[Rookie, are you deliberately causing trouble for yourself? Or are you trying to become a fake time-traveller? You could be penalized for fraud.]

[Σ(°△° ꪱꪱꪱ)]

[Or, is that your plan to get out of serving the system? Unfortunately, it won’t work. You will still have to work hard to reach the system’s quota.]

’I made a mistake, alright? I did not mean to blurt this out. I just needed to show Madam Yao that I did not want the information offered through this alliance.’

Rin had something else he wanted from Madam Yao’s settlement. But instead of asking for it, Rin ended up revealing a secret of his own.

A brief silence followed as he finished the sentence and Madam Yao suddenly became suspicious of him.

"Oh, that’s right. But how did you know about the next task? Do you have the ability to look into the future as well?"

Madam Yao asked and Rin immediately quickly tried to defuse the situation.

"I don’t have an ability like that. But I do have my own ways to get information about future tasks. I am afraid that your offer isn’t very tempting to me right now."

Madam Yao looked stumped for the first time. There was a hint of tension on her face before she decided to let him take the stage.

"Alright, I give up. I cannot offer you any more than this. But since you are still here, I assume you want something in return?"

Rin nodded, impressed by how sharp Madam Yao was.

"I would like some of your people to come and work for our camp. We are going to run short of manpower soon and the more hands we have, the better. Moreover, I want a written promise from you that you will cooperate with me when requested."

"Mother, these demands are too much. We cannot-"

"Lola, take Mellisa out of here for now. The adults are talking and she is distracting us."

Rin was not an adult but since he behaved like one, no one questioned Madam Yao’s words.

"Nanny, don’t-!"

Mellisa complained but it was too late. She had been dragged out of the room. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"Ehm... now that the distraction is out of here, let’s continue our negotiation. I agree with your terms. I will send my elder daughter Alex as a representative along with a task force. Is there anything else you would like?"

Madam Yao agreed easily but Rin had nothing else to get from her.

"This much would be fine."

With that, the contract was written and after reading it carefully, Rin sighed.

Of course, he also had it read by the system for any hidden clauses, but there seemed to be none.

"Before you take your leave, I would also like to do a reading on you, young leader. Everyone else got their turn but you haven’t, and I’m not someone who discriminates."

Madam Yao extended her hand toward Rin and he placed his hand in hers. He immediately saw a flash of white behind his eyes and then it condensed into black lines.

They lashed out at him but went past him and attacked someone else behind him.

"What the hell-"

Madam Yao’s voice sounded faint but Rin could not tear his eyes away from the beautiful tree in front of him. He felt like he had to touch it and become a part of it.

"What kind of things-! There is no past or the future."

That voice sounded faint but frustrated. However, Rin could not bring himself to turn away from the tree calling out to him.

He was close. He just needed to reach it and he would finally be back home.

Unfortunately, something tugged Rin back before he could touch the tree and he was yanked back to reality soon after.

"Ugh, my head hurts. What just happened?"

Rin complained as he held his head. He could not recall a single thing that happened up until now but he knew it had been important.

[You backed out so this system pulled you out of your mind. Praise this system for saving your life.]

[( • ̀ω•́ )✧]

That...felt right for some reason. As much as Rin wanted to complain, he had a feeling the system had saved him.

"Rin, are you feeling better? Can you focus on me? Can you see me?"

Shelly asked with a terrified expression. Her eyes ran over Rin, looking him up and down to check if he was hurt or worse off. Her grip was so tight that Rin could feel marks forming on his arms. And this time, they were not intentional.

"Hey, give Rin some space. Let me check on him to make sure-"

"Stay away! Don’t come near Rin. He’s already sick. Who knows what could happen? I won’t take risks-"

"But I am a doctor! I need to check him-"

Rin’s heart hurt and the loud arguing made his headache worse so he pulled himself back and pulled himself out of Shelly’s arms.

"I am fine. I can’t recall what happened but aside from that, I’m fine."

Rin assured his party but they did not seem to believe him. But instead of reassuring them, Rin looked toward the other side where Madam Yao was pushing herself back to her feet. She looked unsteady and her body was swaying.

"What the hell did I just see? How can someone not have a past or a future? And that tree! No...what am I saying? What tree? There was nothing...!"

Madam Yao looked just as confused as Rin was. Whatever had affected him seemed to have affected her memory as well.

"Anyway, since our alliance has been formed, we should discuss what we need to do for the next task. This role-playing task will have us face a ’demon king’. It is difficult to gauge just how powerful it will be, but we should still be ready–"

"Don’t worry. I have a plan for it already. I just need you to send me your best soldiers and I will take care of the rest."

Rin assured Madam Yao and she nodded.

"I will trust you this time. But only because it does not seem like I will be in any condition to look after myself for some time. Anyway, make sure you don’t disappoint me, alright?"

Madam Yao disappeared after she said these words and her people kept an eye on Rin until they had left.

"Tsk, I don’t like that woman and her gang. Do we have to cooperate with them?"

Shelly asked in a tense voice. Unfortunately for her, the answer was yes.