After leaving the Strength Titans gym the next day, Zac thought about meeting with the CesES drug dealer later.
He had the 800 Lunar Pennies in his wallet to keep up appearances if necessary. Still, he didn't intend to use the money. He planned to use the dealer he would meet later to get to the location of the clandestine steroid lab.
What was he going to do? Gather resources, of course.
He didn't care if the people behind the place were arrested, nor did he want to punish the 'bad guys.' Zac was not a hero, nor did he intend to become one.
He had just found an opportunity to act against someone who couldn't complain about a robbery in court and who, in his opinion, should be less bad or less violent than The Vipers.
Whether he was right or not, there was no way to know until he carried out his plans.
In any case, he was excited to leave the martial arts gym, having had a good workout today and having meditated a lot the night before, improving his inner peace a little more.
Every day, his mastery of his powers was improving. He could feel it as he found it easier to learn to fight, in his agility, dexterity, endurance, and, in short, all of his physical characteristics.
Mastering his special powers related to the mind was more complex, so even though he was progressing, his improvements in that part of his characteristics were less noticeable.
Still, where he could once levitate a 3-kilo pot, he could now levitate something of 4 kilos.
His electrical discharges and ability to hack into electronic systems were stronger.
As he thought about this, he noticed that the man who had been following him was rapidly approaching him.
'What does this person want? Is he trying to talk to me?' Zac wondered as he pretended not to see.
He stopped at the edge of the sidewalk, next to a crosswalk, and waited to see what would happen.
Then, a white van stopped right in front of him, and its side door opened. The man standing very close to Zac used a device to electrocute him before pushing him inside the vehicle.
Zac was merely tickled by the object but did nothing at first, pretending to be electrocuted.
'What are they doing?' He wondered as he closed his eyes.
Something Zac had noticed since he started meditating was that he was now able to think much more calmly than before he joined the martial arts gym.
At the same time, he felt more in control of his body and his thoughts, and even in a nervous situation, he did not get as excited as before.
Every hour he meditated seemed to help him build an increasingly firm and solid mindset.
Having already noticed this, he wasn't impressed by his calmness in the face of this kidnapping!
He thought quickly and realized he couldn't act against these men.
'Someone probably ordered this kidnapping. If I do anything, they'll realize it's connected to me, and I'll have more problems with The Vipers.'
As he thought about it and decided to play along with these people, he felt his body being manipulated by two people while the white van was already on its way.
"Tie him up." A hoarse voice sounded near Zac as the man who had electrocuted him quickly did what he was supposed to do and put the young blond man on a chair inside the van.
Then Zac felt cold water on his face, and someone slapped him.
"Hey! Hey! Wake up, you little shit!" A muffled voice yelled.
Zac opened his eyes and pretended to wake up from a faint. He looked around the sides of the dark van in confusion, and three men with plastic masks on their faces were standing around him.
"Who are you? Where am I?" He forced his voice to sound scared and confused.
Pa!
One of the men slapped him hard on the left cheek.
But Zac hardly felt any pain. This blow was nothing compared to some of the ones he'd taken in the last few days.
"Hey! We ask the questions here!" One of the men said.
Unfortunately for them, Zac could clearly see their facial contours hidden by the plastic masks.
'You're going to regret this.' He thought as he expressed his pain.
He could do nothing about it now, but would it be like this forever?
But for the moment, he remained silent, curious to know what this was all about.
One of the men realized Zac had understood he shouldn't speak unless he was asked and went straight to the point. "Where were you yesterday? Yesterday you spent more than an hour walking from one side of the city to the other before disappearing. Where did you go after you left Gladstone Station?"
"That... I went to my job. By the way, how do you know that?" Zac asked, pretending to be the terrified hostage.
Pa!
Pa!
"Aaaagh!"
He received two more slaps in the face before the man who had recently been watching him asked. "What is this job? Where is it exactly?"
"Everywhere. I give private lessons to students younger than me. That could happen anywhere." Zac replied in an anxious tone.
"Then why did you try to mislead us?" Another man asked in a harsh tone.
"Mislead you? Were you after me?" Zac raised his tone while deliberately breathing faster.
Pa! Pa!
"Don't pretend you didn't know!" The man said, hitting him again, this time much harder than the last.
"Aaaagh!"
"I didn't know! Hah... Hah... I didn't know! I got on the wrong train and then had to make a few changes to reach the right destination!" Zac said under his breath.
Meanwhile, none of the three men noticed their wallets leaving their pockets and their respective IDs appearing behind them.
Zac quickly took down the names of each of the men, and he used the fingers of his hands tied behind his back to put these items back where they were.
The three sensed he wasn't lying, but that wasn't enough to convince them.
"Where were you three nights ago?" Asked one of the men Kai had ordered to do this.
'Oh?' Zac realized that perhaps the group of men suspected he had acted against Dario that night.
"I was at home." He said as he looked at these people strangely.
He didn't know he was being watched that day. He had only found it out after he came home, after seeing the messages between Dario and Kai.
"Trash!" Shouted the man who had been watching him since the raid on Zac and Amy's house when two men of their faction had died. "I saw you leave the house that night!"