Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation

In the eyes of the H-country government, Raydwin was just a regular guy, the landlord of Cyra's temporary home. Of course, that's because I only told the base this info at first!

To keep this fella out of dangerous state secrets, I lied to Wayne Peng, saying Raydwin knew nothing. But later, while bringing Cyra back, I noticed Raydwin seemed closer to her than I thought. So I didn't stop Cyra from leaving without saying goodbye, just sending a letter.

Anyway, I never told Raydwin where the space portal was, and the place was heavily guarded. Even if he found it, no way he could get in with his current skills!

The key thing was Cyra and Raydwin's relationship. Now that I finally met her, I spilled all my worries to her.

"I don't want to talk about this stuff now. Go see for yourself!" Cyra nodded towards the room, not explaining more.

"What do you mean?"

Feeling uneasy, I quickly walked into the room. Chan Layne was already there, talking one-on-one with someone.

"How did you get here?"

It was none other than Raydwin, who we just talked about!

I felt my heart sink. Raydwin had shown up right under our noses! No wonder Cyra acted like that. Looks like she wanted to keep distance from him, but it didn't work.

Worse, if the base found out I lied, it might mess up the trust we'd built.

"You two know each other too? Right... you and Cyra were together before!" Chan Layne looked surprised when I walked in. Then he seemed to figure something out and asked Raydwin, "Does this mean you hid something from us?"

"Huh?"

Raydwin looked shocked to see me too. But when Chan Layne questioned him, he got nervous, glancing at Cyra. Cyra ignored him, so he finally admitted, "My master told me not to reveal anything about them. I just wanted to find Cyra, but I didn't expect..."

"Master? Didn't you just say your power was a gift from God, maybe from being around an angel for a long time?" Chan Layne quickly caught the holes in his story, making Raydwin look even more uncomfortable.

It's clear Raydwin didn't rat out me and Adrian at first. When Adrian agreed to teach him, he warned Raydwin to keep it secret, no matter when or where!

Of course, this rule wasn't super strict. It was mainly to stop him from blabbing and drawing attention. Once we left Earth, it wouldn't matter if he told.

But surprisingly, even when caught by the H-country government, Raydwin still tried to follow this rule. I had to give him some respect for that.

"How did you find him anyway?" I couldn't figure out how Raydwin got caught if he was so careful about secrecy.

"The base got a message from Shine Metropolitan police. They caught someone who might have the new Type A hepatitis. So we brought him here, but it turns out he's not a vampire!" Chan Layne explained, sounding frustrated.

After hearing both sides, I finally understood what happened.

The "new Type A hepatitis" was just the H-country government's cover story for vampire infections. Only the base and some Shine Metropolitan big shots knew the truth. Regular folks, even the cops making arrests, didn't know much!

So for these cops, the easiest way to spot this "hepatitis" was to look for super strong people acting crazy and unreasonable.

As for Raydwin, after reading Cyra's goodbye letter, he naturally wanted to find her and get answers. But he was at the police station as an important witness in the kidnapping case. Even though he wasn't a suspect, he couldn't just leave!

"I didn't commit any crime, I did a good deed! Why can't I leave?" Raydwin argued, still upset about it. Relying on his newly improved skills, he tried to force his way out, causing a scene at the police station.

In the past, the police might have been caught off guard by such a "skilled person". But after the vampire incidents, Shine Metropolitan police had beefed up their forces and training.

No surprise, Raydwin's current abilities were far from bulletproof. He was quickly subdued.

Given his abnormal physical abilities and his yelling about finding Cyra from the letter, the police naturally connected him to the recent vampire activities. They immediately locked down the area according to emergency plans and notified our base, which handles vampires.

Actually, when Raydwin first arrived at the base, vampire experts like Wayne Peng and Chan Layne were already suspicious of his identity. He had no motive, he exposed himself stupidly, and he mentioned Cyra!

But right then, the base rebellion was breaking out, so nobody had time to deal with him. So Raydwin was kept in the 19th Legion. Only after the rebellion was totally crushed did Chan Layne remember they had a prisoner here...

At first, during questioning, Raydwin tried to dodge questions about his power source by saying he'd trained in martial arts since childhood. But that lie could only fool kids. The H-country military, with all of Raydwin's personal records, saw through it immediately.

Since he kept mentioning Cyra and was indeed her former landlord, Chan Layne brought Cyra from the base. When Raydwin saw Cyra, he finally realized who he was dealing with and changed his story—now he claimed he mysteriously got superpowers from being around Cyra... He was really being difficult!

Luckily for him, they figured out he had connections. More importantly, since Raydwin wasn't a vampire, the H-country military higher-ups were bound to be interested in his abilities. After all, they needed manpower right now.

"So as I thought, your power must be related to another world!" Chan Layne didn't push further about the true source, trying to ease the awkward mood. After all, he had a mission and needed Raydwin's help. He pulled out a contract-like paper and put it in front of Raydwin, finally revealing his real intention.

"We've thoroughly checked your background. You seem pretty normal, very clean! So now you have a chance to serve your country and all of humanity. You have power that normal people don't. Why not think about it?"

"Oh, it's a confidentiality agreement? And... you want to recruit me into the H-country military! It says here if I really don't want to, I can temporarily join for an important recon mission?"

Raydwin carefully read the contract, asking Chan Layne about the terms.

He knew too many secrets and was "gifted," so it wasn't surprising the H-country military wanted to recruit him. But when I heard "recon mission," I finally understood why General Lee gave me that special pass to find Cyra myself.