Distasteful Hobbies

Ian didn't know if he was supposed to be disappointed or not, but in any case, it was soon revealed to him that the nurse did not live alone. Instead, she lived with three other young women in a cozy little cottage that brought to mind the vintage builders that made houses for rich people who wanted to remember a time before the systems and humanoids. Ian liked these other girls as well. That didn't mean he was not scared of them. In fact, there was nothing quite as intimidating as being surrounded by females of whom only one was even remotely familiar with him. He was asked all kinds of things and while his system provided him with a nice social bumper, something to be proud of, something actually interesting to talk about, somehow the conversation still descended into what his parents did for a living or did he have any siblings. To make matters worse, the girls had no intention of talking about themselves at all. Judging by their actions, they thought that the only proper side dish to accompany herbal tea was existential horror and embarrassment.

Especially a gothic girl whose name started with a D was looking at him funnily with her piercing blue eyes.

He wanted to take that damn shower already and be done with the day. After all, he had committed arson and found out that his mentor was most likely double dealing - and only looking out for himself and Ian as long as the young man wanted to hit the gym with him. Now, it seemed like Ian was not even able to try sleeping in the same room with Lilac. He was told to sleep on the couch, and while it was some very nice couch, it did make him feel like his social standing would always be lower than the social standing of anyone cute or popular enough. Of course, this was the folly of young men who were still too shy to object against sleeping on random surfaces.

Lilac seemed to be especially touchy about her life. When Ian asked her about her parents, she behaved much like orphans did.

The torture against him ended and he was allowed to scrub himself clean of the dirt and the ashes of the day. When he fell asleep he did not care in any way, shape or form that he had been made to sleep on the couch, rather, he was just grateful to have somewhere to sleep other than that damn gym.

Lilac woke him up at the moment of dawn. She invited him for a walk with her deep into the park in the eastern side of the city. Ian agreed to come but they did not talk much. It was one of those blessed walks where the whole point of going out was to stare at each other in the golden rays of the rising sun.

Lilac was a truly beautiful young lady. Ian was carrying his suit in a bag. He didn't see any reason to be a pretentious fool always wearing his best outfits. It would have been ridiculous to wear the cybernetic suit on a casual walk in the park. He only hoped that he was reasonably impressive without it, with his rather athletic body of a climber. He didn't know if he was being delusional or not, but perhaps the recent addition of a strength point did show itself on his chest and in his arms. He realized that his hair was still looking funny – half long and half cut. He pointed this out wordlessly by throwing around the few remaining long locks. Lilac laughed.

"You should see an actual barber and get a real haircut. I'm afraid I will jinx it. What if another portal opens up and you will have to spend the rest of your life getting incomplete haircuts?"

They both laughed. For once, there were no pop up windows. No animals threatening the lives of Ian loved ones. In fact, things were looking quite peaceful even if it was but a passing moment in the chaotic stream of his life.

"You better go now. I have things to do, I have to get ready for work," Lilac said.

[INTELLIGENCE IS NOW 12]

Ian smirked. He did not feel like he had learned anything significant, but he welcomed the new stat gladly.

He had a quest to complete. Rhino cobras with no skills.

Unfortunately enough, that sounded a lot like some military training was in order.

The soldiers let him into the shooting range. There were certain safety protocols that were taught to citizens from such a young age that even driving a bike could be forgotten more easily. However, it was rare that a young man, eighteen years of age, knew how to actually shoot. Aiming was something that Ian had succeeded in once or twice - namely on the day he had received his awesome system. It was a shame that said system was less than useful right now. The boring grinding of getting really good at aiming a pistol at living things was not something that Ian was enthusiastic about.

To his great relief, his mentor found him shooting at targets and chastised him for wasting time.

"You know that you're never going to be fast enough for the cobras. You shouldn't even waste time trying to be anything more than a mediocre pistol user." The older man shook his head and laughed. He seemed to be in a good mood and he didn't mind - at least according to his own words - that Ian had been proactive about his talents. It just happened to be so that Kortock was right. It was not possible to make someone who had been lucky once into a real gunslinger. Ian should have started practicing while he would have been able to shape his brain around this distasteful hobby. It was too late for him now. He was a man, and he had to find an alternative method to kill ten cobras.

There was always the option of crushing the fragile bodies of the rhino cobras, but that one did take a lot more speed than Ian had at his disposal.

He got an idea while driving around with Kortock.

He could poison the cobras.