In the next few weeks, Adam felt as though he had grown accustomed to his new old life. He made sure to do his quests diligently, both the daily exercise and the murder.
His targets seemed to be random, as he had been offered five more of those kinds of quests at erratic intervals over the last 17 days. It was weird to wake up and go about his day, not knowing whether some guy was going to die by his arm or not.
Luckily, he knew everyone he had been assigned so far to be very disgusting people. Maybe not on the level of Theo, but they were still nasty enough that he felt little remorse for killing them.
With every Kill-quest Adam completed, it seemed that the rewards became better. When he had killed Theo, Adam obtained 15 points to Quantum Energy and Qi, as well as a blanket boost of 3 points to all other stats. Additionally, he had obtained 2 quantum cores.
His other five kills still only gave him the same 2 quantum cores. However, his stat boosts doubled every time. He went from 3 points to 6, then 12, 34, 68, and the most recent being 136. If that rate kept going, he knew he'd end up becoming a low-tier Exalted fairly soon.
That was a slight upgrade over his past life.
In his past life, he had died just like Mr. Gary here. Adam took one glance at the rich man he had just killed, who often scammed people out of health insurance, and then with an anticipating sigh pulled up his stat screen.
[Inheritor 1]
–[ General ]–
- Name: Adam Haeschutt
- Age: 18
- Rank: First Spawn
- Type: Enhancer
–[ Stats ]–
- Qi: 1,095
– Focus: 182
– Conservation: 175
– Application: 172
– Defense: 187
– Creation: 176
–[ Artifact ]–
- Name: The Mantle
- Level: 1
– Quantum Cores until next level-up: 25
– Quantum Cores owned: 29
- Modifications: 0/5
– Empty
- Gadgets: 0/3
– Empty
–[ Stats ]–
- Quantum Energy: 1,170
– Imaging: 192
– Efficiency: 172
– Kinetics: 187
– Shielding: 172
– Mech: 176
A huge grin formed on Adam's face as he looked at the fruits of his labor. Every day he was becoming stronger and stronger.
More than that, he was finally falling into a pretty good rhythm. During the weekdays, he would start with school and then hang out with his sister or Faye for a little before 'having something to do.'
Since he was 18, it wasn't too unusual for him to be more independent. Also, he had learned that they thought he got the arm from some kind of car crash. That was the 'accident' they had talked about.
Basically, he had just survived a life-or-death situation in their eyes. Over the years, he had learned how such a case could affect someone. There were many people who fixed their shitty lives after brushing shoulders with death. It was very likely that his family and friends attributed Adam's sudden maturity to that and not the fact he had lived through a decade of hell already.
'There's no need to think about that though. I have to decide how I want to use these Quantum Cores.'
The options were quite simple.
He could spend them boosting his Qi, which would increase his own potential with Qi. This would make him be on equal footing with other heroes, but would also improve his combat capabilities against the Kaiju.
However, if his hunch about the Mech stat was right, at some point in the future he was going to receive a giant mech that would combat the Kaiju. This would keep Qi and Quantum Energy more or less equal in terms of relevance.
Before, he had thought that Quantum Energy could be a cheat code to killing heroes much stronger than him after the first dimensional collapse. Living in the shadows had changed this thought. He was new to the whole murder thing, but even he could see that a truly exceptional hero would merely assassinate him.
Adam would never have a chance to use his own one-shot capability.
Still, he thought it would be best to improve his artifact [The Mantle] for now. This was because, if he improved Qi, he would have to learn techniques himself. With his low Qi in his previous life, it was nigh impossible to learn even the most basic techniques.
And, in this new life, he still had a relatively low Qi right now but that wasn't the issue. He simply didn't have a good base to go off of.
Therefore, Adam decided to use 25 Quantum Cores and then waited with bated breath.
[Beginning Artifact enhancement]
[Loading...]
[Artifact enhancement complete]
Adam gasped as a bright light emanated from his arm, illuminating the dark alleyway. Then a certain sense of dread washed over him as he realized passersby would see this light.
Instinctively covering his arm as best as he could, Adam started to run deeper into the alleyway in hopes that the light wouldn't travel out to the streets.
However, once again it appeared that the system was miles ahead of him as the light he had tried to block immediately died before it could reach the main streets. It was a weird sight to behold. One area was extremely bright as if he had brought a 50-watt flashlight, and yet just centimeters to the right of it was the usual darkness of the night.
'This system is something else...' he thought as the light disappeared, leaving behind a holographic message.
[The Mantle has upgraded to level 2]
[New gadget obtained: Lower Weapons.]
[Lower Weapons — This gadget allows your arm to transform into various lower weapons. Lower weapons include: Steel Melee weapons—such as knives, steel swords, and axes—as well as Small Ballistics such as a handgun, taser, and dart gun.]
[Shop will now be opened, allowing you to buy Modifications as well as a few other things with Quantum Cores, if you wish.]
'Huh,' Adam thought with great intrigue as he mentally opened the shop.
However, the interface quickly closed and instead a voice behind him said, "Inheritor. Your progress so far is..."