24 First Encounter - II

"Hey, asshole!" The guy slowly turned his attention back to Dan, his expression a mix of irritation and curiosity. The others watched in anticipation, eager to see what would unfold.

When Dan closed the distance between him and the guy but remained silent, he finally asked, annoyed at yet another measly obstacle.

"What do you want?"

"You said 'end of the world'," Dan demanded, his annoyance evident. "What exactly is going on?"

The guy scoffed, growing increasingly agitated by Dan's interference. "Why should I tell you anything?" he retorted, his attention divided. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

Dan considered provoking him further, hoping to trigger an attack and gauge his abilities. However, the room's deteriorating condition demanded immediate action. Cracks formed along the walls, the tremors intensifying. It was evident that the structure wouldn't hold for much longer, and they needed to find a way to safety.

"Let's go!" Jason's urgent voice rang out as he and Asha made their way toward the exit, already on the verge of escaping.

"But...we need to help him." Kate hesitated, torn between her desire to help Dan and the impending danger. Fear and concern etched across her face as she glanced between Dan and the crumbling room.

"We can't, it's either him or us." Jason insisted, forcefully guiding her away. She cast one last worried look at Dan, her desire to help him evident, but she was powerless to do so.

Dan only took one look at them before turning to face the guy again.

"Hey! Who said you can leave?" the guy shouted angrily, attempting to rush towards them but stumbling forward instead. He struggled to regain his balance, his gaze dropping to his right ankle which appeared bent out of shape. Confusion mixed with pain clouded his face.

"Aagh?!!!" he screamed, scanning the surroundings for an explanation, but his eyes locked onto Dan's expression, void of any emotion.

"You!! You did this?! Do you know what I can do to you?" his anger escalated, realizing that this seemingly ordinary guy had somehow managed to injure him.

"That's what I wanna know," Dan shot back, his voice steady and determined.

'His strength isn't too high but isn't low either.' The stranger said, assessing the result of Dan's stacked attacks.

The guy's face turned red, his rage bubbling over.

"Fine, then. Let me show you," he seethed, taking unsteady steps toward Dan, his intention evident in his clenched fists. With a burst of foresight and lightning-fast reflexes, Dan sidestepped, barely evading the man's punch. The attacker froze, his eyes widening in shock, as his fist sailed through empty air, missing its mark entirely.

The guy's disbelief was palpable. "How..." he stammered, struggling to process what he had just witnessed. "Wait, did you receive help from him too?"

Dan's interest was piqued by the mention of another person involved. "What do you mean?"

The guy's gaze traveled up and down Dan's figure, a knowing smile spreading across his face as if he had unraveled a secret. "So, you are like me then?" he said, a sense of camaraderie emerging in his tone. Without waiting for a response, he answered his own question. "Of course you are. But listen dude, Kate is mine. You can go after that Indian chick if you want."

Dan's confusion must have shown up on his face as the guy chuckled and continued.

"You're into her, right? But she doesn't even notice you," he rambled on, his words flowing with an air of understanding. "Then you meet him, and he grants you these powers so you can show her how much better you are than the guys she usually dates. I get it, man."

Dan let out a sigh, a mix of frustration and resignation washing over him, as the guy looked at him with sympathetic eyes.

"Yeah, sure." Dan said, encouraging the guy to spill more of what he knew.

The guy seemed completely engrossed in his own world, paying no attention to Dan's words. "Let me tell you," he disregarded Dan's response, "they always called me a creepy loser. But man, the look on their faces when I beat the shit out of them...."

The guy laughed again, as he recounted in detail how he had taken revenge on his 'tormentors' and the girls who had rejected him.

Interrupting the guy's deranged ramblings, Dan interjected, growing increasingly irritated. "So what about the person who gave you these powers?" he questioned, trying to steer the conversation back on track. "Did he tell you about the end of the world?"

"Huh? You don't know about it?" The guy finally seemed to grasp his mistake, a flicker of realization crossing his face. "Wait, didn't you receive these powers from him?" After a moment's pause, he asked once more, "Who are you, then?"

Dan's patience wore thin, a menacing tone seeping into his voice. "You're wasting my time," he warned, brushing off the guy's question. "Tell me everything you know about this person."

The guy's smile vanished entirely, replaced by a cold stare as he matched Dan's threat. "And if I don't? What are you gonna do?"

Before Dan could respond, the guy added with a hint of arrogance, "Just so you know, that kind of injury is nothing to me." He lifted his foot, revealing the ankle already in the process of healing, almost back to normal.

'He is right, that's not enough.' The stranger's agreement echoed in Dan's mind.

Dan took a sharp breath, summoning his inner strength as he activated his limit break. In an instant, he closed the distance between them, delivering a powerful punch to the guy's gut. The impact caused the guy to cough up blood, but unlike the others Dan had hit before, he managed to stay on his feet, refusing to be knocked down.

In a desperate attempt to retaliate, the guy swung at Dan, but Dan swiftly forced his head down onto a nearby table, restraining his arm with considerable force. A moment of hesitation washed over Dan as he realized the grim truth—he would need to resort to torture to extract the information he needed.

'We don't have time.' The stranger's warning reached his ears. 'Your limit break won't last, and this place will collapse soon.'

At his words, Dan twisted the guy's arm and broke it, sending him into a shriek of agony. But Dan wasn't done yet, with all his might he struck his right leg and broke it too. He then took his other hand and slowly broke his fingers one by one until it came to his thumb. Deciding that simply breaking them wasn't enough, Dan twisted it in one direction as if tightening a screw, until it gruesomely dislocated.

The guy wailed and pleaded for Dan to stop, but Dan only responded with chilling words.

"You might heal fast but it only gives me more to work with." he menacingly remarked, his casual mention of further torture striking fear into the guy's shattered psyche.

"Okay... please... stop, I'll tell you," the guy managed to stammer in between his cries of anguish.

Dan stopped his act, finally realizing that the guy had reached his breaking point.

"Who is this guy you keep bringing up?" He demanded again.

"I don't know his name," the guy confessed, his voice trembling. "He just texts me from a random number every time. He said if I did certain things today, he would give me supernatural powers."

"Text? You haven't met him in person?" Dan asked as he found their way of communication strange for something of this scale.

"No, not even once."

"Then how did you get these abilities?"

"I don't know," the guy admitted, his confusion evident. "I woke up today, saw the text, and I just... felt different."

Lost in his thoughts, Dan racked his brain, searching for plausible explanations.

Why would the system make up such a weird scenario? Or is it just a way for him to make sense of the situation?

'I might be able to find out.' the stranger materialized beside him, offering a potential solution. 'I have studied your interface and understand it to some extent.'

"How?" Dan asked, intrigued by the stranger's claim.

"What?" The guy overheard Dan's question and seemed confused. "Who are you talking to, dude?"

'I need to take control of your body.' The stranger clarified, 'It'll only be for a moment, and you can regain control whenever you want.'

"I thought you could already do that," Dan recalled, remembering the incident when the stranger had attempted to stab him with a knife.

'I can't do it while you're still conscious.' The stranger explained, pausing briefly before adding. 'And that was incredibly difficult to pull off. It's impossible to repeat.'

Dan still didn't trust him completely but time was running out and he remembered the stranger's previous words - if something were to happen to him, the stranger wouldn't fare any better. With a reluctant nod, he mentally prepared himself for whatever was about to unfold. The stranger vanished from sight, and a strange and indescribable sensation washed over Dan. It felt as though he was detached from his own body, observing it move on its own while the world around him blurred into obscurity.

Then, in a sudden moment of clarity, everything snapped back into focus. However, everything felt simultaneously unfamiliar and oddly recognizable. It was as if he was watching a cutscene in a first-person video game, controlling a virtual body rather than fully inhabiting it. That peculiar sensation persisted as he guided his hands to turn the guy's face, and with calculated precision, placed his thumbs gently on the guy's eyelids, exerting a slight pressure.

Panic gripped the guy's voice as he pleaded, "Wait! What are you doing?! I've told you everything!"

Dan expected his fingers to forcefully dig into the guy's eye sockets, but something entirely unexpected happened. Instead, he found himself immersed in a new perspective. He could see an interface, but it wasn't his own - it belonged to the stranger. The layout appeared strikingly similar, yet the information it displayed was entirely different.

Strength: 40(+20)

Reflexes: 21(+20)

Defense: 30(+20)

(Energy: 10)(+20)

Recovery: 63(+20)

In effect: Dispertion_@!\...

In the skill list, he could only understand one word before the characters seem to turn into gibberish. His mind seemed to be concentrating on it, to decipher their meaning.

But as soon as he read just one character, the whole image evaporated into nothingness. Dan found himself surrounded by an endless void, its inky blackness stretching across in all directions. The only illumination came from a faint glow that barely reached his knees, casting eerie shadows upon the floor. He tried to make sense of this place but suddenly felt goosebumps on the back of his neck.

He looked up to still find the all-encompassing darkness, but something else was in it, something strange and far more unsettling. He felt a colossal eye encased within a melding of mechanical and biological structures.

He couldn't see it, of course, but could still feel its gaze enveloping him, as if it spanned the entire limitless space. As he tried to focus his senses beyond what the head was attached to, fear gripped him, on a level that he had never experienced. His mind was immediately filled with images of creatures incomprehensible in scale and structure as if the entity was directly projecting its presence in his mind. Tentacles of the same origin as the head seemed to emerge from the darkness, curious about his existence. He felt his sanity slipping away as they got closer, his mind losing purpose beyond just staring into the void.

Before he could be completely overtaken, Dan found himself back in the classroom, still gripping the guy's head. He shook his head vigorously, trying to clear his mind, and turned to the stranger who had reappeared by his side.

"What the hell was that?" Dan demanded.

'That was the system.' The stranger replied, in the same uninterested tone that he always used. 'It must have detected my interference with it.'

Though consumed by curiosity and a lingering sense of unease, Dan pushed aside his questions for now. There was work to be done.

"So, you can interact with other people's interfaces?" Dan inquired, seeking clarification.

'Yeah, but not for too long.' The stranger answered, then shifted his attention to the guy staring wide-eyed at Dan. 'Someone else gave him the powers and they wanted him to cause chaos here.'

Dan continued questioning the guy. "What else can you tell me?"

The guy's gaze darted between Dan and the seemingly vacant spot beside him, convinced that Dan had completely lost his mind.

"That's all know, dude, I swear!" He frantically replied, hoping to avoid triggering Dan again.

When Dan remained silent in thought, he added. "Oh yeah! He said there could be other people like me here."

Dan raised an eyebrow, intrigued by the revelation. "So, that's why you thought I had received powers from the same guy?"

"Yep, exactly!" the guy replied, visibly relieved that Dan seemed to understand.

'This person can share his power with others.' The stranger chimed in, offering his perspective. 'But only his stats received a boost, he had no inherent abilities.'

"Hmm, so that's what the skill list showed?"

'Yeah, 'Disperse' typically means distributing, so it makes sense that he can share his powers with multiple people,' the stranger explained.

Dan mulled over the implications. "Isn't that an extremely powerful ability?"

'Probably,' the stranger countered, 'but it must have huge drawbacks. Perhaps the person will lose their effectiveness, relying on others in combat, and there could be more to it we don't know about.'

Having extracted all the information they could from the guy, Dan looked at him, weighing his options.

'You can't let others know about your powers until we are sure of others' capabilities.' The stranger warned Dan, trying to make his decision-making easier. 'Element of surprise is always advantageous and he might give out information about you.'

"Hey! Dude, look! look!" The guy, sensing the gravity of the situation, started to stammer in desperation. "Please, I'll do anything you want! Just spare me!!"

As Dan looked at him, pleading for mercy, he remembered his previous words. "You know, you were right," He began, being reminded of his past self, "up until a few weeks ago, I was just like you and would probably have ended up in a similar place."

The guy listened intently, not having the courage to interrupt Dan, who continued. "When people like us receive unexpected power, it only ends in two ways. Either you get killed by some 'hero' for good, or you die trying to be the same hero." He held the guy's head firmly with both hands, before adding a final line. "You should have chosen the third option."

Without hesitation, Dan exerted a sudden, forceful twist, turning the guy's neck with a sickening crack. He didn't even have the time to scream before he went still. Casting a wary glance around to ensure they remained unseen, Dan asked the stranger.

"What do we do with the body?"

'Leave it.' The stranger answered. 'It will be buried soon under the whole building.'

Dan picked the body up and placed it under the part of the ceiling that looked most unstable, before running out of the room. He had to quickly find a way to reach Audrey, as soon as possible, while also looking out for similar people - especially the savior.