Samuel_Spader

I'm very sorry, this one is also late. Got some stuff need done.

Pray I can finish the next chapter quickly.

Anyways, Enjoy. I'll talk to you all, later.

Let’s watch the television, shall we? Maybe there’s something worth knowing for today.

{Breaking News: Series of killings were happening last night in Southside, Metropolis, as dead bodies of locals, possibly members of local gangsters, where killed in the most gruesome manner--}

One local television news site reports.

{... Live morning reports: Last night, Southside area of Metropolis is in a grim state as there have been a mass killing on, what the locals have informed to be, the local gangsters that had been long causing pain to the locals. Police have started the investigation on the “Grim Reaper” that is the main perpetrator of these killings.}

Another local television news channel reports.

Let’s change to another news channel; maybe other channel reported something else.

{Good morning, this is Lois Lane, reporting live on Southside area of Metropolis. Last night, there have been reports of a mass killing targeted towards local gangsters of Southside area, locally known as the Suicide Slum...}

Seems like this one also reports the same thing...

{... But, we also received anonymous tips giving us images of the local gangsters apparently harassing and killing the children of the slum. The hero and symbol of Metropolis, Superman, was on the site when the killing has ended. A man clad in black seems to have done the mass killing as an act of retaliation or perhaps vengeance for the killings of the children. Superman was trying to catch this man in black for questioning but escaped. Police have yet to make a statement about--}

... or not. This one actually reported the news about the dead children killed by the local gangsters. Well, that’s it for this morning. Let’s turn the TV off and do something actually worthwhile.

~ ~ ~ ~

It’s morning time the next day. Television news broadcasters, newspaper industries, and all manners of local news sites were, mostly, reporting on the mass killings that happened in the Southside area of Metropolis, which are commonly revered by the locals as... the Suicide Slum.

These news generally starts reporting on the killings; of the local gangsters being massacred, and then continued on reporting the news about the dead children found by the sports field nearby.

An anonymous tipper has sent several graphical images and videos about the local children being harassed, and ultimately killed by the local gangsters as entertainments. This leads to the appearance of someone, whom Superman has titled when he was being interviewed, as ‘Wraith’.

This ‘Wraith’ seems to be male, about 6 feet 2 inches tall (around 1.87 meters tall), wearing all black clothing that include black long coat, gray-ish black cargo pants, and black faceless mask. He also seemed to be shrouded with black mists coming out of his body, which the local witnesses described to seem to be able to ‘rip those unlucky bastards to shreds’.

The images and the videos sent anonymously did show this Wraith’s action towards the gangsters, but most of these images are either purposely blurred and/or censored to avoid something from being seen.

But, with this gruesome incident happening, rumors have started circulating rapidly, especially regarding the Wraith.

• Many of the locals said that Wraith’s shrouding black mist is seemingly alive and capable of shredding and tearing apart things, or that Wraith, in itself, is actually a physical manifestation of the black mist itself.
• The same amount also said that the black mist Wraith is producing seems to have claws that are capable of catching its prey from afar and dragging them inside the mist to then kill.
• Wraith also seems to be bulletproof, as they also saw him being gunned down with the bullet ricocheting away as they hit his body.
• Many also said that Wraith seems to be able to run as fast as a bullet as he is able to shake off from Superman’s chase.
• Just as the people above has rumored, some also said that Wraith is capable of short teleportation since he’s always able to appear and disappear when he was killing the thugs and escaping from Superman.
• And several other rumors as well.

With more and more these rumors circulate, the more benefit will Wraith, or rather, Matthias will receive. And, in this world, Matthias will need all the extra powers he can receive.

‘It’s not enough. I need more powers.’

Matthias is currently cooped up in his secret room within his safe house. He’s been working nonstop for hours now, creating new gears and designing new costumes for his other personas.

He has also been working on establishing a safe network to access the underground sites on the web, as well as setting up shop in the deep web and create tracking software to monitor the world from the web.

He’s already in phase two of creating the fake organization, and all he needs now is a face as the ‘Boss’ of this organization.

~ ~ ~ ~

Four Weeks Later...

“Aaaahh! Not again! This damn slot machine!” Someone is yelling and shouting at a slot machine in a certain crowded casino in Metropolis known as the ‘Utopia Casino’¹
Utopia Casino.

Everyone... well, almost everyone, is staring at this guy being angry at a gambling machine because of how loud he is. But then again, there are also others like him who were grunting and yelling after not getting any points after spending their fortune at the slot machines.

After a couple more tries at the slot machine, the man finally snaps out and quit the game, “Fuck this machine! I’m outta here...”

He then dashed away from the machine with stomps, clearly angry and stressed out from losing all the money he had.

That slot machine was unoccupied for a short while until someone else came and uses it. This time, it’s a younger man, quite handsome yet looking a bit average, and he’s kind off tall. He wore only simple t-shirt with brown jacket on, blue jeans, and white sneakers.

This young man... is Matthias in disguise.

‘Well, it’s time for me to test my stats allocation ability and experiment on my own luck.’

Matthias sat down on the unoccupied slot machine the previous angry man had no luck on, and started pouring $100 worth of credits to the machine, and pulled the lever.

This slot machine has the usual three reels, and they all spin the moment Matthias pulled the lever. To win, the reels have to show the same pictures; all three of them, otherwise, it’s not a win, and one must pour more money into it again should they want to win.

And now... the spinning reels were stopping one by one with a *Cha-ching!* sound effect made from the machine’s speaker. The lights of the machine sparkled a bit, before dimming down.
Matthias did not win; neither of the pictures shows the same.

“This is a luck based game anyway, so it’s a given you can’t simply win this the first time you play.” Matthias thought to himself.

He put another $100 worth of credits into the machine, then pulled the lever again.

*Kriing-kriing-kriing*, the machine’s reel spins, once more, aaaand...
... still no luck, as the reels shows only two of the same pictures, but the last of the reels shows different one.

“Ah blast... perhaps I’m not so much lucky after all.” Muttered Matthias.

Matthias then put the same amount of credits into the machine, and then, before he pulled the lever, Matthias focused on his stats allocation ability and then puts his other stats into his luck. Then, he pulled the lever.

*Kriing-kriing-kriing*, the machine spins its reels.
*Cha-ching!*
*Cha-ching!*
*Cha-ching!*, the reels stops one by one...

{“JACKPOT! JACKPOT!”}, the machine’s speaker yells as the winning jingle plays with coin rattling noises. Matthias just got all the three reels to stop at the number “7”, and he has just won $10.000 credits payout.

Matthias’ experiment in trying to add more luck to him by spending some of the stats to his luck stat has succeeded. He now knows how to actually alter his luck.

“I’ve never won this type of gambling back in my old world... but now, the feeling of winning these luck based games feels... exhilarating!” Matthias mumbled. He can feel himself smiling, though he tried to keep it together so that others won’t notice it.

Matthias felt good to win this game, because this means he has achieved two things:

• A way to manipulate his own luck, and
• A way to gain more relevancy as well as resources and money.

With these two points achieved, tonight, Matthias plans to go all out and do all the games he can play, and win all the money he can make.

“Let’s play a couple more of these.”