Night had completely fallen, plunging the hotel room into a silence so profound that Jennifer's rhythmic breathing seemed to fill everything.
Leif, sitting on the edge of the bed, watched her sleep, his gaze softened by tenderness.
He reached out and stroked her delicate shoulder with slow, careful movements, afraid to disturb the absolute tranquility that enveloped them.
Restless, he got up after a while and walked to the window, peering into the outside darkness.
!
It was then that, accidentally, his gaze caught three shadows moving furtively toward the woods behind the building. These figures, silhouetted under the pale moonlight, gave him a suspicious air that awakened a sudden suspicion in him.
Following their path with his eyes, Leif strained his vision and made out something more: deep in the grove, an intermittent glow shone faintly, like a beacon that seemed to be calling him.
Curiosity was stronger than caution. Without stopping to doubt, he quickly got dressed, grabbed his phone, and opened the door as stealthily as possible before darting toward the woods, guided solely by that glow.
He quickly traversed the undergrowth, crunching branches and dry leaves under his feet, until he finally reached the source of the mystery.
There, the three figures he had seen from the window were preparing to descend into a strange hollow in the ground.
Leif turned on his phone's flashlight, bathing them in the beam of light, and raised his voice: "Hey! What are you doing? This is a private place!"
Seeing themselves discovered by the light and hearing the shout, the three individuals turned in a panic and, without saying a word, took off in a desperate flight, disappearing into the thicket.
?
Leif was perplexed, muttering as he approached the hole: "They already left...? I thought they'd argue a bit."
It was in that precise instant, as he peered into the opening, that a memory struck him with the force of a revelation: the scene was identical to one from the movie "Chronicle."
He remembered perfectly that, in the plot, a mysterious crystal capable of granting telekinetic powers was hidden beneath an apparently ordinary forest.
The certainty of that thought dispelled any remaining doubt and, moved by an irrepressible impulse, he leaped down into the mysterious hole in one jump.
Inside the cave, a smell of dampness and rotten leaves floated in the stale air.
Leif advanced carefully, following the narrow passage for a time that felt uncertain, until a strange light began to form at the end of the tunnel.
As he got closer, a crystalline object was finally revealed before him: it was immense, much larger than he had ever imagined, and it was emitting a mysterious glow...
Driven by an excitement he could barely contain, he slowly extended both hands until he placed them on the crystal.
!
But the exact instant his skin made contact, an emotionless voice suddenly resonated in his mind.
[Acquisition of Telekinesis]
[Telekinesis +1+1+1+1+1….]
[Telekinesis. Grade: EX.]
Just as the echo of that last word faded in his head, the crystal, which had previously emitted a light, turned an intense red and began to flash violently, releasing an increasingly blinding glow.
The change was immediate.
Pieces of stone began to break off the cave walls and the entire tunnel began to shake, threatening to collapse.
A panic seized Leif as he understood that something was going terribly wrong, which made him turn and run with all his might toward the exit, while behind him the deafening roar of collapsing rocks resonated.
With a final desperate push, he leaped out of the tunnel just in time.
He landed heavily on the forest floor and, as he gasped for air, he turned to look back.
To his astonishment, the tunnel from just seconds before had vanished without a trace, as if the earth had swallowed the entrance or it had never existed.
In its place, there was only completely flat ground, surrounded by immutable silence.
...
Leif returned to the hotel dragging a weariness that weighed on every muscle.
He moved with the greatest stealth not to wake Jennifer, entered the bathroom, and let the warm shower water wash away the dirt and adrenaline from the cave.
Once clean, he walked to the bed and lay down next to her, who was still deeply asleep, and almost instantly, he too fell into a heavy sleep.
...
The next morning, he woke up before the first ray of sun could fully penetrate the crack in the window.
He rubbed his sleepy eyes, eager to confirm that last night had not been a dream, extended his hand and, with a slight gesture in the air, materialized his panel in front of him.
[Name: Leif Connor]
[Sex: Male]
[Age: 18 years]
[Main Mission: ???]
[Backpack: Ebony & Ivory, Pure Silver Cross x2, Gastronomic Tablecloth, One-Star Sphere]
[Abilities: Perfect Memory, Pure Yang Body, Charm, Charisma +1, Holy Light Effect, Purification, Ox Talisman, Telekinesis. Grade: EX]
[Pets: Lillith]
[Achievements: (Pillar) — You managed to make a ghost stumble over you three times in a row. (First Blood) — Congratulations, you have become a man. ]
[Coins: 51879]
[Draws:
– Basic: 1000 coins x 10 draws. – Intermediate: 100000 coins x 10 draws. – Advanced: 1000000 coins x 10 draws. – Supreme: 100000000 coins x 10 draws.]
"..."
He stared intently at his panel, lost in deep contemplation.
The only logical explanation was that the crystal's energy had been converted into those coins.
Immediately, he began to calculate the dilemma in his mind: should he use the current coins to make a basic draw of ten pulls, trying his luck with 51 consecutive pulls? Or would it be wiser to continue accumulating coins until he reached the intermediate level draw?
After all, the results of the low-level draws had always been disappointing and the probability of getting something good was too low.
If in those 51 pulls he only got tissues, toothpaste, or other useless items, it would be a terrible waste...
After weighing his options, he felt the smartest thing was to save a bit more and, in the meantime, thoroughly test his new Telekinesis ability.
________
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