Chapter Six: Fighting an Entire Gang.
The next day Daniel walked again through the back alleys of Hell's Kitchen, his mask on, to see what prey the night would offer him.
He halted when he came upon them — six men standing in the middle of the lane. They were not ordinary street thugs; they looked practiced in fighting. A quick glance told Daniel that two of them already carried firearms, and their clothes bore the same emblem, a clear sign they belonged to the same gang.
Daniel reacted faster than they could. He broke into a run and, the moment the six men spotted a masked figure sprinting across their path, they reacted and gave chase. The two with guns drew their pistols and aimed at Daniel, but he had already darted down a side street.
Once Daniel slipped into the alley, he paused briefly and readied his power — Q — and as soon as the six reappeared Daniel pounced on one of them; one of the two gunmen was his target. The gang was stunned by the speed of the attack; they found the masked man before them encircled by a white aura. The second man fired his pistol at him — bang — bang.
Daniel ignored everything; one thug was already down. He thought fast: (Exchange the three gems to get Vi's full power without transforming.) Suddenly, when the white shield around him shattered, he felt his body grow slightly stronger — enough to speak to them with ease. Flooding his mind came memories of proper punching, hand-to-hand combat, and the skilled use of gauntlets; Daniel had become, in an instant, a first-rate street fighter.
The five remaining men stared at him for a moment; their hearts froze at how a bullet had not fazed this man, and they all thought the same thing: (Is this guy a mutant?) Yet as the white shield faded they grew bolder and began to attack.
Daniel was no longer the same as a moment before. Though his raw physical power had increased only a little, the acquired combat experience made his movements precise and effective. He engaged the four men wielding blades, trading blows in rapid succession, evading attacks with skill and replying with a kick while one of them was used involuntarily as a human shield against the sixth man who'd stayed at the back the entire fight.
After a few seconds Daniel stepped back two paces, activated his special Q again for a couple of seconds, then launched himself through them with a single strike aimed at the sixth man in the rear. He struck all the standing men — fortunately they were almost in a straight line — and the one hit hardest fell unconscious; the others were only slightly affected. But Daniel reached the damned sixth, the one holding the other pistol. The sixth tried to retreat, but Daniel left him no escape; he attacked him with blows to the face. The man blocked with both hands, but Daniel landed a crushing blow to his stomach then another to the face, and he collapsed.
Someone from the rear tried to ambush Daniel, but Daniel evaded, found the second attacker truly ready, and deflected his strike with his gauntleted hand. Then he descended on the remaining three with skill and with the white shield that manifested mid-fight; they fell, one after another, to the ground with ease, some with broken bones, and one had already fainted.
Daniel checked his rewards and was surprised to find he had leveled up and gained seven gems and 204 gold coins from that fight, though he had spent one so he had six left. Luna told him: [You got six gems after the fall of the first man (the first pistol wielder). When you obtained Vi's power you became stronger, and that's why you got one gem from the sixth man; the others were weaker than you.]
Daniel understood and then asked, "What about the 204 gold coins — how did I get those?"
[The two who were carrying pistols were counted as Cannon Minions, so you gained 60 from each. The other four were considered Caster Minions, so you earned 21 gold coins from each.]
Daniel now had 264 gold coins in his treasury.
He pressed the arrow above the E slot; it lit up with the number 1, meaning it could be used in one glove, while the second charge waited. Daniel waited three to four seconds until the number 1 turned to 2, and then, using them both in the gauntlets, he struck the air with enhanced blows. With every hit the gloves emitted a sound that spoke to the power of the strike, leaving the three observing men terrified and mute.
Daniel looked at them and said, "And now what shall I do with you?" He didn't wait for an answer; he grabbed a phone from one of them, called the police, and told them the location of the six. Daniel waited where he was until he heard the sound of sirens in the distance; seeing the officers approaching from afar, he rose and left the six on the ground.
...
Another week passed for Daniel; every night he roamed in search of gang members. He had grown stronger, so it wasn't as dangerous as before, and he had collected a lot of gold coins though not many gems, because his increasing strength reduced the gem drops.
While he ate, Daniel scrolled through his screen. Yesterday he had finally reached level six at the end of the day and had unlocked R, though he hadn't tried it yet; he was excited to test it tonight. His gold had also increased, and his total reached 4,935 coins after continuous searching in the shop. Daniel began to buy; he found Guardian Angel and purchased it — later cursing himself for not thinking to buy it sooner; it cost 3,300 gold coins. He now felt stronger in attack and his skin thicker and tougher — a genuinely great sensation — but its most important ability triggers only once: when it activates, it will be destroyed. After complaining to Luna that she'd cheated him, he tried hard to bargain the price down, but Luna's reply was: [This is real life; it is completely different from the game.]
When Daniel reflected and managed to glean the benefit of this condition, Luna said: [No, you can't buy this item consecutively; there is a cooldown — you can only repurchase this item from the shop after a full day.]
Daniel started another heated debate with Luna at that moment.
Now Daniel chose the route he would take with Vi: full armor items. Although they weren't very useful for Vi in the game, after asking Luna he discovered the armor would give him strong protection against firearms like pistols. If he bought all six pieces he would gain armor bullets could not penetrate — at most it would leave some scratches from pistols. So he took that path. Life mattered most after all.
At present he had Guardian Angel and Plated Steelcaps, which had cost 1,300, leaving him only 335 gold. With that he bought two Control Wards from the shop, each costing 150 gold. He initially chose the free Warding Totem, and for the first time Daniel found something that felt natural. He placed one Control Ward in his home for security — it could be seen and destroyed by anyone, so he hid it in his house; if Daniel wanted to see what was happening at home all he had to do was think of it and a screen would appear showing what the Control Ward saw. If anything happened near it Luna would inform him — it watches continuously, twenty-four hours a day. He hadn't found a suitable place for the Warding Totem, but he intended to plant them at the Rhodes Gang's headquarters — one of whose members had been among the six on the first day.
And now, on this day, Daniel decided to act: The Rhodes Gang was a small group, mostly local young men whose activities included mugging, theft, light smuggling, and collecting protection money from small shops. Their reputation was local, confined to a few blocks of Hell's Kitchen. They were almost the only people who knew Daniel by sight, because he had been tracking them; he had received a side quest to dismantle this organization, and he would earn ten full gems for it.
Daniel prepared carefully and finally reached the roof of a three-story building; the building matched in height the one opposite that served as the gang's base. Daniel stood on the edge of his building's roof, knowing the place below was heavily guarded, and decided to enter from above — only the important gang members would be on the roof. After upgrading his Q he had used it twice more until it reached level three, which slightly increased its power; the surprise for Daniel was that its cooldown hadn't decreased, but he could now dash four meters — part of the system's realism. The gap between the buildings was about three and a half meters, so the dash would be easy.
Daniel reached the gang's rooftop easily with his dash, waited a few seconds to charge Q, then descended the ladder — anyone he met he dispatched easily with his strength. The people below heard the commotion after a while and began to climb up one by one.
Daniel intended to fight in a confined space so he could take the gang members on one at a time and make it difficult for them to use firearms. After he opened W, which had changed only slightly, the third strike he landed on a single person became noticeably stronger; the gauntlet charged a little mana and the blow intensified.
At the same time, someone on a nearby rooftop — a man who used his super-hearing to listen for anyone in his city needing help and would rush to assist them — heard the violent fighting in a direction and headed straight toward it.