External Coercive Figment

"Go away!" Lucas quickly shouted at Tom.

Tom just stood in place as he didn't know what to do. He was afraid the moment he turned his back, Lucas would come at him and kill him.

"Go away right now before I break your skull into pieces!"

But Lucas' second shout finally made Tom move as he began to slowly walk backward until he was a certain distance away from Lucas and running away completely.

After not seeing the face of the man who made his blood boil, Lucas finally calmed down and looked at the mess behind him.

Some of the men started to try to stand and run away from the alleyway, but the pain on their shoulders made their whole body weak and they couldn't even stand properly.

The rest that had their shins broken were in a completely different state as even some of them were still unconscious.

Recalling the screams of pain, the metal clanging, and none other than the banging of gunshots, Lucas knew that the supposedly quiet alleyway wouldn't be quiet anymore soon.

Some locals must have called the authorities and police would soon arrive.

'How do I get out of this…'

As if waiting for Lucas to question that, Maya quickly spoke in his mind,

'This is the perfect time to learn the ability inside that book you saw this morning!'

Maya was about to summon the book out of thin air once again and give it to Lucas but he stopped her.

'Wait a minute Maya, these people seem to be clueless about cultivators and I don't plan to make them aware of anything related to cultivators first.

At least it would give me enough headstart to become strong enough to fight against 10 cultivators.'

Understanding what Lucas wanted, Maya waited patiently as Lucas started to activate Coercive Figment one by one to the people who were still conscious.

Lucas made them see Lucas running out of the alleyway, leaving them all behind.

But of course, Lucas didn't actually do that as he stayed still in his place.

After all the things that happened in that alleyway, if he tried running away right now there might be a chance that people would look at him and report him to the police.

If the police ever caught him and the 10 men together, then he wouldn't be able to give any concrete reasons as to how he was able to beat up 10 men and break their bones easily.

He couldn't speak about Gula and the cultivators even if he wanted to because of the spell they put on him, so there was a high chance that Lucas might have just been thought of as a highly dangerous criminal.

He didn't want to risk that.

Hence when Maya finally pulled out the book this morning she tried to give him and Lucas started learning it, he finally understood why Maya thought that the technique could save him.

The technique's name, which had earned Lucas' critique for its creative and unique naming sense, was called 'External Coercive Figment.'

The process of learning the technique was as quick as usual since it was a high-level technique book and Lucas' affinity for mana was on the high side.

And Lucas was able to learn and use it in time before the police's siren was heard coming and stopping near the alleyway.

From the report of gunshots and screams, 9 policemen came to the scene, equipped with riot shields and a proper rifle to make sure they weren't under-equipped to deal with an armed criminal.

However, when they finally arrived at the scene, what they saw puzzled them.

8 people, a few unconscious, and a few others struggling to stand and run away was all the policemen could see.

There were bent metal pipes and a crowbar littered on the ground.

These people seemed to be from the same group as none of them were hostile against each other, but the scene had proved that there was a huge fight happening earlier.

"Go and search the area! Capture everyone who might have seen or participated in this shit show!" The leader of the squad ordered as the 9 policemen began scattering around the area.

As the policemen searched the surrounding area, they all caught the two people who had succeeded in getting out of the scene and rounded up all the 10 people together to bring them into their car.

They also found the handgun that was supposedly the cause of the sound of gunfire that people reported.

However, the shape and condition of the handgun were nothing like they had ever seen before.

The end of the handgun, the tip, and a part of the body of the handgun that was the hole where the bullet would shoot out of were completely flattened.

It was so flat as if it had been put under a hydraulic press, something that the police didn't see any around.

As someone who had been doing this for years, the squad captain had a feeling that whatever happened wasn't just a simple scuffle between street thugs.

"Send them to the station and interrogate each and every single one of them. Find out everything you can about this whole thing.

Keep surveillance on this place and ask the locals about what happened. " The squad captain ordered his men.

The police then brought the 10 people away back to the police station and searched the area several more times before they all went back.

Meanwhile, a certain teenage boy was now in front of a fast food chain restaurant, one that fortunately opened up until quite late at night.

'Now that's an ability that is much easier to use.' Lucas spoke in his mind.

'Of course, instead of sending the illusion element mana into a person's brain, you can just coat yourself with illusion mana and make people see whatever you want them to see.

And that includes seeing nothing. You can easily become completely invisible in mortal's eyes.'

Lucas pulled out the money from his wallet and paid the staff after confirming his order of a chicken bucket.

Hearing Maya's explanation, he stopped for a split second and asked, 'What about cultivators? Can they see through the invisibility?'

'Well, the ones that are very sensitive to mana would be able to feel the bundle of illusion element mana. You won't be visually visible, but they can certainly sense your presence.

But don't worry about that for now. You will learn about how to deal with those kinds of things as you rack up more experience.

For now, you only need to cultivate even more, attune your body more with mana, and do a lot of things to gain experience.'

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On another dark alleyway, one that didn't have any street lights and surveillance cameras, a certain burly adult sat in silence.

Tom had successfully gotten away from the police's area sweep and avoided getting caught like the other men since he had been in the streets for so long that he knew a thing or two more than them.

But he knew that the gunshots must have made the police take the case seriously and they must have checked the surveillance camera around the area to find out about everything.

'That means it was only a matter of time before they searched for me…'

Tom thought that he would need to rot in jail after this as he didn't have any safe place to go for now.

His usual place required him to do some dirty work first if he ever needed cover from the police.

But with his broken hand, it was already a blessing that Tom could even eat on his own.

After thinking and contemplating for a while, Tom finally realized that there was one place that he could go to.

It would not only give a safe space from the local authority, but it would also give him what he wanted.

'I need to gain that power… The power to even resist bullets…'

With that in mind, Tom began making his way to the teleportation hub in the dead of the night.