Chapter 5: Kidnapped?

It was 5AM in the morning and Sora could be found sitting on his living room. He just finished reassembling the phone for the last time. He lost count of how many times he had done so but he noticed that the skill no longer leveled up.

With a sigh, he dropped the landline on the table and made his way to the kitchen for some water. He managed to drag himself there without stumbling.

He hadn't had a proper sleep since that night and only got worse. Add that to the fact that he didn't sleep at all last night and was up grinding, he was running on fumes at this moment.

He made himself a cup of coffee to liven himself enough for the day. He bought a few packs of coffee yesterday knowing this kind of thing would happen.

'As much as I want to keep leveling up, I can't keep using a knife on my appliances.' The tear and scratches on the parts of the phone gave him enough reason to get professional tools.

'I can't keep relying on Kaito's money or I'll be too dependent on him.' Just as the thought of spending money appeared, the thought of how to make his own money came with it.

Fortunately, he already had a plan for that. One of the reasons he searched for and picked the engineering skill was to solve the problem of getting a job. The only issue would be how to convince the employer to hire him. A high level of skill would guarantee his employment.

The second but most important reason was that the world was very dependent on technology. Being able to control and manipulate it meant having an edge over others.

Not wanting to lose himself in thoughts, he pushed the deep thoughts to the back of his mind.

'The appliance store doesn't open for at least another hour. I can use this chance to at least test out what I've unlocked so far from the template.' He thought as he took a sip of coffee.

He closed his eyes, delving deep into his mind to search. Within seconds, images and scenes played in his mind. It seemed like he was living those moments himself.

One moment he was enjoying dinner with a father and mother at a round table, the next he was throwing kunai and shuriken with his older brother. It went like this for some time, scene after scene and memory after memory.

He was now on an empty street, running home. He saw dead bodies on the floor causing him to gasp in fear. He bolted in the direction of his home.

"Mom! Dad!" He screamed as he ran. He reached his home and pushed open the door in fright. In front of him, two dead bodies lay sprawled on the floor bleeding.

The scene changed to him laying on the floor with a young man staring at him with scarlet eyes.

"If you want to kill me, despise me, hate me, and live a loathsome life!"

The coffee mug dropped from his hand and shattered on the floor, spilling its content. Sora's body shook and trembled as he relived that moment.

He grit his teeth as he forced down the shaking. He pushed past the memories and allowed it to move to the next one which was fortunately much less mentally pressuring than the previous one. Attending lectures with other nameless individuals.

It continued like that until he was back in his kitchen. He stood still for a few seconds as his eyes regained focus.

'So that's how it is.' He thought as the trembling finally stopped. He had figured out how the template system worked. As of now, he had the same abilities as Sasuke up until about a year before he graduated from the academy.

'They may be common low level abilities in the shinobi world but if used properly in this world, they were powerful and deadly.' He thought as he picked up a broom from the closet to fix the mess he made.

As he swept the shattered pieces of the cup off the floor, he couldn't help but notice that the coffee was starting to dry up. He couldn't help but be confused. Coffee doesn't dry up in ten minutes.

He looked at the clock on the wall and couldn't help but curse. The clock showed 8:47AM. It felt like 20 minutes at most but it was apparently over three hours.

After cleaning up the mess, he rushed into the bathroom to take a cold shower. He was in desperate need of it after stay up all night doing sweaty work.

It took him ten minutes to shower and freshen up. After putting on a fresh set of clothes, he didn't bother thinking about breakfast, he instead went out immediately.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the next forty minutes, he was standing inside an appliances store. The distance on foot was not short at all so it wasn't something he would willingly do.

Until he had his own stable source of income, taking the bus would be a once in a lifetime luxury.

He spent a total of eight minutes searching and collecting tools before he took what he wanted to the front desk.

The cashier who was on duty looked at him weirdly before speaking.

"What's a kid like you doing with all this?" The man asked with a raised brow.

"I'm working on something for a school project." Sora lied with a straight face but the man didn't seem to be convinced.

"Oh yeah? What's the project about? Maybe I can help you." He said, trying to seem generous. Without any change in tone Sora replied him.

"I don't recall asking for your help. Me and my friends can handle it on our own." He said, already getting annoyed with the nosy cashier.

The man's eye twitched at the response but kept quiet. After all, if he kept pushing for answers he might lose the customer which meant losing money. He restrained his curiosity and allowed the boy to pay for his tools.

Sora recalled seeing a local auto repair shop on his way here.

'When I get Engineering Mastery to a high enough level, I'll try to apply for a job there. If they don't hire me, there are other shops who are looking to employ.' Sora thought as he walked out of the store.

With the tools in his back, he started his journey back home on foot. As he passed an electronic store, the TV on display showed a news broadcast.

"There are still no signs of the missing children and no ransom has been demanded for any of them. Citizens are advised to report any suspicious activity to the police so that they ca-"

'Kids getting kidnapped, it sounds like a serious problem. Not my problem though.' He thought as he walked past it.

This wasn't the first time he was hearing of it but he was only curious about the reason for the kidnappings than the actual people being kidnapped. That didn't mean he would go out of his way to search for them and rescue them.

'I'm not some wannabe hero.' He thought as he walked. He noticed that the streets were vacant. Although it wasn't morning, it wasn't so early that people would be indoors.

As he walked past a corner, a hand went over his mouth to silence him as another held his arm. Before he could think of struggling, a voice whispered in his ear.

"If you so much as scream, I'll break your arm." A male voice said, close to his ear.

"Now you're going to follow me an-" Before he could continue, Sora elbow swung backwards, smashing into his nose, causing him to let go of the other arm in pain.

He grabbed the offending hand over his mouth, violently twisting it backwards. The man screamed in pain as he looked at his hand that was facing the wrong direction.

Before the man could even begin to worry about his hand, Sora had turned to face him with the back of his foot already making contact with his face.

Sora looked at the man who was now sprawled on the floor in pain. He was on the lanky side but he had enough meat on his bones to not be considered as malnourished.

With his investment in self defense coupled with the template, it was too easy to take him down.

'Now what to do with you…' He thought.

*CLICK!*

Before he could come to a decision, he heard the telltale click of a loaded gun. He turned to the small alley to the side and saw a man pointing a gun to him. There were a few men behind him but they didn't seem to have the same threat level as the one holding the gun.

"Now you're going to come with us and you're going to do it quietly or else…" The man said as his hand visibly rested on the trigger.