'What the hell is he smiling about?'
Mira narrowed her eyes as Jack stood across from her, grinning like he knew something she didn't.
'And a pistol? Why? His profile says he's a close-combat fighter and wasn't supposed to use weapons. A newly awakened who didn't graduate from any academy…' She thought, 'Is there more to him than what's written?'
Mira exhaled sharply and her grip tightened on the iron baton.
Mira prepared his iron baton as he analyzed Jack, but just gave up due to the lack of information.
'Well, whatever. I planned to make an example out of him up close and gain more supporters… and if he changed his fighting style, he's bound to be unfamiliar with it himself.'
Her confidence surged.
'He's two years older, but a new awakener. I've been awakened for four years. Someone like him could never beat someone like me. I already won before it even began!'
On the other side, Jack kept that small, infuriating smile.
He could practically hear her assumptions. It was natural to think that way and look down at him. It was the rational thought.
But his system wasn't ordinary—he had already concluded that.
It made him extraordinary.
The previous user had been exceptional… and now, he was that exceptional individual.
For example, stats.
'Her level is twelve higher, but our stats are nearly matched. Even if she weren't exhausted, this would still be doable.'
Jack thought as the activation of the Basic Fighting Skill, Level 2, awakened the dormant power on his body like a switch.
Jack felt everything inside him synchronized: the lightness in his feet, the sharpened instincts, the ease of movement normal people took years of training to reach.
This was what made the system a cheat of all cheats. While most people can only perform at their 100% at certain moments and under certain conditions, that wasn't the case for him. The system didn't just empower him. It optimized him.
He just needed to enter a fight—and the system maximizes his current body's potential in the blink of an eye.
James raised his hand theatrically.
"Ready… begin!"
Mira shot forward immediately, moving like an acrobat with the grace of a trained swordmaster. The crowd burst into cheers.
'!!!'
But Jack, in the first ten seconds.
Jack slipped past every swing as if he were strolling through the wind.
[Felari.]
[A beastfolk race that live in tree cities, value stealth and grace, possess feline features, slit pupils, and flexible bodies. Their steps are silent, their balance uncanny, and at Level 20, they usually develop the ability to blink short distances.]
Mira clicked her tongue as she gasped for breath.
'He's better than I thought. So, he is listed as a combat fighter for a reason…But nothing changed!' Mira thought. 'He's not actually faster. He's just barely dodging. If I weren't exhausted, this would be over already. But with my stamina, I can't let this drag on.'
She curled her body and accelerated.
Jack, however, was watching her with shining eyes. At the same time, he was looking at her stats and examining the changes in his body.
'Instinct, momentum shift, footwork, timing, weight distribution, everything has really improved almost like this isn't my body anymore.' Jack thought to himself, fascinated.
Meanwhile, Mira's stats decreased with every movement.
Soon, a minute had passed, yet still, she had not landed a single hit.
After one minute, he also started recognizing her patterns. The trajectory in Mira's movements became predictable and bigger as she went slower.
It became clear to those watching what was the problem too.
"The girl from Division 3 is way too exhausted to fight," David muttered to Lucy. "And older brother is…evil. Look at that grin."
It was now clear to everyone who seemed to have the upper hand.
Jack had expected her to be exhausted from the start and had no intentions of engaging into a back-and-forth fight from the beginning. He intentionally just kept dodging to tire her even more.
"Fight me instead, Division 12 newbie!"
Someone suddenly roared. Mira continued to be on the offensive and her sweat was flying as she swung her baton in a wide arc.
'!!!'
This time, to everyone's surprise, Jack disengaged completely—then ran.
It became obvious that Jack had focused more on running than dodging her attacks, turning the fight into what looked like a childish game of tag.
At first, the crowd cheered for Mira, assuming Jack was fleeing out of fear. But as the chase dragged on, their excitement turned into irritation.
Jack's constant running infuriated Mira even more, and the absurdity of the situation left everyone baffled—and offended—that Jack, who was older and supposedly the man in the match-up, would fight in such a dishonorable way.
"How disgraceful!"
"At least fight back!"
"Kill him!"
"Coward!"
"Is this how you represent your Division, newbie?!"
"Division 12 is ass as always!"
"This isn't a sparring session!"
Lucy and David could hear the insults from the crowd. Frankly, it also made them embarrass that Jack could actually act in such a pathetic manner.
Lucy buried her face in her hands. 'Sir, please… what are you doing…'
David's expression twisted for the first time.
He had expected a decent fight. He'd never actually seen Jack in action, but he assumed Jack could at least hold his own. After all, Jack had been involved in two major cases since his deployment.
"This…" David muttered.
The expression on David couldn't be painted.
"Division 12 got another annoying member." Someone then commented smiling to Manager K, who simply watched silently.
'But what is the pistol even there for?' Manager K thought in curiosity.
Jack meanwhile could hear everything and felt embarrassed. He wasn't actually just running, he was also testing the limits of his new enhancements especially speed and stamina, and that incidentally just made her opponent more tired and infuriated.
But Jack had to admit.
'How despicable am I,' He said quietly to himself accepting his personality, 'But a girl is chasing me like she wants to kill me. At first, I only planned to dodge the first few seconds and eventually fight, but I feel that this is safer and better.' He thought shamelessly.
With all his speed, Jack used all his speed and suddenly sprinted to gain more distance putting some on notice that he could actually be even faster.
Then he glanced over his shoulders while running and looked at Mira's stats one last time.
'She's totally exhausted. How could she keep running after me? Is she an idiot?' He thought looking at the numbers, 'Ugh, whatever, it's time to finish this.'
Raising his pistol, Jack finally stopped and turned around.
'???'
Mira looked totally exhausted it made everyone look at her with worry. Even Jack felt sorry as this was the first time, he had actually taken a long look at her face, and not her stats.
Seeing her, Jack sighed as a lump in his throat appeared. His expression dropped into something cold and unreadable—the first time Mira had ever seen him without that damned smile, surprising her.
Jack aimed his pistol.
[Equipped Ordinary Pistol.]
[Installed.]
[Assist…]
[Firing..]
Jack locked his aim and pulled the trigger, firing a bullet.
"Finally!" Mira spat out. "Show me what you can really—!"
In an instant, the bullet grazed past her head, close enough to brush her hair.
[You are proficient in firearms (Ordinary Pistol).]
"I guess this isn't enough for even a practice." He then muttered. Then his voice cut through the stunned silence, speaking to Mira.
"The next one isn't going that direction."
"Excuses!" Mira barked. "You're not good enough to use a new weapon, aren't you?!"
Jack grinned, hearing her. The spar has actually answered some of his questions, and now there were no more questions he can answer in this fight without his reputation getting further destroyed.
'I am definitely faster now, and my aim has also increased. But,' he remembered how Joe Carlos kept regenerating even after getting shot by bullets, 'how do I even deal with that?'
Getting back to the fight.
"Watch your right thigh, it's going to hurt a little," he then said and pulled the trigger.
The training round instantly struck her thigh cleanly, drawing blood.
"Ugh!"
Mira's legs buckled and she fell to one knee.
'…'
Unfortunately for her, Felaris have no self-regeneration abilities. So, she had to wait for the medic to attend to her.
Silence then fell before it erupted into complaints.
Putting away his gun, Jack then stared at James, as James clicked his tongue in disappointment.
The fight hadn't even lasted two minutes—and half of it was Jack running like a madman.
"The winner," James then announced flatly, "Jack of Division 12."
[You have won the fight.]
[You have received 50 exp points.]
x---x
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