When Lee Long returned home he told about his new adventures and transferred 1,000 credits to Maria's account. Sergeant Nick laughed,
"You showed class to the Capital Kittens? Well done. They have to respect humans. You found a great way to reduce your debt."
"I don't want to get into a midtown stadium. It was a kind and welcoming atmosphere on the outskirts. I can make a few more visits to the outskirts stadiums. I don't think there's any need to draw the attention of respectable downtown residents."
"That's a normal opinion. Different allies can come in handy in life. You're a future healer. You don't have to begin your journey with conflict."
"And don't rush into new conflicts, Lee," Maria added.
With this stance, the boy was ready to agree. He wasn't going to rush into it. His new abilities required a meaningful plan and careful implementation.
In the beginning, he decided to test the workings of the skill of Suggestion.
The boy asked one of his friends to buy a couple of portions of ice cream. The friend was stingy and never wasted credit. After the suggestion, he quickly ran to the store and brought the treat. Lee Long felt like a little creep. But there was something pleasant about this humiliation of an old friend. You can't go to extremes! There is a time to collect credits and there is a time to spend credits. Harmony is the basis of peace.
Every achievement is associated with a lack. It wasn't pleasant to spend that much mana! 50 mana points to check a skill works is brutal.
Lee Long was eating ice cream and watching his friend's reaction. The teenager was behaving strangely. He was silent and ate the ice cream without pleasure. Lee asked him,
"Why are you so stressed, brother?"
"I don't understand. Why I gave in to your provocation and bought this stupid ice cream. What a waste of money! I don't like ice cream. I like ramen!"
"Brother, you're as cool as Naruto! Let's go get me some ramen, too."
"Wake up your conscience, Lee! It's your turn to treat your friend. Buy me some noodles."
Lee Long laughed and they went out to eat.
After lunch, the boy decided to test a second spy skill. The description of this skill was alarming and inspiring,
[Race Dance. Level 1. Allows you to perform a race camouflage on a molecular level. Adaptation and duration depend on Endurance level. Activation cost 20 mana.]
Lee Long did not understand how the skill worked. It was the first time he had encountered magic that required the help of a teacher to comprehend. He decided to experiment in his room.
He sat down in a comfortable pose and relaxed.
"I want to cloak myself as a human. I am human myself, and I am well acquainted with my race. That spy looked like a ferin! And it was a cloak. Nick, now you will pay for your treachery! He couldn't keep his mouth shut. Now your matrix will serve my purposes. I hope I'm doing it right."
He focused his attention on the holographic image of Nick and Maria.
"Race Dance!"
And the next moment the boy almost passed out from the pain! He had the feeling that he was caught in a meat grinder. The meat grinder was in a centrifuge that flew into the very ass of a black hole! It was an unfathomable experience. Every part of his body rebelled and decided to live its own life. Lee Long held on with the last of his strength and was ready to lose consciousness.
Suddenly the unpleasant experience stopped. He opened his eyes and blinked away the tears. He immediately realized that he felt unusual and unfamiliar.
The boy turned his head and looked in the mirror on the wall. He was ready to see the result but froze in shock. From the mirror, his guardian was looking at him!
Lee Long got to his feet. He staggered and almost fell over.
"How do you carry that kind of weight? I don't want to be a stormtrooper!"
He slowly began to do the warm-up complex familiar from his childhood. His new body was gaining obedience with each movement. Within a minute, Lee had already allowed himself to do some serious exercises. His new body responded as if it were his own. He walked over to the mirror and touched his face. To test it, he began to speak softly. Again he experienced temporary discomfort. This time his brain adapted to the new image. It took him some time to carry on a conversation in the manner of Sgt.
Lee Long laughed softly.
"That's an amazing skill! What an economy is that? You don't need any technomagic devices or artifacts to cloak your face. The Race Dance is a perfect cloak on all levels. I'm starting to get even more afraid of Zagran. These guys can hold the whole galaxy by the balls. But against the great duelist Lee Long, they are weak. I can see right through them!"
After a few minutes, the boy tempered his enthusiasm. He realized that his 30 endurance points gave him 300 minutes of cloaking. He didn't want to be in Nick's character for five hours and hide from everyone in his room! The solution came by accident. He decided to incarnate himself. He was even willing to endure another unpleasant experience.
Reincarnation into his native body proved to be a quick and quite tolerable process. He was nauseous and his body ached after a sparring match with a strong opponent.
He sat down and began to plan his development. There was no need to develop Zagran's skills. He didn't care about increasing the duration of those skills. With his endurance and intellect, he had an amazing supply of skills to work with.
Lee immediately abandoned the idea of camouflaging himself as someone he knew. The capital was packed with security cameras! On the lower levels, the atmosphere is more relaxed. The criminal elements destroy any attack on their free will. But it doesn't change anything. You can't trash where you live. He needs to find some new contacts who will smother his cloaking matrices. If he gets into trouble all the trouble will go to the outsider.
He should set up some ferin reincarnation training beforehand! The tail is cool! He has holographs of kittens from the tribe. He can get used to the physiology of cats based on kittens he knows. Then he'll find an object in the capital. It would be good to visit another planet. It would be a perfect case for a collection of reincarnation matrices.
Money. He needs money. It's a task for Operation Suggestion. The simplest plan looks elementary. He has to visit a dungeon and have a death fight. After winning, it's to take great pictures of the dead man's face and body on a communicator. Next, come the camouflage and suggestion. It is possible to clean out the accounts of a criminal boss. And let him prosecute and track down the dead gangster. The body should be well hidden. May have to be carried in the inventory.
There was one big plus in this plan. It required little preparation time and was quick to execute. Lee saw no point in wasting time competing with the capital kittens. Taking away 7,000 credits could be done in one operation. That's a modest sum. It's scary to imagine how much money is in the account of a gang boss. Lee Long was not a greedy one. He was as reckless as a Ferin.
The third visit to the capital would involve cool adventures!
Lee went to the academy. He made his way to the arena and got to work. The arena was the best place to hold fights. But Lee was no longer engaged in grueling work. He often sat down to think about his plans. He wasn't tired! He wanted to think about the future.
His future he did not like. Lee Long could see that he was not happy with the boundaries of the colony! These were the first sprouts of treacherous thoughts. Thoughts that were unworthy of a colonist. The colony did not allow him to improve. He could gain experience. The points of attributes he did not want to steal from good people. Robbing colonists? Such an abominable act he immediately considered unacceptable.
In a couple of months, Black Star would arrive. They wanted to go on a free flight. That cunning face has some kind of plan! She knows a lot of secrets that are not available to him.
And it all revolves around a central question.
What do you want to be, Lee Long?
Steal credit and enjoy life? That's disgusting, that's not the way to be a decent man.
Become the savior of humanity and start a new sector in the galaxy?
That seems like a fantasist's delusional dream. Such operations require allies. Such operations require knowledge and experience.
Lee Long sighed and rose to his feet. It was time for more fights. Experience won't gain itself.