The rest of the day went pretty quietly. I didn't get any more visits. And yet I was waiting for my bald acquaintance. Though perhaps, even with all the effect of my appearance, people's thoughts at the time were on how to survive in this mini branch of modern warfare. I was now sitting in my room, waiting for the last few minutes until the end of my reward tally. In the afternoon, in the first few hours of my search, I had found most of the wire installed there by "my" father. Then after taking all the equipment out of the room, I used the mini-EMI, the blueprint of which Schultz had sold me so amicably for 10,000. It's disposable and has a small kill zone. So I used five of these bombs per room. After that I put all the things back and sat down to watch some TV series. Towards the end of the second episode of this detective, I got a notification about the end of the calculations and, having torn myself away from a rather funny idea about the radio, which allowed two people from different times to communicate, I turned off the TV and opened the window with missions.
Zing!
Mission accomplished.
You saved the lives of 300 people and helped save the lives of 87 more. You destroyed 70% of the entire Vanko mini-army, enough power for a small coup in a third-world country. You helped disarm a mad genius in the most risky and illogical way possible. The system creator appreciated your actions, and in the future you will have access to test more advanced features of the system.
Reward: 167 S.O., Healing Lottery Ticket, Superpower Ticket, Disposable Ability Ticket, Secret Ticket (temporarily locked).
Isn't that a lot of points? It's enough to turn a regular military man into Captain America. The film said that the serum pumped the body to the maximum in all parameters. And from what I understand, 100 is the human maximum. Where were those awards in the beginning? Then I wouldn't have had to eat so much lead with my heel!
All right, let's forget it. Time to release my inner excitement. And thinking of cherries, I tore up the superpower ticket.
You have received "hellfire." This ability allows you to summon and control the flames of the underworld itself. The power of the flames, as well as the amount of flames, is limited by your abilities and mana supply. (Looks good with chains and motorbikes).
I'm a pyromancer now?! Awesome!!! But the sentence about the power limit is confusing. Mana? Where do I find out my mana reserve? System, answer me. It's amazing. And the best part is, you can't test it yet. I've removed all the cameras and wiretaps, but I'm a careful man, as they say.
Next, I tore up my disposable gift.
You've been given a "time stop." Saying the key phrase "ZA WARUDO" will freeze time. You will be given 5 seconds before the skill ends.
Now that's cheating. I like it (¬‿¬).
Overwhelmed by my luck, I tore up the third ticket.
You have received the "star balm". It's a very powerful medicine that can instantly heal any injury. Ancient chronicles even mentioned the possibility of coming back from the dead with this medicine, but no evidence has been found.
Um, am I even gonna be able to open it?
Maybe I'm not awake yet? Just too much luck for one day. In games, it's common for a character to be showered with plushies before a boss fight. Am I in for some kind of shit?
+1 to intuition.
That's great. Who am I going to be up against with these perks? I can't even imagine. Okay, I should check my stats, because I've been too busy today (said the man who's only visited three locations today: his room, living room, kitchen).
Name: Ryan Pierce.
Level: 34
Experience: 24125 / 25000
Parameters:
Strength: 95
Dexterity: 106
Endurance: 223
Intelligence: 68
Intuition: 59
Free Points: 168
Specialities: "major", "lab mouse", "hitman", "under-alpha".
Skills: "martial arts - 54 level", "shooting - 54 level", "polyglot - 5 level", "psychology - 18 level", "strategist - 35 level", "stealth - 31 level", "player's mind - MAX", "intimidation - 29 level.", "animal style - 13 level", "drug resistance - 14 level", "hackerman - 27 level", "engineer - 12 level", "alpha will - 3 level", "regeneration - 19 level", "alchemist chef - 8 level" "poker face - 7 level", "howl - 1 level", "falcon's eye - 5 level", "pain threshold - 17 level".
Superpowers: "time acceleration", "lycanthropy", "hellfire".
Man, looking at my stats, I look like some kind of tank. At this rate, all I'll be able to do is stand there and take hits without even realising where they're coming from. All I need is masochism for a complete build. That way I could disorientate my enemies pretty well. I imagine a guy like that going at enemies with no armour or weapons and getting hit and shot at without even showing signs of injury. You hit and shoot and then stop to realise what the fuck this is. And he comes closer and yells: "OVER!" And you're in for a shock, although more of a psychological trauma. Brrr.
Your idea was to the creator's liking.
You receive the gift of the skill "masochism - 1 level". You are wished good luck with your plans (＾▽＾).
Noooo! Take it away! I'm not like that... Please!....
After sitting with a blank stare for a few more minutes, I realised that this was not going to change. My tongue is my enemy. But then I had a plan. After all, the pain threshold is also affected by damage, which means I just need to get it up before masochism. And then even the worst pain will feel like a tickle to me. I'm going to go make out with a cactus: I just saw one in my dad's office. My thoughts are going the wrong way, oh, the wrong way....
Okay, now I should probably deal with the other new skills and tell you how I've strengthened the old ones. Well, let's start with resistance to all relaxing and exhilarating substances. I boosted it by making a select mix of a bunch of drugs and vegetables. Why vegetables? Well, to even out the harms and benefits a little bit. Anyway, I threw it all in the blender and within a couple of minutes I had the smoothie/energy/buff ready. Anyway, that's when I discovered a skill for making such nourishing drinks. As I realised, and not just them. For after an hour of rather enjoyable time watching Mexican TV series, I felt hungry. Thankfully, I had everything in my mini-apartment. But that's when the Star Wars adverts came on. And I was craving biscuits. My dad's a villain, too, and I still haven't turned to the dark side. So for my feat of will, I decided to reward myself. And plus, this skill will come in handy when I'm trying to lure someone to my side.
Having prepared all the ingredients, I opened up a video on how to prepare them. Following all the instructions and mixing everything I had on hand, I completed the creation of my masterpiece. After waiting for 20 minutes, I finally tasted the fruits of my labours. And it was divine. They even filled my body with energy. It was only when my mouth was on the seventh biscuit that I finally realised they were too special and decided to check the ingredients in the kitchen. There I found an empty bag of cocaine. It seems I have some sort of connection to this substance. While making a cocktail, I had left a quarter of the packet for the future. And it seems that while preparing the dark side product, I forgot about it and decided to pour out the almost empty packet first and only then open a new one. So my biscuits turned out to be a snow-white mixture of flour and cocaine. If you think about it, that's the kind of product you can get hooked on. Once you try one biscuit, you can't stop. And I'm the only one who knows the recipe. And given that cooking is a skill boost, I'm the only one who can be the chef.
I'm talking too much. Anyway, that's how I was able to pump the old skill and at the same time open a new one. Hacker I improved, disassembling and opening to the end of the data Hammer. Engineer I seem to have pumped up by taking apart drones. The face seems to have appeared on the show, as did the howl with the falcon look. By the way, about the stare. Does that make Falcon Eyes have a dexterity over a hundred? Or is it just a coincidence of names?
Now, given the information I'd received from the thresholds I'd passed on endurance and agility, I decided it was time for strength to surpass human limits as well. And given the amount of points I've been rewarded with, I certainly won't get poorer.
Congratulations on passing your strength limit. You're looking less and less human now. There are still two more limits to go.
For breaking the human barrier, you will receive the skill "maximum impact - 1 level".
The knowledge of this skill immediately poured into my head. Thanks to the system. This skill will allow me to strike at the maximum power that my body can withstand. At the first level, my punch becomes twice as powerful. Only this skill has a downside. Every time I use it, it overloads my body. And the limb that's being hit gets damaged. I don't know how strong the recoil is yet. But given my regeneration, it's more of a temporary debuff. Also, the multiplier increases every 10 levels.
I went to bed satisfied.
In the morning I went to Stark's to sort out my armour and ask for some modifications for it.
***
«Sir, the target has left the house. Stalking? - asked a man in a black car parked between the trees.
«Of course. Don't report to Fury yet," a voice commanded.
«Yes, sir. - The man started the car's engine.
***
I came out of Stark's even more satisfied, though it seemed more so. My armour would get some much-needed upgrades. He had his doubts about some of the armour, though, and had laughed heartily at my suggestion at the beginning of the conversation. He said that I had confused his armour with medieval armour. But we'll see who has the last laugh.
After buying a bicycle from a shop on the way, I set off away from people to test my new ability.
Overall, my skills with hellfire were pretty flawed. I couldn't attack with it properly except by touching it yet. And increasing its heat level was also a bit of a pain in the arse. But I learnt the most spectacular stunt of the racer quite easily - I was able to ride a bike with fire wheels across the field. It probably would have looked epic if I hadn't bought a BMX. As it was, it was fun, but something just didn't feel right. Especially afterwards I had to run to my car for a bottle of water so my fire trail wouldn't cause a fire.
Well, Rome wasn't built in a day. I'll learn and get better. Only frustrating is the lack of understanding of the amount of my mana. I mean, the time it takes to use this perk depends on it. The same fire cover for the bike took a minimum, which was covered by energy regeneration. But to heat up the flames to melting stone and destroy a couple of relatives of Ben Grim was already draining my reserves by half. Sad, sad. I was able to test some of my theories, though. I built a mini fire with lighter fluid and matches and dipped my hand into it. And my expectations were fulfilled. By expending some of the energy, I gain immunity to heat damage.
After that I added liquid to the fire and learnt that energy expenditure depends on the temperature of the flame. And I probably can't resist the same flamethrower for more than 4-5 minutes. But knowing my limits, I can run to the nearest fire right now and cosplay Dany. Thankfully, Game of Thrones is here and my cosplay won't be mistaken for exhibitionism.After gathering up all my things and putting out the fire, Raine left the clearing safely. He was followed by the shadow that was lurking a couple of hundred metres away from his training area.
***
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