024 THE VIGILANTE IN TOWN
Big Boss obliged, his ears cocked for Damen's secrets but the instant the he bent in, Damen moved.
A soundless strike hit Big Boss's mind—then another, then a third.
He staggered, doubled over, shrieking.
Damen had siphoned attributes from Big Boss mid-fight with his mining app's Acquire function. He couldn't do that with H-ranks anymore, but G-rank was a different story.
Big Boss never had a chance to recover.
Damen's dagger flashed. He drove it straight into the man's skull. The body slumped to the ground, lifeless in a heap.
Damen sank to his knees, his chest heaving, and adrenaline still ripping through him.
He blinked at his phone all of a sudden.
[You have acquired an enhancement to your Flash Dash skill. Proceed? Y/N]
He tapped Yes without thinking. Another notification chimed almost at once:
Congratulations — your Flash Dash has improved to G-Rank.
"Even skills have hero ranks now?" Damen murmured, half in awe, half in dread. He would ask Dorin at the gym later about skill ranks.
For now, there were practical matters to handle.
He moved through the ruined alley like a machine. He stripped the dead of cash, stacked the bodies together, and found a place in Big Boss's jacket to slip the ring he'd salvaged from Mad Cat earlier.
He didn't know exactly what the artifact did—only that the underworld of Melrose had coveted it enough to spill blood. He didn't want that kind of shadow pointing at him.
Getting involved with the underworld was a risk he wasn't ready to take—at least, not yet.
Pouring a slow trail of gasoline over the bodies, he struck a lighter. The flames licked hungrily at ragged clothing and exposed flesh. Smoke curled up and swallowed the alley.
When the fire finally burned out, there would be little left but ash—and the ring that had driven men to murder.
Damen watched the blaze, his chest tight. He'd erased the evidence of the gangsters' killing.
It was time to go home.
-----
Lander finally stepped outside to take a break.
Hours of dismantling and hauling the testing machines had left his muscles aching. He stretched, lifting his gaze to the night sky.
The stars were bright, but something else caught his eye—an orange glow flickering in the distance.
There's a fire.
Dorin walked out after him. "What's wrong?"
"There's a fire in the abandoned construction zone," Lander said, squinting.
She shrugged. "Probably just some homeless people burning trash to keep warm. Not our problem."
But Lander' instincts screamed otherwise.
His meta powers weren't for brute strength or combat—they were reason and intuition sharpened into something beyond human.
And right now, they told him this fire was different.
"I don't think so," he muttered. "Something's off."
He hurried back into the hall and retrieved a handheld instrument—a meta detector. Switching it on, he scanned the area.
The readings spiked.
Dorin frowned. "What's it say?"
"High-level meta residue. That's not trash burning." Lander' voice dropped. "They're burning meta corpses."
Moments later, Lander had a team assembled. They rushed toward the blaze and arrived just as the bodies were almost reduced to ash.
"Put it out!" Lander barked. His team smothered the flames with fire suppressants until only smoldering embers remained. He crouched among the remains, his trained eye scanning every detail.
Then he saw it—half-buried in soot, glinting faintly under the firelight.
There was a ring.
He picked it up, brushing away the char.
Dorin peered over his shoulder. "What is it? Why are you so interested with the ring"
Lander' expression hardened. "This isn't just any trinket. This is the Ring of Power—one of the artifacts developed by the Alliance of Evolution."
Her eyes widened. "What does it do?"
"It's like our skill transmuting chips," Lander explained, turning the ring in his hand. "Those chips can transfer meta abilities into unskilled meta humans, but they burn out after one use. This ring is similar but not limited like our meta chips. It can be used again and again."
Dorin's jaw dropped. "So, with it, you could train an entire army of metas for practically nothing?"
"That's the theory." Lander tucked the ring away, his mind racing. "What do you think happened here?"
"Isn't this gang violence?" Dorin offered.
Then Lander looked back at the charred corpses. "But the real question is—why was the ring left behind? Any boss who finds the ring will cherish it like a treasure."
"Maybe they don't know about the ring's use?"
He shook his head. "No. The ring was clearly put there by someone."
"Then who would do this? Who kills gangsters and leaves their treasure behind?"
Lander' voice was grim. "There's only one answer. We have a vigilante in town."
------
Damen realized that, for the past month, Heroes' Gym had become his only home.
So, even this late at night, he found himself walking through its glass doors. The gym was open twenty-four hours a day, and sure enough, someone was waiting at the front desk.
"Hi, Maureen," Damen greeted.
She didn't answer him, only extended her hand. Damen dropped an Aur card into her palm. A quick swipe across the register and a hundred Aurs vanished from his balance.
Inside, he moved past the glowing rows of equipment, then he headed straight for the testing room. He hadn't checked his stats since absorbing attributes from the fighters in MMA Stadium, and tonight he needed answers.
The screen lit up:
Strength 11.0 | Charm 10.0 | Meta 11.0 | Command 11.0
Damen frowned. His attributes had been capped at 10.0 before—so why were some now at 11.0?
Before he could think through, a sharp ping echoed from his phone. A notification.
Congratulations, you have reached a Meta ranking of G.
"Damnit," he muttered. "So, the mining app tracks my rank too?"
Another alert popped up.
"New System Upgrade is available, do you want to proceed? Y/N"
Damen clicked upgrade immediately. When the upgrade was completed he checked the phone when a new feature popped up.
New feature unlocked: Attribute Scanning.
His annoyance melted into a grin. "Now that's interesting." Without hesitation, he tested it on the nearest target in the gym. New data spilled onto his screen:
Name: Rollback
Rank: F
Strength: 29 | Charm: 7 | Meta: 32 | Command: 30
Damen's eyes widened. "This is incredible. There is no more guessing the target's abilities. I can see everything from my app."
But the surprises weren't over.
Another chime was heard which meant, another feature unlock.