"W-what… d-did you just say?" This time Jake stammered in a shaky voice.
He still couldn't believe what he had just heard, or rather he didn't want to believe it, but this only boosted Travis' ego when he saw Jake in so much despair.
"Oops, I guess I said too much, didn't I?" Travis's smirk widened even more because he knew that there was nothing Jake could ever do about it.
"You killed him?"
"Indeed. And why wouldn't I? Your uncle thought he could cheat us by stalling so I made sure he got the punishment he deserved, and from the looks of it, I'm guessing the stalling habit runs in the family." Travis cackled as he turned around and began to leave, showing how much he didn't consider Jake as a threat.
Meanwhile, Jake clenched his fist as his blood boiled with rage, and before he knew it, he had lunged and swung a punch at Travis from behind.
But Travis's colleagues noticed this in time so one of them swiftly caught Jake's arm mid-swing while the other yanked him back by the collar, causing Jake's knuckles to barely brush against Travis's coat.
Noticing this, Travis chuckled softly as he turned around to meet Jake's deadly glare. "Well, well, well… I didn't know you had the balls to stand up to me, kid. It seems I've been too lenient with you these past few days. But I guess I'll have to change that now, won't I?" Travis slowly rolled his shoulders as he walked back to Jake with a sinister smirk on his face.
But Jake remained unfazed by Travis's look as he continued to shoot death glares at him.
"Fuck you!" Jake spat and the glob landed straight on Travis' cheek.
The smirk on Travis' face instantly turned into an ugly expression as he wiped the spit with the back of his hand and his eyes narrowed in irritation.
He chuckled bitterly before glaring at Jake in return. "Oh, you're dead kid."
Travis instantly curled his fingers into a fist, then launched a swift blow straight towards Jake's stomach.
The feeling of Travis's fist felt like a hammer had been brought down on Jake's stomach, and a severe pain exploded across his ribs.
The bruisers released him and he instantly dropped to his knees with his hands clutching his stomach as he coughed up some blood.
Meanwhile, the bruisers didn't waste a second before joining in on the fun, and the three of them kicked and stomped on him continuously without even giving him some space to breathe.
Once they were finally satisfied, Travis and his men stopped and watched as Jake lay on the wet riverbank, his eyes barely open.
His breathing was unstable and Jake felt like every one of his bones had been broken.
Seeing this, a relaxed smirk spread on Travis' face, then he cracked his knuckles while his large single eye bore straight into Jake. "Remember what happened today, kid, and let this be a reminder to you that you should never try to stand up to me or the Dark Shadow gang ever again. Next time this happens, I promise to kill you myself."
The two bruisers laughed and all three of them walked away, leaving Jake behind on the floor.
His body ached with so much pain and he held his throbbing side with a groan as he stared at the sky.
From the look of things, it seemed like a second round of rainfall was coming, and this meant that he had to find a way to leave the riverside as soon as possible
But while he pondered over this, Jake's mind suddenly went to his late Uncle and how he had gotten entangled with the Dark Shadow gang.
A few years ago, Jake's Aunt had been severely affected by a massive influx of wild mana which kept her bedridden for months, but since his uncle didn't have enough funds to pay for her treatment and the hospital bills, he decided to reach out to the Dark Shadow gang.
But Jake's uncle was still unable to save his wife, and she died not long after.
However, the Dark Shadow gang didn't care about Jake's late Aunt; all they wanted was for Jake's uncle to repay his debt at an unreasonably high interest, and he worked really hard to try to repay his debt, despite his age.
But despite how hard his uncle worked, the Dark Shadow gang wasn't impressed by his efforts, and since Jake's uncle couldn't give them their money on time, they decided to get rid of him, just as they seemed to be planning to do to Jake as well.
Due to what just happened, Jake had a feeling that the Dark Shadow gang was simply looking for an excuse to get rid of him so they could easily turn their attention towards Helen and Alice.
But Jake was never going to allow that to happen.
His fingers slowly curled into a fist as he made up his mind to get his revenge on both Travis and his boss.
But the moment Jake made up his mind on what he planned to do, the watch on his left wrist suddenly glowed and a screen popped up in front of him as the red engravings on the watch slowly turned blue.
{System Synchronization Complete}
{New Host Detected}
{Analyzing latent temporal energy....}
{Sufficient latent energy detected.....}
{Detecting Compatibility status.....}
{High compatibility detected.}
{Congratulations! Host is now successfully bonded with the Stopwatch System.}
{Initializing System Interface}
Jake's brows creased in confusion at what he was seeing..
Of course, he was familiar with what a system was, due to the few fantasy novels he had come across but since the first mana rift appeared, he had never heard of anyone acquiring a system, so why was the wristwatch acting like one?
Jake continued to be puzzled over this, but before he could even understand what was going on, a new string of words was displayed on the screen in front of him.
{Initialization Complete.}
{Welcome Host, The Stopwatch System is Currently at your Service.}
{With this system, the host can now freeze time and carry out activities that'll reward you with attribute points, elemental abilities, temporal points, and an increase in your mana capacity.}
"What?" Jake asked in confusion to no one in particular.
{The Host Has Also Acquired His First Temporal-Related Ability.]
{Would You Like To Take A Look At It?}