Baek Taeyang

Enna's warm breath covered my nape.

I whispered into her ear,

"Saint, human, housemate...It doesn't matter what you call me."

I pulled away my face and looked into her eyes.

"Didn't I tell you before? As long as I'm breathing, if you ever need help, extend your hand to me."

Her visage was vermillion. It just showed how fair she was.

I put my hand on her cheek gently.

Her skin was hot and felt warm to the touch.

"And I'll be there for you."

"Ray..."

She brought her lips closer to mine.

Beep Beep

But immediately stopped.

She made an irritated expression and took out her phone.

I checked the caller. 'Mother' was written on the futuristic screen.

She didn't answer and looked back at me.

I smiled and told her, "Go, she must be worried."

"Ray, I...", she made a determined posture, raising one hand close to her heart.

Beep Beep

Her mother kept calling.

Sigh... I guess I have to send her home.

I let go of her and opened the door.

"Don't worry, you can meet me anytime you want. Besides, I'm planning to join Ishiyama High."

"Really? You're joining Ishiyama? But you can go to a much better academy with your skills."

I didn't really care about the school. My only task was to prevent the tragedies that lay ahead in her future.

"Yeah but I kinda like Ishiyama. So don't worry, you'll see me often."

She didn't want to leave but since her mother kept calling, she reluctantly did.

I waved her good night and entered my new room.

Having finally completed all the things in my checklist, I laid down on my bed and sighed in exhaustion.

The room was pretty big for a single person but it lacked anything other than the basic amenities. It wasn't dusty which meant that someone cleaned it regularly.

"I guess I'll have to buy a few things later.

For now, it's time for my beauty nap."

I went in to take a shower before hitting the sack.

Just then, my transparent screen opened up.

[- Integrated Trial of Beauty-

Second Task:

Meet the boy named 'Baek Taeyang' within 1 hour.

Task details will be updated when the checkpoint is reached.

Reward:???

Failure: Disqualification]

What?! I was just about to have my beauty sleep!

I was tired...

Shit, I have no choice.

I got up and wore the dark jacket that I had bought.

Then I looked at the task again. It didn't mention where I could find him.

Did it seriously expect me to find a person with just their name?

The only clue I had was that the Task called him a boy.

I had to meet him within an hour, which meant a search radius was defined.

But I didn't have anything more.

I tried accessing my stat screen.

[System upgrading.

Estimated time till completion: 12 hours

Time corresponds to the flow of the base world.]

Ugh, this sucks. Task messages showed, but I couldn't use Lianne's help or my skills.

I tried to rack my brain, but I really didn't know where to begin.

"Lianne could have helped..."

I was missing her more than I wanted to.

The light above my head was flickering. Getting vexed by it, I proceeded to switch it off so that I could think in peace.

But, I quickly realized there weren't any switches on the walls around me.

"How do I turn off that light?"

I looked around and saw a circular device lying on the table beside my bed.

It was the same device I had seen in the electronics shop earlier today.

Could it be?

I gave a voice prompt trying to check my theory.

The device followed my command and the light switched off.

An idea came to my mind.

Since it was an artificial intelligence-based device, couldn't I just ask it to find Baek Taeyang?

So, that's what I did. I asked it to show me the profiles of all 'Baek Taeyang's in Reji city.

19 matches came up.

I quickly crossed out 14 of them since they were all above eighteen.

That left me with just five.

One was seventeen, two were ten, another was eight and the last one was three.

"Too many options, I can't cover them all in 1 hour."

The task said 'boy' and not student, so I should strike off the 17 year old, right?

But before I did that, I looked at his picture. The picture wasn't updated and it showed a prepubescent child.

He had stunning blue hair, and his face looked like a doll. Even with this low pixelated picture, I could tell that this boy was good looking.

"Trial of Beauty...", I murmured.

I looked at the other profiles but none of their faces hit me as much as his.

'It must be him.'

Having confirmed my target, I looked at his address.

The location wasn't far. It'd take 8 minutes by car. Which meant if I ran, I'd reach in 40 minutes.

Having memorized the map, I rushed out.

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[Baek Taeyang's POV]

I was lying on the ground. My mouth was bleeding.

"Arggh!", a sharp pain hit my abdomen.

"Eh! Taeyang, don't you think you ought to spit out some money, instead of blood, now?"

"Argh....", I covered my abdomen with my hands.

I was currently in the alley beside my house.

These two 'friends' of mine had called me out saying that they wanted to show me something.

I should have known better when they called me around midnight.

"You think covering it with your hands will make me stop hitting you?"

A kick came down on my back. Then another. And again another.

"This worm thinks he's better than us."

"Just because you have good grades? It doesn't mean shit."

"You could have avoided this if you had just hacked when we asked you to."

They had asked me to hack the social account of a girl in our class. When I had declined, they started getting aggressive.

"You know we don't want to do this."

"Yeah, just hack her account and we can all be good friends again."

They looked at me with guileful expressions.

Their faces looked like snakes.

I felt angry.

"Do it or we're going to beat you to death!"

"You don't want that, do you?"

I spit the blood in my mouth on their shoes. "Never."

A foot came straight to my face.

It made my brain jiggle inside my skull.

I began to lose vision.

Before passing out, I saw a blonde guy wearing shades and a mask, standing infront of me.

I then lost consciousness.