More Important Things to Do

After lunch, Chloe didn’t have any more classes with me (thank god), so I was able to do my own activities in peace. And did that entail listening to the teacher lecture? No.

School wasn’t the most important thing for Nathaniel and I right now, nor was talking to Chloe something paramount. Nathaniel had become arrogant after continuously besting those rookies, and there was no way I was going to let something like this get us killed. I needed to make preparations…

Taking a sip from one of my many water bottles, I took out Nathaniel’s phone and browsed the app from C.H.I.B.I. Walls of green code flooded my screen, and it lasted for a moment before the word ‘safe’ popped up in the very middle. Then it switched back to the browser, where a list of missions could be seen.

Nathaniel had strayed away from the mission screen, out of both fear and an unwillingness to go with the organization. But I knew the stone clan wouldn’t welcome us back in, not under our situation. They must of realized something was fishy with the amount of people coming after me, and sent people to provide temporary protection while they investigated my situation.

The results would definitely be inconclusive; the true secret obviously lay in C.H.I.B.I. And my clan was definitely not at the level to be able to contend with it. So they would have two options.

The first option would be to take us in immediately. After all, Nathaniel was not far removed as family went, and the variance in our ability made us an innately strong contender for the position of the head. But the Stone clan was not just some family clan; it was an organization. Why would they willingly bring in another variable to worry about when they could keep things as is?

So hence comes the second option. They would extend the goodwill that stemmed from our blood ties, and once the struggle was over, they would try and rope me in and train me as a powerhouse of the clan. Of course, my variance in ability might also be able to be passed down, so they would attempt to arrange a marriage for me within the clan. That means no Chloe.

Obviously, this outcome was undesirable. I would be unable to take my revenge, and Nathaniel would encounter his eventual heartbreak much sooner than imagined. The only way I could prevent this was to become stronger, or to tie myself in with C.H.I.B.I. And so far, it seemed like becoming stronger went hand in hand with tying myself in with the organization.

Upon reaching this conclusion, I logically moved on to gather what information I could about this organization. How does it work, what are the rewards promised? Is it all cash? Or was there special equipment that I could use to increase my strength?

I was unable to get the information just by residing within his subconscious; Nathaniel refused to even open the app after accepting the training mission! So, I had to explore it myself. And going by the logic from before, the missions closest to the top would have the easiest difficulty with the smallest amount of rewards. Like the first mission, the one I’m taking right now.

‘Drawing out your ability’

‘Meet with Charm instructor Joyce Kim to work on drawing out specifics of your ability. This will help with ability classification and overall combat power. Her number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.”

The reward was in crappy, vague terms like ‘help with ability classification’ and ‘increasing overall combat power.’ The helping with ability classification for terms of the class was a letter grade, and increasing overall combat power was undoubtedly the rewards given for your ability classification at the end of the mission. It was basically a staple mission that was meant for newbies to attend in order to acquire a bit of combat practice and allow them a year’s worth of buffer time before they’re forced to choose their next mission.

The second mission, however, seemed a little more substantial in value.

‘Discipline’

‘Our intelligence has determined that a man, 45 years of age, has been using his ability to obtain and deal certain drugs illegally. He will be at 4567 Apple Street, Chicago Illinois, selling what he calls pot. Find him and bring him back alive to the extraction point where he will be dealt with accordingly.

‘Ability index- D’

‘Ability description: Bodily transformation land type, increases his speed by 2-3 times.’

‘Ability Requirements: N/A’

‘Reward: 500$, 1 point for completion without maiming the man. Reward is invalid if he is dead.’

‘Status: Unaccepted’

The reward was substantial enough. 500$ was equivalent to around 54 hours of work for minimum wage, and the mission didn’t seem too hard. The only thing I was questioning was the point. What did it mean by 1 point for completion?

I clicked on the word point, and it took me to a screen displaying my profile. It had my name, contact information, ability index (which read unevaluated), and clearance rank (which read level 0) displayed. The stuff below that, the private information, had my point level, cash in my account, and a list of my accepted missions and their descriptions. Then a description of the points popped up. It read,

‘Points’

‘Points are only obtained through completing missions, and they are used for obtaining greater clearance levels, buying ability related items, and (greater clearance level needed).’

I didn’t have any points currently, but it took 1 point to raise my clearance rank to level one. I tapped the word clearance rank and another pop-up description appeared on my screen. It read,

‘Clearance Rank’

‘This can be raised through spending a certain amount of points. Your clearance level is used to obtain a wider and rarer range of items and information from C.H.I.B.I., reduce punishment for violating one of the disciplinary laws, and raises your respective position in the organization.’

Interesting… But what can I do with my current clearance rank? I tapped on the level zero rank.

‘Clearance: level zero’

‘A limited number of items to make completing a mission easier are provided at the shop; if the item is marked in red, then the item was acquired illegally. Illegal items are double the market price, but you do not have to acquire a license. One can accept a maximum of 2 missions at a time, and there is no reduction in disciplinary action if you break the organization’s law.’

The shop… It takes me directly to a mission acceptance screen, where would I be able to access the shop? I checked around on the phone, and after a little bit, I realized that at the very bottom of the screen there were links to My profile, The Shop, and Mission list. I tapped the shop.

It brought me to a screen with a small amount of items. These could be split into 3 categories, weapons, armor, and intelligence.

‘Weapons’

‘$10 Switch blade, $50 Stun gun, (Illegal from here on) $120 Stun Baton, $200 Taser (5 cartridges), $1300 Glock 22 (3 magazines).’

‘Armor’

‘$80 Armored gloves, (Illegal from here on) $200 Armored Combat boots, $300 Bullet Proof Vest, $400 Bullet Proof Helmet, $3000 for full bullet proof armor (includes vest, arms, legs, and neck).’

‘Intelligence’

‘$50 Hidden microphone, (Illegal from here on) $500 Micro Camera, $2500 Recon Drone.’

Unsurprisingly, the items were surprisingly expensive. However, due to my recent encounters with those murderers, I had sufficient funds. Or at least, I thought I did.

‘Account Balance’

‘$2500’

Why was it so low? As far as I could recall, we had obtained $12,000 for killing the ability users who came at us when we were in the theatre, and we should have even more, now that we had killed the hunters at the Racetrac.

Pulling up my account balance, I took a look at my history.

‘Account history’

‘+$12,000’

‘-$250’

‘-$9250’

‘New account balance, $2500’

Ok… That doesn’t make any sense. Why was so much money deducted at the end? I know Nathaniel spent $250 at his date with Chloe, but the $9250 dollars? Shouldn’t that be added to my funds instead?

I tried to bring up a detailed description by clicking the negative $9250, but nothing popped up. However, I could infer that this negative number was due to the death of the personnel stationed outside the Racetrac. Which meant I didn’t have enough funds to buy everything I wanted.

I scratched my head while choosing the best item to obtain, but then I paused. Everyone in the classroom was staring at me, and the teacher was standing directly in front of my desk with his hand out. I asked with a deadpan expression,

Me- “What.”

The teacher glared at me, clearly somewhat offended.

Pre-Cal teacher- “Did you hear what I said? Hand me your phone!”

It was funny that he asked that question. In fact, he must suppose he could coerce me to hand him my phone and pay more attention in class. Too bad there were more important things than satisfying a high-school math teacher’s inflated ego.

Me- “Why?”

I heard a couple sharp intakes of breath throughout the classroom, and the man’s face became redder.

Pre-Cal teacher- “Do you want me to write you up? Hand me the phone Mr. Belair.”

I didn’t care what he said; I wasn’t going to hand him the phone right now.

Me- “Sorry, no can do. Would you like my pencil instead?”

Pre-Cal teacher- “Some people are actually trying to learn here, and you’ve just wasted some of both my time and theirs. Oh, and by the way, I don’t want your stupid pencil. Get out of my class.”

I smirked, those were the exact words I wanted to hear. The stupid teacher was getting all self righteous, believing I was wasting his time. Well, to get facts straight, I was just sitting there, minding my own business. He came over just to have a confrontation, and the ensuing disruption was apparently all my fault. And also, he actually seemed to think the subject he was teaching would be useful!? Anything but!

Anyways, now that I was given permission to leave, there was no way I would sit there and listen to more of his abuse. I got up straight-away, and wished him some ‘good’ luck on my way out.

Once I was out of the classroom door, my thoughts shifted away from the totally insignificant situation within the class. This was my last period, so I decided to leave school a little bit early. And as for apologizing to Helen? F*ck that. I had more important things to do.