Chapter 7: Consumables
Jake rams forward. This time with an incredible speed and solid stance.
Blaze's weak E-rank Force Strike won't be able to trip him for sure.
"Hah!"
Blaze smirks.
He points his left arm to the roof of his house. A rope shoots out of the device on his wrist and sticks onto the house's wall.
His entire body flies away and changes, in mid-air, into the shadow figure covered in a ragged black cloak.
Jake misses his target.
Blaze lands gently on the house's roof.
He speaks with the low, unsettling voice from before:
"Killing you is my pleasure.
I won't say that I kill you for the greater good of all. For all those whom you wronged in the past or those whom you will wrong in the future. Although it may be true.
I kill you just because I hate your fuckin' face, Jake."
The bone wand appears in Blaze's hand, and he points it toward Jake.
"Become my experience points."
The entire area lights up due to the lighting. The thunder comes a second later, deafening the air.
The bolt punches onto Jake in a blink of an eye and shoves him rolling on the ground.
He doesn't die though.
Jake's arm trembles when he tries to get up. His big arms are burned to a crisp, black like coal and dripping minimal blood.
The lightning cauterizes his wounds so it stops the blood from overflowing.
Blaze flicks the wand again. The second lightning strikes Jake right onto his chest.
It sends Jake stuck to the ground, cracking the road around him.
"Wait… Stop… I apo…"
"It's too late, Jake. It's already too late."
A third lightning bolt appears. Thunder roars.
[You have gained 100 experience points!]
Unlucky for you, Jake. You may have Super Strength but not Super Durability.
Still, the Destruction Wand is supposed to kill any normal human being in one strike. His superpower may not have focused on durability, but it does extend his resiliency.
Everything happens so fast. Three lightning strikes end Jake's life. Veronica turns and runs for her life right when Jake is shoved to the ground.
Her superpower is Super Speed. But she can only run as fast as a car. And not even a car's maximum speed. Her top speed is around 40 km/h.
Unfortunately, this speed is worse than having no Super Speed at all. In the day and age of cars and motorbikes, no one wants to run themselves.
She isn't even categorized as a D-rank, value for production, when there are much better, faster vehicles.
She can be a quick mailman at most.
Obviously, she cannot outrun lightning.
Thunder roars, and Veronica drops to the ground. Blaze aims at her leg to not end her life yet.
Veronica screams in pain, tears well up in her eyes, ruining her makeup.
"Don't kill me! I didn't throw you! It was Jake. It was all Jake's idea!"
And the girl begins to beg.
Jake shoots his grappling hook to the ground near her. It drags his entire body quickly to the spot, almost betraying all physical laws.
Even though it is a Common item with no hidden power. It actually has some supernatural characteristics to it. Blaze thinks. None of the items of the System are actually normal.
He walks slowly toward Veronica. His face is made of darkness and black smoke.
"Is that so? Answer me this then. If you give me a good answer, I'll let you live."
"Of course. Ask me anything!"
Though panicked, Veronica tries to cooperate as best she can. She even purposely pushes her chest together so that it seems bigger, attempting to charm Blaze.
"Why did you lie?"
"Lie about what?"
Blaze shakes his head.
"Wrong answer."
Electricity bursts out from the wand and makes a mess of her head.
[You have gained 25 experience points!]
[Mission accomplished!]
[Reward is delivered to Inventory]
Blaze flicks his wrist, the Lantern of the Damned materializes. Their two yellow souls scream in agony before being sucked inside the lantern.
It wasn't just because of the injury that caused Blaze to drop out of school. They expelled him because he was 'harassing' Veronica.
A stupid and obvious lie to put the blame on him. But people don't care about the truth.
When they heard one of their high school superpower sweethearts was stalked, they immediately filled in the blank and announced Blaze as guilty.
"Blaze put his hand on Veronica."
"Jake saved Veronica from Blaze."
"Jake is a real hero. And the trash gene Blaze is a jealous, lustful villain."
His reputation was ruined to the ground. No school dared accept him even if Kana had the money. All because of one simple sentence from Veronica Birchwood.
"Yes, principal. He tried to rape me.
Jake appeared just in time!"
Blaze squats down to see Veronica. Now that she's dead, all that beauty she was so proud of has become useless.
"Guess what, Veronica. Karma's a bitch."
Phuc was F-rank, yielding 10 experience points.
Veronica was E-rank, yielding 25 experience points.
Jake was C-rank, yielding 100 experience points.
Plus the three hollowed monsters, Blaze has accumulated 180 points of experience. Only 20 points left to upgrade Force Strike.
[Mission: Kill your bullies (Completed)
Mission reward: Consumable Blindbox (Common)]
Blaze pouts, feeling a bit disappointed for the low rank reward.
Oh, well. The mission was way too easy. But wait a minute…
The reward says 'Consumable,' not 'Equipment.' This is a new kind of item.
Blaze opens immediately.
[Opening Consumables Blindbox…]
[Congratulations, you have received x30 Matchstick]
[x30 Matchstick]
Type: Consumable
Description: Industrialized matchstick. Perfect for burning corpses.
"Another bizarre item…"
Blaze opens his palm, a box of matchsticks materializes into existence. It has the color yellow and a picture of a grave on it.
Similar to the Grappling Hook, this item also does not have a Hidden Power.
Blaze looks down at Veronica's body and immediately ignites a match. He drops the fire stick on her.
The entire body immediately burns aflame. But for some reason, it does not leave any burn marks on the road.
Blaze doesn't even feel hot from the flame.
After exactly five seconds, Veronica's entire body disintegrates. It doesn't even leave ashes behind, everything disappears completely with the wind.
You should have come to me five hours ago…
If Blaze had this matchstick, he and his mother wouldn't need to bury that pig.
Blaze then looks over to Jake's body. Even if it's not the real world, it is suspicious that they die at the door of Blaze's house.
"Another match for you."
And Jake's body goes back to mother nature. Then the rest of the matchsticks are stored inside the Inventory.
If Blaze unequips all his items, five of the grids will be filled.
The Grappling Hook, the Tattered Cloak, the Lantern of the Damned, the Destruction Wand, the Matchsticks.
His limited Inventory is already half-full. He hopes there is a way to expand the Inventory eventually.
Blaze fades into the darkness again and continues his journey to the heart of the city. He still needs to kill the Crises, also known as the power sources.
His house is in the middle of nowhere, so there isn't any household left between here and the city.
There is a gas station, though. Blaze hopes that he finds some monsters there to get some experience.
The gas station is an old structure and has existed since before the Great War. It has a cute little red rocket on top.
The owner of this station is an old Awakened lady who is very kind toward Blaze and Kana. Her name is Eleanor.
She has been visiting a relative of hers for a few weeks now and won't be back until spring. Logically, Eleanor shouldn't be dragged into the Void.
Blaze reaches the gas station.
There are quite a few monsters lurking around the premises of the place. Blaze can count at least five hollowed faces.
While still invisible, Blaze takes out his Destruction Wand and starts blasting.
The Lightning Strike causes the surrounding area to be lit up so the power of the Tattered Cloak is immediately neutralized.
From a third-person view, a shadow figure appears out of nowhere with lightning shooting out of its hand.
A rather terrifying view for normal people. Some may even mistake Blaze for a void monster.
[You have gained 10 experience points!]
[You have gained 10 experience points!]
[...]
These hollow-faced monsters, except for being ferocious and fearless, are nothing to worry about.
A human with no superpower and no weapon may get killed by them. But with a gun, these monsters should be easily killed.
[STATUS]
[Name: Blaze Singer]
[Power]
Force Strike (E-rank): 10/200 EXP
[Equipment: Grappling Hook (C), Tattered Cloak (U), Lantern of the Damned (R), Destruction Wand (R)]
[Experience: 220]
Blaze has enough to upgrade Force Strike.
"Let's see what a D-rank Force Strike is."