Chapter 23: At the theme park

Chapter 23 - At the theme parkAlex was shocked when he saw the money and was about to return it. Although he had easily made over six million Zen the previous day, the same could not be said for his parents.

Five hundred Zen was a little too much to spend on snacks, only children from rich backgrounds could afford such lifestyles. A family like theirs could spend five hundred Zen for a few days.

Seeing Alex about to return the money, his mother immediately stopped him.

"Don't you dare refuse, your father agreed to this. It's also his way of congratulating you for reaching the Adept mage rank. So go out and have fun, you can repay us by doing well in the academy." She said with a smile and immediately escaped into the kitchen.

Alex stood petrified on the spot with his eyes fixed on the money in his hand. To him, it was not something worth mentioning but he knew how hard it must have cost his parents. Not to mention that they were still in debt and might lose their home.

Alex clenched his hand, squeezing the money in the process. He had come to a decision, he had to think of a way to give his parents the money that he had made yesterday and he had to do that soon!

Alex returned to the living room to wait for his sister, Emily came down after some time. She had changed into a pretty long blue gown that reached just above her ankles, and a pair of black shoes covered her feet; on her head was also a light blue hat.

Her appearance screamed cute as she blinked at Alex.

The perfect little sister!

"I'm ready," Emily said with a look of excitement on her face. She wasn't as calm as her usual self, Alex guessed that she must have been looking forward to the theme park since he made that promise.

He wondered what would have happened if he had left before she realised it and had missed the chance to take her.



Alex couldn't help but shiver, he didn't want to think about it!

"Alright, let's go." Alex stretched out one of his hands for Emily, and the latter held it; both of them walked out of the house together.

.....

At the union, in a spacious office that was even larger than the room where Alex had taken out all of his beast corpses.

In this office, a long executive desk was fixed into the ground in the centre of the room, with multiple seats placed on both sides. A few people sat around one end of the desk with a figure sitting on the main seat.

If Alex was here, he would have recognised one of them. Sitting on one of the main seats that was right next to the main seat was Owen who had attended to Alex the previous day.

Sitting opposite him was a beautiful woman who seemed to be in her late twenties and had sexy eyes and long hair.

Her name was Silvia and she was the second elder of the Balon city union branch.

All of the people present were important figures of the union branch. Sub-elder Lance was also present as well, and he was wearing a long brown coat.

As for the others, they were the two men who had assisted the man in a leather jacket with killing the mutated rank magic beast the previous day. They were the remaining two of the three sub-elders of the union branch.

The person seated on the main seat, wearing a brown leather jacket and black sunglasses, was the branch leader of this union branch, branch leader Clint.

All of them currently had serious expressions, they had listened to Owen's story about how he had met a mysterious Mr Chen and everything that had happened between them.



The others, except Lance and Owen, had reacted strongly after listening to the story; they understood the meaning behind the appearance of the void rock.

"Let me see it," branch leader Clint spoke up.

Lance reached into his cloak and brought out the small void rock before tossing it over to the other party.

Branch leader Clint caught the void rock with two of his fingers before inspecting it deeply. He could sense the packed but scattered mana within the transparent piece of rock, it was indeed a void rock!

"This Mr Chen, have you tried to run a background check on him? Is there any powerful Mr Chen in the union's database?" Branch leader Clint raised his eyes to look at Owen.


The union was like a government body that looked after the affairs of mages and non-mages so it was normal for them to have information on almost everyone in the entire country.

"I did, but there's no one at all with such a name, not even non-mages; the name doesn't even belong to this continent," Owen answered.

"Does that mean he's someone from a different continent? Could he be a criminal who's running away?" Silvia, the second elder, added.

"We can't be sure, a criminal won't try to do things the way he did. Especially when he's already powerful enough that elder Owen can't see through him, he could have found a remote town instead and easily enslaved everyone." A man with a thick beard spoke up. He was one of the three sub elders and his name was Marco.

"Hmmm, no matter what the truth might be. We must not do anything that would make him realise that we are suspicious of him, we have to at least know his rank." Lance stated and everyone nodded in agreement.

"We'll have to wait for him to come again and try to interact with him. Until we know his real purpose, he's someone who can get a void rock so his strength can be helpful; we can use him as long as we provide a good reward.

For now, no one is allowed to leave the city. Marco and Silvia, take teams of Union explorers and scout the area outside the border for any abnormality. Ignore beasts below the transformed rank, report back immediately if you find anything strange." Branch leader Clint voiced out.



"Understood," Marco and Silvia answered in unison.

"Everyone else can go back to your normal duties."

....

"Big brother, let's go on that ride next!"

"Big brother, let's take a picture together!"

"AHH, big brother, this haunted house is too scary!"

Emily dragged Alex through the crowd of people as they went from one fun place to another. The theme park had been closed for a while after some mages made a report that a magic beast might be living there.

The place had been closed down for more than a year as they carried out the investigation. The beast had finally been discovered and it turned out to be a Three-colored rabbit, causing many people to sigh in relief.

The beast had been captured and taken away by the explorers while the Union made sure that no other beast was in the area.

The reopening of the theme park was a huge event for the residents of Balon City, and almost everyone had come since it was the weekend; the place was even more packed than normal days in the past!

"That was fun," Emily giggled happily while holding Alex's hand, they had just come out from a ride that she had found very thrilling.

Alex, on the other hand, felt that the ride was very slow and boring.