A zombie.
What greeted Alex was a ten-year-old zombie. Not a literal zombie, but a zombie without emotions or feelings. He stood inside a room without doing anything, staring at a crack in the wall.
If you exclude the fact that he blinked once in a while and breathed. He could have been considered dead.
Alex stared at him from the doorway. The payment was made, and he was here to receive the kid. A horrendous act to be performed by a policeman.
All the values, morals and ethics that he once took for granted were gnawing at his brain trying to burst out uncontrollably. Just the thought that more people are being held captive in this building was a nauseating truth he wished he never came across. Ignorance was truly bliss.
Alex wanted to do something for these enslaved people, but the disarray of thought pouring out from his brain was also warning him to be cautious.
Even then, Alex stepped inside the room. It was a clean room with nothing but a bed.
'It seems that they kept their superhuman slaves in the best condition. Like how a valuable product gets extra care, the kid was being treated better. But the same could not be said for the unfortunate normal people. If their superhuman power is graded less than a rank E. They might have the worst experience here. After all, they are no different from normal people in my original world. And for these slave traders, normal people were no different from cattle.'
As Alex stepped into the room, he noticed small black beads littered the room. And the moment Alex stepped onto the floor of the room, the calm and quiet kid turned toward Alex and the henchman. His demeanour didn't change, but there was something more to the way he viewed both Alex and the henchman.
"Thump… Thump…" For a moment, Alex felt like his heart was thumping like an engine. Even the cyan glow around his heart intensified.
Alex took one more step forward. Trying to control his astonishment. The cyan heart which he had no control over was doing something that even he was unaware of. Considering how it never caused him any harm. He moved forward confidently.
But below his feet, unknown to Alex. Something astonishing was happening.
Thin strands of black material that looked like spider webs were trying to climb onto Alex and latch onto him. But before it could touch Alex, a minute flicker of blue flames would come and completely burn the black strands before disappearing quickly. Each time those black strands tried to reach for Alex, the blue flame burnt it like it was nothing but a nuisance.
No one noticed the hidden battle except the ten-year-old kid. Tiny droplets of sweat were forming around his temples while he gazed at Alex contemplating.
S grade ability, Dark-matter was versatile and strong. He knew it because he has been using it for so long. The spiderweb-like material he was creating was stronger than steel and almost indestructible.
It was possible to bend or even break objects made of dark matter. But it was impossible to destroy it unless he wanted to. But it was being destroyed even before he could know what destroyed it. This was the most perplexing part to the ten-year-old.
The ability that he was so proud of and hid so deeply was being dismantled in seconds by the newcomer. He looked at Alex, fear was creeping into his heart once again. Even when his memories were scrambled, he acted dumb and uninterested to escape this prison. But now, that thought seems to be too optimistic.
He resigned to his fate of being sold.
Meanwhile, Alex was acting as usual. Although he felt a little more powerful due to his activated cyan heart. He shrugged it off as nothing more than a feeling.
—---------------
POV Alex
I am not a people person. Talk less do more was my life motto. But I think that wouldn't help me in this situation.
What I am about to do is a touchy subject to most and it might even put my life in danger. I am about to buy a person and confront a villain face to face. Don't underestimate him for being young. He was one of the strongest people alive on the whole planet at the age of fifteen.
I can't predict what he would think of me. But I would like to have an amicable relationship with him and even in the worst case, I want him to not kill me at sight.
With that in my mind, I stood right next to the kid. Item no. 879 was looking at me with a peculiar glint in his eyes. His dead-fish like eyes were staring at me with revived interest. I am sure that he is curious about me.
But the important question remains. How can you have goodwill towards a slave trader? After all, I am here to buy him. Not to rescue him, not to free him from the endless miseries. But to buy him for some purpose. That might be the image that I have on that kid's mind.
"Sir, this is your product. We provide fake identity and social integration methods. You could choose your desired method and can travel with it legally. But I would like to remind you that it is preferable if you could stay out of the scrutiny of law enforcement agencies." Said the henchman before pointing toward the kid.
"What should I call him?" I asked in response.
"Item no. 879 or you can call him with a fake name. It's your choice, sir." Saying that he pulled me away and whispered into my ear.
"After our rigorous brainwashing, he wouldn't remember anything about his past. So, you don't have to worry about anything. Our services are perfect and impeccable in the business."
I knew at a glance that just like the shopkeeper this henchman was also proud of his business. What was wrong with these people?
I turned toward the kid. He was of mixed blood and looked nothing like me. You might confuse him for a foreigner at a glance.
"From today onwards you will be called Leo. And you will be my long lost cousin." I said and the kid nodded accepting my order. And what else could he do, it was not like I was giving him a choice.
But there isn't an issue with his personality, so what was the shopkeeper talking about?
The henchman next to me wrote down what I said and produced the related documents. As soon as the deal was complete. I and Leo were transported out, blindfolded.
—-------------------------
When I opened my eyes, I was already out of the slum.
The neon lights of Nova city were welcoming like usual. I just need to go to the residential area.
Next to me was a little kid that I needed to take care of. What am I going to do now?
I thought it was a good idea to save a villain and I did. Do I need to feed him and let him go to school? Will I become a full-time nanny for the next couple of months?
More importantly, in the coming months. I would need his help for some dangerous mission. Like most people, I do not want my corpse to flow through Azha. I do not want to be a part of the blood river incident.
Running away was always an option. But the day I do that, I will lose all respect for myself. It was better for me to die than to stand and watch a massacre happen without doing anything.
Thinking about all that, I carried the kid on my back and quickly moved toward the residential area. I suddenly felt slightly ticklish, something seemed to have rubbed against my neck.
"Uh…"
The moment Alex carried Leo on his back. A sharp long black needle materialised on Leo's hand and without hesitation, he plunged it into Alex's neck. But his eyes widened the next second.
Nothing happened. Alex was okay and only a stub of the black needle remained on his hand. A chill crawled up Leo's spine while Alex felt ticklish around his neck. Maybe this was the personality defect that the shopkeeper was talking about.
Now they had almost reached their apartment building.
"Booooooom!" A sudden exploding sound woke Alex up from his thoughts.
"Why was there a group of people just below the apartment building?"
"Why was the apartment building burning? More precisely, ``Why was my apartment on fire?" Thought Alex with a heavy heart.