THE STRONGEST NEXULYTE

Chapter 76: A moving forbidden zone

"I don't care if their attitude toward me would change under different circumstances or if everything was a lie, all I care about…is the present.

Nothing else matters"

Ivan mumbled while looking at his palms, which had suddenly turned bloody at some point.

" Really? Is that your judgment?" A calm voice whispered to Ivan. Ivan looked up, and his gaze met with a pair of dull blue eyes; it was a second Ivan; it was like Ivan was looking at himself in the mirror, but at the same time, it seemed like the person in front of him wasn't him.

" Yes, that is my decision," Ivan replied firmly.

" Then prove it,," The second Ivan said and calmly gestured to the side. Following the direction the latter pointed, Ivan saw the four Nexulytes looking at Ivan with tenderness.

This was clearly the version of them that had taken care of the young Ivan. While on the other side were Ralph, Glen, and their parents. They were all looking at Ivan with hateful eyes and were even cursing at him, the sight of this made Ivan's eyes twitch slightly.

"The choice is yours, pick a side"

The second Ivan whispered before disappearing into a drifting wind, leaving Ivan alone with these two sets of people.

Ivan took a minute to observe both sides, their actions and expressions were so real that Ivan almost doubted his memories.

"My choice?" Ivan snickered as a card appeared in his hand.

" This is my choice!"

Tossing the card into the air, Ivan immediately felt all the Nexus energy inside him being drained out. The card scattered into dazzling particles of red, blue, and gold that danced in the air like a life dragon before gathering together into a small back dot.

" Hellfire, detonate"

Ivan muttered softly and the next second…

BOOM!!

The small black dot enlarged into a ball of black flame before erupting into a massive explosion that engulfed the white space.

A flash of white light forced Ivan to close his eyes as a fierce shockwave sent him flying like a pebble.

Crack!!

Like a glass hit with a rock, the white space development cracks due to the impact of the explosion and begins to fall apart.

Unsure of how much time had passed, Ivan opened his eyes to see that he was back in the virtual space of the training room. His purple tracksuit was a mess, and his hair was smoking; he had at least survived the explosion.

Looking up, Ivan saw the little girl with the zither staring at him with a deadpan face; her expression was unbefitting for a girl of her age, causing her to look like a ghost instead.

Seeing that the girl was still around, Ivan forced himself to get up; he had expended all of his energy and was currently under great fatigue but tried not to show it.

"You…didn't fail, neither did you win. You are undecided, wisher" the little girl said while staring straight into Ivan's eyes.

Ivan was confused by her statement. In fact, most of the statements of this girl didn't make sense at all, but Ivan realized one thing after leaving the white space. He was about to speak when he suddenly saw a crack appear on the green zither before quickly spreading to the girl's body.

Shatter!!

She crumbled like an ice sculpture.

Ivan stared at this with his mouth hung open. It took a few seconds for him to recover, and he shook his head.

"It wasn't an ordinary monster," Ivan said to himself while staring at the pieces of the little girl.

What Ivan had realized was that the little girl wasn't a monster, she was a mobile aspect forbidden zone!

A forbidden zone that was able to move, take the form of creatures, and could communicate!

Scary.

[Level 30 cleared, proceed to level 31?]

[Yes/No?]

Seeing that he had apparently cleared the level, Ivan fell on his butt and began panting heavily. He was completely drained, how was he supposed to continue?

But it wasn't a must that he had to win, he could just take a peek at what was in level 31.

"Yes," Ivan said softly.

The pieces of the girl vanished, and another monster appeared; Ivan turned to look, but he didn't see anything.

A sudden chill washed over his body and his vision suddenly turned dark.

[Level 31, failed. Exiting the training room]

The notification suddenly appeared in front of Ivan, he blinked once and saw that he was back inside the pod in the training room.

"I died so quickly?" Ivan muttered in astonishment, he didn't even see what type of monster had appeared in level 31.

Continue your adventure with mvl

Looks like he would have to reach the next rank before coming here again, else with his current strength, he won't even know how he died.

Ivan shook his head before climbing out of the pod and heading for the door, he would worry about level 31 later.

Upon opening the door, what welcomed Ivan was a sea of trainees crowding the training room.

Immediately they saw Ivan come out, the place immediately exploded into an uproar.

"He's out! Demon Ivan is out!"

"Really, thought he was going to clear level 31 as well"

"Even if he didn't clear it, he already reached the highest record; it won't be long before he sets a new one"

"Indeed, he's so strong…"

….

Ivan was stumped by the massive crowd outside, and they were all talking about him; all eyes were on him.

Although he had expected that something like this would happen, he didn't think it would be on such a scale as this.

His expression hardened and he walked forward with calm steps.

It was a good thing that the trainees didn't dare to gather around him too much, and they all made way when Ivan walked toward them, creating a path for him to walk through.

"Troublesome," Ivan sighed after finally leaving the training room. Did they have nothing better to do with their time?

Thinking that everything was over, Ivan was about to head to the Nexus chamber underground when a figure suddenly appeared in front of him.

It was instructor Nathan.

"The tower master wants to see you," instructor Nathan said.

Ivan gazed at him motionless for a few seconds before nodding, the other party turned to lead the way to James' office.

They soon arrived at the office where they found James reading through a file.

"Take a seat," he said without looking at them.

Nathan gestured to Ivan, indicating that he was the one James was talking to. He didn't tag around any longer and left right after.

Now with the two of them left alone in the room, James lowered the file and turned his gaze towards Ivan.

"You cleared level 30" He voiced out.

"Yes," Ivan nodded.

Giving Ivan a contemplating look for a while, James asked him to tell him what happened inside the virtual space and what sort of monster he encountered.

Ivan immediately became suspicious when he heard this question, he thought for a while before saying.

"I met a strange monster with a zither…and I killed it, barely," Ivan said seriously, hiding everything about the white space.

"How did you kill it?" James pressed on. Ivan might not know, but the officials of the tower were aware that there was only a single monster on level 30, and to clear it, one needed to pass its test.

James was trying to know the content of Ivan's encounter with the little girl.

"I simply killed it" Ivan responded, not saying a single word in addition to what he had said before.

James' eyes twitched, and seeing how Ivan wasn't willing to speak up, he gave up. In the end, he didn't want to force the young man since that might leave a bad impression.

"I see, you can return them. Your training will be complete in a few days; try to make the best use of your time left; outside isn't this peaceful," James said after a moment of silence before returning to read the files he was reading before Ivan came in.

Ivan nodded and stood up to leave.

Nathan came in after Ivan left.

"Did he say anything?" He asked.

"No," James muttered in response.

"Sigh, the boy is too secretive; he doesn't trust others easily," Nathan said while rubbing his cheek.

He had reported the matter of Ivan's first team training to James. As an instructor, he was well aware of how frightening wood spirits were; especially the ones that took the roles of leaders. Their regeneration abilities were unmatched in their territories.

But Ivan had been able to kill one within half a minute's time, this had stumped Nathan. He wasn't able to see what happened because of the cocoon and Ivan had refused to disclose anything.

He reported to James in hopes that the latter could get Ivan to talk, considering their teacher-and-student relationship, but James had returned empty-handed as well.

"It's alright, we have plenty of ways to make him speak. For now, let him be and hope he opens up willingly" James said with a cold smile.

Nathan stared at him for a while before turning to leave.

After Nathan left, James raised the file and the smile on his face widened.

The files were actually paper works of Ivan's first mission after graduating.

Details…

Dreamscape, coordinate 2G12.

Mission: Scout and intelligence gathering.

Mission regulator: Ala…

….