The door flung open with a loud bang. A ganger stomped through in, red-faced with the irritation of a man forced to be sober. He was a typical low-rank thug, with holes in his jeans, a small, LED tattoo of a green viper on his neck and bandages wrapped around his hands instead of gloves. A stolen police baton was tucked around his belt.

“Hey, girl.” He grunted. “Food.”

He tossed a wrapped sandwich on the ground. The plastic box skittered to a slow rattle in front of Lisa’s curled knees. Her mouth remained shut. She sat in silence, hands locked between her thighs, staring at the ground.

“Oi!” The ganger snapped. “You still alive?”

Again, Lisa said nothing.

“Hey!” The ganger shouted, stomping towards the middle of the room. He shook a bandaged fist at the silent girl. “I’m talking to you! If you don’t speak up, you’re gonna catch these bad boys!”

That’s when I stepped out of his blind spot and slammed the hilt of my new knife at the back of his neck.

Successful stealth attack! Critical hit! +12 EXP!

The ganger shrieked and stumbled forward. Lisa sprung to life and rolled to the side, dodging him. He didn’t collapse in an instant, as I hoped. My new lack of strength was already posing a problem. No time to ponder further; the ganger spung around, our eyes connected and he charged forward. He swung his baton. I lifted my arm to block. Shock ran down my arm, followed by pain.

Damage to arm! -15 HP!

[HP: 85/100]

TIP: If your HP is reduced to 0, you will die!

Yeah, no shit.

“Who the hell are you?” The ganger shouted.

I cocked my head and smirked. The ganger tensed, then grunted and wound back his arm to swing again. I didn’t let him. I lunged forward with my knife. His eyes widened in response. He backpedalled at the last second and my knife only managed to tear a hole in his shirt.

I was confident, regardless. Our exchange clued me in well enough. Kid wasn’t solid. He acted the part, but lacked the muscle or the poise to back it up. No amount of shouting or stomping could hide his baggy clothes or the nasal undercurrent in his voice. And that blow to my arm? Pfft. I’d met mercs who could’ve snapped the bone in two.

Case in point: his gaze focused towards onto my knife. Its edge shone in the dim light, coated with the phantom sheen of spilt blood. I stared him in the eyes and smirked. He froze with fright, just for two seconds. Big, rookie mistake. You do not get distracted in close quarters.

Or forget your surroundings, for that matter.

“Got you!”

A pair of arms curled under the ganger’s shoulders and pulled back.

“What the hell?”

“Go, mister!” Lisa shouted. The ganger in her grip shouted and flailed, trying to whack Lisa with his baton. She held tight, even as her body trembled from the effort. I nodded, strode straight up and slammed my foot into the ganger’s testicles.

An agonized gurgle escaped his throat. His entire body went slack. I wasn’t done yet. A punch to the gut followed next. I flipped my knife around, then drove the blunt end into the side of the head. There are multiple weak points in the body and the sounds they make are pure satisfaction for any mercenary in a fight. His arms went slack as his inner balance was thrown around for a loop.

I nodded at Lisa. She let him go. I slammed the ganger against the wall, knife at his throat and a firm grip on his hoodie. Lisa stepped around us to slam the door shut. The first part of our plan was a success. Now for the second.

"Alright buddy, start talking." I snarled. Adrenaline, my old familiar friend, pulsed through my veins and it contorted my face in a devilish manner. Behind it, my arms and throat burned from the sudden movement. I was bound to receive joint pains in the morning. “Name, exit and all your details about your boss. Start talking.”

“Wha?” He slurred. He saw my knife and snapped to attention. “Who are you? You just…”

“I’m asking the questions here, buddy.” I growled. “Refuse and the pointy edge goes straight into your throat.”

“Fuck you!” The ganger gasped. “I ain’t telling you shit!”

“Hey hey, show some respect.” I said. “I’m the one with the knife here.”

The ganger spat on my face in return. I let the glob of spit trail down my cheek like a slug, staring at him the whole time. Uncertainty flickered across his face. Then, I pushed the knife a fraction into his skin, enough to draw a lick of blood. It trickled down the breadth of the knife, forming a stain. The ganger went still.

“You were saying, kid?” The knife drew several more drops. A few more inches and the tip would reach the catroid artery. The ganger’s body shrunk back in an instant, his ass squashed against the wall. His lip trembled. Hook, line and sinker.

“I…I’m not scared. You don’t have the guts.”

“Y’know, I was pretty pissed to hear the way you treated my friend here. Wanted to gouge out someone’s eyeballs and shove them down their throat. And whaddya know! There’s a victim right here…” I suddenly jerked my hand forward, driving my blade towards the tender flesh on his neck.

Kid folded like a paper tiger. Tears fell down his dirty cheeks and he began squealing like a pig.

“Oh god, oh god please don’t kill me! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, and my name is Sam and I’ll tell you whatever you want!”

“Where are we?” I barked out. “Number, street and city, now!”

“Hawkins Road, Bearbrass. I dunno about the number, it’s somewhere between four and twenty-one!” Sam cried.

“What the fuck is a Bearbrass?” I growled.

“Oh, I know that.” Lisa chimed in. “It’s a city in…um, Australia!”

Never heard of the place. Then again, I had been pseudo-exiled from Australia, due to every fed throw me in concrete six feet under. The reason was a job that started off light, then devolved into inane megacorporation conspiracy bullshit. I had to burn through all my local acquaintances just to escape the country alive. If I really was back in Australia, then I hoped they didn’t know what eighteen-year-old me looked like.

I pushed the thought aside. First escape, then figure out what to do. I was certain I was the only person who had magically de-aged themselves, too.

“Exits. Where are they?”

“There’s a front entrance and a back entrance. And, uh, a fire escape on the second floor.” My eyes narrowed in a gesture of indifference. “We’ve got a map in the breakroom too! A corridor down and a left turn once you climb up the stairs. You can’t miss it!” Sam blubbered.

A map pointed to a large hideout or a repurposed old building—also likely to be above-average. “And your crew? What weapons do you guys carry!”

“We stole some crap from the police, then one of our guys took some scrap and made some nail bats and shit. Only the boss has a gun.”

Classic Australian weapon laws. Always a pain in the ass…

Sam continued to spill the beans. Interrogating him was a cakewalk. I only needed to make threatening sounds, hold up the knife and watch as the kid’s lungs play themselves. He spat out jumbled facts while desperately trying not to piss himself. Lisa watched with interest from her spot near the wall, an inquisitive grin present between her freckles. Then Sam mentioned how the gang had kidnapped other girls and her smile instantly faded.

“Are there any other prisoners?” I asked.

“No! The girl was the only one we took! We shipped the others off weeks ago!” He paused. His breath came and went in ragged sobs. “That done? Will you let me go?”

“I dunno…” I whispered, close up. “If you rat us out, it’ll make things very difficult for us…” I held the

“Oh god. Oh fuck.” Sam’s body trembled once again. This was the reality that many of his ilk failed to realise. When the chips were down, an early grave was all that remained. “Please don’t, please don’t…I’ll quit! I won’t touch another girl again. I’ll stay clean, I promise.”

“Just kidding, kid.” I grabbed Sam’s neck and slammed his head against the wall hard enough to knock him out.

“I thought you were going to kill him, mister.”

I turned to Lisa. She was smiling nonchalantly at the unconscious ganger. Blood trailed down from the back of the man’s head. The wound on his neck was already clotting. I hit him hard enough to deal a concussion, at least. By the time he got proper medical treatment, we’d both be long gone.

As for Lisa, she didn’t seem concerned, despite the yelling and violence. I’d seen upper-class girls go ramrod stiff, weep their little eyes out or even shout with hysterics. Lisa took it all in stride. Not for the first time, I wondered what her background was.

“Didn’t want his blood on my clothes.” I said.

“You planned to stab him, though.” She pointed out.

“If there were two guys, yeah I would.” I said. We’d got lucky. Had Sam accompanied a mate, both their corpses would be decomposing on the floor right now. I had experience with killing. Less so with escaping from a hideout reeking of iron. “It’s best not to leave a blood trail.”

“Hmmm…okay, if you say so!” Lisa said. “So, what now?”

I crouched down near Sam’s unconscious form. My hands reached for his pockets. Time to see what the kid had on him.

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: First Enemy Defeated! +36 EXP!

Or maybe not.

Defeated an enemy! Gained +12 EXP!

Interrogation Success! +12 EXP!

[EXP: 72/50]

Level up! Congratulations, you are now LV. 2! Maximum HP has been increased by 10! Restored 25 HP! Acquired 2 Upgrade Points!

Would you like to apply them now?

[EXP: 22/100]

Sure, why not?

My vision went monochrome. The world slowed down—the light flickered more slowly, Lisa’s blink stretched through to what seemed like a minute and the dust particles descended like feathers from the sky. My stat sheet appeared in front of me.

Upgrade my Strength twice. My physique is shit.

ERROR! You can only upgrade each stat once during level up.

Why?

There was no response.

Fine, I see how it is. Upgrade my Strength and my Agility.

A ring of white light enveloped me. Energy surged through the muscles in my arms, torso and legs, like electricity through a wire. My body twitched, then stilled as if suddenly bound.

Upgrade complete! Your STRENGTH has been increased to 7! Your AGILITY has been increased to 8!

Time then resumed. I took out my knife and gave it another swing. More force lay behind it now. A minor upgrade, but real nonetheless.

Hell yeah. Give me five of those and we’ll get somewhere.

Then I returned to looting the poor, unconscious ganger. As I took out the items, INTERFACE-OS scanned and registered them.

Used Baton (N): An old, stolen police baton that’s seen some use. Scales with STRENGTH.

I shoved the thing into my inventory, anyway, in case my knife got destroyed.

Pocket Phone (R): An outdated phone produced by T-Tech. Still works.

Said pocket phone was password locked. Damn it. The corners were sharp enough to gouge a dude’s eye out, if I somehow ran out of all other implements in the meantime.

Candy Bar (N): Sugary, artificial and ultimately unfulfilling.

Guaranteed to make you feel superlicious! Read the inscription. I didn’t recognise the brand, but it was nice to know that corporate marketing was still awful as ever.

Packaged Sandwich (N): A sandwich from a common convenience store! Now with 50% more lab grown meat! The tomatoes are home-grown…to an extent.

This one was handed to me by Lisa.

“I’m not hungry.” She explained.

“You were kidnapped and stuck down here.” I said.

“Thank you for your consideration, mister, but I’m really not.” Lisa said. “Honest.”

I shrugged. More for me.

My stomach then rumbled, echoing throughout the space. Lisa giggled. I winced. Right, it had been a while since I last ate. My captives from my previous life had only deigned to serve me one scant meal per day—thin pollution-grey gruel. I ripped open the packaging off the sandwich and bit into it. The lettuce was flat, the bread stale and the meat contained a sharp, chemical aftertaste. But for someone who had subsisted on tasteless gruel for the past few days?

Well, it wasn’t heaven, but it sure did hit the spot, I tell you that. The candy bar followed suit. The taste was awful. The energy boost from it was not.

“Let’s get the hell out of here.” I said, tossing the wrappers aside. Lisa nodded, then her eyes darted to the door. She ran over to it and threw it open.

Her eyes lit up. “My friends!” she exclaimed. “They’re here!”

“What? Already?” I said.

“Yes, Mister Kyle! This is wonderful!” She turned back to me with a beaming smile. “We must go and meet up with them. They’ll help us out.”

“Hang on, how do you know—”

“No time to waste! Hurry up, or you’ll be left behind, mister!”

I tried to grab her wrist, but was too late. Lisa had slipped out the door and out of sight. Her footsteps echoed down the hallway, then vanished into silence.

Damn it, Lisa...