68 Goodnight #68
"Now, say goodnight..." I remarked as I pulled the trigger and watched the gangster fall to the ground, frothing at the mouth and spasming as he hit the concrete floor.
"Do your worst, he says..." I remarked with a chuckle, rolling my eyes under my helmet. I shook my head at the unconscious thug and sighed in exasperation.
I didn't kill the gangster. In fact, I didn't even put enough energy into the bullet to knock him out, but he passed out from shock and fear alone. So much for his bravado.
Coming across the guy was a stroke of luck since I was out on one of my usual patrols to beat up thugs and grind my combat skills. Black Mask's goons were still on my ass, so I made it a habit of only going after his gang whenever I got out.
Finding the guy who shot me back then was a bonus, and I just forgot about everything else when I laid eyes on the thug and started single-mindedly chasing behind him.
I won't lie. I honestly didn't know how I'd react if I ever came across the guy again after he went to prison, but I was surprisingly calm and didn't even feel the urge to kill him.
However, my pettiness didn't let me just knock him out and hand him over to the GCPD. No. That would be too easy. I decided to toy with him instead. Pretty mature, right?
I honestly didn't know if it was my training with Benjamin finally kicking in or if I never hated the guy enough to kill him in the first place, but I don't even feel like torturing him anymore.
'It's not like I could kill the sad piece of shit even if I wanted to...' I mused, bitterly smiling under my mask as I turned to the sky, staring into the pointy-eared humanoid shadow standing over a roof ledge nearby.
I raised my gun hand and waved at the shadowy figure, and his bright white eyes narrowed at me as he turned around and walked away, disappearing into the darkness.
'I could basically hear the theatrical, menacing music playing in the background...' I chuckled, shaking my head, and turning back to the unconscious thug as Batman left.
'Not even worth the effort...' I frowned as I noticed a wet patch on the thug's pants and thanked my lucky star that the riot headgear came with an air filtering system.
Activating my Personal Computer power, I sent an anonymous tip to the GCPD about the guy and sighed, turning to leave since I still had skills to grind.
...
Somewhere in Gotham
Cassandra frowned as she stared into the eyes of the redhead standing in front of her. She knew and remembered the woman and identified her as a former member of the League of Assassins.
However, she didn't know why the woman was here in Gotham and why she appeared before her.
"Hello, Cassandra. It's been a while," the serpentine redhead greeted, smiling as she regarded the young runaway with an expression that one could confuse with friendliness if they weren't familiar with her.
Cassandra didn't reply and merely stared at the woman with apparent caution, not that she verbally could reply even if she wanted, as she didn't know how to speak.
As part of her training to become the ultimate assassin, David Cain, her father, did not teach her how to speak and only communicated with her through actions. But that was neither here nor there.
"There is no need to be alarmed, Cassandra," Whisper said, maintaining a pleasant smile as she approached, causing the young runaway to step back.
"I know you need money to help those homeless people who took care of you," Whisper said, disarmingly raising her hands as she stopped walking so as not to spook Cassandra, to which the latter froze.
"I can help you," Whisper said after a second's pause to allow Cassandra the time she needed to process the situation and weigh her options. The young runaway frowned, but her expression eased up, and she seemed willing to hear what the redhead had to say, at least.
"Unfortunately, I'd just escaped Black Gate and have no money to spare, but..." Whisper said, trailing off as she observed Cassandra's expression and smiled in satisfaction at how focused she looked.
"The Penguin is organizing an underground fighting tournament in a couple of weeks..." Whisper said, her smile widening as she watched Cassandra's expression turn hopeful.
"With your capabilities, it should be a piece of cake for you to win and claim the money prize..." Whisper added as she retrieved a piece of paper and offered it to the young runaway.
"Here, everything you need to know is here," she concluded as she approached Cassandra again, and the latter didn't step back this time, taking the paper from her hand.
Taking a good look at the paper, Cassandra nodded and bowed her head before she turned to leave, and Whisper watched her do so without uttering a word, only smiling.
"Do you think this will get Lady Shiva off our backs?" Abbot said as he emerged from the shadows nearby, regarding Whisper with a hard-to-read expression.
"We'll find out eventually, but we need to lie low for now," Whisper replied, shaking her head as she stopped smiling and turned to leave in the opposite direction Cassandra took.
Abbot sighed, shaking his head as he followed her.
...
Gray's hideout
"I should be ready to go through Richard's training method now..." I remarked to no one in particular, bringing up the system's interface and looking at the accumulated notifications.
According to Richard's words, the method he came up with will give me a considerable boost in strength, and all of my three stats are currently close to reaching 100.
I didn't know for sure, but 100 would likely be a milestone for another perk and another so-called evolution. And if Richard's method made my Body Attribute shoot past that number, then I needed to have stat points to maintain my stats balance.
I still didn't forget what happened when I first raised my Mind attribute to 25, and I don't want to get caught in the same situation without some way of immediately fixing it, as in stat points.
I'd spent ten days grinding everything I could while still training with Richard and Benjamin despite mastering energy augmentation in the first seven days because I wanted to be ready.
[+5 levels to the Brawling skill]
[Brawling (level 44)]
[+4 levels to the Crime skill]
[Crime (level 40)]
[+6 levels to the Acrobatics skill]
[Acrobatics (level 24)]
[+7 levels to the Computers skill]
[Computers (level 33)]
[+4 levels to the Gun Mastery skill]
[Guns Mastery (level 20)]
[+9 levels to the Mechanics skill]
[Mehcanics (level 10)]
[+18 levels to the Mechanic class]
[Mechanic (level 23)]
[54+ stat points]
[Stat points (56)]
[+1 level to the Mad Scientist archetype]
[You have gained the power: Machine Control]
[Machine Control: the power to assemble or disassemble any and all machines, as long as the user has a preliminary understanding of their function, design, and inner components with the use of energy]
'I might have overdone the grinding...' I chuckled, shaking my head as I read through the notifications. My Mechanics skill got the most levels because it was the lowest, and I focused on it more than the rest.
The Computers skill, on the other hand, leveled up so much thanks to my Personal computer power since I was always mentally grinding it, regardless of what I was doing at the time.
'Whelp, here goes nothing...' I mused, taking a deep breath to calm myself as I took off my clothes and sat on the ground, focusing on my energy as I summoned and began moving it across my body.
'So far, so good...' I mused as I opened and closed my palm after injecting the energy directly into my muscles, feeling the added strength in my hand.
I then moved the energy to the rest of my body, injecting every muscle with it and only moving on to the next after finding no problems. I might have learned energy augmentation and was confident in my ability, but being careful never hurt.
'Now for the difficult part...' I mused, letting out the breath I'd been holding as I gritted my teeth and focused the energy on my biceps the same way Richard did.
And boy, let me tell you, it hurt just as bad as when Richard did it, making me grunt, almost losing my focus and ruining the whole thing. However, I persevered until I destroyed the entire muscle, injecting energy into my biceps as it regenerated.
[+2 points to the Body attribute]
'So Richard was right...' I grimaced, feeling the phantom pain as I moved my arm, already feeling the increase in strength.
'Now I just gotta do that to the rest of my body...' I mused, sighing as I closed my eyes to take a brief rest and quickly resumed the process.
...
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