In the 13th level, as Skyler and his group floated before the towering gate that was the entrance to the maze, all eyes around the six turned their way. First, because of their striking looks. Second, because the tall youth leading them was impossible to ignore. Third, because all six of the young men looked far too young—barely twenty!
The crowd around them was shocked.
Yet the ones being watched didn’t even flinch under the countless eyes, let alone care about the faint, buzzing murmurs.
As the six moved to enter the gate, Skyler suddenly raised his head. His eyes turned black in an instant as he muttered coldly.
"What was that?"
His body trembled, and dark lines began to crawl across his smooth skin, startling and scaring the ones watching him into retreat.
Zack, who had just rejoined the group, and Yuris both noticed the sudden disturbance and turned back. Their eyes widened when they saw Skyler’s dark eyes. The sight was so terrifying that both of them almost lost control of their Evol and fell from the sky.
However, as they blinked, Skyler’s eyes returned to their normal sea blue color.
Zack wiped the sweat from his face.
"Did I just imagine that?"
Yuris grabbed his arm to steady himself.
"You definitely didn’t! I just saw it too! The sudden silence around us is proof!"
Austin, Isaac, and Charles heard the two. So, Austin gave Yuris’s arm a sudden pat.
"What’s happened?"
Yuris jumped at the touch and shouted.
"Don’t scare me any further! One Skyler is terrifying enough—I might actually have a heart attack!"
His extreme reaction left the three who hadn’t seen Skyler’s eyes suddenly turn black in surprise. But before Austin could ask anything further, Skyler gestured for them not to waste any more time. Then, with a deep frown, he entered the gate.
Austin quietly exchanged glances with Charles and Isaac. It felt as if they had missed something big, but there was no time to dwell as they hurried after Skyler.
As the group vanished into the gate, the crowd finally erupted into loud chatter.
"Who were those kids?"
"They looked so, so young... how did they even reach this level? I can’t believe it!"
"Right? And did you see it—when suddenly the eyes of one of them turned pitch black like ink! It gave me goosebumps! Look!"
At this, everyone fell eerily silent. From somewhere behind the crowd, a familiar male voice echoed softly—it was Nate.
"It’s almost as if that guy suddenly turned from a good-looking, harmless angel into something terrifying in a single second."
Next to him, his friend frowned. But to his friend’s surprise, this time Nate didn’t add any sarcastic remarks like usual. Instead, Nate just clicked his tongue and turned to leave as if unwilling to speak ill of Skyler.
The friend blinked. Was it just him, or was something different about him? He sighed and followed, muttering under his breath.
"The princess said to search this level. I don’t know why you had to come all this way for that human. Sometimes I really don’t get what’s going on in your mind."
***
Meanwhile, on the other side of the gate, Skyler and the others stepped through. The moment they opened their eyes, they were greeted by a dimly lit garden, crisscrossed with many paths leading in every direction, its walls draped in thick, cascading vines.
Suddenly, 505 sent Skyler a message.
("Host! Host! Host! Nate was nearby! I sensed his presence around you a while ago—505 think he was in the crowd!")
A vein twitched on Skyler’s forehead.
"And you are telling me this now, when there’s no way back?"
He looked back and pointed at the closed gate they had just come through, his finger reaching to jab at the words carved into the gate, then remarked with a deadpan look.
"Look here. Tell me, what does it say?"
505 trembled. Why does its host feel so scary and terrifying all of a sudden? And what’s that dark aura coming off him?
Skyler didn’t wait for a response and continued with a dark, gloomy look.
"It says no participant can leave for three days after entering the maze. They either have to locate the center of the maze in that time or get kicked out for failing. It’s written here clearly. You really think Nate would stick around until I get out of here?"
505 wiped its digital sweat and replied.
("Right, host is right! 505 pleads guilty!")
Skyler narrowed his eyes, then smiled—a smile that made 505 want to shed tears.
"It’s fine. Just make sure to inform me on time next time, alright? As a system, you should have known what I just read to you even before we entered this maze, but you have been slacking off recently. You need to pick up your pace. Go check your data and see if there’s a bug or something."
Nodding, 505 hurried away to hide in a corner and check its database for bugs.
At that moment, a shocked noise sounded behind Skyler. He looked back to see Yuris, Zack, Charles, Isaac, and Austin watching him. Yuris immediately cleared his throat.
"Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. You can carry on. We didn’t hear you scolding your system—we know nothing. Really, not even the fact that your system is..."
He wiped the sweat from his brow.
"...tracking someone else."
Skyler blinked and let out a small chuckle. For some reason, his mood was agitated, yet seeing everything eased it just enough.
It was as if, as long as he could take in his surroundings, he could keep breathing and stay sane. This feeling was very strange. It had crept up on him a while back when the dark-eyed person in his subconscious had briefly seized control of his body. And this uneasy feeling was just not going away.
He walked up to Yuris and patted his shoulder with a knowing expression.
"You better not know anything."
His next words left everyone speechless.
"Well, even if you did know, it’s not like anyone—except Isaac, Austin, Zack, and Charles—would believe you."
Laughing evilly, Skyler turned and started looking around their vicinity, unaware that behind him, Yuris had rolled up his sleeves, ready to strangle him. Fortunately, Austin and Charles were quick to restrain him.
Yuris gritted his teeth.
"Let me go! I simply want to hit him once! He is getting more annoying by the day!"
Isaac pressed a hand on his back.
"You sure? Have you already forgotten the last time we were chased by monsters?"
His words calmed Yuris immediately.
At that moment, Zack turned to Skyler, a smile on his face as he clicked his tongue.
"So confident, are we? What about the Higher Beings? Do they count? You do know they’re always nearby, right?"
Zack snorted when Skyler turned to him with a raised eyebrow. The air grew tense.
Isaac, Charles, Austin, and Yuris watched the two stare each other down. They knew they were witnessing secrets they definitely shouldn’t know, yet they all remained silent, leaning in to catch every word. Isaac even considered taking out some melon seeds.
Skyler shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, I’m definitely not crazy enough to reveal that much without taking that into account. I know about the Higher Beings. And if you’re worried about the Keeper of Time, I believe he hasn’t been around you for a while now—otherwise, I would have known. If you don’t tell him... who will?"
Zack took a deep breath. It was true—the Keeper of Time hadn’t been around for a while. This was a higher being who would normally pester him constantly, and now he was suddenly missing? How weird. But the alarming part was that Skyler actually knew about this. Skyler didn’t just know the title ’Keeper of Time’—he could even tell when the being spoke to him. How terrifying.
"You... really think I won’t tell him?"