Reborn as an Extra

Zach and his grandfather's funeral was held at the same time.

According to the belief of the hunt family, their bodies were placed in coffins and then buried in the ground. (This world doesn't have major religions so they follow local beliefs for these things...)

All of Zach's relatives came to pay respects at his funeral and the group of students also brought flowers.

Ironically, Zach received flowers for the first time at his own funeral, he never got flowers before, not even from his own family.

Riko's heart-wrenching cries made everyone feel the sadness to the extreme, she cried for hours while repeating one sentence.

'If only I was strong enough to protect you...'

She even refused to let go of Zach's coffin, she held to it for a long time before she finally passed out from mental exhaustion.

She was then carried back to the resting area by the bodyguards of the hunt family.

Riko's words not only made herself feel tremendous regret but even Rio and others felt sad at those words.

They all knew that unless they were S-rankers, it was simply impossible for them to do anything against Alverto.

Alverto was simply too strong.

Even among other S-rankers, he was exceptionally stronger.

Alverto was able to easily defeat Aaron, an S-ranker dragon while suppressing his aura from leaking out.

This means even Aaron was nowhere near Alverto's level.

(Alverto split Aaron's head from his body with one attack...)

...

After a few hours, the funeral ended and the people slowly left.

A few minutes later, while Rio was sitting on a bench placed under a tree, Zach's father came over and sat beside Rio.

A solemn look hung over his face.

"If I had known such a thing would happen... I would have not given him the permission to use that yacht... if he hadn't left the city... that demon would not have attacked him..." (Zach's father)

At his regretful tone, Rio shook his head and replied in his usual emotionless voice.

"No... that demon... Alverto Chronos Perdere, he was strong.... Stronger than any S-ranker I have ever seen, even if we hadn't left the city he would have still attacked..." (Rio)

"he even placed a barrier over the whole city under the nose of another S-ranker... if we were in the city, Alverto might have caused far more destruction than this..." (Rio)

"Although unconsciously, Zach has saved the lives of thousands of people by not making us stay in the city... if we hadn't left the city, thousands of ordinary people would have also been killed..." (Rio)

Rio raised his head and stared into the eyes of Zach's father.

"Zach was a hero who saved the lives of thousands... as his father, you should be proud of him..." (Rio)

"If you want to blame someone... then feel free to blame it on me... I accept the fact that I was not strong enough to save the life of your son..." (Rio)

At Rio's words, tears appeared in the eyes of Zach's father, he seemed to have finally accepted reality.

"That kid was always saying that he will become strong and protect others.... Sigh... he stood up to his words in the end..." (Zach's father)

"I don't blame any of you kids... nor does any other member of my family blame you..." (Zach's father)

Zach's father finally accepted Zach's death when Rio told him that Zach died protecting the lives of thousands of civilians, this was already a great honor in itself.

In Rio's words, 'Zach's life had a meaning and his death was not useless...'

(Later, this sentence will be engraved on the remembrance statue of Zachary Hunt...)

...

Later, Hotel Arya, Rooftop.

*Clink*

Jin placed the bottle of wine in his hand on the ground. A look of helplessness hung over his face.

"Sigh..." (Jin)

"So, SS-rankers also have times when they feel helpless and regretful..." (Rio)

Jin glanced at the black-haired kid standing nearby with complicated emotions in mind.

"Hmm, you are good at sneaking around kid..." (Jin)

Rio leaned against the wall of the staircase as he met with Jin's gaze.

He shook his head at Jin's words.

"If only I could avoid the detection of individuals at S-rank or above so easily..." (Rio)

At Rio's remarks, Jin sipped the wine once more, and then replied in a rather assured tone.

"No, you are progressing fast... meeting an individual as strong as Alverto was bad luck, don't think of yourself as weak..." (Jin)

Jin glanced at Rio's sword that hung on Rio's waist at the moment.

"You have skills like 'sword intent' which every swordsman dreams of achieving... with given time you will be able to contend with even that demon named Alverto too..." (Jin)

"I see..." (Rio)

The place went silent for a few seconds after that. Jin sipped wine and Rio stood nearby with his usual expressionless face.

"So, the reason why Alverto retreated was-" (Rio)

"Me… he retreated because he somehow figured out that I was rushing over to Oaklum…" (Jin)

Jin clenched his teeth as he continued to speak.

"His plan was meticulous… he used some kind of artifact to mask the presence of a weaker clone of his, then he sneaked that clone into the teleportation circle of Oaklum…" (Jin)

"He made that clone teleport to the city where I was staying… this way he immediately found out about my departure when I destroyed his clone…" (Jin)

"He must have used an SS-rank level artifact… he even fooled my senses… to think a mere S-rank demon would be carrying around SS-rank artifacts… tch!" (Jin)

Rio nodded his head and then asked another question.

"Isn't the detection range of SS-rankers thousands of kilometers wide… how come you didn't detect the presence of those huge time barriers earlier…" (Rio)

At Rio's question, Jin shook his head.

"Those were not simple barriers… those barriers were interfering with space-time itself…. Thus, even I was not able to detect their presence beforehand…" (Jin)

"The only reason I rushed over to Oaklum was because I was notified by the S-ranker stationed at Oaklum about the incident…" (Jin)

"I haven't been to Oaklum ever before in my life… thus I couldn't directly open a portal over here…. I had to fly over a thousand kilometers… it took me five minutes to do that…" (Jin)

"But that cunning demon… he was quick with his actions… if he was just a few seconds late, I would have smashed his head into smithereens…" (Jin)

At Jin's words, Rio asked doubtfully.

"Why didn't you use the teleportation altar directly? It would have been faster…" (Rio)

Hearing Rio's words, Jin shook his head and replied in a solemn tone.

"You would need an SS-rank teleportation altar to successfully teleport an SS-ranker… an ordinary teleportation altar can't even withstand the aura of a demi-god…" (Jin)

"It's simply unrealistic…. The souls of SS-rankers are so heavy and strong that even teleportation doesn't work on us…" (Jin)

"This is the first time I am hearing about this…" (Rio)

"Well of course… only SS-rankers are supposed to know about it… but it seems that demon knew about this information for some reason… thus he made his plan by exploiting this loophole…" (Jin)

"He already expected that I will rush over to Oaklum… he even knew that I haven't been to Oaklum before and I will have to fly…" (Jin)

"It's as if there's someone providing him with insider info… there's a traitor among our people…" (Jin)

At Jin's words, Rio nodded his head.

"Yeah, someone must have notified Alverto about all of these minute details… otherwise it wouldn't have been easy for him to lay out such a sophisticated plan in just a day…" (Rio)

Jin gulped down all the wine from the bottle at once and then wiped his lips with the back of his left hand.

"Moreover, that demon was extremely careful too… he had the chance to kill Link, Liam, and Riya too… but he didn't…" (Jin)

"Isn't it because he was being arrogant and left them for fun?" (Rio)

At Rio's question, Jin shook his head and said in a solemn tone.

"No… the cunning demon must have known beforehand that, Link, Liam, and Riya… all three of them were close relatives of SS-rankers… if he had tried to kill them, it would have caused problems for him.." (Jin)

"Ashtel, Neo, and Raji, all three of them must have placed some kind of binding on those three kids… if any of their lives fell in mortal danger, those three will surely appear to save the day…" (Jin)

"For example, if I put my binding mark on you, I will be able to directly open a portal beside you… this trick will work even if I haven't been to that place before…" (Jin)

"That demon purposely didn't kill them three… he knew the consequences…" (Jin)

"Aside from that, Lia and you survived because of his whims perhaps… he must have seen something in you two… sigh… in the end, those two kids, Riko and Zach were the only people who were defenseless…" (Jin)

"They didn't have the backing of SS-rankers, nor were they both of any interest in his eyes… this might be the reason why he targeted them both on purpose…" (Jin)

"But something still doesn't add up… I seem to still be lacking one more piece of the puzzle… why would that demon attack in the first place… that's the main question, right?..." (Jin)

…

…

Author's Notes.

Yo! It's your beloved author here! Jin behaves like an idiot on normal days, but his intellectual capabilities are no joke, he easily deduced so many things out of so few clues…

Question of the day.

How deep an impression Zach left on you?

1.Low (He was a decent guy…)

2.High (He was a good guy, he was just too unlucky to have been involved in the grand schemes...)

3.Heartbreak (I am deeply saddened by his sudden death… I never expected him to really die like that… It feels unreal…)

By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.