-Wanting to satisfy a childhood curiosity borne out of an overdose of cartoons pre- orphanhood, he grabbed a pump.
Keying in the maximum amount possible, he watched as the liquid dripped from it's nozzle.
He repeated the same for all the other pumps and watched as the ground slowly but surely became slick with the flammable liquids.
The angles switched to a different one that showed the people trapped in the convenience st7ore make their way to the glass pane.
Frederick made eye contact with them, his expression flickering as he saw the two children among the lot of adults.
He wrestled within his mind, a battle between the small good within him and the greater amount of evil.
The evil easily won and with a resolute look, he walked away.
He came back after a while, a molotov in his hand which he threw to the station from a distance away.
It seemed that his self preservation instinct still prevailed over curiosity.
A sea of flames made the environment hotter as a few moments later…
*Boom*
Curiosity satisfied by the explosion, the video showed panic on Frederick's face as he ran into a building.
The image switched to one of heat vision as it saw his body heat spike gradually, reach a peak then reduce.
It eventually settled, though the new average resting temperature was higher than the human average.
Astra split the screen into two, one side showing the surveillance camera view and the other maintaining the heat vision.
They watched him stumble a bit after getting up before walking to the next room.
Astra zoomed in on the half-dead man riddled with numerous punctures, remnants of the mosquitoes frenzied sucking.
Frederick mumbled to himself a bit before activating his new skill, SWALLOW.
On the heat vision video, the black hole appeared like a blot on the screen, like ink was floating in place.
Soon the 'blot' moved to the half-dead man and did nothing.
It wasn't until Frederick punched his head off before it activated, swallowing him whole as the decapitated head faded to dust.-
"Well that answers some questions." Rudy said as the others stared at him like he was a psychopath for being unfazed upon all the deaths they just watched.
Well everyone except Alex since he was busy staring at the screen like it held the answers to power, or some secrets on exponential growth.
Unfazed by their stares, Rudy host dished out his analysis.
"I as wondering what would happen to a body that was killed after the TRIAL period, and I guess I got an answer."
"Astra, am I right to assume that the next time Frederick resurfaces is in hours?"
"You are right young master, but I have a piece of information that you weren't expecting. In fact you wouldn't be able to guess it in a year, no a decade. Hehe." Astra laughed after projecting her body once more.
"Oh really. Enlighten me then." Rudy responded to her teasing though he had an inkling of what the hyped up info could be.
"Frederick's sister, Carla, also entered one of those portals that send you to the dungeon but she didn't come out so she's probably dead. By the way she got Dominion Aura just like one of the two Category A's. Don't know about her virtue though on account that it's hard to see it's effects in place since they're all passive."
"Hmm. Could it be… what are the odds. Guess fortune favours the bad after all." Rudy mumbled out loud.
"Young master did you already know. Did you meet her in the dungeon."
"No. But we didn't meet the 5th member of the group either. My guess is that it was Carla but Frederick met her and killed her cos when we asked about the 5th member he told us it was a personal issue." Rudy explained.
"Speaking of dungeons, we haven't read the messages that pop up at the end of the trial, on account of me being a foot in the grave of course." Timothy announced, shrinking back when he talked about his near death experience. "Let's read them. Maybe there's a dungeon reward again this time. Or have you already read them, Astra."
"Unfortunately it seems that I'm unable to access these strange writings you all see. I've tried scanning eyes with every kind of photographic technology available. I've tried reading it through the eyes of some humans with implanted chips. Heck I've even tried reading it off the reflection of glasses on people. Nothing." Astra said, sounding disheartened at her failure.
Not one to pass up an opportunity to kick others when down, Megan struck.
"I guess even an all powerful AI can't do everything. And here you were requesting my value. Hmph"
Rudy just sighed and ignored the death stare Astra was giving Megan, 'She asked for it.' he thought, then proceeded to read the messages.
[DING! CONGRATULATIONS ON PASSING THE SECOND TRIAL ]
[NUMBER OF SURVIVORS REMAINING - 7,856,443,109 –> 3,978,007,681]
[TIME TILL NEXT TRIAL – 21:51:30]
[DISPLAYING LIST OF TOP 100 WITH MOST KILLS]
1. Frederick West - (1699 kills)
2. Kwame Addo - (1534kills)
4. Yevgeny Vasiliev - (1518 kills)
5. Yasmine Trill - (1508 kills)
13. Rudy Flint - (1423 kills)
15. Alex Godfrey - (1397 kills)
29. Ranjith Gupta - (1250 kills)
42. Guo Flint - (1001 kills)
51. Tess Rayde - (958 kills)
79. Cynthia Bhest - (748 kills)
100. April Stone - (600 kills)
[DISTRIBUTION OF REWARDS TO 100 WITH MOST KILLS]
[DING! THE NIGHT HAS ENDED]
[BUFFS HAVE BEEN DISABLED]
'Damn, the young master is two paces ahead of me with just 26 kills.' Alex thought, side eyeing Rudy to read his expression.
'My- my husband. He's a monster. He's killed so many." Carol thought, an imperceptible shiver running down her spine as she looked at her other half's kill count.
"Way to go dad. 15th place, wow. Next time we're aiming for first. Eh, Charles how come I can't see your name." Timothy praised his father before questioning Rudy who he knew as Charles.
"Oh, it's quite simple really", Rudy calmly said, having already prepared an answer for an occasion like this. "Charles, my middle name doesn't show since the weird messages show only first names and surnames."
"Hmm, I guess so. They didn't show dads middle name after all. So, what are your surname and first name." Timothy asked.
"Believe me, for my own sake, I can't tell you. It's way too funny. My dad named me, and if you had met him before he died you'd have known how much of a comedian he was." Rudy avoided the question with a half lie.
"Alright man, you do you." Timothy didn't dwell to long on the name.
"As I was saying earlier, Frederick is a Hollow with Alex being a Halfling. 3 out of the top 5 are Hollows, proving how much stronger they are than us, normal enhanced humans. Now the major question of the day is, Alex do you want to become… a Hollow."