Max frowned and looked back.
His fingers, attempting to solve a puzzle in the golden gate involving the arrangement of numerous glowing patterns, halted.
"Guys, can one of you check if anyone's in the passageway we came through? I have a feeling someone's watching us."
Austin glanced at him.
"You sure?"
Max nodded, and Austin charged towards the passageway, his brown eyes narrowed, the familiar javelin gripped in his hand.
Zack held his breath, trying to mask his presence as his footsteps drew closer.
He couldn't help but curse Max's intuition. Well, he was the damn protagonist. One shouldn't accept anything less from him.
Only if he knew it wasn't his presence that the protagonist sensed. It was the intense gaze drilling into his head that he felt.
Max had become accustomed to people staring at him after joining the academy, so he was sensitive and could tell if someone was looking at him with malicious intent.
Austin paused at the entrance of the passageway, peering inside. The floating orbs of lights around him drifted into the passage, illuminating the area.
"There's no one."
He muttered and went back. Jenny and Elena were helping Max, but because they had to solve the puzzle quickly before the patterns returned to their original places, they were struggling to find a solution.
Zack let out a sigh of relief. A familiar message screen flashed before him.
#Keeper of Time: That was a close call. However, why don't you just join Max and his team? I doubt he would stop you if you said you found this place by accident.
Zack rolled his eyes. If only it were that simple. The previous owner of his body had a history of animosity with the protagonist. He still remembered the way Max scowled when he noticed him in class.
If he showed up in front of Max, the guy would definitely make him run for his life.
Skyler, who had attached himself to a wall inside the passage like a lizard when Austin came to investigate, silently crept towards the light again. His annoyed and impatient gaze found its way to Max's head again.
'This team doesn't have a brain. How can they take so long to just solve a puzzle?'
The panicked system was still flashing multiple screens in front of him, urging him to run away. But he had long since learned to ignore 505 when he wanted to.
Skyler would have continued to stare at Max, but his gaze was drawn to the screen floating before Zack. With Zack now hiding behind a rock, facing him, he could see the message screen very clearly.
'Oh...'
He hurriedly bent down to his knees and squinted his eyes, which had turned dark. His gaze flickered with a hint of confusion as he read the message word for word.
'That was a close call. However, why don't you just join Max and his team? I doubt he would stop you if you said you found this place by accident...? Huh?'
Skyler stroked his chin thoughtfully.
'The higher being is right. Why is Zack hiding? He could simply join Max.'
He chuckled to himself.
'Like I'm any better. I have been secretly following everyone too. But did Max and Zack have a bad history between them?'
His gaze sparkled with mischief as he read the messages the higher being was sending Zack, hoping to uncover some dirt on him.
'Keeper of Time, huh? A cool name. Zack has found a good sponsor, it seems.'
But what he found blew his mind.
Zack waved his hand in annoyance, dismissing the message. Yet, another message flickered to life before him.
#Keeper of Time: You didn't tell me why you were so annoyed when you came here. Did something happen in the outside world?
"It's none of your business."
He muttered faintly.
#Keeper of Time: It's hard for me to communicate with you outside this place since it costs a lot more power unlike here. I am not the Goodness of Compassion who has unlimited energy. Can't you just tell me everything? You know I'm here to help you.
Zack scoffed, his gaze dripping with sarcasm and a mock indifference. He didn't voice his thoughts aloud this time. Instead, he laughed internally at the higher being.
'Help me? No, it's more like he is here to watch me so I don't mess up and do my job in this world properly as a transmigrator.'
He glanced at Max and his team, still struggling to open the golden gate. A low 'tsk' escaped his lips. He was annoyed, so what better way to ease it than to share?
"It's because of some side characters..."
#Keeper of Time: Which ones? You have messed with the fates of many. But the top of the list are Oreon, Mila, and that Sky guy. The first two were supposed to die, but you saved them. The last one was supposed to not enter the preliminary test, but you made him. You even said you would save his life two years from now. So, which ones?
Zack's eyebrow twitched. Why was this bastard being so chatty after being absent all this time? Before Zack could respond, another screen flashed before him.
#Keeper of Time: Wait, let me make a guess. Is one of them that Charles guy? You wanted to save that villain from the tragic end since he was your favorite.
They would have continued if not for the sound of something metallic creaking open. Zack whipped his head back and saw that Max and his team had opened the gate.
"Finally..."
He muttered softly, ignoring the Keeper of Time as he watched the protagonist and his team enter the partially opened golden gate.
With a swift movement, Zack retrieved a hoodie from his storage ring and pulled it on over his clothes, concealing his face.
The hoodie would allow him to escape the scene unnoticed if anything went wrong.
Skyler watched his fading figure, his mind racing. He was too shocked and stunned by what he had found to follow him instantly.
"505...?"
He called out with a dry voice. The system, which had been ignored for so long, refused to speak to him or acknowledge him. But he still continued to finish his words.
"Do the higher beings have the power to interfere with the future? No, can they see the fate of another and change it?"
505 gasped. Its imaginary pair of eyes widened in disbelief and utter shock.
("What on earth are you saying, host? No, why did you even think such a thing!")
Skyler licked his lips.
"I just found out who made me eligible for the preliminary test when I wasn't eligible. It's the Keeper of Time. Wow, just wow."
He chuckled with a dark smile.
"Can things get any more chaotic than this? What were they even discussing? Charles is a villain? Were they suggesting he's a Dark Light? That's absurd. There's no way he's one of those who tried to kidnap us."
Skyler felt a pang of gratitude that the Keeper of Time had changed his fate. He could stay with his parents now. This didn't mean he wouldn't get even. Higher being or not, he needs to pay for messing with him.
But suddenly, his eyes flared white, and a thought pierced the depths of his mind: who gave the Keeper the right to do this? Who gave him the right to alter his fate?
He blinked, and the white hue in his eyes receded, replaced by the familiar blue.
"There are still so many things that don't make sense. I can't grasp everything the higher being talked about. It's like there are missing pieces to the whole picture, and I'm just staring at the scattered fragments."
He stared in a random direction.
"Just answer me, 505. I want to know if the higher beings can know the future?"
The system was silent for a moment as it nervously searched the entire database.
("That... They can, yes. They are at the top of the power chain. 505 is sure they could. But they usually don't bother interfering with the future, even if they know it. It costs them too much even if they are higher beings.")
Skyler smiled in response.
"Thanks for the honest answer."
505 felt a bit happy. But it was still trying to process the information its host had shared. It was too much for the scaredy-cat system. So, it briefly forgot about the issue of the dragon lair. Skyler muttered to himself.
"The higher beings will not directly interfere with the future if it risks a great cost to them, but they can certainly use others to alter it."
He stood up and finally followed behind the people who had entered the golden gate.
"Well, I will know everything with time. The reason why Zack changed my fate. Why the Keeper of Time said Charles is a villain. And why Charles would be Zack's favorite?"
He would have continued to mull over it, but his thoughts came to a halt when he entered the massive gate. His blue eyes glazed over as they reflected the glow of the mountains of silver, gold, and gems before him.
"I believe this is all mine, right?"
505: ???