Last Shelter Online

“I’ll explain everything I know later. I promise.”

For the first time, Hiro saw Alice speak with a gaze full of hope at him, as if she was at a point of being helpless.

Hiro nodded. In the end, he had no other choice but to agree. Either way, without her, he might have still been kept hostage by those people he didn’t know.

Alice already prepared another suitcase for Hiro to use. And because Hiro’s things in the room were not many, he finished packing his things rather quickly.

The two then hurriedly left the room with two suitcases. However, instead of using the main staircase, Alice led Hiro to go down the dark and dusty fire escape stairs.

“We have no choice.” Alice activated a skinscreen on her hand that showed a detailed map of the city complete with several CCTV camera surveillance. Who knew how she got them.

Alice didn’t immediately go down the stairs. Instead, she first opened the CCTV camera surveillance in front of the building and showed it to Hiro.

“They’re here.”

On the screen, Hiro could clearly see a white van parked in front of the building. Two men in thick black jackets and sunglasses were standing in front of the van, seemingly talking about something.

Or were they waiting for something?

Alice swiped her skinscreen. It now showed a lock icon with a progressing loading bar under it.

“They’re trying to break the security system I set for this building.”

Hiro didn’t know whether to feel amazed or panicked now. Was Alice saying that ‘they’ also had someone who could work like her, hacking the system?

“That’s what they’re waiting for. Let’s go, we don’t have much time.”

Tap! Tap! Tap!

The two ran down the dusty stairs which made Hiro cough multiple times. Still, they arrived at the exit on the other side of the building in the end, and fortunately, they weren’t discovered.

An electric-powered car automatically functioning as a taxi was already waiting for them. Again, Alice had already arranged it.

“Let’s go!”

The two successfully left the building and went at normal speed into the streets. The traffic was considerably heavy that evening. Hiro didn’t expect that he would have to be offline for a bit longer this time.

On the way, Alice seemed busy with the semi-transparent screen projected from her android bracelet. She was preparing something and didn’t want to be disturbed.

Hiro closed his eyes. However, just when he was starting to feel sleepy, the car suddenly stopped.

“We’re here.”

Hiro looked around. The car stopped right in front of an entrance lobby of an extravagant building. An attendant in a tidy uniform was even helping open the car door for them.

A hotel?

“Welcome,” the man said with a welcoming smile.

Alice had already come out through the other door, while Hiro still felt that they arrived at the wrong destination. He hurried out to take out the suitcases in the car trunk, but once again, the hotel employee helped him and brought the two suitcases into the hotel lobby.

“Alice, are you sure we’re at the right place?” Hiro whispered, feeling awkward.

Alice only gave him a side glance before walking toward the reception table. The receptionist was a stunning humanoid robot lady, and Alice only gave a barcode for the robot to scan before receiving a fancy keycard made of gold.

“Thank you, Miss Goldlane,” a slightly mechanical female voice sounded.

The robot’s words made Hiro raise his brow.

“Goldlane?”

Alice didn’t respond, and the two silently walked toward the ordered room.

A luxurious suite. Hiro couldn’t even estimate how much it cost per night.

“Are we really going to stay here? Doesn’t it stand out too much? And hey, whose money are you using?”

Hiro didn’t know which question to prioritize. He still felt strange for suddenly getting such a luxurious living space.

“Ever heard of the phrase, ‘Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer’?”

Alice suddenly pressed a digital controller next to a wall completely covered by a luxurious curtain. The next second, the golden curtain automatically rolled to the side to reveal a wide pane of glass, revealing the view of a building with a logo he very much recognized.

“Welcome to Last Shelter Online’s head office.”

Hiro was dumbfounded.

His legs subconsciously moved toward the glass pane. He wanted to make sure that it was indeed just a normal glass pane, not a screen displaying a background of what he was seeing at the moment.

“…Alice, isn’t this too close?”

Alice walked toward a work desk complete with a wide-screen, semi-circle computer. The room even provided a super computer as the facility.

“From here, I can infiltrate the main system through their main signal transmitter. My current goal, I’m going to make you win LSO’s launch event.”

“This is going to be a grand moment to introduce you to the world!”

Beep!

The computer screen lit up and showed tiny coding numbers, numbers Hiro had learned about before.

Hiro gulped. He still couldn’t match what was in her head and what her plan meant.

Make me win? Introduce me to the world?

Hiro felt that everything was exaggerated, but Alice seemed extremely serious with what she just said.

“I don’t understand. Why do you want me to win all of a sudden? And why would you introduce me to the world? I’m not Yuujin who’s thirst for attention.”

After inputting several codes to do something related to her plan, Alice stood back up from her seat. She then walked toward Hiro who was still standing in front of the glass pane. Her eyes were looking straight at the main building of LSO’s office, which was clearly visible as it was less than 200 meters away from the hotel.

“We’re standing in the middle of a battle arena right now, between two gigantic monsters in war. The first monster knows about your existence, while the second doesn’t.”

“As I mentioned before, you’re important ammunition for the first monster’s main weapon. Their greatest fear at the moment might just be one, which is that you side with their enemy.”

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend. When the second monster thinks that they’ve won after getting you, that’s when the third monster appears.”

“And I’ll make you that monster.”