Dean was in the middle of the Almara Island East Park with a burner phone in his hand that he purchased with his own money. In the other side of his hand was a telephone number to a certain arms dealer that he had known well, and very close. His nickname was "Peacekeeper."
"Who is this?"
"The one who storms the dust."
"Ah, what do you need?" Peacekeeper asked.
"Listen, I've been shot, so, I am thinking of getting protection."
"I thought you are immune to bullets, Dean."
"It hits me in the thorax. What? Do you think I will wear a heavy ballistic vest in here?"
"Fair enough, what do you want? A Kevlar jacket? I have a shitton right here," Peacekeeper answered.
"Not the thing with the blue UN on it, PK. I want something those VIPs wore beneath their shirt. I want to conceal it, not show it to the others. An asshole shot me in the chest, almost hitting my main artery, I'm lucky I'm not dead yet," Dean complained.
"Dead? Damn, my daughter's there. Can you take care of her?" Peacekeeper asked.
"Depends, would you give me a discount?"
"I'll give the vest for free if you are pleading for it."
"PK, I'm not pleading something I can't keep. Anyway, besides that, I need you to deliver me 'that' too," Dean said.
"Alright, where do you live?" PK asked.
"Room #231. 120th Training Battalion. Thank you," Dean said.
"Alright, that'd be 400$, and Dean, please take care of Sarah for me," PK asked.
"Sure, I'll keep an eye on her for you," Dean said.
"Thanks for buying."
"You're welcome."
Peacekeeper, a supply officer for UNPREDET. Most of the scavengers only knew him as the Peacekeeper. He sold guns to body armor to anyone with enough cash to buy it. Dean knew him from his salvaging run in the city ruins. He was quite close with him, and he knew that he was Sarah's father.
Dean preferred to keep it a secret. Dean doubted that his daughter would want to know his father's side dealing. Dean pulled the SIM card from the burner phone and threw it away to the trash can. From the outside, Dean looked harmless for the most part. He just looked like an ordinary student.
Now, he wanted to do everything on his ability, including tracking whoever shot him in the chest. He was dealing with Menkaid, that was too obvious. That ears, Dean always knew Menkaid has extra ears. No way it was an ordinary person. And the accomplice, he must have some beef with him.
No one would shoot a person in the thorax twice, they would go for the head. It was either a sloppy job, or the killer didn't want to give him a quick death. Still, even after all of the obvious things that Mick had done, the fact that he was thrown to the sea proved that this was the work of a professional, not some random accomplices consisting of students.
Myra suddenly appeared again in her usual form, a demonic woman with an academy uniform and bags. For Dean, the form was far more comfortable than seeing her in the form of her demon lord attire. Plus, it looked less like a threat, and more like a nuisance.
'So, what do you want to do?'
'Stay passive until the time comes.'
'You do have my power, you know?'
'You do remember that a 15-year-old boy killed your previous host with a 12.7x55 mm bullet right to the center of his head, don't you? Don't think you are as strong as you are, Myra, that's a recipe for disaster.'
Myra sighed, 'Fine, we do it your way, but with my help.'
'How can a soulless thing like you even help me by any means necessary without hindering the ability of my tactical thinking?' Dean was skeptical about it. He had spent some time in the ruins, he had trusted himself enough to know about it.
'I did give you a quest, didn't I?'
'Yeah, you did, but right now, that quest would get me killed or incarcerated. Either do this the conventional way, or I need to go full-blown covert black-ops on this one. Neither was acceptable. Staying still is the best way, at least, until I have a backing, such as evidence,' Dean replied.
'Evidence? You heard it, don't you?' Myra protested even more
'Dear my good demon lord. Do you think it will be that bloody easy? I need to find evidence, I need to find the connections, I need to find shits. After that, military court. To be honest, it doesn't worth the effort. Don't worry, I will use armor, at least,' Dean reassured Myra.
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[Energy Shield] [Passive]
Block one projectile fired at you. It can block anything up to 3,000 joules of energy before penetration. It will only work against one projectile before the shield went down. It will only regenerate every five minutes while not shot.
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'A reward for, let's say, your cautious attitude,' Myra said.
'Thank you.'
The demon lord disappeared into the thin air again. To be entirely honest, Dean couldn't get used to the thought that the being that he despised the most stayed inside of his brain. And to be honest, Myra was sometimes too full of herself for what she was capable of.
If she couldn't even defend someone fully-equipped for combat from a 15-year-old armed with ShAK-12, Dean doubted she could defend him from something way worse than that. And in this world, a lot of things were way worse than a boy armed with a full-auto 12.7x55 battle rifle. Dean would say that Myra's previous protege was ridiculously strong too, but still, a bullet was still bullet, and bullet kills.
'Why do you always have to remember my gracious defeat, Dean?'
'To keep you in check. Demon lord.'
'I used to be managing an entire kingdom consisting of demons while being the most powerful demon, and now, I'm being lectured by a mere human? What a shame. If I had a full body, I'd turn you to submission,' Myra said.
'Go ahead, take control of my body, and I'll put one on my head. You're a demon lord, and yet, you still fear of a bullet into my head,' Dean replied to her.
Myra sighed and pouted. For a demon lord, she was the combination of authoritarian while being reminiscent of her past every single time. Still, for an ally, she had only given Dean an ability. Relationship wise, Dean would keep it as a win-win or lose-lose. Help me and I help you, basically.
Besides, right now, Myra only had provided him with one useful spell. It was quite good, but still, it was only another insurance for Dean. He always wanted an insurance on top of the insurance.
Still, Dean couldn't help but to smile. Even though he had been shot in the torso more than once, he still feel that there was a blessing in this situation, and the blessing was the holiday. Tomorrow would be Saturday and Dean would take his holiday for recovery on Monday. The only thing that kept him moving was his passive painkilling spell that helped him in the past.
He had no doubt that once the magical energy in his body ran out, he wouldn't be any better than a vegetable on his own bed. Hopefully, his magical energy wouldn't run out before the time came.
He went onboard the bus that would take him back to his dormitory. As soon as he could get back, the better. Twenty minutes later and he arrived in front of his dormitory, and once he got out, he felt that his whole heart was burning. The wound hadn't fully healed up, he dragged his feet towards the second floor before he passed out from the pain.
He put his ID card in front of the RFID reader and immediately sat down on the floor to hold on to his pain as he searched for the painkiller medicine. The painkiller medicine worked oddly.
One pill to reduce the pain, but you'd be conscious. Two pills and the pain would be gone in exchange of being high as heck. Dean took the second painkiller and the pain slowly went away and his whole body went numb.
Suddenly, Myra appeared again just like a hallucination. She was still wearing the same uniform as before since Dean hadn't changed his threads either. She then sat down right next to Dean.
'Damn, you're high as fuck. Don't you know that?'
'Shut up.'
'Well, in this stoned state, I'm your only friend, am I?' Myra asked Dean back.
Dean just blinked his eye in agreement. 'Whatever. It's not like I will stay conscious for too long. Anyway,' Dean felt a heavier fatigue. 'Good night.' Dean blacked out from the painkiller.