《E》 Ch 20 The Calm Before the Storm ¡°I have to tell the others that you woke up¡± I was about to leave, but she took my hand and stopped me. ¡°No, I want to stay like this a little more¡± she was looking straight at me with her eyes sparkling, using her hand, she put my hand on the top of her head again. There was no harm in doing it. ¡°Ok, but just a little, we have to go see the others and tell them you are alright¡±. ¡°Thanks¡±. I was caressing her hair again. She had a slight blush on her face and her eyes were closed enjoying the caress. ¡°How much did you see before you fainted?¡±. From what Hayley said before she saw Hope¡¯s body falling, so I wanted to know if she saw something else but was unable to tell Hayley. ¡°Till Hope and the other guy fell, I know she is ok, my conscience came back yesterday, but I couldn¡¯t wake up till I heard your voice today, I was using my power to look at you and saw that you were all fine¡­ thanks for the necklace by the way¡±. ¡°I¡¯m glad you like it we found it in one of the houses with Hope and I thought it suited you¡±. Someone may think that because of her name she would be sick of receiving thing with roses on it, but it was quite the contrary, she loved those things and roses were by far her favorite. At that moment a knock sounded on the door and it was opened. ¡°Hey bro how is¡­.¡± Hope was on the door frame looking at us puzzled for a second she looked at Rose and then back to me. She smirked and said. ¡°Oh!! Sorry for interrupting, I¡¯ll give you a couple of minutes more¡±. She left us dumbfounded, but it was when I remember that I was caressing Rose¡¯s hair while on the bed, I quickly followed Hope. ¡°Wait, it¡¯s not what it looks like!!¡± Rose was following me, she seemed a little hurt for what I said. Hope stopped and was giggling while looking at us, after she saw Rose¡¯s reaction she already knew that her friend was alright. ¡°I¡¯m so happy you are ok¡±. She gave Rose a tight hug said, and then she added in a whisper. ¡°And that other things are working out for you¡±. Rose as usual blushed. I decided to ignore Hope and went to the backyard to say about Rose to G He was quick to join us and was about to hug Rose when she decided to instead of hugging him a punch on his shoulder was better¡­ it did 0 damage but it was a critical mental hit. ¡°Why did you hit him so hard you left bruises on him¡±. ¡°When you spar seriously, it¡¯s normal to get a little hurt, wait how do you know about the bruises? Spence! You sell me away? ¡°She probably saw it¡±¡­ I figured out how bad it sounded when I finished saying it. Hope decided it was a nice timing to make things worse ¡°OMG!!! Rose you have to tell me everything!!!¡±. ¡°What do you mean she saw it?¡±. Before G gets to do anything, Rose talked.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°It wasn¡¯t like that¡­ unfortunately. I just saw you sparring¡­ I was conscious, but I couldn¡¯t wake up so I used my power to see you¡±. G thought for a few seconds and then looked at me waiting for an explanation. ¡°Why you look at me?¡± ¡°You always know or figure out this kind of stuff¡± ¡°For now, I know the same as you¡± ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t matter for now, come give your brother a hug!¡±. He went to hug Rose, but she ran and hid behind me. ¡°You stink¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you gave Spencer a hug and he has been working out too!!¡±. ¡°I wish I had hugged him¡­ he just patted me for a while but Hope interrupted us! ¡­ Also, he is using deodorant, and smells good anyway¡±. She blushed when finished talking, and G was frozen on the spot. Hope interrupted at that moment. ¡°Are you hungry?¡±. ¡°A lot¡±. Rose answered gratefully with the escape route that Hope gave her. ¡°Come here eat something, we can make tea now¡±. Both girls left, and I wasn¡¯t sure what to do with G so I was about to escape. ¡°Hey Spence, what did she mean that you were patting her? ¡°She asked me to caress her hair when she woke up¡­¡± He pondered about something for a while. Since it was awkward for both of us talk about that we changed the subject. ¡°Do I smell that bad?¡±¡­ Incredibly that was less awkward. ¡°I¡¯m not going to smell you¡­ Come to eat something, I¡¯ll lend you a deodorant, who knows maybe you will get a hug that way¡±. I followed the girls inside and G came a second later. When we finished eating I asked Dante to scout around during the day to see if he was able to find the guys who attacked me and Hope the other day. I took food and went to see Hayley and told her that Rose was awake, she was relieved obviously I knew that she was happy to have someone else to talk beside me and the cat. ¡°With all that happened, I forgot to give you this¡± I gave her the hairpin, she took it in her hand and started inspecting it ¡°Where did you get this?? Is beautiful¡± ¡°When I was out with Hope, she looked the jewelry in one of the houses, and I took a couple of gifts for you and Rose.¡± ¡°That was nice of you, thanks¡± We talked a little more after that, then we tried one of the ideas I had earlier and were able to reduce the cold aura a little, later I was planning to try it with Hope to see if the intimidation was independent of the coldness or was part of the same ability. If this worked it could be great for Hayley, but to get there was going to take time. After some time of practice, we were trying decreasing the output just a little bit and as long as possible without her feeling discomfort, and when she got tired we took a break. I went to the backyard where G was working in the bathroom, so I went to help him. It was getting late, so I went out and helped G with the septic tank, since I was a little smaller than him, he made me go down to cave more and pass him the soil, we also reinforced the walls to be sure it doesn¡¯t collapse. When I finished digging and the septic tank was ready, he thought it was fun to leave me there. I wasn¡¯t going to scream for help or beg I knew this was a revenge because of what Rose said earlier. I started to ponder about Rose. ¡®System can an ability evolve?¡¯ [It depends on the ability and the person¡¯s potential, but it¡¯s possible] ¡®Did Rose¡¯s ability evolve?¡± [It¡¯s possible, but the user doesn¡¯t have enough information to say for sure]. I haven¡¯t seen her use her ability for a couple of days, so it¡¯s impossible to be sure if there was any change. Since her ability evolved I had to assume that everyone¡¯s abilities can. ¡®System can my abilities evolve too?¡¯ [The user passive abilities don¡¯t need training so there is no learning curve involved in this case, since the user can¡¯t make these abilities better, this means that the only way for the user to evolve these abilities is through the system, in the case of active abilities, the user can become better using them, and training them eventually will hit a bottleneck, if the user is able to pass this bottleneck the ability may evolve in some way] My enhanced senses are impossible to evolve or rank up unless I do it through the system. This is good for now, since I don¡¯t need to train it, I can assume that the system gave me this ability at 100% of its potential. After some time in the tank, Dante came back so I was able to talk to him. He has some information about the guys that attacked us, but it was getting late, so I asked him to tell Hope and Rose that I was trapped in the tank Sometime later G came and took me out while his sister scolded him. To be honest, this kind of situations made all of us relax and seeing angry Rose yelling at G was way too funny, since she was barely able to reach his shoulders. In the night G was already sleeping. I decided that the best was to talk with Dante about how it went his scouting. Ch 21 Conflict Brewing Dante was next to me. Each time I talked to him it was more like talking to another person¡­ I¡¯m sure he is smarter than G right now. ¡®As you asked~ I checked the guys that attacked you and Hope~, I found them~, the one that got shot is in a bed~ and the other guy seems to be his brother~ but wasn¡¯t there~. They are in the same group as the guy in the warehouse~¡¯. ¡®Was there someone taking care of him? Did you see his brother?¡¯ I didn¡¯t really care that much about it, but it was unusual that his brother who was so worried about his brother wasn¡¯t with him, unless there was someone else taking care of him. ¡®No~, he was alone and looked uncomfortable~, the brother was elsewhere~. Apparently, this group attacked another group for some reason~, the shots and the smoke seen from time to time was because of that~¡¯ ¡®They are battling?¡¯ ¡®Yes~¡¯ To be honest, I could understand the reasons for fighting, I wouldn¡¯t risk the lives of any of my partners, but if I¡¯m running low on supplies, it¡¯s something bound to happen. The main problem was that this group already knew about my group¡­ and more importantly, they knew a little about my power. ¡®How much do you think the battle is going to last?¡¯ ¡®It¡¯s weird because they are in a stalemate~, but the bosses haven¡¯t moved yet from what I saw~¡¯ After the bosses of those 2 groups join the fight, they were going to be powerful enough to change the course of the battle. Not knowing how the situation would change was dangerous, especially if Jamie¡¯s group wins because we can be next. [Ding] Thanks to Dante I confirmed that the person behind the attack was Jamie if it was intended or just a coincidence there was no way to be sure, but a part of the mission was completed, now I needed to find out about his plans as soon as possible. At least tonight seems to be safe, and even if it weren¡¯t there is no way to move G from here. In either case, I kept watch for a while, but the only thing I heard was a battle happening and smoke about 1km to the north. I fall sleep late that night again in my bed. Hope and Rose shared my parent¡¯s room and Hayley was in Hope¡¯s room. G was like a log in the couch. ______________________________ It took me a while to wake up, even if my Endurance was higher than before the lack of sleep was starting to show. I decided to send Dante to gather more information. He wanted to sleep all day and said that I was overworking him, it took 15 minutes of begging, a bribe of 3 tuna cans, and a promise of more naps in the future to convince him. It seems like it was a good bargain, if we are going to move soon, we can¡¯t carry all that tuna anyway. I¡¯ll let him nap when he comes back. I went out again to train, the wound was already healed, and I decided to take off the bandages. The recovery was too fast, I didn¡¯t know if it was because of the system, a change in my body after the meteor shower or my improved endurance. I decided to warm up earlier.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Jamie¡¯s group attacking others was troublesome. I need to become stronger, but my progress was slow, thanks to the system my potential was bigger than most of the people, but I need time to grow, training was good in the long run and I¡¯m going to keep doing it, but doing missions was by far the most efficient way right now. I have 4 missions currently active. The training was already ongoing, but it would take a couple of days to complete it. Killing a person is the easiest and fastest way to get some points, and sooner or later I¡¯m going to do it, but just going around looking for some random person to become stronger didn¡¯t felt right. Getting and ability to D rank seems impossible¡­ unless I find a way to evolve my current ones fast or I get one by chance from an achievement I don¡¯t see myself doing this one soon. So that leaves me with understanding Jamie¡¯s plan, half the quest was completed, also the system said that there were 2 main reasons for giving missions since I don¡¯t think that finding out about him was going to make my life better, it has to do with our survival. Then his plans involved us or this area in some way. He already knew about my power probably and that would make attacking our group more attractive to him, while they are in a war with that group they aren¡¯t going to attack us so we are relatively safe right now. About 15 minutes later G came since he noticed that the wound was healed¡­ in the sparring, he was relentless in his attacks. [Ding] [Congrats, thanks to the continued training Str, Agi and End went up by 1 point]. Obviously, the result was because of me trying to dodge, and the attacks I had to resist. At the end of the training, each of the muscles of my body hurt like hell, but seeing results in just 3 days was a good reward. After the training, I cleaned myself as usual. And after a short nap, I made a little reunion to tell them about Dante¡¯s discoveries. We made a priority list. First, we are going to move away from here, so we are not making the bathroom anymore, G is going to focus on more portable projects. We need to find a way to move with Hayley, and finally, we are going to investigate more about hope¡¯s and rose¡¯s powers. We haven¡¯t tested Hope power yet, and Rose power could have a changed a little from what could do before. G went to work outside, and Rose went to help him. I needed Hope as a guinea pig to test the effects of Hayley¡¯s aura. ¡®Knock knock¡¯ ¡°Come in¡± I went in alone first, to explain to her what I already talked with the others, how we may have to move out soon, and finding a way for her to move with us was one of the priorities. After that, we started our experiments. ¡°Can you cover yourself with a blanket? Even your head¡± ¡°Ok¡± After a hearing the ok, I opened the door. ¡°How are you feeling?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure¡­ I felt goosebumps like if a chilly wind came to me but besides that nothing else¡±. ¡°Try to resist for a while¡± ¡°Hayley, take a look from under the blanket¡±. The moment she moved the blanket Hope gave a jump scare and I noticed that the cold aura was leaking. ¡°Try suppressing the aura a little¡± I was completely focused on Hope, scaring and using my sister as a lab rat to test Hayley¡¯s power felt awful, but G was affected too much to use him. I have confirmed that the ¡°intimidation aura¡± and the ¡°cold aura¡± were both parts of the same power. I was deep in thought while seeing Hope reactions to different levels of coldness. ¡°Wait for a little¡± I left the room, leaving the girls dumbfounded. Hope escaped from the room with me and left the room for Hayley to relax a little. ¡°Can you explain what you are doing??¡± ¡°You will understand soon¡± I went to our parent¡¯s room and after a couple of minutes I came back and entered the room again. ¡°Hayley, put these clothes on and come out¡± I threw her a bunch of clothes. ¡°So bossy¡± I could hear saying, but I ignored her. ¡°I think I figured out how at least you can go around the house without scaring Hope and G to death¡±. I left the room again and waited outside the room with Hope. After fifteen minutes, she came out¡­ she was wearing even a pair of gloves, goggles and a skullcap. Hope gave a jump scare ¡°The hair inside the jacket, wear the hood, and where is the ski mask?¡± She seemed annoyed because of me giving her order, but she came back into the room to put the things I told her anyway. ¡°Aren¡¯t those mom¡¯s winter clothes?¡± Hope asked ¡°Yes¡±. I had an idea. ¡°Yes, to be exactly those are thermal clothes, usually the idea of them it¡¯s for you to not feel the cold, but in this case, we are preventing the cold to leak from her¡± ¡°Oh¡± Hayley came out again and there was not a single part of her that could be seen. ¡°It¡¯s difficult to breath¡± Hayley clearly didn¡¯t like the solution. ¡°Sorry, for now, we are just experimenting, if we are able to create something like a space suit it¡¯s probably going to be more comfortable. I want to try this with G, Let¡¯s go to the backyard, Hayley can you suppress your aura a little?¡± Ch 22 Preparations We went to the backyard and when we were about to go out we saw Rose just going into the house. When she saw Hayley, she understood immediately. ¡°You don¡¯t want the cold aura to leak?¡±. Sometimes I forgot that she became much smarter after the meteor shower. ¡°Yes, if we prevent the cold from leaving her, she is not scary anymore¡±. Probably Hayley didn¡¯t like the way I said that, but I was unable to tell any of her expressions ¡°Then scary aura is linked to the cold aura you talked about?¡±. ¡°They are the same, apparently¡±. We went out and G had a jump scare an was all bothered¡­ but it was way better than the reaction he had before in Hayley¡¯s presence. ¡°Can you try to warm yourself with the solar energy or something?¡± ¡°You know I don¡¯t control it!!¡± He tried to take distance from Hayley ¡­ Warm yourself¡­ I left again and went to get clothes again and this time I gave G thermal clothes. It didn¡¯t work since the clothes blocked the sunlight, he became weaker after wearing them, we were also unable to cover him completely like Hayley. Rose interjected at that moment ¡°You said that Gerhard light moves on its own reinforcing him, right?¡± ¡°Yes, it maybe moves accordingly to G¡¯s instincts or to help him out by its own¡±. ¡°Since that light seems warm wouldn¡¯t it try to keep the cold aura away from him?¡± ¡°Mmm, that¡¯s a nice idea¡± The only one not happy with the idea was G so we stayed outside to see if the energy in G¡¯s body responded in some way, I told him to keep working in the meantime like if we weren¡¯t there. G¡¯s efficiency dropped a lot since Hayley was there, I was quite happy to torture him a little after he left me in the septic tank and what he has done to me in the morning training. After a couple of hours, G was more comfortable, he couldn¡¯t control the light like the others could control their powers, but the light seemed to help him and was creating a new layer to protect him. He was able to work normally. While we were out I made Hayley suppress her aura from time to time, but since it was difficult just the first hour was she able to maintain it, afterward since G was getting accustomed to it wasn¡¯t that necessary for her to suppress it. It was past noon when Hayley and rose, went back into the house, Hayley couldn¡¯t eat while covered like that and to let her go around the house we decided to eat outside with Hope and G. At the time we were outside, we heard shooting and saw smoke¡­ but this time it came from 2 different parts of the city. One of the sources was the same as yesterday a little to the north, which means that Jamie¡¯s group was still at war with that other guy, the other source came from the edge of the city about 1,5km from us. The second source was giving me a bad feeling¡­ Two more groups were at war and all of them were quite close to us.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. I was looking the smokes with a worried face and both noticed G was the first to talk. ¡°What''s wrong Spence?¡±. I indicated one of the sources. ¡°That one is the battle that involves Jamie¡¯s groups we talked about¡± and then I changed the direction of my hand to the second source ¡°And that one¡­ is new¡­ that means that there are at least 4 groups in conflict right now, and we are near both, we need to move soon¡±. [Ding] [Mission: Move to a safer place. Type: Emergency Reward: 25 System points. Punishment: Hostile Environment Time left 23h 30m 02s] ¡®System what is the exact meaning of the hostile environment?¡¯ [The survival difficulty is going to go up by several levels] ¡­ Hope was looking at me with a worried face. ¡°We should be ok, but we have to leave this place tomorrow at sunrise, I don¡¯t think we have as much time as we thought¡± Both were surprised by my words, all of them already knew that we were going to move out eventually. But none of them expected that to be tomorrow. ¡°G look for the spares that are most difficult to find in a normal house we should be able to find almost anything you need if we look around to take with you the most important. Bring the ropes and the training gloves to keep training¡± we couldn¡¯t stop the training, so we would take the most basic things. Even if he thought it was strange to try to keep the training going in these conditions he didn¡¯t say anything. ¡°Hope, check the backpacks try to stuff them with the dried food we have, the cans are too heavy¡±. ¡°I¡¯ll go talk with Rose and Hayley¡±. I went in and found both happily eating, I sit with them. ¡°Spence what¡¯s wrong?¡±. ¡°The conflicts near us are escalating too quick. I think we should move tomorrow after G wakes up¡±. Rose was the first to react. ¡°Do you need me to scout around?¡±. I thought a second about it, Dante still hasn¡¯t come back and I wanted to know where he was. ¡°Do you think you can use it without any problems?¡±. ¡°Yes¡±. ¡°Ok, then do it, try to look for Dante¡±. Rose Closed her eyes and when I thought she was going to open them like the other time she fell to the side. I catch her in time. ¡°Rose!!¡± She opened her eyes right away, it was weird. ¡°Calm down, I¡¯m fine, when I used my power it was like if my soul left my body¡­ I saw myself falling and you caught me¡± ¡°Your power really evolved¡­¡± I was quite surprised, I¡¯m not sure if this was better or worse than the power before, we couldn¡¯t use it right now. I thought a second about it. ¡°Don¡¯t use it for now, if you leave your body for too much time, maybe it becomes more difficult for you to wake up or something, so we have to test it in a safer place¡± After saying that Rose looked discouraged, but she knew that it was too dangerous to keep trying her power like this. ¡°Hayley for how long you think you can go around dressed like that and suppressing your aura? ¡°If I¡¯m not moving about an hour, but moving the limit should be for about half of it¡± ¡°Ok mmm go outside and train while G and Hope are working I need them to get used to the feeling especially G¡±. After that I Helped Hope to verify everything, each of the girls was going to carry 1 backpack. In my case I additionally was carrying the first aid kit, and G was carrying spares, he could be able to carry more stuff, but if a battle breaks out I need him able to fight. Each backpack had about a week''s worth of food and water, a blanket and a change of clothes. Since that was ready I wanted to see how useful Hope¡¯s power was, part of the afternoon we were trying a couple of things. First, we tried to make her move a couple of objects with her mind, but it didn¡¯t work, well, I didn¡¯t think it was going to work like that. I threw a couple of things at her, and told her to think about repelling, deflecting moving around a lot of things, I also tried with different items. In the end, her power works only on metallic objects (at least for now). She can repel them, my theory is that she creates an electromagnetic field around her, and when a metallic object enters on it gets affected by it and change its trajectory. It wasn¡¯t an amazing defensive ability as I thought at the beginning, since it''s used as a shield was quite limited and situational. But the creation of electromagnetic fields could become something amazing if she is able to control it. But it wasn¡¯t too helpful for our current situation. I waited for Dante, I had a couple of ideas about where to go, but since I lacked information I couldn¡¯t decide which one was better. We had everything ready to leave early, Rose and Hope were helping Hayley to look at all the thermal clothes we have in the house to make a suit easier to move around. I was looking at the kitchen knives and decided to take 3 of them that I thought could be useful in the future. The sun was already down when Dante finally appears. Ch 23 The Collapse He looked agitated and snuggled in a chair to recover. ''Are you ok?''. ''Yeah, it''s just that a raccoon~ started to chase me after I finished scouting~ and I wasn''t able to shake him off~, in the end, I went near one of the conflict zones to escape~''. ''Are you sure it wasn''t able to follow you?''. ''Yeah~ I saw it getting shot when he changed targets to some human ~''. ''I''m glad you are ok, we are planning to move from here tomorrow''. ''That''s a good idea~, the animals went crazy~, the second conflict were dozens of people that are under attack~¡­ horses~, cows, pigs, and a lot of other animals~'', I think they were different groups but when they were attacked they joined hands to defend themselves~''. ''Tell me what else you saw''. ''In the morning I went to see Mr. Ryan, he made a grave in his house and left~ he went to the group in the Police station~, that group is the biggest in the city~ they had to go to a school to be able to stay together, the group that was in the clinic have grown a lot and is the second largest, both groups have "control" of the city center~''. ''And around here?''. ''Around here are a lot of smaller groups~, Jamie''s one of the biggest is more than a dozen people, but none of them seems happy~ he is attacking the other groups if they don''t join him~, he is living in a house about 6 blocks to the north east~. The group they are at war with seems strong... About ten people''. ''The group that is defending from the animals how are they doing?''. ''I don''t think they are going to resist too much''. Since they were attacked by surprise and were smaller groups, at the beginning of the attack, they must have been unorganized, we should assume that those animals came from the farms outside, so the west probably is getting attacked by the animals of the forest. Which makes the west of the city more dangerous, there''s a swamp in that forest. The city center should be safer, but the supplies are going to be scarcer than here because of the large groups. We must move a little toward the center, but not enough to get in the way of the larger groups. According to Dante, there are a lot of smaller groups around here, but I don''t think they all are going to be active in attacking others like Jamie''s. From the east, we have farms and from the west, the forest. That leaves south and north. Even if north is where Jamie''s fights are happening, I think that in the future we should move, going south means going toward the desert, fewer animals, and fewer supplies and no water, this leaves the north. Since we know the position of Jamie''s groups we could move to a place in which his group and the one they are at war, can be used as a wall to protect us from the animal invasion, it was dangerous, but it was also the safest place since most of the groups should want to get away from them. Fewer groups equal more supplies in the area and if we keep a low profile they are not going to look for us there. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, it could be useful to keep an eye on them. Also, even if it was dangerous, the system gave that mission for a reason. And I want to finish it for the rewards.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. It was decided we were going to move to the northwest to avoid the conflict area. I bought 5 bullets for the rifle it cost 2 system points each. I had 7 bullets left in the handgun, but I doubt that if a cow or a horse appears those bullets are going to be able to do anything to them. And I reloaded right away. The 15 points left were for emergencies, I had a couple of ideas already if we are involved in something dangerous, but unless there''s a need for it I''m not using them yet. I stayed outside with Dante, he gave me a lot of details about the things he saw including some abandoned houses we could use as temporary refuges. We would move toward Haley''s home, the time it took walking was about the same as her current limits, from there, we keep moving north we should arrive at the place I have in mind. While I was talking I heard a sound. Dante''s ears went straight up, I didn''t know from where it came. ''Did you hear that'' ''Yeah, it came from the roof''. ''Use the mental connection and tell all in the house to not come out'' It was late at night the moon was barely noticeable, but thanks to the stars you can see around without problems, my enhanced eyes allowed me to see a little better, but it was enhanced vision and not night vision. I took the rifle and walked to the backyard to check the roof, I closed the door softly. I have never shot it before, but I knew the theory and I knew already the correct grip. Dante climbed the wall on the side of the backyard and was also looking around. I was focused, changing between the wide visible range, and the vital point view, but the vital point didn''t show anything, so I kept with the first view and scanned the roof. At the beginning, I didn''t see anything but after a while a noticed a red dot¡­ it was an eye of a little black bird, as soon as I saw it, I pointed at it with the rifle, but since it was small I wasn''t as worried as before. I was thinking if I should take the shot anyway, or not¡­ I should have done it. ''Careful'' Dante climbed down the wall and the bird opened his beak. "CAAAAWWWW!!!!! CAAAAWWW!!!!!" BANG!! It happened in just a second a loud scream came from the bird I take the shot but had to leave the rifle in the grass to cover my ears. The shot missed, but it scared the bird¡­ or so I thought because it took flight, but instead of leaving it came to me, I was a little dizzy but reacted and rolled on the floor to dodge. Since the bird was too mobile and my rifle abilities suck I took out the handgun. When it attacked me, I noticed that it was a crow, and it''s incredibly difficult to be able to follow its movements in the night. CAAWW!!!! CAWWW! At least it wasn''t smart, the caws are annoying and hurt a lot, but after 3 times I noticed that always does that to leave me vulnerable before it attacks me. This time, when the scream stopped I was ready and took another shot, this time with the handgun. Again, I failed. It didn''t come for me, it changed directions and almost got Dante, at the last minutes he made a strange twist and was able to dodge it. Stupid bird earlier, I thought that fighting a bull would be incredibly dangerous, but a freaking bird was giving me a lot of problems, my confidence in survival was on the floor right now. And when I tried to look at Dante to see if he was ok I lost the crow. I looked around. I should have trained more my Dex. CAAAWWW!!! Thank god the stupid bird is polite enough to tell me each time it''s about to attack. I turned around, my ears hurt, but this time I didn''t cover them, I shot 3 times while the crow was diving. Finally, one of the bullets grazed one of the wings and it fell. It tried to fly again, but Dante was fast and before it could scream again went straight to his throat, it struggled a little, but after half a minute it stopped moving. I dropped to my knees, I was a little dizzy and felt my neck wet I touched with my hand and found blood coming from my left ear. I didn''t need my medical knowledge to know that I had a perforated eardrum. With my right ear, I heard the door of the backyard opening and a worried Hope came running followed by Rose and Hayley. [Congratulations user, for Killing his first F-Ranked beast 5 system points] [Achievement unlocked] [First Blood This world had changed, and you must defend yourself. Kill your first living creature Reward 10 System Points +1 stat point] [Mission: Kill ten beasts (at least F-Rank) 1/10 Type: normal Reward: 50 system points Time left: unlimited] [Mission: Survive the Whole Collapse Type: Main Reward: 500 system points, ??? Time to complete: 3w 1d 23h 21m 14s] That was the first time I heard about the collapse, but it wasn''t going to be the last. In the years later, the collapse was going to become the name of a short period after the meteor shower. When most of the technologies were lost or unusable. When half of the life in the earth died. When those that survived changed. When the animals turned into beasts and walked rampant around the cities. When the humans forgot their morals to survive and the strong ruled the weak. When everything as we knew before collapsed¡­ Ch 24 Leaving Home Thanks to cold mind, I was again able to notice a couple of things, apparently the fact that I was in danger was able to pump more adrenaline into Hope system and even if she was a little scared by Hayley¡¯s presence she could act normal. ¡°Spence!!¡± She kneeled next to me and noticed the blood coming from my ear. ¡°I¡¯m ok¡±. I said a little dizzy ¡°Hayley can you check if Dante is hurt? Take care of him for tonight¡±. In the end, Dante killed the crow, so he had blood on him and I was worried since his hearing is better than mine he could be in a worse shape than me. ¡°We can¡¯t let the blood smell attract more beast, help me cover it¡± I put the corpse of the crow in a bag and throw it in the septic tank, then we throw the same soil back in. I took the rifle, leaving behind the empty bullet shell and went inside the house under the worried looks of Hope and Rose. Last time I was hurt, they were both unconscious, so it was the first time they saw me bleeding after a battle¡­ I hope it doesn¡¯t become a common thing. I closed the backyard door and blocked it, then went to the living room and saw G still sleeping. I know that he is tired and without energy during the night, but even after all that he was in deep sleep¡­ lucky bastard. I took a bottle of water from the ones we could not take with us, cleaned my neck and ear carefully with the help of the girls, after that using the first aid kit I covered the ear with an improvised patch to protect it. I couldn¡¯t hear anything with that side, it was a horrible disadvantage, also my shoulder hurts a little because of the recoil of the rifle, but it should be fine by tomorrow. I went to Hayley¡¯s room to see Dante. He had a headache, but nothing as bad as mine, and Hayley has cleaned him, I left him to rest. ¡°You both should go to sleep, we are leaving early tomorrow¡±. They seemed reluctant and Rose said that she wanted to sleep on my side to take care of me since both of them were worried in the end, I slept in the same room as Hope, so she could keep an eye on me. I was once again lying on the bed. I closed my eyes, but before sleeping, there were a couple of things in my mind that I want to understand before I going to sleep. ¡®System can endurance shorten the recovery time of my ear?¡¯ [Yes] ¡®Use the stat point on Endurance¡¯ I would like to improve my Dex, but in theory, since it was lower it was easier to improve it, also if I raise my endurance I¡¯m going to be able to recover a couple of days earlier¡­ and if I keep getting hurt the effects are not going to be that bad. [User endurance raised by one] ¡®Why did Dante¡¯s kill count toward me?¡¯ [The cat is considered the user¡¯s pet by the system, therefore the cat kills count toward the user]. That¡¯s¡­ kind of obvious after I heard it¡­ but unexpected. ¡®What means that a beast is F-Ranked?¡¯ [It has an F-Rank power] ¡®Are the power tiers the same as the humans?¡¯ [Yes, but since some animals have different capabilities than humans the result are that the strength also is different, in general, an F-Ranked human is weaker than an F-Ranked beast, but it will depend on the power and the original race].The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡®Then that crow had an enhanced ability for his scream?¡¯. [It¡¯s quite possible] That battle taught me something important, I can¡¯t underestimate or doubt from now on¡­ any of the beasts we found, even a mouse can potentially be an A-Ranked beast capable of killing us easily. Shot first, ask questions later¡­ The bright side of this battle was that at least I got some system points. I felt pretty beaten, so I fell sleep fast. _____________________________ In an office in the center of the city. ¡°Sir most of the scouts have already come back and confirmed your guess, the animals in the surrounding are attacking the city¡±. An old guy had a glass with and an amber liquor on his hand, he looked pensive while looking from a window on the fifth floor, this use to be his master''s office, but now the overlord of the place was the old man. ¡°What do you mean with most of the scouts?¡± ¡°We lost 3 of them, In the sectors 2, 8 and 10¡± ¡°Mmm, that¡¯s odd send someone to verify what happened tomorrow, you can go sleep¡± the man took a sip of the glass. He was alone again and was gazing at the stars. ______________________________ I woke up and it was a little later than the time I usually wake up, Hope is already up and nowhere to be seen. I got out of bed, and for a second I felt that I lose my balance, it was an after effect of the eardrum, I left the room leaning a little on the wall just in case lost my balance again. I went to the living room, G was verifying that he got everything, he saw me come and was surprised when he saw my patch. ¡°Holy s**t Spence what happened to you?¡±. ¡°We were attacked by a crow¡± ¡°A little bird did this to you?¡± He had a mocking tone ¡°Yes, a little bird with a sound attack that woke everyone in the house¡­ or maybe it was the shootings what wake them up I¡¯m not sure¡± I didn¡¯t like his tone, so I showed it in my answer He went pale. ¡°Are you ok¡­ wait, what do you mean with we got attacked¡­ are the girls ok?¡± His mocking tone was completely replaced with a worried one. ¡°It was me and Dante¡­ he is fine, I took the worst part apparently and got my eardrum perforated by the screeches¡±. ¡°Where it happened?¡± ¡°In the backyard¡± ¡°¡­ And I didn¡¯t wake up even like that¡­¡± ¡°There is nothing we can do about it, are you ready?¡± ¡°Yes, I was waiting just for everyone to arrive¡± ¡°Good I¡¯ll get the girls to leave¡± The girls were ready too, we took our last breakfast in the house, after a night of sleep Dante was much better. I took my backpack and a bag, the bag had the first aid kit, the knives, besides them, I had a star-shaped piece of metal that I found when I was a kid while playing around with everyone, and some pictures I found. Finally, before leaving¡­ Rose¡¯s helped me patch my ear correctly¡­ everything is easier when you can see what you are doing. ¡°Everyone ready?¡± Everyone nodded. ¡°Our first stop is going to be in Hayley¡¯s home, do you guys have anything important in your house?¡± ¡°No, I took all the important last time¡± ¡°Rose?¡± ¡°Yes, there is something important to me¡± ¡°Ok, then we will make a short stop at your house and then Hayley¡¯s¡±. We left the house¡­ I looked both sides of the street where we grow up, both to reminisce the past and to make sure that no one was near, we started to move to the north, Rose¡¯s and G¡¯ House was on the way, so it wasn¡¯t a problem to stop by. Dante was walking ahead of us, since their home was near it took us less than 10 minutes to arrive. G had forgotten about something and went to his room to look for it and rose, went to hers, in the meanwhile Hayley rested and took out everything she had on her face to breath better. G came back, he put something in his bag, but I didn¡¯t notice what it was. ¡°Hey, G did your dad had any weapon?¡± ¡°Not that I know of¡± ¡°Too bad.¡± Rose came back hiding what she brought back and put it on her bag as fast as she could¡­ probably something embarrassing. Hope didn¡¯t get the message and asked her out loud. ¡°You came back to get Mr. Cuddles??¡± ¡°It¡¯s not my fault!!! Spence asked if there was anything important left, and I can¡¯t lie!! Mr. Cuddles was the first gift he gave me!!¡± To be honest, just by the name I had no idea who Mr. Cuddles was¡­ but when she said that it was a gift I gave her I remembered¡­ it was a teddy bear¡­ I gave her when we were kids. I had about nine years, it was the first time she was staying at our house¡­ for a sleepover with Hope. In the night there was a Storm and I couldn¡¯t sleep, when I went to the bathroom in the night I heard her crying scared by the thunders, I calmed her and gave her teddy bear and told her that he would protect her. I was a little moved that she considers the teddy important enough to come here to get it in this situation. ¡°Hope, don¡¯t tease her I¡¯m sure you brought with you those panties with kittens that you say are for luck¡±. ¡°Waaah!! And you!! I¡¯m sure you also bring with you¡­ something embarrassing? ¡­¡± She got nothing. G interjected at that moment ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we keep moving?¡± ¡°Right, Rose, can you go get Hayley? We are leaving¡± I¡¯m pretty sure G doesn¡¯t want anyone trying to guess what he came here to get. Just like that we left their home and continued toward the west in Hayley¡¯s house direction. Ch 25 Hayley’s Home There were multiple reasons for Hayley¡¯s house to be the first stop. I knew the area. It was in the movement range for Hayley¡¯ current capabilities. I wanted her to get the stuff she needs here. It was also on the way to the place I have as an objective. But the most important was that she had to visit her mother¡¯s grave, it could be her only chance to do so. We once again moved through the streets, in the way once again shots could be heard in the distance¡­ but nearer than yesterday¡¯s and from multiple sources. ¡­ I was surprised by the number of people with guns, but what is going to happen when they run out of bullets? This neighborhood is going to be overflown by the beasts today. And it¡¯s going to become a war zone. There where people patrolling in some of the streets, and some beasts roaming around, but thanks to Dante we were able to avoid them. In the distance I saw birds flying around, I was so focused on them that I tripped and almost fell, Rose prevented me from stamping my face on the floor. ¡°Are you ok?¡± ¡°Sorry I was too focused on the birds over there¡±. All of them shifted their sights to where I pointed¡­ ¡°¡­ Those dots? I didn¡¯t even notice them¡± G said. ¡°Aren¡¯t they, like¡­ really far?¡± Hope added ¡°I have an improved eyesight¡­¡± I was embarrassed¡­ I hope I¡¯m not developing a phobia of birds or something like that. We continued moving, this time I focused on our surroundings, but kept an eye on the birds. I¡¯m not scared, but must be sure they will not attack us. Our progress was slower than I predicted, the main reason was that we had to take some detours to dodge people and a horse that was running rampant in the streets. We arrived at Hayley¡¯s house about 20 minutes later, there was a letter with Hayley¡¯s name on it, a note, and 2 big books. The note was for me and said to take the book with us, both were about old technology. I gave one to G and kept the other. Hope can take them and read them right now, but it could take time for her to take everything in her memory. Hayley took a minute to look for a couple of things and went to her room. She was probably reading her father¡¯s letter. I decided to check the system quickly. [Mission: Move to a safer place. Type: EmergencyThe story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Reward: 25 System points. Punishment: Hostile Environment Time left 3h 13m 02s] The time was running, and we aren¡¯t in a safer place yet. I hope that the place I selected can fulfill the system¡¯s requirement. After learning about the beast attack I feel that humans may be less dangerous than them so looking for a place easier to defend or where the beast can¡¯t enter is better, it¡¯s a block of apartments not too close to the center of the city. We should be able to get there in 1 and a half hours. I had two more checkpoints in mind to stop on our way. Also, once there if the apartments I have in mind are taken, I can change my target to another place. I was pondering on the possibility of taking Hayley with me through another route to move faster in smaller groups, but this also makes it more dangerous, if any of us get caught by beasts or another group our chances are just going to get lower. I¡¯ll make the decision according to our advance in the next checkpoint, if we are behind schedule I¡¯ll have to do that. After I was ready to leave I went to the backyard¡­ at the end of the backyard surrounded by flowers, there was a place that was clearly dug recently and there was a carved metal plate on top of it. ¡®Lauren Ryan¡¯ ¡®Loving Wife¡­ Caring Mother¡¯ ¡¯August 24, 2004 ¨C August 15, 2050¡¯ I sat on the grass near to it. Aunty was a gentle mother and she was close to Hayley. I remember she was also an amazing chef, the best food I have eaten in my life was at the Saturday¡¯s dinner at Hayley¡¯s home when we used to date. I have known that she died for a while now, but being next to the grave was when it became real, I know that a lot of people die but she was the first person that a knew that died¡­ or at least the first I know of. I wondered about my college friends, neighbors, family, how many of them are still alive? Will I ever see any of them again? A cold breeze grazed my back, followed by footsteps. I turned around to see Hayley walking slowly, she had changed her clothes she has chosen darker colors than what she usually wears. Her eyes were swollen and red, she had been crying and I wondered about the letter his father gave her. She saw me and then the grave, tears started to fall once again and fell to her knees, she looked so fragile and weak. I felt pity for her. I was sad for her¡­ and angry. Hayley used to be was a sweet, gentle and cheerful girl. Always with a smile on her face. Always caring about her friends. Always working hard for what she wanted. But just a night has done to her something unforgivable. Since I rescued her that night I haven¡¯t seen any of that. That outgoing and cheerful girl was nowhere to be seen. She lost her family¡­ Her power made her rejected by most of her friends. She didn¡¯t deserve any of this and seeing her like this next to me¡­ broke my heart. It made me realize the how much the things really change and ponder about the thing I was trying to avoid. I wondered how many like her have suffered without reasons something similar. I did the only thing I could and put my hand around her shoulders trying to give her some comfort while she cried her eyes out. She put her head on my shoulders. ¡°¡­ Why¡­¡± was all she could say in a barely audible voice. If she was on my other side, I wouldn¡¯t have noticed that she talked at all. We stayed like that and I let her cry all she wanted. I could feel her tears damping my shirt, but after a couple minutes, her sobbing stop, and her breathing came back to normality. Thanks to the system I knew that 20 minutes have passed and unfortunately, we had to keep moving. I didn¡¯t want to make her leave. But we had to. ¡°Hayley, we have to keep going¡±. She lifted her head from my shoulder and looked at me straight into my eyes. ¡°Spence¡­ please don¡¯t leave me alone¡± ¡­ Her words surprised me for a second ¡°Promise me¡­¡± she couldn¡¯t hold my gaze anymore and put her forehead on my shoulder. ¡°I promise¡±. She let out a relieved sigh. ¡°Thank you¡±. [Achievement Unlocked] [Who to trust? Friends will be your main strength in difficult times, someone close to you learned that. But you must be up to it and never let them down. Earn the complete trust of someone close to you. Reward: 30 System points, Cha+3] Ch 26 The Goat I went back to the living room and Hayley went to prepare herself, this was the first time she was glad about the suit we came up with, that way no one is going to notice her eyes. They were all in the living room, Hope went to pay her respect to aunty before we left. A couple of minutes later Hayley came back. I went to fix a part that was leaking aura. ¡°Thanks¡±. ¡°You¡¯re welcome¡±. I turned around under Rose¡¯s gaze and went to the door. ¡°Let¡¯s move¡±. Dante was outside keeping watch, that cat¡¯s resilience was amazing, I¡¯m still a little beaten for yesterday and he is moving as if nothing happened. He went ahead, and we started to move once again to the north-west. He was now able to talk to us from 1 block and in my case twice that distance. We still have enough time, but if something happens, it could get dangerous. When we arrived at the next checkpoint we had more than 2 hours left. While I was moving around I also got and Achievement [Achievement Unlocked Staying in that place made you lazy this should have been unlocked a lot of time ago Travel 5 km Reward: Agi/End +1] It wasn¡¯t that much, but indeed the amount I have moved around since the meteor shower was almost none. While Hayley was resting, a talked to G. ¡°G, give me the revolver¡± ¡°What why???¡± ¡°I have the rifle, so I¡¯ll give you the pistol¡­¡±. ¡°Oh... Ok¡±. He handed me the revolver and I gave him the pistol, I had to buy another magazine of bullets since it only had 3 left. I was able to get a discount so for 10 points I got the magazine for the pistol, a round for the revolver and the system gifted me with a bullet for the rifle. I have 50 points left that I don¡¯t plan to use unless something happens just like always I left for emergencies. This part was the most dangerous when our neighborhood was built it was outside the city, afterward it kept growing but always was a little separated from the city so there was an unused terrain in between. On the midway, there was a ¡°secret place¡± where we used to play I¡¯m planning on using it as a resting place before arriving at the city. Since we were about to leave our neighborhood, I explained what my end goal was. I told them 3 places in priority order. We went out once again, but this time was going to go as smoothly as before, we heard another battle going on. We went ahead to leave this place. ¡®We have a problem~, there are 3 people in the original route~ and there is a goat in the alternative~¡¯ That was indeed a big problem because behind us there was a battle, I¡¯m sure I saw a rapid surge of heat and a house 1 block away was burning down. ¡®One of the guys is one of those that attacked you before~¡¯. That means he probably blames me for shooting his brother. ¡®Do they have guns?¡¯Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡®Yes~ handgun, and shotgun~¡¯ ¡°Then we are taking our chances with the goat, one of them, also has an ability¡±. We moved to the alternative route, and move silently until we reached the intersection. ¡°Do you think we should take the shot?¡±. G asked. That was the same I was wondering myself. If we don¡¯t kill it, we are going to provoke it, but if we try to avoid it and it sees us who knows what kind of ability it has. I peeked and what I saw left me dumbfounded. ¡®Dante?¡¯ ¡®Yes~¡¯ ¡®Have you ever seen a goat before?¡¯ ¡®Yes, but just in pictures~, this is the first time I see one myself~¡¯. Well, that explained why he didn¡¯t mention a little detail. What was on the street was indeed a goat and was eating a bush¡­ the whole bush. The goat was the size of a cow¡­ I hope that was the only evolution, how the f**k are we going to kill that, I was evaluating our chances with Jamie¡¯s patrol. ¡°Spence, what happens?¡± G asked when he saw me. ¡°Look yourself.¡±. I told him and let him peek. ¡°HOLY S**T!!¡±. ¡°Shhht¡­ don''t scream or you want it to come here¡±. ¡°Sorry, what are we going to do?¡± Hope got bored with our conversation and asked. ¡°Why, what¡¯s wrong?¡±. ¡°The goat¡­ is bigger than we thought¡±. ¡°How big?¡±. ¡°The size of a cow¡±. The girls looked at us devoid of any expression. ¡°You are kidding, right?¡± ¡°I wish¡­¡± ¡°What are we going to do?¡± I thought for a little ¡°I¡¯ll distract it and you go ahead¡± ¡°¡°¡°Denied¡±¡±¡± I was surprised that all 3 girls say it at the exact same time. ¡°I have another idea, but¡­ it''s dangerous and it will take a little more time to prepare¡±. They were looking at me intently¡­ ¡°More dangerous than being the bait?¡± ¡°Mmm, no¡­ probably not¡­¡± they didn¡¯t like the tone¡­ ¡°G, try to get inside this house and keep watch for the other group¡­ they may come here after I finish¡­ I¡¯m going to deal with the goat¡±. ¡°Wait, how are you going to do it?¡± ¡°I will set up a trap¡­¡± Hope and Rose didn¡¯t want to even listen how I was going to do it, in the end, Hayley and G were able to convince them and to stop making us lose time. I got to the intersection once again, this time the goat was eating from a tree. 15 points. That was the cost of a grenade and a steel thread. I went ahead trying to use my stealth, the goat was too busy eating to notice me, also I was upwind, so my smell didn¡¯t reach her. I was just 2 houses away, I put the grenade in a little hole in the floor cover it, the steel wire was tied to the pin. The moment I pull the wire the grenade will take about 5 seconds to explode. My plan was simple. I¡¯m going to shoot to the goat, so it came to me. I''ll pull the wire, the grenade will explode at the time the goat is next to it, I thought about a landmine that was a little more expensive, but the trigger was little and is by any chance the goat doesn¡¯t step on it¡­ I¡¯m screwed. So I made a simpler version of it. I was ready to take cover next to a wall. I was ready to pull the wire. I aim for the Goat for my current abilities, hitting it would be already amazing. I looked through the iron sight. I was shaking a little but tried to calm down, I let out a sigh and hold my breath. BANG!! BAAA!! [Ding] [Handgun lv. 0 evolved onto Firearms lv. 0] The bullet hit the goat on its body and started bleeding It looked toward me and started to run. When I felt it was the right time I pulled the wire, took shelter and cover my ears with my hands. BOOOOM!!! It reminded me of the shockwave of a couple of days ago, the sound, the vibration going through my body and the earthquake-like movement. I stood up and peeked at the place where the explosion took place. I have once again the rifle pointing forwards and tried to figure out where the goat was, it didn¡¯t take too much time after the dust started to settle I was able to notice the place where the goat was thanks to the color difference There was a huge hole in the place the grenade was, and the goat was lying there too. I knew it was still alive since the system didn¡¯t notify about the death, but it was badly hurt the temperature difference I noticed before came mainly from its side where part of the fur still had some ember on it. I got nearer to get a clean shot, I shot 3 times in the goat¡¯s neck, they are known for their hard heads, with reinforcement it was impossible to kill it like that, and my aim is not that good enough to go for an eye. Even from 10m away, I failed one shot. When I finally heard the system notification my heart was at ease again. [Ding] [Congratulation user, you killed your first E-ranked beast 25 system points awarded] [Achievement unlocked David and Goliath Way to go nice job there Kill something stronger than you by using your wits. Reward: Int+3] [Firearms skill Lv. Up 0->1] It was a good harvest, got my inversion back, some points and a skill lv up. I heard movements behind me and pointed the rifle right away. I found my friends running towards me, as soon as I saw it was them I lowered the rifle. ¡°Don¡¯t do that, I may have shot at you!!¡± ¡°Sorry, we heard an explosion and shooting and were worried¡± Hope answered me while looking shocked at the goat lying dead on the street ¡°Since we have nothing more to do here, let¡¯s keep moving¡±. We were about to leave when I heard I loud voice. ¡°YOU!¡± Ch 27 BANG!!! I recognized that voice¡­ but unlike the last time I heard it, now was filled with hatred and killing intent. As I was turning around the brother of the guy I shot the other day dashing towards me under the surprised looks of his partners. He didn¡¯t have a weapon, but his movement where fast and I noticed like if the wind itself was helping him giving him some impulse, he was paler than last time, and his eyes were red with a hint of madness on them. G was the first to react to this development, he moved to block the guy''s path. The rest of his team were the ones with a shotgun and a pistol. This was the first battle I could not escape from, I decided to trust in G¡¯s ability to hold that guy, so I aimed with the rifle for to the guy with the shotgun. G and the other guy were fighting midway between the teams. That guy was fast, but G was able to react and block his attacks. While they were engaged in a melee fight, I thought that I should never have given him the handgun, it was a waste for him as a melee fighter, I took cover and shot once with the rifle. It was a couple cm off, but to be honest, I didn¡¯t think it was going to be that close, it was probably thanks to the skill lv up. The other guys took cover too and started to move slowly toward us shooting back. None of us wanted to hurt by mistake our teammates so the gunfight was on the sidewalk, while G was fighting with the other guy on the road. ¡®Dante, tell G to get near us¡¯ ¡®Yes¡¯ From the corner of my eye, I was keeping track of G¡¯s fight and Hope¡¯s condition. The other guys shot once. Thanks to that little training, Hope deflected the handgun bullet, it was off anyway, but better being safe, I shot back twice but the hide before it hit. The Hope was acting like a shield for Hayley and Rose. All of them were behind trees. G was slowly being pushed toward us. At first glance, it was like the other guy was winning, but the reality is that I wanted to separate them. The other guy was using kicks to push him. Since he was ¡°winning¡± he thought that he had the advantage and looked towards me constantly, but every time he tried to slip pass G he was stopped. The shotgun blew a part of the wall that was covering me. The corner fell, and I was covered by rubble. I shot back to prevent them from coming. We were losing too much time and G was already close to me. I was ready to let the other guy come to me. ¡®Dante, tell G to take cover and let that guy pass and to take cover¡¯ I had 2 bullets left, the next time that guy tried to slip G didn¡¯t stop him, and got covered since the guy was in the way his partners stopped shooting at us but could react fast enough to try aiming at G. The other guy was coming at me directly like if he was in some kind of Berserker state, the ¡°chains¡± I saw last time now looked like a snake, and some of them were under his skin.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I shot both bullets towards him. He managed to dodge the first one, but the second bullet hit the side of his abdomen. He didn¡¯t fall and was next to me he was about to hit me, but I dodged by instinct, all the beatings were worth it after I dodged his kick, I move on the offensive with a kick to his supporting foot. He fell. I had to move again to take cover, with the guy on the floor the other had a clear sight to aim at me. I threw the barrel and put a new one on the revolver. We need to end this fast, with this noise is possible that more people are going to come here. The other guy was losing blood fast, but still was trying to stand up and come for me. When I saw his eyes up close, I understood, he was beyond salvation, those enraged eyes, the veins around his body, and the snakes around his body told me that, he was less than a puppet, I don¡¯t know what Jamie did to him but now this guy was just a beast on a leash. Maybe that rage was focused on me because of his brother state, but the cause of that rage was those snakes¡­ I don¡¯t know how I know it but I was sure about it. ¡®More people are coming¡¯ I pointed my gun at the guy standing up. Because of the blood loss, his movements were slow, he could use his power right now for whatever reason. I had doubts, but we can¡¯t let them get reinforcements. For a second my mind was calm, and I knew what I had to do. I pulled the trigger. [Ding]¡­ _________________________________________ (Jamie¡¯s POV) ¡°THAT F***ING PYRO¡± Until a second ago the battle with his group was turning our way, I got a hold on 2 of his subordinates, but when I was about to advance he blew a house MY HOUSE!!!, It¡¯s not really my house is one of the bases, but that fucker had done it this time, I wanted to make him my lackey but I¡¯m going to skin that guy alive in front of all his friends and put his head on a pike to show everyone what happens when someone goes against me. ¡°WHERE IS HE!!¡± ¡°Sir, we lose him on the fire, he left with all his group¡± A cold voice left my throat ¡°What do you mean ALL his group¡± ¡°The guys we captured left with him¡± Far away a shot was fired, and a couple of seconds later an explosion. ¡°He is there, let¡¯s go!!¡± My subordinate was about to say something, but since I gave an order he couldn¡¯t go against it. This guy has become my left hand and was quite intelligent, so I listen to him from time to time¡­ that the reason why I let him stay uncorrupted. ¡°WHAT!¡± He gave a jump and answered me right away ¡°Sir that explosion didn¡¯t sound like Pyro¡¯s power¡± Far away there was smoke, but it wasn¡¯t black like something is burning, the dust started to settle, and it was followed by 3 gunshots. ¡°Sir¡­ Tom¡¯s group is in that way¡± ¡°Who¡¯s that?¡± ¡°The brother of the guy who was shot in the south, while looking for supplies¡± ¡°Oh yeah¡­ I told him that his brother died¡­ he did right?¡± ¡°The last time they gave him food he was alive¡± ¡°Don¡¯t waste food just let him die¡± ¡°Yes, sir¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go, someone, that can cause that explosion It¡¯s definitely someone who can be useful to me¡±. ¡°What about Pyro¡± ¡°Send a group to track him¡±. I went with the main group to see who was causing such a fuss. ¡®First, I¡¯m going to control whoever it is, then I¡¯m going to control his friends, hopefully, there are cute girls there¡­ I got bored with the ones I have, after that I¡¯m going to send him to blow Pyro and take control of his friends¡¯. The perfect plan I started to laugh to myself. Far away a shooting started and we moved faster toward that battle. ¡°I hope those idiots can hold them enough for us to arrive¡± When we were 2 blocks away I saw a flash followed by another loud explosion. ¡°MOVE FASTER¡± There were no more shots fired¡­ when we arrived the dust has already settled. A couple of guys were on the floor, there was a handgun and a shotgun near one of our group got near them and yelled. ¡°They are alive! Call the guy with the med kit¡± I ignored those guys and walked down the street. There was a hole and next to it was a giant goat. After I walked a little more there was another guy, one of my subordinates turn him around and he had a hole between his eyes, a clean shot. I kicked him and could feel something belonging to my comeback, I had a flashback from the last moments, it wasn¡¯t too useful all I could see was bathed in red, the only different detail was a couple of green eyes looking with decision while he pulled the trigger of his gun¡­ before everything went black. ¡°Useless piece of thrash!!¡± ¡­ I looked behind me. ¡°You and you!!!, Go find the bomber¡± Those 2 guys started running when they got to the corner of the street another loud explosion followed by a dense cloud of gas covered them. ¡°F**K!!!¡±. Change of plans I¡¯m skinning alive both pyro and the bomber¡­ Ch 28 First Kill Everything, after I pulled the trigger, happened as if I was on autopilot. The shot passed through that guy¡¯s head right between his eyes¡­ It was an easy shot... His enraged eyes showed surprise for a second and then lost their light. He fell to his knees first and the next second he was lying face down motionless. The first problem was solved. I bought a stun grenade and threw it towards the other two guys, and I was lucky it landed quite near both. The loud bang left them unconscious. Part of their cover fell too, but there were no notifications from the system this time. It was our chance to move before the reinforcement arrives. The second problem solved. I told my friends to follow me, and when we reached the end of the street, I put a new trap with a tear gas grenade, in case someone tried to keep track of us. Potential third problem partially solved. We pass through a trail in the wasteland and thanks to Dante we didn¡¯t find any problems. While we were moving into the wasteland, a new explosion sounded and I could see a cloud far behind us. We arrived at a little cave midway to the central part of the city. Rose went in with Hayley after looking at me for a second. Neither G or Hope went inside for obvious reasons, but they continually gave me weird looks. Hope was a little paler for using her power earlier, but after a short rest, she should be fine. [Ding] This time I checked all the notifications. [You killed your first E rank Human you receive 25 points] [Mission Completed: Kill another human being Reward: 25 system points, F(+)-Rank ticket] [Mission Completed: Move to a safer Place Reward: 25 points] [Achievement Unlocked] [Point points and more points Points are raining!!! Get more than 100 System Points. Shop Discount ticket (50%)] With that many rewards, I should be happy, but I was troubled. There was no other way, right? I just killed a person. It was to protect us. It was them or us. Jamie made them do it. Excuses kept coming to my mind, but none of them made me felt better. ¡°I¡¯m going to see if someone is following us.¡±The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Before anyone was able to say anything I already left. I heard something moving by my side. It was Dante that had followed me. Even if we are already in a safe zone, I wasn¡¯t sure if more people were looking for us or if the trap was enough to scare them away. At least it is going to make them more careful in the tracking, and that would slow them enough for them not to come here yet. I looked around. This wasteland was part of an environmental remediation project and used to be a landfill. After it was filled with garbage, it was covered, and the responsible of the plan put plants on it to make it look good. Since underneath was full of garbage, you can¡¯t build anything on top of it. When our neighborhood was built, I learned that it was cheaper because of the distance it takes to get to the city and the fact that its next to a wasteland. Contrary to what everyone thought at the beginning the remediation project had good results, and in a couple of years this place was going to become a park, they were a couple of tests away of declaring that it was completely safe, it was thanks to a particular type of tree they planted or something like that. When we were kids, we used to come here to play a lot. But we stopped hanging out here when Hope and Rose discovered that our secret base was on a pile of garbage. We changed the secret base to a park near our houses and stopped coming here. Remembering old times help me forget the fact that I¡¯m a murderer¡­ but just for a moment. I replayed that moment multiple times in my head, each time the result was different. But what worried me the most wasn¡¯t the fact that I killed someone¡­ After replaying that moment lots of times I found out that I wouldn¡¯t change any of my actions¡­ And that scares me. I was focused on the direction we came from, and Dante was lying next to me keeping me company, even with his new-found intelligence some of his old habits remain. Every time he notices someone in the family was either sick or was troubled by something he would snuggle next to you and keep you company. I put my hand on his head patting him, he started to purr right away. ¡®Thanks¡¯ He looked at me while purring and tilt his head to the side. Looking at him acting like a cat instead of a veteran scout was a nice change. I finally relaxed a little when I heard a branch break and found Hope looking at me, her cheeks recovered the color again. ¡°Everything ok?¡±. I was worried that something happened to the others since I wasn¡¯t there. ¡°We are fine¡­ all that was scary, but thanks to you we are fine¡­ Spence, we are worried about you... are you ok?¡±. She saw Dante and sat on my other side. Am I?... after what I¡¯ve done I thought that they would ignore me, be scared or try to leave me¡­ but those looks, the silence. They were just worried. ¡°No¡­ not at all ¡­ but I will be¡±. She was about to say something. But I had to interrupt her because far away I saw two people coming here. ¡°Someone is coming this way. Dante go tell the other we are leaving, someone is tailing us¡±. Dante looked in the direction I was pointing and went back to the cave. I got up and helped Hope, I was thinking of putting another trap. But the path wasn¡¯t that obvious, so it was possible that they didn¡¯t fall on it. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± ¡°Wait¡­¡± she stopped me gave me a hug and told me at my ear. ¡°We are all here for you if you need it¡­ thank you for protecting us¡±. A little peck in my cheek followed her words. I was surprised by her words, but it was what I needed now. Unfortunately, there was no time for long hugs and deep conversations. I went back to cave, and I bought bullets for the rifle on my way, I hate the idea of firing it again, but if something happens because of me not being prepared, I would never forgive myself. I was left with 105 system points. And a rifle with five bullets. Since the ones tailing us needed to track us and be careful of potential traps, they moved slowly and even if a saw them, they had no way of noticing me, unless they had a power. We started to move again. ¡°G go in the front Dante will tell you the way, I¡¯ll be the at the back this time¡± We moved with the little change in the formation and arrived at the city without any significant troubles. At some point, I lost sight of our pursuers, but they were so far behind that it''s not possible for them to catch us inside the city. We only found a couple of bunnies and birds in our way, but we avoided all of them. Unlike before in this part, the amount of beast and people were less. Most of them move away from our way trying to avoid us, maybe Hayley¡¯s presence scares them, thanks to that it was easy to get to the city without problems. The condition of the city left me dumbfounded. I knew that Hayley came here looking for help but I doubt she noticed how bad this place was with the troubles she had at the time. Dante already told me the general situation, but seeing it was an entirely different matter. It was like a movie¡­ We were alone in a long street in the middle of the road. Cars parked around, some involved in crashes even with people still inside, there was also a car embedded into a wall. At our right, there was a collapsed building, and I could see a hand among the rubbles. If I looked far away, I could see the same scene in most of the streets some corpses were lying around. Ch 29 New Home We moved toward our first objective. It''s a 3-story building just two blocks from the wasteland. in our way, we kept the formation there weren¡¯t too many places to hide so instead of moving without being seen we advanced fast. In our way, I saw people peeking from some of the windows. I get to the corner of the street in which the building was located. Without moving from the corner of the street I tried to focus on the houses around the building I¡¯ve selected. The house I selected wasn¡¯t occupied, but most of the houses around had a sign that there are people living in them. It was next to a collapsed building and I could see some cracks in the structure. I¡¯m no architect or engineer but I will not take my chances in that building. And I don¡¯t like the idea of living near to other people in this situation. Our next destination was farther into the city, not enough to be in the influence zone of the larger groups. We walked for 5 more blocks and the scene didn¡¯t change too much, the buildings just got bigger so de rubbles on the street were even more than before. We arrived to a building on one of the main streets, we are not yet in the center of the city so most of the buildings in the area are for accommodation. As we went into the city the number of people I noticed peeking declined. I didn¡¯t find people near and the building also looked good. We went into the building It had only 5 floors, and we took apartments on the fifth, each floor had 6 apartments. We choose the side that gave us a better view of the street and picked two apartments next to each other. The apartments had an electronic lock, so just pushing the door was enough to open it. It was an emergency measure to not lock inside the people in case of emergencies. We checked all the apartments before going inside ours them. We couldn¡¯t go inside some of them probably because of a second mechanical lock. What we found in most of the other apartments were corpses, the smell was horrible. With G, we moved the corpses wrapped in blankets and left them in an apartment on the second floor that took a while. Later there was a little fight about the apartments distributions. In the end, the girls are going to stay in one and me and G in the other. Convincing Rose was quite difficult. After doing all that I fell on the couch to rest. G was tired too but not as much as I was so he seated too. ¡°Are you sure you want to sit?¡± Usually, he keeps moving even when he''s tired. ¡°Yeah, from what you told me, the reason I have to keep moving it¡¯s because I have a lot of energy right?¡±Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Yes¡± ¡°Well I used a lot today so I want to sit¡± I noticed that indeed the light moving around him wasn¡¯t as brilliant as usual and was a lot more static than before. ¡°You are right the light isn¡¯t moving as usual¡±. ¡°Also lately it hasn¡¯t been as painful when I stop moving¡±. That reminded me of the training quest, maybe it¡¯s involved. ¡°That¡¯s good maybe it has to do with the training¡±. ¡°Now that you mention it started to get better after that!!¡± ¡°Then later before the sun hides we should train a little. In one of the apartment where some weight we can use, and for you to be in the sun we can go up in the roof, let the girls rest for today¡±. Afterward, we talked a little before going to the roof. It was weird and I felt like G had something else that wanted to talk about but didn¡¯t do it. We ate something, and rest for a while. When we went to the roof the training start. Since I was still hurt from my ear all I could do was a light training, without sparring. I did an aerobic exercise and then started to lift some weights. To be honest, I felt horrible after the day we had, but if we don¡¯t train today I¡¯m going to fail the quest. I don¡¯t know how good it is for me, but something tells me that for G it was going to be a nice improvement. While we were about midway through the training Rose appeared. Since she was just watching it means that there was nothing urgent so I finished the set and then had a break to rest and joined her. G came too ¡°Hey Rose¡± ¡°Hey, can I train with you?¡± ¡°¡±Uh??¡±¡± We both stared at Rose dumbfounded. ¡°Why do you want to train¡± ¡°In today¡¯s fight I was useless, you and my brother fought directly with three guys, Hope was able to deflect a couple of bullets. And even if Hayley didn¡¯t do anything either, when she is able to control her power I think she is going to be stronger than us, and now if I use my power I pass out!.¡± As you expect her analysis was the same as mine, we need to find a way for her to at least be able to protect herself. ¡°I don¡¯t think that learning how to fight in close quarters fits you very much. Besides G I don¡¯t think anyone in our group has the characteristics of a frontline fighter¡± ¡°I know but I don¡¯t want to be hiding behind a tree while I see how the people I love die, do you know how scared I was? When I heard the explosion and shots when you killed the goat? Or when I saw those guys shooting at you? Or when that other guy slipped pass G and went toward you?¡± G interjected ¡°Hey!! That wasn¡¯t my fault, I could have won but it was Spence¡¯s plan¡± Now that I think about probably looked like G was being overpowered, and the three guys were focusing me during the fight. ¡°I gave G the order to let him pass and to let him push toward us if G won he could become an easy target.¡± ¡°I know that!! But either way, besides G and Hope, neither I or Hayley was a part of your plan. I want to be useful to you next time, and I know that there is going to be a next time, I¡¯m going to train with or without you¡± She was about to begin exercise and a stopped her. I sighed. I don¡¯t have any good reason to stop her from doing this. ¡°Rose, I understand your feelings, I will let you train with us. But you know this as well as me, you are never going to be in the front fighting like G or me, your power whatever it is is not suited for that.¡± She seemed unhappy with my words. ¡°If I train enough there will be a day that at least I¡¯m not going to be a burden¡±. ¡°You are not a burden Rose, and you will never be, call it intuition but I think that your evolved power have a lot more possibilities than what we think¡± Her eyes recovered some light after my words, but she still was not convinced G just was seeing us when he thought of something. ¡°Hey! You never mentioned the times I was in danger!!¡±. Rose tilted her head and gave him a look like if he was stupid. Critical hit. ¡°Get over it G, let¡¯s continue we need a good night sleep to start a routine tomorrow¡± Rose joined the training for the rest of the session, she was motivated. It was a light training so rose didn¡¯t have any issues with it, in my case I was tired and dizzy at the end. G helped me go back to the apartment. We said our goodbye to Rose and went in. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have trained that much¡± ¡°I know but, I have to keep in shape¡± He wasn¡¯t convinced by my words and seemed troubled about something. ¡°Come on talk, what on your mind¡± ¡°So you noticed¡± ¡°It¡¯s pretty obvious¡­is because I killed someone?¡± ¡°What? No, I saw that guy''s eyes, he was like possessed by a beast or something, in my mind I¡¯m even more sad about the goat¡­¡± ¡°Then what it is?¡± He looked straight into my eyes "You are hiding something from us ... right?" Ch 30 Battery He held my surprised gaze for a few seconds. To be honest, I did expect that someone noticed about it by now, I didn¡¯t expect G was going to be the first though. He is probably the person that knows me the best so lie to him was plain stupid. I have no real reason to hide it but explaining it was complicated. Let¡¯s start with the easy part. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m hiding something from all of you¡±. He wasn¡¯t surprised at all about it, but seeing that I wasn¡¯t talking anymore he continued. ¡°Can you tell me about it?¡± I need a way to explain it, without him thinking I¡¯m crazy. ¡°¡­ Can you wait for tomorrow? I¡¯ll explain it after the morning training¡­it¡¯s going to make more sense that way¡± He pondered about it for a few seconds. Before giving me the answer. ¡°Ok¡± After that, I went to my room. We used some furniture to block the doors just in case, thanks to Dante we know that the girls did the same. The conversation with G was awkward I got the feeling that sooner or later I had to tell them, and hiding it forever was not a part of my plans. I don¡¯t want to think this way but if G noticed already probably some of the girls also know. So I¡¯m going to tell them what I know, but if G¡¯s reward is something noticeable it¡¯s going to be easier to explain. After that, I start pondering about the rewards. The last battle taught me something, it¡¯s complex to get my amount of point too low, if it wasn¡¯t for the reward of killing the goat, I wouldn''t be able to escape Jamie''s group. If I use them to get a knowledge, skill, ticket or power the remaining points are not going to be enough in case of a similar emergency, just in grenades I spent 30 points last time. If I buy a knowledge skill it cost 75. The points left would be just 30, and I could need bullets too. The discount ticket, unfortunately, doesn''t work on the roulette and I don''t want to use it in something cheap. The advantages, of getting a skill in the long run, are better, but we need to survive first. About the ticket, I wasn¡¯t sure which category to pick. I want to analyze Rose¡¯s power before making a choice. Depending on the results of that I would use it in a scout or a enhance type. ¡®System, does the Random chance have something special in comparison with selecting the power type?¡¯ I understood the idea behind it but to be honest it felt that the random roulette does not have an advantage if you compare it to picking your area. [The random spin, have 1 extra category (Special Type) but it usually has a lower chance of appearing] That was nice to know, I wondered about the special power. ¡®Usually?¡¯ [The user got a special ticket from the mission, the random spin gave the additional option of getting an evolution point, with a low chance. This point can either be used to level up a skill an Lv1 skill or an F-rank power] Indeed the ticket in my mind was of a different color than the last one.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. [Also the user can choose sub-categories for the spin instead of the categories, and the special categories are included between the choices]. ¡¯¡®What kind of powers are in the special category?¡¯ [They are powers that do not belong to the other main 5 types] ¡®5 types?¡¯ [Yes the user doesn¡¯t know yet but there are 5 types of powers besides the special category] ¡®I know of enhancing, scout, mind, and energy which is the fifth?¡¯ [Support, it¡¯s similar to enhance but instead of giving you a boost, you can boost others too, shield type powers are also included here]. To be honest, the idea of getting a special power tempted me a lot, but I have to at least be sure about Rose¡¯s power before doing it. I have to finish the training quest, tell everyone about the system, and check rose¡¯s power. I was calm about telling about the system, but the problem was that even in this situation it was a weird ability, that¡¯s the reason I want to do it after G got a reward. I lay down in the bed and finally relaxed a little, It¡¯s probably going to be the first night I got a full night sleep since the meteor shower. _____________ The next day in the morning I felt full of energy, my ear still hurt obviously. I changed the bandage again and ate something. Since I wasn¡¯t in optimal conditions my body was aching a little because of yesterday¡¯s overload. G appeared from the hallway and was ready to train. ¡°I¡¯ll wait at the roof¡± he seemed eager to start soon. He unblocked the entrance and went up. Each of us manages our own food so it¡¯s possible that he ate in his room. ¡®Dante?¡¯ Since yesterday Dante¡¯s mental connection has never broken even once, his power has been getting stronger and his control is better each day. ¡®Mmmm~? I¡¯m sleeping¡¯ ¡®Sorry, can you wake up Rose and tell her that we are going to train?¡¯ ¡®¡­Nyow~?¡¯¡¯ ¡®Yes now¡­ thank you¡¯ ¡®Shh I¡¯m sleeping again¡¯ I went to the roof. And we started again with a light training. I started doing a little warm-up and ran around the roof since it was connected to the building next to us we had more space that in our backyard. The training was unusually quiet. Rose noticed that and asked. ¡°What¡¯s wrong between you two?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll explain something after the training, I have been hiding something from all of you¡­ and G noticed it¡± ¡°So?¡± G was surprised by her answer. ¡°What do you mean with so¡­ you know what he is hiding?¡± ¡°No, but it was pretty obvious from the beginning that he didn¡¯t tell us everything. I have a couple of theories though¡±. G was completely dumbfounded when he discovered that his little sister wasn¡¯t surprised by his discovery. ¡°And you weren¡¯t curious!? when you noticed?¡± ¡°The second day when Hayley appeared in our house. Spence is more the analytic type, so unless he knew something he wouldn¡¯t leave the house alone, in the middle of the night because of a ¡°gut feeling¡±. I thought that he got a power like seeing the future or clairvoyance like me at that time¡± ¡°Now that you mention it¡­ it was strange¡­ but why didn¡¯t you ask him?¡± ¡°I thought about it¡­ but¡­ it¡¯s Spence if he hides something ¡­ he has his reasons.. he would never do something to harm any of us in any way¡±. I was moved because of her trust in me. ¡°Don¡¯t worry Rose I¡¯m going to tell all of you after this about it¡±. She gave me a radiant smile. ¡°Thanks, I have thought a lot about it but I¡¯m unable to figure it out. Either you have a really weird ability or a lot of unreliable powers¡±. G was surprised by this. ¡°What do you mean a lot of unreliable powers?¡± ¡°Well first is the scout/future ability I thought he used to see that Hayley was in a trouble, this one was also the same that made us leave the house when the beasts attacked. But this same ability couldn¡¯t tell him about the attack of the crow or the brothers getting supplies. Also, he always asks Dante to scout, or me before that. He either can¡¯t control it or it''s activated randomly.¡± Those were the missions¡­ she continued talking. ¡°For some reason, he got a different ability for his eyes. Later he learned first aids, and I know that he didn¡¯t know first aids before. He has a way to gain knowledge but I¡¯m not sure how. After that is probably what made all the others start to wonder about it¡­ when you kept getting bullets and grenades from nowhere. But they never appeared until he needed them, he didn¡¯t give you an extra magazine, but was able to fill the magazine of the pistol before trading it with you, so that is limited somehow¡±. G felt stupid, with Rose throwing fact after fact, it was obvious that I haven¡¯t told them everything for a while, the grenades were just the cherry on top of everything. ¡°As I said I¡¯ll explain everything after this¡±. G pondered a little about everything, he opened his eyes and looked back at me. ¡°Does this training have something special?¡± Rose smiled. while she started working out again. ¡°You are about to know, all I can tell you is that is something good for both of us¡± The time passed fast while we trained. Thanks to Rose the ambiance returned to somewhat normal. [Ding] [Mission completed: Train 5 days with G. Reward: A healthy body, the user can choose 2 of the following rewards (+8 Physical Stats point/Pain Resistance Lv1/Dodge LV1 /Boxing Lv1/ Damage Resistance Lv1) Gerhard¡¯s Reward: +1 to all physical Stats, Battery] [Achievement Unlocked] [Regular at the gym For the first time in years, you trained your body. Train 5 days in a row Reward: +1 physical stats] Those are a lot of rewards ¡­probably because of the suffering of those spars, also if I keep training maybe I can unlock more achievements. ¡®System what is battery¡¯ [Battery is a perk that allows G to store energy in his muscles] ¡­he really won a lot with this training. He also felt the changes. He was looking his hands. ¡°Spence¡­ what did you do?¡± CH 31 You Are a Video Game MC!! ¡°I did nothing, we both trained together to complete the mission¡±. ¡°What mission?¡±. Rose eyes almost popped out of her head and looked at me with dreamy eyes. Did she figure out my power?. ¡°Go change your clothes first, I¡¯ll explain it when we join the girls¡±. G also noticed Rose look so was trying hard to figure it out on his own. My training clothes already smell horrible we need a way to wash them, of course, it¡¯s easier to raid the other apartments to look for more clothes. After cleaning myself I put on a shirt I found in my room. I found G coming out of his room at the same time as me, so we went next door together. When we entered the apartment the girls were already talking in the couch. Hayley was there too but she has her thermal suit. Hope saw me, and she was clearly pissed because I didn¡¯t tell her. Before she said anything I stopped her. ¡°Before you say anything, let me explain it, you can ask whatever you want later. Rose, did you tell them anything?¡±. ¡°Just what I said in the roof about the weird things I noticed¡±. Hope continued. ¡°I knew that you didn¡¯t even know how to use a band-aid before¡­¡±. She remembered me doing first aids and checking her and Rose conditions, I ignored and answered to Rose. ¡°That makes thing easier¡±. I stopped and tried to think of how to explain the system. ¡°I have a different power than all of you think. In my head there is a kind of artificial intelligence, this AI has special powers, and interacts with me letting me use its power to a certain extent¡±. I continued without stopping. ¡°It has a lot of uses, and more functions are going to be unlocked in the future. Right now, it has two main functions, the shop and the missions. From time to time I receive missions, usually, these missions have a reward, one of the possible rewards are points that can be used on the shop. In the shop are a lot of different things, from drinking water to skills and powers to use. Beside the two main functions, there are also a status view of myself, achievements and roulette that can give me a random power¡±. ¡°I knew it!! you have a video game system!!! You are like a video game MC now¡±. All looked at rose¡­ they probably didn¡¯t understand what she was talking about. Hope ignored her fangirling and looked at me. ¡°So¡­ you used this points to learn first aids?¡±. ¡°Yes, when no one died at that time I completed a mission and was able to accumulate enough point to buy the medicine skill to check your condition when you passed out¡±.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. G interjected. ¡°Earlier you said we completed a mission together. iDd I get something from one of your missions? How it¡¯s that possible¡±. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I had a mission to work out. But after our conversation about becoming stronger, the mission changed and included training with you. It also added a reward for you, but it was unknown to me until today¡±. ¡°What did I get?¡±. ¡°Do you remember I mentioned a status view?¡±. ¡°Yes¡­¡±. ¡°There are 8 attributes Str, Dex, Agi, End which are the physical attributes, the others are Int, Wis, Cha, and luck. Your first reward was 1 extra point in the physical attributes.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t feel any different¡±. He stood up and started moving around. ¡°Mmm I think I move a little faster, but I don¡¯t know about the rest.¡± ¡°Your specs are already high, and with your power, the change in other areas is probably to low to notice it, also this wasn¡¯t the main reward. You got a perk called battery, it allows your muscle to work as batteries and store energy¡±. ¡°That was what I felt earlier when we finished our training, usually the energy just moves around but now it stays in some parts of my body and it doesn¡¯t hurt as before¡±. Rose was curious. ¡°What did you get?¡±. ¡°I have to choose, I got stats points and skills to choose from, but I only get 2 of them, or 1 skill and the points. I also got an achievement with 1 point for each of the physical attributes too¡± ¡°Do you have any active missions now?¡±. ¡°Yeah, but most of them need time and are difficult to do it right now¡±. ¡°Tell us anyway, that way we know your objectives¡±. I looked at the missions tab and started telling them. ¡°Kill 10 beast at least F-ranked, figure out Jamie¡¯s plans, survive the Collapse, get a D-rank power, get 4 F-rank enhanced sense power and 1 E-rank, kiss someone for whom I have feelings for¡±. Rose though a minute. ¡°Mmm 2 of them are easy, and can be completed now, what are those ranks? And what is the collapse?¡±. ¡°About the collapse, I have no idea, I just know that we have to survive for at least 3 more weeks and I got the reward. The ranks are a way the system has to separate the quality of the power someone has¡±. ¡°Do you know our ranks?¡±. ¡°Nop but I have some ideas about it¡±. ¡°Let me hear them¡±. ¡°From what the system said they are 6 categories for powers, enhancement, scout, mind, energy, support and special. Energy and Support, as far as I know, are at least D-rank, also the guy G fought yesterday was an E rank. From this, I know that Hayley and Hope are at least D-rank and G¡¯s power is probably E or D. The other guy didn¡¯t know how to fight so that was the main reason for G being able to fight him easily, so their power ranks should be similar¡±. Rose thought a little she was onto something. ¡°Do you have a Rank?¡±. ¡°My enhanced senses are all F-rank¡±. ¡°And what about a perk or another system ability¡±. ¡°I have Cold mind it allows me to keep calm in certain situations and analyze with logic, usually¡­ sometimes it doesn¡¯t work¡±. The others were just looking at us, they knew that Rose was up to something. ¡°I think the rank order for our powers should be me and Dante, then Hayley followed by Hope and then Gerhard¡±. ¡°Why?¡±. ¡°Hayley¡¯s aura¡­ It doesn¡¯t work on you because of your perk. Dante and I are immune maybe due to our ranks being higher. Hope and Hayley are about the same rank she is just scared but it¡¯s not affected as badly as Gerhard or his dad who doesn¡¯t have powers¡±. I thought about it a few seconds at it seemed right as a theory. ¡°It makes a lot of sense. But until we know for sure that yours and Dante¡¯s Ranks are higher than Hayley¡¯s we have no way to be sure¡±. Hayley interrupted us. ¡°Rescuing me was a mission?¡±. ¡°Yes, the system told me you were in troubles and gave me the mission to help you¡±. She fell silent after that, I know she is thinking that I did it just because it was a mission. ¡°What was the reward?¡±. ¡°The system said good karma¡±. All of them looked at me as if they were trying to discover if I was lying. ¡°After I completed the mission I unlocked some achievements and got some points from it. But the original mission didn¡¯t have any rewards, I didn¡¯t go there because the system told me nor because of rewards, I went there because someone important to me was in troubles¡±. They all were silent at my words. ¡°Thanks¡±. Hayley said in a low voice. ¡°There is nothing to thank me for, I just did the right thing¡±. Rose continued asking after that. ¡°Can you level up?¡±. ¡°I can level up skills and use points for my attributes but not leveling myself¡±. ¡°Do you have a limit on the amount of thing you can buy?¡±. ¡°I ¡­have no idea¡±. ¡®System do I have a limit on the number of things I can buy?¡¯. [Yes depending on the item there is a limit, for starter powers and skill always have a limit of 1]. ¡®what about item¡¯. [Most of them have a stock, except for water]. ¡°Wow¡­ there is a limit, I¡¯ll need to be careful with the stock¡±. ¡°At least it will not be a surprise if happens. Did you get anything from yesterday¡¯s battles?¡±. ¡°Yeah but I still haven¡¯t used them¡±. I explained the rewards and my thoughts about them. ¡°Then you need to check my power first¡­¡± Then after showing a smile, she said. ¡°I¡¯ll explain it to you¡±. Ch 32 You Have to be Kidding… Hope and G were surprised by Rose¡¯s words. ¡°What do you mean?¡± G looked at rose with a serious face. ¡°Well, yesterday after we trained together Spence mentioned that he thought that my power was amazing right?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± this time I responded ¡°And I said that I wanted to be useful, so I wanted to try it by myself¡± ¡°That¡¯s too dangerous¡± ¡°I know that ¡­ so I asked Dante to help me¡±. ¡°You asked my cat to help you check your power?¡± ¡°You say that, but you always ask him for help, and you know that he is probably smarter than my brother right now¡± ¡°Hey!!¡± G was hurt by her words ¡°Sorry, the point is, even if you both are there, neither of you have any power that can help. Gerhard has a physical enhance, and the time I used my power when I was with you, you weren¡¯t able to see me, with those eyes.¡± I knew she was right but overseeing the process would give us some peace. I sighed. ¡°You are right but if something happened to you Dante wouldn¡¯t be able to help¡±. ¡°I told him to call you in case of anything happens. In any case, the safest way was to use my power while I am keeping a mental connection with Dante, and it worked. The times I used before today I didn¡¯t pay much attention to anything. The first time I used I didn¡¯t even think of it being a new power. The second time I had to go back right away because I fainted on the spot and Spence had to catch me. This time I wanted to pay attention to my surroundings. I called Dante and told him to keep the connection with me and you in case something happens.¡±. That explains the link was there when I went to sleep and when I wake up. ¡°Did you discover something?¡± ¡°Dante and I talked all the time while the experiment was going on, if I stopped talking or answering him he had to call you. First, I left my body and walked around my room for a minute. It was like the world got a photographic filter on, I saw all in greyscale. I went back to my body and there were no problems.¡± ¡°Did you get a headache, dizziness or any strange symptom?¡± ¡°No, nothing like that, I decided to rest a couple of minutes and left my body again. I repeated this a couple of times but each time I went farther from my body. I can pass through doors, but not through the walls, I tried to interact with some objects, but I couldn¡¯t touch most of them. I never left the building, but I went to the roof, and to the farthest, I went down was the first floor¡±. We all listened to Rose¡¯s little experiment. ¡°Did you feel anything wrong as you went farther away from your body?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the reason I didn¡¯t leave the building. When I was on the first floor I could feel something pulling me back to my body, and I thought it could be dangerous if I try to get farther¡±. I was thinking about all she told me. ¡°There are more thing we need to test, but for now you should try to get used to moving around in that realm, and you can¡ät leave the building¡±.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°I agree I want to see if I¡¯m able to interact with an object in some way¡±. ¡°Did you tried to interact with someone?¡± ¡°No, I just lied down next to you for a while but never touch you or did anything to any of you¡± She went bright red after her confession. For some reason, G was giving me an annoyed look ¡®¡­ it¡¯s not my fault, dude¡¯ I thought to myself¡¯ I tried to change the subject ¡°Later we need to see if you can interact with people too¡±. It looked like when I said that she started to ponder about something. To be honest I was quite surprised by her. Clairvoyance was an amazing power before. But I still have this feeling that there is a lot more to her power than what we know. Her fast thinking perk made her go from an intelligent girl to a genius. Her honesty perk overrides her shyness, the way she talked was much more direct thanks to this, and she didn¡¯t save her opinions as before. Unfortunately, she was bounded to have a lot of embarrassing moments too¡­ like her fangirling at the beginning, or the confession of what she has done during her experiment. She stopped thinking and told me ¡°Are you using the ticket?¡± ¡°You have any recommendation?¡± ¡°A physical enhances, I think with some development me and Dante are enough for scouting, and even without us your eyes can work a little¡±. I agreed with her, even if the special category sounded tempting, it was too random, and I have no idea what I can get there, maybe next time. ¡®System use the F-ranked ticket in physical enhancement roulette¡¯ Rose was looking at me filled with curiosity, she was still a little flushed. ¡°And?¡± ¡°It¡¯s still spinning¡± G didn¡¯t understand. ¡°What is still spinning?¡± Hope looked at me with curiosity too since she didn¡¯t get it either. ¡°When I use the ticket its like a roulette starts spinning to choose the power¡±. ¡°¡°Oooh¡±¡± The roulette stopped [Congratulations the user Obtaining Enhanced Reflexes, do you wish to activate your power? (Y/N)] ¡®Yes¡¯ I regretted right away my decision. I fell to my knees, how did I forget this part?. I¡¯m sure I heard a scream when I fell. The next second I felt one of the most painful experiences in my life. Each nerve on my body was burning, reforming, and evolving, also new nerves were born appeared and the old ones Changed. I should have activated pain resistance first. When it stopped I was in the floor in fetal position and soaked in sweat, I felt sensitive everywhere. All my friends were around me with worried faces. [Synergy effect discovered, all your senses have improved]. [Body Upgrade Agi+5 Dex+3]. My sight became clear again and made a reassuring smile. ¡°I forgot that part¡±. Hope was next to me. ¡°Are you ok, you fell and started screaming in pain¡± I can¡¯t believe that was my scream. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m ok, I just feel a little tired now¡±. ¡°What happened to you? That seemed painful¡± I¡¯m not sure why but G had a little smile on his face. ¡°I got enhanced reflexes, all my nerves evolved¡± I sat on the couch once again. ¡°Any other questions about the system?¡± Rose raised her hand. ¡°You talked about blueprints, are there for crossbows?¡± ¡°Yeah, they are for almost for any type of weapon, what you have in mind?¡± ¡°They can be better weapons for us. They aren''t as noisy as the fire guns. If we can make the bolts you don¡¯t need to waste points in bullets¡± I looked at G. ¡°If I have the right pieces and tools I can build them¡±. I nodded and bought them. For 10 points I got 2 blueprints. I also made a little modification on both crossbows. Blueprints were for a light and a medium crossbow (bolts included), the modification was to make reloading easier. I gave the blueprints to G. He to look at them and each second he was more surprised. ¡°Amazing¡± When I bought I saw that there was indeed a stock, and the stock for the crossbows now was 0. ¡°I¡¯m going to rest a little¡± Rose stopped me before I could leave the couch. ¡°But why not we complete the other missions first¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°I have an idea of what Jamie¡¯s plan is, he is a classic ¡°I suffered when young and everybody should suffer too¡±¡­ also from what you have told me about his possible power I have an idea about it. If a tell you and I¡¯m right the mission is completed, after that, you can kiss someone, that way you can complete 2 missions now¡±. ¡°Rose, I¡¯m not kissing someone just to complete a mission¡­ And the reward is not that good anyway¡± [Ding] [Mission Change: Kiss someone from whom you have feelings for Type: Normal Reward: Cha+5/5, ??? (depends on the recipient of the kiss) Time Left: Unlimited] ¡°But I don¡¯t mind¡± There it was the another of the embarrassing moments I talk about, she was a bright red right now. What surprised me more was the system mission update. G suddenly interrupted my train of thoughts ¡°You are considering it?!?!¡± ¡°What! no, it¡¯s just that when I said that rewards weren¡¯t good the system changed the rewards¡±. ¡°And you started to think about it because the rewards got better?¡± Hope interrupted us. ¡°Can we go back to the important stuff, you know Jamie¡¯s plans, right?¡± ¡°Yeah but you are not going to believe me if I tell you¡± ¡°Why not? ¡°Because is one of the most stupid plan that a villain can have in mind¡±. I thought for a second. ¡°You are saying that Jamie wants to destroy the world?¡± ¡°No, the other plan¡­world domination¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± I thought about what she meant for a second. [Ding]! ¡°¡­¡± ¡°You have to be kidding me¡±. Ch 33 A Simple Minded Villain [Mission completed: Discover Jamie¡¯s Plan Reward: F-Rank ticket] [Mission: Stop Jamie Type: Main (3/3) Reward: E (+)-Rank Ticket, 50 System Points Time Left: 1w 2d 13h 29m 35s] G was looking at my reaction. ¡°Please don¡¯t tell that stupid idea worked?¡± ¡°¡­It worked¡± After Rose told that I thought it was really stupid. But after thinking a little it actually made sense. Rose wasn¡¯t saying that Jamie¡¯s plan is world domination. But with all she said she hinted at some key points for me to notice. This First, he had suffered his all life from people abusing from being in positions of power compared to him like his stepfather and his bullies. He wants revenge. The second is the fact that the power he obtained was a mind control one. Not a destruction or attack type. The third point and the most important¡­ he is a classic villain, Jamie never was the clever type. So his plans can¡¯t be complex or profound mind games, it has to be something simple. The time when Rose saw him with her power, he was attacking his underlings. He made them suffer, but he later started to get more people under his control¡­normal people unrelated to him. He wanted to control them like they used to control him. Instead of killing them he will control, corrupt, and destroy their minds, he wanted to make people suffer more than what he had suffered. I remembered the eyes of the guy I killed. There was no humanity left on them. That was what Jamie wanted. ¡°That idiot is really planning the world dominations?¡± G asked clearly annoyed. Rose answered him. ¡°Of course not, at least not yet¡±. Hope was looking Rose and me clearly irritated. ¡°Can someone explain?¡± ¡°There are 3 things we understand from Jamie¡­¡± Rose explained the same I came up with. ¡°He just wants to use his power to control all the people he can, he will slowly corrupt and make them lose their minds, and keep them¡± I knew Rose was right since I came to the same conclusion and completed the mission. I don¡¯t feel like it was even worthy of a mission, maybe the other part was supposed to be the difficult part? What bugs me is¡­ why I have to stop him? For what I know the mission has to do with our survival. Does it means that if I don¡¯t take care of him and fail the mission, we going to die or something like that? Rose interrupted my train of thoughts. ¡°What did you get as reward?¡± ¡°Another F-Rank ticket but with this one I can¡¯t choose the sub-category, I¡¯m going for another enhance anyway. But I¡¯m going to use it later¡±. I could already feel an enhancement in my general awareness.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°I¡¯m going to lie down a little, see you later¡±. I went to my room and Hope followed me. ¡°Do you need something¡± ¡°Not really I just want to keep an eye on you for when you use your next ticket, I¡¯m worried after seeing your reactions to the first one¡±. ¡°The last time it wasn¡¯t as bad, it depends on the power I think. I¡¯m going to choose the reward from the training mission first¡±. ¡°Did you ever get a mission involving me?¡± ¡°Mmm the one not letting anyone die in our first gunfight kind included you but nothing besides that¡± She was silent while looking at me. ¡°Why did you hide the system?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure, when I got it, there were a lot of unknown things happening around us, it felt like it would just add more to the confusion at that moment. Later there were always a battle, scouting, planning, and training to do so I didn¡¯t get the time to even think about it. Until G ask me about it I didn¡¯t think about it too much¡±. She was next to me nodding. Since I felt better I was ready to choose the reward and use the ticket. ¡°Mmm Hope? what do you think I should choose? Resistance to pain, dodge, boxing or damage?¡±. ¡°You? I don¡¯t ¡® want you hurt¡­ Damage resistance or dodge, safety first¡±. Well, that¡¯s true. Also since I have enhanced reflexes and my agi went up I think I¡¯m going to be able to dodge more attacks either way. ¡®System I choose the points and Damage resistance as a reward¡¯ [Damage resistance Lv 1 obtained, allocate 8 attribute points in physical stats] ¡®Str+3, End+3, Dex+2¡¯ [Attributes improved] Then I used the ticket and got¡­ enhanced taste¡­ the only good thing about it was the mission but besides that, I don¡¯t even think about it as a power. I¡¯m pretty sure that the system hates me sometimes. There was in no way like the last time, for some reason I felt a stomach ache too, but compared to the last enhancement it was nothing. I could feel a weird taste in my mouth probably from the breakfast, the food was not that great now that I tongue it¡¯s more sensible. ¡®Show me my stats¡¯ [Name: Spencer Davies Age: 20 yrs. Stats: Str: 15 End:20 Agi: 20 Dex: 17 Int:19 Wis: 16 Cha: 21 Luk:10 Skills: Battle skills: Firearms Lv. 1, Damage Resistance Lv. 1 Knowledge: Medicine Lv. 1, Science Lv. 3 Utility Skills: Driving Lv.1, Stealth Lv. 1, Swimming Lv. 2 Production Skills: Cooking Lv.1 Perk: Cold mind (+), Vital points view(+), Superior vision color range view(+). Esper abilities: Enhanced Senses (Sight, Taste, Touch) Enhanced Reflexes. System Points: 95] Something new. Now my skills are ordered by type¡­ cooking is a production skill like in game if a prepare good food it will have some kind of effect?. I was wondering about the possibilities. Hope saw me thinking about it. ¡°Are you going to use it?¡± ¡°Use what? ¡°The ticket¡±. ¡°I already did it¡± She was surprised ¡°It didn¡¯t hurt?¡± ¡°Just a little but it wasn¡¯t as bad as before¡± She seemed to relax ¡°How many powers do you have?¡± ¡°Four, but three of those are enhanced senses¡± ¡°Since just today you got two I thought it would be more¡± ¡°Besides those two tickets, I only got one before that. I was lucky and got 2 power from that one but the rewards almost all the times are system points¡±. ¡°What did you get now?¡± ¡°Taste, probably the most useless one possible¡± ¡°At least is not smell, with all the corpses around it would be horrible¡±. ¡°You are right!¡± two positive things ¡°Does the system have any solution for Hayley¡¯s problem?¡± ¡°Not for now¡± ¡°And at least something more comfortable for her to wear from the shop?¡±. ¡°I haven¡¯t thought about it¡­¡± I started to browse the shop for clothes or blueprints. ¡°Any idea?¡± ¡°Two actually. But I¡¯m thinking we can get one of them it in the city, if we don¡¯t find it we can buy it with points¡±. ¡°What are you getting?¡± ¡°An ultra-thin diving suit, she can even use it under her clothes. That way she has to restrain her aura just partially¡±. ¡°Can I go?¡±. ¡°I was thinking of going just with Hayley, she is always either in her bedroom or under a pile of clothes¡±. ¡°Yeah going out could help her relax a little, I¡¯m also worried about her¡±. ¡°See if you can help G with the crossbows, I¡¯m taking Dante¡±. ¡°Dante is helping Rose¡±. ¡°Mmm she shouldn¡¯t practice while I¡¯m out, but she is probably going to do it anyway¡±. ¡°Yeah since the meteor shower she became so stubborn¡±. We both left the room, and Hope went to the roof to help G. Meanwhile, I found Dante and said to him that I was going to leave so Rose should be more careful. In the end, I went to Hayley¡¯s room. She had her eyes closed and was moving the aura around her. ¡°Hayley do you have a minute?¡± I could see her aura turn back to normal and relax. ¡°I always have time¡± There was a hint of sadness in her voice. ¡°Do you want to go out?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, being in all those clothes is annoying and it¡¯s difficult to breath¡±. ¡°You don¡¯t need to use those clothes it¡¯s going to be just us¡±. ¡°Just us?? Why?¡± ¡°We are going shopping¡± She was confused by my answer. ¡°¡­Do you want to go shopping? It¡¯s this a mission?¡±. ¡°No, with Hope we had an idea to make things easier for you and If it¡¯s just the two of us we can move faster¡±. I explained what we talked with Hope and after giving it some thought she agreed to come with me. I took a backpack with food and water just in case, I have the rifle, the revolver, and a knife with me too. She dressed in comfortable clothes, and we left. I¡¯m pretty sure that while I was going down with Hayley I saw a thread floating around. When I was on the first floor I looked at the end of the thread ¡°Rose don¡¯t overwork yourself, I don¡¯t want to hear that you can¡¯t go back to your body when I come back, promise?¡± Hayley looks at me talking to the air with a confused face Then I extended my pinky finger to make the promise. I could feel something around my finger it was a warm feeling like when there is someone next to you. ¡°We have a promise, I¡¯ll come back later¡± I smiled at where I thought she was Then I took the rifle in my hands and left the building followed by Hayley. Ch 34 When Your Date Goes Wrong. The scene was the same as the day we came here, there were collapsed buildings surrounding us, rubbles everywhere and no people unless you count those peeking through the windows. Dante wasn¡¯t coming so I had to depend on my eyesight for my decisions, every corner I would look for any form of danger. ¡°So where are we going?¡± Hayley was curious and looked around the city. It¡¯s not like she was in high spirits but at least she seemed better than the last days. ¡°When we were in high school there was a store that had everything for watersports in the west of the commercial district¡±. ¡°I know that store, you showed it to me when we were dating back then¡±. ¡°Yeah¡­worst date ever¡± She smiled when she remembered that ¡°It wasn¡¯t that bad, are we going through the main avenue?¡±. ¡°I prefer to take a detour, at least two groups are in the center of the city and I don¡¯t know if they are going to be hostile to us¡±. ¡°You mean towards me?¡± She made a wry smile. ¡°It can also be toward both of us, now let¡¯s move, I want to come back before nighttime¡±. Thanks to Hayley, most of the animals that were in the streets just ran away when they noticed that we were near. Most of Hayley¡¯s time is used in controlling her power, right now she can change the intensity almost effortlessly. She still is not able to erase it for complete, and its probably impossible but changing the intensity just in some parts allows her better effects. That way she can eliminate the aura from leaking from some parts of her body. She has been trying to do it mainly for her head, so she doesn¡¯t need the goggles. The aura still leaks through her breathing though, but she is able to leave her eyes uncovered with some effort. After she gains full control over it we will see the battle applications of her abilities, but right now if we unleash her in a battle G and Hope performance would drop. The scene while we were moving just turned more and more depressing. As we planned we went around the city center. It took us about one and a half hours to arrive at the place I wanted. In all the way to the store, we didn¡¯t encounter any troubles. The only event was that I killed a mouse with the revolver, but It wasn¡¯t even a ranked beast since It didn¡¯t run away when he saw Hayley I thought it could be dangerous. It was scared and instead of running away it was paralyzed. When we arrived at our goal we found the store was already raided, and the door was opened. We arrived at the store, apparently, for most of the people, the diving suits weren¡¯t something that was useful, that part of the store was left almost untouched. The ultrathin diving suits were in the highlighted section as the most expensive diving suits in the store, also those were the ones with the most recent technology.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Complete isolation between the body and the environment, comfort like nothing before, and protection from the water low temperature. And from what I heard they were able to fulfill those promises. Also, is so thin that it adapts to the body like a second skin. It was perfect for Hayley. She started to look around, she saw also some older versions but, in the end, she came back to the newest. In the meantime, I was looking around for anything I thought could be useful eventually. I got an underwater respirator and a dive knife that no one wanted. I was thinking about getting one of those diving suits too. You never know when they would be useful, and they take almost no space on the backpack. ¡°Spence, what do you think?¡± Remember when I said it was like a second skin? It¡¯s completely true, Hayley was wearing one but it looked more like if someone painted a blue pattern on her skin. I was mesmerized while looking at her body. ¡°Can it handle my aura?¡± I came back to reality. That was completely unexpected. ¡°There is no leakage anywhere in your body¡±. ¡°Great!¡±. She put on her clothes over the diving suit, I remembered the trust achievement and understood why her defenses were so low around me. I also picked a few ones for the rest of us. I got a dark green for me, a black one for G, and purple for Hope. I¡¯m not sure about Rose size so I found 2 for her, dark red, and beige. Hayley took three for her, she picked two dark blue suits and white one, it made sense for her to get more than one since she will be using them always. All of them included a cap, gloves, and socks, the only part exposed was your face. She wasn¡¯t using the cap right now. We put everything but the knife in the backpack. I put the diving knife on my belt and we left again. I don¡¯t think we have too much time to come back. We spent more time than I thought in the store so we are tight on time. We got to the first corner and I peek to be sure there was no danger like I was doing before. ¡°Spence?¡± she put her hand on my back to call my attention. I could tell that she was afraid by something, I turned around and saw that an alligator was turning 1 block away and coming toward us. Without thinking too much I took her hand and started running. We needed a place to hide. The alligator had a weird metallic color on him, so I think that maybe his skin became even tougher than before. If what I think is true, even my grenades are not going to do much damage to him unless I put one inside his mouth. And I¡¯m not going to try that. We run two blocks without stopping but the alligator was coming closer. We were running toward the center of the city. Two blocks away I could see a blockade on the road I turn in an alley and helped Hayley climb the emergency stairs. When the alligator turned to enter the alley, I was on the stairs too. It was good that I got so many points before coming here. Both of us were breathing fast and looked down at the alligator. we waited for a while, but the alligator was still under us. ¡°Any idea?¡±. ¡°I don¡¯t think that shooting him or throwing him a grenade would work¡± ¡°Maybe we can go up and try to use another exit¡±. ¡°Let¡¯s go, at least we can stay there for a while and maybe the alligator leaves¡± We arrived at the roof, but this building was smaller than the others, so jumping to another was out of question. From the roof, I could see that alligator was still waiting for us. If we try to leave either from the emergency stairs of the front door the alligator will chase after us. We waited for about an hour for him to leave but it was like he knew that his prey was here. ¡°It¡¯s getting late¡±. There was at most 1 hours of sun left. ¡°What are we going to do?¡±. My brain was working on ideas. I could work as a bait to let Hayley escape, but we are so far away from home that leaving her to roam around the city alone was not an option. I remembered the blockade, maybe if we arrive there we can jump over it and the alligator will not be able to follow us. But something tells me that it was made by someone, and just jumping over it wasn¡¯t a good idea. If they hear a shooting would they send someone to check? I had four bullets left on my revolver five on the rifle. ¡°Let me try something¡±. I went down the emergency stairs when the alligator noticed me he went right under me once again, stalking me. This time I aimed with my rifle. I shot once trying to aim for his eye. The shot hit the alligator¡¯s body but the bullet was deflected by its scales, I was right and the bullets were useless. I tried a second shot but even if I got closer to my objective it was deflected too. I waited a couple of seconds, took out my revolver and shot twice. After that, I went back to the roof with Hayley and looked in the direction of the blockade. Just as I thought, a minute later, five people with weapons were moving like a special forces team in our direction. When they were one block away the alligator sensed them and started to run towards them. ¡°Let¡¯s go¡± Ch 35 Alligator Battle We took our chance and went to the first floor and left through the main entrance. Once outside we moved to get as far as possible from the battle. It didn¡¯t go too well. Since we were in the line of fire we had to take cover to prevent a bullet from hitting us. The alligator was focused on that group so besides being forced to take cover there weren¡¯t any other problems. We are not going to get rushed by the alligator while getting shot, also we will get a chance to escape eventually. The battle was escalating fast, but the group was well organized. They have someone fighting in close quarters with the alligator, one of the others had telekinetic powers and was throwing rubbles every time he had a chance. What surprised me the most was that they had a working railfle, but the guy shooting it was horrible at it, and the reload speed was slow. The other two had a shotgun and a normal rifle. Their teamwork was amazing. ¡°Are we staying here until the battle ends?¡±. I denied with my head. ¡°No, it¡¯s better if we try to leave while it¡¯s still going¡­ just in case the alligator wins¡± When we arrived at the corner I heard a shot from the railfle but this time it hit the alligator and managed to hurt him a little. Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t kill it. The alligator kept fighting and managed to hit with his tail the guy fighting in melee, he fell and the alligator got close to him. Before it could use his jaws the telekinetic guy threw a big boulder on him and prevented it from giving the last hit on the fighter. I took her hand again and started running to the intersection. I felt a little guilty for throwing this problem on them, It was like if set up a trap for them, but our safety is more important. After shaking his head the alligator started his assault again, but this time his objective was on his feet again. I heard another shot from the railfle before I turned on the corner and continued to run with Hayley When we arrived at the next corner the alligator was again behind us, apparently, after a second shot from the railfle hit him he was scared and run away. Toward us. ¡°Come in here¡± We went inside another building and closed the door. The team that was hunting the alligator was following close, I didn¡¯t get why they were so focused on hunting it down. If it was me, after I made it run away, I would go hide and not take that big of a risk. The battle started once again. The alligator was in despair trying to wound them. The guy with telekinetic power was using rubble from a collapsed building next to us. What was left of it started shaking and collapsed again. And that building overthrew ours. I should have checked the place before there wasn¡¯t enough time, our building was shaking too and was about to break down.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°We need to leave¡± I made Hayley leave the building and I followed behind her. when we were a couple of meters away from the place where we were a few seconds ago collapsed, we both fell because of the shockwave that followed. We were in a bad situation, on the line of fire, the alligator was close to us, and our sudden appearance just enraged it more, and was charged toward us. The guy with the shotgun made the others stop shooting when he noticed us, and the melee fighter ran behind the alligator, but just for a second, he suddenly stopped running and froze on place. The alligator was coming straight to us, while we were standing again. My rifle fell when the build collapsed. I pulled out the knife I got earlier and pushed Hayley away just when the alligator was about to arrive. I moved to the side. His scale grazed me but I was able to avoid the worst part of attack while making a rapid turn I tried to stab it. It didn¡¯t work, the scales were too hard, the knife was made of a special alloy so it didn¡¯t break either. The alligator tried to hit me with the tail but again I was able to dodge successfully. From the five guys that were there before the one with the normal rifle and the melee fighter were nowhere to be seen. And both the telekinetic and the one with the railfle looked scared. It must be because of Hayley¡¯s aura. I wasn¡¯t going to interact the too much with them so I don¡¯t care, but the guy with the shotgun had a familiar face, I have no idea where I have seen him before. The boost in agi felt amazing and I wondered how would it be if I used the free points in agi. The alligator charged at me again and this time I was able to stab it in his eye, I was too close to it when I managed to do it so it hit me harder than I expected. At least it worked, about half of that was pure luck, the other half was the enhancement reflexes and my high agi. The alligator shierk and started rolling in pain. The tail was dangerous so it wasn¡¯t easy to get near. My knife was stuck on the alligator¡¯s eye. I went and helped Hayley stand up again. And made her take cover. The alligator was moving around with the knife buried in his eye. Using his other eye he charged once again when noticed me. The rage was boiling inside him, it started charging at me again. I moved away from Hayley to no put her in danger and dodged all the attacks I could. Even if it was resistance his speed was nothing unusual and I was able to react and dodge almost all of the attacks. A couple of the grazed me but thanks to my high endurance and damage resistance I wasn¡¯t From time to time the shotgun and the railfle would shot at the alligator between charges, but their help was almost useless. The railfle didn¡¯t manage to get a hit, and the other weapons can¡¯t damage the alligator. After his sixth charge, I was able to recover my knife. After I got my knife back he became even more enraged, the attacks were more dangerous, but also more predictable. I kept moving around but I couldn¡¯t find a moment to stab it again. The battle went on for a while but once the sun went down it going to be difficult to see the alligator. At the same time, the alligator was getting tired from the blood loss, but I felt a little pain in the place were the alligator hit me when I stabbed him. In a slow charge I was able to stab my knife again in the same eye but this time I took a firm grip and got on top of the alligator. I used my revolver and stabbed it in the second eye before pulling the trigger twice. The pain was more than what the alligator could handle and rolled around in pain again. I jumped from it but couldn¡¯t take back my revolver. The alligator was rolling slower each time and after a minute it was motionless. I went to Hayley¡¯s side and saw the revolver with the barrel bent. [Ding] [You killed an F-Rank Beast 5 system point awarded] Really just F-Rank? There were at least two D-Ranks fighting it! Even if I¡¯m also an F-Rank and was the one who managed to kill it, wasn¡¯t that a little overpowered for an F-Rank? I was annoyed, I lost a revolver wasted bullets and was hurt. In the battles before I was able to at least recover the points I used in battle, but this time I didn¡¯t. I cleaned and put away the knife before picking the rifle and revolver from the floor, I hope G can fix it somehow. After the battle, the other guys were seeing us with weird eyes. The guy with the shotgun was looking just at Hayley. ¡°Thanks for the help, we have to go back to our refuge¡±. I said Hayley was clearly trying to remember something too. ¡°Wait! why don¡¯t you come with us?¡±. The guy with the shotgun got closer to us. ¡°No thanks¡±. We turn around to leave, but the guy insisted. ¡°Hayley, come with us please, you will be safer with us than with him!¡±. The guy pleaded. I remember now¡­ I hate this guy. Ch 36 Could Have Gone Worse I was beginning my senior year, Hayley was a year younger and she was new in the school. We met when she joined the swimming club, we got along right away and started dating a couple weeks later. Ian was Hayley¡¯s classmate, and when she came to the school he fell for her. Unfortunately for him, when he asked her out she already was dating me, this is where the story should have ended but a couple months later he spread a rumor about me cheating on Hayley. He said he saw with another girl going into a love hotel or something, with the intention of making us break up. A stupid move because the day I was supposed to be cheating on her I was at her place dining with her parents. After most people understood his motives, of course, there was some that thought that I cheat on Hayley, but she forgave me and was just covering for me. Ian knew the truth, Hayley stopped talking to him. His father got a job transfer later and he had to left the school at winter a couple months later. Until that event, I didn¡¯t know about his existence, and after that I just ignored him. For Hayley he was just a classmate with whom she had no contact and was there just for a couple of months, that was why neither of us remembered him when first saw him. Ian was questioning Hayley and ignoring me. ¡°And why are you with that guy? I heard you two break up last year! Did you get back together?¡± Hayley remembered him too and around the temperature plummeted, she responded him with a cold voice. ¡°Who I¡¯m with is not your business Ian, and I feel safer with him than with you¡± The guy with the railfle pissed his pants when Hayley unleashed her aura, the other tripped with a piece of rubble and fell looking at all of us. She gave him a cold gaze before turning around and walking away. I followed her keeping an eye on Ian¡¯s group. He was speechless after Hayley¡¯s words. ¡°It¡¯s late! you shouldn¡¯t roam around at night, you can stay just tonight¡­you can trust us~¡± His words made sense, it¡¯s dangerous at night so we should go with them just for tonight and ¡­trust them?¡­something is wrong. [Ding!] [Cold Mind blocked an external influence]. Hayley stopped her steps as if she was thinking the same as me, she turned around like if she was about to accept Ian¡¯s offer. I blocked her path and pointed the rifle at Ian¡¯s head. ¡°If you try anything on our minds again I will blow your head before you even understand what is happening¡± The notification, his words, Ian tried to implant the idea of trusting him on us. The guys around us were surprised by my reaction. Hayley¡¯s eyes seemed to focus on my words before understanding the meaning behind them. ¡°You tried to control me!!¡± If I wasn¡¯t blocking her path she would probably already slap or hit Ian.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I focused my gaze back on Ian. ¡°You should tell your friends to stop, his telekinetic control is good but if he tries to take the rifle from my hands I can shot by mistake. Your other partner, if he somehow manages to hit me with it, the electrically charged bullet could make my muscles contract, in both situations you are dead. You are not the only one who is special here Ian.¡± I continued. It¡¯s not like I could see them using their powers like with Hayley or G, but I noticed some weird movements and they clearly were planning something. ¡°Th-th-then let him go!!¡± said the one with a railfle. Ian understood my words and made a sign with his hand for them to stop. He was going to say something, but I interrupted him. ¡°We don¡¯t want to hear your excuses, the reasons I haven¡¯t kill you yet is because I don¡¯t want a conflict with your group, and deep inside that head, I know that you are just worried about Hayley. Now we are going to leave if you try following us or to use your power in us again¡­I will not care about a conflict. Are we clear?¡±. Ian was holding my gaze, he looked at Hayley and for a second seemed truly sorry about what he tried to do, he looked back at me and nodded. I was walking backward while still aiming at his head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡± was all he said, but it was directed at Hayley, she left without giving him a second glance she was really pissed for what Ian tried to do. When we arrived at the intersection we started to move faster. I checked a couple of times to be sure that no one was following us. I picked an apartment to stay for tonight and we can go back home tomorrow. Like in our apartment after we were inside I used furniture to block the door. Hope and Rose are going to be worried but there is nothing I can do, I hope they don¡¯t do anything stupid. Hayley moved around annoyed. ¡°I¡¯m so pissed with that idiot! I can believe he tried to control me!¡± ¡°But I was there you don¡¯t need to worry, also even if he managed to control you, I doubt he would harm you, It¡¯s not like it was Jamie that controlled you¡±. I was just trying to calm her. ¡°But just remembering that sensation of blind trust for him annoys me¡± ¡°Yeah I know, it was horrible¡± ¡°You were affected too? How did get out of it?¡± ¡°Just for a second, cold mind helped¡± ¡°So lucky I wish I get that instead of this aura¡± I took out a water bottle and food from the backpack and split between us after eating we went to bed. The sun was already hiding. Hayley took a room without a window and I was planning to sleep on the couch to keep watch, I was already used to it. Before the sun disappears, Hayley helped me check my wounds. I had a lot of scratches and small bruises, but the only one that hurt was from the clash when I stabbed his eye the first time. I had a big and ugly bruise on the side of my thigh, I think if it wasn¡¯t because of my high endurance and damage resistance skill it could be broken or a wounded badly. She went inside the room but didn¡¯t close the door. I took a blanket from one of the rooms. It¡¯s unnecessary for me to sleep there but I didn¡¯t care, about it. ¡°Sleep tight Spence¡±. I thought about everything that happened today, I really need a break. ¡°Spence are you sleeping?¡±. ¡°Not yet¡±. ¡°Me either¡±. ¡°¡­want to talk?¡±. ¡°Sure! just come and sleep here, the bed is big enough to not even notice each other¡±. I thought about it for a second¡­Whatever¡­ It¡¯ not like something it¡¯s going to happen anyway¡­ I stood up with my blanket and went to her room, the bed was indeed big, so we can be each on its own side. I can go back to the couch later if it gets weird anyway. ¡°If you think about the time right now should be around 9 pm I don¡¯t sleep at that time since I was 7¡± ¡°Yeah even without lights it always takes me a lot of time to fall asleep¡±. ¡°What do you want to talk about?¡± ¡°Nothing really, just talk. Thanks for all you did today¡­ I know it wasn¡¯t necessary for me to come with you¡±. ¡°I thought you would like to go out for a bit, it could have gone better though¡±. ¡°It went better than the last time we went to that store at least¡±. She laughs a little ¡°An alligator almost killed us, and we saw Ian, you really think this was better than that date?¡± ¡°Maybe, but you looked really cool fighting an alligator and if you think about it at least we are not dead, or worse¡­with Ian¡±. She¡¯s right on that. We laugh for a while, in all this time this is the first time I saw her act like she used to. We talk about the year after our break up to catch up¡­ nothing was important for our current situation, but it was nice to talk about normal stuff for a change. I don¡¯t know who went down first but we fell asleep at some point. Ch 37 Back Home (Ian POV) The barrel was pointing at me until he disappeared with Hayley in the corner. My two teammates let out a sigh of relief. ¡°Who was that¡±?. ¡°She is Hayley Ryan an ex-classmate, and the other was Spencer Davies ¡­her boyfriend I suppose?¡±. ¡°The girl was really weird thank god he took her with him¡±. ¡°What do you mean weird?¡±. I raised an eyebrow at that comment, Hayley? weird? ¡°She was scary, you didn¡¯t notice? I bet that she was the reason why Tyler and Alejandro ran away. Why did you want so much for her to come with us?¡±. ¡°If I¡¯m not wrong her father came to us a couple of days ago, I think that she should be with her family¡±. ¡°Well, to be honest, I don¡¯t want that girl anywhere near me, the guy fighting abilities were amazing though, it would be great having him in one of our teams, he took care of the alligator by himself¡±. I didn¡¯t get what they were talking about. Hayley scary and weird? And why she is not with her father? For a second I thought that maybe Spencer was controlling her, but it didn¡¯t seem like that, there was something more but I couldn¡¯t figure it out what it was. The other guys were looking at me. ¡°You want to go after them?¡±. I could see their reluctance to follow Hayley. ¡°No, she should be safe with Spencer, we need Tyler and Alejandro back to carry this thing back to the base¡±. ¡°I¡¯ll go I want to change my pants¡±. I haven¡¯t noticed that Gabriel pants were wet¡­ did he piss himself? I had to wait with Leon for a while until Tyler and Alex were back, they looked around nervously. My mind was a mess, why I didn¡¯t notice something? ¡°The girl left, you don¡¯t have nothing to worry, Where is Gabriel?¡± Leon said when noticed their behavior. I didn¡¯t like the way he said it, but a fight wasn¡¯t the best at this moment. ¡°He went to change clothes, but he is a wimp anyway we can carry this us four¡± Now that he knew that Hayley wasn¡¯t here, Ale went all alpha again. We tied the alligator and pulled it back to the blockade. We gave it to a person in charge of supplies, after that all the team went to rest. Leon and I went to see Dr. Harting to report what happened. We went into what used to be the principal¡¯s office in this school. ¡°Dr. we are here to report about a fight with an evolved alligator¡±. Dr. Harting raised his eyebrows in surprise at the mention of the alligator. ¡°An alligator? Are everyone on the team ok?¡±.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°Yes, we didn¡¯t have any problem, actually it wasn¡¯t us who defeated it¡±. ¡°It was another beast?¡± Dr. Harting showed curiosity, so we recalled the events. How we heard shots and went out to investigate, the alligator that was charging at us, our strategies and the appearance of a couple we knew. The effect that caused Hayley¡¯s appearance was described by Leon and I finished describing the rest of the fight and how Spencer killed it, I didn¡¯t mention the event after the fight. ¡°You said his name was Spencer Davies?¡±. ¡°Yes, you know him?¡±. ¡°He used to be my student, brilliant boy. And that girl Hayley, if I¡¯m not wrong she should be Aaron daughter¡± I knew that Hayley¡¯s father was named Aaron we met the day he came to the base. He was the one that was able to make Gabriel¡¯s railfle work. ¡°Yes, she is. I was surprised to see her there and not with Mr. Ryan¡± ¡°There are reasons to that. Poor girl I know her case, he told me everything about it when he came¡±. He seemed deep in thought, and I was curious about it. Her father knew that she was with Spencer? ¡°What do you mean her case? Did something happen to her?¡±. ¡°Yeah an unfortunate power, it¡¯s good that she didn¡¯t come here, it would have been chaotic. The place where she is right now is the best for her¡±. This was the first time that Dr. Harting talked about rejecting a potential refugee, what can be so bad for him to reject someone? But I was surprised by his next words. ¡°I would like to talk with them anyway, now I understand why Aaron knew so much, probably Spencer figured some of that on his own¡±. He was deep in thought. ¡®What did Spencer discover? And what kind of power does Hayley have that make her that even his father has to abandon her?¡¯. ¡°When is time to go I¡¯ll call you, in case I¡¯m not immune to her power I need someone who can stay calm, go rest¡±. We left the office and went back to sleep. Images of my team reactions to Hayley and the words of Dr. Harting didn¡¯t let me sleep until late at night. ______________________________________________ (Spencer POV) It was still dark when I woke up. It took me a second to remember all that happened yesterday, Hayley was sleeping on the other side of the bed breathing peacefully. I left the bed and went into the living room. I looked through the window, the sun was going to rise soon but what called my attention was a few clouds. I think it¡¯s going to rain during the afternoon, or tonight maybe. We could use this time to get water, to clean ourselves and our clothes. The sun was raising, I checked my leg to see the place were the alligator hit me yesterday. It didn¡¯t hurt anymore but there was an ugly purple bruise if I had to guess it should be around 10 cm diameter. Most of the minor bruises and scratches were healing faster than normal so I think in just a day or two they will be gone. My ear was hurting a little probably because of all the move in yesterday¡¯s fight. While I was checking my wounds, Hayley came to the living room. With the sunlight, she also saw the ugly bruise. ¡°Is your thigh going to be ok?¡± ¡°It looks worse than it feels, no need to worry¡± She still seemed worried, so I explained my stats and the skills for her to calm. After explaining she was more relaxed. We ate and left that place. Luckily there were no more alligators on our way back. We found a bunny jumping around, but it had some kind of agi enhancement I couldn¡¯t catch it, I¡¯m sick of the food so I thought of cooking it, learning to hunt could be a good idea. When we were about half an hour away from the apartment an excited childish voice sounded in my head. ¡®You¡¯re right~!~!~!??¡¯ ¡®Yes, we had a little setback in the way back and when we solved it was too late to come back, tell everyone that I¡¯m ok¡¯. ¡®Ok~ none of them slept last night¡¯ ¡°I¡¯m talking to Dante¡± ¡°Did his distance increase again!?¡± ¡°It seems like it did, I wonder how is that cat so good at controlling his power¡±. ¡°I wish I could improve as fast as him¡± Even moving faster than before we had to be careful, it took us about 20 minutes to arrive. My sister and my friends were all on the first floor waiting for us. Rose jumped at me the moment she saw me. ¡°I was so worried¡±. She cried, I patted her back to comfort her. Meanwhile, Hayley had controlled her powers so the others don¡¯t get scared. ¡°I¡¯m ok we have a little mishap when we were coming back and moving on the night was dangerous¡± ¡°I thought so many horrible things¡­that you were wound¡­ that a giant cow ate you¡­ that your date went too well and you got back together you spend some time alone¡±. Not like it would happen but really me back together with Hayley is comparable to me being eaten by a cow? Hayley explained the motive of our delay. ¡°An alligator attacked us when we were on our way back, at the time Spence deal with it was already late¡±. ¡°An alligator?!?! That¡¯s worse than a giant cow!¡± This time was Hope time to be worried Where did the idea of a giant cow even came from? ¡°Let¡¯s go to the apartments, I¡¯ll explain everything¡± Ch 38 I Read a Book Rose finally let me go and we got to the apartment. I sat on the couch and Dante jumped into my lap and snuggled there, it was his way of showing that he was worried too. Hayley added a couple of layers of clothes and was using the full suit we got at the store, the only difference in her from before was that she wasn¡¯t wearing goggles anymore. I told them all about the trip, how when we were on our way back an alligator attacked us, I told about the appearance of Ian¡¯s group, and how I had to take care of the alligator anyway. I also mentioned Ian¡¯s invitation and the powers I was able to identify from his partners. I gave the revolver to G. ¡°Do you think you can fix it?¡± I had to ask just in case. He took the revolver and saw the barrel. ¡°It¡¯s not worth, if I made any mistake it can blow up on your hands¡±. I already knew that, but the confirmation hurt me anyway¡­ at least I don¡¯t have to spend points on bullets anymore. ¡°If it makes you feel yesterday with Hope and Rose, we were able to find almost everything we need to make the crossbows¡±. ¡°What are you lacking?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t found something to make the limbs for the medium crossbows¡±. ¡°Focus on the light crossbows meanwhile, now let¡¯s go to train¡±. They all looked at me for a second before Hope asked. ¡°It¡¯s a mission?¡± ¡°No, but it helps me to stay fit, that saved me when I fought the alligator¡±. This time Hayley talked. ¡°You should rest your leg for today¡±. ¡°You got hurt?¡± Hope looked at me with the same face that mom made when she thought I was hiding something. ¡°Nothing bad just got a bruise on my leg during a clash¡±. I showed them that it was just a bruise, but it had the opposite effect. ¡°¡°¡°You are resting!¡±¡±¡±. I¡¯m not sure why but apparently the bruise is a lot worse than I think. I don¡¯t know since when they are the ones with medical knowledge or the ones that actually have the bruise, but even G took the girls side this time so apparently I¡¯m resting for today. Since I wasn¡¯t going to exercise today I was planning on going to the other apartments and take out a couple of bathtubs. I told them about the rain clouds I saw earlier and my idea to collect water, to clean ourselves and our clothes, but in the end, they didn¡¯t let me do anything that requires physical effort. Apparently, they don¡¯t trust me either, so ask Dante to follow me around to be sure that I don¡¯t do anything. Since Dante wasn¡¯t available Rose couldn¡¯t practice with her power, so she was going with G and Hope to do what I said with the bathtubs. The idea was simple we were going to pick about 3 bathtubs and seal them. Then using a tent from a camping equipment we found in an apartment on the third floor we are going to create a water collector that will lead the water to the bathtubs to fill them.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. We don¡¯t know how much is going to rain, but I hope is enough to at least fill one of the tubes. Since all of them were wandering out of the apartment, Hayley could move freely around the house and be reading one of his father books in the living room. I was restless, I¡¯m not sure why but it felt weird being there doing nothing. I moved around thinking about what to do. ¡°If you are bored you can read a book¡±. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t Hope be reading them?¡±. ¡°She said she already did and remembers everything¡±. I really don¡¯t know what else to do. ¡°Ok give the other one¡±. The books were both about basic mechanisms, mechanics, how to build, and stuff like that. There were a couple of differences between them. The one Hayley was looking was a little more advanced and had an introduction to electronics too. I took the book in my hands, I felt like it wasn¡¯t really productive for all of us to learn the same stuff, but right now I don¡¯t have another choice. Looking at the index I noticed the that I already knew a good part of it. I was thinking of jumping directly to the middle of the book when a notification surprised me. [Book absorption triggered, checking contents¡­] [Requirements Int > 15, Science Knowledge > Lv. 1, Checking requirements¡­] [Requirements fulfilled. Does the user want to absorb mechanics book? (Y/N)] [System note: The book is lost during the process] This was unexpected, from what Hayley said it Hope already memorized all his contents so the book was no longer necessary, but it was also memento from Hayley¡¯s father. ¡°Is the index that interesting?¡±. I have been looking at the index of the book for about a minute, so Hayley thought it was weird. ¡°I had a notification from the system, I can absorb the book, but it¡¯s loss if I do¡±. ¡°Really? what are you waiting?¡±. ¡°The book is not mine, is your father¡¯s, also it was intended for Hope and you¡± ¡°Hope already knows the contents and can recreate all the pages to the last detail, just do it¡±. ¡°Are you sure?¡±. ¡°I want to see if you get anything from it¡±. ¡®Yes¡¯. [User obtained Mechanics Lv.0] [Achievement Unlocked] [I read your book You finally showed some reading culture Read one book Reward: Int+1] My mind was filled with the knowledge from the book, after a second (and a headache) I understood the basics of how some of the objects I used daily before the Meteor Shower worked. Lv. 0? From what had happened before, if it¡¯s level 0 means that I had to practice or do something else before I¡¯m able to use the skill in an effective way. I checked my own stats, and as I was thinking mechanics was not under the knowledge category, but under the production. If I want to get better just raw knowledge is not enough to get the Lv. 1, so I need to build a couple of things to get Lv. 1. The book in my hands became dust. Hayley was looking at the whole process and was shocked by what happened to the book. ¡°Wow it¡¯s really lost, I wish I had this ability for the history of art, the most boring class you can imagine, wasn¡¯t expecting the book becomes like that though¡±. I was also surprised that the book became dust, I thought it would just disappear, became specks of light or that it was going to be blank after I absorbed it. ¡°Dante?¡±. Dante who was resting at my side moved his ears and looked at me. ¡°Where is G working on the crossbows?¡±. ¡®He made a workshop on the apartment in front of yours~¡¯. ¡°I¡¯ll go have a look¡±. ¡°You don¡¯t want to try with this book?¡±. The other book was in front of me to absorb. When I took it, the same message appeared again. [Book absorption triggered, checking contents¡­] [Knowledge is not enough to generate a skill do you wish to absorb anyway? (Y/N)] ¡°This one is not going to give me a skill¡±. ¡°Why?¡±. ¡°It says that the knowledge is not enough since most of the contents of this books are similar to the one I already absorbed¡±. ¡°Too bad, you think we should look for more books?¡±. ¡°It would be good if we found one, but I don¡¯t think is something we should focus on. Controlling our powers are the key to survival so there should be our focus¡±. ¡°Any advice regarding how to use my powers?¡±. ¡°Sorry my abilities don¡¯t require practice, so I don¡¯t know¡±. I tried to think about something. Compared to Dante, Rose or Hope, her abilities are developing slower, but I don¡¯t know why. She looked at Dante for a second. ¡°Dante how you do to be so good at using telepathy?¡±. ¡®I don¡¯t knyow~ I just use it and it gets better~¡¯. He was looking back at Hayley while tilting her head. Hayley seemed discouraged by his answer but I thought about his words. ¡°That¡¯s it!!¡± Hayley jumped at my sudden yell. ¡°What!?¡±. ¡°That¡¯s why Dante is so good at it!! He is not ¡°practicing¡± he uses his power always, he needs it to talk with us, he kept the connections in case we need them. He is always using his power¡±. ¡°But I¡¯m always using mine too¡±. ¡°Think of your power as two parts, one passive like my reflexes or my sight, and an active part like Hope¡¯s. You are not using your powers you are just trying to inhibit the passive part¡±. Her eyes light up when she understood what I was saying. ¡°We need, you to use them for real!¡±. Ch 39 Training and Building ¡°You want me to use my powers? What happens if Hope or G are affected?¡± ¡°We want you to use it in a controlled way, focusing your power on something, like when you froze the water bottles remember?¡± ¡°We are going back to freezing water bottles then?¡± ¡°Yes, but in a different way, we need you to be more selective on it, I have an idea give me a second¡± I took 3 bottles of water and came back to the living room, I moved the table from the center and left it next to the window. ¡°Sit here¡± I put my hand on her shoulders and positioned her in the center of the living room. She sat on the floor in a meditation position. Then I pushed an armchair to the side and left 3 bottles in front of Hayley at a one-meter distance from her but separated 20cm between them. ¡°Figure out how to freeze just the one in the middle, focus your gaze, point with a finger, try to blow it or whatever you can think of. When you are able to do it we will leave them farther and closer to each other¡±. She nodded with her head and focused. Hayley can control her aura to a certain extent already so focusing her power at a point could be a way for her to not affect others around her. She took off her gloves. I could see the change in colors, but it was widespread in front of her, not focused on one point as I wanted. ¡°Can you feel the things you are freezing?¡± She closed her eyes for a second but denied with her head. ¡°Focus more you are freezing everything in front of you¡±. I¡¯m not sure change she did but the colors changed again. She kept freezing all in front of her but there was a peak of intensity in the middle, it still covered all three bottles, but it was better than before. ¡°Try to concentrate on a point, the intensity in the center raised but you are still covering all three bottles¡±. Hayley was focusing her gaze in front of her while pointing her hand in a direction like trying to grab something. Since I have never used a power like this my help it¡¯s limited to pointing her errors, but I have no way to know the correct way of doing it. I kept describing the effect that each of her actions, I was behind her and started to feel a little cold too. We took a break and I put on a jacket. I thought about trying to just endure it and see if I got an ice resistance skill, but I prefer to focus on helping Hayley for now. By noon she was able to do the first stage of the training. We had to try a couple of times before she was able to do it without affecting the others, but apparently, from my description, Hayley was able to manipulate her powers better. I wasn¡¯t hungry, but the others have been working all morning to get the water collector ready. Rose was the first to come back. She saw a lot of water bottles frozen around and the room was quite cold compared to the outside. ¡°What happened?¡±. She had shiver because of the cold when she came into the apartment. ¡°Just Hayley¡¯s training¡­ are you guys eating now?¡±Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Even if Hayley wasn¡¯t using her power anymore the coldness of the place was a residual effect from it, so it could affect Hope and G. ¡°Yes, I came to tell you so Hayley can put on the other part of the suit¡±. She looked around all the bottles and asked. ¡°Did you use all the water bottles?¡±. ¡°Of course not, G¡¯s and mines are in our apartment, we should eat there I don¡¯t know if this place can affect them¡±. Rose was happy to leave that cold place, and we all went to the other apartment, Hayley came a little later cause she needed to prepare put on a couple of extra layers. We ate together and G informed me about how the water collector plan was going. ¡°I took out 3 bathtubs from the fourth floor, and left them on the roof, Rose and Hope made the collector with the tents as you said. When I finished with the bathtubs, I fixed all a little to make sure it works, we plug them and added a couple of things to be sure the water doesn¡¯t leak¡±. ¡°I can help with the finishing touches¡± ¡°Nah, it¡¯s almost ready anyway, what have you been doing during the morning?¡± ¡°I absorbed a book and helped Hayley with her training¡±. ¡°What do you mean ¡°absorbed¡±? Hope was curious since she was kind of our library now. ¡°The system had a function a didn¡¯t know about, I can absorb the knowledge in the books, but the book is lost in the process¡±. ¡°Am I useless now?¡± Hope seemed worried. ¡°Of course not, I have the knowledge, but I can¡¯t recreate the book itself like you. Also if I absorb the other book I¡¯m not getting anything from it¡± ¡°You know everything that was on the book you absorbed?¡± this time was G¡¯s turn to be surprised. ¡°Yeah, a think but still lack the practice, I got only an Lv. 0 skill¡±. ¡°Do you think you can understand the blueprints now of the crossbows?¡±. I told him when I gave them the blueprints that I understood only a part of them. ¡°Actually, I want to try building one by myself¡±. ¡°I think is better if you help me, so I can guide you while we work. I don¡¯t think is a good idea to do it by yourself the first time, even if you have the knowledge. From theory to practice is a big step and there are many different situations during the construction that can¡¯t be predicted, and you need the experience to solve them¡±. I knew he was right and doing it while helping him wasn¡¯t bad at all. We finished lunch, G went to the roof to make the finishing details of the water collectors, since I was curious I followed him. I could see a large tent to collect water expanded to the maximum on a weird structure that they built. It was really good for just a morning of work. G was checking the structure, and secure it to the roof, the structure was attached to the bathtubs and some weights to be sure that the wind doesn¡¯t blow out everything. I followed G around seeing the adjustments he made and I thought about the reasons behind them. I also wanted to understand how they made the structure, there were lots of tools that can¡¯t be found or used anymore. This means that G had to use his creativity to figure out how to build some parts of it. Every time I found something I didn¡¯t understand he explained to me in detail including his thought process for some decisions. He was right when told me that it was better for me to work with his guide in the meantime, before working on my own projects. The clouds were nearer to the city than before, as I predicted the rain should arrive later in the afternoon, almost at night. It¡¯s going to darken earlier tonight and we don¡¯t have yet a solution for that, after the crossbows, a lantern or flashlight could be a good project. ¡°Do you have any idea how to build a flashlight or a lantern?¡± ¡°If we get fuel an oil lamp is easy to build¡± I checked the store, there was an oil lamp and a day worth fuel for it for 15 points, but just the oil cost only 5 points. ¡°Do you think we can build a couple today? I can get the oil from the system store¡± ¡°Sure it¡¯s annoying going to bed at 8 pm anyway.¡± He tried to move a part of the structure to be sure it was firm. ¡°This is ready, let¡¯s go¡± We went to the fifth floor to an apartment in front of ours. I have no idea what the girls are doing but they weren¡¯t in the workshop. I looked around and it reminds me of G¡¯s workshop, he had one in his garage. Everything was neat and carefully classified, the worktable was clean and ready to work on. He looked at me and started giving me instructions. It was a nice change to be the one following the instructions, after the meteor shower I got kind of used to be the one ordering around. ¡°We should solve the light issue first, bring me the¡­¡± He started by asking me for pieces that he already had classified. After that, we went to the other apartments to look for some of the missing parts. After half an hour we had everything we needed and started working on the lamps. There were almost no mechanicals parts on them so I couldn¡¯t apply my knowledge Following G¡¯s instructions we were able to build 3 lamps by the time we heard the first water drops hitting on the window.