New Affinities

After returning to the basement, Cyanide found Doctor Finch still munching on a bag of chips. Beside him lay several finished ones already.

"… How many more are you planning on eating?" Cyanide asked darkly, narrowing his eyes. "Food is not unlimited. If need be, I will lock you in a room and only call on you when I need to."

If anyone else had said that, it may have simply sounded like an empty threat to force Doctor Finch into submission, but the Doctor knew better. That look in this young man's eyes… they were about as serious as one could get.

"All right, all right, geez…" Doctor Finch plopped the last chip in the bag into his mouth, then cleaned up all the open packages and tossed them into the trash bin nearby. "What were you doing on the roof for so long?"

Cyanide arched an eyebrow. "You didn't hear the announcement?"

"Huh? Announcement? What announcement?" Doctor Finch asked, washing his hands in the sink in the room and drying them with a towel.

"Hm…" Cyanide fell silent, observing the Doctor's perplexed face carefully.

The system announcements like those signaling the Scarlet Hour and the Arena Closing one just now were programmed to be able to be heard loud and clear no matter where someone was. The first time Cyanide encountered the Scarlet Hour, it had been inside a convenience store, where he had been sleeping. It made no sense for Doctor Finch to have not heard it. Unless…

'… Only players and Survivors' Assistants like Luna can hear it, perhaps…?' He thought in his mind.

"Oi… kid, you good?" Doctor Finch asked, scratching his grey hair.

Cyanide nodded, snapping back to reality. "Go to sleep. You know where your room is. And if I catch you secretly snacking on our food supply at night… well. Let's just say it won't be pretty."

"H-Ha, don't worry… I would never, haha…" Doctor Finch laughed awkwardly, rising to his feet and heading for his own room a couple doors down. Cyanide, watching him go, raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Oh, by the way, assassins are trained in torture as well~" Luna called out breezily, a wry smile on her face. Doctor Finch, hearing this, nearly fell over, tripping over thin air. This earned a cute laugh from Luna and a look of disappointment from Cyanide, who shook his head and sighed.

"… I'm going to go shower."

*****

After showering, Cyanide entered his own room and sat down on the bed, then opened his inventory and extracted the Element Shard and Lightning Bead he had obtained from Baby Zeus in the sewers.

The former was shaped like a handheld dual-ended obelisk, with both the top and bottom ending in pyramidia. Its body was that of a rectangular prism, and the entire figure was painted an ominous black. On its skin were small runic markings that appeared to be ancient glyphs of some sort, glowing red. Three were placed in a column on each side of the obelisk, with the pyramidia having one glyph on each of their faces.

"Hm… so, how do I use this?" He asked Luna, twisting and turning the mysterious obelisk-like object in his hand as he observed it.

"Oh, you stab yourself with it. Preferably, in the heart."

Cyanide stopped, then slowly arched an eyebrow at her.

"… You what?"

Luna smiled warmly. "You heard me. Stab yourself, Cyanide!"

Cyanide frowned, then glanced back down at the obelisk in his hand. It wasn't as huge as a real obelisk monument, of course, but it was still big and sharp enough at the endpoints to be considered a lethal weapon. How funny would it be if he just straight up died from stabbing himself with an obelisk in the hopes of obtaining a new power?

"Relax, Cyanide," Luna sighed. "It won't kill you. In fact, it won't even hurt. Just trust me, mkay?"

It was true, Luna had never let him down before. There was also no reason for her to get him killed. She seemed awfully confident in this answer, so Cyanide decided to just do as told, no matter how dubious he was of the method.

Taking a deep breath, he held the obelisk up to his chest where his heart was, sharp end pointed towards him, and stabbed it into his body. He hadn't done it too forcefully lest Luna had been lying, but to his surprise, the mysterious Element Shard phased straight through his physical body.

"This is…" Cyanide murmured in surprise as he felt no pain at all, and the obelisk appeared to be absorbed into his body, little by little. His hand wasn't even on the object anymore, yet it continued gradually entering his body as a shimmer of red light appeared from where the obelisk was penetrating his chest, most likely from the red runes on it.

After several seconds, the process was complete, and the obelisk suddenly popped back out of Cyanide's chest. Taking this as an invitation to grab it, Cyanide refreshingly pulled it back out completely and saw that the red rune markings on it were now all gone. It was now just a pure pitch-black obelisk, most likely made of obsidian.

His attention quickly turned away from the now-useless relic, however, as a status message appeared in front of his face.

[New Affinity Slot Unlocked]

[Remaining Empty Slots: 1]

"See? Told you it would be fine," Luna said triumphantly with a soft giggle. "Now, if you consume your Lightning Bead…"

Cyanide turned to the small pulsating purple pill on the white desk in front of him, then picked it up slowly. In comparison to the Element Shard, this Lightning Bead was many times smaller. At the same time, however, it was clear that the energy radiating from this tiny ball was just as strong as the portable obelisk if not stronger. The tiny orb shone with bright purple electricity, crackling and zapping the air. It didn't hurt Cyanide's hand, so eating it should be safe, but it still brought some second thoughts to his head.

"Go on, give it a try," Luna urged excitedly. "And tell me how it tastes!"

Cyanide personally doubted electricity had an actual taste, but he did remember reading a study about a test conducted regarding the electrical stimulation of the tongue. Apparently, it tasted sour and metallic, but that was because the electricity particles were reacting with the tongue's cells. It wasn't the electricity itself.

With a deep breath, Cyanide plopped the pill into his mouth and swallowed it whole. Just as expected, he didn't get electrocuted, and instead only got a fuzzy warm feeling in his abdomen.

That is, until the effects actually hit.

It took a short delay, but the effects eventually hit.

"Ngh—!"

Cyanide's eyes widened as his body suddenly spasmed from electricity, and he cried out in pain.

"Cyanide!" Luna called out, but there was nothing she could do.

"I'm… fine…" Cyanide groaned as the electricity settled down. "It just… took a little getting used to."

[New Affinity Unlocked: Lightning]

[Current Soul Affinities: Death, Lightning]

[Remaining Empty Slots: 0]

[Achievement Unlocked: Dual Powers]

"I see… I wasn't expecting such a drastic reaction, but it seems you are fine," Luna said with a relieved sigh. "It might be because Lightning and Death don't pair well together… well, actually, now that I think about it, none of the other affinities go very well with Death."

Cyanide gave a dark chuckle. "Can't wait until I obtain the Life Bead."

'Still… other Survivors, huh?' Cyanide kicked back on his bed and laid down, a wry smile on his face.

It would be a lie if Cyanide said he wasn't a bit excited. After all, the thrill of fighting an opponent who could actually last more than two seconds against him was part of the reason why he chose to came here in the first place.

He knew even back on Earth, that there were plenty of people who were on par with him in terms of strength alone. None could match him in stealth and assassination, but in pure combat power, more than a few masters around the world could exchange blows with him and survive.

How many such people had also came to Endzone, just like he had?

He was looking forward to find out.

With such thoughts in mind and his knife hidden carefully under his pillow, he drifted off to sleep.