***

**Name:** Allen Carver

**Height:** 6’1"

**Weight:** 175 lbs

**Age:** 42

**Personality:** Calculative, Loyal, Ruthless, Secretive

**Evaluation:** Master Rank Hunter

**Skills:** Eyes of Veritas (SSS+)...

***

The moment Allen’s information appeared on the screen, I started reading through it without wasting any time.

Then something caught my attention.

While reading the personality section, my eyes stopped on a single word.

A word that surprised me.

A word that sent a shiver down my spine.

That word was ruthless.

Fuck. Why didn’t I know about this?

Why didn’t I know Allen was ruthless?

I should have known, right? I mean, I inherited all of Michael’s memories. But somehow, I didn’t. I had no idea.

Seeing ’ruthless’ listed in Allen’s personality section genuinely shocked me.

Based on everything I remembered from Michael’s past, Allen was loyal, kind, calculative, secretive, and good-hearted.

But looking at the information displayed in front of me now, it didn’t seem like he was a good-hearted person at all. It looked more like he was something else entirely.

Suddenly, a realization hit me.

Wait a minute. What if he only showed his good side to Michael?

Yeah, that could explain why none of Michael’s memories showed Allen’s ruthless side. He might have done those things behind Michael’s back. After all, he was secretive by nature.

That might also be the reason why Michael never witnessed that side of him. Allen could have been careful to keep his ruthless actions completely hidden from Michael’s view.

So that’s why I have no memories of it.

But even so, the thought of Allen being ruthless scared me even more.

Man, I really need to be careful around him from now on. I can’t afford to let my guard down, not when there’s so much I don’t know about him.

Pushing those thoughts aside, I turned my attention to the skills section of Allen’s profile.

The moment I looked at it, I felt a wave of confusion.

I quickly reached out to the system. "System, why is there only one skill showing on Allen’s information screen? He should have more skills than that. What’s the reason?"

The system’s response came through right away.

[Host, your rank does not match the individual you are appraising. Due to this difference, the appraisal function can only display a single skill from their complete profile.]

Ah, I see.

So I need to reach Allen’s rank before I can view all of his information. That actually makes sense.

I shifted my attention to the one skill that was visible to me.

Eyes of Veritas, huh?

Just from the name alone, it wasn’t difficult to get a sense of what kind of ability this might be. Still, I wanted to know for certain, so I tapped on it to see if any additional details would appear.

Another screen materialized in front of me.

***

[Eyes of Veritas]

Veritas means "Truth" or "Reality".

[Host, your level is too insufficient to discern further information.]

***

I ignored the warning about my insufficient level. I had already expected something like that. Instead, I focused on the small piece of information that was actually provided. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Truth.

So Veritas literally translates to truth.

But then something clicked in my mind, and my train of thought suddenly shifted.

Wait a minute. Hold on. Something about this doesn’t add up.

If Veritas means truth, then wouldn’t that mean the skill’s actual name is Eyes of Truth?

And if that’s the case, doesn’t that mean Allen has already used it on me at-

Before I could finish following that line of reasoning, Allen’s voice broke through my concentration.

"Young master, we’ve arrived."

Wait, already? How did we get to Eden’s place so quickly?

I quickly dismissed the system screen and glanced over at Allen. He was still absorbed in the same book he’d been reading for the past half hour, sitting completely engrossed in his seat.

The car had already stopped and settled down onto the ground.

I looked around, trying to figure out where we were. We seemed to be on a road. Just a regular road in the middle of nowhere.

What was going on? Why had we parked in the middle of a road?

Then it came to me.

Oh, right. This road actually belongs to Eden. It’s his private property.

I shifted my gaze to the apartment building standing in front of us.

The structure was massive. It had to be close to fifty floors if I was remembering correctly. And I was fairly certain my memory was right about that.

After all, Michael was the one who had originally given this building to Eden.

This was the very first property Michael had gifted him, back when Eden and his family were still living in poverty. Michael had tried offering him additional buildings and even mansions after that, but Eden turned down every single offer.

He’d explained to Michael that this building represented where their friendship had truly started, and because of that, it held too much personal value for him to ever give up.

Even after his potential awakened and he became extraordinarily wealthy, he never sold the building or relocated to some extravagant mansion. He chose to stay right here.

Honestly, his commitment to preserving that friendship with Michael was genuinely impressive. I had to give him credit for that level of loyalty.

Pushing that thought aside, I turned to Allen.

I turned to look at Allen. "Allen, why are we still sitting in the car? Shouldn’t we be getting out by now?"

Allen slowly turned a page in his book without looking up. "My apologies, young master. I won’t be able to attend the dinner tonight. Something urgent has come up that requires my attention. You’ll have to go in alone."

I blinked, caught off guard. "Wait, what? Something urgent? Then why did you even come with me in the first place? Couldn’t you have just sent me here in the automated car and gone straight to handle whatever it is?"

Allen still didn’t lift his eyes from the page. "The matter I need to attend happens to be in this city."

"Oh," I said quietly.

What the hell? His work was in this city? What kind of work could he possibly need to handle here? Was he going to...

I stopped myself. Why was I even worrying about what Allen was up to? That wasn’t why I came here. I had my own problems to deal with.

I quickly opened the car door and stepped out onto the road.

I turned back and looked at Allen."One hour. I want you back here within an hour to pick me up."

Allen glanced up for just a moment. "Understood, young master."

The car’s engines came to life with a low hum. It lifted smoothly off the ground, rising into the air. Within seconds, it disappeared into the distance, leaving me alone in front of Eden’s apartment building.

I tilted my head back. Not to look at the building itself, but at the sky stretched out above it.

The night was clear. Stars were scattered across the darkness, countless tiny points of light spread across the expanse.

I had always loved looking at stars.

While I stood there, absorbed in the night sky, a voice called out from behind me.

"Took you long enough to get here."

The tone was calm and easygoing, almost friendly.

I recognized it right away. I knew exactly who that voice belonged to.

I slowly closed my eyes and let out a quiet sigh.

It was him.

Eden Garcia. The main character of the novel "Rise of the Strongest Protagonist."

The man who would eventually go on to rewrite the entire history of the human world.

I slowly opened my eyes and turned around.

There was someone leaning casually against a streetlight pole.

He was tall, with a surprisingly muscular and athletic build. His black hair fell in a way that looked naturally cool, and his deep, dark hazel eyes gave off a calm and steady presence. He was dressed simply in a white T-shirt and black trousers.

It was Eden.

The moment I looked at him, the very first thought that popped into my head was completely uninvited.

Why the hell is this guy so handsome?

In the novel, his appearance had been described as mediocre, nothing particularly remarkable. But standing here and actually seeing him in person, that description felt wildly inaccurate.

He was easily the most attractive person I had seen since waking up in this world.

If this was considered mediocre, then I was definitely below average. Probably way below.

Regardless, I needed to stop fixating on his appearance.

I pulled my focus back and met his eyes directly.

Alright. What should I do now? What was I supposed to say? Should I speak first, or wait for him to start? What if I acted too out of character and he started getting suspicious?

My thoughts were spiraling fast. I was tense, more nervous than I expected to be. This was my first real interaction with the main character, and I had absolutely no idea how to handle it.

What was I supposed to do here?

My heart was beating faster now, each thump louder than the last. The tension kept building, making it harder to think clearly.

Then I stopped myself.

Michael, calm down. Just talk to him like normal. Act the way the original Michael would have.

I took a slow, steadying breath and let some of the tension leave my shoulders.

Eden and I stood there, looking at each other in silence. I had no idea how much time had passed, but eventually I decided I needed to break it.

I looked him over and finally spoke. "You know, you could at least try wearing something other than black and white for once. What’s with your obsession with black and white? Don’t you own any other colors?"

Eden had always had this strange fixation on black and white clothing.

He wore those two colors so often that it genuinely annoyed even the original Michael.

Michael had told him many times over the years to switch things up, but Eden kept showing up in the same black and white combination, even to parties.

Eden raised an eyebrow at me. "Look who’s talking. You’re the guy who’s always in black pants and a black shirt. At least I wear two different colors. You basically stick to black everything."

Damn it. He had a point there.

I hadn’t really paid attention to it before, but now that I thought about it, the original Michael had his own strange obsession with black clothing.

His entire wardrobe was stocked with black items. Black pants, black T-shirts, black jeans. Pretty much everything was black.

I still had no idea why that was, though.

While I was lost in that thought, Eden spoke up again. "Michael, you..."

He stopped himself mid-sentence.

Huh? What was that about?

I looked at him, and then something odd happened.

Eden’s figure suddenly blurred right in front of my eyes. It was as if his entire body distorted and got pulled away from reality, vanishing in an instant.

Wait, what the hell? Where did he go?

Then, before I could understand anything, suddenly...