"A-are these m-my eyes?" As John witnessed the reflection formed in the puddle, he could not help question himself.
Contrary to the usual pitch black colored eyes that he had always had, their current appearance bore little to no resemblance.
Although his current irises were the same color, they now exuded a bright crimson light making it seem as if his eyes were on fire.
As he raised his left hand with the intention of touching his eyes the light seemed to slow down the approaching hand.
"What the hell is going on?"
When pushing his hand closer to his eyes and deeper into the crimson light, a heavy feeling similar to what one would experience whilst digging through mud by hand appeared.
After experiencing the heavy felling caused by the crimson light and pondering over it for a bit, a sudden realization hit John.
'Ohhh, this is probably the reason why the old man got stunned. But what caused it to appear?'
Since he had previously confirmed that there were no witnesses in the vicinity there shouldn't be any immediate danger, which gave him some time to deduce the reason for his eyes' transformation.
'It is certain that the transformation must have begun the moment the old man froze, but what caused it? It also can't be a coincidence that it occurred during a deadly confrontation... which means it is probably related to death, judging by the timing and the evil feeling the light gives off.'
'Although the old man threatened me with a dagger, he didn't seem to have any intention of killing....'
"OOOOOHH"
'Even though he didn't seem intent on killing, the same can't be said for me because as soon as I saw the knife I truly wanted to kill him even though I could have let him go.'
'BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!*
As soon as he finished his internal deduction, an explosion seemed to go off in his mind, accompanied by a surge of information that notified him that he had comprehended something called an 'Innate ability'.
[Innate ability 'Tangible Killing Intent' comprehended]
[Tangible Killing Intent: The ability to make your killing intent tangible and allows the user to create weapons from pure killing intent]
[Note: Killing intent can be increased and strengthened by killing others or by experiencing ????? yourself]
[Warning, Warning, Warning....]
[User has comprehended a ??????-rank Innate Ability 19 years before the start of ?????]
[Notifying admin Nr:69....]
"W-w-hat is g-going on, and w-hat am I seeing?"
[Contact with admin Nr:69 has successfully been established]
[Executing orders received from admin Nr:69]
[The user known as 'John Maxwell (19)' will be forcibly terminated in approximately 2 hours and 37 minutes]
"T-t-erminated?" Stuttering at the sight of the unbelievable words that floated in his vision, a looming dread overcame John as he comprehended the latest set of floating letters.
"Terminated definitely means killed... which means I only have 2 hours and 37, no 36 minutes to live."
'What can I even do with less than 3 hours remaning of life, I can't even get a good last meal since I'm broke...'
*sigh*
Sighing laudably once again due to the terrible circumstances that seemed to constantly follow him around, a deep melancholic disappointment overtook John as he couldn't even muster up any anger towards the entity knowns as "Admin Nr:69".
"If only I had enough time to at least kill those fucking bastards... Huh? Time, yes, time."
'The buss takes roughly 1 hour and 21 minutes to reach the stop closest to my former "home", and since the central buss station is nearby my current location I should make it in time before the next departing buss.'
'If all goes according to plan, I should have about an hour to kill and hopefully torture those despicable, disgusting fucking pests.'
Having decided that revenge would be his last meal, the crimson light in eyes flared up and expanded in size before withdrawing into the depths of his eyes, hiding underneath the cold and tranquil expression that now marred his face.
---
[2 hours and 34 minutes until termination]
'I can't afford to stand here and contemplate anymore.' Turning towards the corpse once again, John bent down and rummaged through the various pockets scattered over the now scarlet colored clothes
'$2 and 89 cents, a pack of cigaretts, a lighter, a candy bar and the sheath of the dagger. Although it isn't a lot, it's enough to get me to Santa Monica.'
After the quick looting session, he turned his face to the nearby puddle one last time to do a quick inspection, making sure that he wasn't covered in blood which would alert the authorities before he could exert his revenge.
'Okay... hands, clothes and face are all free from blood splatter. Seems like I am good to go.'
Confirming that he wasn't covered in anything that would attract suspicion, John began walking towards the central bus station.
"Wait..."
Stopping abruptly after just 5 steps, John once again turned his face towards the puddle as he noticed that the crimson light was gone from his eyes.
'I should probably somewhat learn how to control this ability before entering any public spaces. Especially since it might cause mayhem and result in me being mistaken for a monster and get shot to death.'
'Staying here for a few more minutes will also not be problem since I can run to the station instead'.
Although John wasn't overconfident and thought he could master his own killing intent in a few minutes, he should still be able to make some progress that would at least prevent him from having sudden outbursts.
After focusing his gaze on the eyes reflected in the puddle to monitor his progress, a few different ideas on how to release his killing intent instinctively appeared in John's mind.
"hmmm... it seems like there is a some sort of unknown spiritual passage that connects the part of my mind that controls emotions and my eyes which convey those emotions."
Closing his eyes to increase his concentration, a map of his spiritual veins and pathways was miraculously formed which further guided John.
Although he didn't know how or why he could visualize his body's entire spiritual vein system, he did not complain as it helped tremendously with finding the exact pathway that he was looking for.
"Since this passage enables me to convey emotions through my eyes, manually blocking it should result in 'Tangible Killing Intent' not being released without my permission."
"Now I just need to test it and I should be....
*DING!*
[Mastery of innate ability 'Tangible Killing Intent' has been upgraded to...]