Cabbage rolls
I had a dream.
I stood alone in a field of blood red snow, with it being the only thing that visible as far as the eye could see. The red fog that accompanied it, and the fall of constant snowflakes were not what had made me wary, either. It was knowing something was watching my every move. After an eternity of trekking through the bloody snow, the last thing I remember was standing before a door.
The obsidian door, with countless faces bulging out of the doorframe and sinking back in, would unsettle any normal person.
Yet, used to it by now, I opened it and boldly strode onwards.
Waking up, with a horrible headache accompanying me, I stared at the ceiling of the bunker. Slowly getting up from the bed, I started recalling what happened.
Or more specifically, I tried to, yet I failed to remember what happened yesterday, all of it seemingly locked away.
"Mmm... What do I remember?" massaging my temples, I kept trying to see if anything came to mind.
"B-boss?" suddenly, I heard Eliza call out my name. Turning to look at the door that led to the communications room, with only a tiny crack allowing me to catch a glimpse of them.
Their scared expressions were more than enough of a indicator that something was horribly wrong.
"What's up, and why are you two hiding from me?" I asked, trying to seem calm.
"Boss... Is it really you?" Eliza asked once again.
"Yes? Yes it's me. Why do you ask though?" confused at her remark, I replied.
"Yesterday when you came home... You weren't really... Yourself. You had that grin on your face, as if you were above everyone in the world. You did not stop smiling for any moment, and then you proceeded to fall asleep with the same smile. It was... Really creepy. We thought something had possessed you..."
"Hold on... Did you say with a grin? And did I seem off in any way at all besides that?" remembering something from my previous life, I asked with grave concern.
"You were too scary, so we didn't dare ask anything or even make a noise, and I signalled Bruce to quietly carry me in here so we don't upset you."
"Shit..." realising what it was, that was the only word I could say.
"Boss... What was that?" Bruce asked, the tinge of curiosity apparent in his voice.
"It's... complicated. Think of it as a split personality, me, but yet not me. Its very troublesome to explain and I'd rather not explain every little gimmick as there's too many to remember with it. The only rule that's absolute is that you must never show hostility towards me in that state. As long as you avoid doing that you will simply be ignored, no exceptions, as that's the main trait of that guy." pausing once I got to this point, I turned to look at them with a grave expression "Promise me that, okay?"
"Okay! We promise!" both of them replied.
Seeing them sit on the bed opposite of me (Bruce carried her), not wary at all about me, I was relieved. I really didn't want to end up exposing them to that side of me.
Looking at the clock on the wall that showed 5, I once more apolgoised to the two of them.
"im sorry I kept you awake until 5 in the morning because of my antics, go and sleep the two of you if you haven't already."
"Boss... Its 5 in the evening..." Eliza replied hesitantly, while Bruce just nodded.
"... Oh."
"But what caused... It?" suddenly, Eliza asked me that, not looking me in the eye.
"Well, how it was created or what caused me to change to him?"
"The latter."
"So... I have no clue." honestly, I answered her.
"Huh?"
"Yeah it's not something that's supposed to happen, my life wasn't in danger or anything yesterday. The only thing was that I was really starting to be mentally fatigued. So if I had to guess, it's that. I was running around non stop under high tension trying to prevent a shooting from happening, constantly worrying about it, while I was also constantly getting into shootouts with criminals. Im guessing I just turned off at one point and he took over."
"He? Does he have a name?"
"Well... Yes, he does, but don't ever speak it as I am one of rarer cases where he can take over whenever he wants. Anyways, I'll just rest today without doing any vigilante stuff, so do you want me to buy you anything from the store?"
"Ice cream!"
"Okay, ill get to it then. I'll be back in a bit."
"Uhh, boss, you may want to change your clothing... "
Looking down at my current clothings state, I realised what she meant. Bloodstains on both of my sleeves, along with one large splash of blood on my knee.
Sighing, I grabbed some of the reserve clothing that I packed and went to the restroom to change into a new set of clothing.
A hoodie, knee lenght shorts and sneakers on me, I went to get groceries.
In the nearby grocery store, I suddenly had an idea for for today's dinner.
Cabbage, minced meat, rice, some spices, and some other things. Needless to say, since I forgot to bring over the energy drinks from my apartment, I had to buy a new batch, otherwise I would shrivel and die like a snail in salt.
Returning back to the bunker, I cooked up cabagge rolls for the three of us. Needless to say, the two of them loved the dish. Although we only had a hotplate, it was good enough for cooking down here. Plus, it was ventilated nicely so I didn't have to worry about steaming up the entire bunker.
...although I think i overdid it with the salt a bit on mine.
Oh right.
Suddenly remembering something, I saw i still had a stat and a skill point left, due to having changed the entirety of the Punishers story so far.
1345/1800
STR 11+1
DEX 8
INT 7
PER 7
As usual, I kept dumping the points into strength without any regrets. Although, something came to mind suddenly, so I left this room and moved into the comms room, closing the door behind me.
"Yo, system, can I ask something?"
"What would 180 times the Dexterity of a human be like? Or perception? Or intelligence?"
"I...okay..."
Having had my mental faculties insulted like that, I just kept my mouth shut.
Looking at the skills window, I threw the skill point I currently had on me into
Currently, I had the
Aiming your shotgun increases the projectile velocity and pellet count by 50%.
Now, while there's a lot of other things I want, the
Next level up! I'm absolutely getting
Hmmm... 1345XP... 500XP until the next level up... 16 or 17 kills until the next level...
Im not gona do anything today and just relax, however, considering the fact I need less than 20 kills until I get the broken skill, I'll definetely get it tomorrow from just hitting normal gangs.
Then, 3 days from now I need to shoot the bastard that wanted to buy a delivery of humans from the bastard Co...
Oh right, I did save a girl yesterday. What ended up happening though?
Gradually, I tried to recall the events of the previous day. At first, I felt nauseous at the things I did to the human trafficking bastard, but I still failed to recall what happened with her.
Like that, 30 minutes passed.
I... I think i remember now. I grabbed the girl after I murderised the bastard cop. Then after a while I thought that it was too heavy so I just dropped her at the entrance of the docks in a conspicuous spot.
Although I feel a bit bad for her, I didn't really have any say in it.
And additionally, she'll be fine at the dock entrance anyway, it's a conspicuous enough spot.