Shawn smiled, he had enjoyed the distraction that Yu had provided, but he had work to do. The information jade felt warm in his pocket, reminding him of what he was here to do. He knew he was close to discovering the truth: why Dorian was so determined to retrieve it. Soon their twisted cat and mouse game would end.

A yellow and purple skyscraper towered over him, its true height hide behind the thick layer of smog that blocked out the sun. He stood in the center of the shopping district, holographic advertisements taking up every available inch of space in the sky. He shielded his eyes as neon lights flashed all around him, the bright light reflected off of the glass of the buildings, creating a hypnotic effect, it would be easy to lose track of time here. He tore his attention away from the advertisements, he needed an adblocker, they were honestly overwhelming.

It had taken him hours of wandering through the shopping district to find the building. He probably wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight if he wanted to finish before work tomorrow.

Just because he had found the oddly colored building didn’t mean investigating it would be simple. The building was wide, at least a couple city blocks wide. It would take days to search every inch of it. Luckily, he wasn’t going in blind. He had a clue, however convoluted it was.

He took shelter in an alley hidden from view and pulled out the information jade. He took a quick look around to make sure the coast was clear then poured his Qi into the information jade. The item responded to his input, filling his mind with information. Rows of numbers popped into his mind, appearing as if they were a recent memory. Strangely, it was easier to decipher this way.

C.T:

21.2435, 14.8924, -1

21.2435, 14.8924, 7

4.45645, -100, 8.544 x3

97.2345, 11.3452, 7 x5

81.0132, 97,3454, 7

-99.340, -30.3509, -2 x3

50.239, 42.0469, 8

Patterns emerged to his now more relaxed mind. When he first had seen it, he had been riding the high of a life and death encounter. Not exactly the best state to be in to analyze information. Now days later, Shawn noticed two main patterns in the seemingly endless rows of numbers. The first two numbers of each line were never higher or lower than 100. And the third number in each row had much less variation. He searched through hundreds of rows and the patterns seemed to hold true.

Even if he hadn’t realized it, his subconscious mind had been taking apart the pattern piece by piece the last couple of days. An answer came to him easily, making him question why he hadn’t figured it out earlier.

The only logical way the rows of numbers would make sense is if they were coordinates. Taking into account that Heiki had been pouring over maps of the city, that conclusion seemed likely. However, without an anchor point for the coordinates, they were useless. He sighed, this was going to take a while.

Tucking the jade into his pocket, he entered the tall building. The inside was a world unto itself, the hard edge distinct to Najian entirely missing. It was peaceful, he liked it here. By the looks of things, he wasn’t the only one who liked it in here. People smiled and laughed as they drifted from one shop to another.

Without meaning to, his feet carried him to a small book store. Foreign energy subtly clawed its way into his mind, making all the books look more appealing. They practically sparkled in his vision. Instinctively, he found his hand reaching for his money.

With a surge of fear, he snapped out of the spell. The books lost their luster and he grimaced. He wouldn’t have noticed that anything was wrong if he wasn’t so used to fighting off Etar and Green’s influence. He commanded small strands of his Qi to eradicate the foreign energy. Without much fanfare, it exited his mind. Now that he was aware of it, it was easy to fight off.

He activated [The Many Eyes of Infinite Reflection] and countless glowing engravings appeared along the entrances to the shops. They were using arrays to mind control customers into buying their goods. Gone was the peaceful atmosphere, the smiles all felt fake and hollow now that he knew the secret. Shawn brushed past zombie-like people as they stared blankly at products. Had he looked like that?

He entered an elevator in the center of the building. He pressed a button and the elevator lurched, accelerating at supernatural speeds. Irritating flute music did its best to conceal the sound of metal cables screeching as the machine flew up the building. Shawn leaned back against the wall, this was going to be a long ride. He intended to go to the top floor after all.

His decision wasn’t an arbitrary one. From looking at the information on the jade, he assumed that the third number of each row represented the vertical axis. The first two numbers were too large, it wouldn’t make sense for a building to be 90 miles tall.

Because all the numbers representing height were all so similar, he decided to go to the roof of the skyscraper to see if the other buildings in the area were the same height. If they were, his hypothesis would be correct, and he would have gained a major clue to understanding what was on the information jade.

The elevator dinged, and its doors opened. “Welcome to Virtual Paradise,” a robot in the shape of a woman said from behind a desk. Behind it, a solid glass wall blocked his path. Shawn recoiled at its unsightly visage. It was a poor attempt at imitating a human, but in the floors dim lighting, someone with a lesser perception stat could be fooled. “Would you be interested in the two for one special, today?” the robot asked.

“No, I’m just meeting a friend. Can you let me in?”

The robot stared blankly at him. He sighed, the city was futuristic, but it seemed their basic robots were still as dumb as a brick. He quickly read the menu and selected the cheapest option. He handed a couple of coins to the robot.

“Room 102 is yours. Enjoy your time in paradise.” An opening formed in the glass wall, letting a small amount of mist leak through. Shawn entered and walked down a long hallway filled with translucent rooms.

Inside them, people sat in pods with virtual reality goggles on their faces, reacting to unseen stimuli. Shawn passed the room the robot had assigned to him and instead opened a door with a do not enter sign.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Behind the door was a ladder that led to the roof. Shawn effortlessly climbed the ladder and with a click opened a hatch, letting him onto the roof. This high up in the air, thick black smog blocked his vision, limiting his field-of-view to about a thirty-foot radius. He couldn’t see far enough to see any other buildings. All he could see was an empty rooftop. Maybe this was the wrong building?

He activated [The Many Eyes of Infinite Reflection] to boost his vision and was shocked to see golden ripples of Qi condensing in the center of the roof. Shawn waved his hand through it, but nothing happened. However, when he stepped into the center of the Qi formation, three golden coins revealed themselves to him.

Carnival Token X3: Used to gain entrance into the Golden Fire Sect. Once moved from this spot, the invisibility array will disappear. Good luck carrying the coin through the city. You will need it.

“Oh,” he mumbled to himself. “Oh shit.” It made sense why Heiki had betrayed him. Everyone in the city was after one thing: entrance into the sect. With these coins, anyone no matter how untalented could get in.

It would be a bloodbath if he walked into the streets with these. He could imagine it. People would tear him limb from limb if they knew he had a token. He would need to find a sneaky way to get the coins to the golden wall. Just stuffing it in his pocket wouldn’t work, he had tried, and the blue screen still popped up.

If he had access to a flying car it would be easy to take the coins, but on foot, it would be almost impossible. He would have to go back to the Scorpion’s Den and get Lin and Tian to help him. He didn’t think they would betray him, there were three coins, one for each of them. They wouldn’t have any reason to backstab him. He smiled, he could help his friends escape the deadly claws of Najian.

His ears twitched as he heard the metal ladder clanking. He put the coins back into the golden Qi formation, hiding them from view. A morbidly obese man wiggled his way out of the hatch. His stomach jiggled as he pointed a baton at him. “This is private property, you’re not supposed to be here.”

Shawn scratched his head, opening the hatch must have set off a silent alarm. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know I couldn’t go up here. I just wanted some fresh air. You understand right?” The mall cop moved slowly, opening a compartment in his shirt. He pulled out a small donut and took a bite out of it, large beads of sweat dripping down his forehead.

“I didn’t mean to cause any trouble, I’ll leave immediately.” Shawn walked towards the hatch, doing his best to act casual.

However, he was stopped in his tracks as a deadly aura gathered around the man, filling the air with intense bloodlust. Ghostly apparitions of desserts floated menacingly through the air.

“Thief, what did you steal? I won’t let you leave till you return what you stole.”

“Would you believe me if I told you I didn’t steal anything?” The mall cop took another bite of his donut, increasing the size of his ephemeral dessert weapons.

Shawn sighed, he didn’t want to hurt the man, but he wasn’t leaving him with many options. The mall cop wouldn’t let him leave without a fight. The mall cop was convinced that he had stolen something, there was no changing his opinion.

[Deception] activated, helping him plan a way out of the situation. “You’re right. I stole all the coins in your cash registers.” He pulled a Yi Coin out of his pocket and spun it in his hand. Walking slowly, he approached the edge of the building. The man took another bite of his donut in response.

Congratulations! Your skill, Deception has reached level 11.

“I knew you were lying. Hand over the money, and nobody has to get hurt,” the man said in a poor imitation of a bad-ass voice. The mall cop obviously wasn't used to stopping thieves, he sounded like he was reciting lines from a movie.

Shawn glanced towards where the carnival tokens were hidden; invisible to the naked eye. It should be okay to just leave them, no one had stumbled upon them, they had sat undiscovered for weeks. He could come back for them later.

Shawn puffed up his chest, committed to his stupid act. If the mall cop thought he was a simple thief, he would never suspect that the carnival tokens were hidden on the roof. Plus, he didn’t want to hurt the man. He would be just as bad as the Crimson Lotus if he did.

“You’ll never catch me, I’m the master thief, Green!” Shawn clenched his fist as he prepared to do something stupid. I’m not a bad person. I won’t hurt an innocent person.

He leaped off the building.

Gravity took its hold and he fell like a rock. His clothes widely flapped as he spun through the air, screaming like a madman. Despite the extreme amounts of adrenaline rushing through him, he felt no need to act quickly. He was seven miles in the air, it would take a while for him to hit the ground.

In theory, jumping off of a building was perfectly safe for him, but that did nothing to calm his pounding heart. According to a video he had watched years ago, terminal velocity otherwise known as maximum falling speed was based on weight and surface area. He wasn’t sure of the details, even with his improved memory, it was hard to remember things while free-falling through the air.

What he did know, was that his weight hadn’t increased, meaning his terminal velocity had also not increased. While his maximum falling speed hadn’t increased, his resilience had increased many times over, meaning that he should be able to survive a fall from any height. Theoretically, he could fall from the edge of the atmosphere and live. After a certain point, around a couple thousand feet; extra height wouldn’t affect his falling speed.

He shot out of the dense layer of smog and watched with wide eyes as he rapidly approached the ground. It was time to move. Using [Minor Aerokinesis], Shawn created an upward current of air beneath him, slowing his descent. He plummeted past flying cars, making them swerve in shock.

A current of air manipulated his limbs, putting them into the optimal landing position. His reflection blurred in the cold glass windows of the skyscrapers as he fell from holographic advertisements. If someone were to look out the window and see him, they would surely question reality. At the last moment possible, he activated [Qi Enhancement], fortifying his body.

He impacted the street in a super-hero pose, cracking it and kicking up a cloud of smoke. He coughed as he stumbled out of the cloud, his limbs stinging, but ultimately uninjured. Onlookers pointed at him in shock, not believing what they were seeing.

He barely saw them as he slipped into an alleyway, blue screens filling his vision.

Congratulations! Your skill, Minor Aerokinesis has reached level 5.

...

Congratulations! Your skill, Minor Aerokinesis has reached level 8.

Congratulations! Your skill, Qi Enhancement has reached level 13.

Congratulations! Your skill, Qi Enhancement has reached level 14.