Eli woke up at 7 am, as usual. Just like what happened yesterday, today, he felt even more refreshed. It was apparent that each time he upgraded his Vitality, his sleep would be of better quality. That was indeed a wonderful thing, as he was always bad with mornings.

After doing his morning ritual, he watched some news. On the news, another murder case was being discussed, and this time, it was in Baton Rouge. It was another girl in her early 20s, found mutilated abandoned building. While it was still unconfirmed that it was the same murderer, the pattern showed that it was probably the same guy.

Eli couldn't help but frown, "Baton Rouge is in the direction of NOLA... I hope that he doesn't decide to come here next."

As he went to work along with Chloe, she couldn't help but voice her concerns about the issue as well, "Eli, did you hear about the serial killer on the loose? He is heading in this direction. I'm a bit scared..."

Eli tried to release her tension by taking a nerd flexing pose and saying, "Don't worry Chloe, I will protect you."

Chloe's tension got blown away by that disturbingly funny pose, and after giggling a bit, she said, "Alright, I will rely on you then if he comes. Oh right, look at what I bought!"

She then showed him a new leather handbag she had with a smile plastered on her face, "Hehe, couldn't help it and just bought it. Do you like it?"

Eli took a look at the handbag and said with a light smile, "Yeah, it's nice. Where did you buy it?"

"I got it in an off-sale in the mall. It was 70% off!"

After chatting for a while, they separated, and Eli arrived at his work as usual and started working.

In total, the entire workday was unassuming and could be described as average, albeit easier than yesterday due to his increased stamina and fitness. When he was on his way back home during the rain, walking on the sidewalk, he felt an uncomfortable feeling wash over him. He didn't know what it was until suddenly, a car drove at high speed near him, splashing ice-cold water on him.

He couldn't help but curse out loud, "FUCK! That bloody asshole! Dammit, now I'm wet AND cold. Luckily, the apartment is only a 3 minutes walk from here... Wait a minute, didn't I feel that something bad was gonna happen? Is that part of precognition? I guess getting splashed wasn't a total loss then. At least I got to confirm precognition works to a limited degree."

After walking to his apartment in a hurry, shaking from the cold, the first thing he did, was to take a quick shower before changing to his sports clothes. He then proceeded to do his usual routine of doing the daily quest.

[Today's training is complete. Would you like to redeem the reward now? Yes/No?]

After he finished it, he received the familiar prompt, and he, of course, said "Yes."

This time, he received the usual purplish-black tonic, but instead of the red Vitality supplement, he received a light-yellow potion, the immunity supplement.

Lvl 0 Immunity supplement: A potion that enables a lvl 0 being drinking it to refine its Immunity stat by 1 point. This potion contains all the necessary nutrients, so there is no need for more food. Cannot drink more than 10 supplements each day. Higher-level beings won't benefit from drinking it. Warning: May cause pain to ill creatures, and depending on the severity, possibly death. Note: It tastes like lemon juice.

Eli already expected to receive another potion that tasted like fruit and did not have any retort about drinking lemon juice. He was ok with it, just like with strawberry juice. At least it didn't taste like cough syrup or grapes.

He was pleasantly surprised that he didn't need to excrete more impurities, however. As for the warning? He disregarded it. He was not sick or ill. The death part was probably for those who had stage 4 cancer or something. He should be perfectly safe.

Before drinking it, he checked out the Immunity stat first...

Immunity: The representation of your body's immune system. Affects resistance to poison, disease, viruses, infections, toxins, cancer cells, and venom.

Eli blinked his eyes before contemplating, "The anti-cancer effects aside, would this increase my alcohol tolerance? Would I be like captain America, not being able to get drunk? That would probably suck... But I always liked the taste more than the buzz. Oh well, at least no more hangovers. Bottoms up!"

After drinking the potion, Eli felt like needles were constantly being inserted into his body. While it was not a pleasant sensation at all, it was bearable to a degree. He gritted his teeth for 5 minutes before the effects finally stopped.

After the transformation finished its work, he tried to look for any changes but found none. However, it was understandable. Immunity was not a stat that was supposed to be seen or felt directly since its effects were very passive and indirect.

Eli shrugged, "Oh well, I probably won't have cancer in my lifetime, at least that's something. In any case, I now have 12.71 points, so I might as well finish upgrading precognition."

He opened his status menu and invested 3 points in precognition, making it reach its cap of 10/10 points, followed by a system prompt.

[Precognition lvl - (10/10) (lvl up ready)]

[Unique skill Precognition has reached the lvl cap. Checking requirements... All requirements have been met. Increasing skill level...]

After the system prompt sounded, Eli suddenly had a dizzy spell, blinded even. It was like spending days upon days inside a dark cave and one day exiting the said cave into a bright world, except that it wasn't his eyes that were blinded, but his mind-- his very SOUL.

After the dizziness and blindness faded, he couldn't help but say, "That was the weirdest experience I had in my entire life... I guess that is how babies feel when they first open their eyes? Oh well, at least it's over now."

He then tried to check for any changes. After half a minute, he found that inside his head, there was some form of energy. The said energy was intangible and wholly inaccessible. It was like a sort of phantom image or sense, being there yet not there. After trying to touch it with his mind for 10 whole minutes, he gave up on the prospect. He then switched his sight to the new skill, only for his jaw to almost dropping to the floor.

[Precognition lvl 0 (0/1,000)]¹Yep, increased it from 100 to 1,000. I figured that precognition needed some balancing. It really is an overpowered skill.

After half a minute, he recovered and exclaimed, "What, the actual, fuck... 1,000 points? 1,000 people's lives for a lousy single level?! Why don't you massacre an entire wedding!? I could max all my stats with just a tenth of that! At least Saturn said to focus on Time Stipend first. Also, he said that it was possible to train it... Well, no point in thinking about it for now."

After that, Eli took a shower, had some dinner, brushed his teeth, and placed 8 points in Time Stipend.

[Time Stipend: Current regen: 14 sec/day. Current max capacity: 14 min. Current time saved: 1 min and 15 seconds. Time factor: 2. Current Sub-skills: Back.]

As Eli was wondering what he should do with the last point, suddenly, the energy in his head-- his soul, fluctuated. His attention suddenly turned to his status menu.

Menu:

[Status]
[Evolution]
[Item shop]
[Quests]
[Inventory]
[Current points: 1.71]

In particular, [Inventory] got his interest.

Inventory:

[Current size: 0 cubic meters. Every 0.2 cubic meters cost 1 point.]

After a moment of silence, Eli decided to spend a point in it, and it then changed to this...

Inventory:

[Current size: 0.2 cubic meters. Every 0.2 cubic meters cost 1 point.]

[Possible operations: View, Place, Extract]

Raising his eyebrow, Eli tried to view the inventory. What he found was an empty and white cubic space. After contemplating for a bit, Eli tried to place his handgun, a SIG Sauer P226 MK25, inside his inventory... And voila! It disappeared from his hand.

Eli flexed and unflexed his now-empty hand before exclaiming, "Holy shit, It worked! Let's view it..."

He tried to view it, and he saw the pistol there, floating without movement. He then tried to extract it back to his palm, and it worked. He then tried it a few more times before placing it finally inside the inventory.

He couldn't help but exclaim, "Holy shit! With this, I can be a motherfucking Houdini! I guess my personal safety is guaranteed now, at least against thugs."

After that, he calmed down his excitement and went to sleep.

 

 

The next day, he watched the news as usual in the morning. This time, there was a report about him murdering another girl. This time, it was in Gonzales. That confirmed Eli's worries that the killer was heading to NOLA. But he couldn't really do anything about it.

After exiting his house, he went alone to work since Chloe didn't go to college on Saturdays and Sundays.

After a grueling workday in the factory that lasted only until 6 pm instead of 7 pm, after everyone removed their work clothes, everyone from the boiler section of the factory, including the founder, and owner of the factory, Mr. Henry Melancon, and Mogensha's wife and kids, gathered in the factory dining area. They were all celebrating the retirement of Mogensha, the last man who worked for the factory since its founding except for the owner himself.

After 2 hours of celebration that included some cake and soft drinks, Mogensha invited everyone to drink in Harvey's bar tomorrow night.²Fictional name, don't look it up.

After that, Eli left for home, just when it started to rain. Halfway, while Eli was on the streetcar, the energy in his mind fluctuated, and he suddenly had the urge to leave the streetcar. He didn't feel danger. It was an urgent feeling as if something BAD would happen if he didn't, something he would regret.

The hell is wrong with me? Why do I have this feeling? Is it precognition? If I drop off now, it would be a 25-minute walk to the apartment... And it is even raining cats and dogs!

As the streetcar got closer and closer to the next stop, the feeling he had in his mind got stronger and stronger.

Ugh... FUCK IT! I will get off!

And so, Eli dropped in the next stop station, albeit reluctantly, causing him to almost immediately getting soaked. He then felt that he should go-- RUN in a certain direction with a heavy sense of urgency, causing his heart to pound loudly.

This is madness... MADNESS, I say! Why am I feeling this way, dammit?! If this turns out to be nothing, I think I should probably go and see a psychiatrist.

Eli ran in the direction his gut told him to. After he ran over one and a half kilometers, soaked, cold, and panting, he arrived near an empty alley. What drew his attention were two items hidden in the dark alley. One was a discarded, open umbrella, and another was a leather handbag. When he saw the handbag, Eli's heart jumped to his throat.

Thump* Thump* Thump*

With his heart pounding like a hammer, he hesitantly approached the bag and checked it with the dim lighting. He remembered that bag. It belonged to Chloe. She showed him the bag just yesterday morning too. What attracted his attention was the small traces of a familiar red, still unwashed by the rain...

Blood. This is blood. Chloe's blood. There is a serial killer on the loose targeting young women. He was on his way to NOLA.

Eli didn't need any more thinking and immediately pulled out his waterproof phone and dialed 911. Only a few seconds passed before a female voice answered.

"911."

While the pitter-patter sound of the rain was in the background, Eli urgently said, "Hello, officer, I need help! My friend was kidnapped by a serial killer!"

The officer on the other side of the line understood the urgency and said, "Calm down, sir, and stay where you are. We are sending a unit to your location now. Can you describe what happened?"

As Eli started explaining, the sense of urgency he had grew bigger. He stared at the alley where his gut told him to go. Thoughts about the past few weeks flashed through his eyes. She was the closest thing to a friend he had after cutting ties with everyone else. He remembered the half-hearted goofy promise he made yesterday...

He unconsciously started walking into the dark maw of the alley and asked in a grave tone, "Officer, am I allowed to shoot if I feel like my friend is in imminent danger?"

The officer on the other side of the line paused for a bit before saying, "While it is a last resort, if you feel like you or your friend's life is in imminent danger, according to the law, you are allowed to shoot. May God protect you and your friend."

That was all Eli needed to know. He kept his phone on in one hand while he took out his pistol that was fully loaded in his dominant hand from the inventory and looked at his Time Stipend skill, giving him some backbone and reassurance.

[Time Stipend: Current regen: 14 sec/day. Current max capacity: 14 min. Current time saved: 1 min and 28 seconds. Time factor: 2. Current Sub-skills: Back.]

Time Stipend - Back: The ability to use accumulated time from Time Stipend. Able to absolutely reverse time, even death itself. It can be used while deceased as long as the soul is not destroyed and so long as the time you are dead does not exceed the time accumulated. To use it, you need to say Back out loud or in your mind and specify the time you wish to go back. Only the mind will go back in time.

As thunder roared in the sky and rain muffled his rapid steps, a determined glint flashed in his eyes, and he said in his heart, Don't worry, Chloe, I will protect you.

Right after he said that in his mind, he received a system prompt. Not bothering to check it, Eli unconsciously accepted it and ran into the dark alley, fully knowing the danger it holds.