Chapter 134: Did You Sleep Well?
The next morning, April woke up to a strange, damp tickling sensation on her cheek.
She opened her eyes groppily to find Lily sitting right on her chest. The white kitten was softly licking her face, her tiny pink tongue rough against April’s skin.
The moment Lily saw April’s eyes open, she leaned her entire body against April’s chin, letting out a loud, vibrating purr of pure affection.
April, entirely unaccustomed to such warm, fuzzy morning routines, snapped fully awake and sat up.
Rufus, who was already resting by the foot of the bed, thumped his tail against the mattress, letting out a soft whine as if to say he wanted attention too.
This is why having two pets is such a drain on my morning stamina, April thought, swinging her legs out of bed.
But at least Lily was awake now. She must’ve digested the energy from the biscuit well.
She stretched her limbs, feeling incredibly lazy. She had stayed up until nearly two in the morning tapping away at colorful blocks on Winecraft, desperately trying to max out her fortress stone reserves.
That other player kept coming to her defense walls as well and she made up her mind. They were not an ally but an enemy. She would destroy them someday and until then, she would not rest.
Yawning, she walked into the bathroom to brush her teeth. When she came out, she casually pulled her brown hair back into a loose ponytail, wrapping it into a quick, rough bun before turning to head downstairs for breakfast.
"Come on, you two, it’s time to eat," she called out to them, picking up Lily from the floor.
The dining hall was completely empty when she arrived. Neither Xavier nor Samuel was around, likely already down at the core construction zones.
However, as soon as she sat down, the head maid stepped forward with a respectful bow.
"Good morning, Miss April. Your breakfast is prepared," the maid murmured. "Also, the delivery from the luxury pet emporium arrived early this morning. The crates are currently secured in the storage bay."
"Good," April nodded, taking a sip of her fresh juice. "Leave them there. I will set up the climbing frames and training turf in my bedroom later so they can play while I’m busy."
Just as she picked up her fork, her smartphone vibrated loudly on the table. The screen lit up with Xavier Reed’s caller ID and she slid the bar to answer.
"Miss April," Xavier’s deep, smooth voice echoed through the line. "Did you sleep well last night?"
"Yes, I slept well," April replied flatly, deliberately omitting the part where she had been aggressively gaming until the dead of night.
"Excellent," Xavier said, a hint of a smile detectable in his tone. "The layout for my site is fully prepared so I am here to foresee a few things before the final constructions are made, since there can be no mistakes given the limited time frame." April nodded, slicing through the toasted bread. "Regarding the... Gift I mentioned yesterday, would you be available in an hour’s time to accompany me and take a look?"
"I have nothing on my current schedule," April began, moving the knife to cut the fried egg. "I can make it—"
Ding!
A sudden, sharp chime rang inside her skull. A system notification box flared to life before her eyes, completely overriding her thoughts.
April’s eyes narrowed into sharp, icy slits as she read the prompt.
The Updated Client Interface[System Update: Client Tab Updated]
—Slot one: Xavier Reed 93% Secure / Operational
—Slot two: Alexander Greels 91% Secure / Operational
—Slot three: Nat Collins 80% (NEW) CRITICAL DANGER (Death Imminent)
—Slot four: Empty
All of a sudden, the system didn’t even give her time to process the new addition to the Client Tab, it flared into a harsh crimson warning red and the texts changed.
[AUTOMATIC FORESIGHT ALERT: 24-Hour Mortality Window]
Target: Nat Collins
Time of Demise: Within the next 3 hours.
Primary Cause: An ambush. Assailants will infiltrate his private residence, initiating a chaotic crossfire. The target will step out of his bathroom entirely unbraced, taking multiple non-fatal bullet wounds.
Fatal Factor: Internal hemorrhaging and profound blood loss.
Structural Variable [Betrayal Detected]: The target’s personal security detail and inner circle will be entirely absent from the perimeter due to forged operational commands. Someone within his syndicate has leaked his coordinates to the Scorpions and is helping to bring him down.
"Miss April? Are you still there?" Xavier’s voice broke through her focus, his tone laced with sudden confusion at her abrupt silence.
April stared at the glowing text detailing Nat’s upcoming death. Her jaw tightened by a fraction.
"Mr. Reed," April spoke up, her voice dropping into an unusually sharp, tense cadence. "It seems I will be unable to make our appointment in an hour after all."
Xavier paused on the other end, the background noise of shuffling papers instantly dying down. "Did something happen? Is there an emergency?"
"Nothing of importance to you," April stated flatly, already standing up from the dining chair, her breakfast completely forgotten. "Let’s reschedule for another time."
"All right," Xavier murmured slowly. He didn’t push her for information, but as he cut the call and stared down at his phone, his brow furrowed deeply.
Something had sounded incredibly weird in April’s voice. The usually untouchable, unbothered seer had sounded genuinely troubled.
Back in the dining hall, April dismissed the maids with a single wave of her hand. She stood frozen by the table, her mind spinning through the mechanics of her past life.
This doesn’t align with the original timeline, she thought, her eyes tracking the blinking warning screen. In my past life, Nat Collins didn’t die before the apocalypse. He was supposed to rule the dark net pipelines for years and become a terror name that even I, a nobody, heard of.
The realization hit her like a physical blow. The timeline is changing. Because we altered the past events—because I gave him the information of the apocalypse and he needs to expand a base to store resources, he decided to ruthlessly clear out the Scorpion Gang base early—the remnants of the underworld are launching a desperate, hyper-aggressive retaliation to take him off the board.
By helping him, she had accidentally accelerated his death clock.
"There is no time to analyze the timeline. What has happened has happened," April muttered through her teeth.
She couldn’t afford to let him die. Nat Collins was a chaotic psychopath, but he was also her multi-billion-dollar backer—the absolute sovereign of the city’s underground networks.
He was the only asset capable of smoothly inserting her into the exclusive black-market trading loops by next week. If he bled out on his bathroom floor today and died, her entire economic funnel for the 33-billion-dollar hillside dome would collapse before it even began.
She needed to inform him of this. No, she needed to see him. Because she would need to find the traitor using her eyes of destiny before they sought to strike a second time, or go into hiding.
But before that, first thing’s first. She needed to drag him out of that house before the crossfire started.
But then she realized she didn’t know where he lived. So, she had to call him first