Dazai took his hot dog back to the park and sat on the bench where he had first seen the blue screen. The vendor had been generous with the mustard. He ate carefully, keeping it off his bandages.
He had learned a few names in Hell's Kitchen. Names were useful, but they wouldn't pay for next week's room. He needed work.
Queens might be worth trying. He knew little about it beyond what he'd seen from a subway map, but he wanted a place where no one expected him to know which local criminals were fighting over the docks. Finding an employer willing to hire a stranger with no documents would be difficult in either borough. His bandages wouldn't help.
Dazai finished eating and found a trash can for the wrapper. At the subway entrance, he asked a man which train would take him to Queens and how long the trip might be. The man gave him directions, then warned him to allow forty-five minutes.
A three-dollar fare bought Dazai a MetroCard and a place on a crowded train.
He stood holding a metal pole as the car rattled through the tunnel. An elderly woman across from him asked whether he'd been in an accident. Dazai assured her he was well enough to travel. Two teenagers whispered about his bandages until he looked their way; then they became fascinated by their phones. Near the doors, someone muttered that he might be a mutant.
Dazai gave the dark window a pleasant smile. It reflected his uncovered eye back at him.
In Queens, sunlight met him at the top of the station stairs. The sidewalk was busy with people carrying groceries, calling to friends, and hurrying around a delivery truck parked too close to the curb. Dazai stopped beside the railing to get his bearings.
A chime rang inside his head.
[ MAIN QUEST TRIGGERED ]
The Observer's Dilemma
Locate and observe the ongoing Oscorp incident in Queens. Do not intervene in the primary fate-altering event.
Difficulty: High
Reward: 10 Attribute Points; 1 Random Skill Gacha Ticket
Failure Penalty: Permanent loss of Master Strategist
Dazai read the last line again. The system had chosen something he would notice losing.
"Observe and do nothing," he said. "You could have saved the elaborate title."
He looked up. A glass tower rose above the nearer buildings, though he had no way of knowing whether it was Oscorp's. He could ask for directions. Or he could follow the flow of people carrying visitor badges and hope for the best.
He chose to ask.
The first person he approached shook her head without slowing. The second pointed vaguely up the avenue. Dazai was considering a storefront map when he saw stunning brunette across the sidewalk. She possessed expressive dark eyes, effortless grace, and a warm, striking beauty that immediately set off every dramatic alarm in Dazai's mind. She was waiting for a crossing signal, a shopping bag tucked against her hip.
Anyone from another universe with a taste for Marvel films would instantly recognize her as a younger, remarkably attractive May Parker).
Every fiber of Dazai's dramatic soul screamed at him to drop to one knee, take her hand, and utter his ultimate life's ambition: "Would you do me the honor of committing a beautiful double suicide with me?", With heroic effort, Dazai suppressed the urge, clearing his throat and smoothing down his white shirt beneath his black blazer. Being rejected by a gorgeous woman on a sunny afternoon in Queens sounded poetic, but he had a high-reward System quest ticking away, and his passive Master Strategist was far too valuable to lose over an impulse.
He glided over to her with practiced charm, slipping into the effortless, gentle persona he used whenever he needed information.
"Excuse me, beautiful lady," Dazai said, pitching his voice to sound perfectly smooth, polite, and completely harmless despite the heavy bandages wrapping his face.
May stopped, blinking in surprise as the pale, bandaged teenager in a high-end trench coat approached her. Her initial shock quickly turned into a look of maternal concern as her eyes took in his bandaged right eye, neck, and hands.
"Oh! Hello, sweetheart," May said softly, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. "Are you alright? That looks like... a lot of bandages. Do you need a hospital?"
"Ah, how wonderfully kind of you! But please, don't worry about my minor earthly ailments," Dazai replied, offering her a sweet, charming smile. "I'm actually quite lost. I was supposed to meet someone near Oscorp Tower, but I seem to have taken a wrong turn out of the subway. Could a lovely lady like you point a hopeless traveler in the right direction?"
"Oscorp?" May smiled, pointing down the main avenue toward the towering glass skyscraper visible above the tree line a few blocks away. "You're actually pretty close. Just head straight down four blocks and take a left on 53rd. The main facility is right there."
She checked her watch, letting out a small gasp. "In fact, my nephew Peter is on a high school field trip there right now! He was practically vibrating with excitement this morning."
"Is that so?" Dazai's single visible eye glinted with sharp, quiet amusement. "Then it must be a very special place. Thank you so much, missing angel of Queens. You've saved my life—for today, at least."
Dazai bowed his head in thanks and let her go. She had given him a direction and a reason to suspect the incident involved a school group. Nothing more. He walked toward Fifty-Third Street, watching the tower grow between the buildings.
Oscorp's lobby was full of employees, visitors, and security staff trying to keep both moving. Dazai paused outside long enough to study the entrance. The school group was already inside. The guest turnstiles led to a staffed desk; the employee gates required a badge.
He waited near the doors until a researcher came through carrying a coat, a phone, and a folder that kept slipping under his arm. Dazai stepped aside as if to let him pass. A moment later, the man's badge was in Dazai's hand.
Getting through the gate was simple. Staying unnoticed beyond it took more care. Dazai kept the badge turned toward his blazer so no one could read the photograph, followed a group of employees toward the elevators, and got off when they did. He needed only a view of the incident, not a tour of the building.
Signs directed him toward the high-genetics demonstration hall. A student in a white lab coat came out of a side corridor so quickly that they nearly collided. Dazai caught her arm before she fell.
"Careful there," Dazai said, his voice dropping into a gentle, melodic tone
The girl gasped, catching her breath as she looked up.
Dazai's visible eye met hers. She was around his age, with striking blue eyes and bright, short blonde hair framed by a white lab coat over her school clothes.
She had short blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a Midtown High visitor badge clipped to her coat Gwen Stacy, it read.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going—" Gwen began rapidly, her eyes widening as she took in his appearance: the heavy black coat, the dark blazer, and the white bandages wrapping his face and hands. She blinked, momentarily stunned by his intense, single-eyed gaze. "Wait... are you alright? Are you part of the tour?"
Dazai offered her a sweet, charming smile, releasing her arm with flawless politeness.
"The fault is entirely mine, beautiful lady," Dazai replied smoothly, tilting his head. "I was far too absorbed in the architecture to notice such a lovely vision walking my way. I am Osamu Dazai. And you are...?"
Gwen flushed slightly, adjusting her clipboard to hide her momentary fluster. "Gwen. Gwen Stacy. I'm... helping lead the Midtown High tour group." She looked at him skeptically, her sharp mind picking up on his strange attire. "I haven't seen you with the other students. How did you get up to the bio-tech clearance floor?"
Before Dazai could offer one, an alarm sounded down the corridor. It was brief, then stopped. A door opened and several students emerged, talking over one another.
Gwen turned at once. "That's my group."
Dazai followed her at a distance that allowed him to see into the hall. Inside, a man wearing an Oscorp identification badge was speaking with a teacher. Dazai caught the name Dr. Curt Connors when the teacher addressed him. Connors said there had been a containment fault, that the class needed to leave the room, and that there was no cause for alarm.
People rarely gave that last assurance when they believed it.
Gwen hurried toward a dark-haired boy who stood near one of the displays. He had glasses, a visitor badge, and the distracted look of someone reluctant to leave before he'd finished reading the exhibit. Dazai couldn't see his name from the doorway.
"Peter," Gwen called. "What happened?."
The boy turned. "Apparantly two spiders escaped the containment so there cancelling the tour".
Above them, something small moved along a lighting rig.
Dazai saw the first spider descend. A second followed, each suspended by a thread so fine it almost vanished against the bright room. He could have called out. He could have crossed the distance and caught one in his hand.
The quest's instruction hung at the edge of his vision: Do not intervene in the primary fate-altering event.
He stayed where he was.
The spiders landed seconds apart. Peter reached for the back of his neck. Gwen flinched and brushed at hers. Two tiny shapes fell to the floor and disappeared beneath the edge of a display stand.
Dazai watched the students leave. Gwen rubbed her neck as she passed him; Peter was pale, but he kept walking, a friend urged him toward the elevators.
The chime sounded again.
[ MAIN QUEST COMPLETED ]
[ REWARDS AVAILABLE: 10 ATTRIBUTE POINTS; 1 RANDOM SKILL GACHA TICKET ]
Dazai remained by the doorway while the hall emptied. He did not know what was in the spiders' venom or what would happen to Peter and Gwen. The system knew more than he did—or wanted him to believe it did. Either way, he had stood there and watched them get bitten.
When a security guard came around the corner, Dazai stepped away from the hall. The guard's attention was on the room and the technician waiting inside it. Dazai returned to the elevators, left the stolen badge in a bin near the lobby, and walked out into the sun.
Several blocks away, he found a quiet bench and opened the reward panel.
He put six points into Stamina and two each into Strength and Agility.
[ ATTRIBUTES UPDATED ]
Strength: 8 → 10
Agility: 14 → 16
Stamina: 14 → 20
Energy moved through him in a sudden rush. He gripped the bench until it passed. His breathing settled; the strain left by two days of running felt farther away. He stood and took a few steps, testing the difference, then sat again.
The gacha ticket pulsed on the screen.
"Let's see what you consider a gift."
He selected it. A wheel spun through unfamiliar names and symbols. Dazai watched without trying to follow them. The wheel slowed, clicked twice, and stopped on a black icon.
[ SKILL ACQUIRED: PRESENCE ERASURE — RANK A ]
A passive concealment skill. Reduces the user's perceptibility to ordinary senses, electronic surveillance, and heightened awareness. Effect weakens when the user prepares a direct attack.
Mana Cost: 0.
Dazai read the description, then looked toward a man approaching along the path. He tried to quiet his breathing and allow the new sensation at the back of his mind to settle over him.
The man walked past without a glance.
That proved little. Most New Yorkers had ignored him before the skill arrived. Dazai rose and moved into the man's path, still several feet away. The man startled, swerved around him, and muttered an apology.
"So I'm not invisible," Dazai said under his breath.
The man glanced back, puzzled, then kept walking.
Dazai sat once more. A skill that encouraged people to overlook him had obvious uses. He would need to learn its limits before trusting it near anyone dangerous. The system's description was a promise, not a guarantee.
He closed the panel. He still needed a job, or at least a way to keep paying for his room. Across Queens, a school group would be returning home with two students who'd been bitten by something Oscorp had lost. Dazai wondered whether either had told a teacher.
He watched the people passing through the park until the afternoon shadows reached his shoes. Then he took out the cash he had left and counted it. The practical question could not wait: where, in a city this large, would someone hire Osamu Dazai?.