A door creaked open. Seconds later, it closed back on its own. Jason was taking things too easy but who could blame him. At first, he only thought of teaching these people a lesson. But as he went to the underground facilities, he had an inkling that the things happened above was just a ruse. His brows knitted together after stepping inside this hallway.

These guys are not playing around.

One dozen bloody dead corpse lying around on the floor. Jason walked through the hallway while looking at these security guards that were just killed not too long ago. Bullet wounds riddled their bodies as if they were target practice. He was unfazed by the scene and moved along.

Several same scenes kept on greeting his sight. After a while, he noticed that for a mall, they had quite a lot of security guards. Say yes to job opportunities, but again, he doubted once more after seeing the facilities down here. Rather than a simple security office, it was more like a tech lab. He passed a few rooms and his curiosity made him peeked a few times. Several times, he saw most of the rooms were filled with supercomputers. It got him thinking.

Why on earth does a mall need supercomputers?

The other rooms are like any office rooms. That itself was rather weird.

Who in the right mind built an office underground?

He walked further deep inside this unknown facility with white walls, white floors, and white ceilings. Like a mental facility but with more dead bodies splashing a tint of red into these white parade. The kill count downstairs was like an arcade game compared to upstairs. The no-shoot civilian probably only applied to those upstairs. A feeble shout came from afar, and he didn’t miss it. As if someone was celebrating something.

The door to the far end of the corridor was already opened. The dangling wires beside the open door told him he was right about this fake street gang. Well organized, skillful in both infiltration as well as silencing the enemies and last but not least a well-played strategic plan of sending decoys. Jason didn’t know much about military stuff but looking at this from his average-man point of view, these people are not your everyday man.

Jason stepped inside the door as the white interior changed into an all-black surrounding. Only the green neon lights at the bottom of the wall illuminated the dark hallway. In the end, he reached the end of the pathway. He sneaked up on them while maintaining his invisibility. Walking inside the vault room as these four men were celebrating while the one who stood in front of the vault had his back in front of Jason’s line of sight.

The moment Cap turned around, Jason’s eye went round to the point of bulging out. His whole body shivered, trembling like he was facing some kind of trauma. Sweat showered his forehead and drenching his back. All of this was because of the palm-size gemstone in Cap’s hand.

It can’t be…

He would never forget those shimmering red scales. Scales belonging to that damn creature. The creature that killed the ones he loved.

“Identify,” Jason said.

Failure

Something unpleasant to read. But Jason didn’t stop. He tried and tried again. After ten times. A new blue window emerged.

Identify level up to level 2

A good sign, but it was still a failure. He kept spamming the skilled until the twentieth time. Another level up.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Identify level up to level 3

This time, he got what he wanted.

Fragment of a piece of Scarlet Rex’s scale

A little piece of a shard, broken from a scale of the ancient one. The dream of many legendary blacksmiths yet it was out of reach far from the hands of humanity. Even the shed scales of the ancient one was beyond their reach. Only those who have a courageous and powerful heart can snatch this away from the ancient one’s nest. Lower quality compared to the scale on its body. Material use for forging.Unknown effect to forge material.

Grade: Phantasmal

It’s true.

Jason couldn’t take his eyes off from the broken scale. He was having mixed feelings seeing this. Anger started to rise from the depth of his mind, the thought of that Scarlet Rex made him scared and at the same time making him mad. His whole body was trembling as if on the verge of having a seizure. Then, he erupted.

“Haha, you got mad skill man,” said one of the fake street gangs to the one sent by the informer. An expert in lock picking especially vaults.

The picklock man only grinned in response. But then, something hit him.

A powerful blunt force smashed right across the face. His whole head was slammed to the floor, as his head cracked. He jerked on the floor a few times before winding up dead.

The four other men who were in a jolly mood froze. Cap was frowning seeing the man loaned by the informer turned up dead. The informer's commission only rose with his subordinate being dead.

“Weapons hot,” said Cap.

All four of them didn’t see what attacked the picklock man. Sweats rained down their foreheads as they were clueless about where to aim their weapon.

Then, another loud bang as one of them was sent hurling to the wall as they heard the crisp sound of bones being broken. All three were panicking seeing this ridiculous sight. Cap was confused with his eyes darting around the vault room. He held a gun in his hand while the other held on to the precious raw gemstone. This alone was worth more than ten million. He ain’t going to give it up over this sudden disturbance.

“Let’s move-” before he could finish his words. One of them screamed.

“Help,” one of theirs was floating in the air as if something was grabbing on to him. He wriggled his arms and legs trying to land back on the ground but it was fruitless. Cap had an idea in mind.

“Shoot under Miles, shoot the space under Miles,” he repeated his words as both pulled the trigger.

The submachine gun and gun roared within this small vault room. The loud gunshots echoed within this room yet they stopped. They watched Miles riddled by their own bullets.

“That thing is behind Miles,” said Cap. He was quick on his feet and jumped to the side taking a shot from the side.

BANG.

He saw the bullet ricochet away from something. Something unseeable.

“It’s invisible. Holt, shoot at it,” Cap shouted. He didn’t have time to be amazed as his fortune was on the line here as well as his life.

Before Holt could heed to Cap’s command. Miles’s body was thrown at Holt bringing him down to the ground. Then something stomped him from above.

“ARGH,” Colt screamed as his gut was being squashed by an unseen force.

“The fuck are YOU,” Cap shouted as his gun, shot at the thing above Colt. Again the bullet only ricocheted. Cap saw no hope of killing this invisible thing and he ran to the door.

But it was too late. Something pulled him by his back collar stopping his early sprint. Before he could react, his whole body was thrown in the air and collided against the titanium vault door. Cap heard his ribs broken as he fell to the floor face down.

The raw gemstone escaped his grasp and rolled on the floor before something unseen stopped it. Within the shroud of the unseen, Jason stared at the raw gemstone with hate underneath his eyes. Another reason why he was engulfed in anger, it was because he felt fear. Fear against the creature that killed his family and friend. It showed to himself that he was still weak.

The thought of destroying it came into mind but he wasn’t that stupid. With a grade called phantasmal, it would be stupid of him not to use it for his own benefit. He picked it up and the raw gemstone disappeared from Cap’s sight.

Cap was dumbfounded. Jason glanced at this lone man. He wanted to know more about how Cap knew that this thing was inside the vault. But as he looked around the vault, he spotted the cameras. Exposing himself wasn’t the best option right now. He came closer to Cap and stared at his relentless eyes.

Jason got to admit, this Cap was no average man. In the end, Jason twisted his head and this time he made sure the neck snapped. After killing him, he didn’t leave as he stood there staring at both of his hands.

His face remained stoic, expressionless. But deep down he was questioning himself.

What have I become?

He remembered back when he was attacked on the rooftop. He killed those men in black without hesitation as he was defending himself. But what about this? He left those upstairs fainted but here, five men went to their deathbed. There was no logical reason for their death except for Jason losing control consumed by his anger.

Let’s just go, my stomach is already growling.

Jason didn’t forget to loot the gun owned by Cap along with the ammunition that he had. He thought about bringing along the submachine gun but that huge thing disappearing would definitely be seen in the CCTV. All in all, the result was not that bad. A phantasmal grade forging material, a SIG Sauer M17, and seven clips of ammo. Not bad indeed.

--

Back at the buffet restaurant, Bryce was sitting down while biting her nails. Her left leg kept on fidgeting as waiting for Jason was nerve-racking. All the noise and gunshots were long gone and now she was waiting for him.

Then out of nowhere, he appeared while in the motion of sitting down on his seat. It caught Bryce surprised. Her body jumped backwards as she was close to falling from her chair. Bryce exhaled a huge pent up breath that she had been holding for the past half an hour. She leaned forward with her eyes darting around hoping that no one was around.

“So? What is it? Monsters?” she asked.

Jason twirled the spaghetti with his fork and ate it in one bite. She waited for him in anticipation. After taking another bite, Jason glanced at her.

“Just a bunch of street gangs.”