[Na: Adam | Planet: SS4E | Strength: 100 Agility: 49 Endurance: 1 Perception: 1]
[Free Status Points: 0]
Adding points to Agility was a different kind of pain. Adding Strength had pierced through him violently, raw, like every part of his body was being crushed over and over again, followed by the sweet relief of release.
Agility was nothing like that. The pain here was steady, insistent, crawling through joints and sinew, burrowing into the insides of his limbs. And after? There was no relief. Only numbness, like he'd spent days exhausting his body, and it had simply… learned to endure.
Adam exhaled deeply and gazed down at the baby in his arms.
"Hold him," he said, turning to the mother and gently handing the child back. The crowd was a mont away from chaos, shoving and stepping over each other, ready to turn the space into a stampede.
The Forger was right, Adam. These people were sheep, lost and dumb, in desperate need of guidance.
"Calm down!" Adam shouted, his voice cutting through the murmurs and shuffles. Every foot that was about to flee, every hand that was about to shove, froze in place. "I want all of you to help each other! Don't run. Look out for yourselves first, but help if you can!"
The crowd stared at him, hesitating, uncertain.
"Go!" he said, and that was enough. Nods rippled through the mass of people, and almost like clockwork, they moved together. So people still pushed, but a single glance from Adam, a single tilt of his head, was enough to correct it. Within monts, the area around the Leak cleared with efficiency he'd never seen from strangers, even in the life-and-death chaos of the Gas.
Adam gave himself a small nod, the weight in his chest lightening slightly, and refocused on the portal. He looked up, expecting the Crystal to materialize above him—but… there was nothing.
It's… not a Survivor-mode Leak?
It would seem so. The edges of the portal shimred and twisted into a Purple hue, and in the next instant, a shadow stepped out. The hesitation in Adam's mind vanished as though it had never been. He rushed toward the Leak, and for the first ti in monts, the movent felt effortless. He felt light, almost untethered.
Agility is… useful. Of course, it is. Stupid. Stupid fucking—what?!
He suddenly stopped—and this ti, due to his increased agility, he did so without any effort at all. He stopped, because the shadow that had erged was…
…human.
"Huh?"
It was human… and it sounded like it, too.
"Huh…?"
***
"Mr. Sang Moon Park."
Several minutes ago, in France, Clentine was in a conference room, facing a large screen and was in a call with an old, balding Asian man.
The old man smiled.
"I'll be blunt. I think we've only t once, and from a distance, but—"
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