After Earth Online: The Iron Warlock

The Infested Location For An Assassination

Even with how poor they were, Leo and his siblings had seen superhero movies before; things like that were a commodity neither him or his siblings could afford, and their parents before them. however, they’ve had their own fair chances to see the greats duke it out with the forces of evil. Superman, ironman, captain America and batman. Legends in their own right in the way they acted and their battles. Today he had come face to face with one.

Honestly speaking it was extremely awesome, but it wasn’t just their battle that drew his attention though, it was the aftermath. The buildings that had their windows blasted open had probably experience a reduce in their structural integrity, but if that wasn’t enough then, the onlookers who had been under the rain of glass, or those who within the buildings as it imploded with hundreds of shards of glass before the remaining fragments rained down.

It was not a pretty sight, one man had been cleaved in half, and a particularly large shard had fallen into a baby stroller. The mother of the baby sat in front of the deformed stroller with her four eyes opened wide in shock and her pink hair floating upwards due to her grief. Leo couldn’t see anything from the stroller, only the rapidly expanding pool of blood from its crumpled form.

It was as if someone had doused him with extremely cold water, what he had seen as awesome had turned out to be nothing but horrific in his eyes. This was no different from the real world, the villains, the heroes; all of them were what ruled, they were the leaders. And their actions were what always caused the disasters that the common people could not escape from, and in the aftermath of it, all that was left behind was death, blood and pain…. So much pain.

“Let’s go. Come on let’s get out of here!” Leo said to the Taxi’s automated system, it had stopped when it noticed him sticking his head out the window to feed Leo’s curiosity. But no more, he couldn’t take any more of this c*****e.

They drove on, leaving the scene of the destruction behind as the wails of sirens filled the air, with quite a few fire trucks driving past them with extreme speed. It was at this point that Leo noticed that neither the Taxi he was on, or the fire truck that just drove past him had tires that were on the ground. They floated a few inches above the ground, probably some sort of magnetic levitation. It wasn’t information that was important to him, but it was what his mind chose to latch on to get the horror he had just seen out of his mind.

Midtown had a lot more high-rise buildings than downtown, come to think of it, there was only about four or five such buildings, with the rest being huge apartment complexes in the residential area. It was a lot to think about, but Leo was beginning to make a proper analysis of Felton city, and with his sister having access to his in-game footage, she probably knew how best to arrange the information.

“we have arrived at your destination”

Leo was pulled out of his revelry as he looked at the building that they had come to a stop in front of. It was an apartment complex, but this was the kind that had penthouses. There was a doorman in dark velvet uniform waiting right in front of Leo. He outstretched his hand for a handshake, which stumped Leo a bit as he came out of the car. But never the less he gave his hand to the doorman, receiving a firm handshake and a piece of paper in the process, then the doorman shifted to the side to let Leo pass, pointing to the revolving doors of the building.

Leo looked down at the paper in his hand, this entire situation seemed a bit confusing to him, but never the less he was well on his way to completing the task that had been given to him. As it stands, this was probably the person that would give him direction to the apartment with the rat infestation,

[ Elevator 3, floor 24, Apartment 3]

Looks like he was right about this guy being the one who would direct him to his next location. Leo Nodded his head and turned around to head into the building. The moment he crossed the threshold however, there was a sudden buzz within his mind. While he didn’t feel as if his head was being invaded by anything, Leo felt as if someone or something had taken a look at him, like he had been scanned or something. But the process of them doing that had left a backdoor open for just a fraction of a second, in the moment Leo crossed from the threshold and into the building proper; he took something.

[ERROR! Technopath skill not high leveled enough to have access to security feeds without a Visual and auditory medium. ERROR! Technopath skill not high leveled enough to take control of buildings electrical systems without computational Interface!]

[You have gained access to this buildings Blueprints!]

[Technopath is now level 3! You can now tap into visual and auditory feeds of open networks, and hack small computers to varying success. Your understanding of mechanical components has increased a little.]

Leo took a deep breath, as he came to a somewhat obvious conclusion; Felton city was without a doubt the best place for him to be, as it catered wholly to the leveling up of his [Technopath] passive skill. And from the look of things he was well on his way to utilizing the real strength of the skill. Even if he wasn’t actively using it, after all it was a passive, his ability was getting him in constant contact with machines, it was like he was a wide range receiver, tapping into a variety of different signals.

But be that as it may, he could worry about his skill level up later. The welcome area of the building was empty, there was a counter where probably another doorman or security guard was supposed to be staying, but it was empty. Leo didn’t want to wait around, even if he was just killing rats he was still on a job for the mafia, so wasting time here would probably be a mistake. He made his way to the third elevator and set his ascension for the 24th floor.

[Elevator has been pressurized and reinforced for speed!]

There was just a small feeling of vertigo, lasting for only a fraction of a second before the elevator doors dinged open. To say he was shocked was an understatement, but it seems the elevators in the game, or at least within this building anyways could move really fast. As such the elevator itself was reinforced and pressurized to make it comfortable for the people using it, and avoiding any sort of accident that would probably occur from a high speed elevator ride.

Leo looked out into an abandoned hallway, there was no one in sight, except for a few cameras’ in certain corners of it. There were only four doors within this floor that led to different apartments, number three was to the right and was the first door by his right. He made his way to the door, before his ability acted up again.

-bzzt! -

[Camera Feed is on a Visual Loop]

“is it broken or something?” Leo asked to no one in particular as he contemplated whether to try and help fix it. But given his previous track record with interfering with a building’s security systems, perhaps it was better to just let sleeping dogs lie. He could just tell the doorman to fix when he was leaving.

Leo got in front of apartment no 3 and pressed the doorbell, just as she shifted back with a small smiled, whilst attempting to open the briefcase and see the tools that had been given to him.

“Who is it?” a deep and gruff voice came from the intercom, Leo smiled as he opened the briefcase and took a cursory look while answering.

“My Name is Leo and I’m here about a rat problem?” the moment he finished talking his blood ran cold, maybe it was because of the briefcase that was filled to the brim with sharp edged blades of varying length along with hammers and pliers, and pretty much anything you’ve seen use in a torture scene in every movie ever, or perhaps it was the warning he got from his ability that something terrible was about to go down.

-DUCK! -

[Adaptive has reached level 2! You have become more resistant to unforeseen events and your abilities can now evolve to suit your different situations.]

It didn’t matter to Leo what system message he just received as he quickly jumped out of the way, and just in time too as the door was blasted backwards, it’s metal form smashing into the wall and straight into the opposite apartment as a giant grey Alien with tentacles for hair that ended up in glowing bulbous light stepped out. His fists were glowing as a sort of haze like energy was gathered around them.

“So those f*****g Romans have finally sent someone to finish the job they could not! And it’s nothing but a snot nosed kid with no idea what he’s doing…. They insult me.” And it was then Leo realized he really wasn’t here to exterminate a rat in the traditional sense, but in the criminal sense. He was here to tie up Zucchini’s loose ends by eliminating a traitor to their organization. He was not here as an exterminator…... he was here as an Assassin!