The Simmons kid and his new friends bonded over their love for motorcycles. They spent a lot of time riding their bikes around the city, which made pinpointing their location especially difficult.
Thankfully, whoever had investigated the target before had done a great job and the report they provided had many details, including everything from what the brats ate to where they hung out if they weren’t riding around.
Still, Dante wasn’t going to go around checking each spot until he found the rats; that’s why he asked Volcan to check with his AI friends who worked the surveillance system around the city. Soon enough, they had eyes on the bikers and knew where they were hiding.
As he rode the train to the destination, the anger Dante felt toward this one gig only grew stronger. Seeing the rich brat ride around in a shiny new bike while he had to use public transportation was especially infuriating, which brought his mind back to his need for a vehicle of some kind.
’Maybe I should just steal his bike... It’s not like he will get to ride it again after this...’
Leaning over the railing of a small bridge, Dante raised the cup he was holding and put the straw in his mouth. He sucked in the freezing slushy with a bored expression, watching a group of teenagers laughing in the back of some alley, several motorcycles parked nearby. Derick Simmons was there, and so were his friends. They had a bunch of ladies around as well.
Since the rich brat was from Saint Barton, Dante guessed that the bad crowd he was hanging with likely came from the nearby districts and not from the more dangerous parts of the city like Hollowgrid or White Hill. Street rats were street rats, however.
Most were stupid, reckless, and full of themselves, especially when they were still drunk on puberty hormones. Still, one thing they all knew not to do was to wander too far from their territories, which is why most of the places this particular group chose to hang around were located in Moonstone.
Not the most extravagant district in Neo-Vatra, but a place clean enough that only government workers could afford to live there. Even the gangs in the area were less rowdy and more organized.
The corner where Derick and his friends were currently sitting looked surprisingly clean. The nearby dumpsters weren’t even half full, and there wasn’t a single trash bag on the ground, either. That place was about to become a bloody arena.
"Well," Muttering to himself, Dante looked at the hand he was holding the large cup with. "I guess it’s about time I give these a try."
After taking care of the errands on Boris’s list, Dante was left with nothing else to do, leaving him with no choice but to go home early. He did some thinking on the way back and decided to try something he had postponed before.
Once in his apartment, he grabbed a bucket and filled it halfway with water, then filled the other half with ice from the fridge. Sitting on the edge of his bed, he stared at the bucket of iced water for a while.
’Are you sure I would need this?’ Just thinking about it was causing him to grimace.
[Yes.] A voice answered in his head. [From what I was able to gather, humans are not equipped to deal with the effects of the process.]
Thinking back to the conversation they had the other day, Dante’s mood grew bleak. He looked away from the yellow bucket and at his palms, expecting to see them shaking, but they were perfectly still. He attributed that to his having yet to grasp what he was about to go through, which was a good thing, since it allowed him to suppress his hesitation.
’Alright...’ Closing his eyes, Dante took in a deep breath then exhaled. ’Let’s do this!’
He turned his focus to the bottom left corner of his vision and focused on the [S] icon, which was placed right above the one with an [E]. A new screen appeared right away, filling his field of vision. At its very top, the word [STATUS] was written in bold letters.
Volcan had done a good job customizing the user interface so the screen no longer looked as barebones as it was before. The theme used several shades of red while the writing displayed on it was clear white. It showed a list of information his resident AI has brought up multiple times before, along with some additional stuff.
Baseline Retention: Intermediate (95%)
Glancing at the numbers for a couple of seconds, Dante turned his focus to the second thing displayed on the screen, which caused it to expand and fill the border. It was a simplified image of a person, much like the one in the Equipment screen, though this one didn’t have any clothes on.
Most of it was dark blue with some spots on the head being bright green while the hands had a few red lines. Each of the colorful spots had a small box connected to it. Ignoring the green ones, Dante focused on the boxes linked to his hands.
Would you like to upgrade Iron Fist (E)?
Staring at the few lines for a moment, Dante looked at the [YES] option and gave the mental command to tap it. The word blinked once, and the next instant, the screen disappeared, leaving Dante to stare at his palms once again. A second passed, then another.
Just when he began to wonder when it would start, Dante noticed that his palms were getting sweaty, and seeing the faint white glow gradually spreading under his skin, an inexplicable sense of horror struck his heart.
The yellow bucket came into focus at that moment, and with the AI’s warning echoing in his mind, Dante remembered what must be done and plunged both of his hands into the icy water. An instant later, his brain was assaulted with blinding pain.