Chapter 20: Boss

"Should we tell someone?" Hunter asked Feng Biao as they neared the HCF boot camp.

Feng Biao shook his head.

"It would just trouble the residents here. The CCF can peek through every nook and cranny and I doubt they'll find a trace of that guy."

"But Biao, what if he pulls that shit again?"

"Well, if it makes you feel better you can report it."

"I am, False Marked roaming about the slums targeting Marked seems like bad news."

"Go for it, I'm gonna go catch up on some sleep."

And so when they entered the compound they split ways. Hunter going off to report the incident, Feng Biao going to go to sleep.

Lying in bed Feng Biao thought about the situation. The main reason he had not taken the man with them was an inability to disable his Mark without maiming him. Neither Hunter nor he was willing to cut into the man to disable his Mark.

That meant they would have to have taken a man whose Divine Ability was largely unknown to them. A risk Feng Biao judged was not worth the paltry info that would no doubt be gleaned from him.

"I'm just too weak right now."

Feng Biao felt the incident was just another reminder of his own inability. Without Hunter there the events would have certainly played out differently. The man had been hurt by Feng Biao's punch, but it hadn't been significant.

"And that was my strongest punch."

Indeed, even with [Indra's Tricks] he hadn't seemed to have disabled the man for more than a second before he had chased after Feng Biao. In the end, it was Hunter's strike that ended the fight.

Now that he had cooled down and thought about it Hunter had a point, False Marked targeting Marked was not a laughing matter. Pulling out his PDS Feng Biao focused on his memory of the Mark to get some more information.

Despite multiple results being brought up most of the posts were completely blocked. Attempting to access any simply informed him that his Rank was not high enough. Only a single post was available for viewing.

"Is Slum Activity Worth Your Observation Unexpectedly"

Reading through the article Feng Biao found it dry on info.

"Probably why it's not censored..."

Simply stating that recently a gang of False Marked had been invading slums and effectively conquering them. It refused to name the group, only referring to them as a gang. The focus of the article was about if the Marked reading should even be paying attention to slum activity.

Only one interesting tidbit of info stood out.

"The HCF will definitely have their hands full with making *************"

From there it seemed like his entire PDS bugged out as willing to view further only caused more asterisks to appear everywhere he looked on the PDS. Panicking Feng Biao shut his PDS and re-opened it.

Everything had gone back to normal. Confused Feng Biao demanded to see the author of the article.

"Unfortunately, I am unable to bring up the author of a non-existent post."

Reading the red text Feng Biao grew even more confused.

"I was just reading that article, where is it now?"

"Records do not indicate you accessed anything on the DCN after searching for results related to your inquiry."

Feng Biao now grew concerned. Something had clearly affected his PDS, and apparently, let him view an article that was non-existent. But what?

Closing his eyes Feng Biao decided to focus on something he could control. Rank Up Quest: Form your Divine Foundation (0.5%).

Before sleep, he would use up all his Divinity. At least this way progress would be made.

Waking up with a massive headache Mike found himself indoors.

"Guess they were strong, huh?"

That fucking voice. That fucking tone. It was that little bitch mocking him. She thought because the boss liked her pussy she could fucking act like she was the shit.

"They got lucky," Mike said rubbing his throbbing head.

"Yeah, unfortunately, you're not," the man with sunglasses interjected.

"What do you mean?" Mike said now startled into focus.

"Well, the boss said he didn't like how you handled yourself out there, you didn't pass."

"Give me another chance, it was two of them, if I had some backup I could have -"

"Nah," the girl said as she pulled a man into the light, "you're just like, bad vibes. Like the kind of guy who you know acts like when he has all the power in the world he can just-"

But Mike didn't pay attention to what she said.

The boss. The man who gave him his Mark. He was there. That was bad, really bad.

"Boss, I know I fucked up, but I can do better. I swear!" Mike said without delay.

Grabbing his hand the boss said no words. Mike knew what was coming and held back tears.

"You'll feel some pain, but it won't last."

In an instant, his Mark, and his hand were gone. Intense pain surged throughout Mike's entire body. He recoiled as blood flew from the wound.

And then the pain was gone, and his hand was back. However, his Mark was gone, now he had a normal right hand. His dreams of moving up the ladder and making it big were snuffed out.

Looking away from his hand the boss was gone and so was the annoying bitch. The man with sunglasses remained. After patting Mike on the shoulder and saying some well-wishes Mike couldn't even bother to register he too departed.

"Fucking stupid bitches!" Mike said as he smashed his hand into the concrete floor. No, he wouldn't let it end here. Even if he couldn't move up the ladder in that organization there were others in other slums. Ones that weren't nearly as powerful, but so what?

Mike was never planning to become the top dog, just living lavishly was good enough. So he exited the building and made his way for the next opportunity.