Guardian 2.2
With the tests I could do out of the way, it was time to gain EXP.
I made my way back to the pawn shop I tried to sell my gold dust at.
This time however, I wasn't the one going in, though I wore something similar.
I watched from the shadows of a nearby alley as Madison went to the shop in her casual clothes, showing plenty of skin and brand name accessories, but also wore a hygienic face mask and sunglasses.
She looked nervous as she approached the shop, which was exactly what I wanted. With a visible hesitation as her head turned up towards the sign that confirmed it was a pawn shop, she went in.
A few minutes later, she came back out, tightly gripping her purse, and walked away with tight, rapid steps.
Looking around as if trying to make sure there was nobody following her, she traced the same path I took when I ran from the shop, and turned into the same dark alleyway.
As if replaying the events of that day, an aged brown car had followed behind her, and two guys in hoodies and carrying baseball bats came out, walking quietly towards the alleyway.
With a smirk, I followed.
O O O
"…don't hurt me, please!" Madison's frantic voice reached me as I got closer.
"Then hand over the money, and we won't have any problems." The gruff voice was awfully familiar. It looked like my hunch was right. These guys camped around here regularly, looking for marks. It wasn't just my bad luck that day.
Worse yet, what if the pawn shop owner was in on it? Buy things from desperate people only to get his friends to rob them right after.
I'd definitely have to look into it some more after I started doing hero work for real.
"Please, I can't. I really need the money! I'll do whatever you want, just let me go!" Madison's voice was tinged with desperation. She was a surprisingly decent actress. Or maybe it wasn't so surprising, considering how often she and her buddies deceived the teachers.
"Bro, this one's pretty hot. Maybe we could be a lil lenient with her, if she agrees to have some fun with us?" And there was the same sleazy voice who suggested doing that to me then called me an ugly whore.
"Dude, is that all you can think about? We're here to rob people, not pick up girls," the other voice said. "But I guess you might be right this time. How about it, girl?"
I turned around the corner and swept towards them, at nearly, but not quite, superhuman speeds. I had to control myself to avoid appearing to be a cape.
Even so, they hardly had a chance to react before I swept my leg in a circle and toppled the taller one, then bounced up and smashed a fist into the other's face.
"Urgh!" His body was twisted by the momentum and he scrambled to stay upright as his upper body leaned too far to one side and he had to scramble to step in the same direction, eventually hitting the wall.
To his credit, my punch didn't take him out right away, and he still held his bat tightly. I followed with a dash towards him and had to avoid a swing as he flailed at me with one arm and the other clutching his face.
His movements were too easy to read, and I was so much faster. I took advantage of the moment when he was outstretched after swinging and body-slammed into him.
I hit his arm first and pushed him into the wall again. His baseball bat clattered to the ground as the force I applied to his arm forced his hand to let go.
"Da-damn you!"
I moved back a little then punched him in the gut as hard as I could.
Unfortunately, apparently my strength wasn't that high even with 3 attack, because he just grunted and still stayed standing.
What exactly did attack and defense measure? It seemed that as a girl, my strength was still nowhere near what a highly trained man had. But it didn't seem like it was just skill, either, because I definitely had a lot more strength than without the buff. Maybe it was a combination of the two? Or maybe there were hidden modifiers that my power didn't show me.
"Fucking bitch!" I gave a quick glance to the other guy, who was now grappling with Madison on the ground. Apparently she'd taken my entry as a cue to attack herself, but was failing badly at it as the other guy already had her pinned on the ground.
While my own opponent still hadn't fully recovered, I quickly gave him another kick into the chest, then picked up the baseball bat.
Equipped Weapon: Baseball bat. +2 melee attack.
A popup screen appeared in front of me. I pushed down my surprise and ignored the popup in favor of finishing the fight.
With a quick dash I was right on top of the guy holding Madison down and I swung down with full strength on the back of his head.
A loud smack resounded in the alley before the guy slumped down onto Madison, who gave a startled cry. She slowly wriggled out from underneath and pushed the unconscious body aside.
"Jonas! Shit!"
I turned back to the other guy who shouted his partner's name. I tapped the baseball bat against my hand in a threatening manner reminiscent of how they did it when they cornered me.
"You messed with the wrong person. Ugly whore, am I? Once I'm done with you, even the ugliest whore won't want to be with you," I said.
"What the fuck? Do I know you?"
This bastard had forgotten about me already, how many people did they rob like this?
I towered over him while he leaned against the wall.
Then I ripped the mask off his face and threw it aside, revealing a slightly older boy.
"You idiots didn't even know what you had in yours hands before you tossed it away like trash. Angel dust? TH? It was gold! My gold!"
"Uh, what? Oh shit, you're that girl from the other day!"
"That's right. And you're going to pay for my losses."
"Fuck, you want money? Alright, sure! You can take everything I've got." One hand still clutching his gut, he used the other to reach into a pocket and take out a few bills.
I swiped it away from him, and did a quick count to find only $80. An irritated expression crossed my face behind my mask. I'd been expecting more than that.
"That's all? What happened to all the money you robbed this past week?"
"Bro, I spent it all. That's all I've got, I swear."
"I don't believe you. Maybe you need some more incentive?" I smacked the baseball bat against my palm again.
"Come on, don't be like that. Look." He grunted then flipped out all his pockets, showing that they were empty.
"Let's see what your friend's got then. Search him," I said, turning to Madison.
After a while, we found $147, plus a phone, the keys to their car, and a small plastic zip lock bag with some white substance inside.
I pocketed the cash and the keys, but left the phone and obvious illicit drug.
"Where do you guys buy this from?" I gestured to the plastic bag.
"Lil' Steve. He's got all the good stuff."
After some more questioning, I got the details on when and where this Lil' Steve could be found.
"Stay here and take care of your friend. Don't follow us," I said as Madison and I left the scene.
+4 EXP!
Another pop up appeared. Now I was really confused. There was no way that I just didn't notice a pop up like that appearing in school after Sophia's test or the fight with Jun's group.
I had also picked up the kitchen knife at home and got no pop up about equipping a weapon then.
Why did I suddenly start getting these popups now?
Before musing on it, I decided that escape was the bigger priority. We got into the car the hoodlums drove, and used the keys we took to start it up.
"Um…do you know how to drive?" Madison asked while I fumbled around with the controls.
"No. I'm sure I'll figure it out easily."
"…"
Then I put a foot on the gas pedal, and we were off.
With a jerk, the car launched forward, then I released the pedal and hit the brakes as the sudden acceleration startled me.
We were jerked forward as the car came to a hard stop just as suddenly.
Madison whimpered after she slammed into the front compartment, then she sat back down and quickly buckled up, holding the belt tightly. "Oh god Taylor, please don't get us killed!"
"Okay, this was a bad idea," I said while shutting off the engine, and getting out again.
Damn, I had been hoping to sell the car for more money.
But apparently [Heroism] didn't give me the driving skill, even though it was something I thought every adult, let alone combat veteran, ought to know.
We ran for a few minutes before slowing down when Madison couldn't keep up anymore, stopping at an empty street near the docks.
While I waited for Madison to catch her breath, I took a look at her stats. Apparently, she also got 4 EXP, which actually brought her to the next level.
Madison Clements: [1 attack, 1 defense, 1 max health, 0 resistance, 0 speed]
Experience Level: Recruit (LV1) 10/30 to Regular (LV2)
"Hey, did you see anything that stood out during the fight?" I asked her.
Madison stood with her hands on her knees, still panting.
After a moment, she answered. "You mean how you kicked their asses?"
"I mean if there was anything strange that appeared. Like a pop up screen in the air," I said.
She blinked. "No, I didn't see anything. Were you using a power?"
"Then do you feel any different? Compared to before that fight? Like stronger?"
She smiled awkwardly and seemed to get the wrong idea again. "Oh of course!"
I sighed. "I don't care what you had to tell Emma and Sophia to keep in their good graces. I'm not like them. I'm asking you because aside from that power I gave you temporarily last week, I can also make you stronger permanently. It works whenever we get into fights."
"Oh. Well uh, I'm not sure, then," she said. She flexed and stretched a bit. "Sorry, I can't really tell. I guess I feel less tired than I thought I'd be, but it's not like last week. I could really feel the difference then."
"That's fine. It's meant to work slowly. Now we just need to get into some more fights to keep it working."
I said that it works slowly, but in reality, wasn't it still much faster than exercising like a normal person? If one fight gave us 4 EXP each, it wouldn't take too long to get to 100 EXP for Elite. What would be several months or even years of training could be condensed into however long it took me to get into 25 fights, if I got similar amounts of EXP each time.
We got a lot of EXP this time compared to when I fought Sophia or ran away from Jun's group though. I could only guess that it was because neither of those were complete fights with a clear victor.
Madison stood straight again. "Hey Taylor, does it matter who we fight?"
"I don't know," I said with a shrug.
"Can we like fight each other instead? Would that work?"
"Sparring? It's worth a try. It'd definitely be safer, but we'll still have to be careful not to hurt ourselves too much. Will your parents not be upset about you coming back roughed up?"
"It's okay, I can just say that a friend's helping me learn self-defense. I've told them before about Sophia and Emma knowing how to fight."
"Did they offer to train with you before?" I asked.
"They did, but well, I'm not a tomboy. I'm a normal girl. That stuff just didn't appeal to me. If it was for self-defense, I'd rather learn to use a gun instead. Sophia and Emma are just weird. Emma especially, you'd never know she's into fighting with how girly she usually acts."
"So why are you so interested now?"
"Because you're a real cape and a Trump!" She said excitedly, hands closing into fists in front of her chest.
"Wait, wait, what? What about Sophia and Emma? Are they not capes?"
"Huh? Of course not. Umm, I mean they never told me, at least, so I wouldn't know. Why, you think they are?"
My eyebrows scrunched in confusion.
"Then what was all that stuff about predator and prey? I thought predator was a code word for cape!"
"No way! It's just like, I dunno, a slang word or something they like using. Like, oh that's so predator! Don't be such a prey! You know? Predators are strong and cool and prey are not. That's all. But don't tell them I said that, they take it way too seriously. Like for real they think it's some deep philosophy or whatever, and you gotta do all sorts of stuff to prove to them you're a predator."
"…"
I fell speechless at the discovery that I had completely misunderstood what was going on at the school.
So it was possible that Sophia and Emma weren't capes after all. Still, I thought that Sophia herself was quite suspicious with that disappearance on the roof.
Was it possible that Madison just wasn't in the know because she wasn't a cape?
"Okay, never mind that, let's give sparring a try, you good to go?" I asked.
Madison nodded. "I'm good. Where to?"
Two hours later we found a small abandoned warehouse on the north end of the dock area. But there were no lights inside, nor were there any windows. The whole place was filled with random trash that the previous owner never disposed of, lots of broken glass, metal parts, nails and all sorts of hazards.
It would take a lot of clean up to use, so I took note of it and then we left to keep looking.
"This is harder than I thought," I said.
"Any good places are probably taken by squatters or the gangs already," said Madison.
After taking a break and returning to the market area to get some lunch and buy some exercise clothes to change into—at Madison's expense, we took a bus to the Boat Graveyard. Hardly anyone came here anymore, and we could even spar out in the open. I wasn't going to use any powers so it wasn't really a problem even if we were seen.
We went atop the deck of one of the boats resting in the graveyard.
Once we started sparring, it wasn't long before the notifications came up.
+1 EXP!
+1 EXP!
+1 EXP!
+1 EXP!
Although it didn't happen at fixed intervals, more randomly than I could identify as any kind of pattern, it was pretty fast. At this rate, we might be able to hit LV2 in just one weekend.
"Taylor, why did you ask about that drug dealer back there?" Madison asked during a break.
"So I can pay him a visit later," I said, then gulped down some water from a bottle. She looked shocked at my answer.
"You're going to try doing drugs?!"
I spat out the water in my mouth. "What? No! I'm going to put a stop to his dealing then confiscate his ill-gotten gains. He should have plenty more than those two."
"Oh, like as a hero? Are you allowed to take the money like that?"
"There's a law that allows registered independent heros to confiscate stuff, but only after reporting it to the PRT. I won't be registering for a while yet, though. I just got the dealer's info so I could take care of him once I do debut as a hero."
"That's so cool! Does that mean you're going to make your own team instead of joining the Wards?"
"Maybe. I'm definitely not joining the Wards but I'm considering all my other options."
"There's other options? Like what?"
"Well, there's New Wave. But I don't really want to reveal my face. I'd like to at least talk to them first though, because my powers do work a lot better if I'm in a support role for other capes. Maybe they'll make an exception for me if they learn how useful I can be."
"But why don't you want to join the Wards? You could meet Gallant and Aegis!" Madison let out a dreamy sigh.
"Ugh, please. I'm not in this to meet hot guys." Okay, the thought of it did cross my mind, but it was overshadowed by the limitations that the Wards program would impose on me, and other concerns about joining a teenage group under the auspices of a big organization.
"Then, if you make a team, I'll be on it right?" Madison looked at me expectantly.
O O O
A/N: FFN has been super slow to update lately...
JanessaVR: I wouldn't really call this a Gamer!Taylor story, which is why I didn't tag it that way. I feel like most Gamer stories tend to use the mechanics from the Manhwa, and some of which I really don't like because it makes things too easy and cheap. Stuff like "Observe", IDs, etc. Rather than her life turning into a game, this is more like a game-interface providing a different way to understand the world, and access her powers.
GrapeFanta: Probably because there was no answer to her questions at the end. Anyways not every chapter needs a conclusion. This is a serial work with short chapters.
Sudokori1: The prayers have to be directed to her or something that unambiguously represents her-a recognized title which she personally identifies with. That means that if the worship is towards the Abrahamic God, she won't get anything.
Nagisa Tr: FFNet has just been horrible recently.