I stretched my arms and legs since they had gotten sore after sitting around for a long time.
'Should I? Na. Probably better if I don't kill him.'
I looked over at where Clinton was lying on the ground, unconscious. I took off his pants and replaced it with mine as mine was pretty torn up. To be honest, I didn't even touch him. The sight was too much for him. Although he was unconscious, he didn't go down quietly, quite literally. Before passing out, he managed let out a soul-shredding wail, leaving a chilling resonance that echoed deeply in that small room.
'Who knew this would actually work. I have no clue what I was even thinking. Ha..ha..AHAHAHAHA.'
I heard some footsteps hurrying from outside. They probably heard Clinton's scream. But I already finished setting everything up. I had gently put Clinton back on his chair and summoned my system.
===
Status
Name: Fin ???
Age: 19
Race: Human
Class: None
Rank: F-
Affiliation : ???
Characteristics: Insane, Narcissistic and attention-seeker
Tendency: Evil
Vigor: 100/110
Mana: 4/4
[Strength: 4]
[Agility: 5]
[Stamina: 4]
[Intelligence: 2]
[Defense: 4]
Active Skills:
Shit Decoy (Proficiency 0%) {Allows host to create shit quality decoys of himself. Duration: 1 hour ; Max Decoys: 2 ; Cooldown: 1 hour, Mana Cost: .5 per decoy}
Passive Skills:
Evil Tendency (Proficiency 0.56%) {Your mana takes on an evil form. All mana related attacks will be amplified. Attack power will continue to increase as your karma leans towards evil even more.}
Basic Mana Control (Proficiency 30%) {Allows you to manifest mana to a certain part of your body. Manifested mana will be infused with Evil Tendency.}
Traits: Insanity (Proficiency 1.23%) {If your actions are driven by insanity, all mana related attacks will be amplified.
Type: Seed Inheritance. Inheritors remaining: 680}
Ability: Basic Mana User {You can utilize mana and convert it into elemental forms such as fire, water and wind. Your control over your mana is extremely low.}
Condition: Healthy (Soul adjusting still in progress)
'Still full of bullshit huh? But it seems like my intense working out has somehow increased my strength by one. Nice. But I couldn't get it over 4 no matter how much I tried. I only lifted weights but didn't try running to improve agility because of my shitty stamina. Damn this body.'
But that's not why I summoned my system. Shit decoy. It was finally time to use it.
"Uhhh...damn...Activ..activateshitdecoy"
I tried my best to say it in the quietest voice possible. But this piece of shit system acted like it didn't even hear me. So I had to raise my voice a little more.
"ACTIVATESHITDECOY"
ding
'Fucking embarrassing'
[Active Skill, 'Shit Decoy' has been used for the first time]
[Shit Decoy (Proficiency 1%) {Allows host to create shit quality decoys of himself. Duration: 1 hour ; Max Decoys: 2 ; Cooldown: 1 hour ; Mana Cost: 5}]
[Host's current posture will be used as the decoy's posture]
[Please assign a verbal command to active the skill]
"Huh so I can set a verbal command."
[Verbal command has been selected as, "Huh so I can set a verbal command"]
"Wait no. That's not what I meant. Rename. RENAME."
[Once a skill activation command has been assigned, it can't be changed without destroying the skill]
"FUCK. This system's customer service is worse than Yfinity."
I took the pose that I had while I was tied to the pole and said,
"Huh so I can set a verbal command."
Suddenly, a hologram of me appeared out of nowhere and it was one of those games where you have to select a tile to place a building or structure. I placed it at the pole in a way so it looks genuine. I took a closer look at the hologram and realized why it was called Shit Decoys. My hologram looked as if someone made a 'these edibles ain't shit' version of me. It looked deformed and unrealistic but not too unrealistic if a person isn't within 1-2m radius. It still looked...human. I guess so people who have only seen me once or twice might fall for it but if it was someone who knew me for years, then they'd immediately figure out that it wasn't me. But in the situation I was in, it'd work perfectly. The door opened loudly and I hid behind the door.
"Clinton, what happened?"
"Shit looks like he passed out. Did he OD?"
"Check his pulse"
"Hmm..definitely alive, just passed out"
"Looks like we were worried for nothing. Hostage is safe too. I don't get why the boss still keeps this guy. He can't survive without his damn drugs."
"Well, I heard this guy is the boss's nephew or something. Well, let's head back."
"Shouldn't someone stay and watch the guy?"
"He's Kez Jolkev. There's no way that weakling can escape those ropes. Wait are you saying this cause you are about to lose?"
"H-Huh..w-what are you talking about? No way."
"Hahaha, you ain't escaping the bet. After you lose this game of chess, you are gonna owe me 200 AP."
"H-hah in your dreams. I'm definitely gonna win."
"Ya sure sure."
Bang
'Damn they are like actual NPCs. They even talk like NPCs.'
The two guys left after shutting the door, I came out from behind the door. I didn't know if I would win against a 2v1 in this body. I could fight 3 mildly trained people and still win with my old body since I had years of military training. Plus, he also taught me how to fight.
My face turned grim. My previous life was far from being pleasant. In fact, most of my memories were bitter. I didn't want to remember any of that anymore but it was impossible to escape the enormous influence he had on me.
'I wish I could just turn off my brain.'
I gave myself a gentle bump on my head and refocused. I needed to escape before they found out what happened to Jerome. There was still the possibility that he could come back. So I had to get out of here before that happened. Opening the door was easy because I stuck a small piece of wood in the lock that I tore off from Clinton's chair when those two NPCs came in. Since they were in a hurry, they only pressed the lock switch but didn't check if it was locked or not. It was an electric lock and the only way to open the door if it was locked was from the outside. So basically Clinton was stuck in this room. Even if he wakes up, he won't be able to get out. I opened the door and was greeted by a long hallway. There were 4 doors in this hallway. One was behind me and there was one right in front of me and two at the end of the hallway. From the sound of people talking, it seems like the NPCs were inside the far-end left door. The door in front of me looked unlocked so I decided to start with that. I opened the door and went inside. Truth be told, out of all the things I expected to find, this was not one of them.
There were crates, filled with some kind of powder. The power looked...a bit suspicious...
'The hell? Is this cocain- wait the texture doesn't seem to match. Let me catch a quick taste.'
I opened the crate and grabbed a handful of the powder quickly. I felt as if I was holding some kind of rare treasure. Life felt peaceful. Everything was fine. Living in solitarily in a foreign country for the last couple of years had messed me up pretty badly.
'This taste pretty awesome. Addictive but definitely not any kind of drug...what is this?'
[ Beep! Product identified! ]
[ Sugar, Unknown amino acids, artificial flavors and 4 unknown substances. An efficient source of protein for human body. Can promote muscle growth and temporarily increase mana capacity by unknown amount. ]
'What? So it's basically creatine?'
I looked around the room and was surprised to see 24 more cases of creatines. This amount would last for at least 5-6 months!
These last few days, I was researching the prices, quality and the companies that sell creatine. The low-quality creatine cases usually cost about 500k-1m AP, while the high-quality ones range from 10m-100m AP. Why are they so expensive? Because they can reduce the amount of training you need to reach next rank. Also, the main ingredient in the creatine is a special rare kind of herb you can only find in dungeons. Technically even if all of these cases are of low-quality, the amount in front of me would still be worth at least 12m AP!!! But the problem is...
'I am having a hard time believing that my kidnappers would have enough capital to invest in this amount of creatine, even if they are of low quality. Is this some kind of fraud business where they sell this fake stuff and pretend it's real? Unless these guys robbed a bank, it's impossible for them to gather that amount of money. Interestingly, the systems AI can't tell the difference here. So, there are some kinds of limitations to the AI.'
I thought about it for a while and soon my lips created a wide arc.
'If-if only I can somehow take over this business, this can be the entry to starting my underground business. Jerome seemed to be the leader and the rest of them were just sheep. I wonder if those other two NPCs can be manipulated just like Clinton. I should try something. But not until I get enough information on how their business works. Shit that Trop thing is coming up soon. Also, I need more information like if Jerome is actually their boss or is there someone backing Jerome? With Jerome dead, it'd be easy to find whether they have a backer or not. I can follow Hanson Wellings tactics after I find the backer. Heh heh, I should head home for now.'
I left the room and came back to the hallway and looked inside the other room to find an exit. Other rooms contained some basic plumbing supplies. It left me amused but I didn't spend too much time pondering on it. After a while, I reached the door at the end of the hallway and found the exit. Unfortunately, it was in the room with the two NPCs.
'Should I fight or try to sneak out? I don't know if the door is locked or not. From the looks of it, there isn't anyone else in this warehouse. Maybe an ambush would be a good idea. As long as it's a 1v1, I'm confident in my skills.'
I went back to the room I was previously in and found a crowbar and a wire camera used for pipe cleaning. A screen was attached to the end of the wire where I could see a visual feed of my room. It was blurry but I could use this to make out a basic outline of the room and where the NPC seated in the room. I grabbed both of them and entered the hallway again, arriving outside the exit room.
'Heh feels like I'm back to the old days. Heh heh.'
I quickly set the camera and pulled the screen over my eyes. It was a rectangular room with a tv on the wall adjacent to the door. The two guards were sitting a sofa facing the tv and it was perpendicular to the door so basically if I happened to just walk in or even peek from the door, they would definitely see me. There was a chessboard on the table along with some apples and a knife.
'Well at least they aren't fully facing the door. What should I do? Throw the crowbar and pray it hits? That's too unreliable. Besides, I don't know if I can throw it hard enough with this body. Lure them here and hide inside a room? Doesn't seem like a bad idea. They'd definitely try to check up on Clinton first when they enter the hallway and don't see anyone. I should then enter the room diagonal to Clinton's room.'
I went back to the plumbing room and picked up some glass bottles. I went back to Clinton's room and placed the bottle on the arm-rest of the chair. Clinton was passed out in the chair and if he moves or wakes up then the bottle will fall. I also made another shit decoy of myself and placed it where I was tied to. I went back to the plumbing room and waited there. After 5 to 10 mins, I heard the sound of the glass bottle break. Followed by two pairs of footsteps hurriedly running towards that door. I heard them opening the door to Clinton's room and going in.
'I hope the exit door isn't locked. But knowing my luck, it's probably locked. My luck has never been good. But first...'
I got out of the plumbing room and quietly headed towards Clinton's room. I could hear the two NPC's confused voices inside.
"Huh ? How did this bottle break?"
"W-was this guy sleep drinking? Why did the boss hire this maniac?"
I quietly grabbed the door handle and...
Bang