Liam subconsciously recorded the environment, but his mind was elsewhere, dealing with far more pressing thoughts.
Leaving that unexpected encounter didn't imply safety. Liam was still in the Evergreen Canyon, far away from home and allies who could help him contend with a branching expert, especially genuine ones.
The solution sounded obvious. Liam had to run away and return to safe ground. As his Master had said, there was ambition, and then there was recklessness, and remaining in a place with an enemy branching expert definitely belonged to the latter.
The formation around the Evergreen Canyon also differed from the Mutated Battlefield's. It hadn't needed keys or special paths to enter, so it stood to reason that Liam could merely cross it to escape it.
However, things weren't that easy.
The unexpected encounter hadn't escalated, which Liam could see as the white-masked man's desire to avoid making a scene and exposing his secret identity.
