A few days later, in the evening.
The afterglow of the setting sun dyed half the sky red, as bright as blood.
A strange conversation echoad in the remote grove on campus.
"Oh, I... I can't take it anymore, really, please, let me go."
"Hang in there, Parker, and marvel at the wonders of the human body."
"I feel like the muscles in my thighs are about to tear. Have you ever eaten the cheese pizza from the store across the street ? That stretchy cheese when you lift a slice.. if you pull a little too much, it snaps. That's exactly how my muscles feel right now."
"Shut up. If you save your energy instead of talking like Jessica, you'll perform better."
In the grove, Parker and Jessica were doing the horse stance with great effort, while Levi, lying comfortably in a nearby hammock he'd found, was munching on an apple and giving martial arts lessons to his two new students.
Haha, truth be told, Levi only had a vague idea of martial arts. But he read so many novels and watched so many shows that he'd convinced himself he knew what he was doing. Whenever they came across something they didn't understand, he would simply say, with a profound look:
"You can understand it, but you can't express it in words."
Still, Peter and Jessica firmly believed in it, mainly because Levi's skills spoke for themselves.
Maybe it was because he had grown more comfortable around Levi, but Parker's behavior had changed. He'd gone from shy to talkative, which really started to get on Levi's nerves.
As a result, these kinds of conversations became frequent, and Jessica, who stayed out of them, could only smile helplessly.
"Alright, let's wrap up today's training !"
Seeing that it was getting dark, Levi clapped his hands to signal the end.
"Finally !" Peter collapsed onto the ground, breathless and relieved.
Jessica wiped the sweat from her forehead, sat down slowly, and gently rubbed her aching thighs.
She had performed better than Peter, though only to a certain extent. She was amazed she had managed to keep up for so long.
"Levi, practicing martial arts won't make my thighs bigger, right?"
Girls always had different kinds of concerns.
The image of Chen Li popped into Levi's mind, and he burst out laughing.
"How could that be? Do you think my thighs are thick?"
"Well, they're definitely thicker than Peter's."
Not wanting to waste time arguing about such things, Levi made up an excuse and quickly rushed home to check his panel.
As the three strange stories he had created continued to spread across forums and into real life, and thanks to Peter and Jessica's dedication, Levi's reputation value exceeded 10,000 points, unlocking his third talent.
Name: Levi
Talent:
1. Evil Belief : The more people know of your existence, the stronger you'll become.
2. Strange Body: Can transform into a strange body and can only be harmed by supernatural forces.
3. Grant Abilities: You can spend reputation points to grant abilities to other creatures, control their life and death, and call upon their abilities at any time.
4. Unlocked (unlocks when reputation reaches 100 000 )
Current Reputation Value: 10,086
Grant power?
Levi raised his eyebrows, closed his eyes, and carefully examined this new talent for a while. When he finally opened his eyes, he looked genuinely surprised.
It seemed there were no restrictions on the types or effects of abilities. He could create them freely, and even grant abilities he didn't possess himself. However, the more powerful the ability, the more it consumed reputation points.
"I only have 10,000 reputation points right now." he thought. "so I probably can't grant anything too powerful."
Levi didn't plan to use this talent recklessly. He calmed himself, mentally simulated various abilities, and tried to estimate how many reputation points each would consume.
After some time, he made a discovery.
The more severe the side effects of an ability, or the higher its cost, the less reputation it consumes."
For example, Might Guy's Eighth Gate, which requires immense energy and even leads to death, is valued lower than some of Naruto's advanced sealing techniques.
Likewise, abilities that can only be used under specific conditions are considered to have a low value in the reputation system.
"So I can create amazing abilities for very few reputation points—if I deliberately add limitations."
Once this idea was confirmed, Levi quickly came up with several cost-effective abilities. He couldn't wait to test them on a subject.
"But… how should I grant a power?"
Levi placed his hands on his cheeks and sank into deep thought.
---
Moulton Psychiatric Hospital, eastern suburbs of New York.
Thousands of patients suffering from mental disorders reside here.
And it is a well-known path to hell: no patient has ever left this place alive.
With its strict management system and omnipresent security guards, this hospital surpasses many prisons in terms of security.
It resembles an indestructible cage.
At the center of this cage lie multiple rooms, arranged like the cells of a beehive.
In one of them, a woman was restrained, her body bound tightly with straps and fixed upright on a vertical bed.
Her mouth was gagged, but her darting eyes revealed she was still alive.
Suddenly, a figure clad in a black cloak appeared in the corner of the room. His face was as dark as ink, revealing only two red, indifferent eyes.
The woman's gaze remained dull and lifeless, until the hooded man stepped closer and conjured a burning fireball in his hand.
"Hehe, are you trying to pass the flame on to others?"
Maybe the sound was too loud, or the flames too captivating—but the woman's eyes widened, and a crazed expression of joy and excitement spread across her face.
"Mhhmmm!"
She struggled with all her strength, and even the sturdy bed beneath her groaned from the strain.
Levi smiled quietly and held out the flame in his hand.
"Then burn well."
Suddenly, the room's lights went out.
—
"The supervisor said there was a problem with room 1015. He asked us to go check it out."
"1015? Isn't that where the suicidal lunatic is kept? What now?"
"Apparently the room's light broke. Go fix it."
"Tsk. I was hoping that bitch had finally died. What a waste of my concern."
Two men in nurse uniforms arrived at room 1015 and noticed through the door's window that the room was completely dark inside.
They exchanged a glance, pulled out their keys, unlocked the door, turned on their flashlights, and stepped in one after the other.
The light switch was next to the door, but pressing it multiple times produced no response.
The harsh beams of their flashlights swept across the room before finally resting on a woman strapped to a vertical board.
"Hey, wake up!"
One of the nurses called out several times, but the woman kept her head down and didn't respond.
"Is she really dead?"
He approached, placed two fingers under her nose… and felt no breath.
"Damn… No air."
As he spoke, he reached out to lift the woman's eyelids. But the instant his fingers touched them, her body suddenly began to tremble in a strange, unnatural way.
The other man didn't notice. He kept mumbling to himself :
"She would've been better off dead. I told Charlie just yesterday, she wouldn't last another month. Looks like I was right."
Still muttering, he moved toward the bed, struggling to untangle the straps.
He didn't see his partner quietly turn around and raise his flashlight high.
Thud !
The flashlight clattered to the floor, splattered with drops of blood. Its flickering beam caught a glimpse of a twisted face, smiling with eerie delight.
"Heehee… Pass the fire, pass the fire, it's fun! Hahahaha !"
Thud. Thud. Thud.
After the sound of several heavy objects crashing to the floor, a blood-soaked figure emerged from the room, leaving a trail of bloody footprints with every step.
As more and more people rushed in, drawn by what they had seen on the monitor, he tilted his head slightly and smiled.
"You want to pass the fire too ?"
"Don't move! Hands behind your head !"
"Hehe… You don't want it ? That's okay."
Amid everyone's stunned gazes, he suddenly turned to the wall beside him, and slammed his head into it with full force. A brilliant crimson flower bloomed on the white surface.
The room fell into a dead silence.
Everyone stood frozen, horrified, unable to comprehend why someone who seemed perfectly sane would suddenly kill and then take his own life with a smile still on his face.
"Maybe… it was just too much work pressure ?"
"Should we call the police ?"
"The police?! What for? They're all dead. What's the point? Just drag the bodies out to the yard and bury them."
"Oh…"
Several security guards stepped forward, cautiously. The first one to touch the body trembled violently, lowered his head and revealed the same eerie smile worn by the man who had just died.