-Radiant-

I thought about switching my [Deceive] Skill to active as I grappled with the fact that the Proctor was watching me for some reason. Although [Deceive] wasn't currently one of my three active Skills, it wasn't hindered too much by this, since most of the insights gained from the levels had been completely internalized and understood by this point; so although I wasn't getting any major bonuses from the Skill levels, I wasn't getting any negative modifiers either.

The man, who I decided to call the Watcher from here on, must've determined something about me back at the train station, and was following me to confirm or deny whatever that was.

Having stalled in place for longer than I had initially expected, I felt space ripple and Lucky appear behind me. I turned around and saw that Lucky was soaked to the bone and dripping with water.

I raised my eyebrow, "Lucky? Why are you soaked with water?"

Lucky seemed surprised to see me standing there, "Brother Silver? I thought you would've already left by now."

"Well, I was just appreciating the view from here. What about you?" He was dripping water everywhere, his fingers like pale hanging stalactites slowly dripping drops of water by his side. He reached his hands up to brush his dark hair, that looked like rich mud, out of his eyes.

He smiled, "Hehe," His teeth were clattering and he was shivering a bit, "I f-figured that this was the perfect chance to enjoy the vortex. I don't have any materials on me that shouldn't get wet, and I felt that it was a great way to commemorate my finishing of the test."

I shook my head, his happy go lucky attitude bringing a bit of the sting out of my current sticky situation, "That explains why you're soaking wet. I might've invited you to get something to eat, but I think you should soak in the sun for a bit."

"Y-Yeah, maybe next time huh?"

I smiled, "Next time."

I tried to be as casual as I could as I turned and walked towards one of the surrounding four floating rivers, that seemingly disappeared as they touched the floating island we were on. Though I knew the water flowed into the Dungeon.

Although my mind was still racing and trying to come up with plans and countermeasures to get rid of the Watcher, I couldn't afford to give away any clues to the fact that I knew I was being watched.

Speaking of food. Going to a mall or some kind of food court could be a good place to lose the Watcher.

My [Space-Time Sense] was already in my active Skill slot, since having such a hard to defend against sensory Skill active was always a good idea in a Dungeon. So I didn't have to physically look at the Watcher with my eyes as I walked casually towards the wooden platform on the floating river.

I stepped out onto the wooden platform and it was like I had stepped out from a black hole. The sounds and smells of the city came alive all around me along with the sound of water gushing into the void below me. Behind me, my [Space-Time Sense] was fighting to keep both the outside world and the inside of the Dungeon in my senses, like trying to focus on two different sides of a wall between your nose, but once I completely left the floating interim island my spatial sense was also completely cut off from there.

But I knew that the Watcher could still see all of my actions from inside, so I pretended to look back at the Dungeon and seem a bit disoriented before continuing forward.

All I need to do is lose this Watcher. It should be easy to do in a city right?

-Break-

It wasn't easy.

Despite all of my past experience evading others in my past life, this Watcher seemed to be extremely competent and skilled. No matter how many times I seemed to lose him, he still seemed to pop up out of nowhere after a short while.

So I had to resort to less casual ways of losing the Watcher while making it look like an accident. This guy was obviously not playing around, and he seemed to have no intentions of communicating with me despite me giving him a few opportunities to do so.

I sighed as I walked out of a bustling clothing store after paying for a slew of different outfits. Although I hadn't been idle during my efforts to evade the Watcher, I couldn't get to the most important task that I had planned for today.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

That was. Getting access to 'my' new black market account. Which I could then use to gamble with.

I wasn't much of a gambler myself, but it wasn't really gambling if I knew who was going to win. Although I had originally come back to the past from the future, bringing back information like who would win what competition, and other ways to earn some quick credits, wasn't the most reliable way to earn money. So I hadn't really bothered in the past. Instead I had brought back information on different companies and investments I could make long term, and it had definitely paid off.

But with access to a premium black market account, (something that took me a long time to get even in my past life on the run) 'illegal gambling' was now on the table.

That was, of course, if I could actually get access to 'my' black market account.

The true black market organization, or The Obsidian Acropolis, wasn't something that could be casually accessed by walking to some shady marketplace. It required a specific Obsidian Acropolis data chip to be installed in a Cell in order to be authorized to interact with their people, and using any Cell other than a completely secure one was, lets just say, less than recommended.

So I needed to head over to a local black market operated in Tri-Heart City, and get myself a secure Cell and an Obsidian Acropolis data chip, before I could actually gamble. Or as I liked to think of it, exploiting my future knowledge.

Which all circled back around to the annoying Watcher following me around. With him around I couldn't very well head over to the black market and blatantly link my light and dark identities together right in front of him.

Ugh, so annoying. If I want to get rid of him I'm going to have to reveal some of my Skills and abilities, but I have to do it without compromising my Experience Silver persona. I don't want 'Experience Silver' to show any spatial abilities, since it would stand out too much, and showing any clandestine skills or spells are bound to draw a lot of suspicion, especially after I start properly thieving in this city.

So Space magic and blatant use of concealment magic is off the table. Just perfect.

I tried to brainstorm solutions as I walked down into one of the nearby tunnels, which was intertwined with metal and infested with the neon that was oh so common in this city. With my deepening connection with Rebee (the baby Restless Ruby Tree), I could slightly sense the minds of everyone I passed, since I hadn't bothered to take away the spatial opening between my spatial pouch and the tree that I had been using in the Dungeon.

My thoughts paused as I caught this small detail. Maybe I don't have to refrain from using concealment magic after all. If I blast everyone in my surroundings with a mental attack and then conceal myself with magic, then there won't be any evidence to suggest that it was anything but my mental abilities that allowed me to disappear.

I nodded my head very slightly. Yeah, as long as I make it obvious that I used a wide area mental attack, then the Watcher won't know I'm onto them either. I'll have to make sure there aren't any recording devices or anything where I disappear, but as long as I get this Watcher off of my back, then looking out for recording devices isn't difficult.

I had already determined throughout the day that the Watcher wasn't recording me, so as long as I determined that nobody else was recording then everything should go smoothly.

-Break-

It didn't go smoothly.

Why do I always jinx myself? Though I guess my luck is terrible regardless, so I might as well hope for the best. It's better than being depressed.

I shook my head as I had just barely managed to find the right situation to enact my plan and lose the Watcher. I was currently invisible and undetectable to pretty much any casual observation, walking at a brisk pace through the city.

As it turns out, in a city with a lot of people, each with their own Cell, it was almost impossible to get to a point where there was nobody around me that was possibly recording with those Cells.

It took me the better part of the day to finally find the right conditions, and now I was rushing over to the local black market on foot. I didn't take an autonav, since I had been heading in the general direction of the black market all day, and was already nearby.

After about fifteen minutes I made it to the entrance of a lively club with a large sign above the entrance that read 'Night Club Renjude'.

There were a few guards at the entrance, keeping everything running smoothly. I didn't feel like standing in line though, so I invisibly walked in behind one of the people that was being let inside.

Walking inside, it was the lively atmosphere of music that hit me first, with an eclectic variety of patrons dancing and sitting around coming second. Making avoiding touching others somewhat difficult.

I didn't particularly enjoy such places, so I did my best to ignore my discomfort as I made my way through the building, towards where the entrance to the black market was according to the instructions in the future message.

While walking, I took out the artifact mask I had bought and put it on. Although I was currently invisible, I wouldn't really be able to buy anything in this state. So a mask was essential to keep my identity secret.

I could obviously just steal what I wanted, pretty easily in fact, but I wasn't some kind of monster that didn't pay for things I could obviously afford. Though I will admit, with my kleptic tendencies I sometimes had a hard time adhering to those standards. But, stealing in a black market is a good recipe for disaster. Down in the black market, the rules of a civilized society are only applicable until someone breaks them, and I didn't want to be on the receiving end of someone's anger again. It had happened one too many times, and that last one had left me sufficiently repentant.

So I would be a good citizen and pay for my things properly in this illegal black market, before then proceeding to illegally gamble. Sometimes I had to wonder why the government would try to lock up such a good guy like me.

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