Another World Mall

Chapter 156 Coming Back

Kanaria and Melody gasped in shock. They exchanged looks before Melody said, "Is this a real image?"

"I don't think my mother would send a Photoshopped picture." Kanaria shook her head.

What Vania sent was actually a picture of Ivan. His face was full of stitches. It looked like there were at least seven sword wounds on his face, deforming it with all those stitches.

While Ivan couldn't be said to be the most handsome, he was still above average. So, all these stitches definitely ruined his face.

They simply couldn't believe that such a thing would ever happen, especially under the Drake Group's watch.

"This… Is this Clovis's influence?" Melody sucked a cold breath. "Wait a minute. Why did he suffer something like this?"

Kanaria hurriedly replied to her mother.

Kanaria: What happened, Mom? You didn't send people to ruin his face, right?

Mom: No. I'm not sure about the validity of the rumor as well, but it appears that Nek and him are connected. You can guess the rest.

"!!!" Kanaria's body shook as she couldn't help but say, "Nek… The one who died after pushing Clovis off the truck?"

"The people that had been targeting Clovis decided to kill him. And the fact that he was connected to Ivan meant the one asking him to kill Clovis was Ivan."

Kanaria nodded. "Yes. If we take a look at their method, you will realize that those hidden people are trying to kill Clovis indirectly. On the other hand, Nek and Ivan did it directly."

"So, that's how it is… No wonder Clovis asked us to hide the news about him because he wanted to see the reaction of those people in the shadows."

"Yes. This confirms their intention. The hidden danger will only come for the kill when there are enough beasts. This is not a problem for us because Jay and Clovis are strong enough to kill Tier 3 beasts and it's not like we're going anywhere near Tier 4 unless it's a raid or something."

Melody pondered. "But Ivan and the Drake Group will be dangerous. The repercussions only came after doing the deeds, so it meant that if we pushed them to a corner, they would just kill us and get destroyed after that."

"Yes. I'll discuss this matter with Clovis after he returns." Kanaria nodded.

Melody asked, "So, what are we going to do with the money?"

"Hmm…" Kanaria fell into deep thought. Since Clovis was fine and they had gotten the money, the most reasonable thing would be to restock all their supplies.

However, Clovis hadn't returned and they hadn't decided how much they wanted to sell the essence.

So, they still hadn't gotten the full money yet.

Usually, Clovis would be the one selling the essence and giving the money to her afterward.

Looking at this situation, it wouldn't be wrong if Clovis planned to do the same.

After some thought, Kanaria said, "Let's go with the usual."

"We will wait for Clovis?"

"Yep. You shouldn't have any problem with money anymore, right?"

"Yeah. Since we're waiting for Clovis, I guess we will have some days off."

"That's true. What will you do?" Kanaria asked.

"Jay is in the same hospital as my brother, so I guess I'll take care of him for the time being. But it's better if we have him take the treatment so that his broken bone can be fixed within seven days."

"In that case, do you mind handling the administration for the treatment? It shouldn't cost too much, right?"

"Yeah. The treatment for a Tier 1 human should cost around forty to sixty thousand."

"In that case, we'll go with that plan. If Clovis hasn't gone back by the time the administration is done, we can probably sell the Tier 3 essence first to get the money for the treatment."

Melody nodded. "I'll take care of it then. How about you?"

"I'll wait for Clovis."

"In his house? Well, I guess you can since you two have been living together." Melody shrugged.

Kanaria only offered a wry smile as both of them started going to their respective destinations.

Melody immediately went back to the hospital, while Kanaria decided to take care of the house until Clovis returned.

In the meantime, Clovis was slashing one beast after another.

"Ha… Ha… This is quite hard." Clovis panted a few times while looking at his surroundings. "To think that I would be this tired from killing only seventy beasts."

Although there were a lot of Tier 1 beasts, it wasn't at the level at which they could threaten Clovis. Then again, he was always helped by the radar and Melody's instructions, so having to watch out for his surroundings took a toll on his mind.

This experience just reinforced the reason why he desired a group that could grow together.

Because no one would judge him like this, he had the chance to test the limits of himself as well as the mall. He had been utilizing all kinds of items to recover his stamina or injury, but it started getting rough after seven hours.

So, Clovis decided to call it a day. His first destination was actually the car they left behind.

He never thought that the car they had abandoned would be useful for him. Since they had hidden it well unlike the rest of the group, the car was still intact.

Then again, he didn't have any experience driving. So, he used the next five hours to actually learn how to drive.

All the lessons were in the Skynet anyway and there wasn't anything around him. So, he just moved slowly but surely, getting accustomed to driving. If he failed to bring this car back, he could simply use the retreat as an excuse. If he managed to bring it back in one piece, he could save some money to buy a few things.

Due to his Blood Affinity, he managed to react much faster. While the sudden brake or gas was uncomfortable, he managed to reach the gate without hitting a single thing.

With a big smile on his face, he could finally return. "Alright. It's time to go home!"

Or that was what he thought until he returned to the base, only to find himself stopped by the city's police at the gate.

"You don't have a driving license? Even though you are an explorer and driving outside the city, you can't break the laws, you know. Who is your guardian? I'll have to give you a ticket."

"…"