[30/95 HP]
The system message appeared in front of Quinn’s face once again. It was a constant reminder that his health continued to decrease, not that he needed the reminder anyway. Whenever the system message would appear, he would have shooting pains rush through his head and stomach moments before it. His inside felt like they were trying to tear each other apart, and his brain felt like someone was reaching inside and squeezing it.
This feeling usually lasted for around five minutes before Quinn was able to suppress it.
“Hey, are you okay?” Sam asked. “You don’t look too good.”
Fex quickly came over to Quinn’s side to give him a helping hand. He was the only one who actually knew what Quinn was doing as he had informed him beforehand. Vorden knew something was happening but wasn’t aware of the truth, and decided to let it be, figuring out that it was most likely some vampire-related business.
Quinn handed over his money card and gave it to Vorden to complete the purchase at the desk. The 400 credits were exchanged, and the equipment was placed in a fancy metallic suitcase. By the time Vorden had returned with the item, Quinn had mostly recovered and gotten over the pain.
“Well, I hope you start feeling better,” Said Sam, “I’ll see you guys at the tournament. Maybe we can meet up and watch it together?” Sam didn’t have many friends at his own military base, being quite the low level himself as a second year.
With Nate participating in the fighting tournament, Sam was pretty much on his own. So he thought it would be nice to enjoy the event with some others that wouldn’t be quick to judge, being low levels themselves.
“Yeah, that sounds good.” Quinn managed to crack out a smile as the last bit of pain started to fade to the back of his mind.
The four of them left the shop together and were ready to part ways as they continued to explore. As soon as they took a few feet away from the shop, a strange feeling was felt on each of their necks, as if their hairs were standing on end.
“We’re being followed,” Fex whispered.
“I know, a group of five,” Vorden replied.
The three boys weren’t the only ones that noticed this; when Sam turned around to check on the three boys, he could also see that a group was strangely following them from behind.
‘What are they planning?’ Sam couldn’t help but decided to get involved. He knew if Nate were here, he would have tried stopping whatever was about to happen.
As expected, the group of students suddenly decided to appear and block the three’s path. The boy at the front had the sides of his hair cut short and a purple streak running down the middle. He quickly glanced down at the three watches before deciding to approach them. After confirming all of their ability levels were lower than his, a smile appeared on his face.
“Well, what do we have here.” The student said as he got closer.
“Um well, we’re a little short on money, you see, and we were kind of hoping to buy something from one of these shops. I had my eye on that chest piece for a while, and when I saw someone else buy it, it just rubbed me the wrong way.” The student then got right up into Quinn’s face as he said his next words… “Especially when I see a weak level one like you getting something like this. It would be useless in your hands.”
[Inspect]
[Name: Zac Lee]
[Ability level: 6]
[Transformation ability]
Using the inspect skill, Quinn was able to figure out the level of all the members of the opposite group, even when they were hiding their watches. It made sense why the student Zac was confident. He was a level six ability user, and everyone else around him was around a level 4 and five.
As a group, they seemed quite strong. After they had seen that, both Fex and Quinn were only level ones, even with Vorden being with them, they didn’t even think they had a chance of losing. Right now, Vorden had a random ability of a level four user he had touched, so his wristwatch was displaying that number.
So Zac and his group had even more confidence that the group faced no such threat in front of them.
Using his right hand, Zac placed it on top of the metallic case in Quinn’s and tried to pull it away using all his strength. When he tugged though, there was no movement, and his hand slipped off from the metal case. The smile on his face dropped.
Quickly, Zac grabbed on to the case again and tried to pull it out of Quinn’s hand again, this time getting a more firm grip on the case, but when Zac tried to pull away, a tight grip was felt around his hand which gripped the case.
“What the hell…. do you think you’re doing?” Quinn said slowly. ” This… is mine.”
Zac’s group of friends behind had no clue what was going on and were still smirking away at the thought of the helpless level ones having their expensive gear taken away.
‘Why is this person making me feel sick when I look him in the eye?’ Zac thought.
When inside the shop, Zac had carefully watched Quinn and his friends enter the shop. Even before they had purchased the equipment, he had taken note of their Levels. It came as a big surprise when he found out a Level one user could purchase intermediate gear.
Then a thought had hit him; perhaps he was someone from a prestigious or at least a wealthy family. They had been cursed with a son that was only able to produce a low amount of MC cells—never being able to get past level one. At that point, the only thing one could do was purchase beats gear to help them on their journey through life.
Having made this prediction, Zac never thought a reaction like this would come from Quinn.
“Hey, Five against three is a bit unfair, don’t you think so? Maybe we should even up the sides a little.” Sam said as he walked over.
Sam, too, had actually thought the same thing as Zac when he saw Quinn. The only difference was, Sam thought he could relate to Quinn. For he was one of those very people. A person who was unable to progress any higher in his ability level, despite being able to purchase books at a higher tier. His body had already hit the MC cell limit.
Seeing Sam coming over, Zac’s group of friends behind him started to get more aggressive and were getting ready for a face-off.
As the tension rose in the air, it felt like either side was going to strike first. However, both Fex and Vorden were worried about a different matter. For some reason, Quinn was upset at the actions that had just occurred. It made sense anyone would be; the only difference was Quinn had a critical secret he needed to hide.
“I think I know what you mean about him not being nice now,” Fex whispered over to Vorden.
Even Quinn himself felt his actions were a little stranger than usual. Of course, he always wanted to punish people who did things like this, but right now was not the time, especially with as many military personnel around as there was. Still, Quinn refused to let Zac’s wrist go, and moreover, he was starting to grip it harder and harder.
Zac could feel this, and the pain was starting to get to him. He wanted to squeal or grunt a little but was too afraid the other would laugh at him if he began to give in to the pain and were to make strange noises.
‘What do I do?’ He thought, looking for a way out of this.
“Hey, what is going on here!.” A deep voice said from the side. A soldier had appeared, wearing a military uniform. “There is to be no fighting during the week stay here, do you understand? If you disobey, we will have to lock you up for your remaining time here. If there is a dispute, I suggest you settle it through some other matter. I’ll be keeping an eye on you.” The soldier said as he walked back off, continuing on his way to where he was going before.
When the soldier had arrived, Quinn’s grip had loosened and Zac managed to break free in a split second. After hearing the words of the soldier, an idea had popped into his head. Maybe there was a way to settle this still and get the item he wanted. More than that, Zac felt a little humiliated and wanted to get his pride back.
“Fine, I have a little suggestion to make. If you are interested, why don’t we play a little game? Your guys versus mine.” He said with a smile.
****
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