Chereads / Astral Merchant / Chapter 45 - Faceless

Chapter 45 - Faceless

Larcen glanced at the number below the Skill Chest which showed 64/100 and turned his attention back to the skill he just received from opening the Chest a few seconds ago.

Active Skill:

Stone Skin: Hardens the skin. Effective against blades, vulnerable to blunt weapons.

He equipped it in his status and used it directly to check why it was classified in the Active skill category when worked better as a passive skill. 

His skin turned hard like it was said in the description but he had to put in the actual effort to maintain it as he had to give it attention. Once he lost focus, his skin would become normal. He tried it multiple times and he liked the skill as it was very versatile even with its drawbacks. 

Only a part of his arm hardened up and became normal while the same thing happened with his legs the next second. He continued the process for a few minutes before deciding to stop and sighed. 

'I need to use my flow state to use this skill efficiently and it needs a lot of practice to be of practical use in battle. With guns in the equation, this skill loses value though. I'll keep it with me for now and think about it later.'

The others were already on their way to the mall as Larcen had asked them to simply go back, telling them that he had things he had to do but now that he was done with his skill gambling, he took out one Jerrycan of gasoline and filled up the tank of his bike before emptying the rest of the contents of the can. 

Once he was done with that, he took out a few Napalm Molotovs and took off their caps before pouring the gluey liquid into the jerrycan. It took him a few minutes to do fill it up and once that was done, he scanned it.

Then he opened the lid and poured the contents onto the road and took out another jerrycan of gasoline and did the same a few meters away from the napalm. With both the flammable liquids out, he took a few steps back and lit two of the fire sticks before tossing them onto the napalm and gasoline he had spilled on the road. 

Seconds slowly passed as he stared at the flames, counting seconds while he did so. 

"One minute for the gasoline and double for napalm while gasoline releases less black smoke... who cares about smoke when the world is getting destroyed.", he muttered to himself as he walked back to his bike.

'Last thing to do for the day.... talk to Anna about the bunker and go there.', he thought as he started the bike and drove towards the mall. 

******

Larcen sat on the bed with Anna facing him. She had a very disapproving look on her face but he had made up his mind to check the guy out. 

"I need to go there. There are so many problems that are connected to the bunker and I just cannot ignore them."

Anna shook her head for the N'th time in annoyance, "Why are you trying to solve others' problems? There is no point in doing it, you know?"

Larcen sighed and decided to be a little bit more truthful about it.

"Well, there are other reasons along with benefits. These are just additional outcomes and such. Larcen needs more weapons, stronger weapons and ammo. The bunker guy seems to have quite a lot of weapons so if I go there and manage to send those weapons to Larcen safely, I will make a lot of profit in the long term."

Anna stared at him for a whole minute before letting out a long sigh like how Larcen normally did.

"Okay but promise me that you will not do something risky."

Larcen thought about it for a second and nodded before standing up. 

"I'll see you soon then."

Anna nodded, "Yeah, come back safe."

Once Larcen was out of the room, she let out a long sigh again. 

'This Jack... he didn't even give me a goodbye hug or kiss. Oh well, he probably has other things in mind right now to even care about these so I guess I should just hope that he returns safe.'

Outside, Larcen was already hurrying downstairs and walked towards the entrance while giving Chrona and Betty an affirmative nod. He ignored his bike and slowly jogged towards the direction of the bunker and sure enough, he could see it after a few minutes. 

It looked like it was made with metal but he did not know which. He could tell that it was an underground bunker as there was very little that was exposed to the outside world. There was a metallic Hatch frame Door that seemed to open upwards. 

There were no latches but there was a handle that he could use to pull the door open. He gripped the handle tightly and pulled, only to see that it didn't bulge. 

'Must be locked.'

He banged on the door multiple times and waited, only to see the door open by a few centimeters. A pair of eyes stared up at him while Larcen stared down.

"What do you want?", asked the guy inside and Larcen gave him the answer he had already thought up.

"I heard that you have good food and shelter so I came here to ask if you can let me live with you."

"One SP every day. That's the rent.", he said and Larcen nodded.

"I have enough for a few days."

"Payment upfront.", the guy said and Larcen crouched down to let the man make contact. Once that was done, he directly paid him 2 SP and waited for the guy to open the door, which he did and silently climbed down.

Larcen followed and put the latch on from the inside while doing so. He climbed down and saw a large metallic door. The man walked up to a scanner and stood in front of it, letting it scan his eye balls while Larcen took the chance to check the man's stats and information. 

{

Name: Subject 2071

Race: Human

System Points: 3

Stats:

Strength: 0.6

Stamina: 0.5

Agility: 0.5

Mana: 0

Talents: 

None

Active skills: 

Faceless: Ability to change facial features as the user wishes. (No Cost)

Passive Skills:

Sun's Child: User receives a 10% resilience and stat buff when the sun is up.

}

It was only after he walked into the main hall of the bunker did he get a good look at the guy's face.

'Jack's face?', he thought but stopped himself from giving out a proper reaction and the next second he heard a feminine voice from the other side of the room.

"Dad, who is this new guy?"

'Dad?!'