Getting Messy

After making sure that my attacker was nowhere in sight, I swiftly returned home.

There were things I needed to confirm before I could try to take any action.

First, my abilities. While I was able to break the reality laws at all times, the easiness with which I did that varied. After arriving in a new world, I was always at my weakest, and the more destruction I caused, my power increased. For example, disintegrating the corpse the other day took me around two hours, but in a world that's falling apart, I could do it with a simple flick of my wrist.

However, even at my weakest, I should still be able to dodge a bullet without any issues. Moreover, I haven't noticed anything off about my abilities in this world so far. Every time I broke the reality laws, things worked just as they should. Still, it was better to test it out, just to be sure.

I sat down on the floor, stretched out my arm, and focused. I started moving various objects around the room and destroying them. So far, everything seemed normal. I closed my eyes and focused on my body next, trying to heal the wound on my hand.

Healing was quite tricky. It wasn't enough to just think about an injury disappearing. To succeed, I needed to have a good idea of human anatomy. I spend a lot of time studying and practicing before I was able to get a good grasp of it. Even now, restoring my injuries required full focus.

Soon enough though, the wound disappeared completely. My abilities were still working as usual.

Which could only mean that the issue was on the other side. Whoever attempted to shoot me was also able to disturb the reality laws.

Well, they were nothing compared to me, obviously. Even though they caught me off-guard, they still missed. The problem was, they knew me, but I had absolutely no idea about their identity. And seeing as they just tried to assassinate me, they were unlikely to approach me openly to have a friendly conversation.

I leaned back against the bed frame, crossing my hands behind my head, and stared at the ceiling.

There were two options I could think of.

One, we've met before. Maybe I destroyed their world or something, but they managed to escape and have a grudge against me now. So they chase after me to get revenge. They might be working on their own, or they might have a few companions, hard to tell.

Two, they are some kind of hunters that specialize in killing people like me. They also might be on their own, killing just for fun, but it's more likely they are a part of some organization.

At this point, it was difficult to guess which option it might be.

It is the first time I've ever encountered a situation like that. As a result, I was a bit at a loss and didn't know what to do.

Well, of course, the simplest solution was to catch them, maybe torture them for information, and then kill them. But how?

I needed to somehow lure them out. They attacked me when no one was around. Was it because they wanted to avoid hurting civilians? Or because they didn't want to, or maybe even couldn't, disturb the reality laws when anyone could see? Would they continue to attack me in this pattern, or would they change their strategy after the failure?

Well, now that they made their presence known, they were likely to proceed with much more caution. They've already lost part of the advantage they had over me.

What's more, it was safe to assume that the unsettling feeling I had the other night was also caused by them. I guess it might serve as a warning sign that they are somewhere nearby, but I shouldn't rely on this too much either.

I sighed. Things were about to get messy. I should probably go and stock up on food. Using delivery services might be unsafe from now on. What if they try to poison me?

I glanced at my phone. It was almost noon.

Maybe I should stop by the office while I'm out as well. It's best to sort things out while I have time. If I eliminate the threat soon enough, I could still have a comfy life in this world for a few months, after all.

Because of this whole ordeal, the conversation at the police station completely slipped my mind.

***

As I entered the office, I could feel countless stares at me. Was "my" sudden, unexplained, prolonged absence a topic for gossip, I wonder? I was a bit surprised. I thought people wouldn't notice that a loser like him was gone.

"James…?"

I glanced in the direction of the voice. A young woman stared at me in disbelief. I recognized her from the photos I've seen on social media. She seems to have been a friend from college, who also ended up working for the same company. Based on their chats, I think she might have had a crush on the other "me", but he was too dense to realize. What a shame. Honestly, she was not so bad.

What was her name again? Elise? Emma? Elena? I couldn't recall.

"Hey," I greeted her with a charming smile.

She was looking me up and down in shock. "You look… different."

So she was able to tell. Heh, I guess not everyone is like his mother. However, I wasn't about to admit anything. "Different? What do you mean?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"Nevermind," she shook her head in response. "More importantly, where have you been? The boss is furious! Do you wanna get fired?"

"Hmm? Yeah, actually." I answered briefly, looking around. "By the way, where was the boss's office again?"

She stared at me with wide eyes, rendered completely speechless. It didn't matter though, cause I've already figured out where I needed to go.

"Anyways, I'll talk to you later!" I passed her by and headed to the office. Maybe I should try asking her out on my way out, when she recovers from shock. Looking for a hookup might be a bit of a challenge in my current situation, after all.