Cecile's room was closed, so Crow knocked on the door, but even after a minute had passed, she hadn't answered, so he opened the door, to be met with a pillow to the face, of course, since he was a C ranker, and his little sister was only a normal D ranker, he could have avoided that, but, he didn't.
"Get out! I don't want to see your face now!", said the purple-haired girl, who was sitting on her bed, with an angry expression plastered on her face. Crow smiled, as he put the pillow on a chair beside him, then walked over, and sat close to her.
"Do you really want this to be how we leave it? I won't be coming back for a while, it might even be a year before we see each other again! at the very least give me a hug, will you?", asked her Crow, as he opened his arms preparing for a hug.
Instead, he got punched in the shoulder by her, she put her whole strength into that punch, still, it was her hand that hurt afterward, Crow didn't feel a thing from her punch.
"Dammit! why are you so strong?", complained Cecile, as she held her hand tightly, feeling a bit of pain at the moment. Her expression seemed to be softening up a bit. Crow chuckled a bit, then said, "Shouldn't that make you less worried about me?".
Cecile hugged him, and said, her voice quivering, "Don't you dare not come back! that's an order, you hear me soldier?", Crow smiled at his little sister, and played along, as he saluted her, and said, "Yes Miss!".
Crow then spent the rest of the day with her, and with his best friend Mark, they talked for a while, ate pizza as dinner, and even watched a movie. When tomorrow came, Crow took the death sword from the basement and was now at the entrance to his home.
In front of him, were his little sister, Cecile, and his best friend, Mark, the three of them were saying their goodbyes. Crow was wearing everything black at the moment, he had a black leather jacket on, black jeans, and black shoes as well.
Only his face and the shirt he wore under the jacket were white, he had always preferred the black color, and even more so now, that not only is his main weapon for fighting is a black sword, but even his ability, the Night Walker ability's first level, allows him to see in darkness.
By the way, he was proficient with swords and katanas, it wasn't like he just got one now, his father had trained him in the art of the sword since childhood, that was, of course, done, so Crow could be familiar with using swords, whenever he would eventually give him the death sword.
It also had to be said, that this sword couldn't be used by anyone aside from Crow, since the sword couldn't be used by just anyone, instead, it had to be used by someone acknowledged by the last user, it also had to be mentioned, that Crow's father, created the death sword, and it was him, who installed that rule in it, to not allow anyone but him, and those he deemed fit, to be able to use such a strong weapon.
Crow looked at both Cecile, and Mark, as he said, "Well...I am going now!".
Mark smiled, "Show them your strength, and come back to us, okay?", Crow also smiled, as he shook hands with his best friend while nodding at the same time. He then reminded him again, "Keep Cecile and mom safe, will you?".
Though, before Mark could say anything, Crow's little sister, Cecile spoke first, "Hmm! I can keep myself and mom safe, I don't need this idiots protection in the least!", Mark immediately turned to look at her, and said, "Oh yeah? I remember you coming to me for protection when you were about to be beaten by an older girl last year? so?".
Cecile's face reddened from embarrassment, as she quickly punched him in the shoulder, and screamed at him in anger, "You promised you would keep that a secret, you bastard!".
"Well, you started it first, also, don't punch me again little girl!", replied Mark, but this seemed to only further anger Cecile, as she screamed at him again, "YOU! who are you calling a little girl? I am 18 years old! I am an adult already, you stupid monkey!".
Their fighting continued for a while, as Crow just watched the two of them, a warm smile appearing on his face. After about two minutes had passed, he cut them off, and said, "Well! I am going now!".
Mark stopped, looked at him, and said, "Take care Crow!", as for Cecile, some tears could be seen forming in her eyes, but she immediately brushed them off, as she said, "Take care!".
with that, Crow finally left his home, his destination, the administration building of the Reader's Challenges game.
...
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A while later, Crow was seen entering a large building, with a big sign on it, on which was written, "The Reader's Challenges". This was the building used to register inside this city, it was quite a large one, with over 60 floors, high up in the air, some airships could be spotted flying from, and into the building's rooftop.
Crow had taken a cab to get here, this was a pretty well-known place inside the city, so he just needed to say, take me to the Reader's Challenges building, and let the driver do his job, after all, who didn't know about the Reade's Challenges at this day and age.
The driver didn't ask him if he wanted to join or not, and Crow was thankful for that, as he didn't really like talking much. He was a very different person when not around his family and friends, he was a cold menacing person.
The air around him was a shilling, making everyone who wanted to talk to him, stop, he also spoke in a cold voice, and didn't smile. If someone didn't look at him, they might even mistake him for a completely different person.
Especially now, he was always a cold person when alone, but today, he seemed to be even more than usual, that was due to him taking the mentality, that he mustn't care about anyone anymore, after all, he was going to enter a game where you needed to compete with others to win.
He would also, probably have to kill during his stay here, this wasn't anything new for him, he had already killed someone a few years ago, this happened because that guy had tried to rob him, Crow fought back, but the person pulled a gun on him, in the end, Crow ended up killing this person with a pen he had with him.
From that day, he didn't fear killing, he, of course, didn't want to kill, since he wasn't a murderer, but wouldn't hesitate if it came to it.
Inside the building, there existed many people wandering about, some were also here to register, some worked here, and some were just looking at some pictures displayed on the walls.
Crow didn't pay any of them any attention, as he continued until he reached a desk, with a small plate, where "Register officer", could be read on it. There was a beautiful middle-aged woman there, she had blonde hair and wore work attire.
Crow reached her, and said, "Hey there! I would like to participate in the Reader's Challenges, is this where I register?". The woman looked up from the papers she was signing and greeted him with a warm smile.
"Yes, you can register here, you will need to pay 10 thousand twisters, and sign this here!", she gave him, a small document, that included about five pages. and showed him where he needed to sign, she then pointed to a row of chairs, and said, "You can read them at your leisure there, when you finish, sign them and bring them to me, as fot the money, we accept cash, but also credit cards, if that's what you prefer using!".
Crow took the small document, nodded, and went to the row of chairs. He sat on a normal-looking one and started going through the five-page document, there were many conditions, he had to agree to, most of them were normal, but some stood out to him.
The one that stood out the most to him, read as follows, "After you enter the Reader's Challenges game, there is a risk of your death, in case that happens, 1 million twisters will be given to the person you sign their name here, but you have to agree that it isn't our fault you died, and no one can charge us for that!".
'Hah! I already heard about this beforehand, but reading it now, definitely gives me some shivers!'. He then proceeded to sign his little sister's name on it, Cecile Rovern.
Crow got up from his seat, and returned to the middle-aged woman, he returned the document to her, she took a few glances to check that he had signed and that everything was correct, then waited for him, as he used his credit card to pay up the 10 thousand twisters needed.
After that, the middle-aged woman smiled at him, and said, "Good! you're good to go now, sir, you have officially joined the Reader's Challenges game, proceed to the elevator, and go to the 60th floor, there, you will meet agent Walker, and he will take you to the first world of the nine, Savara".
Crow nodded, and thanked her, then went toward the elevator, which was a normal elevator you would see inside any such large building like this, there was already someone waiting for it there.
It was a young woman, she appeared to be in her twenties, was beautiful, had green hair, and a sportive body, she wore running attire, and it seemed like she was a new participant as well.