The true meaning of the Card System was finally revealing itself. The Trickster had to literally do what his new ‘name’ implied: To lie and trick people to get stronger.

It was such a pleasant surprise for Wolfram, who tended to rely on subterfuge.

From the looks of it, performing successful Tricks rewarded more Experience than simply slaying monsters and humans alike.

With Dr. Melina pinned down on the ground, the Trickster quickly took a look at the new things. After fifteen seconds or so, in which the woman was thrashing around and trying to free herself, the man finally removed his knee.

However, Melina was shot in the leg and didn’t have a strong physique to begin with, so she couldn’t even stand up.

She groaned in pain and slowly backed away, trying to get away from him.

“I’ve got a lot of questions, you see…”

He chuckled as he crouched down and looked her straight in the eye. She seemed to be terrified, but due extreme pain, she wasn’t able to use her special ability.

“I want to know more about this System of yours. You will answer, will you not?”

“...”

She gritted her teeth and kept giving him a piercing glare, which only made him laugh more.

A card slipped from his sleeve and positioned itself between his index and middle finger. He stretched his hand and put the card close to her neck.

When it touched her skin ever-so-slightly, a bit of blood leaked out.

“I won’t tell you anything!”

“So you’d like to become the Imps’ plaything?” He mused for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and nodding, “Alright.”

He grabbed her uninjured leg and dragged her across the ground as started walking at a fast pace.

Melina tried to fight back but she was far too weak. In the end, she was literally dragged across the dirty and bloody ground while shouting from the pain, anger, and desperation.

“I.. I will talk!”

After a couple of minutes, she relented, at last. However, the Trickster didn’t stop dragging her.

Only when they encountered more Imps, deeper into the darkening hallways of this floor, did he let go of her leg.

He randomly shot the ceiling to attract the Imps and then retreated to an inconspicuous corner. Meanwhile, Melina looked horrified as the ugly flying monsters were coming towards her, hideous grins plastered on their unsightly faces.

“I don’t need a half-assed answer. I also need to show you that your life means nothing to me.”

His cold and emotionless voice rang in his ears as the Imps were slowly closing in the distance.

“I… I will answer. Please… I don’t want to die.”

One of the Imps reached her, but it didn’t attack. As she was a female, it had better uses for her, more obscene and disgusting ones.

It used its little hand to grab her leg and try to rip her pants, but she kicked it in the face and crawled away with tears trickling down her face.

The remaining Imps also came flying down, cackling unpleasantly.

Within seconds, four Imps, including the ones she had struck, had pinned her four limbs and completely immobilized her.

Only then, when she was about to give up, did the Trickster spring into action. Four gunshot resounded across the corridor, followed thereafter by the fall of the Imps.

They were struck in their skulls; A clean and accurate shot.

It took Melina a couple of breaths to realized what happened and sit up while trembling.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

…

“The danger has passed. Stop crying.”

In a relatively safe room, which was in a much better condition than the rest, the Trickster was sitting across from the dishevelled and visibly distressed Doctor.

Her clothes had been ripped, her leg was tightly bandaged, and her face sickly pale after all the crying, which had ruined her make-up.

The room was small in size, but the furniture was intact and the light was working properly. Excluding Jacko’s base, this was the only room that wasn't affected by either the earthquake or the monsters.

There was even a fully-working vending machine, about half-full with stuff.

While eating some potato chips, his legs crossed and back leaning against the comfortable chair, the man scrutinized Melina.

She had, more or less, caught her bearings and gotten rid of the initial mental and physical shock of almost getting violated by the Imps.

“I assume you know who I am?”

Albeit being in an unfavourable situation and at his mercy, Melina no longer acted afraid like in their first encounter. Yes, she was wary of him, but she didn’t drop her naturally stubborn attitude.

“You’re one of the criminals of the 6th floor. Wolfram Sakimoto.”

“I guess it was far-fetched to think I could fool a clearly high-ranking personnel.” He mumbled to himself while letting out a self-deprecating sigh.

“Yet, despite knowing that, you played along. Why?”

“Hah? Are you stupid? You were armed and I was exhausted. Why would I not play along?”

“Hahaha you’ve got some sharp tongue on you, Doctor.”

“Screw you! What are you going to do with me?”

“Such enthusiastic hostility! My my… It’s not like I did anything to you.”

She bit her lower lips, her face red from frustration. “You shot my leg!”

“Because you lied to me. To begin with, the lie you concocted was pretty ridiculous. You? Hiding in your office for several days? And I was the first person you met after the earthquake? That was some real bullshit. From the way you looked, I could tell that you were lying.”

“So what? Was I supposed to tell the truth to a complete stranger? And a criminal to boot?!”

“Indeed. That might have been the right course of action. However, you’re now at my mercy… so how about we talk about the important stuff?”

“Hah?”

“The System. You are Level 5, so you must’ve killed your fair share of Imps with that magic of yours. I want a thorough explanation of the System’s functionalities.”

He unceremoniously gestured for her to begin while closing his eyes and playfully humming an old tune.

“How did you kno-ugh… forget about it.”

Melina didn’t know how he discovered her Level, but it was clear that he wasn’t going to answer her.

Left with no choice, she proceeded to offer an explicit exposition regarding the System.

After two minutes, the Trickster opened his eyes and nodded.

“I see. It’s like how I imagined it to be. Simply in theory but complex in practice.”

The regular System, so to speak, shared many similarities with his System. The differences were concerning the amount of earned Experience, the absence of the Card Stats in the regular System, and the ability to earn special skills through very specific and possibly unknown requirements.

For instance, in Melina’s case, she obtained her ability by accident, or so she had claimed. Right after the earthquake, when she was about to get killed by the Imps, a white light emanated from her hands and killed all the monsters.

“I don’t know how to control it.” She paused for a bit and, with a much lower voice, she added, “Or else I would have fried you alive.”

“What was that?”

“N-nothing.” She averted her gaze and feigned ignorance.

Of course, the man did hear her remark, but he didn’t take it to heart. Anyone in her position would want to kill him after what happened. It was a natural emotional reaction to want to exact vengeance on someone who had literally shot you and thrown you into a group of nasty monsters.

…

On the ground floor of the large military facility, the surviving soldiers had formed a solid base.

Nearly all the monsters that appeared within the massive warehouses or in the neighbouring regions were eliminated.

The Japanese Military had displayed absolute solidarity and commendable prowess as they used their machine guns, tanks, and nigh infinite ammo to kill all the hostile creatures.

Around 35 Soldiers stayed on the ground floor, in the Quarters Sector, to be precise. They amassed all the available rations, firearms and other resources, and formed a defensive perimeter.

They were all led by Colonel Asahi, a 56-year old old man with a small beard and a pair of naturally narrowed coal-like black eyes. He was a capable leader and someone who reacted swiftly to the sudden change.

“We will be staying here for a couple more weeks. Maybe those on the lower floors survived and are making their way here.”

“Yes, sir!” The rest shouted back in unison.

The soldiers were armed to the teeth; They wore protective vests and some even held special weapons looted from the Hobgoblins they had slain.

Colonel Asahi, looking particularly weary, heaved a sigh and looked at the barely functioning monitor.

It displayed low-quality live footage of one of four warehouses in the facility. Inside that warehouse, which was filled to the brim with weapons, tanks, and military trucks, there stood a frighteningly big silhouette.

It resembled a Hobgoblin but was triple its size, wielded a massive black hammer, and was clad in a clean bronze set of armor.

It was the biggest threat in the facility right now, and Asahi wanted to kill it. However, that was easier said than done as his real objective was to get access to the parked vehicles and storage boxes in that warehouse.

Using any explosive might damage everything and lead to a rampant fire. He had to use a safer tactic, but he wasn’t confident in his or his subordinates ability to take down the gigantic monster.

They tried once, but with just one swing of its equally big hammer, the creature killed four soldiers. No one had gotten used to Magic yet, so they didn’t expect it to send some sort of invisible Wind Blades from its weapon.

The Magic had cut the soldiers in half and startled all the rest, thus leading to a swift and premature retreat.

Fortunately, the goblin seemed to be minding its own business, but it seemed hell-bent on staying on that warehouse, lazing around and doing absolutely nothing of importance.