Chapter 6 (Patreon)

His head slammed into the door panel of Mindy’s car with a dull bang and bounced off it.

For a split second, his body went slack, and I didn’t waste it. I hooked my arm around his neck and dragged Lee off her. My back screamed under the weight, but I kept at it until he and Mindy were separated.

Lee spiked an elbow into my liver, and my side exploded in pain.

-10 HP

A cross followed immediately after, snapping my head sideways.

-5 HP

I staggered back, realizing too late I’d lost my grip on Lee.

“You got a death wish or something?” The enforcer barked, raising his fists. Blood ran down the side of his face from the gash, and one eye was shut.

“You’re not killing anyone,” I snapped back, forcing air into my lungs. “Not with half the parking lot watching and cops already on the way. You should leave while the getting is still good.”

For a second, I thought he might actually listen. His eyes flicked across the crowd, to the phones recording, and to the door of the Walmart. Two husky security guards were running towards the exit.

But then Mindy got up too quickly, scuffing her expensive heels on the asphalt, and Harper leaped at her.

“Ah shit.”

I snapped forward with a front kick, trying to stop him, but he pivoted–seemingly mid-stride–caught my leg, and swept the other one out from under me.

I hit the ground hard, rolling away just in time to avoid a stomp. His boot crunched the asphalt where my head used to be, and a knee crashed into my hastily raised guard as I scrambled to my feet. Everything screamed at me—arms, ribs, jaw, liver—but I pushed through it.

He wasn’t getting to her.

I grabbed his knee before he pulled it back and pushed forward with everything I had. I lifted him clean off the ground and drove him straight towards the door of Mindy’s Coupe.

An elbow crashed into the back of my skull, and white flashed across my vision, but I didn’t stop.

The glass window of Mindy’s Coupe exploded as we crashed into a passenger-side door. Lee grunted, then another elbow came down, then another, each one a hammer on my head and shoulders. I lifted him up, reared back, and rammed him into the car again and then again, metal groaning under the impact.

Lee turned desperate, and he tore at me.

Elbows, punches, scratches, anything he could land. My body told me to stop, to scream, to let go and crawl away, but I ignored it. Blood blurred my vision. My shirt was soaked through. A notification flashed at the edge of my sight, and I shoved it aside.

By the time I finally let go, both of us were swaying. Lee looked worse—barely upright, clothes bloody—but I wasn’t much better. My lungs burned, my arms trembled, and my HP was just over 20%

I planted my feet anyway and drove an uppercut straight into his jaw.

It landed with a wet crack.

Harper went airborne and crashed onto the hood of the car and slid off the other side.

A collective gasp rippled through the crowd.

I stood there, shaking, barely holding myself upright as notifications flickered at the edge of my vision.

You've reached Lv. 3 +1 to all stats, +10 free points

Name: Danny Hale

Level: 3

Class: Gamer

Occupation: Nil

HP: 70/150

MP: 100/100

SP: 89/170

—

Strength (STR): 18

Dexterity (DEX): 16

Endurance (END): 19

Vitality (VIT): 17

Intelligence (INT): 16

Wisdom (WIS): 14

Perception (PER): 12

Luck (LCK): 27

—

HP Regen: 6.6 HP/min

MP Regen: 7.4 MP/min

SP Regen: 9.2 SP/min

—

Points:20

Money: $49,900

Boxing has reached Lv. 7.

You've taken a massive beating and borne through the pain. You've learned Pain Tolerance.

Pain Tolerance has reached Lv 3.

Rarity: Common

Type: Passive

Beaten but unbroken. You've learned to endure a great deal of punishment and push through it.

Effects:

-3% perceived pain per level

-2% performance loss from injuries per level

+2% mental resistance under physical stress per level

Not bad for one fight.

"But that could've gone a whole lot better."

"Hands up!"

I looked up from my status to find a stun gun in my face. A mustachioed mall cop barked the order, his partner a few steps behind, huffing.

"Step away from the man and put your hands in the air!"

I complied immediately. With my health so low and my regeneration miles from where I'd like it to be, I wasn't risking dying to a taser of all things.

"It's not what it looks like!"

People were a lot closer now. Some had their cameras out. I counted over ten that were recording. Somebody was saying something to the second officer. The first stayed on me, his stun gun still pointed.

"That's what they all say," he said, eyes drilling into mine. "We're going to wait right here until the cops come to get you both."

I didn't argue with him. His partner finally reached us and checked on Lee before handcuffing me and then tending to Mindy.

She'd already dusted the dirt off her, fitted on her wig, and powdered away the imperfections. If it weren't for the massive bruises on her neck and her torn clothes, you wouldn't have been able to tell she'd been manhandled by Lee.

She immediately tried to leave, but the mall cop, bless his heart, and several witnesses insisted on preserving the crime scene, forcing her to stay.

And so, I found myself sitting opposite a tubby detective with greying hair two hours later.

"The lady already told us everything. Don't make this harder on yourself than it needs to be."

"If it's all the same to you, Detective, I'll let my lawyer answer the questions."

The detective set his jaw and leaned in, his expression warped in rage and accusation. The entire interrogation was a farce. Given the video evidence and witness accounts they collected from the people present, they should have enough to free me. The detective was being an asshole, and for some reason, the people in charge were letting him.

"Have it your way, kid,” he said with a snort.

He got up and walked out of the room, leaving me alone.

Yup. He definitely had a hate boner for me. The question was why? Only thing to do is wait for my representation.

My eyes drifted toward my reflection in the observation glass for what must've been the fifth time, and I was still startled by what I saw. A whole new me. Spotless and unharmed.

It took Gamer Mind not to flinch.

When I’d come in, my clothes were ripped and ruined, my jacket and T-shirt covered in blood stains.

I hadn’t known I’d wounded Lee at all until I caught a partial reflection in the rear-view mirror of the cruiser that drove me here.

The glass from the Coupe must’ve cut him up badly.

I wondered if that was why they were keeping me here.

Did something happen to Lee?

No. If it had, the detective would’ve come in here and tried to beat out a confession out of me with that moral cudgel. There was no use panicking. Better to let things play out.

I tried not to squirm in my itchy Chicago Police sweats and whiled away time practicing skills.

I used Observe on everything--walls, my clothes, the bolts drilled into the metal interrogation table. When I got bored of that, I switched to meditation and found my mind drifting back to the fight, replaying it over and over.

Where did all of those boxing and Taekwondo skill levels go?

And why didn’t I just chuck a mana bolt at his face…It would’ve ended the fight immediately.

Considering how much blood soaked my clothes, fighting him hand-to-hand might’ve been a good thing. Even if it didn’t particularly feel like it right now.

If this is how the police responded to everybody that gets into an altercation...this superhero thing might not be all it’s cracked up to be.

The smart thing to do, in retrospect, would've probably been not to interfere at all—not until I had a few more months of training under my belt and was ready to make my debut as a vigilante.

Still. He was going to kill her if I hadn’t stepped in.

Observe has reached Lv 3.

Meditation has reached Lv 6.

As ungrateful as Mindy ended up being, I was still glad I saved her life.

The sharp, steady clack of a pair of heels drew me from my thoughts. I figured she was a counselor, clerk, or female detective.

The last thing I expected was for her to approach my interrogation room with a familiar voice following behind her. They were talking.

"GDA? Knew he was a freak the moment I laid eyes on him. Just standing there, covered in another man's blood. Calm as water."

"Detective Padelecki, please refrain from sharing your ridiculous theory with the rest of the department. They may get the wrong idea."

I recognized the voice immediately. Agent Smith. She was the lawyer the GDA had sent over to handle the settlement after the death of old Danny's parents.

"And what idea is that?" Detective Padelecki asked.

They were in front of my door now.

"Please open the door," she said, and the detective obliged.

There was a click, and a small Asian woman walked in.

She was exactly as I remembered. High ponytail, stylish prescription glasses, and a touch too much makeup.

Observe.

Name: Anna Smith

Occupation: GDA Lawyer

Level: 9

Recruited in her third year at Northwestern, Anna specializes in criminal and international law and has extensive tactical training.

Mood: Curious.

Holy shit.

About what I expected, but still.

I suddenly felt a hell of a lot safer with Padelecki. At least I knew what to expect from him.

If the GDA were here, then the bystanders must've told them what they noticed—that I'd somehow walked out of that hurricane of a fight without a single scratch on me.

I needed to choose my next words very carefully.