Despite there not being many cheaters that day, the tournament still dragged on for much longer than it should have. Well, longer than I thought it should have. After the first round of games, there was apparently a second round featuring a different set of players that took just as long as the first. On the bright side, there was a one hour break in between for lunch, and my boss brought in even more catered food for it!
So despite the sheer boredom of not having anything to do, along with the stress of a traitor sitting only a few feet away from me… I’d been saying that a lot, hadn’t I? But anyway, the joy of good food helped make up for all of those things. A little. I got stressed and bored again after another hour.
Well, the quarterfinals eventually ended and I was finally able to leave.
On the way out, I caught sight of the traitor, Ian Wachowski, talking into his phone.
“Where are you? What happened to the plan?” he said, with [Situational Awareness] feeding me his lines. “What do you mean ‘complications’?!”
His face began to grow pale as whoever was on the other end spoke. I couldn’t tell much about it other than it was feminine.
“Oh… oh god…” With a deep breath, he shook the fear off and replied with a resolute grimace. “It’s too late, we can’t change things now with only one more day left. Just tell me who I should be watching out for. Ok, got it.”
He gave the casino a look around before exiting out the front door with his two bodyguards, and I could’ve sworn he locked eyes with me for a second. Though he did the same with the rest of Goldshanks’ employees. Damn, paranoia was a bitch sometimes.
He finally left the building, finally leaving me to myself. And with an apparent deadline of tomorrow. If I was going to have any chance at uncovering what he was up to enough to report it to the proper authorities, I needed to start grinding. And hard.
And so, after an early dinner of a cheeseburger and slice of apple pie, and a bit of a break to recharge myself, I headed to somewhere I could kill two birds with one stone.
The roller rink was a great place to enjoy yourself, stretch your legs, and meet new people, but I was here to do more. So much more.
The biggest reason was to intercept a dead drop; the cheater I interrogated at the police station yesterday said that there was one scheduled around here in about two hours. It was a damn shame they were going to be unable to make it, on account of being in jail, but I’d do them a favor and pick it up for them. Along with whoever was dropping the stuff off. With how lax the interrogation “techniques” and punishments were for criminals in this world, their boss might not believe the old spot to be compromised, and might not even stop the deliveries! It was a gamble, but it was also the only lead I had so far.
The more biggest reason I was here was to grind my Skills, especially [Detect Cheating]. A high ranking military officer was selling off government secrets, and as much as I wanted to just avoid that hornet’s nest, I couldn’t out of fear for whatever he was selling coming to bite my ass in the future. Confronting him directly, or even with whatever half-assed attempt at counter-espionage I could muster, absolutely wasn’t worth the trouble and pain it could bring me. So I opted for a more passive response.
I hoped to level up my Skills to the point I’d be able to get more information about what precisely he was doing. It happened before, where getting [Detect Cheating] to a higher level made it reveal more detailed information about its targets, even without a perk. If I could get it high enough tonight to get some more juicy details, I’d be able to leave a good enough tip to get the FBI moving against him.
And finally, the secret third reason… It had been a long day and I just wanted to have some fun.
I’d taken the time to prepare for tonight, having popped both an ibuprofen and acetaminophen pill after dinner and bringing a small notepad with me. I took a series of long, deep breaths, both to relax my mind and psych myself out for what I was about to do.
“I wish I wasn’t so desperate,” I said as I searched my mind for a certain switch I hadn’t flipped in quite a long time. I really didn’t want to do this, especially with how awful it felt earlier, but with only a day or two to get [Detect Cheating] high enough to obtain more information on Ian Wachowski, I didn’t have many options. But maybe all of my level ups in this and all my other Skills would mitigate it? I had to go for speed, and there was only one tool I had that could grant it.
I flipped the switch to activate [Detect Cheating]’s passive form.
“Huh, that’s not so bad- WOAH!”
I was hit with a massive wave of psychic force, feelings of jealousy, lust, desperation, and all sorts of negativity flooded my senses. They weren’t mine, I knew they weren’t, but it was as if I was standing in the collective shoes of everyone here and experiencing the worst aspects of their psyches.
Nausea was beginning to take hold as the psionic assault froze me in place, and I tried desperately to push it down. Somehow despite how much stronger it was than the last time I used it, I was able to handle it much better, likely thanks to some part of me having grown stronger through the System. But only in that I wasn’t writhing in agony on the floor right now.
I got a few strange looks from the other skaters, but I didn’t pay them much mind. No wait, I was paying them plenty of mind since they were all in my head! Oh god, what kind of absolute shit-tier, bottom of the barrel Skill was this that it would literally disable its user when it got strong enough?!
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Hold on, maybe that wasn’t the case? There were probably some more fine-tuned controls. I mean, there was no way the System was that poorly designed! But what kind of porno protagonist would level something that didn’t help you get laid? Was this thing even properly tested? Remembering how I abused [Tinker], I was pretty sure I already knew the answer. But it was still worth a shot.
I reached into my mind once again, looking past the sensations flooding it, trying to find a metaphorical knob or dial that would… aha! I quickly activated my Intelligence attribute and let it guide my thoughts over to exactly what I was looking for. I quickly activated it.
Immediately, the force of the mental assault began to subside, and I was left with only a light feeling. It still wasn’t what I’d call “comfortable,” but it was something. Think getting constantly kicked in the shins by a toddler versus being viciously beaten by a gang of crowbar-wielding MMA fighters. So yeah, I really couldn’t complain.
“Alright, two hours before the dropoff, so let’s see how much I can level up [Detect Cheating],” I whispered to myself as I began skating around the rink.
Detect Cheating (lv 15)
Target
Josh Lane
Method
Flirting at roller rink while partner is distracted
Victim
Heidi Stevens
Detect Cheating (lv 15)
Target
Melissa Hawthorne
Method
Secret rendezvous at roller rink
Victim
Sarah Nicholson
Detect Cheating (lv 15)
Target
Kade Doyle
Method
Flirting at roller rink while partner is distracted
Victim
Josh Lane
Detect Cheating (lv 15)
Target
Morgan Clarke
Method
Flirting at roller rink while partner is distracted
Victim
Louie Jenkins
Detect Cheating (lv 15)
Target
Harvey Burns
Method
Secret rendezvous at roller rink
Victim
Maxton Jackson
[Skill Level Up! Detect Cheating 15 -> 16]
Five quick uses of [Detect Cheating] got me 5 perfect hits, all thanks to the passive for pointing the way! But only a single level up. What was the deal with that?! Hold on, the System gave additional experience after I actually did something with the information, even if it was just telling someone about it. So how about if I did just that?
Seeing an interesting little repeat in the tables, I made my way over to the man named Josh Lane with a mischievous grin.
“Hey, Josh?” I asked.
“The hell do you want? Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“With your girlfriend?” I asked with crossed eyebrows.
“Uh… who are you?”
“Oh no wait, that’s her there flirting with another man!”
“Wait, what?!” shouted Josh, riding off towards his girlfriend. “What the fuck, Kade?!”
I snickered to myself as I made my way towards my next source of experience. “Sorry dude, but call it a service to your country.”
He was pretty close by.
“Hey Louie,” I said to the next victim, taking some time to find him. “Who’s that guy Morgan’s with?”
“Oh by Ultarian! Morgan, Morgan! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
[Skill Level Up! Detect Cheating 16 -> 17]
Sweet! Another level up! Though I did feel a little bad for the man…
Detect Cheating (lv 17)
Target
Louie Jenkins
Method
Secret rendezvous at roller rink
Victim
Donald Bright
Ok, maybe not that bad. He was just as guilty. He deserved it.
But what was up with getting a level up so soon after the previous one? Did the passive grant some kind of an experience boost? Or maybe going after romantic cheaters somehow got me more experience. It went against what the scholarly article said about how experience works, in that it added a raw bonus when the amount of sex a Skill caused was negative. But the sex I was preventing was getting me even more experience! The book might have gotten it wrong, and it just multiplied it by negative one instead… or something.
I let out a cough and continued. I could think about this later, onto the next asshole.