he wanted to know the answer because of the look in his eyes.

I grinned wickedly at him with my eyes glowing brightly, and I put my hand up, letting it glow a blood red color. The Blood Assassin knife appeared in my hand after a sudden flash, and William Kei pushed away from me, his chair sliding across the floor as his eyes widened.

My hand clutched the still-bloody handle of the blade as I spat out the word, "Murder."