Off Screen

Inside a certain bank. People lined up for their turn to finish their business. Old or young were here. The bank teller completed their request patiently with a smile.

In this busy hour, no one except the guard noticed a man with black hoodie entering the bank. After a quick security check, he let the man enter.

The man took a seat after he got his ticket.

On the way to his seat, he discretely located the cameras, creating a mental image in his mind and finding blind spots.

He closed his eyes while waiting patiently. Around ten minutes later, the speaker called out his number and he approached one of the tellers.

"Hello, how could I help you today?" She asked with a kind smile.

The man didn't respond as he looked at her name tag. Then, he lifted his eyes to meet her.

"Ms. Tatsuki, please follow my words and you won't get hurt." He demanded quietly. Tatsuki looked at him confusedly with a stiff smile.

"I'm afraid I don't understand your words, sir."

However, in the next moment, her expression froze when she saw a pistol in the man's hand, hidden under the hoodie.

Then, he pulled out his gun and shot the ceiling.

"This is a robbery!"

The sound shocked everyone and instilled fear. They screamed and immediately got away from him.

"Shut up and don't try anything funny, or you'll get hurt." He turned around, pointing his pistol at the crowd. They raised their hands.

Then, all of a sudden, he shot a salaryman's right leg. He yelled in pain as he collapsed. Blood flowed out continuously. The crowd gasped and screamed in fear.

"If you guys don't want to be the next victim, now's the right time to kneel." He said casually while blowing the smoke wafted out of the pistol.

They hurriedly kneeled.

"Good, now fill this plastic with money." He then took out a bag from his pocket pants. The teller had a surprise and disbelief expression carved on her face. What happened looked like something that came out of a magic show!

"I would need the manager to do that, sir. He has the key to the vault." Tatsuki said."

The man looked around at the crowd and found someone in the distance. A man in his forties with a receding hairline. He wore a business suit and a black name tag. He aimed the gun at him.

"You must be the manager. Lead me to the vault."

"Yes." The man nodded with sweat trickling down his head. His heart was beating crazily more than an athlete.

As the man shifted his attention to the manager. One of the tellers silently moved her hand to a button underneath their desk.

Just as she was about to press it, the man quickly turned around and shot her shoulder. Blood sprayed everywhere.

The kinetic energy of the bullet caused the woman to step backward and fell to the floor.

"Didn't I tell you to not do anything funny? Do you guys think I'm joking around?" He said with a slight smile, seemingly enjoying this.

"Is sh- she alright?" The manager pondered nervously. Although he wasn't a doctor, he saw the man shoot her shoulder. It shouldn't be a fatal injury, right? But he wasn't sure.

"Don't worry, I make sure to avoid her major blood vessels. What? Are you going to do something since you know I won't kill you? Don't be naive though, I won't hesitate to kill you if you try to take advantage of me." His eyes became cold and sharp.

"O- of course! Please, follow me!" The manager led him to the vault. Along the way, the man observed his surroundings.

They arrived at the vault after walking for a few minutes. The manager entered a password, scanned his fingertips, retina and finally his voice.

With a sound similar to high pitched steam coming from the vault, the door slowly opened, revealing a neat stack of money and gold bars.

The faint scent of cotton, ink and soap left the vault as they entered his nostrils. He took a deep breath and smiled.

He went in, grabbed the money and gold into the bag to the brim and left the vault. When he left, he didn't see the manager and slowly shifted his attention to the door.

A few seconds later, a loud beeping from the alarm spread throughout the building. White light changed to red, flickering light.

It was time to escape. He used lightning to make a hole on the wall next to him. Dust filled the area with debris everywhere.

The hole leads to an office. People screamed and ran away under the flickering red light.

He stepped into the office and walked to the exit while enjoying the scared expressions of those running away from him.

Upon reaching the exit, a figure appeared all of a sudden and blocked the path. He noticed something was different from him and approached him carefully.

Is he the one that she talked about? He thought to himself and circulate mana around his body, preparing for a fight.

"Yo, can you move aside?" He requested casually and playfully. At the same time, his mind raced on how to win the fight.

From a glance, he knew the man was incredibly powerful and a single misstep could cost him his life.

"Surrender and you won't get hurt." The man demanded calmly.

"I can't do that. How about you move aside instead? I don't want to hurt that pretty face of yours." He snickered but actually damn nervous and wished for this to end as fast as possible. However, that b*tch changed the plan at the last minute.

She wanted him to grab his attention as long as possible. He had no knowledge what she's trying to do, so the best thing he could do was to trust her.

"I've told you once and I won't tell you again." He raised his hand to his chest.

Here he comes! Hanazaki shouted in his mind.

He took a step back, threw the bag of money to the side, and assumed a fighting stance.

However, the next thing that happened was a sharp pain coming from the back of his neck.

Before his consciousness went blank and he fell to the ground with a plop, he said slowly to himself, that's just too fast, man.

The ma looked down at the motionless body with his empty eyes. It was unknown what he was thinking.

The man then lifted his eyes as he felt a presence and saw the girl from last night, standing before the exit door.

"I didn't expect to see you again so soon," said the girl. "Why are you, here Yun-Seo?"

"It's none of your concern. Who are you, and how did you survive that attack? I cut your head." He unsheathed his dagger.

"It seems we're similar. You also don't need to know that, and please, lower your weapon. I'm here to talk." She pointed her finger at the dagger.

"Why do you think I will do that?" He frowned and pointed the tip of the dagger at her.

"Because you don't have a reason to kill me." She said confidently.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because you're a reasonable man." She simply replied.

"..." He fell silent as he observed her. He didn't sense an inch of malicious intent or even a lie. He withdrew his dagger.

"Then speak, what is it you want to talk about?" He sighed softly.

"Do you know who Ah Lee is?" She pondered.

"I don't know anyone with that name. Why?" He shook his head and asked curiously.

It seems it hasn't happened yet, she thought to herself.

"Don't trust anyone with that name no matter how good natured they are." She advised strongly, which made Yun-Seo Park a bit confused.

"Do you know something I don't?" He thought for a moment and asked. She knew about his past and who could say if she didn't know anything about the future? She might have the ability to peek into the future and he could use that.

"I can't say much or the future would change to one I don't know of." She didn't want to deal with the unknown future as it is already. The course of events changed completely thanks to new concepts such as cultivation, Mysticism and things she didn't know of right now.

Except Divinity players that are going to be powerful in the future but now just a bunch of nameless players, or dangerous and influential organizations in the future but now still a small one.

"Very well, I will be careful despite not knowing what your intentions are. Like you said, I'm a reasonable man. I'll not hurt you to squeeze information from you." He said calmly with a clear intention of what he meant to say.

If you don't talk more, I might hurt you to know better, is what he tried to say.

"I'm aware that you're curious why I know some things others don't know, like that girl for example, but no matter what I said, you wouldn't believe me. I will tell you when the condition is right." She wanted him to understand. If not totally, a half was enough.

"... I haven't get your name yet." He fell into a deep thought and asked her name rather abruptly.

"My name is Airi." She then turned off her illusion spell and reveal her true self. An embodiment of beauty itself.

No men, that includes him, wouldn't get a heartbeat just from looking at her. Unless you're a crazily powerful psychic with an uncontrollable x-ray vision that only see a skeleton.