Only I Am A Reader
chapter-154

"I welcome you all to the Heavenly Furnace!"

Made for the purpose of smelting and reforming, refining the useless into the useful, this was precisely why the deep caves under Mount Heaven were collectively given the name of the Heavenly Furnace!

"Since everyone here had the courage to remain, you could be said to have passed the first test. The real test starts from now on… However, this will be all for today."

As soon as the gentle-looking man finished his words and turned around, the guards clad in black appeared once more, surrounding the clueless children. Not knowing if their fate would still be the same as the 'departed', every single one of them was shivering in fear… aside from some exceptions.

'Here comes the carrot.'

Confidently grasping the shaken hand that was clinging to him, Leo inwardly smiled. The events he was currently experiencing were all depicted in the second chapter of the novel. Naturally, he knew what was going to happen next.

"Move."

The head of the guard only spoke one word before the rest of the guards took a firm step to the front, prompting the children to do the same in fear of being trampled on by the ghostly shadows!

Pressured by fear of the unknown, the remaining children walked in an unexpected orderly manner. It felt like forever for them, but shortly after, the guards stopped moving. They had reached their destination.

'They sure know how to frighten a group of kids.'

While Leo was unamused by the theatrical show performed to keep up the order, he understood its effects by glancing into the frightened eyes that were all around him. The only thing he could do was tighten his grip to calm the hand's owner for now, what was next was the good part!

Tap. Tap. Tap…

As the row of guards covering the front of the group turned to move sideways, the kids that were about to suffer a case of mass heart attacks suddenly widened their eyes… Their eyes weren't playing tricks on them, right?!

Sniff, sniff…

Even if they couldn't trust their eyes, the smell that tickled the children's noses was enough to open their hearts. This was…

"Orderly take your seats for your first meal."

First meal? This was more like a feast! The crowd's eyes sparked as fear quickly escaped, most of the children around were already salivating, this was the first time they had seen this much food in their lives!

However, the scene from earlier was still imprinted in the children's minds, they didn't dare run even under the temptation of the endless food. Instead, every row headed to a table as they took seats one after the other. No one had explicitly told them the specific method, but this was a clear representation of the adaptation skills that these orphans had developed during years of living in the streets, all of this originated from their instinct to live!

'Finally.'

After helping the small figure next to him into her seat, Leo took his own. Under the countless sharp eyes that looked down in them, he hadn't called out his Personal Book to this moment as a precaution.

Although it was likely that no one would see it, they could have noticed that he was acting abnormally. In fact, Leo had to feign slight fear so that he couldn't stand out too much. Being courageous was good, but being fearless would only end up drawing suspicion. Now that the guards had stopped monitoring them and stepped to the side, it was the perfect time for Leo to stare into the empty air atop his plate!

Unlike its usual code of action, the Personal book didn't open up to the first page, turning dozens of pages till it suddenly stopped in the middle. At the very end of his first book's log, a completely new page had appeared!

[ Book 2 ]

Name: Baek-Ho (Leo Lock)

Age: 8 (18)

Role: Reader

Reading Points: 0

________________

Personal Statistics:

Physique: 0.68

Mind: 0.31 (+2.16)

________________

Personal Skills:

'Advanced Swordsmanship' - Chapter 3 - page 0/10

'Intermediate Smithing' - Chapter 2 - page 0/10

'Basic Horsemanship' - Chapter 1 - page 9/10

'Basic Close Quarter Combat' - Chapter 1 - page 10/10

________________

Leo felt apologetic deep inside as he took a quick glance at his new childish face, he had complained that his second identity as Arthur was too tough as a start. As a result, it seemed like he got the exact opposite identity this time around.

Compared to the seemingly 'short-lived' Arthur, Beakho stayed till a relatively advanced chapter, a proper Side-Character! However…

'At least I was 'smart' the first time.'

Baekho's body was quite sturdy for an orphan at this age, but his Mind statistic was a mess. Originally thinking that this particular character stayed silent most of the time throughout the novel to create a coldly detached identity, Leo only discovered the real reason behind his silence by taking his place! Baekho was just too stupid to speak!

'This would have been over way too fast…'

If not for the fact that his own mentality fused with his new persona, Leo would have had to try being mentally disabled. Although he had never mocked disability and the unfortunate who suffered from it, joining the former Heavenly Demon Cult in this state was closer to a death sentence than an opportunity.

'I would have still survived for the same 'reason' he did, but achieving my purpose would have been impossible!'

As Leo's eyes wandered to the end of the page, the quests that had been issued earlier came into his vision. As if to prove that this was no longer a trial, it was nothing as simple as the one he received the first time.

[ Side Quest: Prevent the Heavenly Strength Society's alliance with the Just Faction. ]

A completely new quest was even added, one that strongly contradicted the events that would play out in the novel. However, Leo didn't seem to care about it, his eyes directly focusing on the main one before turning to the small figure beside him.

"Ho?"

He had really been flipped upside down this time around!