One man even walked straight through the place where she was lying without reacting in the slightest.
It was as though she didn’t exist.
Ben looked around the café.
No one else seemed to have noticed.
He slowly lowered his coffee cup.
His gaze shifted toward the receptionist behind the counter.
She was looking at him with a puzzled expression.
"Is everything alright, Mr. Parker?" she asked.
Ben forced a smile.
"Yeah... I’m fine."
He looked back toward the street.
The woman was gone.
There was no damaged road.
No sword.
Nothing.
Only ordinary people going about their day.
Ben frowned.
"As I thought..."
He looked down at the coffee in his hand.
"There’s definitely something inside this."
He placed the cup back on the table without taking another sip.
"I’ve never hallucinated before."
He leaned back in his chair and stared at the dark liquid.
"Maybe they accidentally mixed something into it."
Just as he was considering asking for another cup, a familiar mechanical voice echoed inside his mind.
[Emergency Mission Detected.]
Ben froze.
His eyes widened as he looked at the mission that had suddenly appeared before him.
[Emergency Mission Detected]
[Mission: Rescue the Woman]
Difficulty: Hard
Description:Rescue the woman you just witnessed crashing onto the pavement. A tracking compass has been provided to locate her.
Time Limit:Until she dies.
Reward:Awakening Potion.
Ben stared at the screen.
"What the fuck..."
"So that wasn’t a hallucination after all."
His gaze shifted to the reward.
"Awakening Potion..."
"What exactly is it supposed to awaken?"
He suddenly became excited.
"Don’t tell me... it can awaken my mana?"
Without wasting another second, Ben stood up.
As he walked toward the exit, the waitress called out to him.
"Mr. Parker?"
Ben stopped and turned around.
"Yes?"
"Is everything alright? You didn’t even touch your coffee."
It was unusual for him. Ben always finished his coffee, and sometimes even ordered a second cup.
Ben smiled apologetically.
"Yeah. Sorry, Maya. Something suddenly came up."
Maya nodded with a gentle smile.
"It’s okay. Fortunately, I hadn’t prepared another cup yet."
"See you tomorrow."
"See you."
Ben left the café and immediately looked at the glowing compass floating before him.
The golden arrow slowly rotated before pointing toward the east.
Without hesitation, Ben got into his car and followed its direction.
Meanwhile, inside the café, Maya picked up the untouched cup of coffee from Ben’s table.
A small smile appeared on her face.
"So... it worked?"
She looked at the remaining coffee inside the cup.
Earlier that morning, she had secretly mixed a tiny amount of a special potion into it.
The potion didn’t harm the drinker.
Its only effect was to temporarily allow ordinary people to perceive the hidden world.
If someone could naturally see the hidden world after drinking it, it meant they possessed the talent to enter that world.
Maya had been curious about Ben for a long time.
He was handsome, kind, successful, and close to her age.
She had wanted to know whether he had the potential to become an Awakened.
"If he can see it..."
A faint blush appeared on her face.
"Then maybe I can finally ask him out."
Completely unaware of Maya’s little scheme, Ben drove through the city while following the glowing compass.
He had no idea that the mysterious woman he had seen crashing onto the street wasn’t a random illusion.
Nor did he know that the reason he had seen her in the first place was because someone had secretly spiked his coffee—not out of malice, but because of a girl’s determination to find out whether the man she liked belonged to the hidden world.
Only then could she date him without breaking the laws that governed the hidden world.
Ben kept driving as the golden compass floated in front of him, constantly adjusting its direction.
About fifteen minutes later, the arrow suddenly stopped.
"It should be around here."
Ben parked his car and stepped outside.
The area was quiet, with only a few abandoned warehouses nearby.
As he followed the compass around one of the buildings, he finally found the woman.
She was leaning against a broken wall, her breathing weak. Her black armor was badly damaged, and blood stained the ground beneath her.
Before Ben could approach, something enormous landed between them.
Boom!
The ground shook slightly.
Ben’s eyes widened.
Standing before him was a massive black dog nearly two stories tall.
Its body was covered in burning black flames, and three pairs of glowing red eyes stared directly at her. Sharp fangs protruded from its mouth as dark fire leaked from between its teeth.
"What the..."
Ben instinctively took a step back.
"Don’t tell me..."
"Is this one of those worlds like Harry Potter, where magic exists but ordinary people know nothing about it?"
The giant beast let out a low growl.
Ben swallowed.
"Forget that. I need to save her first."
He hurriedly opened his Sign-In System.
[Inventory]
Hundreds of rewards filled the list.
Magic spells.
Weapons.
Potions.
Ancient scrolls.
Rare materials.
Ben quickly scrolled through everything.
"I have to have something useful."
"Come on..."
"A bomb... a magical weapon... anything."
Unfortunately, most of the items required mana to use.
Just as he was about to give up, his eyes landed on one particular item.
[Binding Contract Scroll]
Description:A one-time magical contract capable of subduing any target. Does not require mana to activate.
Ben’s eyes lit up.
"This might actually work."
He didn’t know the woman.
He had never met her before today.
But the mission reward was the Awakening Potion, and he wasn’t about to let it slip away.
Without hesitation, he took out the old parchment.
The scroll was covered with strange black ink and symbols that seemed to move on their own.
"Please work."
The giant dog, which was just about to bite the unconscious woman, suddenly stopped.
All three of its heads slowly turned toward Ben.
Earlier, it had completely ignored him.
To the creature, Ben was nothing more than an ordinary human who didn’t possess even a shred of mana.
But now...
It sensed danger.