Chapter - 14 - Devil's Trap [1]

The room's interior was that of a scanning room with a machine in the middle that looked like a MRI scanner with its tube-like shape. The only other person in the room, the nurse, was cleaning that machine.

When Joshua looked at his right, he could see a black glass wall that separated him and the people dressed up like doctors behind it. Other than a single person that was standing behind the paging microphone in a suit, everybody else were looking at the machines in front of them. Joshua couldn't see what were displayed on their screens because of the glass but there wasn't a need for that anyways.

Once the nurse was done with cleaning, she approached Joshua and took the paper in his hands before he could react.

"Take off your shoes and cloak before lying down."

Without wasting a second, Joshua did as he was told. He handed over his cloak to the nurse which she placed on the chair in the corner of the room he didn't even know existed. He laid down on the patient table nervously. He wanted nothing more than getting this done with.

A few seconds later, the nurse came and placed his head in a head cage before fixing his posture and leaving the room.

"We're starting."

A man's voice resounded from the speakers Joshua never saw. Once it did, the lights in the room were turned off. Joshua felt the platform he was on move in the machine as a loud noise took over all his senses.

𝘏𝘶𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘮--

In that eerie darkness, Joshua felt the sound become distant as his heart started racing. He felt his whole body started to shake as his palms were covered in sweat. Trying to stay still to avoid prolonging the process, he tried to divert his attention from his rapid heartbeat but it was of no use. His chest tightened and he felt something like a lump form in his throat, choking him silently.

By the time he passed the one minute mark his stomach was churning like crazy as he felt his limbs become numb. Joshua felt dizzy as his body shook slightly, making the man on the other side warn him.

"Try to be as still as possible. There are other people waiting."

𝘏𝘢𝘢-- 𝘏𝘢𝘢𝘢..

Joshua failed to steady his breathing for a few times before he saw a light source appear out of nowhere in front of him. Looking at it, Joshua noticed that his vision was also blurred when his numb senses focused on a voice.

====================

<[The user is confirmed to be in an unstable state. The active skill, [Resilient Mind <D-rank>] will be activated forcefully.]>

[Time Limit = 09:59]

====================

With the voice, Joshua felt his vision focus as he saw the letters in front of him that repeated the same thing as the robotic voice. His body stopped shaking and sweating as the numbness disappeared without a trace.

The man behind the glass relaxed and sat down on his chair. He was afraid that he would have to work overtime because of another person but it looked like the situation was fixed.

After a few minutes, the lights in the room were turned on as the platform moved out of the machine. Joshua saw the nurse help him with the head cage when his eyes adapted to the light.

"Good job. Follow my colleague once you leave the room. You'll be able to pass the gate afterwards."

Unlike when he first entered the room, the nurse was more friendly to Joshua. When he looked closely, Joshua noticed that she was a woman who looked to be in her thirties... Was it because he was a child?

Under his curious gaze, the nurse started to talk as she brought back his cloak and helped him stand.

"I have a son who is just a little bit younger than you.

I thought we would have to take you out when you started shaking like that, you handled it well."

Hearing her praise, Joshua flushed and avoided her gaze. She had a motherly charm that made Joshua feel guiltier. If only the woman knew that it wasn't Joshua but rather the system that saved him...

Leaving the room, Joshua was escorted to another waiting room and after just a minute, the results were out.

"Here you go. Even though your current statistics aren't enough, your potential makes up for it."

The same nurse handed a paper to him. The paper was full of information regarding his allergies, the current state of his body, his potential and such.

Listening to her, Joshua was grateful that he didn't have to use the paper he took from Mikael. After all, he had a couple uses for it.

--------------------

◎Name: Cain Slora

◎Age: 15

◎Birth Date: 21/DEC/2187

...

◎Potential: <B>

...

--------------------

Joshua smiled sorrowfully. He wasn't completely disappointed with his rank as it could still be considered above average but it would be a lie to say he didn't want the <SS> rank potential just like the 'hero' and his rivals.

With a faint smile, he bowed to the nurse before leaving the room. It took him around 7 minutes to reach what looked like a huge elevator. The 'elevator' was the size of a building with the numbers [81/299] on it. Once he was near enough, the people in and around the elevator also noticed him. The ones in the blue elevator were dressed in all kinds of clothes while the ones that surrounded the elevator were in fully black clothes. Looking at how many people were in the elevator, Joshua thought the number above was related to that.

"The papers."

After another check about his information, he was let in the elevator as the number turned [82/299], confirming his hypothesis.

It took around half an hour for the number to turn [299/299] as the gates of the elevator closed. The led light bars on the ceiling flickered for a second before turning white. When they were sure the people in black were out of their sight, everybody started chatting other than a selected few like Joshua.

"Kyaa-! We're finally going back to the city. You have no idea how glad I am that we won't rot with those disgusting beasts!"

"Samee! That last eagle was super scary!"

"Hey, have you heard? Some executioners from [Nemesis] were swarming around the district!"

"What?!"

A woman's words were enough to catch everyone's interest as even Joshua was looking at her direction. As the co-author, he didn't remember any notable event that happened in Rutherglen, especially one concerning the Nemesis Union.

'Nemesis? Why are they in a <D>-grade city?'

[Nemesis].

It was the name of the religious union that was created for the sole purpose of exterminating blasphemers and people who committed any type of crime against the common values of religions.

Being a part of such an organization, [Executioners] were people who were given the role of dealing with the former part.

"She's just messing with you... geez. Do you really think such people would appear in a <D> grade city?"

"Ah- haha."

A man smacked the person who was talking with the woman. Following that, the person couldn't help but laugh awkwardly but the woman looked like her pride was hurt as she opened her mouth.

"No, it's true! My friend said he saw it with his own eyes!"

"Yes, yess..."

The man rolled her eyes at the woman. His reaction made the woman's turn bright red as she kept shouting about this and that. By then, everybody seemed to have lost interest as they all returned to their own business. Looking at how people reacted, Joshua couldn't agree more. The chances of Nemesis roaming around a <D>-grade city was as low as finding a needle in a haystack. Even so, he made sure he listened to the rest of their argument on the off chance she was right.

The rest of his trip to the surface passed like that before he was greeted by the sun. The scenery in front of him looked like a mixture of medieval and futuristic metropolis. It was really hard to explain what he was seeing in words.

He could see postmodern towers and skyscrapers but ironically, they had this medieval feeling to them at the same time. With the sunset behind them, it looked very majestic.

Unfortunately, he couldn't admire the scenery to his heart's content as a person bumped into him. He had no choice but to keep walking as he saw how angry people behind him were. It was then the realization hit him.

He was now in Rutherglen!

[*]

"No... not this one, either... ah, finally!"

Right now, Joshua was looking through a list of people on a computer screen. After looking around the city for a while, he entered an internet cafe.

While doing so, he noticed that the city during the day and night were the complete opposite. If the day-time Rutherglen was like a medieval city with the sole difference of the buildings being skyscrapers, the night-time Rutherglen was like Tokyo with its digital billboards. The transformation was so quick that by the time Joshua noticed, a pink led figure was waving at him.

𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬-

What was Joshua doing in an internet cafe instead of finding a place to stay, you may ask and that was the exact reason he entered the internet cafe in the first place.

With Joshua being a minor, there was no way for him to rent a flat or book a room in a hotel. He thought he could use Mikael's paper to cover it up but there was no guarantee it would work the way he wanted to. So, he planned on making a deal with someone online to sell a house for him which he would pay with %20 interest to the said person. Of course, he didn't state that he was a minor while making a post about it though.

Even though he knew there was a chance he could get scammed, with how much security has been tightened over the years, Joshua decided to take the risk. Not that he had any other choice. On the off chance things went wrong, he could trust cyber polices to take care of it even before he could take action.

Thankfully, in less than an hour, around a dozen people took his post seriously and contacted him. Thenceforth, Joshua checked their messages and their past posts to confirm that they weren't trolling. In the end, he found a suitable person.

[Cainz: Yes, the post was real. I'm going to pay with %20 interest.]

[Kaitlynn: It looks like I stepped on a gold mine.(¬‿¬)]

[Cainz: But there is a condition. I want you to sign a [Hexagon Contract] with me, if not Mana Contract.]

[Kaitlynn: I figured that much. Sure, why not? I am only interested in the money part. I'm going to clean every speck of dust in the house so you can pay me more. (~˘▾˘)~]

Ignoring the weird faces she(?) put between her words, Joshua talked about the details with Kaitlynn. Luckily, other than the fact that she was a gold digger, she didn't appear to be someone untrustworthy who would scam him. Even so, Joshua made sure he didn't let his guard down. His plan was renting an isolated house for two months. After that, he didn't need to depend on anyone.

Once they went through the details, Joshua went to the vending machine in the corner of the room to exchange his coins. Feeling uneasy, he used the silver coins to select a cheque with an amount that looked sufficient. He went back to his seat and bought a Hexagon Contract which was the other name for artificially created lowest rank Mana Contracts. The moment he did so, he heard a low 'ding' as the empty drawer of the desk vibrated a little bit. When it calmed down, Joshua opened the drawer to find two kraft papers in it. He wrote the terms he and Kaitlynn agreed on.

When he was done, he put the paper back in the drawer and sent Kaitlynn a message. After around 10 minutes, a reply came back saying she signed it. Following her lead, Joshua also signed the contract as he felt a connection forming under his heart. Unlike the one with Averie, this one was very faint and indistinguishable, giving him a hard time to feel it.

Joshua let out a sigh of relief. He was happy that Kaitlynn didn't question the reason behind him asking such a thing. Was it something that happened on a daily basis?

With the contract forming, he sent Kaitlynn the money with her pay which she replied almost instantly as the drawer shook again. In it stood the keys and some papers. Now, all that was left for him to do was meeting her. After finishing settling down, he could finally focus back on himself.

From what Kaitlynn said, the said house appeared to be on the outskirts of the district with only a few buildings near it. She said that the closest building to it was where she and her sole guardian, her grandfather lived. She also said that the neighborhood was also a quiet one but it was also a cozy one where you could ask for anyone's help on something.

Following that was a two hour ride on a public bus which was more than enough to make Joshua motion sick with both the terrible driving and the heavy perfumes the old ladies used. Joshua laughed at it when Ruth said that the smell of the elderly made her sick back in the laboratory but after going through that hell, he couldn't agree more. Though Mikael used a really fresh perfume unlike this disaster.

When he left the bus, Joshua took a really deep breath like a person who held their breath for so long. Once he was utterly calm, he took a look around his surroundings which made him frown.

'4, 7- no, there are 8 of them.'

Unlike the photos 'Kaitlynn' sent him, the buildings around him were the complete opposite of those 3 storey apartments with a bunch of trees covering them. Rather, the buildings were at least 7 storey tall with all of them being gray and instead of trees, all he could see were trash and broken furniture here and there. He could even see a mist surrounding the whole place.

At first, he thought that he arrived at the wrong place until he noticed that he was already surrounded.

'Ha... I have been scammed. Well, not that I didn't expect it.'

Joshua rubbed his temples as he thought of a solution. Even though he looked through the manuals to some extent, even if he tried to use his shortswords, his weak body wouldn't be able to handle it unless he strengthened it. He could use the awakening stone but considering that most people slept for around 10 hours after exhausting all of their energy, that was also out of the question. With that, he only had his magic and his needles.

Murmuring silently, he activated his [Observation] skill as he eyed the people surrounding him while acting like a confused child.

'1 <F>, 4 <G> and 3 <H>... the last ones are easy but <F> is still...'

Joshua cursed under his breath as he focused on the places where the mist was thickest.

He made sure he kept on checking the paper in his hands like a person confirming the address before entering a narrow blind alley. While walking, he took a bottle out of his bag with two leaves of herb in it. He rubbed the two leaves with his fingers until they were granulated. Joshua sprinkled them on the floor as the fog around him thickened with a moist white colour. The fog had a resinous scent that made him realize that he didn't eat anything other than the sandwich Ray prepared all day but he tried his best to ignore his hunger.

When he reached the dead end, he turned back to his visitors. Other than one, seven of them were right there which made him uneasy as he activated his skill and looked around. Unfortunately, there were other people in the buildings, making it hard for him to find a single person.

'Tch'

Clicking his tongue, Joshua took out his needles and directed a part of them to his back and rear to avoid any ambushes.

"Now... are you guys finally planning on revealing yourselves?"

With his call, five of the silhouettes came near but Joshua could see the other two with a weird weapon in their hand. It was his first time seeing it but judging by its shape, which was a mixture of a crossbow and a gun, it wasn't too hard for Joshua to guess their usage.

With sinister smiles on their faces, the sole woman in the group -who also appeared to be the leader- bounced at Joshua without a word.

<[A/N: I am not going to lie, I, myself, am also not really happy with this chapter but I guess I'll have to trust the process... (ーー;). Well, if it doesn't work out, I'll probably delete this chapter and rewrite another from the start.]