Several moments passed without a hint of the system. Caleb could feel the gazes of everyone nearby who heard him. He curled in on himself at the questioning looks he was getting. The fake people were probably thinking he had gone crazy. Hopefully, there was no one who recognized him nearby, or it was going to be awkward.[Has the user come to a decision?]The sight of the system was a relief. He had taken a gamble by calling for it, and he had thought he had failed when it didn't answer right away. However, before he could speak, he noticed something was off. Everything around him had become gray, like the last time he spoke with the system. That wasn't what caught his attention. The demons with him had also been frozen."Takisha? Mildred?" he said as he reached out to them.They didn't react, even
Caleb stared at the message blankly before saying, "Come again?"[If the user's soul was different, then the user could be sent back home with less difficulty.]"I wouldn't be here in the first place," he cut in brutually. "I remember quite clearly that I was told it was a mistake for me to be brought here."[Then the user will remember another detail that was explained to them for their current form.]His face scrunched up as he said, "Vaguely."[The user had to be turned into a demon rat because there was a copy of the same soul in the same world.]He immediately remembered, in detail, what the system was talking about. Caleb couldn't believe he had forgotten all about it. Apparently, one
Caleb flinched as he took a step back to get away from the angry vampire. Fortunately, the system chose to intervene, and a light surrounded the demons. This was enough to distract them, as they were focused on the strange phenomenon happening to them. Their bodies were beginning to fade, signaling that they were being sent back.In an out of character move, Takisha snarled. "Caleb, explain yourself. I know you're responsible for this."He hesitated before saying, "You wouldn't return when I brought it up. Quite frankly, your presence is too much of a problem for me, so this is where we part ways.""Unbelieveable," she snapped. "It was a mistake coming after you."Lisa and Ruth were too far away for him to properly see their expressions. He couldn't even be sure they heard their conversation properly. Since they were t
Caleb wasn't sure how much time had passed. In the beginning, he had tried to keep track of the days, but he had long since forgotten the exact date he started here. All the days seemed to blend with each other, making it impossible for him to know for sure how long he had been there. That was okay, though. The system would tell him when it was time. He didn't really need to check the date.At least that was what he told himself. More importantly, he had actually picked up a few skills while he waited to hear back from the system. Unfortunately, he was limited in what he could learn because of his relatives. He couldn't just spend money on taking classes and buying supplies, which narrowed down his scope quite a bit.That meant he couldn't take music lessons to somehow become a music prodigy or go to culinary school to become a world renowned chef when he returned. Well, it wasn't like he really cared for those things, but he would have liked to have more options. He did pick up a lot
Caleb laughed as he walked out of the movie theater. "That was a good movie. What should I try next?"He thought over it carefully. Now that he was no longer held back by his worries, he had gone all out. Instead of spending time picking up skills that he would need in the real world, he decided to splurge on whatever he wanted. Yesterday, he had gone to the arcade to play some of the games using his hard earned money instead of saving it.The day before that, he had gone to the amusement park by himself. Of course, he got a few looks since he had gone alone. He had even sparked up the courage to flirt with some of the ladies. Obviously, his attempts failed. Well, it wasn't like he had been expecting otherwise. At least none of them got violent, like how they were protrayed in the media when approached by a random stranger.In hindsight, it was probably
Caleb choked on his spit before he demanded, "What?""Quiet," his uncle snapped.Grace frowned, causing his uncle to shut up. Caleb was still trying to wrap his mind around how his relatives were basically selling him to a Grace copy. Why did she even want him? They had never encountered each other in this fake world. She shouldn't even know he existed. Was it because she was based on his memories? No, there was no way she would act like this."I see that you haven't discussed things with your nephew," Grace said.He immediately stared at his relatives, who weren't looking in his direction. How long had they been in contact? It sounded like this wasn't their first discussion about him. Caleb tried to recall if he had seen anything suspicious, but he was drawing a blank. There had been no signs of them talking with Grace. Maybe he had just been blind to it after he had decided to screw it all."The truth is that our nephew isn't the easiest to speak with," his aunt said as she dabbed a
In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea for Caleb to storm out of there, but he still couldn't believe what was happening. There was definitely no way things could return to normal. Even if they ended up not taking her offer, there was no way to repair what had been said between them. Well, he wasn't sorry about what he said. He felt so betrayed.It reminded him of what happened before when the demons were around. Maybe this was another glitch or bug, but what could have caused it? The last time had been because the demons managed to make their way there. The system should have set up precautions to prevent it from happening again, so he couldn't blame it on the demons.Was it because of his actions? This only happened after he decided to go wild. When he had acted normally, things had acted in character according to what he remembered. Was this fake world reacting to his mental state? Caleb really didn't have a clue since he hadn't thought to ask the system more about the place.
As they sat in the car, Caleb couldn't stop feeling uneasy about the whole thing. This was probably the first time he had ever gotten in the car without someone who wasn't family. It felt odd, and he didn't know what to do about the atmosphere. Caleb wanted to break the silence, but he didn't know what to talk about. He obviously couldn't bring up the other world.There were several reasons why that simply wouldn't work. One was that this fake Grace wouldn't know about it. At least he didn't think she did. She would just think he was crazy, which led to the second reason. Even if she did know about it, they weren't alone in the car. Talking about the other world in front of others was just not the smart thing to do.Caleb kept glancing at Grace out of the corner of his eye, but she didn't even look in his direction. Her eyes were focused straight ahead, with a blank expression on her fac