20 Chapter 20

"Y'all going to make me lose my mind!"

"Use your skill!"

"Up in here, up in here!"

"Hit him with the fireball!"

"Y'all going to make me go all out!"

"He's not even fazed! What's going on?"

"Up in here, up in here!"

Back in school, in whatever school Jake went to, there was always this one nickname that followed him.

But to be fair to Jake, there was no other nickname that better fit him than Jake "Mad Dog" Smithson.

There were many reasons why he gained the nickname wherever he went: first was one of the rules Jake lived by, namely: "you can only push a person so far until he starts pushing back".

And when he started pushing back, people tended to notice.

He would let being picked on and talked about behind his back slide most of the time, because he thought it was cute.

However, past a certain point, if crossed, you would see the pupils on Jake's eyes narrow to pinpricks.

It wasn't the overtly visible madness some had, like the bulging eyes and the exaggerated gestures.

The aura about Jake changed completely, too.

Normally, he'd want to be left alone. But when he was in that zone… it felt like being near him thickened the air, making it hard to breathe. And you could feel him coming, even from a distance away.

Even when he was in high school: the first batch of bullies who wanted to pick on him for no discernible reason were the first to face his full and unbridled rage.

One of them still has a steel plate in his jaw from where Jake crushed it. Another has his hands ache horribly whenever it's raining. All of this was done in self-defense, of course.

An explosion rocked the outskirts of the river as one of the pursuit team's fireballs hit Jake straight and true, and out of the flames, Jake Smithson stepped out, singed in a few places and smelling of brimstone, but otherwise unharmed.

And by now, he had stopped singing.

"You think the rules back in the real world are the same out here?" he asked quietly, but his voice eerily carried through the meadow, stopping the other Awakeners in their tracks.

"There are no cops and no courts here… and nothing you can do to stop me."

The answer to that question was this: if the Awakeners tasked to apprehend Jake weren't bound by the norms of their society before arriving here now, why were they expecting Jake to be different?

And Jake had also kept his potential for brutality in check once he left high school and stepped onto college and the world of work.

A punch thrown in a moment of anger could change his life for the worst, and the truth of that was hammered into him back in high school.

Now, though, in a world of magic and monsters like Nohas?

It was like a set of shackles keeping Jake's true self at bay had finally been broken.

As soon as Jake stepped forward out of the massive fireball, the glow of his eyes, and the smile on his face had the Awakener in front take a step back.

"Retreat...!"

"Oh no," Jake replied, pulling the hardened bat out of his inventory, "this party won't end until someone's on the floor."

There were ten Awakeners on the pursuit team: each of them with very good equipment and skills, but the way he was moving towards them and shrugging off magic attacks like nothing made him look like a walking nightmare.

It was at this point that the pursuit team finally saw just how large the gap was between them and the force of nature standing opposite.

They should have seen the signs the moment he whipped out the bat, but by then, it was too late.

The sheer impossibility of someone with a bat defeating ten fully-equipped Awakeners?

But everything changed when they saw that one of them was already in a groaning, crumpled heap on the ground from a simple poke to the solar plexus.

"Next one who moves gets beat to shit. Any takers?"

And then Jake turned to them, his expression completely flat as he pulled the bat back and hefted it over his shoulders.

"And off you guys go, back to Brino with your tails between your legs," Jake said as the Awakener giving the orders tried to get up from where he was curled up in a pained ball, only to get knocked back down as a simple tap from the bat sent him back into the dirt, this time gripping his lower back.

When the Awakener tried to make signs, Jake started working on the Awakener's arms like one would take dust off a blanket, all the while not taking his eyes off the others.

One of them tensed and made a move to rescue their companion, but was instantly skewered by the intensity of Jake's glare.

"Like I said, next one who moves ends up like this guy," Jake growled out, and the sheer malice from his voice stopped the other Awakeners in their tracks. "Anyone feeling… lucky?"

Everyone hesitated, as they all imagined themselves on the floor and in horrible pain, and began exchanging panicked glances among themselves.

'What should we do?

How do we handle this?'

And almost to a man, eight other Awakeners all looked to their fellow with the same expression.

Jake could easily note that with the way the Awakeners were looking at one of them, he was the leader of this group.

'This was a gross miscalculation,' the man heading the pursuit team thought, shocked. 'We're in way deeper than I thought!'

As Jake started to lightly tap the prone Awakener, causing him to whimper, Emmanuel was beginning to formulate plans on how to escape this predicament, the whole sequence of events beginning with Jake's arrival not even close to what his expectations were, when he and the team he was leading saw him at the prow of his very own boat.

He was already thinking about escaping on his own when the pink blossoms began to appear, fluttering in the breeze and bringing with it its fragrance along the banks of the river south of Brino.

The Awakeners were bewildered at the sudden scent of cherry blossoms fluttering in the wind, and the absurdity of their situation.

A group of ten Awakeners coming into their power and using their skills in hunting monsters efficiently, all brought down by a bat-wielding, perfume-wearing man.

What a humiliating defeat.

"After all this is said and done," Jake announced, his tone still eerily flat, "you're all going to learn one thing."

The fragrance spread, and the Awakeners realized who was responsible for that phenomenon.

"When you smell the cherries? It means I'm coming,"

***

In the banks of the river south of Brino, ten Awakeners who had numerous monster kills and teamed up to defeat a ten-foot-tall Werecrocodile were currently kneeling on the sand, trying not to cry out in pain from the beating they just took.

Were there other teams of Awakeners placed in this situation?

Very unlikely.

And in front of them, a man was pacing to and fro, spinning a black bat with the scent of dried blood on it, no doubt from the countless monsters he also took down.

He stopped and turned to the Awakeners before him.

"Okay, I'll spell it out for you in three simple words: leave me alone. Anyone who gets in my way for no good reason or will give me grief? The beating I'll give will make this one feel like kisses from a girl."

He smacked his bat on his open palm.

"We clear?" he asked, and ten frightened kneeling Awakeners were nodding their heads as fast as they could, subconsciously following the order of the strongest person around.

That person was Jake, who was now deep in thought as he resumed pacing to and fro.

'From this point onward, anyone who gets between me and the things I need to buy will be cut down. No exceptions, no mercy, no quarter.'

And as he continued pacing, Jake began to sneak glances at the Awakeners kneeling before him, trying to read their body language for any tells.

It would make sense to strike while the iron was hot, so to speak, and start doing some interrogation work.

'Who would be dumb enough to murder their fellow Awakeners and try to cover it up?' Jake thought, the interrogation he was planning to do focusing on who killed Seamus and his teammates.

Now that the situation has gone to the point where even hunting for points from monsters to fuel his shopping addiction was affected, Jake needed to know.

'Well, aside from the fact that it's obvious that someone is using me to cover up for their actions.'

As Jake mentally catalogued the events that led to this, he deduced that whoever did this was trying to put all the blame on him.

Premeditation and deliberation.

This wasn't just a killing: it was murder.

'So…' Jake thought, 'you want to use me to get away with it, huh? Not going to happen.'

He spun on his heel as he made his decision: his secondary priority was now to catch the killer.

Normally, he wouldn't give a crap as to who the killer was, but now that the killer's machinations were getting in the way of his shopping addiction?

In his own words, "I like to shop, but now, it's about justice".

With the plan already set in his mind, implementing it was easy – but then again, there was another problem he had to face.

He had a week to amass as many points as possible and buy as many items as possible from the Awakening Store so he wouldn't be useless due to the withdrawal symptoms.

But for now, he had a killer to catch, and set his plan in motion: first, interrogate people one by one and see what they know.

'That's when I start comparing their stories to find out who's lying… and why.'

He began thinking things through as he paced back and forth about the details on how to make sure this plan of his to find the killer would be successful – it was his way of getting things done, even from the beginning.

Naturally, he gained the practice due to going through multiple outlets and sites to find the best possible value for his money.

And as he was putting the finishing touches onto his idea of interrogating Awakeners to find the killer, the aura he was radiating turned the scent of cherries into something cloying and sickly sweet, to the point where some of the Awakeners were beginning to have trouble breathing.

The feeling subsided quickly, and Jake turned to the Awakeners kneeling in front of him.

"But we're going to start things with me asking you some questions… one by one."

To the kneeling Awakeners, the atmosphere around the riverbank felt like it went down several degrees.

"You're going to interrogate us?"

"That's right. So, we're going back to town. Get your asses off the ground," Jake said as he turned back on the Awakeners and began to head back to Brino, where he was anticipating a good night's sleep and his injuries finally getting tended to properly because of how the village worked.

Except two steps in, he remembered something important.

"Damned vacation," he muttered angrily before turning to the Awakeners.

"Go on ahead. I have some… urgent matters to deal with."

The bat was replaced with his sword.

"Don't stray too far from town while I'm gone – you know what will happen if you do."

***

Currently, Jake Smithson was in quite a dilemma.

When he had acquired a taste of the Black Label Awakening Store, he was now dependent on items that he could purchase there.

Once one gains a bit of luxury, everything below it seems… dull and quotidian.

Jake was no exception to this rule.

He'd heard tales of people who, once attaining a small taste of the lifestyles of the rich and famous, had completely ruined their jobs, their wealth, and even their lives to maintain it.

'Even if I have to buy a week's worth of items… it would be ridiculous for me to buy only cheap things. When you've had a taste for the finer things in life…'

And as he stepped away from the riverbank, he could feel the fatigue making inroads into his well-being.

But he was used to it, and his borderline pathological need to buy from the Awakening Store (Black Label), was able to keep him on the hunt – whatever it took, he would do it.

Like a man possessed, he had stepped away from the relatively safe zones outside Brino into parts unknown, with unfocused eyes as he muttered his need for money like a madman would.

"Points."

"Must have points."

"Where are you going…? Show me the money."

Was he seeing things or were the monsters actually stepping away from him?

Wielding the Swiftstone as if it was an extension of his arms and in contrast to his unfocused, maddened eyes, Jake reaped the throng of monsters with a mindless, businesslike precision.

Thanks to his skills and masteries, what was supposed to be a heavy weapon felt as light as a feather as he went through the monsters like a scythe through wheat.

However, compared to the monsters he hunted on the Island of Delusion, the monsters Jake were efficiently dealing with were pushovers.

Accordingly, Jake earned less points than before, so he had to redouble his efforts, as if he was saving up minimum wage for a luxury item.

'No time to sleep… no time to bleed… no time to hurt… not enough money…'

The thoughts echoed in Jake's head like a mantra as he continued hunting like a man chased by a demon, even when no one told him to.

He gathered points like a person in debt being chased by collectors, and as the number of monsters he defeated began piling up, so did the points, much like a person who regained weight after going through one of those extreme deprivation fad diets.

[Points owned: 1500]

[Points owned: 2500]

[Points owned: 4800]

[Points owned: 11000]

And as they reached a certain amount, the gathered points quickly vanished into the black hole that was Jake's Black Label Awakening Store membership.

[Points owned: 0]

Just like that, all the points Jake gained were wiped out in one shot.

He wasn't even aiming for any specific event; he was just buying recklessly due to the incoming vacation.

There was simply not enough time for him to consider things, just find the item to be bought, cash it in, and move onto the next horde of monsters.

Jake didn't even bother to take even the shortest of breaks as there were monsters to kill, points to gain and items to buy to stave off the symptoms of shopping withdrawal.

Into the fray he went, eyes dulled with the lack of rest, and his sword a flashing wall of gray as he hunted like a machine.

He was just about to turn to the next area to hunt his fifth set of monsters, the fourth item he wanted purchased, when a notification appeared out of the corner of his eye.

[Your Membership status has been upgraded! You have become "Passionate Member"]

'An upgrade? Passionate Member?'

[Please check your status to learn more details about your Membership Upgrade!]

Back then, whenever Jake shopped, he ended up receiving the highest Frequent Shopper rating in the shopping malls he patronized – he was such a person.

'So the Awakening Store also upgrades their membership aside from the Labels? Interesting.'

Although Jake didn't think much about raising his Frequent Shopper rating in the Awakening Store, it did serve as some sort of badge or proof of identity whenever he did buy things in the shopping malls back then.

And as his rating improved, he also considered it a promotion of sorts.

Most people who were addicted to shopping thought this way, and Jake was the same.

'I should probably give it a look. Never thought about it before, but if the Awakening Store didn't have this feature, I would have been disappointed. Here we go.'

The notification served as a balm for the soul of someone like Jake, who by now saw hunting monsters as a horrible grind and a slog he had to endure.

He looked at the details of the membership upgrade quickly.

[1. 10% discount on all items!

2. Earn 2% of purchase as points!

3. No interest on installment purchases! ]

As soon as he read the list of perks he got from upgrading his membership, Jake let out a whoop of satisfaction.

"This upgrade's pretty crazy!" he shouted out with sheer childlike glee.

"No interest on installment plans? Jackpot!"

It was good news for him, because he had to gather and spend points repeatedly, just to prepare for when the Awakening Store would take a week-long vacation.

"This just keeps getting better and better," he said, the sharpness returning to his eyes as his lips curled into a smile.