Ryker spent four days drifting in and out of consciousness as his body repaired itself.
The hours he spent awake involved daydreaming about killing Maxwell and his strategies for obtaining power.
He didn't move during that period. His body needed strength to fight, so he staved off hunger to recover to maximum capacity.
Finally, on the fifth day, he allowed himself to press up. While his body was weak from hunger, his body felt far stronger than it had ever before.
It made him grin with delight as he stood and stretched his limbs.
He looked up from his position and found a fifty foot climb to the top, and certain death below.
The sight made him laugh. The teen was so arrogant that he already survived that he ignored the obvious death trap that awaited him.
After hours of conducting simulations in his mind, looking over the edge, and trying handholds, he laughed again.
"Resource requests are designed for desperate situations." Ryker chuckled, "It doesn't matter when they're used."
He immediately pulled up his system.
—
User Info
Stats
Skills
Chat
Index
Displayed Stats
Route
Alibi
Requests (New!)
—
Ryker chose requests with a smile on his face.
"Hmmm. What should I ask for." Ryker pondered aloud, "I'm not sure what [minor resource request] entails. In the worst-case scenario, I'll just ask for a ride. So I might as well ask for more."
He opened up the [Requests] option on his interface.
—
Welcome to resource requests, Revenger!
Please choose an available request option available.
Minor Resource Request. (1)
Mid-grade Resource Request.
Significant Resource Request.
Intensive Resource Request.
Scythe Backup Request.
Scythe Corps Intervention Request.
Military Corps Intervention Request.
Interstellar Commerce Request.
…
—
Ryker burst into laughter when he saw the potential for the future.
The people he was dealing with were not pushovers. They were distinguished members of Lexicon, and he could secure just about anything with enough games.
He chose the only option not greyed out.
—
AS: Welcome, Revenger. What is your ask?
Revenger: A interstellar shuttle with cloaking features and a ride to a location where I can store it.
AS: Request denied. Reason(s): two requests.
Revenger: A shuttle like the one used to pick me up, with a ride to the secure drop-off I landed in.
AS: Request denied. Reason(s): Security standards were breached, and two requests.
Revenger: A shuttle like the one used to pick me up, which will pick me up from my current location for the exchange. To clarify, I'm on a mountain cliff and would like the ship to pick me up and give me the key mid-air. I'll drop pickup members onto the clifftop.
AS: Request granted. Please standby.
—
Ryker laughed in delight. While he was in a dilemma regarding its storage, the shuttle he asked for wasn't a [minor] request.
Five men in suits showed up when he touched down in Scaroh's docking bay yesterday to escort him.
They took a shuttle to a secure location where a driver took over, driving Ryker through back roads in a camouflage jeep to the entrance gate before entering the Scaroh Safe Zone.
Now he was getting the state-of-the-art shuttle the high-class agents used!
When the shuttle arrived 20 minutes later, Ryker grinned in delight. He didn't know it was in front of him until a man opened the door and reached his hand out!
It was completely cloaked, allowing full invisibility. Moreover, it didn't cause air to blow away dirt.
The sight made Ryker laugh ominously to the nervous man.
He gratefully reached out to accept the man's help.
"You've been sent the credentials to your communication system." The man, wearing a suit and sunglasses, announced, "The shuttle will automatically start when seated."
"Thank you." Ryker replied with a creepy grin, making the men shutter.
"We'll let you sit down now." The man in the cockpit said, "Then drop us off on the cliff top."
Ryker nodded and hopped into the seat with a smile on his face.
When he sat down, he began laughing. "So… how do I fly this thing?"
The men both shuttered in fear. They couldn't help Ryker! Teaching him how to fly was not part of the arrangement!
"Uh…." One of the suited men said nervously with a sweating forehead.
"I can't help you with that. I guess you'll just have to think about—"
Boom!
The man's head exploded, covering the entire seating and storage area with blood.
"Well, I got my answer." Ryker laughed, "Should've chosen a more clever answer."
The other man's face filled with murderous rage at the teen's ambivalent attitude.
"You think this is funny, you fuck?" He asked in a dark voice, highlighting the ominous sight of his blood-drenched suit.
"Hmmm? Of course not!" Ryker snapped, "I have no way to clean this thing!"
The man's eyes trembled with anger, but he looked down at his coworker's body with a conflicted expression. He contained himself shortly after.
Ryker narrowed his eyes while watching him on the seating screen before him.
Satisfied he wouldn't get attacked, he initiated thought commands.
'Up, two hundred feet.' He began simply.
The ships smoothly moved upward to above the cliff and then continued rising another 150 feet, bewildering the man.
"So then… here's the thing." Ryker said with a malicious grin.
The man turned to him with trembling eyes.
"My request states that I'll drop you onto the clifftop. You can check the wording." The teen said with insanity flickering in his vibrant green eyes.
After Ryker's insight, the man immediately grabbed a seat to brace himself.
"W-Wait!" He stuttered.
"Hoh? I haven't done so yet, so aren't you going to let me finish?" Ryker mused.
"Y-Yes." The man replied with cold sweat dripping down his shoulder blades.
"Before I do, I have a question to ask." Ryker announced.
"N-No questions relating to favors. Please don't… sir." The man stuttered.
"No, don't worry. I just want to know if you'll blame me for that pilot being a fucking idiot and breaking rules that I didn't know existed?" Ryker growled with a vicious voice.
The man's eyes widened in shock. He hadn't considered the situation.
Naturally, the teen figured as much when he asked the man for directions. But technically, he had an excuse and didn't want to have problems with future members.
"N-No. I didn't think about that." The man stammered with trembling eyes hidden behind his glasses.
"I didn't think so. Did you also not consider that I rationally set things up this way to save my life, and that man's glorious sacrifice ensured we're both alive?"
"N-No, I didn't consider that either. I feel ashamed."
"I thought so." Ryker replied.
'Down to the clifftop on a safe location. Smoothly.' He ordered in his thoughts.
The ship glided to the ground gracefully. During its descent, Ryker addressed the man.
"Here's the thing. I'm insane; if I weren't, I wouldn't be a contestant in these games." He explained coldly.
"So I laugh at strange developments, but that doesn't make me unreasonable. So long as you don't find harmful loopholes while [technically] doing your job, I won't either."
The man breathed a sigh of relief. "Understood. Good day, Revenger."
He hopped out of the shuttle with a pounding heart.
"Bye~bye." Ryker chimed before flying off while laughing.
The man took a deep breath to control his emotions. The strange, terrifying teen left him twisted, but he couldn't force himself to hate him. It was aggravating!
The laugh Ryker released when his partner's head exploded was [genuine]. It was the true amusement and delight he showcased when the shuttle arrived.
There was no difference between the two. It was sociopathic ambivalence woven with madness.
However, any other sociopathic contestant would have killed him for releasing killing intent to ensure their lives weren't threatened.
Those were the people that [survived] revenge games.
But Ryker was reasonable, dropped the man off, and left with a genuinely bright attitude.
The teen showcased true, liberated madness.
The man wished, if only for a split second, he could live with that madness. That way, he could greet his neighbors in the safe zone instead of the trauma that awaited.
Ryker laughed as he watched the man's facial expressions. He had slowly left the area the man was walking and asked for close-up footage of his face.
Since it was camouflage and on autopilot, he didn't have a care in the world.
"Okay. Where was I? Oh, yes. I'm going to find those wolves." Ryker announced with a grin.
——
"And that, dear sister, how I obtained the strength to kill a man with a butter knife." Ryker laughed with a look of reminiscence flashing in his eyes.
He stared at the grey ceiling, crafted from the bark in the Cragov forest, with a smile on his face.
A serious glint abruptly flashed before Ryker's eyes, and his expression hardened.
"To address your closing, I will not kill you. On the contrary, I will protect you with my life.
To let you die for revenge would deny the revenge meaning. So rest assured, dear sister, your crazy brother will never kill you.
On purpose.
Right now, I'm risking my life to ease your concerns and request that you stop stalking me, as it's unnecessary.
So long as you can accept the monster I've become, I will not stay distant or cold. I'm currently undercover, but you may visit anytime you wish after orientation begins.
For now, keep your eyes closed and your lips sealed. Speaking about Scar's revenge or this encrypted communication will get us both killed.
So please do not court death for a problem that doesn't exist.
I await your arrival, dear sister. I can't wait until you see how delightfully twisted I have become.
Fear not. Once you see what Maxwell did to me, I'm certain we'll be partners in crime now, just as we have always been.
Love, your insane brother. Ryker Aiden Snow."
—
Reviewing message contents, please wait…
…
Authorized backstory, Scar's Revenge detected.
Content exceeds safety standards. However, the message preemptively addresses future leaks.
Message authorized.
Would you like to send it now? [Yes/No].
—
Ryker chuckled with a wry smile. "Yes."
He sighed after the notification went through and stood up from his bed.
"I wonder what she'll think when I tell her I plan to kill brother."
After saying those words, he chuckled once. Another chuckle followed. And then another.
Soon he was laughing uncontrollably again.
"I haven't felt emotions for a week and I've already forgotten how inconvenient they are." Ryker laughed, "I suppose I'll complain about it to her in person. She's only half a minute away."
The teen put on his mask and turned off the lights as he exited the room, shutting the door behind him.
A moment later, the hotel fell eerily silent as the laughter disappeared, escaping into the free air of Lexicon's nighttime sky.