CH24: House of Death’s Assigned Contract
***
CH24: House of Death's Assigned Contract
*
On the sixth day, which was the night I killed Gunnar, after changing to my plumber's uniform, I returned to Elaine's apartment building.
When one tenant asked me why I was working at night, I just mentioned I forgot one of my tools in the apartment and decided to get some work in while I was there.
Anyway, I snuck into Elaine's room.
I messed around with her ventilation machine and added something extra to her hair cream before returning to the next door apartment.
I soon left the building that night.
Preparations were complete. Elaine just had to come home and follow her usual routine.
-
The next day, I returned to the apartment as usual.
I watched as Elaine returned home, closed the windows, switched on the AC, stripped naked, applied her hair cream, then got into the bath.
While she soaked in the bath, she didn't notice the AC switched off. A few seconds later, she started choking.
I expect her body felt weak as she lost consciousness and drifted into the water. Bubbles rose from underneath the water surface for a while but soon stopped.
I watched on for five more minutes to confirm she wasn't breathing under the water.
I returned to work fixing the plumbing network after confirming the AC switched back on. Before leaving that afternoon, I checked again and saw her head was still underwater.
Now satisfied that she was dead, I called in the successful hit.
Oh yeah, I patched up the holes and destroyed any evidence before I left the apartment.
*
Ok. At this point, you must be wondering how I killed her, right?
Poison?
Nope. Not exactly. Her ability would've warned her if that was it.
Let's back up a little to when I receive the investigation report from the organisation.
Apparently, her principal died while having a threesome. Official autopsy report stated that he died of a heart attack.
A healthy young man in a world of Mana dying of a heart attack. Of course that was suspicious.
However, I suspect it was no fault of Elaine's.
Remember I said her principal was notorious. Well, he was notorious for being a playboy. There was practically no hole he wouldn't put his rod in if he got the chance. Age was no issue; young and old were welcome. As long as they had holes and could spread them to him, his rod would enter.
World of mana or not, a 'healthy' cocktail of alcohol, drugs and constant sex, took its toll on the heart, especially when all those activities were enhanced by mana.
I remember reading reports in my previous life of men's hearts giving out during sexual activity. Most times, these men took... enhancers which tended to overload their circulatory system and sent their hearts into cardiac arrest.
Long story short, Elaine's principal was killed by the consequence of his normal actions.
Actions which Elaine's ability would never have deemed a threat.
Confusing?
Bear with me.
I know of a saying, 'Everyday, we face a myriad of things that can kill us. That we make it through the day alive is in fact a miracle'.
There were so many ways a person could die. Heck, merely breathing air into the wrong pipe could kill you.
There was no way Elaine's ability could keep track of every possible way a person could die. If it did that, she would run mad with the amount of false positive she'd receive.
So, I deduced her ability worked in either of two ways.
The first was that her ability was only triggered by threat to life she herself knew were dangers.
Or second, they were triggered by active immediate threat to life.
I was more inclined to believe it was the latter.
It had the wider scope so it was safer to believe it to be the case.
Basically what this meant was that since they were danger to life everywhere, the ability would ignore every danger that didn't stand out.
For example, passing by a person had its dangers. However, we pass people everyday. So Elaine's ability won't be triggered until a person actually jumps out to attack her.
Similarly, she drinks water everyday. Her ability won't trigger unless it detects something in that water that shouldn't be there.
In this case, the danger sense can be seen as a Sixth sense.
However, the thing about senses is that the brain begins to ignore some sensory signals if they become constant.
For example, if you smell a perfume for the first time, your nose picks up the slightest whiff. However, as you continue to smell the same perf in the same amounts, you begin to notice the scent less and less.
Another example, when you enter the dark for the first time, it becomes difficult to see. However, the longer you stay there, the better you vision becomes later on.
Similarly, a food taste delicious the first time you eat it. However, the more you eat the food consistently without varying taste, the less delicious the food taste over time.
Same goes for hearing and touch.
Our brains tend to make a baseline of sensory impulses. Anything that doesn't stand out from this baseline is essentially ignored as useless information.
I couldn't attack Elaine directly nor could I poison her directly as well, as these occurrence would standout to her Danger sense and warn her in advance.
However, it was also in this trait of the brain and accompanying senses that I found a loophole which I used to kill her.
-
A little science trivia.
Formaldehyde is a compound used in embalming to preserve dead bodies.
However, did you know that this same compound is used in hair creams?
In small amounts, Formaldehyde is harmless, maybe it would cause some irritation at most, however, in large quantities, it can be fatal.
The key ingredient manufacturing Elaine's death was Formaldehyde.
-
When I broke into her apartment that night, I spiked her hair cream with Formaldehyde. It's surprisingly easy to get in Landrose.
Many people want to show off the beast they've killed, so often times, the take the body to a taxidermist to preserve the head of the creature as a trophy that can be hung on their walls.
Some even go as far as to preserve the entire body.
This is a common practice in Landrose, meaning there were surprisingly a lot of Taxidermist in the city (ish).
And you guessed it, they made use of Formaldehyde.
All I needed to do was to 'acquire' a jar from one such professional, which I then used to spike Elaine's hair cream.
Normally, Formaldehyde is very volatile and spreads into air easily, so a good ventilation can get rid of it. However, Elaine's routine sealed her fate.
She closed the windows and switched on the AC.
The AC was on when she applied the hair cream so the air flow didn't trigger any discomfort from her and so her ability didn't trigger since she was used to smelling the Formaldehyde in her hair cream.
However, the death sentence came when the AC shut off without her knowledge.
The airflow stopped and the formaldehyde vapour had nowhere to go except into her lungs.
By the time her danger sense triggered, enough of the potential toxin had entered into her system knocking her out. Her attempt to get out of the tub before she blacked out, only caused her to slide into it.
She ended up drowning in the water.
Actually, even if she got out of the tub, she would still have died of formaldehyde poisoning.
*
I made my way back to the DoomMane estate. I headed straight to my room where I was excited to get my rewards.
'Interface, calculate the result of my contract.'
[Instruction received.]
[Calculating...]
[Calculation complete.]
[Mission: Special 2-in-1 contract]
[Contract Detail: Host took up a contract to takeout two individuals Gunnar Brower and Elaine Hartman.]
[Notice: Reward details will be handled separately.]
*
[Details:]
[Target: Gunnar Brower Contract]
Details: House of Death Outer member contract
Type: Elimination.
Special Requirements: None.
-
{Reward Calculation}
Innocents killed: None.
[Notice: Condition to receive Queen's favour reached.]
Over the past three years, I've carried out a number of hits and I've come to form an understanding of the condition to trigger the Queen's favour blessing.
Queen Hel is the patron Spirit of the unjustly dead and those who died of natural causes. In other words, innocents.
This made me realise that Hel cares about the innocent. Those who don't harm the innocent receive her favour while those who do receive her wrath.
That means that I'll receive her favour as long as I don't kill anyone innocent during my mission.
I found out innocents include even guards protecting the target.
The only time the guards aren't considered innocents was if the guard had killed a lot of innocents themselves, as in the case of gang members who were protecting a businessman I assassinated.
I was forced to kill one of the gang members protecting my target to get to him. Surprisingly, I was judged as not having killed an innocent and still received Hel's favour even when I killed the man.
I tested my hypothesis on another gang-related target and proved it to be true.
-
*Queen's Favour*
-Stealth-
No. Of Witnesses: 1
No. Of Disruptions 0
Surveillance: 0
[Notice: Stealth Points = 1]
-
I was surprised to see someone witnessed me kill Gunnar. Probably someone in either buildings on both sides of the alley.
Well, I wasn't worried about being found though.
I took precaution beforehand and wore the {Mask of Loki}. So, no one would be able to identify me.
-Aggression-
No. of innocents harmed: 0
[Notice: Aggression Points = 0]
Rating: Stealth Point = 1
Aggression Point = 0
Rating = Shadow!
Queen's Favour = +3Attribute Points and +50%Exp.
-
Queen's Favour ratings depend on the combination of my Stealth and Aggression Points. Also, the type of action that got me the points also matters.
So far, I've seen eight types of ratings, the point combination and type of points leading to them varies as well as the reward for each rating.
Honestly, it's a bit of a chore to keep tabs on them all.
-
[Contract Evaluation]
Target Killed: 50 Exp
Difficulty: E-rank (+10%Exp)
Queen's Favour Bonus: +50%Exp.
Final Multiplier = ( 10%Exp + 50%Exp)
= +60%Exp
Exp Earned = 50 Exp + 60%Exp
= 80 Exp
-
I'm not sure of the exact values but I believe Exp depends on the strength of the target killed. Difficulty measures how much external factors affect the completion of the mission. I think the target's Pangea is also taken into account.
I haven't been able to completely decipher the process used to calculate Difficulty. For now, I'm stuck thinking it's up to the whims of the Interface.
-
[Target: Elaine Hartman]
Details: Special House of Death assignment mission.
Type: Elimination.
Special Requirements: None.
-
{Reward Calculation}
Innocents killed: None.
[Notice: Condition to receive Queen's favour reached.]
*Queen's Favour*
-Stealth-
No. Of Witnesses: 0
No. Of Disruptions: 0
Surveillance: 0
[Notice: Stealth Points = 0]
-Aggression-
No. of innocents harmed: 0
[Notice: Aggression Points = 0]
Rating: Stealth Point = 0
Aggression Point = 0
Rating = Silent Assassin!
Queen's Favour = +5 Attribute Points and +100%Exp.
-
Silent Assassin is the highest possible rating.
-
[Contract Evaluation]
Target Killed: 100 Exp
Difficulty: C-rank (+40%Exp)
Queen's Favour Bonus: +100%Exp.
Final Multiplier = ( 40%Exp + 100%Exp)
= +140%Exp
Exp Earned = 100 Exp + 140%Exp
= 240 Exp
[Summary]
Total Exp Earned: 80 Exp + 240 Exp = 320 Exp.
Total Attribute Points Earned: 3 A.P + 5 A.P = 8 A.P
[Congratulations on a successful contract!]
-
I heaved a sigh of relief before excitedly calling up my status.
'Open Status Page.'
{Status.}
[Leo Xander.]
Race: Prime Human
Title: World Challenger
Alias: Cub of Lionheart, Agent Zero, Student Leo, Herbology Genius.
Age: 18
Life Path (Primary): Assassin.
Tier: Tier I (Newbie Assassin)
Promotion Exp: 2710/2500
---
[Attributes-]
(Physical)
Physique: 35
Dexterity: 30
Mind: 30
[Notice: Average Limit for Homo sapiens is 10 in all parameters.]
Attribute Points: 8
-
(Blessing)
Love Partners: 0
Charm: 40/50
Mischief Points: -
---
[Blessings]
(Active)
-Mask of Loki (Unequipped.)
-Joker's Trump Card (Unassigned).
-Vault of Knowledge (Locked).
(Passive)
-Bind of Love
-The Queen's Favour.
[Notice: Host is ready for advancement. Proceed?]
[Yes/No]
(Notice: Advancement would render Host unconscious for 2 hours.)
I didn't think much about it and clicked Yes.
{To be continued...}