Chapter 12: The Cube’s Secret
Alex sat on a broken rooftop, away from the chaos below. The city ruins stretched in all directions, a graveyard of crumbling buildings and forgotten streets. The distant echoes of battles still rang through the air, but here, in the shadows, he had a moment of peace.
He pulled out the metallic cube from his inventory and inspected it again.
[Hidden Item Acquired: ???]
No name. No description.
He frowned. "You're not ordinary, that's for sure."
Items with question marks usually meant one of two things:
1. It was too high-level for him to appraise.
2. It required some kind of activation.
Either way, this wasn't something he could ignore.
He channeled a bit of his aura into the cube.
Nothing.
He tried again, this time using his system to analyze it.
[Attempting Identification…]
[Insufficient Authority.]
Alex narrowed his eyes.
'Authority?'
That wasn't a message he'd seen before.
Did that mean he needed some kind of qualification to unlock it?
A new thought crossed his mind.
What if he enhanced it?
His cheat ability allowed him to enhance non-living objects. Usually, he saved his ten daily enhancements for critical items, but this cube was suspicious enough to be worth a try.
He activated his ability.
[Enhancement in Progress…]
[Enhancement Failed.]
"…Failed?"
That almost never happened.
Even if an item had a low enhancement chance, it should at least show a percentage.
But this? This was a flat rejection.
'So it's beyond my enhancement level?'
That was concerning.
Before he could think further, his instincts flared.
Something was watching him.
---
Alex leaped down from the rooftop just as a jagged spear of black metal shot through where he had been sitting.
He turned sharply.
A figure emerged from the shadows.
Tall. Wrapped in black armor. A helmet with no visible eye slits.
More importantly—
[???]
Even his system couldn't read its name.
That was never a good sign.
The armored figure raised a hand, and three more black spears formed in the air, hovering with lethal intent.
Alex's mind worked fast.
'An assassin? No—if they wanted me dead, they would've struck when I was distracted with the cube.'
This was something else.
The figure stepped forward. Its voice was deep and distorted.
"That item does not belong to you."
Alex's grip tightened around the cube.
So this was about that, huh?
He smirked. "Finders keepers."
The moment the words left his mouth, the black spears launched toward him.
Alex vanished.
With his enhanced boots, he moved faster than a normal person's eyes could follow. The spears crashed into the rooftop behind him, leaving deep cracks.
He reappeared behind the armored figure, dagger in hand.
His blade met resistance before it could even touch the armor.
An invisible force repelled it.
'A barrier?'
The figure didn't even flinch.
"You cannot comprehend what you are holding," it said.
Alex clicked his tongue.
"Then I guess I'll just have to figure it out on my own."
The figure raised a hand again—
But this time, Alex didn't wait.
He activated one of his pre-enhanced items:
[Phantom Cloak – Effect: Allows the user to phase through a single attack every 30 seconds.]
The next spear passed right through him like smoke.
The figure paused.
That was all the opening Alex needed.
He grabbed the cube and sprinted into the ruins.
---
He didn't stop running until he was sure he wasn't being followed.
Only then did he finally exhale.
'What the hell did I just get myself into?'
Whatever this cube was, it was important enough for someone—or something—to come after him the moment he picked it up.
One thing was certain.
He needed to unlock its secrets.
And fast.