You Asked, I Gave You

Silva, who had stayed behind grumbling, soon eased the "angry" expression on his face and gave a slight smile. His eyes were glued to the figure that was leaving.

'This boy is a mystery. Very skillful for his age, with a strong determination and now comes up with something like that. It even felt like I was disease free for a while! '

Silva knew more or less who Arthur was and how old he was. He was at the ex-smokers' assembly and heard Arthur's speech.

'When I first saw him, I knew he was someone who had already had his pains. But he seems to have changed so much in such a short time... What happened to him?

After thinking for a while, Silva soon left after closing the kiosk.

'Let's leave tomorrow for tomorrow'

***

As he was heading home, following his everyday commute, Arthur soon felt something strange. A feeling he hadn't felt before.

'Where does this agony come from? It's like a weird buzzing...' As he ran a hand over the back of his neck, Arthur started to look around.

There were a lot of people, employees who were coming back from their jobs. There was nothing strange about it and everything was as it should be.

He felt that this was very strange, so he continued on his way.

But before he started to take a few more steps, another hum began to sound in the side of his head, near his eyes. The agony he was feeling was a little lighter.

Arthur instantly looked in the direction of the hum and noticed someone looking at him. This person was startled by Arthur's look and entered an alley.

'Is this... Is this some kind of spider sense? wouldn't it be weird for that to happen. Also, I recognize this person. It was one of the guys who was talking to Silva in the alley.'

Arthur's brain quickly processed the information and Arthur came up with a plan of action. Odds rose in his mind and slowly turned into certainty.

As a buzz came from behind, someone was following him. He also took into account that the intensity of the agony felt can be remitted to a distance of the observer.

As soon as he found an opportunity, Arthur entered one of the alleys that could be considered a shortcut to the hotel. There was usually no one there and no windows.

It didn't take long, and when he was in the middle of the alley, two people appeared at each end of the alley. Arthur already knew that these four people were going to show up.

"If you can't kill the lion, then take the cub. Aren't you ashamed?" Arthur's tone was casual.

But still, he took a watchful stance. Enough to scale buildings and run away and also to attack. He might be stronger than most people, but he didn't want to test whether he would survive a shot.

"The only person you can blame is that old idiot! If he had paid well, then we wouldn't have gone after you. We didn't know what we could do to force the old man, but you showed up at the right time." The person speaking was the same person who was speaking to Silva. As Arthur thought, he could be the leader.

"Look, I honestly don't want to waste time. Either you attack me right away or just go away. But, you'll have to tell me who you leader is." Arthur started to get slightly impatient, so he hurried things along a little more.

"Looks like we have a Sherlock here! But it turns out I read in a certain book that dead people can't hear. So we're just going to attack anyway!" The leader began to smile slightly, his henchmen following him.

"Are you dumb? I gave you options, not a sequence of actions." Arthur couldn't handle the situation and was already getting irritated.

"Hey man... Nobody calls me a dumb! Attack!" The leader was soon irritated by Arthur's provocation and ran to attack him.

He and his henchmen pulled knives and ran to attack Arthur.

'Then there are no firearms!' A slight smile appeared on Arthur's face and his stance relaxed.

The bandits were getting closer and closer and Arthur was still standing. As soon as they got close, one of the men behind Arthur yelled.

"Die!!"

"I don't think so, man." Arthur displayed a brilliant smile and his eyes got even brighter.

As soon as all the men were close and were about to stick their knives into Arthur, he moved.

He took a step forward and grabbed the wrist of one of the henchmen in front of him. With a yank, Arthur lunged forward and threw the man toward one of the knifes, which it slammed into his back.

With a quick kick, Arthur caught the elbow of the other man in front of him and his arm instantly broke. Now all that was left was the leader and another henchman, which was the one who accidentally stabbed his colleague.

Seeing all that, the leader soon threw his knife on the ground and surrendered: "I'll tell you, man. I'll tell! Whatever you want, boss!"

Arthur immediately stopped what he was going to do and looked at the leader with a disgusted look.

'Coward!' A very bad impression of the man in front of him was imprinted on Arthur's mind.

"Speak! And don't expect anything good to happen to you." Arthur's tone was irritated and hurried.

"Here's the thing, boss. A while ago our old boss disappeared out of nowhere and no one has heard from him. And it didn't even take some kind of confrontation to say who was the new one. We are only debt collectors and the new boss just said that from today on there would be an increase in protection fees and that we should go collect them. That's all I know, man! Just let me go."

'Selfish!' Arthur's gaze on the man was growing darker. He already knew that this leader was a terrible man, but witnessing such cowardice and self-centeredness made him angry.

"I'm glad you spoke quickly. And it sounds like you're really dumb. I didn't give you options…just a sequence of actions." A scary smile came over Arthur's face as he looked at the leader.

It didn't take long and those four guys were already lying on the floor... bleeding... but alive.

Arthur then took out his cell phone, called 192* and soon left.

***

After arriving at the Hotel, Arthur once again came across Thomas's image on the computer, typing like the wind.

On the screen, some kind of programming language was operating and countless lines of code appeared.

Since Arthur knew that Thomas was very focused and needed his own space, he made no noise when he arrived. He just took off his clothes, folded them and put them in an easy place to pick up next time.

Arthur always smelled fragrant, never sweating except during morning and evening exercises. So he would only soil his clothes by external means, and he was careful not to.

Even his breath was fresh and sweet, his teeth always white. Arthur only showered and brushed his teeth because it was routine and he wasn't willing to give up basic hygiene, even if he didn't need to as before.

All these changes started to take place since that black goo came out of him. Since then, Arthur began to draw conclusions of his own, as there was nothing to help him answer.

There are so many questions arising in Arthur's mind and there is simply nothing and no one who can help him to answer them, so self-study was necessary.

'I don't mind waiting for answers about these questions. There are many issues I have to deal with, and I even forget to resolve them all.'

Many things that Arthur should have already explored about the system, he decided to leave it for later and focused on the ones that were most important at the time.

Whether it was fighting, training, discovering and using techniques. Everything somehow caught Arthur's attention. This had definitely been the longest month of his life.

'But if there's one thing I've been thinking about recently, it's the use of these karma points. I remember that the system talked about something like improving techniques and equipment. I think I'll try it before I go to practice!'

Thus, Arthur's next step was defined.