Chapter 96: Chapter 96
With a deep sigh, Watts made his decision. There was no point in delaying any further.
He needed to take his family back home where they could settle in and adjust to their new life.
Without further ado, he looked at them all and simply asked, "Ready?" And without waiting for a reply, and a mere gesture, the world around them shifted in an instant.
A sudden rush of energy coursed through the seven individuals as they found themselves teleported from the literal realm back into the normal world.
Their surroundings changed in the blink of an eye, and they now stood inside a luxurious condo—Watts’ home. Or rather, what used to be his home.
The moment Watts took in the familiar sights, a nostalgic smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
The faint scent of home filled his nostrils, wrapping him in a sense of familiarity that he had missed more than he realized.
This place held many memories for him.
From the peaceful solitude he often enjoyed, to the wild nights he spent with friends, to the times he had lost himself in books from the extensive bookshelf lining one side of the living room, to the movies he watched curled up on the couch—all of it was here.
And then there was Chloe, the mischievous little creature. He missed her.
It had only been about twelve hours since he last saw her, back when he was summoned by the Council of Order. Yet, with everything he had been through since then, it felt like an eternity.
Time had moved strangely for him.
It had only been a few hours in real-time since his aunt and sister were kidnapped, but for him, much more had transpired.
Within those hours, he had sought information from Evelyn and then met her sister, Gwen, gaining knowledge of hidden cities, the Paragons, and the true nature of the Order.
Realizing his own weakness, he had used his TDM ability—Time Dilation Mindscape—to manipulate the flow of time, allowing him to train for nearly a month while only a few hours passed in the real world.
He had then ventured into another world, faced an unimaginable reality, though he returned stronger.
He had killed the Council of Order, rescued his family and several others from captivity, and now, finally, he was here.
The passage of time had been skewed for him, stretching and compressing in ways that made his recent experiences feel like lifetimes.
But now, as he stood in his condo, he realized how much he had longed for a moment of normalcy.
Even so, he couldn’t afford to get too comfortable. His plans were already in motion, and he couldn’t let them fall apart.
If he wanted to balance both worlds—to enjoy life with his family while also executing his plans for the hidden cities—he would need a strategy.
He needed clones.
A smirk played on his lips as he considered the brilliance of his idea.
With clones, he could be in multiple places at once, managing different aspects of his agenda simultaneously.
He could send one to cause chaos in the hidden cities while another stayed back and spent time with his family. It was the perfect plan.
However, his thoughts were interrupted as a subtle shift in the atmosphere caught his attention.
His brows furrowed as he took a closer look at his surroundings. Something was off. His condo felt different—tampered with, disturbed.
It seemed that someone, or rather some people had entered in here without his permission, something he really hated.
It took him less than a second to activate his Eyes of the Universe, and the moment he did, the past events of the apartment played out before him like a movie.
Three people. One man, two women. They had been here.
The images unfolded in his mind. The man had searched through his things meticulously, inspecting nearly everything in sight.
One of the women had been lazy, lounging around and watching his television as if she owned the place.
The last woman—and this irritated him the most—had taken a bath in his bathroom. His fucking bathroom!
His eyes narrowed as he focused on their faces. He recognized them from somewhere.
So immediately he willed to know their names, and they all came rushing to him.
Bontu.
Nina and Rina.
A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth as he realized where he had seen them before.
It was on the tube station when he was going to the hidden city, they were in the same tube.
The irony was almost laughable. These three had been searching for him, and yet they had unknowingly sat just one tube room away from him for hours.
They had been so close, yet so blind. Fate was a bitch.
But they hadn’t left anything behind. No cameras. No listening devices. No signs of any real threat. That meant, for now, he could let them be.
His eyes flicked back to his family, who were still taking in their surroundings with awe and curiosity. A slow smile spread across his face as a thought solidified in his mind.
"You know what?" he said, his voice cutting through the silence.
All eyes turned to him.
"On second thought, I think I’ll stay."
Liz’s lips curled into a smile, her expression soft with a hint of satisfaction. It was clear she had wanted him to stay, even if she wouldn’t admit it outright.
Watts allowed himself a moment of peace, knowing full well that this was only the beginning.
The storm had yet to come, but for now, he would enjoy this fleeting moment of calm before the chaos resumed.
Layla blinked at him in surprise, her eyes narrowing slightly in skepticism. "What? But I thought you were going," she pouted, crossing her arms in mock annoyance.
She always acted as if she didn’t care whether Watts was around or not, playing the role of the indifferent younger sister, but everyone knew the truth.
Every time he left home for extended periods, she would secretly cry in her room.
This was supposed to be her little secret—or at least, it was until Liz accidentally stumbled upon her one night, face buried in a pillow, tears soaking the fabric.
Crying for her brother like a little girl.
With mischievous enthusiasm, Liz had immediately called Watts, her voice nearly breathless with laughter as she relayed the scene in vivid detail.
"Oh my God, Watts, you won’t believe what I just walked in on!" she had cackled, while Layla screamed in the background, her voice shrill with embarrassment, shouting that Liz should never tell Watts.
But, of course, it was too late.
It had been a great day, Watts thought, a fond smile playing on his lips at the memory.
Now, as Layla glared at him expectantly, waiting for an explanation, he merely smiled in response, refusing to take the bait.
Liz, however, wasn’t so easily dismissed. She studied him for a long moment before asking, "What has changed?"
Watts exhaled softly, his expression unreadable. "Well, turns out I miss you guys."
His tone was casual, but the weight behind the words was undeniable. It wasn’t a complete lie, but it wasn’t the full truth either.
Liz observed him carefully, her sharp intuition telling her that there was more to his sudden change of heart. But she didn’t press the issue.
Instead, she simply nodded and asked, "So, now what?"
That was when Watts realized that, despite all his planning and scheming, he hadn’t actually made a concrete plan for what to do next.
Immediately, his mind went into overdrive, processing thousands of possibilities in mere fractions of a second.
With a mind more advanced than the most powerful supercomputers, his thoughts moved at incomprehensible speeds.
In an instant, he formulated a detailed, year-long plan, mapping out every action, every contingency.
This was both a blessing and a curse.
Just like how humans get distracted all the time as the brain thinks about other irrelevant things, jumping from one thought to another, a person spending minutes just there distracted thinking about a couple of things.
That was also the case with super brains, only that this effect was way stronger.
He had to suppress his brain most of the time, or else he would drown in an endless flood of thoughts, his mind spiraling through countless ideas without pause.
It was overwhelming, even for someone like him.
But now, with his plan set, he spoke.
"First, we do this," he said simply.
Raising his hand, he traced a rune in the air with his finger, the glowing symbol appearing in an elegant display of light.
The design was intricate, layered with interwoven sigils that pulsed with energy.
As the rune took shape, Watts flicked his wrist, splitting it into six identical copies.
With a single, effortless motion, he waved his hand, sending each rune soaring toward the six women in the room.
They moved too quickly for any of them to react, phasing seamlessly into their foreheads before they could even attempt to dodge.
The reaction was immediate.
All six women jumped in shock, their bodies tensing as if expecting some kind of pain or drastic transformation.
Layla, predictably, was the most flustered, her hands flying up to her face as if she could physically remove whatever had just happened.
"Fuck!"
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