Once I heard what Michelle had to say and what she wanted me to do, my entire mind and body came to a conclusion.

“Hell no.”

Apparently, the 4 idiots were kidnapped because of their worth, probably for ransom. They were rich after all. But what I didn’t get was why now? It could have been any other day, so why did they choose this specific day where the entire university vanished along with the students?

“WHY!?”

Not minding about the noise she was generating, she continued to glare at me for my rejection.

“Take these examples as reasons… Number 1, what am I supposed to do? Number 2, how are we going to do it? Number 3, is it dangerous? Number 4, and last, I am extremely weak.”

“… I can agree with 1, 2, and 3, but not 4…”

‘… Damn it…’

I guess I showed her a little too much of my capabilities, but that still doesn’t change my stance on what to do.

“I still won’t cooperate with you. We’re just students, and if you’re telling me to go up against a criminal organization, then count me out. I’m not getting my life risked for some idiots who got me into a hospital.”

“…”

Once I laid out my reasons for my refusal, she went silent. Much more since I mentioned a past where I was a victim of their incomprehensible actions.

“Nothing more to say? Well then, good night.”

I entered my apartment then closed and locked the door. I also turned off the light and closed everything that may be a possible entrance to my apartment.

‘… Somehow, there’s more to this than meets the eye…’

When I got to bed, I just couldn’t help but think about what Michelle said about the 4 idiots being kidnapped.

‘If they really were kidnapped, then their families would have already gotten the criminals under bars. They are that rich and influential after all, so nobody would try to mess with them.’

‘If it had something to do with the disappearing university, then maybe…’

I pushed that thought aside and just focused on sleeping. Seconds passed… Minutes… Maybe hours…

‘I can’t sleep…’

I checked the clock and it showed 11:27 PM. Seeing that it was already that late, I tried going back to sleep but failed. Since I wasn’t able to sleep, I got up and headed towards the bathroom. Just when I was going head to the bathroom, I heard something moving outside of my door. I also saw some shadows moving about through the gaps. What’s more, they stopped right outside my apartment room

‘Who are they…?’

Feeling a crisis in my safety, I silently headed towards the kitchen and grabbed a knife. Once I returned to the door, I saw the knob moving.

‘They picked the lock! I need to hide…’

Since I wasn’t able to lock the door using the old fashioned way (sliding lock) because it was defective, I had no choice but to use the door lock instead, as well as the digital lock. Seeing that they were able to bypass both of it made me realize that they were no ordinary people…

I hid under the table of the living room which was large enough to hide my entire body. Also thanks to the table cloth, it obscured my image even more.

Once the door opened, 3 people wearing masks bringing what seemed to be a sack, some rope, and tape. They even had some deadly objects strapped to their thighs.

‘This is bad…’

3 v 1, a disadvantageous position for the lone person.

‘Are they part of the group that kidnapped the 4 idiots?’

‘Then they probably got Michelle too…’

I gripped the knife in my hand in a reverse grip. I planned to stab the person at the back on his neck, but…

‘Can I really do it…?’

I was just living a normal life as a loner, why do I have to kill people now…? I wanted to resolve my distrust of other people, not something that hard actually, but because of some ridiculous encounters like with the 4 idiots and Michelle, I just kept on getting farther away from my objective.

‘Will I forever be alone…?’

I tightly gripped the knife to prevent my hand from shaking too much. Hesitation filled my entire being as I stared at the nape of the backmost person heading towards my bedroom.

“He’s not here.”

“Shit, he must’ve known we were coming.”

“Looks like I’ll have to discipline some little girl later…”

Based on their conversation, Michelle was probably caught by them as well. It also brought me back from my long contemplation.

‘Looks like my theory of the 4 and Michelle in cahoots trying to backstab me was wrong.’

“Continue searching, he might be hiding somewhere here.”

“Understood.”

“Roger.”

The other two nodded at what seemed to be their leader at the front. Then, they scattered and ransacked the place quietly.

‘… What the hell am I thinking…?’

I renewed my determination on my life goal. With eyes a blazing, I stared at the approaching masked man and gripped my knife tighter than before.

‘I’ll just continue as I always did, like before…’

A serene calmness spread through my whole body as I lunged at the man with quick speed when he was at close distance. I blocked his mouth and nose with my left hand before he could usher a scream and stabbed him in the neck with the knife in my right. The knife slid through his flesh like piercing paper, even though I knew it hit his bone.

A noisy thud reverberated through the room once I and the man collapsed on the ground. The other two quickly ran to where the noise emerged and saw me, drawing out a bloodied cracked knife from the bleeding masked man.

“Shit! Johnny! Take him!!”

“Roger!!”

The two of them pincered me and attacked me at the same time without regards to their dying colleague. But one thing that I noticed during their charge was something I was not expecting to see in reality.

“… So slow…”

For once, I thought I was in a novel where the MC was able to see fights in slow-motion. Using this to my advantage, I stepped back and dodged to the side to avoid the man charging at me with a cloth in his hand. I spun around once I dodged and lodged the knife on his back, and with the help of centrifugal force and my Status Card, the impact wasn’t pretty.

“ARRGGGHH!!!”

The knife lodged itself deep into his back, while his bones cracked and broke under the force generated by the impact. His pained scream, probably louder than a siren, echoed all around. He flew for about a second and crashed into a wall leading to my bathroom. The wall crumbled and cracked, revealing a hole once his body dropped to the ground, twitching and being unable to move.

‘Looks like I destroyed his spinal cord…’

The last masked man looked at me with a dumbfounded expression (Maybe. I can’t see through his mask). He then resolved himself and took out his bladed weapon strapped to his thigh. It looked like a combat knife soldiers in the army used.

“…”

He silently stared at me before rushing in like a tidal wave. Inside this compact area, the combat knife he was holding shone the greatest although it still looked slow to me.

He made a straight thrust with the knife then withdrew it quickly, only to make some more thrusts.

‘He’s an expert…’

The man was a pro at knife wielding. Even an amateur such as I was able to say it confidently, even though I have no knowledge of knife wielding. He even took into account the surroundings and made it into his advantage. If not for my Status Card increasing my overall body specs, then I would have been stabbed a hundred times over by this guy.

‘But too bad, I’m no longer a normal person.’

Since he was putting some distance after some thrusts because of his cautiousness of what happened to his colleagues, it was hard for me to try and catch him with my amateurish skills. So I only had one other option left.

‘[Space-Time Magic].’

Even though this will be the first time I will be using it in combat, thanks to being able to understand how Mana works made it easier to visualize. Also, this was commonly used in games, as well novels, mangas, and animes as a short-distance repositioning tool.

“[Blink].”

“…!”

In a moment, I appeared behind him and quickly grabbed his hand holding the knife while enduring the sudden nausea.

‘Oh god… This feels worse than car sickness…’

I tightened my grip on his hand while resisting the urge to vomit. Next thing that I did was kick his calf with the sole of my foot and outbalanced him, possibly breaking his leg in the process because of the force I put in.

“AAGGG!!”

His pained shout hurt my ears, so I quickly used my free hand to knock him out by knocking him on the head, this time, with just enough force to not break a skull open. He then collapsed on the ground, breathing, unlike his other two colleagues who were probably already dead.

‘… I’m no longer a normal person, huh…’

No reaction to killing, calm behavior in combat, as well as exceptional judgment in critical situations(maybe).

“Goodbye, old life…”

I picked up the unconscious man and ran away from the apartment after getting some of my stuff ready before anybody checks this place out.