Kaito blinked, and in an instant he was no longer hovering over a completely destroyed alien ship, but sitting on his throne, in his mansion, right at the center of his territory.
He looked down at his legs and sighed in relief. Just a second ago, they had been completely shattered. The reason, of course, was deactivating the Speedforce.
After all, his speed was ten times higher than any other stat, meaning he could run ten times faster than his body should logically endure… if not for the Speedforce.
Luckily, once outside the mission-world, his body reverted to its previous state. Normally, that was a bad thing, it forced him to spend points to relearn what he had mastered inside, but sometimes, like now, it was useful.
At his side, Mashiro was surprised.
"What happened?"
"The mission ended," Kaito replied.
Mashiro's confusion only grew.
"But… the aliens? The ship?"
"It's fine," Kaito said, waving his hands dismissively, "I got bored, so I ended everything quickly."
"You got bored?"
"That's right."
Mashiro stayed silent for a moment before smiling.
"Thank you."
"It's fi…"
Before Kaito could finish, Mashiro leaned forward and kissed him. Unlike Koneko, Mashiro was still inexperienced, so it was just a small brush of lips, enough to make her blush. With red cheeks, she left the room without saying anything.
Kaito let it go and turned his attention to the rewards.
[Congratulations, you have completed the floor 3 mission: Infiltrated World]
[The completion grade of the mission is 100%. Due to the mission, your rank is SSS.]
[Rewards:
• Guaranteed Survival Ticket
• Skill: Survivor's Instinct
• Reconstruction Seed
• Skill: True Sight
• 10,000 extraction points]
The rewards were… disappointing.
Compared to his previous ones, they were by far the worst so far. The explanation was obvious: rewards were tied to the world itself. After one with gods and another with superheroes, it was to be expected that a nearly normal world, with aliens that did not even appear physically, would give lesser prizes. Kaito knew this, but he still felt disappointed.
Even so, he read the descriptions. The first one was the most useful.
[Guaranteed Survival Ticket
Class: Item
Description: Five waves, each one meant to wipe out humanity. With each, your chances of survival grew smaller. No more: nowyour probability of survival will be 100%.
Effect: Ensures you survive a lethal situation. Can be used consciously or will activate automatically in an emergency.
Note: The method of survival is dictated by the ticket. Its function is to let the user survive, not to reverse the situation.]
"Useful," Kaito muttered, thinking mostly about ambushes or traps.
He moved on to the next one.
[Survivor's Instinct
Class: Skill
Description: The aliens underestimated what a survivor can accomplish on their own. They believed those who remained would be weak, but the reality is the opposite: after barely surviving, you no longer follow reason, but instinct.
Effect: You perceive any lethal threat directed at you (ambushes, surprise attacks, traps, ill intent).
Note: The range of utility and accuracy depend on the user's total level.]
Kaito was surprised, not because of how useful the skill was, but for the opposite reason: he already had something like that. Well, calling it a "skill" was an exaggeration, it was more like a sixth sense that caused him headaches, probably because he still could not control it.
Luckily, another notification appeared, solving that issue:
[Warning! The skill "Survivor's Instinct" resonates strongly with a skill tied to your race.]
[Warning! "Original Demon of Speed" wants to absorb "Survivor's Instinct". This will cause changes in your racial skills.]
[ Accept?
-Yes -No ]
Kaito thought for a moment. If he was right, this was his chance to get rid of those damned headaches and become stronger. Trusting his instinct, he chose "Yes."
The headache returned, but this time it slowly faded away, leaving a clear sensation, as if a component had finally stabilized and everything fell into place.
["Original Demon of Speed" has absorbed "Survivor's Instinct". Your racial skills have changed.]
[The skill "Evil" (semi-awakened) has changed to "Evil" (awakened).]
Kaito noticed it. He looked around: there was an energy in the air; he had a hunch of what it was, but decided to confirm it by reading the description.
[Original Demon of Speed
Description: Since the dawn of time, everything was divided in two: creation and destruction, yin and yang, white and black, good and evil. From each of these original concepts, others were born. Speed is one of the first concepts born of Evil, and its personification is the Original Demon of Speed.
Effects:
• Multiplies your agility by 100.
• Multiplies all your stats, except agility, by 10.
• Infinite evolution: you no longer need to change race.
• Greater power and understanding when using evil-aligned magic.
• Complete concealment of true form.
• Evil: you can sense any kind of evil, directed at you or not, with precision.
• [Locked]
• [Locked]
• [Locked] ]
"Good."
One of the four locked effects was now unlocked and, judging from the previous "semi-awakened" state, that was also the reason for his bad premonitions with headaches included.
Although he could feel that energy, it was minimal. To observe better, he left Gaia.
Minutes later, he was walking down one of the busiest streets of the city. Looking at the people and focusing a little, he saw black energy emanating from them, to a greater or lesser extent.
He could distinguish it in detail. Just as the skill described, that was evil, not in a philosophical sense, but in actions or thoughts. Without any training, he could already notice differences: some were only irritated by their lives or by something recent, others harbored ill will toward another person, from something superficial, like wishing them bad luck, to something deeper, like wishing someone dead. He even saw one who went as far as planning the person's murder.
He looked toward an alley, there, several people had that evil concentrated on them. At a glance, he could see bad intentions directed at him, probably a robbery. Another one, however, seemed to carry immense hatred toward him. Kaito was confused for a second, since he did not know him, he assumed the man might have hated his Gaia identity, not him personally.
He approached the alley. As expected, one of them, the oldest, stepped forward with a knife in his hand.
"Hey kid, you shouldn't be here alone."
Kaito looked at the knife. He could even feel the evil in objects, and that one in particular carried a lot, probably from other victims they had robbed, or worse.
He did not back away, he walked closer. When the man smiled, thinking he had found another idiot who thought he could beat him just for being a Lord, Kaito simply lifted his leg and kicked him. It was not a complex technique, just a kick. The man, defenseless, was sent flying into the wall, spitting blood before falling unconscious.
The rest of the group panicked.
"Shit, run!"
"It's just one guy, why run?"
"Are you crazy? The boss was stronger than us and he dropped him with a single kick. If you want to die, die alone."
With that, he ran off. His companion hesitated a second, then fled as well. The others followed.
Kaito did not chase them. Instead, he picked up the knife. As soon as he touched it, all the black mist covering it vanished as if it had never been there.
"Interesting. So the evil in the object is tied to its user, not to the object itself."
He thought for a moment.
"But there are exceptions... The guild missions. The evil in them didn't come from the guild, but from those who posted the request."
He remembered those missions that had given him the terrible headaches, and also that news report on television that almost made him faint. Now, with the skill under control, he understood what had happened: both sources of evil had the same origin, that's why they felt familiar, and the pain had been so strong for two reasons, the action against Kaito was already taking place at that moment, it was not a premonition but a direct perception, and it was not aimed only at him, if he was not mistaken, it was an action against all the Lords with an extremely malicious purpose, which had increased the "level of evil."
"As for what the government is doing to trigger my ability like this… I still have to find out."
With that resolved, he moved on to another experiment.
On the other side of the alley, in the crowded street, the thugs were running.
"Damn it, move," one growled, shoving a child. But when the child looked up, the man was already gone.
Kaito watched the five men standing in front of him.
"Move… Wait. What am I doing here?" one of them mumbled, disoriented.
"Hello again," Kaito said.
Their eyes showed fear and surprise.
"You… how?" one asked, trembling.
Kaito ignored him. He appeared in front of another and stabbed the knife into his leg.
"Argh! Damn it!"
Without paying attention to his scream, Kaito looked at the knife. Nothing, no black mist.
"Interesting. Could it be because I didn't do it with ill intent, but only to verify?"
"You!" he turned to another of the men and threw him the knife, "Throw it at me with the intent to stab me."
"Huh?"
The man blinked, but when he saw the chance, his expression changed, he lunged forward with the knife. Kaito grabbed his wrist, squeezed until he screamed and dropped the weapon, then threw him toward his unconscious leader, leaving him in the same state.
He then turned to the one who could not move from the stab wound.
"Throw it with the intent to stab me."
This time, he obeyed without hesitation, maybe because he could not move anyway. The knife flew at high speed, it seemed they were all Lords with decent physical abilities. Kaito watched, now there was black mist surrounding the blade, connected to the one who had thrown it.
"Good," he murmured, "If I don't see evil when there's no ill intent, they could send robots, brainwashed people, or even lunatics to kill me… But if it's like this, I'll be able to know who has malicious intent toward me, and return the favor."
He caught the knife in midair and disintegrated it with fire, he did not want to leave behind an object with his fingerprints. Then he turned to the group and advanced, still with fire in his hands. Those still conscious begged for their lives, Kaito ignored them and released the flames, which spread among all of them.
After burning their clothes to be sure, since he had brought them there himself, he left them unconscious.
Hours later, a group of neighbors found them and reported them, they were a well-known gang in the area, although they had always managed to escape thanks to their abilities.
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