It had already been two weeks since Lucien’s school was summoned to the other world. Several high schools throughout Japan also experienced the same as Arifu High School --- Everyone in the school suddenly vanished.

What even more weird was that this incident only happened in Japan. Many people, mostly ones who watched anime, had speculated that they were summoned to other worlds just like Lucien stupidly thought.

However, no one spoke out that the theory was stupid. Both monsters and awakened powers were all the substances from animes and fantasy movies. Having the high school students summoned to another world, which was a mainstream anime category nowadays, sounded possible somehow for a lot of people.

How can Earth become even more absurd?

Of course, the theory alone couldn’t manage to calm down the parents of those students. However, they couldn’t do anything but to believe that children weren’t dead.

“Lu-chan, you were almost summoned to another world again!”

That day, Kathlene cried in tears and hugged him. Losing her son once was enough for her.

Lucien also asked Alicia about the incident. Although she wasn’t an expert in magic compared to other angels, she was matchless on Earth.

“How did you know, Lulu? They really were summoned to another world, I can feel the traces of spatial energy in this place!”

Thankfully, Alicia was able to tell that the target world wasn’t Abyss. Feeling relieved, Lucien thought of his only friend, Shiori senpai. He hoped she would be alright.

As for Rina… sigh…

Lucien didn’t hate her either so he hoped she would be safe. If it wasn’t for her weird obsession with him, they might be able to truly be friends.

“It’s all that main character’s aura fault.”

The culprit of this whole thing was, of course, Kiyomori Shin. His aura dragged the whole school together with him.

Right now, Lucien was sitting on the floor somewhere. Beside him was a large circular gate with many locks presented. As he needed to wait for someone to open the gate, he was currently watching the videos on his phone.

“I regret waking up late so much!”

“Should I follow my classmates by the alternative route, truck-san?”

Well, it was the interview with those who were like him, someone who woke up late and didn’t get caught up in the occurrence. Many of them were, instead, regretted.

Just like the Chinese youths, knowing the existence of the sects and martial arts, the Japanese youths were crazy about going to another world. Their fever from bloodline(?) was simply incomprehensible.

Several students had already jumped to the road and got hit by the trucks, hoping they would be summoned too. However, they were all dead, breaking all the parents’ hearts.

The most unlucky people were the truck driver as they were all sent to jail for ‘killing’ a high school student.

Just… What the fuck!?

A lot of rational people, including Lucien, couldn’t help curse out loud seeing the news articles.

Now, every truck and big vehicle had stuck several pillows at the bumper, making it as soft as possible, and ran with only 30 kilometers per hour or even slower to make sure the kids won’t die from being hit.

As for the numerous sects, popping out of nowhere, in China, there were already almost a hundred of them. Many wuxia novels fans from all over the world had traveled to China to walk on the path of cultivation.

Although the Chinese government wanted to smile ear to ear from all the incoming money, they couldn’t do so. The sects, received the support from citizens, were wrecking havoc, demanding selfishly for something like not paying tax.

The government also couldn’t let people carry weapons around as it would threaten the security of the country. The higher-ups were having so much headache right now. Although the laws in China were very strict and they always dealt with the criminals harshly, the number of the martial artists was just too many!

Moreover, what infuriating the government was that the monsters were all taken care of by these sects. Even a five years old kid knew how precious the monsters’ bodies were, the government couldn’t bear to part with them so the military had crashed with the sects a few times over the monsters.

Meanwhile, except for the high school accident, Japan had been very peaceful in the past two weeks. No monster had appeared at all. Yep, none.

To be exact, no monster had appeared since the incident at Okinawa. One of the professors who had been studying about the monsters had connected it with the theory of the conservation of energy.

The professor said that for a monster to appear, there was a need for fuel. In fantasy wording, that fuel could be called mana or magic power. And the monsters raid in Okinawa had used up all the fuel supplied in Japan.

“This guy is quite smart, huh, Lulu.”

“He is Professor Dunkin Boren from Harvard University. I heard he had been quite famous for his theories lately. So is the monster made from mana? Or is it aether?”

“It is mana. Aether is only related to the system, including skills and status. The monsters with no sentience were all born from mana. It is a bit complex but, to get stronger, those monsters also need aether as a fuel.”

In the past two weeks, except for the occasional spar with Alicia, Lucien had been reading the high school textbooks because his parents wanted him to have at least high school knowledge if he didn’t want to go to school anymore.

It had only been yesterday that Lucien finished reading all the books and remembered its content. His reading speed was insanely fast and it became even faster and faster as his Reading skill grew.

Lucien could feel that, somehow, this Reading skill grew faster than other skills. Or was it normal? He wasn’t sure. Even Alicia didn’t know as she didn’t read the book that much. She didn’t even have a Reading skill.

She said some skills were restricted by level and Reading was one of them. It was only for beginners. Moreover, when the system hit the world, people would be busy fighting monsters. Who would have time to read!? Even a kid would learn how to fight before reading.

After an eight-hour test overseen his dad last night to test the eight main subjects, including English, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Japanese, Social Studies, and History, Lucien got a high school diploma from his dad.

Stevan said the diploma was guaranteed by the Ministry of Education of Japan and Lucien could use it to register in any university in the future.

“Darling, our Lu-chan has grown up…”

“Dear…”

“...”

His parents both shred tears as Lucien received the diploma from his dad. ‘Do you need to be that exaggerating!?’

Lucien could only look at them speechlessly.

Thud! Thud!

Back to the current situation, Lucien slowly stood up as he saw a man in a black suit and a pair of sunglasses walked in his way. The man, holding a suitcase, didn’t seem to see Lucien as he opened the thick iron gate next to him.

Click!

After a series of mechanic sounds, with a click, the door was opened. Lucien followed the man inside and found hundreds of small metallic cupboards on the wall.

The man took out a ring of keys and opened one of the furthest cupboards. Then, he put the suitcase inside and closed them. After checking that everything was alright, he left the room.

Without realizing, his keys were already in Lucien’s hand. Lucien took his time opening all the cupboards. The keys had the serial number inscribed on them so it wasn’t hard for him to find the right one.

Lucien then put all the stuff in his small pink pouch. After clearing the room clean, he walked out of the room leisurely as the thick door could be opened from the inside.

There were hundreds of CCTV and invisible detecting lasers along the way, however, none of them could detect Lucien’s presence.

Upon walking out of the basement, he continued and left the estate. With a sigh, Lucien turned his head back and looked at the front wooden gate.

The place he was at was one the largest yakuza base in Japan. With a humongous Japanese traditional building, there were thousands of yakuza residing here but none could sense Lucien since he walked in.

“Sorry, guys. These are bad money anyway…”

When Lucien reached his home, it was already 6 pm. The place was quite far and Lucien spent most of his time waiting for someone to open the treasury. Although he could conceal himself from security cameras and lasers, he couldn’t open the thick gate himself.

Of course, he could break in the wall but he wanted the yakuza to realize that their treasury had been cleaned up as late as possible.

“How was it, son?” asked Stevan who was watching TV in the living room with a smile.

Lucien didn’t say anything and took out stacks out money and mountains of gold and jewelry on the floor.

“What the…”

Stevan was shocked silly at the sight. His mouth opened and closed for a minute before he calmed down. “It’s only been 6 hours, right?”

“Of course, didn’t you see me off yourself after lunch?”

Lucien smiled at his dad’s shocked face and said, “So… is it enough?”

With a sigh, Stevan gave Lucien a small tablet and said,

“Welcome to the Crimson Forest, son.”