Ability Enhancement Plan

Ability Enhancement Plan

Run, hurry and run!

As long as you make it there, you'll definitely escape!

Then there'll still be time to get back to the gang, still time to get an Ability Needle. You won't die here. You absolutely won't!

The skinny thug soothed himself inwardly as he forced his legs forward, sprinting with all his strength down the spotless white corridor toward the elevator.

Few people ever came to the Patrol Bureau's first basement level. Aside from a large work elevator used to transport corpses, there was only a small elevator rated for twelve people, and no emergency stairs. The large elevator was currently sealed off. In other words, if he could get into the elevator before Ron arrived, he might be able to shake him off. After all, the old elevator was in disrepair; it took nearly three or four minutes to travel from the first basement level to the ground floor. By the time Ron took the elevator back up to pursue him, he might already be several kilometers away in a hovercar!

Seeing the elevator doors in the distance slowly open after automatically detecting an approaching passenger, he was overjoyed and quickened his pace.

I'll make it! As long as I can get there, as long as I can get there—

But then a gust of wind suddenly blew past.

He caught the familiar stench of sweat that clung to Fathead from not bathing for far too long.

"This elevator is already full. Hmm, why does that feel like something I've said before?"

He stared blankly into the distance, only to see Ron standing at the elevator entrance. One hand held Fathead, who had completely stopped breathing and could no longer move, while the other pressed the button to close the doors.

The elevator doors shut. Ron casually tossed Fathead aside, then looked at the skinny thug in the distance and said calmly,

"Assaulting a Patrol Bureau officer and committing murder—compared to trying to steal corpses from the Patrol Bureau's underground morgue, the crimes you just committed are far, far more serious."

Ron looked with interest at the pale-faced, trembling skinny man before him, who clearly had no idea what to do, and asked curiously,

"Judging from the way you look, you should be a gang member from District D, right? To be honest, I used to run with gangs before I started high school too, but I've never seen anyone like you."

"Getting caught by Patrol Bureau officers is practically routine. You were only trying to steal corpses, and you didn't even cause the Patrol Bureau any losses. A crime like that would at most cost you a few thousand Credit Points and seven days of reflection before you got out."

"I'm really curious why you'd rather kill your fat friend and have him stop me than let yourself be caught?"

As Ron spoke, he narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze as sharp as an eagle's as he fixed it on the skinny thug before him.

"What secret are you hiding?"

"I-I-I—" The skinny thug stammered. Then, seeing the law enforcement recorder hanging from Ron's collar, he suddenly found his courage and shouted,

"I have the right to remain silent!"

"Oh?"

Ron raised an eyebrow, only to hear the man say impatiently,

"I'm turning myself in now. Under Ideal City law, even criminals have human rights. I have the right to remain silent!"

As he spoke, his tone actually relaxed, as though he had plenty of confidence.

"Arrest me, then."

Then he even added,

"Until my lawyer arrives, I won't communicate with you any further."

Trying to play tough?

Ron looked at the skinny thug, who had shut his mouth tight like a dead pig that feared no boiling water and refused to say a word. For a moment, he could not help feeling helpless.

To be fair, as a Patrol Bureau officer, all Ron could really do with a criminal like this was arrest him, send him to the Patrol Bureau detention center, and wait for trial. But anyone could guess that if this man went through the normal arrest process and was sent to detention, someone would probably find a way to bail him out during the trial.

Or perhaps no one would bail him out at all, but he would die at the appropriate time in the Patrol Bureau detention center, leaving no one able to pry even the slightest secret from him.

Who exactly had ordered the theft of corpses from the Patrol Bureau's underground morgue? How had a mere Lv.1 used a Formula? Who had turned him from an ordinary person into a Superpowered? All those secrets would be buried forever, and no one would ever learn the truth.

But—

That was only what would happen if Ron acted as a Patrol Bureau officer.

Ron could not give up on the secrets this man carried. The importance of the Ability Formula was tied to whether he could participate in the future struggle for Sector Authority over Prometheus.

It was only a Patrol Bureau job. Ron could do without it!

Besides, he had only just started. Even if his methods of enforcement were a little off, he would at worst receive a few penalties. He might not even lose his Patrol Bureau job.

With that in mind, Ron looked at the fearless skinny man before him and sneered.

"If you'd run into someone else, you might really have gotten away with this. But unfortunately for you, you ran into me—"

Muttering that, he grabbed the law enforcement recorder from his collar and crushed it into powder.

The brand-new equipment he had received only today crumbled in Ron's hand. He opened his palm and let the fragments of the recorder, which had never even been connected to the network, fall to the floor. Then he calmly looked at the skinny thug.

"Now, no one knows what happened in this underground morgue."

"Until you tell me something that satisfies me, I won't be considering a return to normal law enforcement procedures."

As he spoke, he pointed at Fathead's corpse nearby, which had already turned completely pale, cold, and stiff.

"While I certainly won't turn you into something like your brother over there, you won't be spared the suffering you deserve."

"So? Are you going to honestly tell me something, or keep playing dead and refuse to say a word? I think you already know the answer."

Ron's tone took on a trace of viciousness, as though he really were some interrogation master who had killed without blinking and spent years steeped in the art of torture.

But it was all an act.

Before he started high school, Ron had joined a small gang in District D to make a living. He knew exactly what the lowlife thugs struggling at the bottom of society were like.

With people like this, you had to be vicious enough to let them know that if they did not cooperate, their lives would be at stake. That was the only way to pry anything useful out of them.

If you were too gentle and they saw that you were the type to follow the rules, they would put on a tough front instead, gambling that their streetwise bravado could overpower you as they defied you.

Ron's understanding had been correct.

Hearing the chill in Ron's words and seeing his obviously dangerous, icy expression, the skinny thug shuddered and swallowed.

"I-I'll talk—"

As he spoke, a hint of hope appeared in his eyes as he looked at Ron.

"If I tell you... can you let me off, big brother?"

Let you off? Trash like you, who killed without blinking, should obediently go reflect in a Patrol Bureau prison.

That was what Ron thought, but his face remained fierce as he said coldly,

"Talk! Cut the nonsense! Who sent you to steal the corpses? What's going on with your ability? And what was that 'secret technique' you used just now? Explain every last bit of it to me!"

The skinny thug hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he spoke.

"This was a mission issued by the Ark—"

Ark?

Ron paused, then immediately understood what the man meant.

The Ark was an underground gang in District D. Ron had heard of the organization back when he worked as an errand runner for a small gang.

It was said to be one of District D's largest gangs, controlling part of the district's underground society and wielding considerable influence in the slums. That influence did not come from violence, but money. The Ark controlled many black-market trades and often sold Ability Stimulants and similar drugs that could awaken superpowers.

It fulfilled the dreams of many poor people who wanted to take a chance on awakening an ability. To be honest, Ron had always suspected that a megacorporation stood behind the Ark. Even low-quality Ability Stimulants should not have been something an underground gang could reliably obtain.

Combined with their attempt to steal corpses from the underground morgue, Ron immediately realized something was wrong.

Could it be that the megacorporation behind the Ark had created those Void Monsters?

Were they trying to steal the corpses back now to hide some secret concealed within them?

And whenever Ron thought of those Void Monsters, he immediately thought of Beck. No matter how he looked at it, this experiment seemed like something Noah Pharmaceuticals would do!

Noah Pharmaceuticals, the Ark... what exactly were they trying to do?

Ron pondered this when the skinny thug before him continued, "But as long as we complete the mission, bring these corpses back to them, and help them recover the experimental materials, they'll let us undergo another Ability Enhancement Experiment—"

Experimental materials?

Ron could not help frowning at those words.

So they were not trying to conceal some secret. They simply wanted to "recover experimental materials"?

Those innocent high school students who had been transformed into Void Monsters were nothing more than experimental materials in the eyes of the Ark and Noah Pharmaceuticals?

Even their corpses could not rest in peace after death. Ron frowned deeply. "Then where did your ability come from?"

"My ability?" The skinny thug scratched his head. "Officer, don't you know about the Ability Enhancement Plan that's been secretly getting really popular in District D lately?"

"Ability Enhancement Plan?" Ron froze. "What is that?"

"It's a special plan the Ark suddenly started promoting. They said they wanted to change the entire landscape of Ideal City, and that within ten years, they planned to turn everyone in Ideal City into Superpowered."

"Right now, you can spend five thousand Credit Points at the Ark to buy a qualification for an Ability Awakening Experiment—"

"They claim that as long as you undergo the Ability Awakening Experiment, you'll have a one hundred percent chance of awakening an ability and becoming Superpowered."

Ron could not help objecting. "One hundred percent? How is that possible?"

He knew perfectly well how difficult it was to awaken an ability. There were countless people in the world with worse talent than his—how could everyone possibly have a chance to awaken an ability?

And turning everyone in Ideal City into Superpowered—eleven billion Superpowered. Ron had never even imagined such a future.

Even if an experiment existed that had an incredibly high chance of awakening abilities, there was no way it could be joined for a mere five thousand Credit Points.

What kind of magical GG scheme was this?

But the skinny thug gave an embarrassed smile.

"Y-yeah, Officer. To be honest, I didn't really believe it at first either. But I happened to have a little money on hand, so I gave it a try while I had the chance—and it actually worked."

It was probably just luck.

Ron shook his head, completely unwilling to believe that some five-thousand-Credit-Point Ability Awakening Experiment could guarantee that someone became Superpowered.

He put those less important matters aside and seriously asked about what concerned him most.

"What about that 'secret technique' of yours?"

"That secret technique... I don't really know what it is either—"

The skinny man scratched his head. "The Ark's boss taught it to me. He said that as long as I muttered those words once and waved my hand like that, I could temporarily enhance my ability—"

"To be honest, I practiced it for quite a while."

The Ark's boss taught you? He could teach you a Formula?

Ron almost wanted to laugh. Could a gang boss do the same thing as the Central Intelligent Brain now?

But Ron knew it might not be this man's fault. From his perspective, that was probably exactly what had happened. He had used that Formula.

The secret of how he had learned the Ability Formula and been able to use it was more likely hidden within the Ark gang itself. Seeing Ron fall into thought and remain silent, the skinny man clearly grew anxious.

He glanced at Fathead's corpse lying on the ground beside them, afraid that Ron was asking about the "secret technique" to hold him accountable. He gave an awkward smile and explained,

"Officer, I never meant to kill Fathead either. Th-this secret technique is hard to control. Who knew it would turn him into that all at once?"

As he spoke, he tried every possible way to excuse himself.

"And Fathead promised me before that I was his big brother and that he'd go through fire and climb mountains for me."

"Officer, you know how it is. We believe in brotherhood."

"Now that big brother was in trouble, it was perfectly normal for little brother to take a blade for him—"

As he spoke, he looked at Ron expectantly again.

"Officer, I've told you everything I should have told you! Can you let me off now?"

"If not, you can arrest me right now. It's fine if you hurry and send me to the detention center—"

This guy was in a hurry to leave?

Ron looked at the skinny man and could clearly see the obvious anxiety on him.

Something was strange. No matter how he thought about it, something was strange.

Nothing the man had said could explain why he would rather kill Fathead than fail to escape. Yet after realizing he could not escape, his attitude had suddenly changed, and now he desperately wanted to be arrested normally and sent into detention as quickly as possible.

His motives made no sense—he was hiding something important!

Ron needed to find a way to make him talk.

After thinking for a moment, Ron suddenly asked bluntly,

"You're in such a hurry—is it because you need to cover something up, or for some other reason?"

"I will arrest you—but only after you explain what exactly you're hiding from me."

"I-I've already told you everything I can tell you, Officer!" The skinny man was clearly breaking out in a cold sweat as he tried to persuade Ron.

"I have nothing else to say, really. Officer, just let me off—"

But Ron remained unmoved. He simply stared silently at the man without saying a word.

After a long time, roughly an hour, the skinny thug had exhausted every means of trying to persuade Ron, only to discover that Ron would not budge.

Parched and desperate, he finally broke down.

Tears and snot streamed down his face as he said,

"I'm just... I'm just afraid I won't make it back in time to take the Ability Needle—"

"Officer, Officer, I'm begging you, let me go back once! Just once!"

"It's already... it's already too late—"

But before he could finish, he suddenly froze where he stood.

The next moment, his body began to undergo an utterly incomprehensible transformation—

Icy bone spurs pierced through his body. He quickly stopped breathing, while strange biological features emerged across him, turning him hideous and transforming him into a humanoid monster!

Ron could clearly see those illusory, grotesque organs suddenly proliferating from his body, making half of him unreal as he became a mindless monster—

What... was this?

Looking at the monster before him, Ron was instantly bewildered as a storm erupted in his mind.

This guy—had turned into a Void Monster right in front of him!

Exactly like those high school students who had been turned into Void Monsters!