“How did you..”Dorian found himself unable to finish his sentence because Connor threw the pendant at him briskly. He had to stop speaking and catch it, and when he had finally caught it he finished his statement.“How did you get this? I’ve… been looking everywhere for it.”Dorian found himself hesitant to tell Connor that he had found his apartment mugged because the place was already bad enough as it was. The building looked old and dilapidated, it was bad enough without Connor knowing,“Someone probably stole it from you.”Dorian felt his breath get stuck in his throat but he didn’t show any indication of it, he simply looked away to stare at something else as Connor continued, explaining almost patiently.“I visit these ... places where I can find rare things, and I found this there.It was being held by a man who said he wanted nothing to do with it now. He was acting pretty crazy when I met him.”Dorian stared at Connor while he went through all the explanations, all the whi
“And you said you had nothing to do with the blacktips feud.”Connor sounded cheeky and smug as Dorian approached him the next day and Dorian found himself frowning lightly as he responded,“I said I didn't.”“So I believe it’s a simple coincidence that you dyed your hair after I informed you of it.”The cold sweat running down Dorian’s back ran colder as he came to the realization of his actions. The system chortled in amusement and Dorian cursed under his breath.The Dye… had been a bad idea, but he had been slightly afraid when he settled on it and now that he had dyed his hair,Connor’s good natured chuckle snapped Dorian out of his reverie and Dorian felt a slight shock run through him as Connor slung an arm around Dorian’s neck.Connor’s voice was low and dangerous as he told Dorian,“Y’know i don’t care if you have some link to the Blacktips right? They recruit just about anyone lately, and when I say anyone, I mean anyone.Where we would have a problem though, is if you risk y
The man who had been trailing Dorian stepped into the bar and Dorian felt a mix of emotions go through him.This was someone who had managed to spook him in the matter of a single day. Even the blacktips hadn’t been able to do that, and as usual, the man didn’t speak to him, didn’t even approach him, he simply walked over to one of the stools in the bar and he took a seat, casually ordering a drink and flashing a glance in he and Connor’s direction.Dorian felt that glance send a chill down his spine.“He doesn’t look like someone who would stalk, Dorian.”Connor’s voice seemed to echo in Dorian’s mind as he heard it.Dorian took one swig of his drink as he rattled off his reply, “He was waiting at the entrance to my house when you left. I don’t think you might have seen him but you could have, he was there. He was also at the store when I went to purchase some hair dye. He was also waiting in my backyard when I went to burn the package for the hair dye.He was at the gate this morn
“Young Master?”Dorian scrunched his nose in confusion as he heard thatConnor nodded, but the action was slow and wary. Even he didn’t believe anything that he had heard, but Dorian seemed to.“You could be.”The statement came out skeptical and wary but Dorian knew he meant it. He had heard of stories, things like this happening.That his new friend was the heir of some secret company, it wouldn’t be the most fascinating thing he had seen.Especially since he had a system that was now acting dormant, not even dormant, but silent. The system had been silent for a while now and that wasn’t normal.That was never normal. The system was like a cat to him, a very violent cat whose silence could only mean trouble was brewing, and in this situation, he wasn’t sure what the case really was.“I’m not the Young master he’s looking for.He’s searching for someone else, and the poor fella doesn’t know where to start.”Dorian frowned as he heard that.There was a melancholy tone in Connor’s voi
It’d been a week since the whole encounter with Connor and the strange stalker man had ensued and Dorian glanced at the system sharply, before letting out an exhausted sigh and asking,“Do you have to remind me that I got someone killed?”For the past seven days now the system had displayed a notification always in his line of sight. It was outlined in the familiar gold letters of the system’s usual notifications, and he had ignored it at first because this was a skill system. What business did a skills system have with telling him the Destroyer reward feature had been activated if not for the sole purpose of mocking him?He took it as a joke, but for the past seven days, that has been there, and now Dorian found himself wondering if this was his punishment for indirectly taking a life or if this was just the system telling him destruction was actually a skill.“Don’t be a doofus idiot.Regardless of your lily-livered mind and intellect, you still have to be notified that the Destroye
The sound of cars honking and neighbors arguing occupied the larger part of Dorian’s thoughts as he settled in for the night.Right before he hit the bed, he took a deep breath and navigated his way around the notification screen of the Skills system.The Destroying Intellectually skill glowed when he tapped on it, and the system announced,[ONE TIME SKILL: DESTROYING INTELLECTUALLY: ACTIVATED.]All through the night Dorian’s eyes were wide open while he was on the bed. He still contemplated if this was the right choice to make.Dorian felt anxiousness build up in him because this was the first time he would try something like this, but he hoped that it wouldn’t have a consequence that would be too much to bear.Dorian waited until he began to frown.He had been waiting for ideas to come in, but no idea was coming in. Wasn’t that how this was supposed to work? He had gone through the properties of this one-time feature, and it had said the ”Destroying intellectually” feature would
Dorian felt his eyeballs dart left and right sharply, but he didn't turn his head. He was unsure of what to do next.Dorian cursed at himself internally because there was nothing he could now do to avert this. Any move he took could take his life. Before Dorian could try to get his system to assess the situation, laughter echoed in the air. This kind of laughter was rich laughter, the laughter of a man who had money and who was determined to show it in every possible way.With a flick of his finger, Dorian watched his father order the gun to be withdrawn,“Hello, boy.” The greeting was uttered in the most demeaning way possible and despite the shock of having a gun aimed at him still running through his body, Dorian bit out a reply.“I'm not your boy.” His father laughed a little again, the sound mockingly humorless, and then he poured himself a glass of wine.Dorian felt himself trying to hide the internal eye roll and hoping he failed. Who poured themselves wine while in the off
“So, how did it go?” Dorian took a deep breath and kept his eyes on the car as he felt his little frown go deeper. The system made that one question somehow sound like he had wasted his time. He decided not to give in to the temptation of possible banter and replied instead.“I’ll know the results sooner or later.” Dorian placed his car into reverse and prepared to exit the company grounds. He had been driving for a while now and he was finally at the last checkpoint. Yes, his father’s company was in a large ass compound that required him to pass several checkpoints to get to the main building.Dorian’s phone pinged and he opened it to see he had a text message. It was from Dave. Dorian frowned because he wasn’t sure he was ready to check the text message or even know what was in there. The system suggested cheekily,~Why don’t you check it? What if he needs you?~Dorian shot the smiling cat a derisive look and replied snarkily, “I didn’t ask for your opinion.” A low ringing soun