“Please come in and take a seat. Emma, be a dear and close the door on your way out.”

  Jay frowned as he looked around the opulent office. The entire room was covered in gold, and several priceless artifacts he remembered seeing in a museum when he was younger sat on finely-crafted display cases. A man dressed in a white three-piece suit with slicked-back red hair sat on the opposite end of the room. He was behind a large, finely crafted desk with golden inlays running along it. He laid two glasses on the table, each with a single, large ice cube sitting within.

  “What’s your poison? And I don’t bite. Please, come, take a seat, and make yourself at home.”

  Jay warily walked through the room and carefully sat in a comfortable-looking armchair.

  The man poured some fancy brand of scotch Jay had never heard of into his glass while raising an eyebrow. “You never told me your preferred poison.”

  “Oh, I, uh, don’t drink.”

  “Nonsense. Trust me, friend.” He poured some of the scotch into Jay’s glass. “You just haven't found the right drink yet,” he said with a wink, raising his own glass to his lips.

  Jay stared at the glass for a few moments. He had only drunk once in his life. It was after his company had fully gone under and he’d earned a mountain of debt he couldn’t see a way out from. He had gone out and gotten so shitfaced that he’d had no clue where he was when he woke up. He had collapsed in a ditch with various liquids and stenches clinging to his suit. His head had pounded, and through it all, the thing he’d wanted to escape was still sitting there. He hadn’t drunk another drop since that day. It wasn’t worth it. It didn’t make the pain go away, it just masked it for a few hours and returned it twofold in the morning.

  “Take a sip.”

  “No thanks. Anyway, why did you want to speak to me?”

  The man frowned for a moment before his expression returned to a fake smile that didn’t reach his ever-scanning eyes. “You’re Blue Raven, the current Number Four on the levels leaderboard, are you not?”

  “Your guard scanned me outside, so I'm sure you already knew that. Now, can you get to the point?”

  “Oh, trust me, everything I say has a point,” he said, folding his hands above his drink. “So tell me, Mr. Raven, why did you come to my fine establishment this evening?”

  Jay cocked his head. “This glorified nightclub is a fine establishment for you?”

  “Oh, my friend, you wound me. I would have thought you would’ve figured it out, but the nightclub is just a way to get people in. Not just any people, but candidates. The elite of our new reality.”

  “Sorry, your glorified nightclub for candidates.”

  The man tutted at him. “Come, now. As I’ve said, the club just brings people in. The real business here is everything else we offer.”

  Jay raised an eyebrow. “Everything else you offer?”

  The man’s grin grew wider. “Oh yes. Before we get into that, though, I believe a proper introduction is in order. I already know who you are, of course, but I don’t believe you know who I am.”

  Jay fought the urge to yell “No shit!” He took a deep breath, calming himself. It wasn’t like the implant would let him say that, anyway. “I don’t. Would you care to finally enlighten me?”

  The man nodded. “I am William Sanders.” He paused for a long moment.

  “Am I supposed to know that name?”

  William's smile faltered for a moment before returning once more. “No matter. I’m sure you weren’t from around here before the collapse--”

  “Lived in this city for my entire life.”

  His eye twitched. “It doesn’t matter…” he let out a long sigh. “Well, since you seem to have been living under a rock, let me enlighten you. I am William Sanders, son of Deric Sanders and the owner of half the buildings in this city…”

  “Oh, I have heard of Deric before. So, what, Daddy gave you a bunch of money and you bought a bunch of buildings that are now worthless? Impressive, I must say.”

  Jay had to suppress a laugh as the man’s facade completely slipped, and he snarled.

  “I’ll have your tongue removed and have you strung up from the ceiling as living decoration.”

  Jay raised an eyebrow as he sat stunned for a few moments before once again composing himself. “That wouldn’t be my choice for this room. I would clash with the wall color, don’t you think? Then again, you are the one with a billionaire's sense of taste, so what do I know?”

  William slammed down on his desk as he stood. “You fucking ingrate. I’ll have--gah!”

  William wasn’t able to finish his sentence as Jay shot from his chair. Slammed the man's chin upward with a palm strike. Grabbed him by the hair as his body went limp, and placed the revolver that suddenly appeared in his hand between the man’s eyes.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “You're gonna talk, and talk fast, got it?”

  William nodded weakly.

  “Good. So, why did you want me to come up here?”

  “To collect powerful candidates,” William choked out between sobs as blood poured out of his mouth.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. My dad wanted me to.”

  Jay sighed. Of fucking course. “What is the real goal of this place?”

  “It’s a way to gather candidates, and we traded items and other things for their service.”

  Jay winced. He was pretty sure he knew what one of those ‘other things’ was as he thought back to Emma, but he still asked anyway. “What other things?”

  William continued sobbing, but did not answer.

  Jay pulled the hammer of his revolver back. “What ‘other things?’ If you don’t want this room to have a new red coat of paint, I suggest you answer me.”

  “The unremarkable. The ones that can’t protect themselves. We grab them off the street and employ them. Then we rent them out to anyone else who needs an expendable force for whatever purpose. It’s a great deal they get to be safe, and the people in debt to us grow, and all they have to do in return is just whatever we tell them to–”

  That was all it took--the last straw. Before Jay could stop himself, his finger was already moving. The hammer was already falling. With a small pop, his threat came true, and the room was coated in a fresh coat of chunky red paint.

  **New title received: Candidate Slayer**

  **New title received: Skilless Slaughter**

  **Menu Unlocked: Candidate Store**

  The three notifications popped up in rapid succession, combined with a blaring alarm. Finally snapped Jay out of the feeling of bliss that had taken over when he pulled that trigger. He took a step back and let the corpse fall to the ground. He placed his revolver back into his storage space and looked down at his hands. They were covered with a good amount of gore, but he shook it off. He had expected to feel worse. He thought back to his first kill--to how rattled he’d been after accidentally caving that man’s skull in.

  Jay sighed. This was different. He still didn’t like that he had just killed another man, but unlike his other kills, this wasn’t life or death. This wasn’t something he had to do to survive, so why? Why was this one the one that didn’t hurt? Jay knew why, even if he didn’t want to admit it. He felt like that man deserved to die. He had had a conversation with Lan after he had killed that first man. It was half the reason he wanted power. If he were strong enough, then no one could threaten his life. No one could make him feel like he had to defend himself with lethal force. Still, he knew even if he had that power today, he still would have pulled that trigger.

  The door opened behind him, and he turned around. Emma entered the room.

  “Oh fuck!” she yelled, falling back. “Y–you killed him.”

  Jay looked between William’s body and Emma. He sighed. “Yep, I did. Anyway, am I good to go, or am I gonna have to leave the hard way?”

  “W-we’re dead… Y-you’re dead…”

  “What? Are you trying to threaten me? ” he asked, squinting at the women.

  “N-no, Deric, uh, William’s dad. H-he set up a fail-safe in case his son was ever in danger.”

  “Seems like it worked great,” Jay said in a far less sarcastic tone than he would have liked.

  “Uhh, what? N-no, it didn’t, it was meant to activate before he died.”

  Jay sighed. “Nevemind. So, why does that mean we are dead?”

  A roar echoed throughout the building, followed by the sound of something slamming into a wall close by.

  “What was that?”

  “The thing that's gonna kill us,” she said as tears started falling from her eyes. “I don’t wanna die.”

  Jay winced. He wanted to curse. “Run. I'll hold off whatever it is.”

  She shook her head. “It won’t matter. It’s meant to hunt us down if anything happens to William. It was mostly there to stop us from attempting an assassination.”

  Another roar came, much closer this time as the sound of another wall exploding echoed out.

  “Fine.” Jay raised his gun, cursed that he hadn’t gotten a new offhand weapon, and turned in the direction of the noise. “Just stay back.”

  The wall in front of him came crashing down as he finished speaking, and a dust cloud filled the room. As it cleared, Jay caught the silhouette of a large, powerfully built animal sniffing the air. He readied himself to attack the creature before it realized where he was. That plan was quickly interrupted when a whiplike steel cable lashed out at him, sending him flying back. He crashed into the far wall of the room and blinked rapidly as he tried to regain his breath. The creature finally came into full view as it charged at him, attempting to pounce. He rolled to the side, firing two shots into its mechanical face, but they glanced off harmlessly. The beast tumbled, missing Jay by a few inches and slamming into the wall.

  It was a chimera. A fucking mechanical chimera. The robotic lion’s head focused on him as the beast recovered and its whip-like tails lashed out, destroying the room. Jay had lost track of Emma. He hoped she had come to her senses and run because he didn’t have time to worry about another person right now.

  A white aura began emanating from Jay as he infused a whole 1000 Spirit into Spirit Serge and dashed forward at incredible speed. The creature tried to swipe at him with a paw, but at his current speed, Jay barely even noticed it move as he lashed out with a single punch. In the blink of an eye, the front half of the creature was on the other side of the room, crumpled into a lifeless heap as black liquid poured from both halves.

  Holy shit! Jay thought, looking at his oil-covered fist.

  The blow hadn’t hurt, and his armor was still fully intact. His body hadn’t even begun splitting apart like it had when he’d used a fraction of that power against the enforcer. He had instantly clamped down on his body with Will Control, expecting just that sort of outcome, but he was very pleasantly surprised by his new skill. The continued blaring of the alarm reminded him that he probably wasn’t safe here. Jay sighed, looking around the destroyed room and thankfully not seeing Emma’s body. He really hoped that she had made it out.

  After taking a few moments to loot several of the surviving historical artifacts from the room. He made his way out of the building, following the path of destruction the chimera had left. His heart dropped when he reached the hole the thing had made when it jumped into the building. A path of carnage had been left in its wake. At least twenty people lay dead in the party area that he’d been in just minutes before. Jay pushed down the feeling that welled up in his chest--the feeling that this was a good thing. They were all scumbags that deserved what came to them. He was appalled by the thought. He knew, on some level, it was likely partially true, but he had no idea if those people had come here for the ‘other activities’ that William was offering. How many of them were just innocent people slaughtered because others wanted to be in control?

  Lan, I know you wanted me to kill more. If this shit is happening in other places, I just might take you up on that. Jay thought through the link, clenching down on his revolver as anger burned within him.