First assignment
Since Mark didn't need to rest anymore, he decided to check if the Landlady had returned. After all, he needed to make some money as soon as possible, and her job offer was the only thing he currently had.
He couldn't afford to get Truck-kun to get his <Truck Transformation> Upgrade, as it was both a C-Rank upgrade and too expensive.
He headed to the second floor of the building, which used to be where the previous Landlord was staying. However, he doubted she would be there, as it was clear from her car that she could afford to live somewhere better.
But as he reached the end of the stairs to the floor, he started hearing some noises coming from where he was heading. It sounded like someone was moving around some heavy things, possibly pieces of furniture.
The apartment door was open, and he could see two men inside moving boxes and furniture around, as a woman was pointing them where to move the furniture or put what they held.
The woman wasn't the Landlady, but her clothes were similar to hers, as it was probably an outfit for the company they worked on. Either that or it was a trendy outfit, but Mark had noticed no other women wearing something like that yesterday on his way back home. It was a pretty formal outfit, as you would expect a lawyer to wear, and Mark could tell that it wasn't a cheap one, as he could recognize things like that better than the average man.
As he got closer to the door, one of the men was heading out, probably going to get something else from outside. Mark hadn't looked out today, but it seemed like a movement in the apartment today, so there probably was a moving truck outside.
The man ignored Mark and passed him, but the woman noticed him and started walking toward him. Mark could see that she also had a neutral look on her face as the Landlady, and he could feel like the surrounding temperature was getting lower while she looked at him.
"You must be the resident of 02. "
Mark nodded, as it was the number of his apartment. He lived on the ground floor, which had two apartments, but nobody lived on the other one as long as he was around. They were currently on the first floor, which had three apartments, but each was bigger than the two on the ground floor. The one that the move was happening was 11, which was the largest among the three.
There was one more floor, but it was just a loft used to store things.
"Miss Bellot had mentioned that you showed up yesterday. We have researched you and found out why your sudden disappearance occurred. It seems like you owe us."
Mark's eyes got wide, not because she said that he owed them, but because of the name of who he assumed to be his Landlady. After all, Bellot was also the name of the client of his last delivery, which he had failed to do since the accident happened and he fell into a coma.
"You don't need to worry about any lawsuit, as we know you wouldn't be able to pay back either way, even if one considered your actual background."
Once more, it did not surprise Mark that they had found out about his family, but he started to think if he would meet any person who didn't know about it at any point since waking up from his coma.
"Then what would Miss Bellot have me do? "Mark said with as much humbleness as he could muster while making sure he didn't sound sarcastic or in any other negative way.
"You will work your debt off, of course. Although I don't understand why my Lady would give you another chance in what you have failed to do, we have an assignment for you already. "
She got her right hand inside her jacket and brought out an envelope she had stored in a secret pocket. Mark tried not to stare, as some of her cleavage was clear to see, and he didn't want to get into trouble by being considered a perv.
He received the envelope from her, like the one that contained his last delivery job. As he opened it to read it, he noticed many similarities. The only difference was where he would get what he needed to deliver, but the location to deliver it was the same.
"From our understanding, you had lost your vehicle. Isn't that right? "
Mark nodded, as he had no reason to deny it. After all, if he denied it, he would have no way to do the delivery they just gave him.
"Well, it seems like you already have started increasing your debt. Just head to the location of your assignment from where to receive it. I will call them to prepare one of our vehicles you can borrow. But you better take care of both it and our products better than the last one. My Lady rarely gives someone a second chance and never gives some a third one."
Once more, Mark could feel the temperature falling as he received another stare from the woman in front of him. Again, he wasn't sure if it was in his mind or if it actually happened, but there wasn't any other sign of the latter being the truth.
Mark gave a little bow to the woman, who ignored him and returned to order the man still in the room to move furniture. As Mark headed outside towards where he needed to go, he noticed the other man who had left not that long ago return with a big box in his hand.
Since the stair wasn't wide enough, Mark waited for him to pass before he would start getting down. But as the man passed next to Mark, the latter felt strange. It was like something in him was shouting at him to pay attention to that man, or more specifically, as one of its shoulders.
Mark used his <Appraisal> Skill and understood the reason behind the strange call, but not why it started it. What was on that man's shoulder was some hair, but they weren't human hair. Instead, they were cat's hair.
Once he read the name of his <Appraise>, Mark remembered one of the Skills he had checked their challenge of—- <Feline Ears>. He had to truck 3 Cat owners at least 7 levels higher than him, meaning level over level 17. Unfortunately, Mark still didn't know what level others were supposed to be, as his <Appraisal> didn't work on people.
Even if he started at level 1, that didn't mean that everybody else was level 1, as he could tell them even now with his boosted Stats, he wasn't in inhuman standards. The mean clearly had great <Power>, as he could easily lift the large box that weighed over two Marks.
'Could it be that is a benefit of helping me to fulfill those challenges I had inspected? '
Even if he didn't like the idea of hitting someone with his truck, he wouldn't kill them from how Truck-kun described it to work. Instead, they would just transfer into another realm, where they would have similar powers to what Mark could earn, which didn't sound like a terrible deal. Who didn't want to live an adventure like that and get away from the routine of the modern world? Probably people that belonged to the 1%, but everyone else might even beg Mark to give them a chance to live this dream.
Still, a part of Mark felt it was wrong, but others looked forward to the potential rewards. In this instance, the latter seemed to win, as Mark tried to imprint this person's face in his mind. It was challenging to do so while the latter was holding the box, but when he let it, he noticed Mark and how he stared at him.
Mark started his way out as he didn't want to start a fight or any other misunderstanding, and fortunately, the man didn't follow him.
As Mark got out of the building, he took another look at the place he was supposed to go, which was luckily not too far from a train station. So he took the train towards there and once more tried to train his <Minor Energy Manipulation> during the trip.
But since the stops weren't as much, he didn't make too much progress to level up his Skill, but he could feel that he was close to doing so. As he got outside the train station, Mark, for a moment, had a strange feeling. It felt similar to the feeling he had from the stares of that woman he spoke to just a few moments ago, but it was different. It didn't just feel like the temperature around him felt a few degrees, but also like electricity passed through his spine.
At that point, for the first time, he could feel his phone vibrating as a tune was playing. It was a classic ringtone that these phone models had by default for when they received a call. Mark took out the phone, and after flipping it open, he checked the screen. It said that an unknown number was calling him.
Mark answered the call, curious how and why someone was calling him. After all, even he didn't know what that phone number was, and he hadn't thought of being able to be used as an actual phone.
A familiar voice spoke in his ear before he could ask who was calling him.
"Just stay calm, and act normal. We are being followed."
It was, of course, the voice of Truck-kun.