It was deep into the night when Kenny was walking back from Layla's company. The stars were out and two silver moons shone in the sky. He was alone; Layla still being asleep on the bed. He only left now because most women had woken up.
After saying his goodbyes, he exited the Dildo Company's building, feeling pretty good about himself.
'Kate's probably going to kill Layla,' he thought to himself, smiling as he turned around a corner. Given how late he would be returning, he didn't doubt that Kate would have plenty of questions for him.
Of course, Kenny would simply tell the truth. He was just created a few days ago, after all. How could he hold up against the villainous trickery of Layla? He was innocent!
Kenny pulled out his phone for the first time in many hours. There were several missed calls, all of them from Kate. Sighing, he called her back.
"Where have you been? You were supposed to be back hours ago!" Kenny heard her shout. It was a good thing he held his phone out in front of him rather than to his ear.
"I'm sorry, I thought Layla told you," Kenny started. "I was at her company. She wanted to conduct in-person tests."
Kenny could just imagine Kate putting a hand to her forehead. A sigh escaped his phone's speaker. "I'm going to have a talk with her. Where is she right now?"
"She's asleep and probably will be for a while."
"Alright," Kate replied. "I'll see you soon then. Get back quickly."
Kenny smiled. "Yup, see y-" a white gag was placed around his mouth as he felt two arms grab him from behind.
His eyes opening in shock, Kenny dropped his phone, struggling to escape the grip of whoever was holding him. Even with the insane cumulative stats of over twenty women, he was unable to budge the arms that were holding him.
It was not that he was not strong enough, but that a spell of weakness had engulfed his body. It seemed like the gag was laced with some kind of drug.
As Kenny's vision faded to black, he could hear Kate's voice shouting his name from his phone. With his conscious fading, he could only hope for the best. It seemed that once again, the future was uncertain for him.
* * *
Within Sin Manor, yet another meeting was being held.
Gluttony was eating another piece of meat, this one the leg of a Grand Magma Bull. However, despite the fiery heat that the red and orange meat gave off, he bit into it without issue. The rotund man sat at the round table, listening unenthusiastically to the presenter.
The other six members show a large variety between levels of engagement as well. In summary, Envy was the only one of the seven who was paying attention. Same as always.
At this time, it was his attendant, Iris, who was reporting the results of their recent escapade.
"We have 903 suspects who registered with the association recently. 755 have been captured so far and of those, 400 have been released after confirming that their potential poses no threat."
"As for prime suspects," Iris continued. "There are a few. I will send everyone the information we have regarding them. For now, the interrogators are questioning every suspect personally and we should have those results within a few days."
The meeting shortly ended after that and the members of the Seven Sins left, each continuing about their day, unaware of the disaster they brought about themselves.
* * *
Kenny woke up and found himself strapped down in a metal chair. He tried moving his arms and legs but was unable to even budge them. He was stuck, so he decided to look around.
The room was brightly lit. Grey walls surrounded him on all sides, with the one opposing him having a solid metal door placed in its middle.
Besides the table and chair across from him of him, as well as a blinking camera in the corner behind him, the room was empty. There was nothing that gave him any inclination as to what was in store for him.
It didn't take long for the door to swing open.
A rather skinny man entered. With his eyes half open and dark circles around them, he portrayed a weak appearance that contradicted his sharp gaze. He wore a plain grey robe that clung tightly to his figure. A brown belt held it in place around his waist.
Looking at Kenny, the man sighed and sat in the chair opposing him. He reached into his robe and pulled out a tablet. Looking at the device, he asked, "Kenny Rott?"
Naturally, Kenny didn't respond, and the man sighed once again, scratching his stubble.
"Look, I just need to ask you a few questions. Please don't make this any more of a pain then it has to be. I've already had to deal with a few people like that," the end of his sentence, although his tone remained casual, had a subtle sharpness to it that Kenny recognized.
Hearing this, although Kenny didn't show anything on his face, he relaxed a little. If the man was screening many people, then there was a chance that whatever their goal was wasn't him. Of course, this didn't mean that he would just start telling whoever kidnapped him everything.
The most important thing was for his gift to stay hidden. Kenny could only hope that they didn't have a way of detecting it. Although, if they did, they probably already would have used it.
Thus, Kenny nodded his head, showing the man that he indeed was Kenny Stone. The man smiled at him briefly and turned back to his tablet.
"It's good that you want to cooperate. Now then, how old are you?"
"20."
And so the man continued to ask Kenny some basic questions. Covering things like height, his address, where he went to school. Many of which were on the Association's form he had filled out today, prompting him to believe that these people had access to it.
"Now then, this'll be the last one. I want you to tell me about your gift," the man said.
Kenny was silent at this, prompting the man to look at him seriously. "Please don't freeze up at the last question. I just need you to tell me its name and what it does. You don't even need to tell me the rank."
At this, Kenny looked hesitant. However, as if coming to terms with a difficult decision, he appeared to make up his mind.
"My gift is Stat Boost and the variation is 14. I get a temporary boost to my physical stats in critical situations."
The man nodded at this and typed something into his tablet. He then stood up and as he opened the door to leave, he looked to Kenny once more.
"Be prepared to stay here for a while." Saying so, the man closed the door behind him, leaving Kenny alone in the room. Although he was someone who looked on the bright side of things, there did not seem to be much of a bright side in this situation.
Although the man did not appear know what Kenny's ability was, based on the lack of reaction to Kenny telling him, he had no idea if things would stay this way. Given the questions he was asked, the people who kidnapped him certainly cared about it.
There were multiple reasons as for why Kenny told the man that his ability was that specific version of stat boost. For one, conditional abilities like those have higher boosts compared to others. If he was every put into a bad situation, he could explain his stats due to this and as he didn't have any mana-reliant abilities yet, he could say it only boosted physical stats.
Kenny knew three things so far.
First, whoever kidnapped him had a large degree of influence and/or power. They were willing to kidnap many people despite the obvious consequences. Also, they probably had access to the Association's database, given that they knew his name.
Second, they weren't targeting him specifically. He must have fallen under some kind of criteria that led to them targeting him. Kenny had a few ideas about what that criteria was, but he couldn't know for sure.
Third, it was highly likely they did not want his life. Going through the trouble of kidnapping and then questioning him afterwards showed that they had an interest in him for some reason.
Kenny could only sigh. Although he could remain calm, just thinking about the situation wouldn't help him in the slightest. However, he didn't believe he could do anything.
Kenny was well aware of his position. Among level one players, he probably was invincible. Even below level ten he doubted he had an opponent. However, after that threshold, one's gift would develop further and learn auxiliary abilities as well.
Thus, even though Kenny's stats were currently extremely high for his level, he didn't believe he could beat, for example, Layla in a one-on-one fight. Stats were important, but they could not make up a fundamental difference in abilities.
Not to mention, Kenny had no fighting experience.
He was in quite a tough spot. So, as always, Kenny decided to play a passive role. Waiting it out was always the best bet.