Paranoia! 5 A Step Further

He was still dizzy, his body a bit numb, but overall nothing major, and he was glad for that.

The room he was in was dark, but thanks to the moonlight and other various sources of electricity coming in from the window, permitted him to have a clear view of his surroundings.

He instantly recognized this place as his bedroom.

As for how did he get here? He didn't know, but he was pretty sure that Opak sent him there.

Whatever...

He grunted in enjoyment as his body relaxed in the soft mattress, and coupled with the cool breeze that was like the gentle hand of a woman caressing his face, he felt in heaven.

He let a small smile adorn his handsome face.

When he finally regained some motor capacity, he lifted his upper body. He wanted to rest for a bit more, however, that notification of his body being consumed by his mana wasn't funny.

It was a bad situation, he knew that. But he couldn't help but feel a bit excited at his gains.

All those notifications...

"Status." He said.

[ Name: Jered von Jacobs ]

[ Age: 16 ]

[ Race: Human ]

[ Cla.s.s ] [ ? ]

[ t.i.tle ] [ Shadows' Contractor ]

[ Strenght ] [ 10 ]

[ Dexterity ] [ 10 ]

[ Vitality ] [ 11 ]

[ Endurance ] [ 11 ]

[ Intelligence ] [ 17 ]

[ Mana ] [ 20 ]

[ Appearance ] [ 19 ]

[ Attribute Points ] [ 5 ] [ System Points ] [ 120 ]

[ Shop ] [ Skills ] [ Quests ]

Well... there sure is a big change.

He looked at his stats, pleased that at least they were average while most of them were above. Not counting that he still had 5 points to use.

While he knew the value of these points and the changes that they'd bring, he couldn't be sure that that theory would work for all of his stats. It was definitely something to test though.

He then tapped the 'Shop' option on his screen, as a new one appeared.

[ Sword Arts ] [ Potions ]

[ Magic Arts ] [ Items ]

[ Body Arts ] [ Spells ]

Taking a quick glance at the clock hung on the wall, he knew that it was better not to waste time exploring his shop, so he quickly clicked on 'Magic Arts'.

However...

[ Alert: You need to unlock the 'Magician' cla.s.s to use this section of the 'Shop'. ]

Yeah, what did expect?

He sighed in frustration. Everything depended on the cla.s.s, so he quickly excluded trying 'Sword Arts' and 'Spells'.

He tried 'Body Arts', and thankfully...

[ Low-level ]

[ Mid-level ]

[ High-level ]

[ ?? ]

[ ?? ]

[ ?? ]

[ ?? ]

[ ?? ]

His eyes slightly widened at the question marks. Was he too weak to view them? Did he need to meet some sort of requirement to unlock them? Nevermind, it wasn't time to figure it out, he'd think about it later.

So he went for 'Low-level'.

The screen that appeared showed a good number of skills, each with varying prices. Some ranged from 20 to 100 and others from 100 to 300.

Obviously the higher the price the better the skill.

With only 120 System Points, he couldn't afford much. Nonetheless, there were a few good stuff he could buy.

He settled on 2 in particular.

[ Low-level ] [ Bodybuilding ]

[ 3x times the speed of a normal work out session with half the effort. ]

[ Price: 20 SP ]

[ Buy Cancel ]

[ Low-level ] [ Martial Arts ]

[ Hand-to-hand combat for newbies. It'll be useless against experts. ]

[ Price: 80 SP ]

[ Buy Cancel ]

They were not the best, but as of now, they'd still be useful. Moreover, he was particularly intrigued by the bodybuilding skill, he wondered if he could raise his stats if he started working out.

He pressed 'Buy'.

[ Alert: You have bought the skill 'Low-level Bodybuilding' ]

[ Alert: You have bought the skill 'Low-level Martial Arts' ]

Information flowed into his brain, allowing him to access to memories that weren't his. He felt his body stiffening as his muscles reacted to the skill that was imparting its knowledge to him.

He entered a semi-conscious state as his muscles trembled and twitched at an unG.o.dly rate. He sat down, clenching tightly his bedsheets, his breath quickening.

Movements of punches and kicks executed fluidly flashed before his eyes, showing him how to perform the skill he just bought.

He squeezed his eyes, digesting the information that pervaded his head, and still slightly dazed, tried to stand up.

Staggering, he reached for the door and left the room.

The house was dark, sign the n.o.body was home. Still not being able to walk normally he leaned on the wall to support himself as he headed towards the bathroom.

Once there he turned the light on and approached the mirror, putting both his hands on the cold washbasin, opened the tap, and let the pleasant touch of the water splash on his face, washing away a bit of his tiredness.

Looking up, he noticed his reflection in the mirror and just smiled bitterly. That point added to his appearance wasn't worth anything, however, thanks to his already enhanced looks it still caused a little alteration.

Well, the situation wasn't that good, to begin with. But if that kept on going then the difference between 'him' prior the change and the 'him' after, would become so vastly big that even upping his intelligence to 100 wouldn't help him find a solution.

How troublesome.

He sighed, knowing that it'd be really difficult find an excuse to get out of the problem without too many questions.

Taking one last look at his tired face he went back to his room.

Laying down on his bed, he decided to allocate his points.

He couldn't be stingy with his points, after all, life was a road of uncertainty, it was better not push his luck too much.

Therefore he put 2 points in 'Strength', 2 in 'Dexterity' and 1 in 'Endurance', thus initiating a painful process that sent shocks through his body, making him convulse and spasm.

Thanks to his repeated experience with the pain, it was more bearable.

After a few minutes, he was left panting and with cloudy eyes.

"d.a.m.n..." He muttered in nuisance.

He steadily stood up, the pain slowly disappearing. He clenched his fists, feeling the power behind them. It wasn't anything earth-shaking, obviously, but it was still more than he had before.

He stepped forward and looked mildly surprised at his legs, they felt lighter. It was like walking with a few kilos worth of weight attached to his legs for all of his life and suddenly remove them.

Really... it was an amazing feeling.

Now though, he had to go somewhere.

He opened his wardrobe and put a black hoodie on, grey pants and black sneakers. It was a simple yet manageable outfit.

Especially for what he was about to do...

...

Walking in the streets with his hood on, Jered kept wondering to himself what were the conditions to trigger a quest.

His last one, with the old lady, involved the lost cat. It was interesting to notice that even after he found out about it, the quest didn't pop up until the woman asked him his help.

So does this mean that the system works on a necessity expressed in voice like the old lady did?

However, his first quest refused that theory altogether. He didn't even saw his mother that day, let alone heard her asking him something, so how could have the system gave him a quest without a catalyst?

Was it because of him?

He rubbed his chin, thinking of a plausible explanation.

There was definitely something the system was based on to provide him the correlated quest.

It was tricky, that's why he decided to verify it in person, aside from saving his a.s.s.

.

.

.

He heard loud music coming from the building he was heading towards, while people were crowding around it, either smoking or chatting.

It was a nightclub called 'The Fairy', and it was famous for its lack of rigidity. Everyone could enter as long as they weren't too young, and in time it practically became a place filled with underages.

He made his way past the mob and arrived at the entrance.

"h.e.l.lo. Are you old enough?" A blonde-haired man in a suit asked.

It was just a routine question, he really didn't care if the young man in front of him was really old enough to enter.

"Yes." He nodded while taking his hood off.

The blonde man's eyes slightly widened at his very handsome looks, but hid his surprise rather quickly and nodded, letting him enter.

"Have fun." He smiled from behind.

...

Once inside he noted a large number of people were sensually dancing with a partner or alone on the dancefloor, while a few ones were sitting at the shiny counter, drinking and flirting with the beautiful barmaid.

He cast a glance towards the luxurious couches, finding that they were almost empty aside from some lonely dude that failed their hunt.

He walked to one of them and sat down.

His main objective was to get a quest, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't also there for a bit of fun. He had around 2 days, even less since he lost a lot of that time by sleeping, so it was better to get hurry and complete them as fast as possible.

And so he waited or so was his main focus if someone didn't interrupt him.

"Well, what do we have here? Aren't you a bit too handsome to be sitting alone?" A brown-haired beautiful girl said in a sweet voice, taking a place next to him.

She was really pretty, he could admit that. Her long brown hair tumbled over her shoulders, ending at her back, she had fair and glossy skin with no signs of blemishes, her eyelashes were velvety and accentuated her crystal-like blue eyes, and coupled with her hourgla.s.s-shaped body made her entirety stand out even more.

There was no doubt about it, she was a bombsh.e.l.l of a woman.

He spared a second glance at her, this time looking carefully. She was sticking her body at him in a flirtatious way showing her ample chest, but her pupils weren't dilatated, so she wasn't interested in him in a s.e.xual way. Her smile seemed a bit forced while her eyes were continuously going over to another spot. Her legs were crossed and aimed in his opposite direction.

Yeah, she wasn't interested in him. Of this he was sure.

If so then what was she doing?

He caught her eyes momentarily shifting, looking somewhere else, before looking back at him again.

This time he saw what was the cause of her nervousness, it was a man.

He was pretty average in his opinion, at least he didn't see anything to make him stick out. However, what he noted that caught his interest was that he was looking at him angrily, hostility clear in his eyes.

Mhh... maybe...

Jered looked back at the beauty next to him and smiled.

"Would you be so kind to tell me what's going on?" He asked curiously.

"Uhh?" She was confused.

"Oh, come on. You clearly don't want to be here, don't fool me. I can see you're nervous, and that man over there didn't stop throwing me malicious looks. Is he the cause of your anxiety?" He explained confidently.

She stared at him, a bit stunned, before looking down, a restless look in her eyes. But nodded nonetheless.

"Mhh.. is he threatening you?" He asked.

Again, she nodded.

"Gun?"

"Yes..." She whispered scared.

"What did you tell him?" He asked, a plan forming in his mind.

"I... I told him that... you were my boyfriend. But..." She averted her gaze.

"But?" He pressed.

"He told me to dump you and go with him... otherwise..." It was obvious she was getting anxious.

"He'd harm you?" He narrowed his eyes.

"Mhh." She nodded in confirmation.

This was dangerous. He doubted the man would shoot at anyone with this many people, but once she left he might stalk her and...

He looked at her.

"Are you here alone or did you come with your friends?"

"I came with my friends... they're somewhere dancing." She said, slightly afraid her friends would get involved, or worse, get injured.

Mmh... to avoid any problem I should lead him outside and...

"Look... I... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to cause you an-" She started.

"Do you want me to help you?" He asked, interrupting her.

"E-excuse me?" She might have heard wrong, there was no way he would offer himself up to help her despite the risks.

"I said: Do you want me to help you?" He repeated, a small smile on his face.

She was flabbergasted as tears almost started to well up in her eyes.

Was he? Was he really? Was he really going to help her!?

It was supposed to be a fun night for her and her friends, while they might have come to check out on handsome boys, she was there just for a good dance, and who knows, maybe a bit of romance if there was anyone who would've caught her eyes.

But once she left the toilette someone pointed an object she recognized as a gun at her back, forcing her to follow him. It was only when she saw a good-looking man calmly sitting on the couch that she had an idea... and well, the rest is history.

She felt very bad for dragging him in that situation but also felt very shocked at his observation skills. She had to admit that. It took him only a few seconds to figure out what was going on and through the entire conversation, he didn't even falter.

Maybe he could really help her...

"P-please... help me.." She said nervously, fearing that he might draw back and leave her to her fate.

[ Quest received! ]

[ t.i.tle: A Damsel in Distress ]

[ Description: Have you ever dreamed to be a hero? If so then unsheathe your sword and deal with the enemy. ]

[ Reward: 7 Attribute points 180 System points. ]

[ Time-limit: Your defeat. ]

[ Accept Decline ]

Here it is...

He tapped 'Accept' and the screen disappeared.

"Mhh... come with me." He suddenly said as he got up.

She looked at him and nodded.

Jered approached the man at a steady pace while looking at his hands. He saw his left hand brush against his left pocket.

So he put the gun in his left pocket?

He couldn't be sure yet.

"I saw you looking at us for quite a while now, are you interested in my girlfriend or are you interested in me?" He said with a smirk while putting his arm around her shoulder, bringing her closer to his body.

She felt a small blush creep its way on her face at the contact.

"I want her. I hope you'll make this easy for me and stay out." He replied calmly while touching the protruding tent in his pocket.

"Ohh, did I perhaps turn you on?" He grinned.

The man started to get angry, the kid in front of him was getting too c.o.c.ky for his taste. Did he want to play the part of the hero to show off in front of her? Did he not believe that he was not playing?

"So you won't back off?" He asked narrowing his eyes.

"I'm afraid not." Jered just smiled.

"I see... well, we're both men here, why don't we take this outside?" He proposed, an evil glint in his eyes.

"That's really a good idea... so, won't your friends over there come as well?" He asked tentatively.

"What are you talking about? What friends?" He asked, evidently confused.

"Nothing, don't mind it." He waved it off, faking innocence.

Well, that's good, he's alone... I won't have to worry about any possible addition to the conflict.

"Let's go." The man said, taking his gun out and motioning at them to go out.

"Um." Jered nodded and headed towards the exit.

The girl was following them, nibbling on her lip worriedly.

It was a tight situation, they didn't know that he'd do should they refuse, but it was obvious that it was better to deal with it head-on. They couldn't even call the police or warn the bouncers as the man had been looking at them all the time.

She just hoped that her 'fake-boyfriend' wouldn't get hurt or else she would feel really guilty.

...

Once outside the man led them to an isolated place, not too far away from the nightclub but not nearby either.

He pointed his gun at Jered's face while the woman yelped in fright.

"Well, what will you do now, little hero?" He asked tauntingly.

Jered just looked at his interlocutor's face before an idea crossed his head.

"You see, my friend. I'd like to show you a magic trick." He stated as he put his right hand inside his hoodie's pocket.

"Stop!" The man shouted, suspicious at what this kid was trying to pull off.

The brunette that was a few feet away from them also looked at him puzzled.

"Don't worry, buddy. Look, it's just a coin." He smiled while showing the content on his hand, and it was indeed a penny.

The man lowered his guard but still kept the gun aimed at him.

"Here, let me show how with this worthless penny I'll make your gun mysteriously vanish." He said flailing his arms for dramatic effect.

The man was still suspicious but couldn't really see how he'd make that happen.

Was he bluffing?

Jered held the coin between his index and middle finger, lifting it up so that the man's eyes were locked on the penny.

Easy... this guy is totally stupid.

He smiled, throwing the coin up in the air and moving as fast as possible.

The man followed the coin with his gaze wondering what he was up to when...

"Aaghh!" He screamed in pain.

His pistol dropped on the ground, near the now sh.e.l.l-shocked brunette beauty.

He held his left hand that was beginning to swell and looked maliciously at Jered.

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You tricked me!!" He bellowed in fury as saliva spurt out of his mouth.

"Haven't I told ya it was a magic trick?" He replied smugly.

Seriously... this man.

When they got out he never took distance from him, probably not confident in his accuracy. They were only a meter and half apart from each other, so exploiting his light distraction he swifty kicked his hand.

He could say that he was lucky that his opponent was slow-witted and had no experience in the field whatsoever.

The man, still grunting in pain tried for the last stand by sprinting towards the gun on the ground, however, Jered antic.i.p.ated him and punched him in the face making a bit of blood splatter on the asphalt.

It was an instant knock-out.

He suddenly felt his face heat up from the excitement. He couldn't describe the sensation but he felt immense satisfaction by hurting him...

I mean... look at the blood on the floor, wouldn't it be more beautiful if there was more?

He smiled...

It felt... amazing.

Maybe he could punch him again? Just a little more...

It was like he was in a trance as he started walking towards his defeated opponent, a small grin etched on his face.

There he was...

He sat down on him, looking at his face that begged him to draw more blood...

Just a bit...

He lifted his fist, ready to...

"Hey...are you ok?" A feminine voice suddenly came from behind him.

He turned his head around and saw her looking at him with a bit of fear.

"Wh-what are you d-doing? I-isn't he already unconscious?" She asked, trembling a little.

He looked at her confusedly before realizing what was happening.

Oh G.o.d...

What was he doing?

He hastily got up, a look of disgust on his face.

Was he about to?

No...

He felt nauseous just at the thought.

He breathed, trying to calm himself down, it wasn't time for this.

Looking up he noted a hovering rectangular-shaped screen that he seemed to have ignored.

It said:

[ Quest: A Damsel in Distress. Completed! ]

[ Your actions have proved to be worthy of a hero, your name shall be engraved in her heart till the sun dies. ]

[ Reward: 7 Attribute points 180 System points. ]

He inwardly smiled, there was only one quest left.

Dusting himself he looked at his watch and winced. It was already past midnight.

Oh s.h.i.t!

He glanced at the woman and quickly said.

"I gotta go, you should call the police and tell them everything."

"W-wait!" She stopped him.

"Mmh..?" He looked at her.

"W-what's your name?" She asked, still trembling.

"I'm Jered, nice to meet you." He smiled, relaxing her a little.

"I'm Natalie." She introduced herself.

He nodded while walking away, his shape slowly becoming a foggy blur in the shadows...

Jered, huh? She thought.

Her heart fluttered thinking about him.

It definitely scared her when he wanted to keep hurting the man, however...

She couldn't deny it. He was amazing. The way he quickly noticed she was in trouble showed how smart he was, moreover, he bravely stepped forward and faced a man armed with a gun, and using his quick-wittedness and physical power defeated him.

The fact he was very handsome was a plus she didn't mind.

What a guy...

She wanted to see him again...