Chapter 01-04

Alex stood from the table and walked towards the back of the diner. He went into the bathroom making sure to lock the door behind him. Opening his inventory, he pulled out the mask that he had gotten when he had spawned into the world to examine its stats.

-Item

-Basic Identity Concealment Mask.

-N/A

-Durability: 30/30

-Weight: <0.01 kg

-Description: “A mask that a hero can wear to keep their secrets secret.”

The mask could either be equipped as an actual mask item or it could be used to reskin another item altogether. There were no stat boosts to the mask, but the glasses gave him a single extra point to his perception. A single point in any stat in his current state could make a huge difference.  

The glasses glowed brightly as he applied the skin to them. He equipped the mask to his face and with a deep breath he became Aether.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Just a minute.” Alex called out to whoever was on the other side of the door.

“Come on man!” A man’s voice yelled.

Alex shook his head and walked over to the door. Sharply he pulled the door open to see a Goldy staring in at him.

“A HERO!” The goldy yelled while he didn’t hesitate to swing a right hook right at Alex’s face. Alex dropped a few inches so that the man’s hand soared over his head and slammed into the block wall. The Goldy wailed in pain and jumped back from Alex.

Alex balled his fist and drew it back. He could feel the strength building in his arm’s muscles as he focused energy into the power. He swung the punch into the man’s gut with a sickening crunch sound. The goldy’s body crashed back into the wall. He slid down into a slump on the floor.

Bullets started to fly over Alex’s head. He snuck a quick glance to count how many people were shooting at him before he dropped back into the bathroom. The sound of ricocheting bullets filled the room as he slammed the door shut and made sure to lock it.

“Son of a bitch!” He huffed breathing rapidly to try and catch his breath. He ended up on his backside looking up at the door handle.

 The gunshots stopped outside, and Alex could hear the men arguing back and forth as they walked closer. Alex looked at his hands a cleared his throat. It had been years since he had to fight for real and think about his actions. He had been an admin long enough that he forgot how the basic combat skills worked for the moment. Before he would just choose the most powerful ability that he wanted to use for the day and then wipe out the problems without a second thought about energy or consequences.

“He’s out! That damn hero knocked him out cold!” One of the two goldy’s said outside of the door in a low growl.

“Where did he come from? I thought the hero bureau finally gave up! We forced them out!” The other one said in an equally offended hiss.

“He will learn soon enough not to align himself with such trash,” The first Goldy laughed.

Alex clenched his fists and took a step closer to the door. He breathed in a deep calming breath waiting for them to get close enough to the door for him to make his move. A gunshot rang out in the room through the locked doorknob. He lifted his leg and slammed his foot down onto the door. In explosion of wood splinters, it burst outward smashing into the two goldys.

Alex jumped out in a flash smashing his shoulder into the one on the left who was still standing. The one on the right had been knocked back against the wall, but he was quickly recovering. Alex drove the goldy back and smashed him into the brick wall. There were two crunches. One came from the wall as the blocks cracked under the impact. The other came from the man’s rib cage.

He fell to the floor and went completely still. The last Goldy was on his feet. He whipped up his gun and fired it at Alex. The bullet tore through his leg. Alex fell to his knees and grabbed the wound.

“That hurts!” He yelled clenching the bloody hole.

“Well, I mean, it’s a gunshot, so…” The Goldy said as he tilted his head and gun in confusion.

“I don’t remember them hurting so bad.” Alex said shaking his head. He began to move his hand towards the leg of a nearby chair slowly so that the Goldy wouldn’t notice his movement.  

“You’ve been shot before?” The Goldy asked as he kept his gun trained on Alex.

“A few times.” Alex whipped the chair around and smashed it across the last Goldy’s head. His body smashed into the wall and dropped to the ground where all three were laying out cold.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Alex leaned back on his butt and pulled his leg out from under him so that he could examine the gunshot wound. He pulled his pant leg up. The blood had already stopped. He pressed the area around the wound and could feel that the bullet was still inside. The flesh around the entry point moved as the slug began to move out of his body. It dropped to the ground with a thud. The flesh slowly began to close, but it would still be a few hours before it would be completely gone. He could feel a slow drain on his energy.

When he pushed himself up off of the ground the weight on his leg shot some pain up his spine, but he dealt with it. With a slight limp Alex walked from the bathroom door to the bodies. On each body he found a credit chip or in NuValla they were called needles, but nothing else of much value.

Alex’s phone chirped in his pocket. He unlocked it to see two notifications appear on the screen. One for the items that he had picked up and one for a mission completion.

-Needles x3

-Total Value 600t

-Deposit in personal account?

-Yes | No

~~~

-You’ve Completed a Random Event!

-Stopped a Robbery

-Defeated 3x Goldy Goons

-300XP (100XP Each)

-+1 Hero Point (You are a Hero!)

-+1 Hero Tier (-9 Until Next Tier)

Alex didn’t think that the results were too bad for his first bout of combat. He didn’t like that he had gotten shot, but at least he was walking.

As he hobbled towards the front door, each step getting a little easier, Alex noticed that the man behind the counter was on the phone. Walking past, he caught a few words meant for the person on the other end of the phone.

“There is a new hero. He took out three Goldys.” The man hissed.

Alex cursed under his breath as he booked it out of the front door. There was no telling who the man was on the phone with. For all he knew then man was talking to the leader of the Goldys himself.

The streets seemed more agitated as Alex limped along at a fast pace with his hands in his pocket. His fingers were wrapped around his phone. He didn’t want to be attached to it, but for the time it was his only access to his notifications.

Rounding a corner, he had to duck at the last second to avoid a baseball bat smashing into his head. The bat rebounded off the block wall. Alex reached up and grabbed the bat with his left hand ripping it out of the Goldy’s grip with a sharp yank.

The Goldy attempted to punch Alex, but Alex lifted his foot and kicked him in the chest. The man slammed into the alley’s wall and shook his head trying to right himself. Alex swung the bat and slammed it into the man’s side under his arm. As the man crumpled around the impact of the bat the bat itself splintered from the strength of the blow.

“Sorry about that. Don’t know my own strength.” Alex shrugged throwing down the half of the bat still held in his hands.

He turned to look down the alleyway. Standing in a formation at the end of the narrow passage were four more Goldys. They were all grinning with their gold teeth shinning in the light. They each had a weapon, metal bat, a crowbar, a two by four, and a shotgun. Alex determined that the man with the shotgun was the one that he needed to worry about the most.

Not wanting to make the first move Alex waited for the men to come towards him. They moved together in a line down the narrow alley. They were obviously used to not having anyone around that would stand against them.

The shotgunner pointed the weapon at Alex and pulled the trigger. Alex threw himself pushing himself off of the wall using a small burst of his flight power. The slug slammed into the wall causing dust and chunks to burst out into the air. Another shot rang out and Alex dropped to the ground to dodge.

His fingers found a rock. He shot up and threw the rock as hard as he could towards the shotgunner. The rock smashed into the chest of this goldy and sent him back ten feet. He dropped to the ground tumbling into a heap.

A crowbar flew towards Alex’s gut. He couldn’t move fast enough. The metal struck him dead center. The wind was knocked out of his lungs. He doubled over and clenched his arms to his stomach.

Another attack came in quickly. This time it was the two by four. Alex jumped back as fast as he could, but his back screamed in pain as the metal bat smashed into his spine. His body dropped to the ground. He landed on his stomach and tried to catch his breath.

“You ain’t nothin are you?” One of the Goldys asked as they continued to smash their weapons into his back.

“Just another worthless hero that got in a few lucky shots.” Another of the Goldys said with a nasty laugh.

Alex put his palms down on the ground. Focusing energy into his strength he threw himself off of the concrete. The three men were knocked back from their assault. As he fell towards the ground, he angled himself to land on his feet.

The two by four flew towards him. Alex balled his fist and punched the board before it made contact. The wood splintered peppering the attacker with a confetti of splinters. Alex used the distraction to elbow the man in the gut focusing some of his energy into super-strength.

The crowbar was coming in for an attack at his head. Alex grabbed the leg of the Goldy that he had elbowed and used him as a shield. The crowbar smashed into the Goldy’s head and his body fell to the ground. Alex punched crowbar Goldy in the head.

The last Goldy with the baseball bat clinked the bat against the wall a few times looking at Alex who was taking a moment to catch his breath. Alex pushed himself to stand up. With a deep breath he flexed his hands and watched the last Goldy.

The Goldy yelled and ran towards Alex with his bat up ready to swing. Alex ducked as the bat swung at his head. With a swift upward motion, he angled the bat to smash against the wall. He punched the large man in the chest.

This Goldy was a little different that the ones he had faced so far. The others had been goons, kind of weak, but this one, this one was a thug. He was much larger than the other ones and was almost all muscle.

The thug clenched his own fist and punched Alex in the head. His ears rang and his vision doubled as he stumbled around for a moment trying to shake his head right.

Two more punches came at Alex, but he was able to weave to avoid them in an almost drunken master like move. Alex drew both of his fists back and as hard as he could he punched him in the chest. The thug lifted from the ground a few inches and dropped down. He fell to his knees gripping his chest and coughed.

Alex lifted his leg and kicked the thug in the side of his head stumbling a few steps back on his landing. The thug dropped onto his back and expelled his last breath.

“I WIN!” Alex yelled at all the unconscious bodies around the alley.

He took a couple steps back until he hit the wall. He slid down to a sitting position against the cold brick. He took a few deep breaths and pulled out his phone from his pocket.

-You’ve Completed a Random Event!

-Gang Attack

-Defeated 4x Goldy Goons

-400XP (100XP Each)

-Defeated 1x Goldy Thug

-300XP (300XP Each)

-+5 Hero Point (You are a Hero!)

-+5 Hero Tier (-4 Until Next Tier)