I idly stroked the top of Corvid’s head as he chowed on a burger. It’d already been a day since I infiltrated Cold Moon Solutions, and yet I still found myself stuck watching the news clips over and over again. Of course, the rest of the city had long gone on. It was just another explosion in a sea of them.
I restarted the clip one more ti as I rested my head on my table. The newscaster, a pretty woman with far too many aesthetic augnts, smiled at the cara as a picture of a massive crater in Bricktown popped up. “In what authorities are calling the Cold Moon Accident, Vesper Street in Bricktown was rocked by a horrifying explosion early this morning. Surprisingly, there were no fatal injuries reported, though one man was critically injured. A few bystanders on the scene also suffered minor injuries. The surrounding buildings were damaged in the process, though both were empty this late at night. Reports have co in that the landowners are seeking restitution.”
The newscaster disappeared as a clip popped up. At first, it showed my uncle arguing with a firefighter just outside the building. In the blink of an eye, the building exploded into a flash of multicolored lights. Streaks of rainbow lightning flowed with the massive cloud of debris and fire, arcing along as reactive materials collided with each other in the dust clouds. For a few brief monts, spontaneous tears ca and went as if so unholy entity ripped space apart. The Aether overlapped again and again, devouring a large chunk of the explosion as the pure energy ripped open the dinsion on a small scale. The worst of the explosion was devoured by the ripped space, but there was still enough energy to cause severe structural damage to the surrounding buildings.
They must’ve had so really expensive stuff in the top two labs for it to go this badly. Or at least sothing that had the potential to cut open a dinsional gap. Maybe a Spirit Cleaver tree?
A groan escaped my lips as I ran a hand through my hair. Not what I thought would happen when I prid the chemicals scattered around the building to explode. I was expecting a small-scale explosion that would maybe collapse a sinkhole into the sub-levels. In hindsight, I should’ve seen the Aetherially reactive materials reacting to the explosion.
The newscaster returned with her fake smile. “The Crusade has put out a statent that the sudden explosion was caused by a gas leak reacting with illegal materials kept in unregistered sub-levels. Their investigation into the matter is still ongoing, though our investigators believe it to be the latest crackdown on Savant Labs across the city. The Blue Crusade has once more proved themselves by taking down a potential nace to society.” The woman minimized as the screen changed to a hospital room. “The CEO, Kuzo Tsukuyomi had this to say-“
My uncle, wrapped in too many bandages and casts to even see his skin, coughed out blood. “We’re being frad. This is a conspiracy. I’ll find the terrorist responsible for this horrible att- ack!” Coughs wracked his body again. “A-and prove it!”
"As for the firefighters that arrived on the scene, they showed their appreciation for Kuzu Tsukuyomi holding them back last night. If he hadn't, several firefighters would've been severely if not fatally injured. They are throwing a party in his honor." The news station put up a picture of about a dozen or so firefighters all bowing in thanks to the CEO.
The newscaster returned. “CEO Kuzo Tsukuyomi has filed for bankruptcy since our interview. He has since refused to comnt, though law experts suggest he is soon to be buried in legal fees while the Blue Crusade investigates the matter. In other news-”
The clip paused as I rewound it once more and hit play. I dropped my head onto the bar, feeling the rough charred wood against my skin. It wasn’t supposed to be like this… at least, this isn’t how I thought I’d get revenge. An eye for an eye, eh? Looks like I did more damage than just an eye…
Corvid pecked my hand lightly, covering my phone with his wing. “Caw? Caw~ Caw?”
I turned off the phone and rubbed his head again. “Yeah, you’re right… thanks for the help.”
The avian slapped two wings to his chest. “Caw, ca-caw!”
He went back to eating the massive burger I bought him as my phone dinged. A ssage from Athena popped into my HUD. ‘Good work. Liked the explosion. A bit extra for returning the relics. Oh, and I’ve got a job coming up in a week. Closer to the Leper-Khan job. High payout and should be easy to repay that favor I owe you. Interested?’
I pulled up my First Botswana International Bank account and checked it over. Outside of my bulk sale of aetherial crystals and rocks to Carone for thirty-five hundred Rayn, I also had a deposit of twenty thousand from Athena. Oh, and a smooth hundred from the odds and ends I nicked from the CEO’s office. 'Course the bastard had cheap knockoffs. Can't imagine he had much money after dumping so much into thuze. The three combined brought my bank account up to twenty-nine thousand, two hundred and thirty-four.
If I add on the gold coins and pocket watch, of which were worth at least twenty thousand altogether, I had more than enough to finally get that tal printer with so to spare. Things were looking up. Or at least, that’s what I forced myself to think as I watched Kuzo get blown away again and again.
「Stealth - 9>10」
「Deception - 7>8」
「Explosives - 1 Acquired」
Hey…that’s sothing. Haah…
New Skill is exciting, I guess.
New Perk too. That’s fun… I can add it to the list of other Perks I have to spend. That makes… what, four? I’m slacking. Oh, and I had so stuff I wanted to make. Now that I could afford the tal 3D printer, there were plenty of projects I could work on.
I just had to find the will to do it.
I sent a confirmation ssage to Athena and then pushed myself up and out of bed. The first thing I did was find the card for the Constellation Night Market. I RSVPed for the next one in a couple of days and then flopped back onto my bed. I drank deeply from Crow’s Canteen as I watched Corvid happily chow down the entire burger from Big Mike.
I had a couple days till the Night Market went live. Might as well spend my Perks now, at least. With a thought my vision faded and I was pulled into the pavilion.
I stood in front of the Deception Perk shelf. Dozens of unread scrolls lay around, all gleaming with the promise of power. I’d looked through the list already back when I was thinking about spending my free points, so I already knew what I wanted.
「Master of Disguise」
Since it required both Deception and Concealnt at level eight, it could be ‘slotted’ into either. Nice to know. Basically, I get to save my Free Perk Point and still get the Perk. I picked out the scroll and took it over to the easel.
As soon as I set it down, it unraveled. The painting depicted an incredibly attractive woman. Whoever it was had an impossibly beautiful face as if their every feature had been perfectly crafted. The only thing that stood out were two slightly glowing sapphire eyes.
I blinked, trying to think about how the person in the painting looked, though my mind blanked entirely outside of the incredible beauty and sapphire eyes. I entirely blanked on any of the actual features.
I blinked again as the pavilion started to fade away, the painting capturing my attention entirely. It had changed at so point, turning into soone else. The new woman was still incredibly beautiful and had amazing cobalt eyes.
Wait-
The pavilion faded entirely and I found myself back in bed. A cooling sensation exuded from my body, similar to Cold-Blooded, and yet a relaxing cold instead of the frigid gnawing that the other Perk gave. It felt similar to other active perks, like Hidden Hands.
I stood up and headed for my bathroom, looking at myself in the mirror. For several monts, I couldn’t recognize the face staring back. The girl was incredibly pretty, and her eyes seed to pop against her nearly flawless skin. I blinked a few tis, ntally deactivating Master of Disguise.
It didn’t work. At least, not like I thought it would. I could see my face as it beca clear once more, though I still felt the coolness of the Perk being active.
I tried a few other things, eventually finding that the Perk worked differently than my other active ones. Instead of being one large toggle for the whole thing, it felt like more of an individualized process.
I went out onto the street, going for a jog as I familiarized myself with how the Perk operated. Best I could tell, everyone had individual toggles. With it on, the person wouldn’t recognize though it seed as if my clothes were still sowhat recognizable.
I had a barista I was ssing with comnt that my poncho, jacket, and techie pants must be in style since she’d seen a couple people co in all dressed the sa. I went in a dozen tis, so I wasn’t a hundred percent sure if it was just her lacking perception or if it was a partial effect of the Perk. Soone more cautious would probably be able to figure out sothing was wrong, so it wasn’t flawless, but it was damn near close. I just needed to change up my wardrobe and I'd be solid.
Definitely a perfect tool in my arsenal. It would hopefully help keep my identities separate, at least. Not that there’d been too many close calls so far, but still. Oh! I could also easily infiltrate places too. I wouldn’t have an issue burning my face after my first trip at least.
Oddly, although no one could rember my face as if there was a haze over it, Honest Face still worked. I was a bit worried for a while that Master of Disguise would make Honest Face obsolete, but they seem to still work together.
I didn’t imdiately return ho after testing out Master of Disguise. Perks were best spent after so downti. At least, that’s what I’d been able to piece together after so long. It kept from overstressing ntally.
Instead, I grabbed my guns and headed for the firing range. It was sothing I’d been aning to do for a while now. My accuracy was… considerably bad. It had gotten better as of late, but I still needed to work on it.
— — —
Several hours later, my arms sore from the constant kick, I returned to my apartnt. After a quick shower, I laid down to pick my next Perk. It was a bit soon, but Master of Disguise had been relatively easy on . Not even a splotch of pain.
This ti around, I went with lee Weapons. In an instant, I arrived before the shelf for it.
lee Weapons… what to say about it? This was my first ti actually looking through its Perk scrolls, and most of them were useless- well, not useless. They’d be really good for a psychopath who wanted to bring a knife to a gunfight but otherwise didn’t fit my style.
There were so cool ones though. A lot of weapon-specific martial arts and abilities. There was one called Shocker’s Scythe that boasted the ability to coat the blade of a scythe in electricity. Super cool, but, like, who wants to carry around a massive scythe?
There were other more useful ones in there though. Life Deceptive Dagger. It looked similar to Hidden Hands but was specifically for distracting an enemy while wielding a dagger. There were a lot of Perks for daggers and knives specifically. Probably since they were the most used these days.
’Course, there were more universal ones. Improvised Weapons could be used with any kind of lee weapon from bar stools to glass bottles. Or Energized Strike seed as though it was for every weapon. Basically, a one-ti all-out strike that seed as though it would do so serious damage. At least based on the description. It's too bad these don't co with a video of them being used or I could make a better guess at their viability.
I ended up settling on sothing a little different. Sothing way more my speed.
「Throwing Weapon Master」
As soon as I popped it onto the easel, my surroundings changed. I was back outside of the pavilion, in the garden surrounding the pavilion. The dreaded rock garden sat just off to my side, though a red fence line blocked it off instead of infinite lightning like last ti. It was a much gentler reminder not to leave the area.
I stood in the middle of what looked like an archery range. Old-tiy targets—round hay bales held up by a peg—sat on the far end of the range, each of them placed at different distances. So were even half buried or raised up off the ground. Others had cover blocking them in a way that would make it impossible to hit them without so kind of rebound or perfect arc.
Tables lay all around the firing lines, each of them loaded with hundreds of different weapons. Knives, shuriken, tomahawks, and hundreds of other types of throwing weapons I couldn’t na off the top of my head sat around. Heck, there was even a deck of throwing cards buried under the mound. Each stack of weapons was bundled up into groups of ten.
The closest target, one set up without anything crazy and fairly close, was briefly illuminated by a beam of moonlight peeking through the clouds. Falling sakura petals, because they were always falling here for so reason, drifted to the target as if carried by a light breeze.
「Hit the bullseye 0/10」
Haah… so a learned Perk then. I felt a slight pang of regret as I headed for the table and picked up a bandolier of ten tomahawks. I pulled one of them out, getting a feel for the weight of the ax as I tossed it up and down. Then, without further adieu, I threw it at the target. It hit… the target next to the one that I aid at.
The bandolier reset back to ten tomahawks.
「Hit the bullseye 0/10」
I had a feeling I’d be here for a while.
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