{Skill Window:
[(Inactive skill: Aura Shift
Executes a total suppression of the Host's original presence and personality. This skill adapts the host's persona to achieve perfect synchronization with the target environment.
Synchronization will occur upon activation.
Note: Activation is permanent for the duration of the specified mission.)
(Inactive skill: Rapport
Type: Subtle / Passive
Targets the human compulsion to boast and inflate personal importance. Targets feel a subconscious urge to impress the host, resulting in loss of verbal inhibition. This makes it easier to extract sensitive information.
Note: Effectiveness varies based on each target's mental fortitude.)
(Inactive skill: Charm
Triggers a massive spike in the Host's Attractiveness and Charisma.
Duration: 15 minutes.
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Constraint: Strength and Agility attributes are completely suppressed while this skill is active.)
(Inactive Skill: Deflection
Grants the ability to weaponize vulnerability. The host may bypass direct conflict and neutralize aggression through words and projected helplessness.
Note: Effectiveness is not absolute in increasingly violent confrontation.)
(Inactive Skill: Armed
Allows the Host to use any object as a weapon capable of lethality.
Duration: 20 minutes
Cooldown time: 5 minutes
Note: This serves as the Host's primary form of offense when active.)]}
Tejumole reviewed the skills the System had prepared, and her frown deepened with every line of text. The restrictions this time were staggering. Her two most reliable attributes, strength and agility, would be virtually dormant throughout the mission.
She quickly realized that this mission wouldn't be as simple as finding and beating down terrorists.
Ranta reappeared on her shoulder, his albino scorpion form twitching as he read along. Tejumole sat amidst the silence of the parlour, tending to her wounds. The residual smell of gunpowder served as unusual company.
"What do you think? Why is the system trying to force me into a state of vulnerability? It seems counter-productive."
"You'll have to take this more seriously, Host." Ranta replied, his voice uncharacteristically solemn.
Tejumole briefly glanced at him and lowered her eyes in thought.
Using a pair of forceps, she extracted the second bullet from her arm. As the bullet slid out, the pain forced her eyes shut and twisted her face into a grimace. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead, a rare and unwelcomed moment of fragility that broke through her composure. She took a moment to steady her breathing before bandaging her wounds with practiced ease.
She stood and fixed her wretched appearance as best as she could before removing every trace of her presence in the room. She wiped her fingerprints off all the guns she used, where she sat, who she touched, and cleaned her blood off the floor.
Finished, she did a sweep of the room, and her eyes soon locked onto an unconscious Faran.
She strolled towards him, stepping over the bodies sprawled across the rug, and bent to search him. He was one of the men who had assisted in her abduction.
Reaching into his pocket, Tejumole retrieved her phone which he had confiscated.
It had been switched off. She thumbed the power button and waited for the screen to flicker to life before slipping it into her pocket.
Any further contemplation about the mission would have to wait until she reached a safe place. She also couldn't risk activating any of the new skills until she was ready to head to True Maiden.
Stepping out of the bungalow, the cool air hit her face. She surveyed the now quiet compound. Contacting the police was out of the question. There was no logical way to explain how a lone professor had thrashed a room full of armed cultists. She would either be dismissed as a victim traumatized to the point of delusion or invite unnecessary scrutiny onto herself.
Taking their car was equally risky. It was too conspicuous, easily trackable, and she also had no desire to go back and rummage through the bodies for keys.
"Teleportation." she murmured. This was still her best option to leave this place.
She wouldn't spawn at her house or the university. That would again invite more questions and suspicion. Instead, she would teleport to a sparsely populated road nearby then hitch a ride back to Lagos.
Her story was set.
She had escaped shortly after arriving at the hideout and was soon caught in the crossfire of a sudden raid by a rival group. In the chaos, she was shot but managed to flee and eventually stumbled onto the road where a kind stranger found her.
With her plan finalized, Tejumole vanished.
After a few blinks, she materialized on a dusty stretch of road where vehicles occasionally rattled past. The silence here was vast. For the most part she heard the sounds of birds chirping and dogs barking in the distance.
After a few minutes, she spotted an approaching car. She stepped into view to wave frantically at the driver.
The man pulled over and was immediately frightened by the obvious red stains on her clothes. However, before he could floor the accelerator and drive off, Tejumole activated Enforcer's Tongue.
"Unlock the door. You are going to drive me to Lagos."
Her voice carried a compelling, irresistible weight that left the driver's eyes glazed and compliant.
Tejumole climbed into the passenger seat and leaned her head back against the rest, weary to her marrow.
As the car began to move, she watched the trees blur past and began her journey back.
…
Haoyu returned to the university to gather whatever information he could. Upon learning that the culprits were a cult, Haoyu felt a brief sense of relief.
Still, the air around him felt thin, as if it was being ruthlessly sucked out, making each breath a struggle. Even if it wasn't the Ashe-vha, Tejumole was still held captive by men capable of senseless, rancid violence. She was still in grave danger.
He sat paralyzed, fingers digging into the leather of the car seat. His eyes darted impatiently between his watch and the road. His mind was now a frantic loop: where to go, how to reach Tejumole, what if he was too late?
The tracking system he had installed in her phone was a decision that had previously caused him much guilt. But now, how ironic was it that it was the only tether he had. His only hope.
Then, as if being mocked by the heavens, the signal died. Along with it, the vanishing of the faint glimmer of hope they were currently speeding after.
The car continued travelling along the express, now without direction, heading further and further away from the city. Haoyu reckoned the phone had been switched off. With trembling fingers, he stared at his watch. The "Signal Lost" notification flashed irritatingly across the screen.
In that moment, Haoyu became painfully aware of his own powerlessness.
What did it matter that he possessed inhuman abilities? What was the point of strength if he couldn't protect the one person he wanted? What use was it all if he lost his reason for holding on...?
Salvador and the others watched him, their hearts wrenching at the sight. Haoyu sat in the backseat, hunched and silent. His hair fell forward to shroud his face.
"Based on their direction, they're likely heading out of Lagos," Jung-hee said, already pulling up a contact on his phone.
"I know someone who can hack into the highway cameras. There won't be many on the outskirts, but she can filter for vehicles that appeared multiple times along the expected path."
He didn't wait for a response. His fingers were already flying across a tablet as he requested access to the highway feeds.
Time was a luxury they didn't have. But even when the call connected, Haoyu remained motionless. They weren't even sure if he was listening.
'It is so easy to lose something you thought was permanent.' Haoyu thought, his mind settling into a heavy, stagnant void, where uncertainty and fear reigned.
'I never realized how vast the world was until this moment.'
He had spent years chasing the shadow of a father whose face blurred with each passing year. Back then, he was but a child caught up in a merciless series of events.
Now, his maturity only served to make him understand exactly how much he stood to lose this time.
No matter how much control one thought they held, a single moment was all it took to wrestle that illusion away.
He wasn't absolute.
He was still the same weak little boy who couldn't do anything when everything he knew was destroyed. Then and now, he was still powerless.
A powerless monster.
"Ha..."
A self-mocking laughter escaped his lips which quickly turned into anger.
But soon, the rage simmered into a cold, hollow despair that made Haoyu realize that there were some things that fury simply could not solve.