Originally, when Aria went alone in the novel, she had no trouble reaching the individual she wanted to meet because they had no hostility toward her.
How could they especially after ruining her life after all?
Furthermore, Aria at this point and time hasn't truly harmed anyone in her life just yet.
She could be extremely passive aggressive at times, sure, and she also took advantage of others when neccessary for her own sake, that was also true, but Aria never went after anyone out of pure malice.
In other words, she was what this individual defined as an 'innocent' human being.
Someone who just wanted stability in their own life.
That was all.
However, by that definition... Eric wasn't innocent at all.
Unlike Aria, and even Aurora, who had to kill others for her own self defense, Eric in the past had killed people for the stupidest reasons ever.
Whether it be because he genuinely had a grudge against someone, or simply because they had looked at him funny, he never thought twice against causing others harm and misery.
That was also fundamentally the reason why he had no hesitation killing Aurora in his first life when she initially rejected him.
Because he had no moral compass to begin with.
'I knew this, and I even knew that this individual vaguely knew this because of what she does, and yet I still went with Aria to begin with.'
Truly, this is another reason why he didn't want to become an villain in this novel to begin with aside from the obvious fact that he was being hunted down by the protagonist.
This world was just too deep and complicated for a narrow-minded person like him, who hasn't even once done anything successfully yet after remembering his past memories again.
Fortunately, not all hope is lost however, and he could theoretically get out of this safely as well as still get Aria to meet this individual if he was very careful.
The structure of this corridor appeared to fundamentally be similar to what he had read back when Aria traversed through the location she was sent to after all, which was an endless yet welcoming library filled with books of every kind.
The walls were of the same size, the ceiling patterns looked similar, and the placement of the lighting fixtures were arranged in the same patterns.
The only thing that was very noticeably different here was the suffocating atmosphere permeating throughout the place, which Eric knew revealed the individual's intent to kill him, but it was whatever.
"...Just where the hell are we?" Aria asked with genuine fear and panic on her face as she stepped out of the elevator and eyed her surroundings.
"Someplace that isn't known to the public, that's for sure." Eric calmly replied and then took out his phone to check if he was receiving any signal from the internet terminal at all.
"You mean... like in another realm when I was a kid?" Aria was quick to assume as she couldn't help but be reminded of the incident.
"Not exactly, creating and entering realms isn't easy after all, and requires a lot of energy to even create a teleportation array that brings you to one. The individual that we're planning to meet just instructed the receptionist to teleport us to an area that's far away from the city and in the middle of nowhere, that's all." Eric briefly explained as he concluded that they had stable internet connection for now.
"I see... and the only way to get out of here is to find the uh, teleportation array that has been set up in here beforehand and activate it, right?" Aria tentatively asked as she recalled to what Eric said yesterday about teleportation arrays.
"Correct, in this case though, we're trying to find the teleportation array that leads straight to where the person you want to meet usually is." Eric answered.
"Got it... by the way, when you say 'energy,' you don't mean the energy that I'm familiar with, right?" Aria curiously asked as she subconsciously gripped the straps of her backpack again.
"How did you even... forget it, it's better not to know for your own sake." Eric furrowed his brows at how good Aria was at reading in between the lines and knew that he shouldn't explain the concepts behind magical energy to Aria in this world, mainly because he didn't want her to potentially use it against him in the future if she ever gets to learn it.
But in essence, magical energy was similar to mana and qi in fantasy and cultivation novels.
It was like a form of natural energy, yet an invisible one, that existed everywhere in this world.
Almost anyone could use magical energy, if given the fact that they knew how to absorb it into their body, and from there, they could manipulate the magic energy into doing whatever they'd like.
Strengthening ones body, creating artifacts to do certain things, casting spells and abilities, and creating something from nothing, the possibility was endless as long as they knew how to do it.
Unfortunately, Eric was pretty positive that he was one of the few in this world that couldn't absorb it solely because he remembered actually trying to do so in the past when he first found out about it, so he didn't care much about those things anyways to begin with.
"..." Aria was unsatisfied with the response but she didn't push the topic any further and just stayed quiet.
After tapping on his phone a few more times, Eric finally put the phone away and began walking forward through the corridors without another word.
Along the way, Eric carefully observed the surroundings and tried to spot anything out of place that could jump out at him at any given moment and try to kill him.
Strangely though, even after walking for what seemed like hours on end, nothing ever came nor rushed at him at all.
Even more so, the suffocating atmosphere he had once felt became far less stronger the more they walked and adapted to it.
'Weird, did I somehow feel it wrong perhaps? Maybe they don't want me dead after all?'
Eric had thought that he knew about this individual very well.
Perhaps even almost as well as he knew about Aria.
Based on the novel, depending on how serious this individual was and how badly they wanted to kill someone, they would instinctively cast a simple and swift spell that altered the atmospheric pressure around their target.
This was because psychologically speaking, it affected a person's internal rhythm, throwing off their breathing and balance in an instant.
Additionally, it broke composures and caused the opponents to make more mistakes easier, especially in situations where it mattered most.
This individual knew this, and in the past, it even allowed them to incapacitate and even kill certain enemies that they otherwise wouldn't have won against if they hadn't used the spell.
That was why Eric had originally thought that when he and Aria were teleported into an area with intense pressure that he was going to be attacked soon.
But hey, if this individual had no hostility against him, then there's nothing to worry about.
"Let's take a break for a bit and recharge our energy." Eric suggested and placed his backpack on the ground.
Aria, who had been standing right behind him practically the entire time while they were walking, agreed and also began moving to the side to take a seat on the ground.
The moment Aria had gotten out of the way though, just as she was about to fully sit down and relax, she noticed Eric quickly jerk his body to the side as fast as he could through her peripheral vision, and she felt a very light push away from him afterwards.
Then before she could even process anything else, blood suddenly splattered on her face.
Fortunately, it seemed nothing had struck her, and so she looked over at Eric to figure out what was going on.
And that was when she saw it.
Again.
A clean hole pierced straight through his outer thigh, with a clear entry and exit, and large enough for her to see the corridor behind him.
Blood also slowly seeped out from both ends of the wound, staining the fabric of his clothes and dripping steadily onto the floor beneath his feet.
Just like what she had seen yesterday morning back at the parking garage.
Only this time, this sole wound was definitely much more critical than all of the wounds he's accumulated before.
It shouldn't of have been possible for him to be so indifferent to something like that.
And yet somehow...
"..."
"Really now."
"..."
"This is just starting to get annoying."