Telling Tom

Alex walked to the other side of the room and, with his back to Tom, pulled the sunglasses off and placed them on the kitchen counter. Tom had a confused expression on his face but he chose to remain quiet since his friend seemed to be serious about whatever he was about to show him.

'Wait, is he about to show me that he's missing an eye or something? Was that mugging worse than what he described and he lost an eye in he process?!' Tom felt like this made the most sense, it would explain the sunglasses.

Tom was certainly not expecting what was standing in front of him now as Alex turned around to face him. The glow behind his red eyes were unmistakable. Tom stood up faster than he ever had before as he shouted in surprise "You...you have an ability! You're a User!"

Alex had an awkward smile on his face as he made a downward gesture with his hands "You need to be quiet man, I don't want everyone to know just yet and these walls aren't exactly thick."

"B-But this doesn't make any sense!" Tom shouted again before he stopped himself and started talking at a regular volume while maintaining his urgent tone. "This isn't supposed to be possible, you're-"

"Too old, I know." Alex cut Tom off by finishing his sentence for him."I don't really know why or how it happened but I'm going to look at this in a positive way."

"That much is obvious. Users have far more opportunities compared to regular people, especially if they have a high ceiling for growth." Tom replied. "I've heard many stories about Users being able to move up to higher cities."

"That's exactly what I'm planning on doing. Well, eventually..." Alex said.

Tom's surprise started to fade and was being replaced by excitement and curiosity. "I know it's rude to ask but...well, uhm-"

"You want to know what my ability is, right?" Alex cut in, finishing the sentence for his friend who simply nodded his head enthusiastically in reply. 'I can't tell him I absorb people's abilities when I kill them, so instead...'

"I can copy other peoples' abilities and use them." Alex said, satisfied with the fact that he could come up with something that was at least kind of true.

Tom's face lit up with excitement. "An ability like that has to be Unique, right? If it is then you will definitely be able to move to the higher cities, as high as City 2 I'd wager." Tom seemed to be thinking out loud rather than speaking to Alex.

After about a minute of rambling to himself, Tom looked at Alex and spoke directly to him. "You should get your ability evaluated at City Hall."

"Yeah, I was planning on going tomorr-"

"You have to go today!" Tom said in a hushed yet forceful tone.

"Why? The City Hall isn't going anywhere and I'm in no rush." Alex replied with a curious tone.

"Your name will be kept anonymous but the corporations and people in higher cites will be able to see that there's a new Unique ability user in this city. They will send people to recruit you so that you can work for them while growing stronger, like an investment!" Tom said with excitement.

It didn't take Alex long to realize that joining any of those corporations or powerful individuals might be a terrible idea for him.

'My ability lets me get stronger by killing. Corporations won't allow me to murder people and even if there was a need to kill someone for the corporation, they would send someone more skilled than me to do it since I would still be a G rank. Then, after a few months, they would see that I haven't grown stronger and will likely kick me out. The same goes for any rich or powerful person who hires me.'

'Who am I kidding? I couldn't leave even if I wanted to. If I went to a higher city then the gang would kill my family as punishment for leaving. Nobody would be willing to sponsor my entire family's relocation to a higher city just because I have a Unique ability, they might consider it if I increased my rank by a few levels after some time had passed but by then it would be too late.'

"I don't want to move up because I'm working for someone else. I would rather make money through my own efforts and earn my way up." Alex finally said.

"That's weird but whatever, it's up to you. Then what about your family?" Tom asked.

"What about them?" Alex replied with a confused expression on his face.

"Dude, you're going to have to tell them about this. You see them everyday so it's not like they wouldn't notice if you never removed those sunglasses around them. I think you should tell them today and when that time comes it would be best if you had all the details." Tom explained.

*Sigh* "Alright we can go in a few minutes, I want to eat some breakfast first." Alex said as he went to the kitchen and started to make some instant noodles in the microwave.

"Tell me how it felt when you got the ability, how does it feel when the information just appeared in your head about what the ability was." Tom asked enthusiastically.

"Uhm, well, I didn't feel different at first, it was only after I saw my reflection here at home that the information just 'appeared' in my head. It's hard to explain but I could just kind of feel my ability and what it was. At the same time, I could feel the same thing about the ability I copied." Alex answered while he was busy making himself food.

'I didn't have to 'feel' the ability or what it did thanks to the system but I'll just describe it like I've heard it be described before.'

"Did you just say... the ability you copied? So you already copied an ability from someone, what is it!? You have to show me!" Tom looked and sounded like a little kid asking his parents to buy him sweets with how he was behaving.

"Alright, alright, I'll show you." Alex stuck out his hand and the sunglasses that were on the counter lifted up and floated over to him, floating just above his hand as he looked at his wide eyed friend.

Tom smiled like a giddy child. "That's so cool."