Wilderness

Making sure not to appear in any security cameras, he took off his attire in a dark corner and put it all in two plastic bags as he left from the other end and walked in the direction of his home.

"Hah"

Maximus plopped onto his sofa after taking a nice cold shower and having a light snack. From the corner of his eyes, he saw that the two pets had already gone to sleep in their respective mini sofas.

He held up the stack of documents in his hands and began going through the information about the person who was after his life. First though, was his full body picture.

Maximus clicked the picture from his phone and tried searching it through google lens to see if there were any traces of him online. After looking for his name in the documents, he put it along with the photo for easier filtering.

But there were no results whatsoever, even after he messed around with the filters for a while. Giving up, he leaned back into his sofa and took a good look at the photo, while reading out the information side by side.

"Aaron Kennedy, a 22 year old male, long light blue hair. Usually ties it up in a bun during training. Practitioner of Brazilian jiu jitsu and a parkour athlete.

"Wakes up early in the morning for the practise of former while practices the latter in the evening. For all the self discipline he preaches, he heavily indulges in alcohol and fleshly pleasure.

"Loves water bodies and the humid environments, doesn't have aversion towards fire or heat though. Overly cautious, would avoid engaging in close combat if guns could deal with you, his jiu jitsu is only for backup while parkour is purely for running away.

"Around fifty million dollars in liquid cash available right now, with a platoon of thirty men at disposal at all times. Has a way to get firearms and latest tech without being caught. Owns no land or establishment in North America currently. That's all the force he has entered with.

"Lives in a treehouse made in wilderness to the east of San Francisco, fifteen of his platoon members surround him, armed to the teeth with firearms and the rest fifteen are deployed in the city. No information on them has been found yet except their previous looks. Do note their looks are subject to change."

After going through the information twice, he realized these were the most valuable of the lot. He also carefully looked at the image for a while, burning it into his memory before proceeding to head to his bedroom for the beauty sleep.

*****

Maximus roused himself from sleep, feeling somewhat groggy as he left the comfortable confines of his bed. It had been two days since the incident, and he had been unsuccessful in uncovering any further clues about Aaron. Despite his efforts of navigating through the dangerous areas controlled by gangs, he had yet to catch sight of the fifteen individuals under the control of Aaron who had entered the city.

His meeting with his sister had yet to take place as their timings didn't coincide at all. It worked in his favor as William never informed his sister if he wanted to go anywhere. Although he was trying to change his reputation now, he would have to do it gradually to not arouse suspicion.

During the process of searching, he took it upon himself to clean the city of the tumor known as gangs. Of course, it wasn't out of justice, he just wanted to advance his realm in hopes his ability would get upgraded once again.

And it did, but the probability one, it increased by a realm too after eating ten souls and absorbing them through the second gene strand. Similar to his Reality Manipulation, it was a qualitative transformation from touch to a range of 5 meters, with available manipulative probability range increasing from 10 to 20 percent.

But during one operation he massively failed and even got caught, completely helpless as even the 'fuel' for his abilities had run out.

*****

"So I was being tracked huh?"

"When you go around killing gang members, it would be foolish of us to not notice you."

"I thought I hid my tracks well enough."

"Oh you definitely did, but did you not think that you wouldn't be seen from 800-900 meters away from a camera? Or were you too confident?"

"I thought no one would bother using such high equipment and labor force to catch a small-time guy like me."

"We definitely would have not if the bar didn't suddenly fall on the people chasing you. After that incident we went through other recordings and noticed a lot of improbable events happening around you, always working in your favor. Anyway, you just need to answer some of our questions and we'll leave."

Cold sweat trickled down his back as Maximus couldn't even feel his injured leg anymore. His attention was on the man standing before him. His entire clothing and posture screamed military discipline as he crouched on one knee to ask the injured him questions.

Maximus could see two red dots, trained on him, one on his heart and one on his neck. He knew it was a warning to not do anything to the man in front of him. So he silently nodded to agree that he would answer the questions.

"Why are you killing the guys?"

"They already have the blood of innocents on their hands, why should they not be killed?"

"Heh. Do you expect me to believe that? Anyway, I won't ask you about your personal details or motives or even your superpower —"

Hearing the last part, the untrained Maximus' eyes widened as the military man stopped to watch his reaction and chuckled.

"No need to be surprised. Supernatural beings have begun appearing just recently and not a lot of people know about it. But the organization behind us is definitely one of the first to know about them. You know what? We even have some in our ranks already.

"I wanted to ask you if you would like to join our organization? You can totally hide your identity and even the specifics of your superpower. But then you'll just be a peripheral member who'll get a base salary of 50k dollars per month. You would just need to do missions we'll assign you once every month. Don't worry, they won't be life threatening and we'll keep in mind your moral compass.

"On the other hand, if you agree to join us fully and disclose your identity and specifications of your power, we'll increase your base salary to 500k per month plus whatever you find during missions. One more thing, if you agree to become a core member, we'll give you information about how to level up your superpower and even your physical body. So?"

Eyeing the red dots on his body, he retorted,

"Isn't this basically threatening me to agree to your demands? And how do I know you'll stop tracking me?"

"No we aren't threatening you, it's just for my safety. Don't make a move on us, we won't make a move on you. You are completely free to not agree to our conditions and we would leave you alive. Don't touch these gangs again though, they are important to maintain the balance in the city and did I ever say we'll stop tracking you? We might stop if you agree to our offer but it will continue if you disagree. Letting supernatural beings run amok without keeping tabs on them is stupidity."

Yep, he should've thought of that. It wouldn't have made sense any other way. After thinking for a bit, he replied,

"Would I get any privacy if I agree to be a peripheral member of your organization?"

"Sure. We would stop tracking you, but you'll need to stop doing a few things, including mass killing of gang members, you can kill some to satiate your 'sense of justice' but not on a large scale like this. Or we'll have to send our own supernatural beings after you. Agreed?"

Giving it a final thought, Maximus nodded his head while replying,

"I'll agree to be a peripheral member of your organization then. Do I get any information about your organization though?"

Getting up, the military guy gave him a smile and said,

"What do you think?"

"Alright, nevermind."

Opening the pouch attached to his utility belt, the military man took out a debit card and a small phone and handed them to Maximus saying,

"Password 9999, it already contains 50k dollars. You can choose to contact us through that phone if any difficulty arises, your missions would be issued through that too. There are normally three to four missions given out each month, just make sure you do at least one."

"What if I fail to?"

"You aren't bound to us, nor are we to you. We will simply cut off your salary for the month. Any more questions?"

"No"

*****

Looking back to it, the only reason he even agreed was to hope to get any information from the so-called 'missions' he would be getting. He wouldn't have agreed at all if it weren't so. After all, the missions in which a supernatural being was needed, that situation ought to be weird in itself right?

He would have straight up agreed to be a core member if he weren't still apprehensive about revealing his identity. What if the killer was a member of the organization too? It would be unlikely for such a person to go after the land in his sister's name but he would still like to be cautious.

Flinging the camping bag over his shoulders, he left his home for university. Today was the day they would be leaving for the field trip, into the wilderness.

*****

That night as soon as Maximus had gotten home and slept after joining the organization. A slender figure walked into the balcony of her personal bedroom and picked up the call,

"Hello?"

"Yes?"

"We couldn't find your brother. Any idea where he might've gone?"

"That fool only visits some club, restaurant or gaming hub."

"My men didn't find anyone resembling your brother entering those places."

"Strange. If a shapestealer indeed took over my brother's body, those are the only places he would have recent memories of. And the university of course, but even shapestealers have enough rationality to not go to university at night. He hasn't been home at night since the past few days, where could he possibly be going?"

"Should I station my men near your home from next time onwards?"

"I thought your organization valued my privacy? I still value my privacy over my brother's odd behavior, mind you."

"I was just kidding. On the side note, we found another supernatural being today. They probably have a superpower to manipulate probability, making them one of the best support type abilities if we could properly nurture them. It wasn't them who told us but something we deduced. They agreed to be our peripheral member so we don't know their identity yet as that person was too careful. We don't know any clues except that they are active near the gangs. Could it be your brother?"

"Heh, are you kidding? Not to mention how shapestealer would never help humans, even if they hadn't possessed his body, he would never do such good deeds. This superpower might not be too threatening but would be too annoying to deal with."

"Indeed. Tell me if your brother does anything strange, till then goodbye."

"Yes, good bye."

Maximus underestimated how deeply his sister hated, or perhaps knew William despite looking through the memories. Simply his act of trying to thank his sister for the food was seen as a possible body possession and an organization was alerted.