Game World?

While he used obscure alleys and shadows of the building to travel across the city of San Francisco, he began thinking once more, the surroundings going blurry as he moved his body purely through his subconscious.

'Did that organization never think about recruiting Seraphina's group? Or were they simply never able to even contact them?' During the time he had spent with them hunting gangs, he had increasingly grown to realize that the steps he had taken were barely mediocre in front of Seraphina. She had tinkered with far too many gadgets, helping her significantly hamper their tracking progress, coupled that with her passive large range of sense for humans, they never got caught. Not like he had been.

But there was one thing, it was mostly Adrian who did the dirty work. None of them had used their ability yet, Maximus could guarantee that as he hadn't felt that sensation again. He could be wrong but they themselves said they never used it. Seraphina was searching for mana crystals, and according to what she told them. They could expect stealing them anywhere next week.

Maximus was growing increasingly restless with meeting Chester and knowing what information he had. It could also be that the information was nothing useful but he could still give it to Seraphina who might connect some dots and make something out of it. There was the fact about that phone the organization had given him. He strangely felt excited about the ordeal.

Instantly as that thought came into his mind, he vanquished it. But he could not help but think, was he a psychopath? Why was he feeling excited about it? While moving about sneakily when he crossed different buildings, he continued introspecting,

'I probably think of all this as a game.' He knew, in the corner of his mind, he wasn't taking any of this seriously despite doing everything cautiously. The terms weren't mutually exclusive of each other as even when playing games, you play it cautiously, afraid of losing your progress or ruining your scores while also not being serious enough about it in respect to your own life.

His mindset was more or less the same here, despite there being several indications that he had very likely transmigrated, a phenomenon very common in the novels he had read in free time back on his planet, the entire thing still felt surreal. The existence of these bizarre fantasy supernatural abilities only added to that fact.

What if it was some prank? He didn't know who had that capability but what if? What if some company had developed a highly complex VR game world and he didn't have any memory of entering to make the experience in the game world more realistic for the player? There were endless theories he could come up with.

There was also one main factor, he didn't have any emotional connection here. Yes, due to his inherent subconscious considering this as a game world, it felt like there was a transparent film between him and the people he conversed with. It blocked him from connecting with them, establishing a bond. He had mixed feelings about it, should he be thankful he couldn't form bonds or not? Whatever was the case, these all reasons contributed to him setting about the goals he set earlier,

1. Try to find information about his home planet and go back

It was very likely that this first goal about his, if at all even remotely possible, needed huge personal power. He could imagine that, in a normal civilization, information about foreign civilization — if it was found — wouldn't be spread to the public to prevent mass panic unless the civilization itself was extremely powerful and confident about not losing.

Here? They couldn't even reach space. But it made things all the more complicated. He was sure his planet existed, but since they couldn't even reach space, or at least that was what the public was told, it was very likely that what he wanted would not be easy to obtain. And for that, he needed personal power. Thankfully, that was a lot easier on this planet due to the existence of supernatural abilities.

2. Increase your personal power every moment you got

Last but not the least, he didn't want to die. If he was going to find a way back home, he wanted to find some other way than dying. He didn't even know if dying would accomplish that, and he had no intention of taking that risk.

3. Not die

Thankfully his goals weren't mutually exclusive. During the time he had spent thinking, he had already reached the area where he was supposed to meet Chester. The man was already there, looking around nervously as he walked in circles.

Maximus wasted no time in approaching him. This time he didn't need any kind of audio box, Seraphina had modified it in the way that his voice would automatically change when he spoke.

Chester looked as nervous as when he had first subdued him through punching. It seemed he hadn't forgotten about it, poor man. Without paying it mind though, he got to the point,

"Information? I'll decide the price. Don't worry, I'll give 5000 dollars minimum, tell me everything you know."

Chester's eyes brightened when he heard that. 5000 dollars was more than what his previous gang and the current gang gave him together, this turned out to be more lucrative than he had thought. He nervously said,

"Some people are recruiting gang members everyday. They say they'll also give us money, as far as 1000 dollars per hour. Once we cross a certain time limit, they guarantee they can also help us cut connection with the underworld. I felt it was too good to be true, too fishy, so I immediately contacted you."

Maximus inwardly thought, 'You don't feel I am fishy? That's some impressive flattery and ignorance all in one.' But he didn't think much about it, he replied,

"What else? What kind of work do they want you guys to do?"

At this point Chester looked around nervously. Getting the hint, Maximus assured him, no one is around listening to us, tell me. Deciding to trust him, Chester said,

"They said they'll send us somewhere, we just need to note down each and everything we see. They also said they'll pay us depending on the amount of information we manage to bring back. The whole thing feels confusing to me honestly."

Maximus narrowed his eyes when he listened to what the man told him.

'What is going on with this world exactly? They are still exploring their own planet? This thing feels weird. Something strange is definitely going on.'