Chapter 164: The Lone Wolf

The professor was saddened. He was not afraid, he was saddened.

Death was something that he no longer feared with his career. Before becoming a professor, he was a highly respected figure in the Underworld. As the Underworld would often wage war alongside the country's military forces, to invade, attack, harass or defend foreign countries to achieve their goals, war veterans and generals became a necessity in many organizations.

This professor was one of the best strategists in warfare.

Death was the last thing on his mind. The one which caused him to regret the most was his game.

He gave a complicated stare at his console. It was a sad ending for him to not be able to figure out the last mystery. Even his challenge in completing a personal record was a fun thought for this calculative professor.

"Go ahead and do it." He gave a long, regretful sigh.

"Hmmm… You're almost there… I can feel it. But somethings… missing." A voice was heard.

The voice was quite normal and it didn't have any sense of coarse pitching or anything that would make it scary. Yet this normal sound caused the professor to be paralyzed.

A strong constricting force enveloped the professor. But instead of gasping for breath, the professor welcomed death.

The game booted up as the professor felt he was dying. His organs were somehow shaking with a terrible intensity and his vision was starting to blur. He was like in an endless pit full of echoes of the strange unremarkable sound.

He had no time to consider what was happening. As of this moment, with how unprepared he was, he knew the manner of his death would only be a mystery.

Was it radiation? Poisoning? The possibilities were endless. Without any data, he knew he couldn't solve it. What he did was consider the games he was playing.

His last thoughts weren't of fear or confusion, but a mental map of what he wanted to do in that game.

There were so many mysteries that made him find life worth living once more. The mystery of the battle in China, the strange actions of the WGP, and many others. But nothing quite captured him than the mystery of Seeker Carlean. He had set to himself to find a way to beat Seeker's standing record of his fast-paced game. He waited for Arthur to beat it, but Arthur showed no particular interest in breaking Seeker's record. This was, another mystery for this calculative professor. So when months have passed and Arthur remained uninterested, he decided to make his attempt to beat the game.

There were some things which by his calculation could still prove to be beatable. He wanted a perfect game that even Arthur wouldn't be able to beat.

In those last seconds, inspiration finally came.

The scattered success of his plan started to tie itself up. It was perfect. The plans, the strategies, even the execution. His mental rehearsal was perfect. In his mind, he saw himself completing the game with record speed.

In those few seconds, he thought harder than he could ever think in his life. His regrets drove him to focus his attention on the game. At least, he would be able to complete it in his mind.

From start to finish, he completed it.

He smiled.

"Only in my thoughts have I completed it." He sighed in regret as he closed his eyes.

Suddenly, the powerful chocking force disappeared.

The disappearance surprised the Professor. He realized he could breathe once more.

"Impressive. That was almost reaching Unbecoming." The man smiled.

The professor fell and was once again enveloped in a powerful and paralyzing force. The sudden jolt and change of emotions awakened the Professor. The heart that was once willing to accept death was disturbed and it was there that fear crept in his heart. The once casual and accepting personality of his death finally became fear.

His heart was shaking. There was unnatural fear that followed.

The professor started clutching the ground and would almost squeal.

"Do you know, why I'm killing you? It's simple really. The Underworld." The man laughed.

"Oh great detective, you solved many mysteries, but you weren't able to solve the mystery of who killed you." The man smiled.

The professor felt enraged.

"Ho-how?!" He demanded.

"You know the answer." The man laughed. A strange vibrating force started to flatten the professor. It was as if a wall was falling over him.

A powerful pressure was crushing the professor. He felt his muscles and limbs were collapsing under pressure.

"Goodbye." The man's voice hovered causing even more pain. Slowly he could feel a stabbing pain that struck his heart. Because of the strange force which paralyzed him, he couldn't even look at his attacker.

The vision that the professor saw was the flashback of his entire life.

He witnessed and recalled the first time his life flashed before his eyes.

It was at that moment that his life changed. He had so many regrets and decided to live a peaceful life. His illegal projects and collusions which made him quite notorious in Europe and as he realized his faults, he decided to follow this life.

But life was cruel. His regrets made him ponder.

"What else could I have done to have escaped the Underworld? Where there trails that I forgot to clean up?"

Somehow, in those short moments, his flashbacks brought by his regrets had made him recalculate his life.

Even the corners where he would turn to during his escape came to memory.

Somehow, he had even made a rough plan in those moments.

"I see. I should have done that." He said as he finally accepted death.

"At least I know who this is…" The professor laughed.

"Ri-Richie." He forced out. At that moment, the wall that was crushing him disappeared. But almost immediately, a strange painful sensation as if his entire body were being ripped apart gripped him.

Shuffler kept struggling and struggling as the pain covered every inch of his body.

"Looks like the experiments a success." The voice spoke.

"You actually reached Unbecoming just like that? It looks like I can really do this." Richie chuckled as he continued to watch the man who was squirming on the floor as every inch of his body was in pain.

"I guess Charles has his answer. Shuffler, relax your mind. I'm not the cause of that pain. You are. What you're experiencing is a direct leap from a normal human being to becoming an Unbecoming. Pun intended." Richie smiled.

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Shuffler heard Richie's comments and immediately tried to relax.

"Oh? So obedient. You trust me that easily?" Richie laughed.

Shuffler continued to squirm.

"Professor Sammy Theoden. Or should I call you by your real name? Shuffler Atkins?" Richie walked around the house and picked a chair to sit on.

His deductions caused him to reach a dead end. He knew who was trying to kill him because only one man knew that he was alive. Though Shuffler had successfully faked his death, there was one person who knew him, not based on his looks, but because of his voice. And while it was a mystery in itself, despite the drastic measures he took to change every part of himself, this man still knew who he was.

And since he deduced that Richie has no motive to kill him, he then thought of another probability that was occurring.

Although he couldn't understand what was happening to him, he felt a strange vibrating force that seemed to have been constricting his body as if it was squeezing it. Shuffler could no longer move. Although the pain was still present, the constraining force allowed him to calm his mind easier as he had no choice but to lay still.

Richie waited for Shuffler's expression to relax.

"I'm sorry it had to be this way. I didn't expect you to cross the boundaries of Unbecoming that easily. I initially opted to do Seeker's trick and do some fun stuff to you until you become Unbecoming, but it looks like those moments earlier where your life flashed before your eyes were enough to push you through the final hurdle. I wonder if this advantageous…" Richie started to mumble.

Although Shuffler was in pain, his eyes continued to look at Richie with a thirst to know.

"Curious? Well… it's like this. There's supposed to be a drug that will help you reach this stage. But you seemed to have done it on your own. So instead of gradually reaching Unbecoming, you somehow leaped and so the effects of the Neuro-Transcellular phenomenon are occurring." Richie laughed.

Noticing that Richie spoke no more, Shuffler later ignored him and focused on dealing with the pain.

Slowly, Shuffler's expression grew more and more relieved.

"Done?"

"Still in pain… but bearable. You said that I'm doing this to me? How?"

"I'm not really sure. As I said, even those freaks following Seeker had to gradually reach your level… You managed to make the immediate leap."

"Does that make me any… different?"

"Perhaps you're like Arthur. Someone who can do Selective Unlocking. Considering how you can bear the pain, this means that you were already nearing the state of breaking through. Your days in the army and the Underworld might have helped you have a physique that could resist the pain. I heard those agents who took that drug had to go through the pain for a longer time. Luckily, I was right with your case. You were an inch away from becoming Unbecoming. If you can talk, get up. I'm not here to kill you." Richie smiled.

Shuffler slowly stood up. But he was still visibly trembling.

"Wa… What's going on?" The professor contained his pain and tried to speak calmly.

"Professor Sammy Theoden or should I say, Doctor of Warfare, Shuffler Atkins. Chess champion and former special tactics division of the New Chapter. You became a renowned strategist and even got a made-up doctor of philosophy in military tactics in warfare. Still, the pay wasn't enough and you sought the Underworld. I'm glad that you remembered my face at that time."

"Ri-Richie." The professor shivered as he spoke the forsaken and accursed name.

"You-You're supposed to-to be dead." Shuffler tried to keep himself from shivering. He kept taking deep breaths to ignore the pain.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you. I hear you like a good mystery. Want to know the answer to this?"

The Professor's eyes changed.

Richie laughed.

"You really are like that Sherlock Holmes that you idolize. Mysteries really keep you going, huh? Looks like I'm right then."

"What price… must I pay? Since you left me alive… even when I was… whatever that was… you must have come here for some other reason."

"Oh. I'm not here to blackmail you or anything. In fact, I'm confident that once I tell you the mystery of what happened to you, you'll be willing to join me." Richie smiled.

"Is it… an Alien race?" Shuffler asked.

Riche's smile was erased as a stunned expression appeared.

"Woah. I heard you were good. But damn! That's impressive! How did you do it?"

"Several clues... Excuse me." Shuffler made his way back to the seat he fell out of when he suffered the pain.

After a few seconds of taking deeper breaths, Shuffler finally looked at Richie in the eye.

"First, you seeking me out. You said you're not here to blackmail me and say that I will be willing to work with you. Next, is that strange event that had happened towards me. I have never been experimented on, nor was I from any genetically enhanced family. But what seemed to have occurred was a natural occurrence. As if my very cells had this potential all along." Shuffler unconsciously looked at his arms.

"Next is this new ability. I can tell… my mind has changed. I'm sure that whatever happened to me, already happened to you. So… you're here to ask for my help. As an assassin, I'm sure you know all about me and that money, fame, power no longer has its appeal. So why are you confident that I'll help you? This must because you either have something that I want… but all I have is my life… Next… is the mystery of your death. Even the World Governing Powers were fooled. How did that happen? How did you escape its reach? So the conclusion is, that battle in China involved neither the Chinese Government or from the WGP."

Shuffler remembered to breathe. He realized that most parts of his body are still numb.

"Next is this strange power you possess. I may not look much, but this room is guarded by device identifiers. If it can detect a strange technology not registered to the New Great Britain's database or you came equipped with any dangerous weapons, it would alert me. But no alerts. So the obvious answer, taking into account what you did which caused my seizure… is that your body is different."

"So how can all that lead to an alien threat?"

"Simple. You were confident in me joining. With everything happening, I'm sure war is soon coming. But against who? Are we fighting against another nation? Some organization? The WGP? Why would I join you willingly? Those possibilities are impossible. It cannot explain your assurance of me helping you. So it's fighting an unknown enemy far stronger than the WGP. Aliens."

Richie smirked.

"Alright, smarty pants… The reason that I'm here, and why I left you alive back then… is because I felt an instinctive caution when I saw you. I always remember a strange fluctuation that affects my instincts. I heard you left the Underworld after that event and died. I knew it wasn't true. Only someone like me could kill you. So if I left you alive then, who else could have killed you?" Richie shook his head.

"Ah… your talking about that afternoon? The time you raided that base and slaughtered everyone, save for me. Now that we've established that you wish to develop a mutual relationship with me, where do we go from here?"

Richie laughed.

"You're an interesting fellow. You feel fear towards me, but you don't seem bothered by it."

"Fear is emotional. I'm sure you won't kill me. Even if I do feel fear… greater fear than anything I've felt before… logic dictates that I shouldn't fear you." Shuffler managed to talk. But it was clear that the fear was greatly affecting him.

Richie was exceedingly delighted. He looked at Shuffler and grew excited. He now had a chance of facing her, not with any freaks, but with freaks that he would hone.

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