Ambush

"Oh wow, Congratulations! It's not every day that I get to assign an ID to a D ranked blessed!"

Terran was currently back at the front desk, getting praised by the friendly receptionist. Although her words were kind, he could tell that it was just her nature and the fact that he was a kid.

If one didn't look closely enough at his face, they might assume he was much younger based on his height alone.

In one of his hands was an ID card with his face, name, date of birth, and a large letter D. While in the other was a form with his test results. Looking at the paper, Terran could see the data that quantified his rank along with a bunch of other things that mostly held no meaning to him. Looking at the form, Terran focused on a paragraph that listed the rankings of blessings.

"My blessing was assessed as D rank, huh? I guess the system did not want me to stand out." While Terran was not well versed in how ranks were assigned, he was not wholly ignorant either. Observing the array of letters, it was clear that blessings held more value the higher the rank, with S being the highest.

With his system not providing him any more information, he walked back to Sophie. An inquisitive look occupied her face. "That took longer than usual. Any surprises?"

"Nope, everything went just dandy," Terran replied while handing her the sheet of paper with his results. "I only broke a few machines."

"You did What!?" Sophie exclaimed as her face paled. Any piece of tech in this building costs more money than she would earn in a decade.

Finding her reaction funny, Terran could not help himself from laughing. "Just kidding. Just kidding. Nothing broke, but one of their machines did seem to malfunction a little." He replied while keeping the last part under his breath.

Learning that she would not be in debt for the rest of her life and seeing the results, Sophie let out a sigh of relief. While C ranks sat above D ranks and were still reasonably common, B's and A's were not. It was alleviating for her to know that he would not be stuck at the bottom of the power hierarchy and that he had room to grow.

"Come on, this is cause to celebrate! Let's go get some tasty food."

The two made their way to a restaurant, all of which could only be found deeper in the city. All food that was not in the form of nutrient fluid was highly priced. Restaurants were extremely scarce, the cheapest of which was still very high class.

"Won't it cost you too much money?" While he appreciated all of Sophie's kind gestures, he did not like the feeling of being indebted. While at first, he had thought Sophie was just a kind person, it was starting to feel deeper than that. After all, they had only met three days ago.

In the back of his mind, he was even a little paranoid that she held an ulterior motive. Still, he was well aware there was no good reason for this, and that it was caused by the preset notion in his mind that he could only suffer.

"It's ok, my friend owns this restaurant, and she still owes me a favor." After saying so, Sophie pulled out a cellphone and sent a text.

It did not take long for them to reach the restaurant, which sat on the ground floor of one of the giant sky rises. Contrary to much of the other architecture, the restaurant used a wood-like material that paneled the walls, giving it a rustic feel.

This look was not the look that Terran had expected. However, after thinking about it for a second, he concluded that it was most likely tough to obtain, his reasoning being the fact that simple things like wood were now a luxury.

After entering, they were greeted by a waiter and led to a table. "Miss Sophie, is there anything special about S rank blessings?" While waiting for their food, Terran decided it would be best to fish for information on his system's strange actions.

"Well y-- you see, it was only a few decades ago that the human population was in the trillions. At that point, there were probably a few thousand people with such blessings. For a long time, they were akin to guardian angels in the eyes of the masses, protecting humanity on the front lines from our exterior threats. However, in the end, they were the last nail that left our planet in its current state."

"Why, what happened!?"

"This is a long story and a quite gloomy one at that. So let's leave it for another day. Today is a day to celebrate, no need to get our spirits down!"

Hearing Sophie blow off his question, Terran was quite frustrated, but this feeling quickly left his mind as a wonderous smell wafted into his nose. The waiter had returned, carrying with him a large tray of food.

Overtaken by the stacked plate in front of him filled with an assortment of meat, fruits, and vegetables, Terran could not help but let out an honest smile. "Miss Sophie, you must have called in a huge favor to get us all this food!"

Watching Terran dig in, Sophie could not help but let out a chuckle. "Enjoy this while it lasts! I'm afraid it won't be a common occurrence in the future."

The two spent the next hour enjoying their meal and making small talk. Then, on their way back to the apartment, Sophie stopped at a storefront. "Wait here." She told Terran while placing her hand on his shoulder before disappearing into the store.

A few minutes passed before she reemerged with a grin plastered on her face as she handed Terran a small bag. "Since we decided your birthday was two days ago, I realized I had forgotten to get you a gift!"

Shocked by her unexpected actions, Terran could only take the bag in front of him. Inside was a small device. "A cellphone? Miss Sophie, you didn't have to; this is too much!"

"It's alright, I wanted to! This way we can stay in contact once you go to school. All three great academies are boarding schools, so we won't have many chances to spend time together. Besides, you will need one in this day and age if you are going to make any friends."

Not knowing how to respond, Terran resorted to giving her a hug. What had he done to deserve all of this kindness?

The two spent some more time exploring the expansive city until heading back to the apartment.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs outside of her humble abode, Sophie grabbed Terran's shoulder, tightening her grip and holding him in place. Her facial expression was serious as she stared at the foot of her apartment's door.

"There are two pairs of footprints leading inside," Sophie whispered as she stood there rigidly.

"Couldn't they just be ours from yesterday?" Terran almost thought out loud, but immediately bit his lip. If someone ever said there wasn't such a thing as a stupid question, they would be lying, Terran giving a perfect example.

"They're both male adults and are still in the apartment."

"Huh? You didn't happen to invite guests over? Did you?" Terran asked while patting himself on the back for thinking of such an out-of-the-box theory, not realizing the words he had spoken out loud were equally as stupid as his first thought.

However, Sophie just shot him a glare while saying, "Stay right here and don't come in. I should be fine, but if you hear me yell run, I want you to go down to the reception hall and call the police."

The Oasis seemed to fit its name well from an outside perspective. However, the people inside made it anything but. While rules and guidelines kept the city from collapsing. Horrible things happened every day. The truth was that at the current rate things were going, even the Oasis would one day become uninhabitable. No one knew the date, but everyone knew it would most likely happen in their lifetime. Every resident grew up knowing that extinction was around the corner, which caused many to listen to the devil on their shoulder.

Sophie had an idea of what was happening. She had a good guess that the guard from the other day had gotten a buddy and come back for revenge. Ignoring his own actions, he had been firmly rejected and left sprawling on the ground with his precious sack pulverized. These two events had clearly wounded his manhood. Even though the event seemed minor, some people would do horrible things if they believed they could get away with it.

While Sophie's stature was no stronger than your average human, and her ability did little to improve her combat power, she was still a blessed. Every blessed went through rigorous combat training at the academies, and she had been no exception. Additionally, the people inside her apartment had no idea she knew they were inside. The one-eighty-degree flip in surprise would theoretically leave the two dazed.

While she could call the police before going inside, that was simply going against her nature. They had broken into her apartment, where she slept, where she felt her safest. She didn't know fully what their intentions were, but after the guard's last comment before she left him on the ground, it was clearly something no person should go through.

Meanwhile, as they were guards, they could find some excuse, saying it was for an investigation. So, while they would get punished, maybe even fired, it would be unlikely they would be jailed, leaving them free with even more animosity towards her.

Through her experiences, calling the police would only delay and amplify the inevitable, leaving her with only one real choice.