4 Taking Risks to Save Lives

Two days passed as Cain increased his stats through exercise. His agility was at 70, and his strength was at 62. His endurance of 94 was always the highest, with 30 intelligence being the lowest.

Cain's Armor was also stronger.

[Goblin Skin Chestpiece - Quality: B - Power: 45 - Durability: 87%]

[Goblin Skin Helmet - Quality: B - Power: 27 - Durability: 96%]

[Goblin Skin Gauntlets - Quality: B - Power: 23 - Durability: 82%]

[Goblin Skin Shin guards - Quality: B - Power: 28 - Durability: 86%]

Through exercise, he had also obtained a [Sprint] Skill. It made him 30% faster but took a lot of energy. By repeatedly striking the walls of the dungeon, Cain obtained [Strong hit]. It gave him extra weapon momentum at the cost of energy.

At 4 o'clock, Cain entered the mall. As he walked down the massive hall, he didn't notice the two people following behind. Margo and Amy had arrived twenty minutes before.

Before long, he saw the purple rift. Swirling with unknown energy, the police had locked it off from the public.

Over twelve officers guarded the rift, with eight of them equipped with assault rifles. They were quite relaxed, but Cain looked up to see an hourglass. The sand was slowly falling down, and a timer of ten seconds remained.

Since they were not players, no one could see the timer. Cain wanted to shout to get them away from the portal. However, despite his knowledge, he couldn't muster the courage. A crack in the rift sent a chill down the officers' spines.

Behind Cain's back, Amy froze at the feeling. "Margo! We need to go!" She tugged on her friend's hand to get her to leave. Back to Cain, he ran back and into the bathroom. Margo was confused at the sight.

"Why do we need to go?"

"This is how you died.. don't make me lose you again!" Margo reassured Amy before gunfire broke out. Cain finished putting on his armor. He emerged from the door and looked towards the fight. Cain was the only one moving towards the noise.

Margo looked at Cain's armor in suspicion. It looked like cosplay, but the dagger in Cain's hand was quite real. For something made from a bone, it looked quite sharp.

The officers were standing strong. Against them were humanoid pigs; probably ogres. There were twelve ogres in total. After a few minutes, every enemy had been defeated.

Among the officers, there were three wounded. Their ammunition was low, and the rift had not disappeared. While one cried for backup, the ogres began to regenerate. Cain watched silently as they began making another stand.

Thanks to Margo's curiosity, she and Amy had not left. Amy was in tears to leave, but Margo didn't budge. They were about to move away, but they suddenly saw Cain fight.

"Sprint."

Dashing at a quick speed, Cain cut straight through the neck of an ogre. It held its neck while spewing blood in pain before falling to the ground. A crystal fell from where the beast once stood as it dissolved into air.

Both officers and beasts alike were shocked at the sight. For the officers, Cain had closed ten feet in an instant. To the beasts, they knew they were in danger. Ignoring the officers, all 11 ogres attacked Cain at once.

Without hesitation, Cain fought back. Out of adrenaline, he slew two ogres, while the officers fired as well. The police slowly began to realize that something was different about Cain's attacks. The attacks would never regenerate.

The hits weren't just luck either. Cain used to be a high-level fencer. Attacking slow targets with an agile weapon was no problem at all. From the second fight, five of the ogres were downed by the officers, and seven were finished by Cain.

While Cain dug in his dagger to finish the remaining monsters, the police saw his face. He was just a high schooler. "Uh.. hey." An officer waved at him as he finished off the last monster. It was struggling to get up as Cain mercilessly crushed its neck.

"I understand that you were trying to help, but you can't just risk your life like that."

While Cain was at a loss for words, he looked past the speaking policeman to see the injured against the wall. He had four healing potions from the goblin boss. Maybe this was his chance to buy their respect.

Cain didn't know it, but he already had their respect. Had he not shown up, they would've been done in. Cops aren't trained like the military and aren't pressured to work out after training. Action of this scale was never meant to be experienced in their line of work.

While he walked towards the injured, both Amy and Margo both saw Cain's hand disappear into his inventory. A second later, he pulled his hand out with potions inside. "I spent a lot of time getting these. They're healing potions and are quite rare."

The standing officers tried to step in. "Hold on!"

"Are you sure these will heal them? The ambulances are on their way.." One of the injured laughed but coughed up a ball of blood. His comrades rushed to him in aid. It was clear that the injury was close to fatal.

"Give it to me. You know he doesn't have ulterior motives."

"But.. " The injured officer swiped the vial out of Cain's hand. Jugging the whole thing, he gagged lightly. A second later, he raised his hands in disbelief. The injured man slouched over with a smile.

"It won't fix the ribs, but thank you so much." The crowd was unsure of what to think. His bleeding had stopped, but the effects were unclear. Two of the other injured accepted the potions, while one claimed his injuries were light. While the officers sighed with relief, a proper swat team arrived.

"What's the situation?" With the monsters gone, the only suspicious thing was Cain. "Who's this boy?"

. . . .

In the nearby police station.

. . .

"So you're saying you're the only one who can fight those things?"

"No.. I don't know about that. All that I know is that normal methods can't take down monsters."

"Look. I'm thankful that you saved my people, but it's too dangerous. You need to hand over any "methods" that can kill them." Cain wasn't about to stop now.

"It's something about being a player. A horde of monsters attacked my school as some kind of test. Only the survivors were dubbed as players.. After that test, we returned to when everything was normal."

"So you need to be a player? What's this novel bullshit? I would've believed you more if you said cultivation."

"It's not something I can give to you. However, I'd like to ask for something in exchange for the specifics." The interrogating officer was the chief himself. If anyone knew the rules, it'd be him.

"It can't be anything against the law."

"Well, I'd like some help getting an interview."

"An interview?" The officer was confused. This was something Cain could do himself, but he was here asking for help.

"Yes. I want to announce the concept to the public. If anywhere else has players, it would be good to let them know. The system doesn't exactly tell you what to do.."

"So you want to tell it to the public at the same time. That works for me. If we can find some adults with your skill, we won't have to worry about anything."

Cain cringed inside as he thought of his age. He was 16, but he was two years away from being a legal adult. "Ha.. here's my contact info. It would be best if they could set up a location where I can show off some skills."

After being discharged from the station, his dad arrived around that time. He hugged Cain tightly as he exited the front door. Cain did his best to explain things, but at least his dad wanted to talk in the morning.

Despite his tough schedule, his father had personally come home to check on him. He looked to the sky as the sun began to set. It was quite pleasant for such a tough day.

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