In quite some pain, Vernon looked towards his attacker and quickly recognized him as one of the people who were with the gangster lord.
It was a bulky man, with more muscle than clothes to cover him. He was wearing a black hat, he had long blonde hair and was dressed in a khaki shirt and shorts. Vernon also spotted a small object near his waist, suspecting it to be a ranged weapon.
The man wore an evil grin as he looked at Vernon, flexing his fist, and bicep, which clearly looked as if it had enough power to smash steel.
“Hmm, finally caught you boy. Boss wants that item and you should know better than to antagonize that man. So, speak. Where's the box?!”
Still in pain, Vernon opened his mouth and softly spoke.
“I don't know what you're talking about. I was just passing by and heard someone talking about gangsters. I got scared and ran.”
The man looked at Vernon, his grin widening.
“I expected you would say something like that. Tell me boy, if you were innocent, why'd you run and don't tell me you got scared of someone talking about gangsters. I checked the alley. No one other than you and the gang were there. So, speak! Where is the box?!”
'Damn, he's not as much of a musclehead as I suspected him to be.'
“I really don't know about the box. I'm new to the city and got lost in the area. You aren't gonna get anything from killing someone like me. Let me go.”
The man looked at Vernon for a minute, before he laughed.
“Haha! Got lost! Seriously! Well, even if you don't know about the box, the boss wants you dead. If the person who took the box hears about your death, maybe he'll come out. So bye kid.”
Saying so, the man stretched his arm and got ready to attack him.
Vernon forced his still paining body to dodge to the side, just as the man moved, barely avoiding the punch. And he was grateful he did.
The punch destroyed the entire concrete he was previously standing on and the man's face was more of annoyance rather than pain.
As the man got over him smashing the concrete rather than his target, Vernon forced his body to back away, crawling backwards till he hit the buildings.
The man looked towards Vernon, another grin forming on his face. He seemed rather happy Vernon was struggling rather than accepting death.
“Heh! Kid, you've got guts moving away from me, I'll tell you that much. Prey that runs is better than a accepting one, but only once. Now, time to die.”
As the man took his arm backwards, Vernon threw himself sidewards immediately, his senses warning him of danger.
Immediately afterwards, a booming sound rang out as the wall of the building next to him collapsed, the man punching so fast, that it seemed he had teleported.
The power of the fist was nothing to describe, going beyond human capabilities.
As the smoke cleared, Vernon saw the man looking towards him with a frowning face.
“Stop dodging kid. It was fun when you did it the first time, but not nice when you do it again.”
He once again he did the same movements, though he seemed a little slower this time and Vernon dodged sideways again, this time to the right, entering the building whose wall had collapsed.
Another booming sound rang out as the sidewalk around the area of the attack had turned into powder.
As the man got up, Vernon could clearly see some exhaustion on his face. He looked around, noticing that the building he was in looked ready to collapse. Though he doubted that even if it collapsed on the man's body, anything would happen, it was his best plan.
Vernon, slowly shuffled towards the other wall, ready to escape should the building collapse.
As he reached the right wall of the building, the smoke finally cleared and Vernon heard the man speak, before he dodged back outside the building.
“I'm not holding back anymore kid.”
The man smashed straight into the right wall, the building collapsing on him as the foundations crumbled and three floors came crashing on him.
As the third floor also collapsed, Vernon heard another booming sound, a lot louder than normal, and he reached his hands up to his ears, to block the sound, feeling blood around them.
As the rubble came downwards, and the smoke cleared away, Vernon looked towards what was left of the building. He waited for a few seconds, but when he saw no one got up, he slowly crawled towards the wreckage, supporting himself to stand using a brick.
He slowly went inside the building, pushing himself upwards with the help of the brick, finally managing to stand.
Walking towards the clearly dented area, Vernon saw the man on the ground, with a metal cube having smashed his head to pieces.
The whole area around the cube was a bit more inside the ground, telling just how heavy the object must have been.
As Vernon reached the body, he gagged, taken aback by the smell of blood, but managed to calm himself.
He then went towards the body, bending down and searching the man's pockets, even as his senses kept going haywire due to the smell.
He found a small pager like object inside the man's left short's pocket. He then searched the man's waist as he looked around for the object he saw previously.
As he finally found it, he removed it and examined the object. It was some sort of a gun, though a lot skinnier than the ones Vernon had ever seen. He turned it around in his hand, before putting it in his pants' pocket. He looked at the man for a second, before he slowly got up and started to go outside the building. He was forced to stop when the system decided to send alerts.
[ Killed Eddie 'Big' Pearson. Level 47. Rewards withheld. Progress towards @!$#@% is 10% ]
'Rewards withheld! Ugh and what's with this weird message. Something I'm not supposed to know?'
Sighing, Vernon was ready to go back, when he heard the sound of something approaching the street. He cursed and quickly got out of the building, jumping into the building right next to it, breaking the glass in process.
He ducked beside the window, and waited for a few seconds before hearing the sound of a car coming there.
The car stopped somewhere in the road, though Vernon was unable to determine where. The barely hear-able sound of the engine soon turned off, and then came the sound of two feet touching ground.
“Boss, what is Big Eddie, doing here. This is the abandoned district. Did he lose his device?”
“Shut up you idiot! Eddie isn't as dumb as he looks. Besides, tell me, was the building at the end of the street broken before?”
“Eh!, yeah boss, I don't remember it being broken. Did Eddie come here to smash a building apart? But why?”
“Shut up! Look around, see if you can see his traces.”
Saying so, the two people started moving around.
'Damn, seems as if Eddie's pager is the device they used to track him down. But, it seems as if it only gives an approximate location, otherwise I would be dead.'
Waiting for a few seconds, Vernon looked out, noticing that the boss and his thug were approaching from the opposite side, slowly coming towards the gate, while checking all buildings.
'No escape for the wicked. This is going to be annoying, especially if they are as strong as Eddie.'
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Looking around, he noticed he was in a Weapons Store, or whatever it's equivalent was in this world.
'Perfect'
Vernon's lips curled up, and he started making him plans, moving to the second floor and taking items with him.
He slowly set up his plan, getting his armaments ready and removed the windows of the second floor very carefully.
Soon, the thugs had reached the end of the street and he could hear their voices extremely clearly now.
The steps of someone came near the store, but Vernon did not look out, lest he exposed himself. Just as he felt they were going to enter the store, the steps receded.
“Jake, get over here, I've found Eddie”
The boss of the gangsters shouted very loudly, and soon Vernon could hear the steps near the store going towards the building on his right.
“What the hell!! What happened here boss?”
“I don't fucking know!!! Whatever happened, Eddie got himself killed, and he doesn't even have his phone. Considering the location detected was here and the building was broken before we came, the perpetrator is still here.”
“You mean he's been hiding from us?”
“Exactly, and if someone could kill Eddie, no matter whether it be using brains or brawns, they'll be a pain to deal with. Keep your pistol ready.”
The sounds of shuffling soon spread out, and Vernon could hear sounds of doors being broken all across the street.
Still, he waited to act. Soon, 15 minutes passed.
“Damn it, where the hell is he? And who does that asshole think he is, ordering us to do all the work.”
Vernon could hear sounds of the thug, just outside his building once again, and it seemed he was not as loyal as he showed. He was ready for the man to break in, but another shout distracted him.
“Get over here Jake!”
The footsteps ready to smash apart the door of the building receded and Vernon could hear the man cursing.
“Fucking arsehole”
This time, Vernon followed the sounds of the steps, realizing they were meeting in the middle of the street.
'Time for action'
He silently got up and made his way over to the window pointing to the middle of the street and the place, where he had set up his arsenal.
He picked up the gun that looked like a sniper, and used the scope to aim it at the ground, rather than the targets.
'Those super movements clearly had some help from reflexes. If their danger sense is evolved as well, they'll be able to sense the danger. Best to fire it at the end.'
Slightly trembling, he inserted the energy cell needed for the gun, the equivalent for ammo.
Watching as the two came into his line of sight nearly overlapping each other, he aimed the gun, charging it, finally getting ready.
Then, the two overlapped each other, in a single line.
'It's hunting time'
Vernon finally pulled the trigger, causing a single line of blue energy to shoot from the tip. The energy went faster than the eyes could even track and penetrated straight through both of them.
Grunting, Jake fell to the ground, whereas the boss fell backwards.
[ Killed Jake Claus. Level 35. Rewards withheld. Progress towards @!$#@% is 20%]
Frowning as he didn't get the kill reward, Vernon threw the sniper down and picked up the second item he brought from the first floor. It was a ruggedly designed machine gun. Putting it on the stand, he inserted the energy cell, and started charging the gun.
While waiting, he kept a lookout at the street, his frown deepening as the boss soon got up. Finally having charged the gun, he pulled the trigger, watching as small blue rays of energy shot at the bossman.
The first ones smashed into him, but he suddenly shouted and a blue shield sprung to life around him.
Vernon frowned, watching as the energy bullets took time to whittle down the shield. He pulled the trigger even further, and removed the limiter, allowing the gun to shoot at a faster speed, but damaging it.
The boss groaned again, and seeing the shield was nearly gone, he pulled out a small gun, pointing it at Vernon's position as he shouted.
“If I die, I'll take you with me”
Vernon shivered, watching as the gun started gathering power, forming a small ball of blue energy.
'What the hell is that? It feels like it's gonna annihilate the entire damn district. No, I need to destroy that thing.'
Slightly scared, he watched as the shield finally died, the bullets smashing into the boss, blowing a couple hundreds holes through him.
“Die!!”
Unfortunately, he was too late, as the man's gun got enough power to release the ball, even as he fell.
Vernon immediately aimed the gun towards the ball of death, whittling down it's power before it got close to him.
'Damn it, it's too strong. Gonna have to jump'
Abandoning his post, he jumped straight from the second floor, disregarding the damage he might get, and landed on the broken building , hiding behind the cube, which had crushed Eddie.
Immediately afterwards, he was smashed by an energy wave, getting thrown about twenty feet.
After about 20 seconds, he finally got up, coughing and feeling extreme pain. He pushed himself using his hands, crawling to get near the cube.
'Broke my legs. Damn, what the fuck am I supposed to do?'
He got over to the cube, and flopped down, still feeling the pain, that was getting stronger as the adrenaline faded away.
[ Killed Norm 'Lord' Hikes. Level 90. Rewards withheld. Progress towards @!$#@% is 100%]
[ Protocol #0457 activated]
[ Early System Activated]
[ Rewards upgraded due to first activator of #0457. Some rewards are Unique]
[ Rewards received:
1. All attributes will have ability to go beyond starting parameters
2. 'Hidden Cube' Unlocked
3. Item Key
4. Affinity Key
5. Skill Key
6. Status will be at Maximum Level]
[ Awards 3-5 will be received after the game officially begins]
[ Systems Online]
[ Parameters Online]
[ Protocol #0457 complete]
'Wait, systems online? Earlier than others! But what exactly are those keys?'
Laying silently in pain, he gazed at the screen for a few seconds, before calling in his mind.
'System'
[ Home | Locked | Locked]
'Looks like the main things are related to something else. Status'
[ Name: Vernon Elroy (Nickname)
Level: 0(Levels Stopped)
Race: Human
Race Level: 1
Trait: To be Created
Class: None
Class Level: 0
Profession: None
Profession Level:0
Special Points: 0
Class Points: 0
Stats :
Undistributed Stat Points: 0
Physical Strength: 14
Mental Strength: 78
Endurance: 27
Intelligence: 32
Vitality: 13
Agility: 23
Perception: 43
Mana: 1145
Mana Regen: 11.45/sec
Equipment Modifiers: None
Health: 567 (628)
Health Regen: 3.14/sec
Equipment Modifiers: None
Stamina: 660
Stamina Regen: 3.3/sec
Equipment Modifiers: None
Weight: 68 Kg, 149 Lbs
Abilities: To Be Created
Special Ability: To Be Created
Talents: To Be Created
Titles: Newbie
Racial Talents: Adaptability
Status Tier:1
Status Level:Max]
[ Would you like to tier up your Status?]