Chapter 70: 69. Me and Myself

I tried hard to keep my eyes open but to no avail. The drowsiness was overpowering, and I felt my consciousness slipping away from me.

Then, I opened my eyes, only to find myself in a dark room.

I was staring at the floor from above, and my body had an ethereal form as it floated freely.

Just like the previous times when I used my latent ability…

I looked around the room, and the surroundings were way more visible than usual. For the first time, I could see all the seats inside the room and I could see the details of the floor and the walls. I was surprised to see the room much smaller than I expected it to be; there weren’t enough chairs to accommodate all the Jasons that I met the previous time.

Maybe the mana that I injected into the tattoo wasn’t enough for the Latent Ability to work to its full extent.

The floor was covered in gray tiles, and they looked pale due to the accumulated dust.

However, most of the chairs were empty, except for one near the distant wall of the room. A Jason was sitting there.

There was a crown on top of his head, a cape around his neck, and he wore the legendary grade thermal suit which hid most of his skin under its black fabric.

He was fidgeting with his fingers and looking at the floor with a deadpan face. He must’ve noticed my stares; he turned toward me and greeted me cheerfully.

“Oh, Jason!” he said, “How are you? What brought you here?”

“Shit’s not as good as it could be, but I am managing. How about you, Jason?” I replied, “Well, I’ve been training my mana control, and a chance to use my latent ability presented itself to me. Something’s strange though, why are you the only one here?”

Last time, there were tens of Jasons if not hundreds; I wasn’t sure about their exact number due to the dim lighting…

The other Jason sighed and stood up, then he walked away from his chair.

“I am not sure if you understand what a prisoner feels like, but it’s a dreadful experience in short,” he spoke with a smirk, “In the society that I came from, the laws became stricter due to the invasion of an oppressing race of humanoid octopi; humans are arrested for the slightest of mistakes against the Rebuilders, as they call themselves.”

Oh! So, it’s criminal Jason… Too bad that the Jasons look the same even when it comes to their clothes; I can’t tell them apart at all…

I didn’t see myself doing anything extreme enough to get me in prison, and I was curious about the experiences that lead Jason to end up in prison.

Moreover, I wanted to know more about him to see how we differed from one another. He might end up being helpful, whether through advice or as an external source of valuable information.

“It feels painful to see myself suffering such a fate; you have my condolences,” I said with a sad tone of voice. It was hard to see oneself suffering from an external point of view, no matter what he did to get himself into this trouble. “How did you get into prison?”

He sighed, then his voice got soft as his eyes lost some of their focus momentarily before regaining it.

“Our world already had the system by the time I was born, so I didn’t have to go through the tutorial,” he said, “The class that I gained was an uncommon one called Karma Burglar. It gave me stronger skills than other classes of a similar grade, albeit at an annoying caveat.”

Then, he stopped speaking, as if he was thinking about the words that he ought to say.

His class seems interesting though… I wonder how it correlated with his ‘crime’.

“What’s the problem with your class?” I asked when the silence took more than ten seconds.

“Leveling up was hard; nearly impossible due to the social structure,” he muttered, “I hate to steal people’s possessions, and proclaim that I was the one who stole them. Each successful steal gave me a lot of EXP, but I gained no EXP from stealing more items from the same person. My parents, my six friends, and some strangers were the only people that played along with my ‘farce’, but I ran out of willing people quickly.”

“Couldn’t you pay people to help you level up?” I said. Money could solve all problems, and I knew that many people would be willing to help him for minimal compensation.

“I didn’t care about leveling up when I was younger; little did I know that I was hindering my potential career and future. Only when I became twelve years old did I start taking things more seriously,” he added, “However, my parents died when I was sixteen years old, and everything went downhill after that. I wasted my remaining money to get people to help me level up, and I became penniless before I even knew it. I ended up stealing drugs using my improved thievery skills and consumed them instead of selling them to make money. After that, I attempted to murder a prick when I was still high; little did I know that he had a much higher level than mine.”

What a poor lad… He reminds me of myself somewhat.

“How was your life before our parents died?” I asked. I was curious about his past, and how it differed from mine. Besides, learning more about him would allow me to consider him as an individual rather than a different version of myself.

He gave me a short summary of the most important points of his life, and they were the same as mine. We both went into the same elementary school, studied under the same teachers, and even had the same friends.

The main differences between us were the date of the system’s arrival, an alien invasion, and our classes differed too.

It seems like we’re rather similar to one another; it’s crazy how he got into prison and I worked as a butcher after our parents’ death.

Suddenly, I felt disoriented, and the surroundings became hazy. The other Jason sighed and scratched his cheek.

“I really would’ve wanted to talk to you more,” he said, “But it seems like the circuit wasn’t powered up well enough. We’ll see each other soon, take care and be selective with the people you trust.”

I felt my consciousness fading away, and I heard some people speaking when I regained it.

“Jason..”

“Jason…”

“Wake up…”

Then, one of them slapped me lightly on my face, causing me to regain my consciousness fully. There were two speakers; Zinnia and Ratska, and they were staring at my face from a close distance.

They jumped slightly when I opened my eyes suddenly, but they recovered from the surprise soon enough.

“Oh, Jason,” Ratska was smiling, “Why are you taking a nap here of all places?”

“Yeah, right,” Zinnia added, “You could’ve asked the chief to provide you with an empty room.”

Well, I didn’t expect to be able to activate my latent ability out of nowhere; it was meant to be training for mana control…

I kicked up and landed on the balls of my feet. Then, I patted both of their heads and told them to take it easy and that I was fine.

“How about you stop treating me like a child for once; you’re embarrassing me,” Ratska furrowed his eyebrows, “I am as old as you, if not slightly younger…”

I’ll be twenty years old in a couple of months, and Ratska was nineteen at this point… He has a point.

“Ah, don’t sweat the details,” I waved my hand at him, “I am treating you as a friend, a friend!”

“Well, Ratska,” Zinnia said as she put her hands on her hips, “You have a baby’s face, a child’s body, and you throw tantrums as any child would. Besides, we get along well, and I am only nine years old!”

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“Hell no! I came here to check up on you, Jason, but I wouldn’t have come if I knew this would happen,” said Ratska as he stomped away, “Now, someone ten years my junior is making fun of me! What a world we live in.”

Zinnia and I looked at the Gnome’s back as he left. He went inside the castle hallway and slammed the door behind him.

“I think you went too far,” I told the little Lizardfolk, “He’s insecure about his height and child-like features.”

“Oh,” said Zinnia as she fidgeted with her fingers and stared at her feet, “I thought he was cute, but I might’ve overdone it a little… I’d better apologize to him before it’s too late.”

Then, she ran after him.

It’s interesting how Zinnia enjoys Ratska’s company unlike the other Lizardfolks; I wonder why they hate Gnomes all that much…

I was alone once more, so I stretched my arms and legs. I thought about sitting once more to practice my mana control, but I felt mentally tired after using my latent ability; Legion.

Still, I need to use my time productively…

A good objective would be to dig up the dinosaur bones of the immediate surroundings and convert them into shop points. The system shop contained some special stats, but they were expensive as hell and I couldn’t buy any of them unless I had at least five hundred thousand points.

Which is nearly double my current shop points…

I thought about Ratska’s safety, and whether it was okay to leave him alone or not. I didn’t want to protect him too much; he evidently hates to be treated like a child.

Even with Igor’s last ambush, Ratska didn’t get injured at all. There was a good chance that the Great Church investigated his background and found out about his potential as a potion brewer.

At most, they would kidnap him; it would be counter-productive for them to kill him.

On the other hand, Lizardfolks weren’t trustworthy, especially with the blatant display of disrespect that I witness upon entering the castle’s hallway for the first time.

However, Akeniska knew his value at this point; I made sure to tell her that he was the one who brewed the potions to ensure his safety among the Lizardfolk. The chief wouldn’t dare kill him; she might seduce him or try to make a secretive deal with him at most.

I can deal with that; he’s an independent person, and I should treat him as such… Even if he leaves, I can always find other venues to make money and he’ll come back when he realizes the advantage of being my companion…

With a sigh, I took off my cape and crown and put them inside the storage ring. I went out of the castle and started running toward the town’s exit.

The two guards looked startled to see me running toward the exit, but they didn’t prevent me from leaving the town.

I didn’t want to use my skills at all, but Loki said that I could use them at least four more times before my body-soul connection worsened.

The special stat that I have in mind is rather impressive, and I believe it to be worth the risk that I am taking by using my skills.

I kept walking away from the town and looked around me to ascertain that I was in an isolated location; I didn’t want anyone to see me pulling out Earth’s observational shard. There was nothing around me except sand, but those speaking Lizards enjoyed hiding inside sand dunes sometimes.

When I was sure that I was the only sapient creature in the vicinity, I pulled the shard and commanded the system to show me a map of the location of all the dinosaur bones in my vicinity.

A map showed up in front of me, and there were many red spots on it signifying the locations of bones.

“[It’s fine!]” I shouted; people would’ve called me a lunatic if they saw me shouting the names of my skills, but it wasn’t as embarrassing as before.

Flames enveloped my body, and I felt more powerful than ever. Then, I started running toward the closest location of the dinosaur bones.

I rotated my body like a drill and dug into the sand to find the bone that I’d been looking for. It was a large skull of a creature that had four horns and a wide jaw; I converted it into shop points immediately.

The observational shard was still within my closed left fist; it resisted the highest of my temperatures which impressed me.

I followed the map’s direction and found more spots that contained dinosaur bones of varying sizes and shapes. I even encountered some Ghibli Fennecs along the road and murdered them all.

It was nighttime when I finished converting the bones in a radius of eighty kilometers away from the town; I checked the clock and it was a quarter past nine.

Killing all those Ghibli Fennecs allowed me to level up once more; my current level was eighty.

I’d better go back to leveling after I finish setting up my guild; Stella’s companions are probably well ahead of me, but I can’t let the gap widen.

I sighed; my current priority was to buy a useful stat from the system shop.

Shop window:	[Current points: 748329 points]
-What are you looking to buy? [. . .]

“Show me the three cheapest stats available,” I said.

Now, which one should I pick first?

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Special shoutout to:

chris

Bladesunder

GenericKane

Water Dragon

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Hello everyone; we meet again :)

I haven't been able to post any chapters yesterday due to health issues, but my situation is much better now.

I hope you liked the chapter!

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