Are You an Alien?

"What a hassle!"

Feeney hadn't expected that even after going to all the trouble of opening a shop on the Upper East Side, he'd still run into something like this. As expected, New York was a hellhole that ordinary people couldn't survive in.

And he had only himself to blame. If he hadn't summoned three of Sumire's Fried Chicken Rolls out of thin air with his skill, he could've just dumped the two of them at the police station.

Thinking it over carefully, Feeney realized the two robbers hadn't noticed anything unusual. When he'd used the chicken rolls to smack them in the face, one robber had been reaching for his gun and looking down at his arms, so he hadn't seen the rolls appear out of nowhere.

The other one had been lying on the ground and couldn't have seen, either. As for Skye, Feeney hadn't been paying close attention to her at the time, so he wasn't sure whether she'd noticed—but she wasn't much of a concern.

Judging by how nervous she looked now, she probably still hadn't fully recovered.

With a somewhat frustrated sigh, Feeney finally decided to let the robbers go. But first, he had to make sure nobody had sent them.

"Why did you try to rob our shop?"

"Because we had no money!"

"..."

Feeney was speechless at that answer. Beside him, Skye immediately snapped angrily, "If you had no money, why not rob a bank? Why rob us?"

"We can't rob a bank!"

That only made Skye angrier. She couldn't help kicking one of the robbers. Strictly speaking, this shop was hers, even if Feeney was the one who did most of the work to make money.

Once Feeney had confirmed that nobody had sent them, he felt much more at ease. After sternly warning them about the rules in this neighborhood, he made them leave their guns behind and prepared to go.

"You'll soon forget what happened today and become good people from now on."

Before sending them off, Feeney used the Golden Great Deduction Technique to influence them. In their current terrified state, barring any unexpected complications, they'd probably forget everything by tomorrow.

After watching the two robbers leave, Skye's first move was to lock the door from the inside. Then she let out a long breath before asking hesitantly, "Was it really okay to let them go?"

"It's fine."

Feeney smiled and nodded. He'd already taken the opportunity to secretly get rid of the three chicken rolls on the floor and the surveillance footage.

"Feeney..."

Feeney was still wondering how to persuade Skye not to tell her parents about what had happened when he heard her tremble out, "Just now... I think something suddenly appeared in the air..."

"Th-three..."

"Three chicken rolls, right?"

Feeney sighed and finished her sentence for her. He studied her face, thinking about the changes the world would undergo a year from now and the problem she had. In the end, he said, "You saw correctly. I made them appear."

Skye's already pale face grew even paler. She backed away trembling, then edged closer again and asked fearfully, "Feeney, a-are you an alien?"

I'm a pure-blooded Earthling. You're the one who might have a bit of Alien Gene.

Feeney grumbled inwardly and rolled his eyes. "What do you think?"

"I... I..."

Seeing Skye stammer without managing to say anything, Feeney couldn't help sighing. If he hadn't already known what kind of world this was, he might not have reacted much better than she had.

"Relax. I'm Feeney Hails, a bona fide Earthling. This is just a special ability of mine. Like this."

Feeney casually summoned a Sumire's Fried Chicken Roll and handed it to her.

Skye took the chicken roll blankly. She looked down at the food in her hands, then back at Feeney. Her mouth opened, but she seemed unable to find anything to say.

Since she'd already found out, Feeney didn't hide much from her. He continued, "You wanted to know why Brian fell over this afternoon, didn't you?"

"You can think of that as another one of my superpowers."

"Superpowers!?"

Skye's eyes widened, like those of an adorable little cat. As a hacker, she'd always felt that the world held few secrets from her. But in that moment, she suddenly felt like she knew nothing at all.

"Yeah."

Feeney nodded, went over to sit on the sofa, and beckoned Skye to join him.

Skye walked over and sat down without giving it much thought, then asked, "Do Mom and Dad know?"

"Right now, you're the only one who knows."

Feeney leaned back against the soft sofa and turned to look Skye seriously in the eyes. "Skye, since you know now, I'll be frank. This world is dangerous, so don't go looking into strange things online for no reason. You'll get yourself into trouble."

"Are there a lot of people with superpowers like you?"

Having gotten past her fear, Skye grew curious. She realized Feeney was still the same Feeney as before; she'd simply discovered one of his secrets.

"Also, is your superpower just making people fall over and making chicken rolls? Can you do anything else? When did you discover it?"

Skye was like a curious little kid. Before Feeney could answer, she kept asking, "Do you know anyone else with superpowers?"

Listening to all the questions, Feeney rubbed his hair in frustration. After thinking it over, he began answering them one by one. "I feel like there are quite a few people in this world with special abilities."

"I think abilities are probably inborn. I don't know anyone else with superpowers at the moment."

After answering, Feeney turned to Skye with a serious expression and warned her again, "Skye, don't think I'm joking. This world really is dangerous."

"People like us have never appeared in society and caused any trouble. That can only mean some organization or power is controlling everything. It might even be the government."

"If you don't want people taking me away to study me, cut me open, and run experiments on me, you'd better keep this secret for me."

"Surely not..."

Hearing Feeney's words, Skye looked worried. But she didn't dare risk finding out whether it could happen, and seriously promised, "I won't tell anyone."

Then she seemed to remember something and hurriedly asked, "What about those two from earlier...?"

"It's fine. They didn't notice anything."

Feeney could already feel the Golden Great Deduction Technique gradually taking effect. If nothing unexpected happened, the two of them would forget everything from today by tomorrow, turn over a new leaf, and become good people.

Seeing that Feeney was so sure, Skye could only set aside her worries and silently pray that the two men wouldn't tell anyone about what had happened.

The air gradually fell quiet. Skye was still worried about their secret getting out, so she stopped asking questions and wondered how she could help if anything went wrong.

Feeney, meanwhile, turned his attention to something else: the Experience Bar in the Extraction System had filled up.

He could start his third extraction!

Sigh, it was over, it was over. Nobody was reading...