Amon returned to the old apartment he rented in Beijing. Afternoon sunlight slanted through the balcony, casting mottled patches of light across the thinly dust-covered concrete floor.
It was three in the afternoon, Beijing time, and Xia Mi was still at school. The apartment was empty and silent.
He rubbed the space between his brows, trying to ease the exhaustion seeping from the depths of his mind.
He took out the phone he had repurchased in Brazil, set an alarm for four thirty, then returned to the tiny bedroom that could barely fit a bed and a desk. Throwing himself heavily onto the hard bed covered in dark blue checkered sheets, he began a brief afternoon nap.
Lying in bed, he did not fall asleep right away. His thoughts surged like a tide as he reviewed the gains and losses of his trip to Brazil.
Come to think of it, his final sneak attack on Odin had indeed been somewhat rash and reckless.
Though the outcome had been good and the rewards plentiful, recalling it now still left him with lingering fear.
If it had been the true Main Body, he would surely have acted with greater caution and more thorough planning, rather than being so crude... In the end, he still lacked the memories from the worlds of Douluo and Battle Through the Heavens. He lacked some of that accumulated experience.
Amid those turbulent, scattered thoughts, he gradually drifted into sleep.
"Ding-dong, ding-dong..."
The crisp alarm shattered the room's Silence. Amon opened his eyes right on time, sat up in bed, and glanced at his phone screen. It was exactly four thirty.
He picked up the wallet on his bedside table, slipped it into his pocket, and slowly headed downstairs.
As he stepped out of the somewhat dim stairwell,