“What?!” Bryce stood up.

 

“Shouldn’t we report it to the police or something?” Bryce started to panicked.

 

“Calm down. It will be fine, I bet those people are already there securing the perimeter,” another spoon of chocolate taste cereal went inside his mouth.

 

“But how? Did you already tell them?”

 

“No. But let me tell you this. With New York being occupied by those monsters. I’m thinking the U.S military isn’t just going to stand by watching. At least they must have secured a way to detect any known anomalies for better reaction time,” Jason spouted nonsense based on his wild assumption. There was no way the government would do nothing. A countermeasure must have been made during this one week period.

 

Nevertheless, he was right. All U.S government and private satellites are being used to monitor any strange phenomena from the skies. If anything happened on the ground, the satellite will pick it up.

 

“Go turned on the tv or something. I bet the reporters are already flocking at the park,” convinced by Jason. Bryce went to the living room and turned on the television. She changed the channel a few times until something piqued her interest.

 

“You’re right. It’s already on the news,” Jason spilled the cereal in his mouth as he was surprised that he was right. Wiping the milk on his mouth, he carried the bowl along as he walked to the living room.

 

Both watched the news reporter reporting on sight. News reporters from different channels were flocking at the entrance of Veteran Park but the authorities had already barred their entrance. The DHS and FBI were working together as the looks on their faces were rather grim as they saw through the television screen.

 

The news reporters went crazy as one of the agents dropped a stretcher. The black vinyl that covered the corpse slid away revealing the thing underneath it.

 

Cameras flashed and the news camera filmed the sight of the dead creature. The news reporters were demanding a statement from the authorities. In the end, the representative told them to stay calm as the situation was under control.

 

A bunch of bullshits thought both Bryce and Jason, yet neither spoke a word. A reminder to those out there, never trust the government, no matter what countries they are. Everyone was more or less the same. Jason scoffed hearing that sentence. The situation was under control since he already handled it in the first place.

 

“Hey, are you hearing this? They’re lying.”

 

Jason didn’t care about it as it didn’t matter. What matters was, what is he going to do next? The man with the cereal returned to the dining table, sitting in leisure as he took another spoonful of energy rising cereal.

 

“aren’t you mad about this? You’re the one who defeated that fireball humanoid, right? Wait, on second thought how did you defeat it? I think I saw you being burned by the fireball,” Bryce sat by his side. She was getting a little too chatty.

 

“I just chopped his head off,” his reply made Bryce to jumped in surprise. Hearing something that vicious made her nervous. She began to worry about being under the same roof with this man who easily killed.

 

Jason noticed the change in her eyes.

 

“Miss doctor, you’re missing the point here. It doesn’t matter if I’m the one who kills it or not. What matters right now is, more of these cracks keep popping out at random. Those monsters that kidnapped you last night, they didn’t come from New York.”

 

His words tugged something in Bryce’s heart.

 

“What do you mean?” she was getting anxious. If possible, she wouldn’t like to hear the answer. Denying reality was like the easiest thing to do.

 

“There’s a crack in New Jersey. To be more precise, there was a crack in New Jersey,” Jason didn’t know why he was entertaining this doctor. Unbeknownst to him, he was dying for communication with another human. Being alone would only make him remember those nightmarish two nights in New York and thinking of her would only ache his heart.

 

“Was? You mean it disappeared? But how?” she was showing her habit of being a doctor. Questions after questions it was as if she was taking the history of a patient.

 

“How the hell would I know. I’m not a physicist specializing in inter-dimensional string theory,” he replied.

 

“Then, it’s all good then. Thank goodness,” she was relieved. But Jason just had to burst her bubble.

 

“I advise you not to relax that much, considering that at any time a giant size crack may appear above New Jersey. If it really happens, then I had no doubt in my mind that it will be the same as New York.”

 

The good feeling she had disappeared into thin air. She only felt goosebumps all over her body as she realized the destruction that these monsters could bring. She herself experienced it over the course of a night. It was short but memorable in a bad way that is.

 

She turned speechless gazing at the table as if her sight could saw through the wooden oak table. Jason ignored Bryce who was deep in her own thoughts. He stood up and washed the dishes. He ate it as he owns it so the least he could do was to washed the dishes.

 

“Hey. You got a towel? I need to take a shower,” the fight from last night left his body lingering with a variety of smells. Rolling on the ground, grappling with smelly humanoids and lastly the smell of blood and ashes.

 

“Left side cupboard in the bathroom,” she replied as she was still in a daze.

 

He left her downstairs as he took a shower. Cleaning every inch of his body. He scrubbed hard against the skin with orange-scented gel body wash. He came out refreshed as if being birthed again from the womb of her mother. Yet the moment he came into the bedroom, he saw Bryce fiddling around with the scrolls he had looted. He didn’t pay much attention since it didn’t matter who holds it as long as they didn’t go through the awakening. But contrary to his assumption, the opposite happened.

 

“What are these letters?” she mumbled to herself.

 

The letters began to glow and much to Jason’s surprise, the scroll turned to ashes and came spiraling towards Bryce’s forehead.

 

“Nooo!” he shouted as his hand reached out to the inevitable. It was too late. He was gobsmacked by the sudden turn of events. His knees fell on the carpet floor and the towel hanging on his waist turned loose. It fell, returning Jason to a state of utter nudity.

 

“Hey, put some clothes on,” Bryce covered her eyes bewildered by Jason’s indecent scene. Then something else appeared in front of her.

 

The blue window. She jumped in surprise and fell on the carpet floor.

 

“What’s going on? I see something floating in front of me,” she said as her gaze fell back to the sullen Jason who was picking himself up while barely covering his crotch.

 

He picked up the leftover scroll and the ring. He didn’t even glance at Bryce and left the bedroom.

 

“Jason? Where you going?” she was in need of help and also an explanation.

 

She was left alone as she stared at the blue window hovering in front of her. Meanwhile, Jason locked the door behind him. He found her study room, with shelves filled with thick medical books and journals. He was cursing internally but he kept his mouth shut. Arguing won’t make the scroll come back.

 

He dressed himself up with Bryce’s ex-boyfriend clothes. He took a seat on the chair and opened up the scroll. Jason was expecting a skill related to the Copper Hobgoblin. Fireball wouldn’t be bad, dirt spikes seems cool, the ethereal shield seems great for the second line of defense but the thing he desired the most was the copper skin. The moment his fist ached while punching the Copper Hobgoblin, he knew that he needs a physical base ability. It would increase his survival rate to another level and he wouldn’t feel nervous after his energy guard dies out.

 

But life didn't go that way. The scroll was opened and what left of him was only a blank expression.

 

Identify Reveals information about the target. Lv.1 : EP cost 0.5

 

Would you like to learn Identify?

 

It was too normal. His hope crushed in pieces. He shed invisible tears as he knew he had rotten luck. Although he was disappointed. A skill was still a skill. He accepted and identify was added into his repertoire of skills.

 

He turned his attention to the ring. A ring made out of dark hue wood. It was edgy as the craftsmanship looks kind of amateurish. The surface wasn’t smooth as he could feel the edges. It wasn’t fancy looking but at least it has a small greenish pearl embedded at the center of the ring.

 

How the heck am I going to see its wor-

 

His train of thought stopped there as he realized he had the ability to see its worth. Jason used identify and he saw what it could do.

 

Wise Man’s Humble Ring A ring carved by a sage in his early days of delving into the path of energy. A memento from the old days, for the sage to never forget his humble beginning.   Effects: EP +10, Energy based defense +30, Energy +2

 

Not bad.

 

The corner of his lips raised as he was satisfied with the loot. It wasn’t that good but it worth something. The ring slipped into his left middle finger as it was a perfect fit. His time of adoring the ring in his hand was stopped by the heavy knocking on the door. He opened the door and saw the dissatisfied look on Bryce.

 

“I need an explanation,” for someone who was meek in front of a sexual predator, she was being quite haughty right now.

 

Seeing the determined look on her eyes, Jason had no way out of this. It was a hassle but there he goes. He explained about the blue windows and how it related to the monsters. The explanation also went on about the abilities and the requirement of using it.

 

Bryce was deep in thought as her hand was on her chin. Jason didn’t cut corners about explaining the whole thing and being the doctor like she is, Bryce was processing everything she heard to understand every little bit. Detail-oriented was one of the reasons she became a doctor.

 

She glanced at Jason as now she knew how he was able to survive within the inner side of New York City. She got to admit, all of this seems ridiculous and she too was on the verge of diagnosing herself of having visual psychosis but from what she had experienced and the things that happened over the last week, she had no choice to believed in this new sense of logic.

 

“Then this skill I have, it’s called Copper Body? How-”

 

The moment Jason heard Copper Body, all his cells within his body was screaming. The thing he desired the most was snatched by this red-headed doctor. He felt like cursing out loud at this thief in front of him and she didn’t even realize what she had done.

 

“Stop,” he said, raising his hand at her signaling at her to just stopped talking.

 

He sighed and it was a big sigh. Standing up and walking to the door, he turned towards Bryce who was still sitting and staring at him with that ignorant look on her face.

 

“C’mon. You’re buying me whatever I want,” said Jason.

 

“What? Why?” the talk about money made Bryce confused.

 

“Why else? You stole my skill. Now, get downstairs and start up the engine. We’re going shopping.”