The next day, as the time slowly approached 12 pm, and the sun shined brightly above the winter sky, as Aria was standing near the bus stop alone while on her phone and was texting to someone...
"You're texting to your best friend Aurora, I presume?" Eric casually asked as he came out from the parking lot that was behind the bus stop and approached Aria.
"How did you... oh, right... anyways, what took you so long? I've been waiting for a while now." Aria frowned as she put away her phone.
"...I'm actually 5 minutes early to the meeting time though, but alright. Is that all you're going to be bringing with you?" Eric looked briefly at the time on his watch and then looked at the only backpack that Aria had brought along with her.
"Yes? I have everything I need in here." Aria replied with a somewhat puzzled look on her face.
Considering what this man had brought as well, which appeared to be only a small sling bag and an expedition backpack, she felt like she had brought just enough for the trip.
"I see, well here." Eric took out a small black box with antennas from his sling bag, handed it to Aria, and told her, "Keep this in your backpack at all times. It provides internet no matter where you are."
"This is... a portable satellite internet terminal?" Even though Aria knew what a satellite internet terminal was, she was very unfamiliar with this specific one and couldn't help but stare at it weirdly.
"Correct. it's an exclusive one made specifically for me." Eric acknowledged.
Aria was shocked to hear this as she's never heard of an exclusive one before and scanned it more for a few seconds.
When she was looking though, she saw a name ingrained into the gadget.
"Eric Porter?" Aria said out loud subconsciously while staring at the name.
"Yep. That's my name."
"Oh." Aria immediately became disinterested after hearing this and stuffed the gadget into her backpack.
"By the way, where are we going? I don't think this bus stop has been in operations for years now." Aria looked at the rusty and unmaintained structure of the bus stop and felt a slight eeriness from the air around it.
Eric didn't respond to her right away and instead turned to look up at the skyscrapers towering around them.
Most of the glass from the skyscrapers reflected the winter sky sharply, causing the sunlight to spill onto the road beneath.
However, in the novel, there was a mention of a skyscraper where one of the glass panels failed to reflect the sunlight properly during a specific time of day, and only for a brief moment.
It had been described as a dull, dimmed surface that lasted just long enough to be noticed by someone who knew when to look and served as a marker for those who were in the know.
That was where this certain individual that Aria wanted to confront typically appeared, using the skyscraper as a front before heading off to wherever they truly operated, and where they would hide first at if something went awry.
As such, when Eric spotted the glass planel that didn't reflect any light properly on a skyscraper that was a few buildings away from where the bus stop was at, he pointed at it.
"Over there. That's where we'll be at for the next couple of days."
Hearing this, Aria turned to what Eric was pointing at and stared at it weirdly.
To her, it just looked like a normal skyscraper, and nothing else.
However, for some reason, she also felt an eerie sense of danger just by looking at it, just like she did when she originally stared at the bus stop, and she wanted to avoid it as much as possible.
But Aria shook her head and clutched the straps of her backpack tightly in order to calm herself down.
"Got it. Let's get going then." Aria without hesitation then went ahead first and led the way.
Seeing Aria's reaction, Eric couldn't help but stare at her back for a bit.
He didn't know why he found it worth noticing since he knew exactly what she was thinking and why.
Regardless though, he didn't dwell on it too much and followed closely behind her.
Soon, they arrived at the entrance of the skyscraper and Aria opened the front door for Eric.
"You go in first." Aria said as she gestured her hand.
Eric nodded in response and entered through the doors without any hesitation.
Once inside, Eric carefully observed the lobby for a while.
At first glance, it looked just like any other ordinary and bleak lobby typically seen on the ground floor of an office building.
The walls were primarily white and gray with minimal decorations, the furniture and ceiling was monochromatic, and there wasn't really anything notable here.
But if one were to take a look closely at the kind of decorations and objects laid around the lobby, they'd notice something odd about the place.
After all, the plants were weirdly too vibrant in all kinds of different colors and were aesthetically pleasing, there were weird marble humanoid sculpture and statues that sort of just felt out of place when considering the rest of the minimalist theme of the lobby, and some of the lamps and wall decorations had engraved letters on them that made no sense.
If he didn't know any better, Eric would've assumed that the interior designer just sucked at their jobs or something.
But no, this was the skyscraper that this certain individual owned.
Everything here was intentional.
And every single out of place piece of object here were artifacts and relics hidden in disguise to protect this individual and their comrades when neccessary.
'Sigh, only if I could get my hands on even one of these artifacts, my life would be so much easier.'
Unfortunately, those types of things were just simply hard to get with just money, and even his grandiose background still wasn't good enough to acquire any of them either.
Because at the end of the day, he was someone who was still considered 'ordinary' and 'normal' in the eyes of those who knew about and wielded supernatural 'powers' in this world.
And such people, no matter how good or bad they were, typically weren't keen on mingling with ordinary people who weren't aware of the supernatural and or those who still believed that true power stems from money, connections, fame, and influence.
That was just the harsh reality of it, and why despite having such a background that Eric was still only considered a very early villain in the novel.
Still, it didn't bother him much regardless.
Once Aurora was out of the picture and gone from this world, Eric was perfectly content to live out the rest of his life pretending to be in complete delusion that he was still at the top of the world.
As how it should be.
Anyways, after contemplating for a little while longer, Eric finally turned his head and noticed Aria patiently waiting beside him.
Then without another word, Eric made his way towards the elevators and pressed the up button, all while not paying any attention to the beautiful receptionist's deadpan stares as he and Aria walked by her.
Moments later, the elevator doors opened and the two of them stepped inside the elevator.
"Press the 7th floor for me." Eric calmly asked.
Aria did what she was told and pressed the button.
Afterwards, the elevator did as all elevators do and started ascending upwards to its designated floor.
But as the seconds began ticking by, and seconds eventually turned into minutes, Aria slightly tilted her head in confusion.
"This is awfully taking a long time, isn't it?" Aria stated the obvious in order to hopefully gain some insights as to why this was the case.
Eric, who was nonchalantly staring at the numbers above, didn't respond back however and just remained quiet.
Then as if on cue, the elevator made a ding sound, and the metal doors finally slid open.
What unfolded in front of the two afterwards was a long and modern office corridor that stretched impossibly beyond sight.
It was utterly unexpected.
After all...
"That's why it took a long time."
The individual they were coming to meet wanted him dead in the first place.