082 WHAT IS ON THE MENU?

Damen watched, fascinated, as the liquid transformed into pure meta energy, flowing seamlessly into his body. He could feel it—the subtle strengthening of his muscles, the hum of energy coursing through his veins.

"This… this is going to make things a lot easier," he muttered, a small grin forming.

Damen left the remaining containers for now and checked his stats on the mining app. To his surprise, his Strength had skyrocketed.

Name: Damen Dark

Rank: E

Damen grinned. "This is fantastic. With the medicine and my app, I can level up my Strength in an instant."

He scanned another container of GenSyn Genomics and pressed Assimilate. The essence flowed rapidly into him. One by one, he finished all the containers.

"That's a half-year supply of Strength Promoter for over a hundred students… I wonder how strong I am now?"

He checked his stats again.

A satisfied smile spread across his face. He collapsed onto the sofa and dozed off.

The next morning, he checked his stats once more.

Strength Rank: D Meta Rank: E

Damen did a quick calculation. While he slept, he had gained about four points from the Empowerment feature in his app—but they went to Charm, Meta, and Command, but none to Strength.

He realized that Empowerment would not increase stats that were already beyond the base level of the next Meta rank which was 120.

It was more efficient for him to improve his Strength independent of his Empowerment gains.

Damen stood up and examined his body.

At first glance, there wasn't much of a visual difference, but when he flexed his muscles, he immediately felt a surge of tenacity and raw power.

With his Strength now at Rank D, he realized his fusion skill would naturally scale with this improvement. Effectively, with training, his fusion skill could reach a Rank D or a high Rank E, surpassing the limits of his current Meta Rank.

[Note: Strength Rankings are distinct from Meta Rankings. While both are measured numerically for ranking purposes, Strength acquired through elixir is not capped by the current Meta rank, allowing it to grow independently.]

Damen's mind raced.

This meant his close-combat potential had just skyrocketed. Even without increasing his Meta rank, his attacks would hit far harder than before.

------

Damen headed to Heroes' Gym, where Dorin had promised to modify one of the training simulators to help him refine his Momentum Collapse skill.

"You'd better thank me for this," Dorin said, brushing some grease off her gloves. "It took me days of tinkering to make the simulator compatible with your weird meta skill."

Damen smirked. "You're the 'Mechanic' of the SIA. This is nothing for you… but yeah—thank you."

She crossed her arms. "So, how long are you planning to hole up in the gym this time?"

"As long as I can," Damen said flatly. "Too many people want me dead if I step outside."

For the rest of the day, he immersed himself in training.

Inside the simulator room, the AI threw every kind of opponent at him—brawlers, assassins, even meta-enhanced beasts.

By the time he emerged, sweat-soaked and breathing hard, he could feel it clearly: Momentum Collapse had advanced once again.

-----

[In a restaurant downtown]

This was Shawn Zetheris's first time going to a downtown diner. It wasn't his usual luxury spot — the room hummed with the voices of middle-class patrons looking for their daily chow.

Tinny music and clattering cutlery filled the air.

"This place is too noisy. I can't hear a thing. Besides, for what I'm about to do I need privacy, what if someone overhears us?" Shawn complained.

"Don't worry about the crowd," his assistant said, calm as ever. "Dealing in plain sight is safer than dealing somewhere private. Nobody expects a deal with the Order of the Black Cockerel in a place like this."

The Order of the Black Cockerel is a secret society in Melrose City known for efficient and merciless assassinations. Heroes and metas had been erased by them before anyone even noticed.

A waiter pointed to a recently cleaned table. "Your seat is over there. Take your order on the tablet yourself. This restaurant is self-service."

Shawn shrugged and wandered to the table, the tablet's screen blinking like a pale eye. "Now what? Will Black Cockerel's agent meets me here?" he asked.

The assistant smiled. "We don't meet in person. We order and pay. That ensures complete anonymity."

Shawn stared at the tablet. It looked ordinary — no holographic food on display, just a menu of text and a pen tethered to the side.

"What is this? I write my own order?" he asked impatiently.

His assistant sat beside him, slowly pushing the tablet towards him.

"Yes sir," the assistant said. "People write their orders; the kitchen prepares the meal. But for those who know the secret of this place, this is where wishes are fulfilled."

"You must be kidding me? A wish list?" Shawn muttered with disbelief.

Shawn hesitated, then wrote in blunt, shaky letters on the menu: Kill Damen Dark.

The words vanished as if eaten by the screen.

"Now what?" he asked.

"Now we pay," the assistant said.

A prompt blinked up on the tablet: "Do you want an assassination contract for Damen Dark? Y/N"

Shawn's hand hovered — then he typed Yes.

A bill appeared. OUR PRICE: ONE MILLION AURS. PLEASE PAY IN FULL.

"This is a scam?" Shawn muttered.

"This place is genuine," the assistant said. "It's the only way to reach the Order."

Shawn's hands trembled before whispering, "Are you sure nobody will find me here… putting a contract on Damen Dark? If words of this gets out… this will embarrass my family. Father will kill me…"

"This is legitimate sir", the assistant replied before adding, "…and you must sign the contract yourself. Those are the rules of the Order of Cockerel. Nobody else can sign the contract on your behalf."

Reluctantly, Shawn slid an aur card onto the tablet. The screen pulsed; meta-energy bled from the card. One million Aurs were drained away almost instantly.

"Contract accepted," the tablet read then it added, "This will be the last time you hear from us. You will be notified of the success of the contract via public obituary."

Shawn's stomach dropped. "What—what does that mean? Why do I still think they just scammed my money?"

The assistant's smile didn't change. "It means they accepted the job, sir. Damen Dark will die soon."

------

Dorin barreled into the gym, her face white with worry. "Damen…. she breathed. "You need to sit down."

He glanced up, amused. "What is it, another serial killer popped up in town?"

"You won't be laughing when you hear this," she said. Her voice clipped. "Someone put a contract on your head. They want to kill you."

Chapter 82 - 082 WHAT IS ON THE MENU?