Jake woke up the next morning to a bird nipping at his hair. Sylphie clearly hadn’t been able to sleep as long as he had—assuming she had slept at all—and had gotten bored. He shook his head to get her off, then scooped her up as she put on a fake struggle."You’re a little bully, aren’t you?" Jake teased with a smile as she looked up at him."Ree!" she answered defiantly."Excuses.” He chuckled as he let her go.She flew a few rounds around the room as Jake used his spatial storage to get on all his armor. Just in time for Sylphie to finish her morning exercise and land on his shoulder. Apparently, she had decided that today was not a bird-on-head day.Being up and about, Jake knocked on the wall to Carmen’s room, quickly getting a knock in return. They had no plans of staying in Changlun more than that single night and promptly headed out to meet the boss their escort had mentioned. Jake was intrigued, as the presence of a boss contradicted the narrative of a party of five founding

Paradise. A city with a rather apt description for certain kinds of people. It was the kind of place that the United Cities Alliance didn’t truly recognize as a member but still wanted in their circle. A necessary evil, so to say, where all the weird and controversial shit could be done. A center of debauchery, wealth, and whatever the heart desired—and that came from its own marketing.Peter had gone and gathered all the intel he could on the place. Considering what he got was clearly a watered-down version of the actual place, Jake was impressed the "civilized" United Cities Alliance hadn’t denounced it yet. They didn’t exactly promote or endorse it, instead just acting like Paradise didn’t really exist, and their stance had led to some recent trouble, resulting in the teleportation circle being cut off.This meant they would have to travel there on foot, which the clerk heavily advised against. Apparently, one would have to pass quite the dangerous zone where these gazelle-like cre

"Ah, gambling.Who doesn’t love gambling? Well, okay, many people don’t like gambling due to the innate predatory nature of the practice and its proneness to exploiting and preying on those with addictive personalities. So, in fairness, gambling was actually more an epidemic that ruined lives and split up families. But there was one crucial aspect required to make gambling a negative experience: losing.Gambling was designed to always favor the house. There were ways to cheat the system, so to say, like card counting or even just straight-up cheating. Jake never really thought card counting should be viewed as cheating, as that was just someone not purposefully sabotaging themselves by not thinking while playing. Then again… casinos would prefer if people didn’t think, which explained why they happily handed out drinks left and right.To summarize, gambling was a loser’s game. Because it was designed to make you lose. Anyone going into it should do so with the expectation of losing al

Jake and Carmen sat on the balcony and looked out over the city. Jake saw the mansion in question as Carmen also stared intently. Due to the enchantments placed on the construction, everything was vague, and he could only barely see some people moving within. When he didn’t focus, that is. A bit of squinting, and he saw around the formation to perceive the large lawn and even in the windows clear as day.Peter and Sylphie were still out, with Sylphie being on a super-secret special assignment, as she wasn’t interested in gambling, drugs, or sex. She was too young for all those, too, and Jake was glad to keep her away from the degeneracy. If he didn’t, he was sure Hawkie and Mystie would somehow find a way to kill him."I saw most of them," Carmen muttered as she also looked down at the mansion, even if it was still blurry to her. "They looked so… carefree. Like everything was fine."Jake just kept silent as she talked."My grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents… Everyone was th

Jake’s attention was firmly on the two newcomers, especially the scrawny-looking man. He was thin, pale, wearing glasses, and even in D-grade, he still looked like someone who hadn’t left his basement for half a year. Yet he did have an aura of confidence, and Jake could see why.[Human – lvl 165]He was actually higher leveled than Jake himself, and it wasn’t spoofed or anything either. However, even so, Jake got weird vibes from him. His aura was oddly inconsistent, and his mana signature had an odd, well, signature. It was a bit familiar to Jake, but he wasn’t entirely clear where he had felt it before.The other newcomer was the woman called Beatrice. She wore the kind of dress Jake would expect out of a high-society gala, and she clearly cared a lot about her looks. Jake also felt an aura from her as well as a domain of sorts. His senses heightened, and he quickly noticed how the subtle domain only affected Jake and the other man that stood next to her as well as all the male gua