Waking up in the morning, I was preparing myself for work as a journalist at the Rabbit's Sprint company. After eating my breakfast, I drove my car through the same route I've always used for the past week.
"Huh? What's with this line up?"
Cars were lined up on the street as honking sounds can be heard from almost every car. There was even a man shouting at the top of his lungs ranting about him being late for work.
"Gee~ Did an accident happen at the front?"
Suddenly, a crack formed in the sky and a tentacle came out from the crack. Everyone began panicking and running away. Everyone just left their cars prioritising their lives over simple cars.
"Shit, it's a dimensional gap!"
I got out of my car and ran along with the crowd. I stopped running when a thought suddenly occurred.
"Wait, doesn't this mean that heroes will come? And don't I need to check another theory of mine? This... Might turn out to be a bargain for me after all"
I ran towards the direction of the tentacle monster that came out of the dimensional gap. However, I made to keep a safe distance away so I won't get caught by the battle.
I snuck into an alley and peeked out the wall corner. It was a tentacle monster around 50 meters high and it had three eyes looking down on the humans. A single swing of it's tentacle is enough to blow away a couple of cars and destroy the road.
Suddenly, arrows were being rained down on the tentacle monster. The arrows were imbued with fire attribute and they seemed to be effective as the monster tried to block the arrows with it's tentacles.
"That's the new rising star, Blaze Arrow! She's also with the C-rank hero Giganto!"
One of the pedestrians running away suddenly shouted out their names. What a convenient introduction.
"From what I remember, they're from the Zealot's hero agency. A range and a close combat hero, a balanced team"
Blaze arrow started shooting continuous barrage of fire arrows towards the tentacle monster and Giganto would always attack when the monster focused on Blaze arrow.
'However, there doesn't seem to be much progress since the tentacle monster doesn't seem to be attacking right now. I heard that monsters has intelligence to a certain extent so it might be gauging their power'
Just as I said that, the monster used it's tentacles to attack the heroes ruthlessly. The situation were getting turned against the hero duo as they couldn't keep up with the monster's tentacles were able to use objects to throw.
Giganto looks like he was on the brink of fainting and losing the battle. Giganto suddenly took out a pill out of his pocket and consumed it.
His body became bulkier and his body frame grew larger. It was his ability [Gigantification] but I thought he could only do partial [Gigantification] only. So how is he able to make his entire body giant?!
"Could it be that strange blue pill?"
Giganto readied himself to charge straight at the tentacle monster's head. He charges at the monster with a speed incomparable to the speed he showed at the start.
He punches the monster with his gigantified arm. His body balance was unnatural however, most likely due to the fact that he's still not used to his gigantified self.
Blaze arrow was freed from the tentacle thanks to Giganto knocking it back with his punch. Giganto utilised his giant body to tank all the attacks and charged at the monster again. Giganto released a barrage of attacks until it finally died.
"Damn, How did a C-rank hero able to do that?"
Blaze arrow walked towards Giganto to congratulate him but something felt wrong. I scrunched by brows and observed their interactions carefully. Blaze arrow, she staggered for a moment when approaching Giganto.
"It was only for a moment but I can clearly see it. His eyes were bloodshot and he was about to attack her"
Giganto suddenly coughed up blood and returned to his normal sized body. And he stood up slowly with the help of Blaze Arrow and smiled at the crowd. Everyone was cheering for them and thanking them for defeating the monster.
Seeing the situation was over, I was about to walk away when I noticed something from the tentacle monster. It's eyes were bulging. It was a slight bulge that nobody would have noticed unless they looked carefully.
I saw a creature exiting the gaps between the eye socket and a parasite-looking creature exited from it.
'Wait, the tentacle monster was being controlled by a parasite?! Seeing the parasite as how it needs to control another monster, it's probably not that strong...'
A smile crept up on my face as I found the perfect opportunity to test out my theory.
"There's no better chance than this"
I walked into the alley the parasite ran off to follow. Since it's a parasite, it's most likely searching for a new host. Don't I look like the most easiest prey right now? Reaching the parasite, I called out to it.
"Hey worm, where do you think you're going?"
The parasite turned it's head around to look at me. It must've think that fortune just came to aid it as I heard cackling sound coming from it's teeth.
It slithered towards me at full speed catching me off guard. It lunged at my face when I reflexively ducked to dodge. It went over my head falling behind me.
"An Opening!"
I turned around grabbed it by it's tail end. I threw it with all my might towards a wall in hopes of making it unconscious. Once it hit the wall, blue liquid were splattered on the wall. It was still alive however since I could see it shivering.
I went over to the parasite and crouched down. I put my hand on the parasite's body and activated my ability.
[Extraction available, proceed?]
"Yes"
The familiar feeling entered my body again. My palm which touched the slimy parasite monster began flowing with energy. It flowed from my arm all the way to my hesrt before disappearing.
"[Status]"
The number (1) appeared beside my [Extract Fiction] ability indicating my success on the experiment.
[Ability: Control
Grade: D
Effect: can control the body of the designated target
Conditions: target will be aware of being controlled – Effect is only single target]
I was overjoyed at the ability I gained. Now, I can collect all the abilities I want and fulfil my revenge.
"What are you doing there?!"
A female voice rang out from behind me. It was Blaze Arrow. I could tell from her voice. Did I get caught?
'Shit, I can't let them find out about me judt yet... Since I used my ability without a license, she will definitely drag me the association'
I racked my brains and thought of every excuse I can use to get myself out of this situation.
"Um, I'm sorry. But I just found this monster corpse here. I was just wondering if I could take it away and sell it at the Monster Corpse Factory"
I said without turning back and showing my face. It might seem weird but I'm just hoping that she would overlook this matter.
"Don't bullshit me. I sensed an energy burst here and that can only mean that someone used an ability. Coincidentally, you're the only person I can see in this alley."
She countered my argument. I knew what it meant, she was going to take me away to the association for an evaluation since I used my ability here.
'R-right, I can use the control ability to set her in place to run away! Wait, no! She'll notice me using my ability since she can detect energy bursts...'
I unconsciously said in a low voice.
"Shit... I'm dead meat..."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I can hear her footsteps coming closer to me. I did a last ditch effort and covered my face with my arm and buried my face halfway into my clothes. Before running away, I threw the parasite monster corpse at her. She flinched back surprised at my action. She drew her bow and was about to shoot. I took that chance to run around the alleyway corner and kept on running.
"Get back here you damn bastard!!"
I heard her screaming behind me. I'm only a human, there's no way I can outrun a trained professional hero. I could tell from the sound of her footsteps that she's getting closer and closer to me. I at least have at least ten more seconds before she reaches me.
"Just let me go! Can't you just do that at least once?!"
I shouted at her expecting some sort of mercy. I didn't look back and ran with all my life. The only thing I can do now is to stop her using the [Control] ability I obtained from that parasite.
I held out my right palm and light shone from it. From the light, a marble-shaped pill came out. However, it wasn't like the pill I made before. It looked like different colours being mixed in together half-way through.
'Shit, this is not the time admire the beauty!!'
I immediately swallowed the pill down my throat and it tasted bland. There was no exact taste to it, just bland. I can feel energy from the pill in my stomach dispersing and spreading throughout my whole body. It's different from extraction since it's not gathering at a singular point.
"Hey, you criminal! You used your ability just now didn't you?! I'm totally dragging you to the association now!"
I covered my face with my arm again and turned around to use my ability. She looked at me in the eye and her body froze in place.
"Tch, mind-type ability..."
She muttered under her breath.
'It looks like the target can still speak even when controlled'
I didn't just stand there waiting around for nothing however. I continued on running and running until I'm out of sight. Not long after freezing her in place, I returned back to the street. I panted heavily since this is the first time I've ran so desperately.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Inside of a bar, a woman could be seen sitting beside a man with a giant body. The man was drinking alcohol and just a cup of his alcohol could make a single man drunk yet he drank over 5 cups of it.
"Shit, that damn criminal just ran off like that"
Blaze Arrow complained beside her senior colleague, Giganto.
"Haha, it's fine! You're still in your early years, so a mistake or two are just lessons to complete you"
Blaze arrow looked at her senior and sighed. She put her hand over under her chin to make a stand. She pondered over the identity of the guy that just ran away from her.
"What kind of ability does he have to be able to fully restrict me, a D-rank?"
Blaze Arrow, Krista Hooper thought about it again and revised her thoughts.
'No, I wouldn't say completely restrict me. I was able to move again 5 minutes after he left, so I would say it's the same rank as me...'
As Krista remembered back the appearance of the guy, she muttered out the characteristics she saw.
"Blue eyes, dark eyebags and black hair... That's all I have since he covered half of his face. Ah, right! He also wore a pass around his neck but I couldn't read it since it kept dangling around"
In the end, she messed up her hair and set her posture straight. She decided not to think too hard on it and just be chill about it like her senior suggested.
"Hey, barman! Get me a bottle of alcohol!"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
After explaining to my superior the reason I was late, I sat down on my working desk and went through the information I got today.
Firstly, a blue dimly glowing pill can enhance your ability power as shown my Giganto.
Secondly, I can extract abilities from monsters alike.
Thirdly, trained heroes can sense ability energies.
Those are the three pieces of information that I managed to acquire from this morning. That blue glowing pill, or drug, has a side effect of making the user aggressive for a short moment seeing as how Giganto almost attacked his own colleague.
My priority is to find more about the blue drug since it might be related to how Ice Raven attacked my sister. After doing some research, it seems like the blue drug is well hidden since there's nothing coming up about it on the internet. Not even rumours about it.
"There must be an organisation in the underworld managing this blue drug. In the video where Ice Raven's attack went off-screen, there's a frame where he did a gesture like he's eating something... That must be the moment where he consumed the blue drug. Since two famous heroes are taking this blue drug, that must mean the organisation behind it is quite powerful in the underworld"
No matter how strong an individual is, there's no way for them to win against a whole organisation. To be able to cover up this big of a scheme and be able to go unnoticed, it might be that it's still new or it might be just that powerful enough to be hidden. There's too much I still don't know and in the modern world, information is more valuable than gold.
"I need a group to back me up. That way I won't be the target but instead seen as a lackey. Maybe I can do something about that..."
This situation is a lot bigger than what I anticipated but it's still manageable for now. Attacking solo might be cool but I don't want to die a dog's death. Besides, the nature of my abilities are nothing but evil so I won't even be seen as a hero.
"This might be a lot more fun than I thought"