Assassin System

Daniel wanted to continue and rant about random sh*t along with his friend, but he was hastily interrupted when he suddenly felt a strange sensation from within his mind. It was a strange feeling that is strangely familiar to Daniel, but at the same time quite unfamiliar. Daniel doesn't specialize in literature so he didn't know that the specific feeling he's referring to is called jamais vu, instead only being able to describe the feeling as being slightly eerie.

"System, is this the feeling that you're talking about? The feeling of a fragment being close?" Daniel asked within his mind.

[That's right, Master. I can sense my core resonating with something quite close to us. And that sensation is coming closer and closer as we speak. Since the fragment is moving, we can assume that a moving organism is responsible for the resonance.]

Daniel couldn't help but stiffen slightly when he heard such a revelation from the system.

What should I do? What if the other person is an awakened? He wouldn't try and kill me in broad daylight, would he?

Feeling slightly creeped out, Daniel's shoulders slouched back in fear as he moved his head towards the entrance of the classroom, towards the location where he felt the resonance from. He felt his own heartbeat quickening to the point, feeling panicked to the point where he didn't even notice how weird his behavior was in front of Jake.

"Daniel? Are you okay?" Jake asked curiously. "Hello? Earth to Daniel?" Jake waved his palm over Daniel's face, but the latter still stayed frozen without giving any response. It was also at this time that Daniel saw the shadow of someone approaching from the corridor outside.

Time seemed to have slowed down as Daniel waited for his opponent to arrive. The first thing he saw within his field of vision was a foot that belonged to a woman. Even though she was still quite far away, Daniel could still somehow see the veins within that woman's foot and her crimson red high heels that gives out a rather conspicuous clacking sound as her foot landed on the floor.

In less than a second, the woman was in full view, allowing for Daniel to finally see the other person's features with his own eyes. However, instead of seeing a random stranger, like he had silently hoped, he found himself staring at a person that both he and Jake were familiar with, as she was their English teacher.

"Damn, how come Ms. Jackson is so early today? We still have 5 minutes before class starts!" Jake cursed under his breath. He wanted to share his misery with Daniel only to see the other ogling at the teacher with a rather strange look.

"Hm?" Jake felt slightly confused by Daniel's expression before finally having an epiphany. Donning a rather smug face, he pinched on Daniel's arm, forcing the other to finally get out from his own daze, before speaking in a rather playful tone, "It seems this piece of fresh meat have his eyes on his teacher! How audacious! How scandalous!"

Daniel could not help but furrow his brows when he finally came to. Tilting his head towards Jake, he gave the other an unpleasant look and stated with a dark tone, "I don't like Ms. Jackson, so snap out of it!"

"Hm? Are you sure?" Jake gave Daniel a meaningful grin as he elbowed him slightly as a joke. "That woman is quite fine. Look at those thick thighs. Although the size of his chest is below average, her mature charms sure make up for it! Do you want me to be your wingman?"

"Not discounting the fact that you would be the worst wingman in the world," Daniel sneered and spat in a slightly angry tone, "I don't have a kink for old women. I was just slightly surprised that our English teacher would arrive this early for class. That's all."

Jake looked as though he did not buy into anything Daniel had just said, but simply shrugged it off to prevent himself from going overboard. Jake himself had quite a few crushes on his teachers in the past so it's quite normal for Daniel to be shy about it. However, little did he know, Daniel is currently focused on something entirely different.

***

Since the bell rang, Jake was forced to move his chair back to its original position. However, he still gave Daniel a few winks, turning his head between their teacher and him as though trying to signal something. This instead, only garnered Daniel's disdain, which he clearly showed by rolling his eyes multiple times towards Jake. "You're lucky that I don't have the time to deal with you right now, or else I would have already kicked your ass tenfold!" Daniel cursed under his breath as he keenly observed Ms. Jackson to try and spot even the most minute difference that would suggest that she had awakened.

[Master, I know you're worried, but judging by the intensity of the resonance, your teacher should only have a maximum of 3 fragments the size of a peanut fused into her soul. Otherwise, the both of us would feel something even more intense the second she entered the classroom.]

Daniel half-believed the system inside his head. Although it's the other's body, so the system should know more about this resonance thingy more than him, he was still not assured about his safety when encountering another 'Binded' for the first time in his life.

"She should also have felt the resonance between us, right?" Daniel asked the system. "Did she not notice my presence or is she just pretending to not notice me?"

[That's hard to tell, Master. Since the fragments inside her are much smaller than yours, Ms. Jackson would only feel a fraction of the resonance we felt just now, so it's possible that she could only sense that another fragment is nearby but won't be able to pinpoint you specifically unless you were to directly walk right up to her face. However, this also depends on the sensitivity of each host's body.]

"…F**k it! I won't be able to get anywhere in this stalemate!" Daniel thought to himself. "Let's take the initiative instead!"

As Ms. Jackson logged on to the school's holographic computer in front of the teacher's desk, Daniel abruptly put his hands up and waved violently, garnering Ms. Jackson's attention.

"What is it, Daniel?" Ms. Jackson asked with a stern tone, just as she would have done as usual.

"Ms. Jackson, were you affected by the meteor shower last night? I heard that it was awful! Many people got hurt! Were you okay?" Daniel tried his best 'concerned student' expression and acted as though he was truly an honor student looking out for his teacher without any ulterior motives. Little did he know, Jake is currently snickering at Daniel on his inside, giving him a mental thumbs up as he thought to himself, "That Daniel must have really fallen for Ms. Jackson to openly flirt with her in front of the class! How brave! I tip my hat to you, sir!"

Ms. Jackson gave Daniel a long look before replying with a rather annoyed sigh, "I won't lie to you, since my apartment is located outside the protected zones, quite a few of my windows were damaged because of the meteor strike. Luckily, I wasn't anywhere close to the windows when it happened, so I wasn't hurt. Asking for financial compensation is going to be a pain though. I have already sent in the application online, but the queue is quite long, so I got a message saying that I would get an answer within a week. But what am I going to do till then? Just watch as the wind blows away all my furniture?"

As Ms. Jackson continued to rant about all her problems, making the students here feeling quite bored and annoyed for being forced to listen to the nagging of a middle-aged woman, with some even glaring at Daniel in hatred for causing this mess, Daniel instead felt less and less suspicious against his teacher. After all, if someone really have something to hide, she wouldn't need to blab on and on about everything that happened yesterday to her students. If she really were an 'awakened', she would never have admitted to being in close contact with a fragment, especially when she knows someone else who possesses one might be within the same classroom.

Feeling slightly relieved the more Ms. Jackson blabbered on, Daniel suddenly felt a cold chill along his back when a new string of words glided before his eyes.

[Ting! First fragment detected! Activating Assassin System.]

[Please complete the following one of the following missions within the next 24 hours:

1. Retrieve 1 gram of adamantine and fuse it with the system. (+10XP)

2. Assassinate an unawakened 'Binded' and retrieve all the adamantine absorbed from his/her soul. (+50XP)

3. Discover the identity of 1 awakened 'Binded' person and kill him/her. (+500XP)

Failure to complete the mission would result in the decoupling of the Assassin System and its parent system from the host's soul.

Countdown: 23:59:59]