Only I Am A Reader



Having set up his subordinates' Main Quest for the day, Leo did a quick warm-up before readjusting his breath to the minimum once again.

'I certainly feel much better.'

As the healing rays of sunlight trickled down on him, Leo slowly pedaled away with relaxation.

The sky was especially clear today and so was Leo's heart. He went through a lot and experienced many soothing elements, but there was one specific factor that truly cured all.

Time!

New worries aside, the anxiety that Leo had accumulated over the mysterious meeting was no more. It was already a thing of the past.

Although many mysteries still remained, the scope of his paranoia had definitely shrunk down!

Leo was slowly but surely striking away at the most negative aspect of his ability as a Reader, having an ocean of confused emotions…

'It feels like it will be a long day today.'

Leo eventually got to his desk even with his head in the sky, but he was only looking forward to the end of this school day.

The Union's network was far more interesting than the lessons that were already packed into his head.

That being said, Leo couldn't help flinching out of his distraction once his gaze landed in a certain direction. Yulia's eyes lighting up wasn't exactly an optimistic sign.

'Don't tell me…'

He was no longer that averse to being social, but getting involved with the class's protagonist was too much trouble. However…

'At least she has some tacit.'

Against Leo's expectations, Yulia didn't start an unnecessary commotion. She only took advantage of the moments when no one was looking to wave at him.

'We are not friends yet, but hello to you too.'

Leo could also read her silent lip movement, but he only went as far as answering Yulia in his mind.

Ring! Ringggg!

Although it felt like forever, the day was finally over. Considering that he still had to take the disguise detours, Leo was almost the first to walk out of class.

A ride home and another rollercoaster later, Leo was back at the gate of the shady warehouse supposedly rented by the thugs.

'I'm just putting this place to good use.'

Since he originally asked them to rent the place for a week to avoid suspicion, making use of that time to move more sizable objects into his Reading Space only made more sense.

Waste was no good!

"Boss! Everything is here as you ordered!"

While Leo's current funds were rather lacking to truly turn the Reading Space into his second home just yet, he only asked the thugs to buy the more necessary stuff.

In any case, making his subordinates stand out too much by overspending was equally bad for Leo.

'I can just have them liquidate more gold later if absolutely needed, but this will do for now.'

With a wave of his hand, Leo took in the comfy convertible couch, a cabinet of preserved food, and the rest of the items. The only thing left around was his new laptop and the table he was going to use it on.

After checking it out to make sure it was the right make and model, Leo also put it away as he nodded with approval.

"Hmmm… No mistakes this time either. Good work, you have achieved your target."

Aside from a single bundle that he kept around for convenience, Leo threw out the rest of the cash that he had just come to possess a few days ago.

Although it took them a great deal of effort and they had to spend most of it to buy his orders, the thugs had finally gotten the cash that tempted them to cross Leo to begin with!

"See you guys later."

The lack of hiccups made Leo extra cheerful, but his benevolent smile as left only caused one thought to resonate in the ruffian pair's minds.

'Hopefully not.'

Of course, Leo didn't care one bit about their sentiments. He would only let such useful tools go if they had become too compromising.

'This place should do.'

This time, Leo didn't have to find another confusing route back home just yet. He only wandered around a bit before finding a quiet Coffee Shop to settle in.

The first thing Leo felt once he straightened his back was a hint of nostalgia!

Smartphones and e-books weren't that readily available back when he started reading online, so Leo had spent a substantial amount of time reading while sitting in front of a large monitor.

Most of the time, he would let his body slide into the chair until he suddenly noticed or was reminded by someone to straighten himself back up…

'Let's do this quickly.'

Doing a general bug scan, setting up a few imperative software… Leo had to spend an additional hour before he could finally start following the Union Card's instructions.

He would have preferred doing all of this in the Reading Space, but unlike the lack of electricity which could be easily solved, a Wi-Fi signal couldn't be delivered to another plane.

'It's definitely newbie friendly.'

One wasn't required to have any advanced knowledge to reach the target as they didn't adopt any advanced masking methods.

Rather, they followed Leo's approach in just making more detours to distract the unguided intruders!

'This is…'

The page that opened up didn't look that fancy. In fact, it could be barely considered decent. As Leo ran his eyes through its content, he only came to one conclusion.

'I'm not sure if this could even be called a network at this point.'

It looked no different from a copy-pasted online forum!

If the person who accessed the site didn't know what he was doing, they would only think they had chanced upon a discussion board for some obscure game with a cult following!

It was just that strange without any context…

'...A viable method of disguise.'

One didn't always have to use intricate measures to deal with the task at hand, hiding in plain sight was often more effective than its complex alternatives.

'Interesting…'

Leo had a few specific objectives for entering the network in mind. However, he couldn't resist randomly browsing the posts, especially the ones that had such provoking titles.

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[ Role Call, Lol! ] - OPMC66

Hello everyone! What Role did you get? Let's exchange information.

Share your Role and I will share mine so we can help each other out and make teams!

PS: My Role is both interesting and OP, you wouldn't be disappointed!

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Comments:

1. Sleepy_Potato: Who the heck is this dumbo?

2. PointingUpward...

3....

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'Something like this is possible?'

This was one truly toxic Forum…