A Good Man

Somber silence hung in the air. A few seconds later, quiet sobs could be heard from the other side of the room.

Magnus took a deep breath. His hypersensitive emotion was able to perceive Matt's anguish like a sponge absorbing the slightest changes in the air. He leaned his back against the wall and crossed his arms. He set his eyes to the ground, unable to look at the scene. He may have had years of experience being around the deaths of so many people. But his inherent trait in the form of a defenseless, vulnerable emotional receptor made it impossible to ever get used to not only the deaths, but also the sorrow they caused to the ones left behind.

He had always wondered why he was super sensitive to changes in others' emotions, and why they never failed to affect his own. Perhaps it had something to do with his perception of Aura. But that was just a speculation.

It was a good thing he always had the dampener of his passive, [Depth of The Heart], activated. Otherwise, everyone in the room would be swept by an even more severe turbulence of negative emotions.

All passive skills had this thing called a dampener. What it did was basically mute the effect of the skill. At some point in the past, Atlantis had the bright idea to give Magnus this annoying passive after witnessing how he was easily affected by people's emotions.

[Depth of The Heart] worked with Aura, just like [Subtle]. It had the opposite function of Magnus' sensitive trait. Instead of perceiving emotions, it spread them out to all the people present within a certain radius. As a result, everyone could feel what he felt. What was funny was that, what he felt was basically what they had been feeling to begin with. Magnus' passive was just reflecting it back to them. It was basically an emotional trampoline.

The passive was a double-edged sword. It was annoying to have people aware of what he was feeling. But on the other hand, when the situation called for it, he could use it to direct people's emotions for whatever purposes, as long as Magnus had fine control over his own emotions. He didn't like using it on the people he trusted, though. It was basically a form of manipulation, after all. What he did would be no different to what the gods did to control their Protagonists.

He hadn't thought he would have to deactivate the dampener of the passive anytime soon. However, glancing at the male officer standing near Mei's body, he might have to say hello to the skill again after almost two years.

On Magnus' peripheral vision, Matt was kneeling beside his mother's dead body. Before the guy had arrived in the apartment, Magnus had the decency to use [Earth Manipulation] to free Mei's body from the earth spike, and then restore it to the state as if she had never been injured at all. [Big Spark] was able to make a dead body regenerate its cells as long as it was still warm. After that, he laid her body on the floor and put a cloth over her face.

Next to her was Luna Wang, also with her face covered and her wound from the earth bullet healed.

Unfortunately, not even the most potent healing skill could restore someone's soul.

Magnus decided to let Matt and the Wangs mourn for a little longer, while he dealt with a more urgent matter. He raised his hand, trying to draw the officer's attention. He then jerked his head toward the door, as if beckoning him to follow as Magnus went out of the building.

Officer Hernandez was confused at first. However, he soon excused himself out of the room to follow Magnus out.

Magnus led him to an alley some tens of meters away from the apartment, outside the range of his passive. He didn't beat around the bush and got straight to the point. "Which one of us is your target, officer?"

Officer Hernandez widened his eyes in shock. "H-how…" the man stuttered.

"I'm sensitive to the changes in someone's emotions, officer. I can tell the conflicting thoughts and feelings happening in your mind. You must have received a notification saying you have been chosen as a Protagonist, correct?"

"Y-yes…"

"And it was just after I arrived, wasn't it?"

The officer nodded.

"It's probably the same Author as the one who picked that redhead. He or she wants you to finish where she left off. After all, with you having gained the Wangs' trust and by extension, my girlfriend's and the others', it would be easy for you to assassinate one of us." Magnus then lifted his head and looked up at the sky. "Isn't that right?" he asked loudly with a suppressed anger on his face.

Officer Hernandez gulped. The young man in front of him was spot on. "I...I don't wanna do this, but at the same time, I do. It's...it's weird."

Magnus looked at the officer with an expression as if he fully understood. "I know. You are probably having this sudden urge that came out of nowhere, right? Like you need to do what is written on the Objective, no matter what. And the core of that urge is the rewards offered by your Author."

The man nodded. "That's right. Every time I mentally try to resist, the image of my family's happiness and well-being would trump that resistance."

Magnus fell into thought for a moment. "I take it the rewards are a couple of skills and stat boosts, advertised as 'powers that could help protect your family'?"

This time, the officer stared at Magnus with a baffled look. He wondered how this young man in front of him seemed to know so much.

Seeing the man's face, Magnus understood where the man's thoughts had gone to. "Let's just say, I have some experience on this matter." He was sure that answer would make the gods start speculating various things, but he didn't care at the moment. It was kind of too late to worry about what the gods thought of him, anyway.

Magnus sighed. He could see the officer was a good man. It was too bad that no matter how good and honorable a person was, the gods' constant narrating would eventually warp their minds to the point they would lose themselves.

At the moment, it was unthinkable that someone as kind as Officer Hernandez would want to kill an innocent person. However, based on Magnus' experience, it was only a matter of time before the man succumbed to his Author's influence.

Times like this made him feel grateful for his emotional sensitivity. No matter how annoying it was, the trait was the only thing that had always kept him, well, him.

He deactivated the dampener for [Depth of The Heart].

Immediately, Officer Hernandez felt a change in the air. This change then traveled to his mind, affecting his already unstable emotions. "What? Why do I feel...sad?"

Right, that was exactly what Magnus was feeling. Underneath the battle between urgency and reluctance he'd perceived from the officer, Magnus was simply sad.

It could be said that sadness was kind of his default emotion these days.

However, he didn't want the officer to feel sad. No, not in his last moments. He deserved that much, at least.

Magnus forced a smile. "Can you tell me about your family, officer?"

The man hesitated at first. However, as he mulled over this question, he thought about his beloved. "Sarah, my dear Sarah," he said, a smile slowly blooming on his lips. "She's waiting for me back home. Oh, I wonder what she's preparing for dinner tonight. If you can call it 'tonight', considering it's always night time now. And...Derek, he's my oldest. About the same age as the twin girls. Oh god, that poor child…" the officer's voice trailed off as he remembered Luna's death.

'Ah, shit. Can't let him become even more miserable.'

"I'm sure Luna's happy wherever she is now, officer. And she must be thankful for your assistance," Magnus tried to put the officer at ease. "Now, tell me more about your kids. What about Derek? What's he like? Can you tell me?"

The officer took a deep breath. "Right. Derek, he...ah, what a rascal he is. He keeps asking me to buy him a better gaming PC. He loves video games." The man chuckled. "Back in my day, boys who were into video games were shunned. But apparently, now it's cool to brag about your achievement in a...what was it called again? Role playing game, I think. He even streams it online! It's probably not a good idea to let him pursue his dream to be this 'online personality' this early, though. He's still thirteen!"

Magnus was happy with this development. Well, his happiness was also a reflection of the officer's own happiness after remembering his son's behavior.

"And there's Maria, our cute Maria," the officer continued. "Two years younger than her brother. She's really into this current online trend where you record yourself singing or acting funny for a short minute and then upload it on the internet. Ah, but we make sure to keep an eye out for anything unsavory toward an eleven year old. Internet can be a dangerous place, as I understand it. Especially for young, impressionable kids."

Receiving a constant feedback of happiness from Magnus, the officer's smile grew brighter. Magnus himself didn't try to force his smile anymore. He was now being genuinely affected by the man's happiness. Even though a part of him was still sad for what he was about to do, he made sure to let his happiness dominate the other feelings.

"And one time, we visited my wife's parents in Portland. The one in Oregon, not Maine. We went hiking and Maria asked her brother to…"

The officer went on and on, telling happiness-fueled stories about his family. By now, the still-weak influence from his Author had been temporarily swept aside. It was mostly due to the emotional loop Magnus had created. This basically meant the happiness kept bouncing off the two men like ping-pong. And this loop would only get more and more intense as long as neither of them was interrupted.

Magnus made sure the officer kept his eyes locked on his. As the officer began his next story about their vacation to Mount Rushmore, Magnus quietly took out [Forthright] that Victoria had returned to him.

With a swift movement, Magnus grabbed the officer's shoulder and plunged the spear's blade into his heart.

Closing his eyes, Magnus could hear Officer Hernandez's agonal breathing that lasted for half a minute before the alley fell into silence.

Magnus knew he had just deprived a couple of children of their father. However, he had to do it. There was no telling what the god would make the officer do to him or his family and friends if he was kept alive.

He had just killed a good man. He took a deep breath before whispering to the officer's ear. "Thank you for your service, sir. And for helping my friends."