Early in the morning, Gabe was driving back home in his rental car.“I feel like I have gotten significantly stronger, you know,” Gabe talked with Systa. “Not strength-wise, but definitely mind-wise. The practice matches with Vyse helped me greatly.”[You fought with him 1210 times and won 500 times.] Systa said. [So, you did a decent job.]“If we kept fighting, I’d have had more wins under my belt,” Gabe confidently said.[That’s possible because your winning percentage improved as time passed.] Systa opined. [But don’t get that into your head. Vyse might just have gone easy on you and let you win so that you’d get bored and let him leave early.]“Huh!” Gabe snorted in anger. “You really don’t like to give me credit, do you? Why is it so hard for you to genuinely praise me for once?”[I will praise you when I feel like it, not because you ask me a million times.] Systa responded.At a junction up ahead, a superbike came speeding from another street. Thanks to Gabe’s enhanced senses,
At around nine in the morning, Gabe went into his home, wondering why Nicole was still at home and didn’t go to work.To his surprise, he heard a feminine voice from the kitchen which didn’t belong to Nicole or Mia. He quickly looked inside, and it was Sheila, the divorced neighbor, who was learning how to cook a certain dish using Nicole’s expertise.“You’re not teaching her for free, are you, Mom?” Gabe asked.Sheila was surprised by his words. “Huh, you really are as stingy as ever.”“You didn’t give me the money for free in the past, so you’re not qualified to call others stingy,” Gabe reminded her, making her twist her mouth.“Fine. I’ll give you some money afterward, Aunt Nicole,” Sheila told her.“Oh, I can’t take money from a guest,” Nicole quickly rejected. “You can always come to me for any recipe. As long as I’m allowed to tell you about a certain recipe, I’ll freely share my knowledge with you.”“Then I’ll become your disciple, Aunt Nicole!” Sheila gave her a mild hug.Gab
Sheila guided Gabe to her company.Along the way, Gabe kept talking about Nicole, including her past as well as her present. “I hope she finds a man soon. I want her to have her own child because she sacrificed so much for me.”“I hope your wish will come true,” Sheila didn’t speak much for whatever reason.Eventually, they reached the destination. The tech company was an eleven-floor building, but what caught Gabe’s eyes was the 29-floored building next to it, which didn’t have a single window on it.Gabe had never seen a building without windows, definitely not one of this size.“What’s that building for?” Gabe asked her because he didn’t see any symbols or boards on it.“Ah, that’s owned by the federal government,” Sheila said. “Did you ask because it doesn’t have windows?”“Mm.”“I thought it’s strange at first, too, but when I thought about it, I understood that federal agents need to maintain utmost secrecy, so they removed the option and luxury of having windows,” Sheila opined
The Carter company was owned by Nate Carter, a 30-year-old guy with nothing but a good record and reputation in the professional circles.The company grew in its fame quickly in recent years because of the tough projects it took on. Nate himself was one of the top programmers of the company, and Sheila also recently got promoted to being an executive.However, with fame also came troubles of all kinds. While getting targeted by hackers was not first for the company, a hacking of this scale was not something Nate or anybody even imagined in the past.All the past project details that the company had kept as backup as part of the protocol, and also the personal details of the employees, everything was stolen overnight. On top of that, a new project was given to the company. It was to do nothing until further notice.Nate didn’t stay put. He tried everything he could by himself, but the hacker proved too good for him. So, he hired Aaron, the best ethical hacker in the country, and brough
“Is it done?” Nate asked in a hurry. “Have you succeeded in finding the hacker’s location?”Gabe looked at Nate. “I got his location, but first, I’m going to destroy all the things he has on you guys.”Gabe then acted quickly and overloaded the hardware where the hacker was operating from. Before he could shut the systems down, the information was all deleted.And then the hacker’s mobile received a message saying, ‘I’m coming for you.’“It’s done,” Gabe told Nate.Nate froze for a second, but then his eyes turned a bit wet in happiness. He grabbed Gabe’s hand and said, “You have no idea how much this hacker has been harassing me for the past week. If this had continued for long, I would have been forced to commit suicide. I don’t even know how to thank you.”“That’s his goal,” Gabe uttered.“Mm?”“Making you commit suicide, that is,” Gabe said, startling Nate, Sheila, and Aaron. “Have you ever heard about a tactic called the silent dagger? It’s a way to make the targeted individuals
The 29-floored building with no windows whatsoever. It had definitely raised doubts in Gabe’s mind. Even without the quest, he was planning to enter and take a look inside.Just what could the rich bankers and other agents of the wealthiest private corporation in the world be doing in this building?There was only one entrance and exit, so Gabe had to go through that. The moment he entered, an alarm rang as if he had just passed through a security checkpoint. Gabe’s heart pounded instantly as the guards sitting nearby raised their guns immediately.[Relax.] Systa said. [They can’t see you.]“Yeah, but that fucking scared me,” Gabe’s heart still didn’t slow down.[You should have expected that because you only became invisible. Your body is still there, so it must have affected the electromagnetic signals.] Systa said. [That’s why the alarm rang.]“Can’t you do something about it next time?”[I can, but it’s too much hassle. Let’s just go.] Systa rushed with her words. [If I’m correct,
‘Rip your bone marrow out and chew on it.’These words strikingly hit Gabe’s heart. “You… are you a cannibal?”“Yes, and so are you.”“What?” Gabe didn’t get it.“There are many fast food centers that use human meat in place of beef and chicken,” Rory said. “So, I’m sure you must have eaten a hand or a leg of someone many times over the years.”Gabe’s face froze for a second. “Tell me he’s lying,” he asked Systa.[Do you want to lose your head? You should focus on the fight.] Systa hissed.“So it’s true,” Gabe’s jaw hardened. “What sort of a sadistic fuck would put human meat in restaurants and fast food centers?”“The ones that are a special kind of humans,” Rory smirked. “The ones that rule the world in every department including the government.”Gabe frowned. “I was never a fan of the government because they spend the taxpayers’ money willy-nilly without even bothering to ask the people’s permission. Because of all those stupid decisions they constantly take, they make living expen
The pain Gabe felt all over his body was not quantifiable. Most people would have long passed out or even died from the sheer shock to the brain and the rest of the body. Gabe, however, didn’t even flinch.He had already gone through many more brutal fights in the Woods park, and during when he fought Vyse, where he nearly died many times. He also had to fight Vyse without getting himself healed while bearing all the pain that Vyse had inflicted on him. Compared to the challenge he had to endure during his fights against Vyse, what Rory offered wasn’t that big of a deal.Rory’s jaw cracked after receiving a powerful kick. He touched his jaw and knew straight away that he severely underestimated the opponent. “You bastard… you were hiding your power,” he got up to his feet, but what he didn’t understand was that why would Gabe let himself get hit so much if he was capable of fighting back like he did just a second ago?Gabe didn’t answer Rory's question.Unlike Gabe, Rory didn’t have t