The next day, Zac woke up early and went to the association.

"So, how was your mom?"

Lima sat across from him, one leg crossed over the other, sipping her coffee. Her alluring figure pulled at his attention, making it hard to meet her eyes.

"Hello? Are you still there?" she waved her hands before Zac’s face.

"Yeah... yeah, I am. My mom... she’s alright. Better than ever."

She smiled a little while asking, "You said you wanted to ask me something, right?"

Zac nodded.

"Go ahead."

He pulled out the gold-black card and placed it in front of her. Lima’s eyes widened the moment she saw it.

"Judging by your reaction, I presume you know what this is."

"Does that belong to your father?" The question slipped out before she could stop herself.

Zac’s expression instantly changed, and he looked at her, not saying anything, but the question in his eyes was clear.

Catching his gaze, she clicked her tongue. "How unprofessional of me." After a moment of silence, he asked in a slow voice, "How do you know about my father?"

"Forget what I said. Pretend you didn’t hear anything."

Zac didn’t move. He kept looking at her, steady and unreadable. "We’re not talking about anything else." With a firm voice, "Not until you tell me everything you know about my father."

She met his eyes for a moment, then turned away.

"I won’t."

Zac pushed his chair back, standing up, and started walking away.

"Get your things before leaving."

He stopped, then turned to look at her. "Keep it. I don’t want it anymore."

A flicker of confusion crossed her face. "Since I haven’t received anything from the association yet, I can revoke the contract, right? As for the healing potion, I will pay for it."

Her expression changed instantly. "Are you trying to threaten me, boy?"

Her aura flared, and an invisible pressure crashed down on him. It should have forced him to the floor, but the divine aura around him held firm, dissolving it before it could take hold.

[How funny, trying to subdue you with aura was the most useless thing I had seen today.]

He met her eyes. "I’m not threatening you. I just can’t work with people I don’t trust."

The pressure vanished, and she leaned back into the chair, sitting comfortably with her face turned back to smiling again."

"Fine. Come here and sit down. You’re completely different from what I’ve read."

"You talk like you’ve known me all my life." Zac is still looking at her with seriousness.

"I’ve read your files, Zac. They explain about you in detail, your personality, character, likes, and dislikes." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "So how did you change so fast? When did it happen?"

"Puberty," he said with a straight face.

"Pht... ahaha..."

"It isn’t that big of a joke."

[Idiot, she’s trying to ease the tension.]

[And she’s doing a terrible job at that.]

"You’re nineteen."

"So? Some people go through it late."

She started tapping her fingers lightly on the table. "Is it because of that girl?"

Zac’s expression instantly turned ominous, and his bloodline aura got released a bit.

"I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT THAT!"

Even though he dissolved the aura instantly, that split second was enough for a veteran like Lima to notice it.

She lifted a hand to her forehead and wiped away a bead of sweat. "What... was that? Am I imagining things?"

The question lingered, but she swallowed it. "This wasn’t the moment." Pushing the thought aside, she shifted the conversation back to the original topic.

"You want to know about your father, right? Then let’s make a deal."

Zac leaned forward.

"If you take first place in the upcoming university entrance exams, I’ll tell you everything I know."

He held her gaze. "You won’t back away, right?"

"Don’t worry. I’m not really the ’early exit’ type. Unless, you know... there’s a chase involved."

Zac felt a flicker of unease at her sudden shift.

"That’s one hell of a mood swing."

[No kidding. One second she’s crushing you with aura, the next she’s back to being a minx.]

Her gaze dropped to the card in his hand. "The card that you are holding is a premium VVIP card from the V-Bank only given to a select few."

"Just what kind of deal was my father involved in?"

"Don’t try to pull words out of me," Lima said, watching him closely. "You’re too young to play that game. Not a word would escape my mouth until you win the bet."

"Oh really?"

She leaned back, crossing one leg over the other, holding his gaze with a heavy-lidded, ’come-hither’ look that made the air in the room feel suddenly thin.

"Want to try?" she murmured, her voice dropping to a playful, intimate velvet. For a moment, Zac was totally mesmerized.

[Focus. Focus. Duty first.] A tiny soldier icon blinked across his panel, pulling him back from the edge.

"Take the card to any branch of V-Bank," she continued, the sultry heat vanishing from her expression as if she’d never been flirting at all.

"I’m pretty sure your father must have already made reservations for you."

Zac gave a small nod and slipped the card back into his pocket.

"Now, let’s talk about what you’ll get for joining the association." She placed another card in front of him. "This is your official variant license."

He took the card and felt a cool sensation spreading across his fingers. The material felt unfamiliar and glossy to look at.

His image was embedded on the surface, marked with a bold "E" on either side.

His name, age, address, and other details were printed cleanly on the left side of the back of the card with the association’s emblem set on the right. A rectangular array curved along the edges, forming an intricate border around the card.

Then she handed him a watch. "This is your VSB. Your details are already in it. You’ll have access to the association’s website as well. Use it however you want."

"100,000 Kairos have been deposited into your account as a joining gift." Her gaze flicked briefly to his pocket. "Though I doubt it’ll matter much, considering your father’s card."

"Now, come with me."

Zac followed her to the elevator, his eyes tracking her movements before forcing himself to look away. The elevator rose and stopped on the third floor.

Shelves stretched across the space, lined with books displayed like artifacts in a museum.

"This is the skill storage; we have skills from ’E’ to ’A’ skills here."

"What about ’S’ levels?"

"’S’ level skills are very rare to come by; even the headquarters only have a handful of them, which they guard with their lives, so don’t get your hopes high."

"You have one hour to choose any one of the F-level skills. We only give E level one for the new members, but since you are a little special, we are giving you an F level skill as a good gesture."

Zac stepped forward without hesitation, moving between the shelves, scanning the titles.

Right now, he had no real skills. He only knows basic swordsmanship, which his father taught him before disappearing, and the Heart Sword technique, which he had just begun to practice.

Twenty minutes passed, but nothing caught his eye.

There were elemental techniques, sword skills layered with stacked effects, even pure body enhancement arts.

"This is ridiculous. Why am I standing here like a flipped cockroach, struggling for its life?"

Then, suddenly,

"System, can you help me with this?"

[No.]

"Oh. Come on, aren’t we good buddies here? Just this once, you can even use the 20 info points."

[I have already told you, you can’t request any information before reaching ’D-rank’.]

"Aren’t you the omniscient being? Please help this mortal just this once."

[Well...Since you are pleading with tears...mmhmmm. Fine, Second self, third row, gray border.]

Without wasting another second, he moved straight to the place.

After thirty minutes he returned with an ’E-level’ book in his hand. Lima glanced at it, surprise flickering across her face. "Why did you pick an ’E’ level?"

"This one suits me better."

She studied him for a moment, then shrugged lightly. "Well... it’s your choice. Let’s hope it gives you what you’re looking for."

Zac gave a small nod and walked out of the association building. His steps didn’t slow as he headed straight toward the V-Bank.