Killing his boss would be difficult for him if the latter decided to attack him. Elliot knew that, at the moment, his boss was considerably more powerful than him. Even so, it was better to stay cautious and be prepared for anything that might come up.
When he opened the door, his boss greeted him.
"Elliot. I came to check on how you were and give you a pay bonus. You've been working hard these last few days. I think you deserve a reward—and some rest, too."
His boss didn't care if Elliot let him in; he directly stepped in and nodded in acknowledgment.
"You still manage to keep everything in order, despite living in the most disorderly place in the city. Not bad, kid." He smiled.
But Elliot ignored him.
"Boss, I was about to go to sleep. The bonus is fine, but I don't think I need a break."
Elliot had nothing to offer him, so he walked cautiously behind him and stopped a few steps away, stepping on the syringe he had injected himself with earlier so that the man wouldn't notice it.
Although the boss noticed something strange, he didn't say anything. He was used to seeing his subordinates injecting themselves with strange liquids, but it was regrettable to see that one so young was already falling into that habit.
'Sigh, the world is complicated,' he thought.
Although he said nothing about it.
Then, he simply chuckled out loud.
"Haha, I understand why you don't want to take a break, but believe me, it's necessary. If you don't rest, you will certainly die." He said with a stern look. He was entirely sure of his last words, so he spoke again.
He continued, pressing the matter. "I'll give you a generous raise and 6 months of holiday. You can go to another city to enjoy yourself or something like that. Try to live your life for a few months, then you can come back to work."
Elliot frowned; he found that strange and was prepared to reject the boss's proposal, but the man insisted: "I'm doing it for your own good."
That silenced Elliot momentarily. The pressure emanating from his boss's eyes gave him a clue about what was really happening.
'It's them…'
The hatred that had been dormant in his heart for long came to the surface.
Before, he could accept his boss's words, but now he had awakened. His new power gave him hope, and his desire for revenge had increased several fold.
"Okay, boss. I understand what you mean." He shook his head in reply. 'But I can't leave. Not now."
His boss was momentarily stunned by his response and then sighed. 'He's stubborn. Too bad…'
He then reached into his pocket, pulled out an envelope of money and held it out to him. "Take the money. You can think about the rest after you have it."
Although Elliot didn't want to accept it, in the end, he took it. He would need some money now that he had awakened.
But just as Elliot's fingers brushed the envelope, he felt something move between the envelope paper and his fingers. He immediately withdrew his hand, and the next moment, a small snake fell to the floor.
'Yellow poison snake.'
Elliot quickly jumped back, recognizing what kind of animal it was.
If that thing bit him, he'd be dead within a minute.
"Oh? You managed to avoid it. You really are tough." His boss sneered and got out of bed. "You won't be so lucky twice. How will you avoid a little yellow snake bathed in your blood?"
Elliot looked at him fiercely, but he was too busy trying to escape from that little thing that was disappearing from his view every so often, weaning in and out of the shadows.
"You bastard, you work for the damned Clarks!" Elliot roared.
His boss started to laugh out loud. "Hahaha, for killing a little idiot like you, I have already received 50 thousand dollars. Who wouldn't work for such good people?"
He pulled out a knife from his clothes and then pointed it at Elliot. 'Come and die, you ungrateful little brat.'
Then he lunged forward, trying to ram him and lock him up with the snake.
Elliot noticed him rushing, but he was already busy dodging the little snake and trying to get out of the room that the bastard had managed to jump up and get behind him; the man was much more agile than him.
"Elliot Clark," his boss whispered coldly, "your biggest mistake was being born."
Then, the knife came stabbing toward him.
At that moment, something shifted in Elliot's perception.
He noticed that he could see his boss's movements clearly and wasn't as fast as before. He didn't think his statistics had increased, but somehow, he could see an energy moving with the wind, and it was thanks to that that he was able to dodge his boss's attack, moving smoothly to the side.
Just then, he noticed the little snake jumping straight to his leg, wanting to bite him when he was defenseless, and moving that leg seemed impossible.
But his boss hadn't accounted for one thing:
Elliot had a plan.
Although Elliot managed to dodge his boss's stab, he couldn't avoid it completely. The blade still grazed his side, sending a sharp jolt of pain through his body. But he gritted his teeth, forcing himself to endure it and took advantage of the momentum from the blow to twist his body completely, forcing his leg to move just in time to dodge the snapping jaws of the small yellow snake.
The snake, however, couldn't stop mid-air. This species was agile when jumping forward, but once it was committed to a strike, there was no way for it to turn back. It had to bite what it landed on. Unfortunately, that happened to be Elliot's boss's leg.
Realizing this, the boss took several steps back, frantically trying to shake the snake off his leg. The force sent the snake flying in the air before it hit the nearby wall with a dull thud and died instantly—not that he cared.
"You bastard!" he roared at Elliot, his rage boiling over as he tried to jump at Elliot to kill him. But his body betrayed him. His leg was already losing mobility, and before he could strike, he collapsed to the ground, rolling in agony.
The venom from the little yellow snake was no joke; something that can kill you in a minute was not a simple poison. Before killing its victim, it took away their mobility, paralyzing them with astonishing speed.
Seeing this, Elliot plucked up his courage as a thought echoed in his mind: 'I can do this.'
After falling to the ground and rolling in the sudden movement, he quickly took out his knife and lunged at his boss.
He had never killed before, so he hesitated for a second; even so, his mind was filled with one thought: 'If I don't kill him, he'll kill me. I must kill him so I don't die. I can do it!'
But in his nervousness, he couldn't control his body, his foot slipped, and he fell forward—except, instead of a mistake, it became his salvation. Fortunately, he was holding his knife in his hand, and it drove straight into his boss's neck and went right through him, drowning the man's screams in his throat and killing him instantly.
"…"
Silence reigned in the room again, but this time, it shook Elliot when he realized what he had done.
The young man stared at the lifeless body beneath him, his breathing uneven.
He was just an 18-year-old who had suffered hardship, but he had never taken a life before. He was striving for a dream, a longing in his heart, and although he was thirsty for revenge and had prepared himself mentally that it had to be done, now that it was over, reality pressed down on him.
Yet his mind kept repeating: 'If I hadn't killed him, I would have been the one to have died.'
With that thought, he steadied himself, and then a message from the system woke him from his stupor.
*****
[You have killed a System Rejected. You have received 1 stat point for the Strength Attribute.]
Statistics:
| Strength: 4. [+1]
| Resistance: 3.
| Agility: 3.
| Sense: 5 (Maximum achieved by the ordinary human).
Remaining: 1 Stat Point.
*****