The roof exploded with a loud bang over my head, and it only took a second for me to find myself buried in the rubble of the collapsed roof. 

Luckily though, I was fast enough to react, covering myself in aura armor and avoiding any injury in the process. 

So with a grunt of effort, I managed to shrug off the debris covering me, lightly coughing as dust flew everywhere, covering my vision and creeping into my lungs.

I kept waving my hands to clear the surrounding dust to no avail, but the dust settled on its own after half a minute. I froze in place, barely holding my jaw from dropping as I finally noticed what caused the roof to explode. 

He was a tall man with short spikey hair, and a pair of blue eyes, wearing torn red and black armor. 'Well, shit.' That was the only thing I could think of as I gazed at the Deterrent in all of his glory, covered in blood wounds in front of me. 

To say I was shell-shocked to see the so-called strongest man in the world in such a state would be an understatement. He currently looked nothing like the dashing, heroic defender of humanity that Kaden remembered from the posters. 

He looked more like an injured savage beast, but that was neither here nor there. 

He seemed to be trying to do something as his hand lit up with energy as he ran it over his body, only for it to dissipate, causing the man to grunt in frustration. 

'I don't know what's going on here, but...' I frowned as I watched the Deterrent's current state with multiple festering wounds as he lay there on the ground, panting in exhaustion and pain. 

I continued to look at the man as dangerous thoughts began coursing through my brain, only becoming more and more rampant as I noted how injured the Deterrent seemed to be.

"Young man," the Deterrent spoke as he turned to look at me, interrupting my thoughts, and he didn't even scan the room before addressing me, proving that he was already aware of my presence despite his injuries.

I did not reply, but my body tensed in preparation to dash away at a moment's notice if need be. 

"I have little time," the Deterrent spoke in a wheezing tone, obviously struggling to speak. "So I need you to listen carefully," the Deterrent added, raising his with some difficulty and beckoning me to come closer. 

Despite the many thoughts coursing through my brain and warning signs not getting any closer, my greed got the better of me, and I steadily began walking closer, keeping a neutral expression. 

"The Thrikans will come," he said in an urgent tone. "I've been keeping them away from earth for many years now," he explained, coughing a mouthful of blood as his wounds continued to fester. 

"But I'm dying now, and they will figure out I'm no longer there to stop them, sooner or later," he added, his words becoming fainter and fainter as he spoke while struggling to keep his eyes open. 

'I've made preparations for such an event, but I did not get the chance to inform anyone about them," he stated, biting his lips and drawing blood to keep himself awake. 

"But I have an item on my body that will guide to what you need to know," he added, coursing energy through his hand, causing it to light up momentarily, only to dim again, indicating failure. 

"I would have liked to give you the item by hand, but that isn't possible," he remarked with a bitter smile. "But the item will emerge from my body when I die and fly away, so be prepared to catch it all costs," he added, gasping for breath. 

"The fate of humanity now rests in your hands, young man," he stated in a grave tone, raising a hand and gently placing it on my shoulder. "And tell Joana..., tell her I loved her," he concluded, taking out a knife and bringing it to his throat, intending to hasted his dying process.

"I make no promises, but I'll try," I said in an even tone as I materialized an aura knife sword, decapitating him before his knife even had the chance to touch his neck. 

The Deterrent's body began lighting up in a myriad of colors, and I acted quickly, taking out Bloodsport and bringing it close to his body, hoping that it would absorb something out of him. 

Sure enough, something red slithered from his body and flew towards my baseball bat as it began turning to ashes. It took a second of Detterent's body to disappear, leaving nothing but a silver key that immediately flew upwards, attempting to flee. 

I immediately reached forward, grabbing the key, but it continued to struggle in my hand, forcing me to cover it with an aura sphere, attempting to contain it.

Though I tried to study the key, it continued to struggle, breaking the aura sphere as I continued to reply to it, and I had to give, in the end, storing it in my inventory, which seemed to calm the damned thing.  

[You have several new notifications. Would you like to view them?] The system's robotic voice echoed in my head, and I immediately decided to view the notices.

Usually, I would wait until I was somewhere safe before viewing the new notifications, but there is no safe place as I reckon whoever, or whatever, did this to the Deterrent was hot on his trail.

And the new notifications would be my ticket out of here as whatever amount of EXP I received from delivering the final blow to the Deterrent should be big enough t help me escape. 

[You have slain an S+ class enemy. You have gained 100,000,00 experience points]

[You have unlocked the achievement: Reaching Beyond]

[You have been awarded the perk: Contempt For The Weak]

[Contempt For The Weak: Your contempt for those weaker than you manifests as an unbreakable armor that shields you from the attacks of those at least an entire grade lower than you 24/7.]

[Bloodsport has absorbed Archdemon blood line. Unlocked ability: Chaos Aura]

[Chaos Aura: inflicts random harmful effects when in contact with all creatures, especially damaging if used against creatures of order.]

I quickly skimmed over the notifications without bothering to get too deep into them, immediately opening my status screen, intending to use every bit of the one million EXP I received from killing the Deterrent. 

"Don't be in such a rush, kid," I heard a familiar, husky, deep voice coming from right behind me, as something very subtle change in the atmosphere. 

"What do you want?" I asked with a frown, without bothering to turn around. "I'm kinda in a hurry here," I added as I tried to pour some EXP into my agility parameter. 

The keyword here was; tried, as the system refused to do as I demanded, causing me to sigh as I turned around, heaving another sigh as I spotted the smug bastard I met as soon as I opened my eyes here. 

"Real mature buddy," I said, my eyes twitching in annoyance. "Hurry up and spit it out. I need to get out of here quickly," I added, urging the man to get on with it. 

"There's no rush," Johnny said with a smirk. "Look around you," he added, causing me to take another look at the surrounding area, and sure enough, I immediately noticed that something was off about the atmosphere.

Everything was frozen in place. The dust particles, the small rocks falling from the collapsed roof, everything was all abnormally still, floating in the air. 

"Neat trick," I remarked with a sigh. "What do you want?" I asked again, feeling considerably more relaxed than I was a second ago. How nonchalantly Johnny interrupted me and even stopped my system pisses me off, but I will at least have some extra time to think.

"Well, you just got a windfall of EXP that you shouldn't have gotten this early," he said with a shrug of his shoulders, causing me to raise an eyebrow. 

"Don't look at me like that, kid," Johnny remarked with a smirk. "I'm not here to take away your milkshake," he added, dismissively waving his hand to the side. 

"Then what are you here for?" I asked with a frown, crossing my arms in front of my chest. 

"I'm here to offer you a trade of sorts," he replied with a smirk. "If you use pour this much EXP into your parameters this early into your transmigration, then things would quickly become boring, both for you and the people watching," he added with a shrug. 

"The people watching?" I asked, my frown becoming more pronounced. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked again, genuinely feeling disturbed at the idea of being watched. 

"It's too early for you to be asking about such things," Johnny replied with a shake of his head. "You'll naturally find out about them when you're strong enough, so let get back to the topic at hand," he added in a careless tone. 

"If you give up those experience points, then I will offer you a perk worth at least double that amount," he explained, spreading his arms. 

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