7 Shadow [Chapter 7]

[Third Person POV]

Ryan walked into the living room carrying eat plate in one by one, he took in the shrimp and broccoli last setting it down, the bald eye-patch dude took a water while him and Natasha drunk orange juice. Since it was family style where everyone dug in he didn't need to serve them, ignoring them he started to eat.

"Really? You aren't going to ask about the strange man in your apartment?" Natasha asked seeing that he was just digging into his food.

"Are you here to kill me?" Ryan asked looking over at the bald eye-patch dude.

"...No." He took a pause before answering.

"Then I don't care enough to know who you are or why you are here." Ryan said going back to his food after he was done eat.

The other two just looked at him, "You should have better situation awareness Mr. Sommers." The bald eye-patch guy said.

"If you say so..... by the way what is your name?" Ryan asked around a mouth full of food.

"I thought it didn't matter?" He said looking over and eating his food modestly.

"Yeah but in my head I keep calling you bald eye-patch dude, and that is to long so I figured I should get your name." Ryan answered truthfully then took a drink.

The guy's eyes twitched and Natasha looked composed but on the inside she was laughing, "Nick Fury."

Ryan nodded and went back to eating again, "You really aren't curious as to why I am hurt? or why he is here? or what I do for that matter?" Natasha asked thinking he would be like most and either be scared or really into her business since she just showed up injured.

Putting down his plate Ryan sighed, "Look from the temperament of that guy it is obvious that you are into something that would lead me further down the rabbit hole. While not always bad but honestly I hardly know you, I let you stay because you needed help. If you really want me to know you would tell me yourself though."

What he said he really meant, she was obviously into something that would wreck his life and while he had the system and wasn't scared, it was troublesome. He just wanted a new relaxed life while gaining enough strength to where he wouldn't have to worry about anyone.

He was already going to have to use his Exp Points since he noticed this morning how easily it was for Natasha to throw him down without being able to counter she was above 80 in strength since that is what is is. Most likely she is in the early or mid 100's, but with the experience she displayed he still didn't feel confident.

Scratching his head he shook the thoughts off and went back to eating his food, the other two in the room gave each other a look before going back to eating. Ryan sighed in happiness thankful that they didn't explain anything to him about who they were.

After Dinner.....

That happiness was short lived as Natasha offered to wash dishes, he should have declined but thought she was just doing something to pay him back. That was not the case though as the minute she went in there Nick turned to me and he looked me over for a minute before he finally decided to speak.

"How do you feel about Mutants?" he asked

"They are fine I guess, they don't mess with me and I haven't ran into any of them so I have no problems with them." Ryan asked knowing that this was leading somewhere.

"And if Earth was suddenly attacked what would you do?"

"Hide duh!" Ryan said looking at him like he was crazy, he couldn't tell him about the system but this is what he would do. If it didn't threaten his life then he wasn't really scared to try anything and kill whoever or whatever was after his life.

Nick looked him over for a moment before speaking again, "Natasha told me about your fighting technique. She said it was something she has never seen before but that she could counter it, where did you learn it?"

Ryan was sure now that these people had something to do with the government or some secret organization since they were able to get info on him. How else would they know he learned it from somewhere and that he didn't just train it himself, let's find out.

"I trained it in myself, if you haven't taken a look around I can't afford training, I train myself." He stated finishing off his drink after he was done.

"....True. But then you movements would be sloppy and like someone who trained by themselves, but from the footage I have seen is that you need a master to learn something like that. So who was it?" He asked again.

"And why should I tell you again? Last I checked you were a guest in my home." Ryan shot back frowning not liking how he was trying to pry things out of him. At that moment Natasha walked back in, "It seems you healed faster then you thought, you should be leaving tonight right?"

He didn't like how Nick was trying to pry into his secrets so it was time to get her out of here, and seeing as a friend was here then he could help her out she didn't need to stay with him anymore. Natasha looked at him, "Nope still to hurt to move, need a day or two more." She replied shamelessly like she wasn't standing there on her own.

Ryan's eye twitched, frustrated he walked into his room shutting the door behind him, he didn't want to spend any more time with them then needed. Really Nick, for some reason he didn't find Natasha's shamelessness disgusting instead he saw her more as cute then anything.

Like this another two days passed with Natasha and Ryan growing a little closer, neither admitted it but they grew accustomed to living together, Ryan cooked Natasha cleaned.

[23 hours 22 minutes 7 seconds]

The system would be back tomorrow when after he got off of work, this was also the day that Natasha was taking off, though she didn't mention it in any way. Ryan didn't say anything but made what her favorite food was, she didn't say but kept mentioning the Spicy Honey Chicken.

Tonight that is what he made for her, along with Sweet Peas and some French Fries, the two didn't speak as they ate the food, the quiet air wasn't awkward though but calm. They didn't bring up the topic of her leaving instead talked about other things they found they had in common.

After dinner Ryan hung out on his phone, he had to reschedule with Jane more then twice since the date of her coming back kept bein pushed back. Eventually he said that they would talk when she had time so he stopped messaging her about it and moved on.

After saying goodnight to Natasha he moved to his room to sleep, ten minutes into laying down he heard her move in the other room, thinking she was leaving he went back to sleep. That wasn't the case though as his door opened, he thought it was so she could kill him but she surprised him.

Moving closer she lifted his blanket and moved into bed next to him, she was only wearing a thin t-shirt and panties. Opening his eyes he looked right back into her green ones, she didn't say anything and neither did he as she moved into his chest and laid her head there.

Ryan wrapped his arms around her and let her sleep on his chest, this night was the best sleep he had, smiling contently he pulled her a little closer.

The Next Day.....

Ryan woke up feeling empty, looking down there Natasha was no longer sleeping in his arms, using his enhanced sense he could hear that she was no where inside the apartment. Laying there a moment he sighed and got up to get ready for work, feeling a little empty.

Moving around he got ready as normal and could feel the emptiness of the apartment, it didn't even feel this way when his dad died and left him. Then again he did hate his father so... But he actually grew use to waking up and seeing Natasha in his living room and liking it.

Sighing he got ready for working then grabbed his phone as he left the apartment, looking at his phone there was a message from Natasha though.

'From: Natasha

Sorry I couldn't say bye needed to go and finish what I was doing. After that I will be going somewhere else most likely. When I come back... can you have dinner waiting? I will message you in advance, I have to go dark but leave a reply and when I see it I will respond.'

Ryan didn't hesitate to respond he saw her as a friend over these past few days so he didn't mind, even coming over just for a meal for them to catch up he was okay with. With a pep in his step he went to work obviously putting out a good mood.

When he got there he worked like normal but was much happier, Natasha was actually his first real friend and from what little he knew about her she didn't have many. He didn't even pay attention to the timer that was going down for the system since he was in such a good mood.

Leaving work that day he got home and went into his normal routine, though he made more food then necessary, he was still use to making some for Natasha.

[Hello Host, Shadow Hack System has now been upgraded to Level two, new features added to it, Would you like an explanation?]

Ryan paused in the middle of eating a realized that he had forgotten about this, smiling slightly he answered, "Yes please."

[New function: Shop. Description of Shop- Shop can be used to by skills from F Grade to A Grade. Anything beyond is only found in Dimensional Boxes. To buy things from the shop it cost Exp Points, F Grade Skills start at 1,000 Exp Points.]

[New Function: Upgrade. Description of Upgrade- Now collecting Ten Dimensional boxes can upgraded them to Supreme Dimensional Boxes, each Supreme Box contains at least an S rank skill the highest earned is SSS.]

Happy with the new added features in the System Ryan moved to spend the rest of his points that he had on skills and upgrading his stats.

[Name: Ryan Edward Sommers

System Level: 2

Strength: 230

Defense: 90

Endurance: 90

Intelligence: 1,330

Resistance: 91

Soul Power: 130

Exp Points: 0 Ability Points: 125

Skills: Renewal Taekwondo Lvl 4, Diamond Body Lvl 4, Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms Lvl5, Cooking (Master), Knife/Dagger (Master)]

Nodding at his new status he was going to work on his strength for awhile, now with it in the two hundreds though he was going to work on everything else though. He was glad to see the Master in his cooking in Knife skills but didn't know how high they could go.

[It goes Minor, Novice, Advanced, Master, Legendary, then Saint. After increasing it to Master it will take much longer to get it to the last two steps, the system calculates that it would take you exactly 12,500 hours of practice before reaching Legendary.]

Ryan was surprised he didn't need to ask the system seemed to anticipate that he would before answering, the system then confirmed his thoughts telling him it was a feature of the upgrade. That was more then a year needed of practice before he got to it, but with work and cooking at home he could be doing it a lot more.

"System is there anything else I should know before I start hacking again?" Ryan wanted to know if anything changed with the hacking features before he started doing it.

[Nothing has changed. Though you can now use two shadows, currently the second shadow is locked though. It requires 2,000 Exp Points and Ability Points, for the shadow to be unlocked though, please keep working hard to obtain it.]

Nodding Ryan ran the hack he was going to just go ahead and get the points there was nothing else he could do at that moment, saying good night to the system he watched his shadow run out the room.