... "It seems like you can't forget what we did to your father, how about we head back there to teach him a harder lesson, let's see if you'll defy me again."

'Crack' a dull cracking noise was heard, as screams soon followed. Two bodies flew forward and knocked into the other scavengers that were standing around onto the ground.

The fatso, still stunned from the commotion turned his head to figure out what the hell was going on. All he saw was, Z standing still, armed with a dagger he had fleeced from the scavenger belt that was within his reach and the two scavengers that lay on the ground, their arms twisted in the other direction with their joints manipulated till it was broken.

"You want to harm my family?"

Z spoke coldly, this time, bloodlust overflowing from his eyes, he had lost his humanity once before with that, he had also lost all his emotions except hate, even though it was difficult to find the other emotions back, the feeling of love still existed in his heart, familial love, spousal love. With that feeling of love, came a very strong desire to protect. And with his mother now used as a pawn in some scavenger's quest for credit made Z extremely aggravated.

Instantly, the fatso dropped Hugh on the ground and immediately asked the rest of the scavengers to attack simultaneously.

The scavengers, dashed forward one after another, one going through a partial transformation turning into a beast-like creature, one charged forward with their fist encased in stone. The rest just equipped their daggers and charged forward.

Z had already been trained well in his past life, this kind of pathetic teamwork meant nothing to him. Even if they all had strong manifests he could still take them out easily.

The partial beast wolfman was the closest to Z baring his fangs and claws, threatening to cause serious harm to Z. He swung wildly at Z's face, left, right, left, Z dodged all attacks skillfully eventually backing away to quite a distance.

In an instant, Z let go of the Dagger in his hand using his foot to kick the handle of the dagger,it flew forward, plunging it into the right shoulder of the wolfman. Before he could even scream he felt the Dagger sink deeper into his shoulder and with a sweep of a leg he was down on the floor. A foot came flying next, clocking him on the chin knocking him out cold.

Z looked up, removing the dagger from the shoulder of the wolfman and immediately raised it to deflect a blow coming from the rock fist that was thrown towards him. Immediately, after his blade deflecting the fist, he stood up, using his head to ram the scavenger on the chin hard, making him bite his own tongue. In the moment of confusion, he used the dagger to stab through both his Achilles tendon, making him fall on the floor unable to stand up flopping around like a fish.

The remaining scavengers at the back stood there with their eyes wide open, their lips trembling as they turned pale. The two that went ahead were obviously manifesters and they were strong manifesters as well. What could they do against a kid who just destroyed two of their strongest members.

Wanting to run away, they turned around immediately only to bump into the fatso.

"Go kill him now! Or else... I'll kill you!"

The fatso shouted, rage in his voice. The other two scavengers could only look at each other dejectedly and charge forwards holding the dagger. Z sighed, he knew from a glance that the two of them had already had their spirits shattered, it didn't matter if they were holding knives or swinging fists, they just wanted to be knocked out.

Z complied, he kicked them both in the side of their knees, making them fall to the floor in a kneeling position with a single kick he swiftly hit both their jaws, knocking them out. They were in pain, but happy that they did what they were told and were not killed instead.

Z started moving once again, towards the last remaining member of the scavenger group, the fatso who had been standing there all this time not doing anything to help at all. His footsteps were light, but to the fatso, it was like thunder sounding in his ear.

"You are the boss?"

Z spoke out, making the fatso perspire as the back of his shirt turned wet and his legs started to turn to jelly.

The fatso clicked his tongue as his body started to turn translucent. His legs started to turn to slime as he melted down. In an instant, a figure appeared in his field of view, as a cold blade was pressed against his neck.

"Turn back to human form and you'll survive. If you dare to continue to turn into slime, we'll have to see if your neck turns to slime faster or the dagger slitting your throat."

Z Snarled at the boss, his looks vicious, much more than the viciousness that they had unleashed on the people of the town.

The fatso gave in to his demands and immediately turned back resigning to fate. Immediately, Z used the blade and sliced off the right arm of the fatso. Dodging the blood droplets as it fell onto the ground. He proceeded to walk to each one of the scavengers that were on the floor snapping their wrists with his foot. Surprisingly even after all the fighting, they had escaped with their lives.

"You, come here!" Z pointed to Hugh, "I'll give you my Commswatch details. If these bunch of fools decide to mess around, here again, I will slice off their boss' limbs and break their ankles. Also, take all the credit from their commswatch and give me half, use the rest of it to pay for the medics that are healing your father."

Z spoke coldly looking at the bunch of Scavengers on the floor. They knew they had screwed up big time, not only will they partially crippled, their boss had even lost and arm. They for sure couldn't hold up and keep their turf anymore.

Hugh could only nod as he watched Z walk away from the scene, bodies were on the floor, blood on the floors and walls, but not a single drop landed on Z's clothes.

After dealing with the threats that were directed at him, Z walked back with Hugh as the busker was being treated by the medics, Hugh immediately ran forward, asking the medics about the condition of his father. After everything was cleared up, Hugh paid the Medics and even had them fix his face which was bruised. The busker ran towards Z as he started to shake his hand in gratitude. Z smiled, looking at the busker who was reunited with his son, he felt something stirring in his heart.

"Is this happiness?" Z wondered as he activated his manifest.

[Activating <Avarice>, <Disguise> manifest obtained. Slots remaining: 0.]

The voice rang in his head. Z smiled knowing that step 1 in his plan was completed, he nodded to the busker and Hugh once again as he went on his way to the station.

Finally arriving at the station after being delayed by the fighting, Z walked up to the ticketing counter. Obviously, he couldn't afford a private vehicle, so he could only get to use the communal transport artefact. After purchasing a ticket to the A city Military Academy, Z grabbed a handful of Nutrition bar and a newspaper from the store, scanning his Commswatch onto a machine. Food was scarce, so the commoners and the other poorer people could only survive on food called Nutrition bars. These were dull and tasteless, it was like cardboard glued together in a bar. However, Z didn't mind this, food was a luxury for him and to him, the way food tasted doesn't matter it was just to fill his stomach.

Sitting down on a bench at the station, he opened up the newspaper.

[Famine strikes B City, as crops begin to die from mysterious illnesses.]

The headline glaring and loud right on the front page. Z snorted, he knew very well that the crops dying were all a huge conspiracy, how else would the company behind the Nutrition bar sell their products when there were other food supplies around.

[Is there an Off-worlder in your vicinity? Call this number 65487- 15451- 15131 and let Mr White know about your encounters!]

Z shook his head at the advertisement, in all his life, he had never seen the shadow of an Off-worlder, let alone be in the presence of one. There was a belief that with the appearance of manifests, the Off-worlders were present and people with stronger and rarer manifests were kidnapped by them to be used for experiments. He laughed it off as a conspiracy theory as he folded the newspaper and stood up.

The transport artefact finally arrived slowly at the station, Z walked towards the transport vehicle and scanned his ticket.

'Onwards towards City A Military Academy!' he thought to himself as he sat down on his seat and slowly fell asleep.