CHAPTER 19: FALSE GATE

’MATH...’ Roy repeated in thought, thinking of the possibilities available to the host of such a system.

"It doesn’t provide any offensive skill, does it?" he asked, still wondering how Abraham was seen as a talent even in the world of executioners.

Abraham hummed in thought for a second before answering, "Not directly."

’Does he mean a skill like my 2x Multiplier?’ Roy thought.

Donny suddenly stood and walked up to the Executioner in their midst and spoke officially, saying, "So, Executioner Abraham, will you train Initiate Roy to the best of your ability?"

Abraham just smirked and sipped wine from his glass.

"For five million dollars? I’ll train any curly-haired baboon to wield a sword."

’Did—Did he just call me a baboon?’ A vein popped up on Roy’s forehead.

Donald let out a sigh of relief and stretched out his hand, and they shook hands.

Suddenly, Abraham tightened his grip on Donald’s hand and paused the skating of hands, saying with an almost devilish smile, "But if I’m training him... we do it my way. Okay?"

"..." Donny glanced at Roy and replied, "Either way, I’ll be there throughout."

"Suit yourself," Abraham said, letting go of Donald.

"Go back home and tell the necessary goodbyes. And return here by six."

With Abraham’s order, Roy straightened his back in surprise and voiced, "So... So quickly?"

"This is the executioner’s way of doing things. Better start to get used to it," Abraham said and walked towards the elevator.

Donny and Roy both stood up from their seats and followed him.

"And what skills did you receive from your GAME.exe?" Abraham asked.

"It’s just one skill, for some reason. It’s 2x Multiplier."

Abraham looked back and asked, "You can double the effect of attacks and defenses?"

Roy simply nodded.

"What skills does MATH.exe provide you?" he asked in return, curious.

"It will be best if you see it in action," Abraham responded, and at the same time, the elevator door opened.

Roy pouted at that answer.

"If I remember correctly, there should be one called: I need my X," Donny joked and burst out laughing, same for Roy.

"Ha ha, very funny," Abraham dryly said. "Try to cook up more jokes, instead of always recycling the old. This is exactly the 145th time you have said that joke."

Donny laughed even more. "Ahahaha! You were counting?!"

Abraham was about to retort, but the laughing spirit took hold of Donny even more, and he placed his hand on Abraham’s hair.

"How come you even—" Donny froze.

He had grabbed onto Abraham’s hair impromptu and now it came off slightly, revealing a balding head.

"Pfft!" Roy almost burst into laughter but he grabbed his mouth and held it in.

’After warning me not to talk about his hair,’ Roy lampooned inwardly. The more he thought about the irony of the matter, the less control he had over the incoming laughter.

A thick vein carved had already itself in Abraham’s forehead as a dark shadow hovered over his eyes.

"Uh-Uh... Sorry," Donny said and retracted his hand. He quickly ran into the elevator to avoid Abraham’s divine retribution.

Abraham remained silent, brooding, even as the elevator doors began to close.

Right at the last second, he voiced with well-controlled annoyance and anger, "I’m going to really hurt you in return one of these days, bastard."

Gulp... That was all Donny could do.

Pim. The elevator began to ascend.

Roy finally burst out laughing, tears even forming at the corners of his eyes.

"Didn’t you warn me?"

"Shut up."

"Ahahaha..." Roy could no longer control it.

Suddenly though, Abraham’s voice emerged from the elevator speaker, saying, "You too, Roy."

Roy suddenly froze.

"Ahem," he cleared his throat and pleaded, "but I didn’t do anything!"

Of course, there was only silence from Abraham.

"We’re brothers. We should face consequences together," Donny said with fake solemnity.

"Rot in hell yourself!" hissed Roy at Donny.

"Messing with an executioner. Tch. I guess we’re really blood. Because you’re as dumb as I am," Roy said, throwing himself under the bus just so he could burn Donny.

Donny knew this and just smiled defeatedly. "Good one. Good one."

"Roy, you’re exempted," Abraham said through the comms, making Roy desperately scream "Thank you!"

Donny simply hissed.

Back at the vehicle, he told Roy, "We’re not going home now. Since your new mentor insists we leave the city instead, we’ll need supplies."

"We? You’re coming?" Roy’s eyebrow was raised.

"Of course. Leave you to the elements like that? Hell no."

Roy almost felt touched, but...

"But—But you’re also weak as shit."

"Hey! I’m a black belt, you know!"

"What are you going to do when an abyss creature wants to eat me? Give it an uppercut?" Roy voiced, displeasure and slight disgust written all over his face.

"I’ll find a way," Donny said.

"And is this even a good idea? Leaving the city? That’s madly unsafe."

Donny sighed. "I know. But Abraham’s ways are always different. I guess we’ll just have to trust his ability to protect us."

"And what’s his deal anyway? He just flared up over nothing that time," Roy frowned, referring to when Donald said clearing gates only needed proper planning.

Donny deliberated for a second before finally answering, "You can’t blame him. He lost everything to a gate."

Roy’s expression turned solemn and sad.

"Lost everything, like what? And how?" he wondered.

Donny sighed again, but more than before.

"A false gate happened to his cohort, who were practically his family. He is the only survivor. Even worse, his lady was a part of the cohort. Their wedding was coming up too..."

Roy fell into a deep melancholic state. Such a story, even for executioners, was far too tragic.

"A false gate..." he repeated, having heard of the term before.

"Yeah," Donny continued, "A Rank-2 Gate that became a Rank-3 after his party of mostly E-Class Execs entered."

"..." Roy just remained silent. No wonder Exec. Abraham became a recluse. This was also a viable reason why he stopped signing in.

The possibility of a false gate was also a valid concern to take into consideration when challenging God’s Abyss. And to think Donny glossed over this fact...

"Tch. Executioner Abraham is kinda right. Challenging a gate with just proper planning isn’t wise. How come you didn’t consider this?" Roy asked Donald, starting to think that it wasn’t such a good thing that their brains were of similar IQ level.

"Because false gates are a 1:200 ratio. They just don’t happen," Donny answered.

Roy just shrugged and faced ahead.

"And with Executioner Abraham, how do you both know each other so well, even?"

Donny glanced at him and raised an eyebrow, "Oh? We both attended Irregular High School, and we were even in the same year. He was in the Executioner Department, and I was in the Guild Affairs Department. He was even a top contender for God of Irregular High School back then. Crazy times, heh."

This information only made Roy fold his arms and frown. "Hmph. How come I don’t get to go to Irregular High School like you did?"

Donny held an awkward, meek smile as he faced ahead. "Because Nana didn’t want you to be part of anything remotely related to God’s Abyss..."

Roy felt touched, but then Donny revealed the real reason, "...And we couldn’t afford it."