After a while, he returned to the hotel where he was staying.
The room was still dim, the curtains drawn shut against the morning sun.
Qin Tianzhu stepped inside quietly, careful not to make a sound.
His gaze landed on the bed where his niece was still curled up, her dark hair sprawled over the pillow. Her slow, steady breaths indicated she was deep in sleep. He sighed, a faint smile tugging at his lips. "Still not awake, huh?" he murmured.
After adjusting the room temperature slightly, he pulled the covers up to her shoulders before quietly stepping out, heading towards the fitness center.
Downstairs, the receptionist greeted him with a professional smile. "Good morning, sir. May I have your room number for confirmation?"
"Room 1207," Qin Tianzhu responded smoothly.
After a quick check, she nodded, motioning toward the entrance. "You're all set. Enjoy your workout, Mr. Alexander Qin."
With a slight nod, he pushed the glass door open and entered the gym.
The space was relatively empty, save for one other occupant. A woman was already working out with the assistance of a personal trainer.
Even without makeup, she was stunning, with sharp yet delicate features, a well-toned physique, and a presence that demanded attention. However, Tianzhu barely spared her a glance upon realizing that she is a plain folk, someone without any mana.
Generally, almost 90% of awakenings happen before one reaches an adult stage, when they stop growing. 9% of awakenings happen from 18-21. And 0.99% of awakenings happen before the age of 30.
Those who crossed 30 should more or less give up on awakening their abilities. While beautiful she was, she had almost no prospect of awakening at all. But then again, not everyone goes out there and fights the monsters.
Only a fraction of awakened people become hunters. Many of them choose normal jobs and live a peaceful life. So, it doesn't matter for many, but for Tianzhu, if one doesn't have abilities, they are of no use. As for the beauty, he slept with many such beauties in his former life.
Hence, he made his way to the stretching area, not paying her any attention.
He set his bag down near the treadmill, rolled his shoulders, and began his warm-up.
The woman nearby, mid-set on a lateral raise, found her eyes drifting toward him when he was on the treadmill later. She hadn't noticed him at first, but now… it was impossible to ignore him. The rhythmic pounding of his footsteps, the way his muscles flexed under his fitted workout shirt, and that sharp, almost indifferent expression when the treadmill was going at its highest, at 56kph—it all caught her attention. It was almost like a main character from a drama. "Was he showing off to impress me or something?" She couldn't help but wonder.
Her grip on the dumbbells slackened slightly, and her trainer cleared his throat. "Miss, focus."
She blinked, snapping out of her trance. A hint of irritation crossed her face—whether at the unexpected distraction or the trainer, she wasn't sure.
Meanwhile, Tianzhu remained oblivious. He lost in his workout, focusing on burning as many calories as possible, in order to reach that Daily Mission target. Lee Hye-rin couldn't help but steal another glance and thought. "It was rare to see someone so entirely engrossed in their workout." Was he just showing off to impress her, as she originally thought? Hye-rin wondered.
If the gym had been busy with clients around, she wouldn't have bothered much, but since he was the only other person who was working out, the woman was quite distracted.
But Qin Tianzhu? He didn't remotely pay any attention to her.
After a few more minutes, he finally eased into a jog, gradually reducing the speed until he came to a stop. His breathing slowed as he stepped off the treadmill, rolling his shoulders. After resting for just about a minute, he moved on to his next routine.
Roughly, half an hour later, his attention shifted.
Hye-rin stood near the counter, sipping a shake. From the corner of her eye, she noticed him approaching.
"Here it comes. Finally…"
She had seen this scenario play out more times than she could count. It was inevitable, especially in places like this, where wealthy, young, and good-looking men often show off their physiques in workouts and linger a little too long after they were done, ending up striking up a conversation with a beauty.
It was as if she was looking forward to his approach to flirt around after showing off like that. Of course, she didn't plan on flirting back. If anything, she was preparing herself to reject his advances.
Just as she took another sip of her shake, she heard a voice, calm, even.
"Excuse me."
Hye-rin turned, half-expecting the usual smooth remark or an attempt at conversation. Instead, she was met with Tianzhu's impassive gaze.
"Could you move aside?" he said simply, his tone polite but firm. "I need to use the stair climber."
For a moment, she just stared, caught off guard. "Eh? What?"
"The Stair climber," Qin Tianzhu repeated, pointing at the machine behind her.
Then, realizing she had been standing in front of the machine without thinking, she quickly stepped aside. "Ah... sure," she muttered, her ears reddened in embarrassment.
Without another word, Qin Tianzhu adjusted the settings to max incline and continued his workout.
The woman, now idly stirring her drink, found herself watching again. This time, her gaze lingered on him quite longer.
She wasn't sure why.
Perhaps it was because she might be really impressed by his stamina. Or perhaps it was because of how effortlessly he had dismissed her presence.
Whatever it was, she found herself staring at him until her eyes glanced toward her, meeting her eyes. She immediately lowered her gaze and turned away in a hurry.
She exited the gym, heading toward the spa treatment rooms.
Tianzhu, on the other hand, continued to work out.
An hour later;
He wiped his sweat with a towel before checking the time. "1 hour 54 minutes… just under 2 hours."
Without wasting another moment, he left the gym and made his way to the 16th floor—the infinity pool in order to cool down.
*
Meanwhile, somewhere far in the suburbs, in some internet cafe, a middle-aged man with a mask covering the lower half of his face was texting someone on the dark web.
Clown Mask: Target just left her residence in casual attire.
Curator: Who is following her?
Clown Mask: Spark
Curator: Is Spark up to the task? The last few missions given to him ended up as failures.
Clown Mask: Yes, I'm aware of his reputation. That is why I didn't give him the artifact. The artifact lies with me.
Curator: Then, I suppose you will handle this by yourself?
Clown Mask: Yes, you can be assured that the target will die.
Curator: Make sure you don't miss this opportunity. The Japanese delegate is arriving on this evening flight. If Noa meets him and hands over the physical recording data of our client, our efforts will be in vain.
Clown Mask: No, I don't miss it. Don't worry. All we need is our target reaching an indoor but public location with lots of people. We will lock it down.
Curator: Be careful. Spark shouldn't get caught. Noa had the ability to extract memories.
Clown Mask: Not a problem.
*
Meanwhile, 30000ft above the sea of North Sentinel that separates the continents of Siberia and Zhonggou, a private jet was seen traveling through a heavy thunderstorm, surprisingly quite safely without being touched by the raindrops. It looked as if the rain was avoiding it because of the barrier.
In reality, it wasn't because someone was shielding the craft. Inside, Sungjun was seen in a meditative pose, practicing the technique of Mana Condensation, absorbing every bit of vitality of the rain and rogue lightning strikes around.
Meanwhile, as he subsequently refined the natural energy, his Mana reserves increased at a rapid rate. The two guards coming with him and the private stewardess assigned just continued to stare at him in silence as he was enveloped by a layer of scarlet aura.
Soon, as its color slowly turned blue, a system chime rang in Sungjun's head as a holographic screen materialized before him. His lips widened a bit as he slowly opened his eyes.
*Ding!
[Congratulations, host. Your Mana particles number reached 100,000. You broke through Tier-6.]
[You unlocked Overlord Authority's ability: Dungeon's Reins.]
"Good…" He nodded to himself but shut his eyes again.