John Wick - Chapter 29: A Massive Upgrade (Patreon)

“Good. You've got ambition. If you want to accomplish something big, you need a few unrealistic dreams.”

Henry looked at the young man across from him with clear approval.

“I heard you pulled off something like this yourself once?”

“I did. That's how I got the injury in my back.”

Nate paused.

“When you killed the Seventh Seat?”

Henry's expression almost cracked before he slowly replied, “No. It happened later, when I fought those seventeen hitmen. One unlucky bastard who was high on something managed to land a hit on me.”

Lily walked in carrying several plates of food and rice.

“What kind of place is this?” she complained. “The restaurant downstairs doesn't even take dollars! I only got this because the guy at the front desk helped me out.”

Henry and Nate looked at her, then exchanged a smile.

By the time they finished their late-night meal in Henry's room, it was almost midnight.

Henry was getting older and couldn't stay up late anymore, so Nate returned to his own room. They could deal with training tomorrow.

Before he left, Henry pulled a box from a drawer and handed it to him.

Inside were exactly one hundred gold coins.

Back in his room, Nate stared at the small mountain of coins piled on the table and muttered to himself.

“Having someone powerful backing you really is something else. Wonder how Caine's doing. That so-called second uncle of mine comes and goes like a ghost. I didn't even get his contact information last time, so I can't reach him.”

Didn't Caine have a daughter in the movies?

Would that make her his cousin now?

Had he somehow ended up with the best connections imaginable?

Whatever.

First things first.

Time for a major upgrade.

“System!”

[Current Resource Points: 1,677/4,000]

[Available Trait Slots: 2]

[Resource Points settled: 134 Gold Coins × 20 = 2,680. Resource Points have exceeded the Resource Point Cap. 400 Resource Points will automatically be consumed to unlock the Resource Point Cap!]

[New Trait Slot unlocked]

[Current Resource Points: 3,957/8,000]

[Detected that the total value of the Host's Equipment has reached a significant amount. Settle for Resource Points?]

“Of course!”

The Equipment wouldn't disappear after being settled anyway. There was no reason not to.

[Firearms: Assault Rifles ×14 + Submachine Guns ×2 + Shotgun ×1 + Pistols ×19 + assorted magazines and ammunition = 2,173 Resource Points]

[Armor: Bloodstained Bulletproof Suit + Damaged Body Armor = 452 Resource Points]

[Current Resource Points: 6,582/8,000]

Nate could barely contain his excitement.

More than six thousand Resource Points.

When had he ever been this rich?

But the excitement quickly gave way to indecision.

Should he save the Resource Points to unlock the next level and gain another Trait slot?

Or should he spend them on Equipment and Traits to make himself stronger right now?

“No. I'm still too weak. I can't even wipe out a squad of mercenaries without getting hurt.”

“I need a serious upgrade.”

First, he repaired his primary weapon loadout.

Otherwise, pulling a long gun from the system Backpack came with a cooldown, and Nate couldn't accept that.

Minus 3,000 Resource Points.

He kept one Trait slot open for later, then searched the Trait Shop and bought two Traits focused on keeping him alive.

Another 1,800 Resource Points gone.

His Body Armor needed replacing too.

He wanted something with ballistic plates. Even if the bulletproof suit could stop a sniper round, the impact alone would probably hurt badly enough to knock him unconscious.

So he bought top-tier Body Armor and bulletproof helmets, six sets in total.

Another 1,700 Resource Points gone.

And just like that, after gearing up with six full sets, Nate went from rich to broke overnight.

He collapsed onto the sofa and stared blankly at the ceiling.

The fall from heaven to hell had been faster than jumping off the sixth floor.

One hand clutching his chest, he weakly scrolled through the system panel.

[Current Resource Points: 82/8,000]

[Available Trait Slots: 1]

[Iron Severing (Lv. 4): Blade damage increased by 200%. Damage against metal objects doubled. (13/15 blade kills)]

[Flying Star (Lv. 4): Projectile speed increased by 120%; accuracy correction within 25 meters. (0/15 projectile kills)]

[Eagle Eye (Lv. 2): Vision increased by 50%; firearm proficiency increased by 20%. (6/7 firearm kills)]

[Steel Body (Lv. 1): Damage and pain reduced by 20%; vitality increased by 10%. (Enter critical injury state: 0/1)]

[Early Warning (Lv. 1): Detect hostility within a 10-meter radius. Receive a warning one second before encountering a fatal threat. (Survive after triggering a fatal threat: 0/1)]

Looking at the dense list of Trait effects on the system panel, Nate finally felt a little better about all the Resource Points he'd just burned through.

His ability to stay alive had improved considerably.

Early Warning alone had cost him 1,200 Resource Points, twice as much as Steel Body, but it was absolutely worth it.

Something similar to spider-sense was worth buying no matter the price.

Repairing the loadout was also good news, even if it had been painfully expensive.

Nate could now equip two long guns that no one else could see. He could also directly swap the two primary weapons in his loadout with firearms stored in the system Backpack.

More importantly, once those weapons were hidden, he couldn't feel their weight at all.

In the future, he wouldn't even need to carry a gun openly.

Whenever he needed one, a single thought would bring it into his hands.

It was just past midnight.

The hallway outside was as silent as a tunnel.

Nate finally felt somewhat secure.

One Trait reduced damage, another could save his life, and when those were combined with the six sets of armor and the bulletproof suit, his survivability had risen several levels.

“Still need another eight thousand to unlock the next level...”

Nate counted on his fingers and decided there were still several zeros between him and what he'd consider genuinely strong.

But there was no need to rush.

With Henry and Winston backing him, at least he wouldn't have to spend every day constantly looking over his shoulder like before.

He was still thinking when three knocks sounded at the door.

Early Warning hadn't activated.

Whoever was outside meant him no harm.

Nate walked over and looked through the peephole.

A girl stood beneath the hallway lights.

Her long blonde hair was tied into a low ponytail, and she was still wearing the same loose cream-colored sweater. She held a tray with two steaming cups.

Elena.

Nate opened the door.

“Good evening.”

Elena lifted the tray slightly, a faint smile on her lips.

“I thought you might have trouble sleeping, so I made us some hot cocoa. Winston has excellent cocoa powder. He brought it back from Colombia.”

Her English was fluent, though the ends of certain words carried a faint foreign accent.

Unlike the cool professionalism of most people in the hotel lobby, Elena's voice was softer and gentler.

She sounded more like an ordinary girl talking to a friend.

Nate stepped aside and let her in.

Elena placed the tray on the coffee table, then sat at one end of the sofa, cradling her cup of hot cocoa in both hands and taking small sips.

She moved naturally, almost as though she'd been here many times before.

“Are you okay?” she asked, looking up at him. “I heard some of what happened today.”

Nate sat across from her and picked up the other cup.

It was pleasantly warm.

The scent of cocoa rose with a faint trace of cinnamon.

“I'm alright,” he said. “Got lucky.”

Elena studied him for several seconds before giving a small nod.

“That's way too modest.”

There was genuine surprise in her voice.

“I saw the report. An entire mercenary squad, plus hitmen waiting outside. If I'd been in your place tonight, I definitely wouldn't have survived.”

“And you only just entered this line of work.”

“You really are exceptionally talented.”

Something stirred in Nate's mind.

“You think so?” he replied vaguely.

Elena didn't press him.

She rested the cup on her lap, both hands wrapped around it as she looked down at the thick brown liquid.

“I heard you're starting training with Mr. Wang tomorrow,” she said. “He may look like an ordinary old man now, but decades ago he was a legend in this world.”

“You know Henry?”

“Not personally, but I've heard of him,” Elena said. “A lot of people in this world have. He did some incredible things before he retired.”

She tilted her head, seeming to search for the right words.

“Do you know what a ‘talent’ is?” she suddenly asked.

Nate paused with the cup halfway to his mouth.

“A talent?”

“An ability some people are simply born with.”

Elena raised one hand, palm upward, fingers slightly spread.

“For example, some people can fall six stories and survive. Their wounds might heal much faster than a normal person's.”

“Some people can fight with their eyes closed.”

“There are even people who can dodge submachine-gun fire head-on.”

She looked at her own palm as she spoke, almost as though checking something.

“These abilities aren't superpowers. They're part of the human body, like some kind of natural gift.”

“An ordinary person might go their entire life without ever discovering theirs.”

“But in our profession, almost everyone who survives long enough has one.”

Nate's heartbeat quickened.

Of course he understood.

His Traits, Iron Severing and Flying Star, might sound straightforward, but both represented abilities far beyond what an ordinary person could achieve.

He had always assumed they were simply cheats granted to him by the system.

A special advantage unique to him.

He already knew other people in this world could possess Traits, but he hadn't expected them to actually understand that such abilities existed.

“You mean...” Nate carefully chose his words. “Everyone has one?”

“No, not everyone.”

Elena shook her head.

“They occasionally appear among ordinary people, but it's extremely rare. Maybe one person in tens of thousands?”

“But among people like us, they're much more common.”

“Winston once gathered some numbers. More than eighty percent of professional hitmen and mercenaries possess some kind of talent.”

Eighty percent.

That really was a lot.

Nate silently repeated the number.

“So what's yours?” he asked.

Elena glanced at him.

The corner of her mouth curved slightly, as though she were debating whether to tell him.

“Balance,” she eventually said.

“I can maintain my balance on almost any surface, and my coordination is far beyond normal.”

“Ropes, window ledges, steel pipes. As long as there's even a small point of support, I can stand on it.”

She paused before adding, “It's not just the kind of balance an acrobat has. It's something deeper.”

“I can feel the direction of gravity. I know how every muscle in my body needs to work together to make the most precise movement possible within the smallest amount of space.”

Nate pointed toward the hotel's exterior wall.

“You could climb that?”

“No problem.”

Nate fell silent for a moment.

So she was basically Spider-Girl.

He took a moment to process everything.

“What about Henry? What's his talent?”

Elena lowered her head and took another sip of cocoa.

“I don't know,” she said. “No one knows for sure.”

“But the rumor is that Mr. Wang's talent has something to do with poison.”

Nate blinked.

“What, some kind of poison master?”

“What?” Elena looked confused.

Nate moved on.

“What about Winston?”

“Mr. Winston's talent...”

Elena's expression became slightly complicated.

“You'll have to ask him yourself.”

“People generally don't like talking openly about things like this.”

Nate nodded.

Fair enough.

The room fell quiet for a while.

An ember in the fireplace cracked softly.

“Elena,” Nate said.

“Hmm?”

“Why did you become a hitman?”

Her hands paused around the cup.

“Winston raised me.”

Something subtle entered her voice.

“I was six when he took me out of an orphanage in Kyiv.”

“He told me there was something in me that shouldn't be wasted in a place like that.”

Her tone was calm, almost detached, as though she were describing someone else's life.

But Nate noticed her fingers tightening around the cup.

Her knuckles turned slightly white.

“So you...”

“He raised me, but I'm not his daughter,” Elena said.

“He once told me he wasn't suited to being a father.”

“He taught me some things, then let me decide for myself whether I wanted this life.”

“And you chose it.”

“Yes.”

Elena looked up.

Warm yellow light reflected in her light brown eyes.

“If you don't use a talent, it slowly fades.”

“It's like a muscle. If you don't train it, it weakens.”

“And I don't want mine to disappear.”

Nate didn't know how to answer.

He wanted to say that he didn't really understand what a talent was either.

After all, his abilities came from something called the system, not some natural potential he'd been born with.

But now it seemed the difference between the two might not be as great as he'd thought.

The Traits offered by the system were abilities that genuinely existed in this world.

The difference was that other people had to awaken those talents and train for years to master them.

Nate could simply buy them with Resource Points.

Did that count as another kind of talent?