The Sins

by Pegaz A

  Are all neurons like this in the centre, or is Isake just unlucky?

  “Ah…” John took a deep breath. “Hey, Isake, don’t move your head at all. Don’t speak or nod or anything, but move your right hand to answer me, all right?”

  Isake lifted his right hand and put his thumb up.

  “Good. Now here’s what’s going on.” John went on to explain that inside Isake’s brain, there were two neurons joined together. With a sour taste in the back of his throat, John admitted to not knowing which one to give Life Power to. “If I choose the wrong one, it could kill you.”

  Dead silence. Isake didn’t so much as twitch at the news. John continued his proposition.

  “I’m giving the choice to you,” he said. “Do you want to go through with it or not? If you do, which one do you pick? Left or right? Put up one finger for left and two fingers for right.”

  Isake had lowered his hand after hearing John and didn’t move for almost a minute. Then he took a deep breath without moving his head and he put his arm and thumb up again. All fingers except his index finger were tucked in, signalling one.

  “Understood.” John nodded. “You’re braver than most people, Isake. I hope this works out for you.”

  The threads inside the brain moved closer and touched the left neuron. John pushed a single unit of Life Power inside then removed the threads as quickly as possible.

  Isake rolled about while clutching his head in pain, like what John did when the age test crystal mutated his neurons. What surprised John the most, though, was that Isake did not utter one scream, cry for help, or even made a noise at all.

  Fifteen minutes later, Isake was lying on the floor, unmoving. John could not hear him breathing anymore. He checked the man’s pulse, but nothing.

  He was gone.

  John sat down and closed his eyes. He lowered his head. Sitting here, it was eerily quiet. All he could hear was the rain pattering against the straw roof of the hut.

  After a few minutes, John picked up Isake with his threads. He put his hand on the straw wall, using his fire element to burn the house down. He then teleported to a hill about seven miles away from the village.

  With the earthen element, he made a 6-foot long, 4-foot wide, and 8-foot deep hole for Isake’s body. He gently lowered Isake down into the tomb with his threads. John used his earthen element to cover his body up. As a finishing touch, he created a tombstone to mark the grave.

  He made the tombstone from one solid piece of grey rock. John used the earthen elements to bring it here from deeper in the planet, then used the same elements to sculpt it. Isake’s face was on the tombstone, but a younger, more clean-shaven version of himself with shorter hair and a smiling face. His name was etched below, but John left out the ‘Peasant’ part.

  John took out a few platinum coins and used his metal element to coat the whole tombstone. This would keep it looking brand new for much longer and make it much harder to destroy.

  When he finished, the tombstone looked like it was made from marble. Isake’s smiling face gleamed coldly in the warm light of the setting sun.

  Chapter 10

  Soul

  John stood there, looking at Isake’s tombstone.

  He could kill anyone he wanted, and if given the right circumstances, he could destroy an entire planet. He could use all the basic elements for whatever he needed, and he was immune to most—if not all—ailments of mankind.

  But he couldn’t help anybody.

  Maybe when he died the first time back on Earth, he’d been sent to hell. Maybe this was all an illusion, and his life was nothing but his own personal torture. It seemed as if everything he got in this life was taken away not moments later. It just wasn’t fair.

  My master died due to Jeremy’s greed within a few years after meeting him. My wife is in a coma because of Chris’ lust after less than eight years together. And now Isake has died due to his own pride after spending less than a full day with me.

  Am I going to meet a friend who dies the next minute, then? Will I meet my reincarnated parents and then they’ll die after telling me who they are, but before they can say anything else?

  John’s thoughts spiralled downward, feeding into his wrath. He so dearly wanted to let go of his morals and go on a rampage, destroying planets and ending lives. Anything but this endless torture. It would be the fastest way of levelling up. He would only need to destroy maybe a hundred planets to level up to Rank 9. And what were one hundred planets among trillions? A few quadrillion people were nothing to the rest of the universe, but a new Rank 9 with his strengths would be of more value when it came to war against the beastmen.

  Once I’m Rank 9, the system should show me how to get to the next realm, too. I can live forever. Sarah might wake up, and then we can both live forever. I can destroy the beastmen’s planets to end the war. If destroying a mere hundred planets is the price, then so be it. I’m willing to pay.

  The thoughts echoed in John’s head. Feeling a knot in the pit of his stomach, John abruptly took out a small mirror and looked at his eye in the reflection. The black eye, yellow pupil, and the seven-star mark were visible through his mask. The pit in his stomach deepened, and a grin of both horror and amusement tore across his face.

  Is this what becoming a demon is like, then? Seeing the lives of people as nothing but a price to pay? This is the same thought process I witnessed Danny go through when he sought power. The only difference is my thoughts are on a different scale involving planets. It’s only because I saw Danny’s change that I realised my thought process had changed, too.

  John admitted that exchanging the lives of people he didn’t know for power was tempting. However, he also knew that if normal immortals couldn’t stop him, the Adventurers Guild would send people who could.

  They were the peacekeepers in this universe. They would intervene by any means of force necessary.

  No, the plan stays the same. I’m going to gather sins slowly. It’s a much better option in the long run. Sarah is still alive and she has over 350 years left to live, so I have time.

  Now that he thought about it, the technique that Jeremy May had would be perfect for him. He could make it change the thought process of people, and he would have no need to alter their memory or vision. He could make them want to commit crimes and then harvest off their sins.

  I should go back and kill Jeremy first, get that technique, and then use it to gain sins. Can I kill him, though? My nano sword can cut him up, but he’s a Rank 9… I’ve already gotten one skill point from killing a Rank 9, but that took me destroying an entire planet. Without that kind of powerful attack, it’s going to be a challenge.

  The technique was too tempting to give up, John decided. Jeremy thought that he was dead anyway, which could only be a good thing for a surprise attack. It only made sense to prepare and set off immediately, which John started to do.

  As he was about to fly away, however, he saw something floating near Isake’s tombstone. When John looked at it, the object of focus was half visible and half invisible. With squinting eyes, John could make out a small blue circle with a blue flame at the top. He lifted his left arm to graze it with his fingers, but to his surprise, his left hand went through it. He couldn’t feel it pass through his fingers at all.

  John turned his head left and right to see if anyone was around. Maybe someone was pranking him. There was no one around, but he was in for an entirely different surprise.

  When he turned his head to the left, he could still see the blue object in the corner of his right eye. But when he turned to his right, it was no longer visible. Looking at it face forward, John closed his left eye only. It was still visible. Opening his left eye and closing his right eye, it disappeared.

  No wonder it is half visible and half invisible, it’s like holding your finger close to your nose. You can see the finger in two places while seeing through it because of the different views of both eyes together. My left eye was seeing through it while my right ey
e was seeing the object, causing the illusion. So my eye that has the surrounding pattern can see it, but what is it? Why can my right eye see it?

  He suddenly had an idea. Since his demon eye could see whatever it was, then maybe...

  Lifting his right hand, he touched the object with his black nails. The nail didn’t go through the object but touched it instead. John could see that the tip of his nail was pushing on the surface of whatever this was.

  ‘Ding!’

  Found a wandering soul, do you want to absorb it?

  Soul will disappear in 5... 4...

  John was taken aback.

  The system said it is a soul and will disappear. I shouldn’t even feel the soul until Rank 8. Is the system giving me a shortcut? Or is it because I’m a demon now?

  I don’t know what absorbing the soul will do, but the system wouldn’t ask me if it was something terrible, right? It would block it instead, right?

  2... 1...

  “Yes!”

  As soon as John shouted the answer, the soul which he was still in contact with was pulled closer to his face. John thought the soul might be headed to his brain since that was where he assumed his own soul was. As the soul got closer, it stopped in front of his mouth, so John opened wide.

  The soul was dragged into his mouth. John closed his jaw and swallowed.

  ‘Ding!’

  Soul absorbed. Extracting memories...

  The vision in John’s right eye grew blurry, and after a few seconds, it showed a different sight altogether.

  He could see “himself” working as a labourer, going to the capital, exchanging currency and many more memories. Days within the memory went by in seconds. He saw “himself” fighting to survive against other people, learning how to fight by using his body. He felt powerful emotions coursing through his being—pain, pride, fear…

  He fell in love with a woman, then felt true loss when she left him for another man. He felt so much emptiness as she started a family and became happy. Listless and tired, he moved to a village and built his own house of straw and then retired. The woman’s husband came to the village years later after the woman died and the kids had grown up.

  What surprised John the most was the last pieces of the memory. He saw himself—his actual self—staring back at him.

  When the memories finished, the vision disappeared and John’s right eye returned to normal.

  Those were Isake’s memories. That was his soul? No wonder he hated that man. He took the woman he loved.

  John turned to the tombstone.

  “I know your soul’s gone now,” he said, “and I don’t know if I destroyed it or if you’ve gone off to get reincarnated. But let me do one last thing for you to rest in peace.”

  Teleporting inside the village, John appeared less than a hundred feet behind the man from Isake’s memory and poisoned him with the threads. It was a fast-acting poison as John didn’t think he deserved a slow and painful death.

  With the deed done, John flew straight up in the air and headed east, back to the Rogue system’s teleport room.

  Along the way, John grabbed an old man walking through the forest, knocked him out, and tried “forcing” immortality on him. The same two neurons were in the centre of the brain, so John put a unit of Life Power in the right neuron this time. After ten minutes, John checked the man out with Immortal Eye.

  ???

  Rank: 1

  Level: 1

  Sin: 0

  To make sure it wasn’t a fluke, John found two more old people and did the same “forcing” tactic on them, putting a unit of Life Power inside the right neuron again. They all became beginner immortals.

  So it was Isake’s bad luck, after all...

  John carried on travelling.

  Chapter 11

  Jeremy

  It took John six months to travel from that planet to the Rogue Sect’s planet because he took a detour. He destroyed the teleport rune when he fled the Rogue Sect’s planet years ago, and he wasn’t sure if it had been fixed yet. Even if they did fix the teleport rune, the state of the mission hub was a little more than questionable the last time John had seen it. If it was still the pile of rubble he remembered, he didn’t want to take the chance of teleporting into a pile of rocks.

  Taking a direct route would only arouse suspicion of him, anyway. He made sure to arrive from the opposite direction he had left years ago, just in case the sect members believed he was still alive. Being taken in for questioning was the last thing he had on his agenda. Although it was a long shot and probably wasn’t going to happen, John was here to kill Jeremy and couldn’t afford any surprises.

  It was going to be hard enough for John to kill a Rank 9 as it was, but if Jeremy was on guard and expecting an attack, then the difficulty would rise many times over. It might even be impossible at John’s current rank. He needed all the advantages he could get.

  John arrived at the teleport room on a planet that was only one teleport away from the Rogue Sect. He remained inside the small room with the teleport, staying hidden from the two nearby people he picked up in his Scan. They were inside the main area, not too far away.

  Taking out the small mirror, John made sure his armour had shape-shifted to the Rogue Sect’s outfit. He double-checked that the star pattern around his eye wasn’t showing, a little wary of how it broke through his previous disguise.

  He could hear the two nearby people talking about their last mission. He kept an ear out for anything important, but there was nothing said about any new security measures.

  Maybe it’s a coincidence they’re here talking? Should I wait until they leave? Maybe wait for somebody else to eavesdrop on?

  A bit on edge, John glanced behind him. The teleport room was made of stones and bricks; with his earth element, he could hollow out a little room to hide in if he wanted to wait. But if he made a room, he was worried the security runes installed in the teleport room would find out and attack him.

  Deciding on an alternative, he flew to the ceiling of the room and turn hover option on. The ceiling was only 8 feet high, and with his back to the ceiling, he was worried if it would work. He’d never tested where the Life Power generated from on his body when he had the hover option on.

  Luckily for him, the power generated was equally spread around his limbs. He could feel the Life Power pushing from his shoulders, wrists, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles to keep his whole body hovering without moving at all.

  About twelve hours of waiting passed, and he heard the two people repeating their exact conversation over and over again. The hair on his neck bristled with eeriness; it was like they were using a script. John knew something was up. They had to be guards.

  After three days of hovering in hiding, John was alerted by the runes below him lighting up. Somebody was coming through. He held his breath, doing his best to stay absolutely still.

  Within a few seconds, a masked person in the Rogue Sect’s garbs came through the runes. They opened the door and walked towards the two guards outside. When the two guards saw the new person, they put their hands on their weapons, ready to attack.

  The newcomer took out a small, long piece of stone. John observed the whole scene through his Scan, intrigued. It was only a flat piece of stone with numbers on it, no other indicators of what it was. The numbers must have been significant, though, since upon seeing the numbers, the two guards backed down. They ceremoniously nodded and stood straight up, assuming their previous positions.

  So the stone piece is to show they’re members? Or is it a mission number? That’s a possibility since there are 8 numbers on the token… Could also be a coincidence.

  While still hovering below the ceiling, John got creative. He took out a piece of metal the same colour as the stone that person showed them and changed it to match the size. He continued to mould it so that it more closely resembled the object, finishing it off by adding a series of eight numbers along the front. Double checking his work, John nodded in satisfactio
n.

  I’ve got to act like that person did, too. He took it out of his robe’s right pocket. It wasn’t inside a bag, which is strange... Maybe that is part of the procedure, too? It’s the little details like these that catch spies out. Don’t say a word, just nod. Hope I’m not overthinking this...

  John noted that the man also used teleport number 1 to go to the Rogue Sect’s planet, too. At least he knew the teleport hub was working now. The only problem he foresaw was the possibility that there might be guards on the other side of the teleport rune. There was only one way to find out.

  Turning off hover, John silently floated down. Confident, he walked through the door.

  Mimicking the actions of the one before him, he entered the room. Quickly, John checked the stats of the guards.

  ???

  Rank: 6

  Level: 1

  Sin: 30,203

  Status: Memory Manipulated

  ???

  Rank: 8

  Level: 4

  Sin: 3,735,593

  Status: Memory Manipulated

  He took out the badge from his right pocket using his left hand. He showed the object to the guards without pausing his steps. His movements mimicked the other person’s perfectly, but this was the real moment of truth.

  The two guards looked at the flat piece of stone in John’s hand, then relaxed their stances. John fought the urge to sigh in relief.

  Walking up to room number 1, John opened the door and stepped through to get on the rune. He disappeared a second later.

  As soon as he reached the other side, John flew to the ceiling and turned hover option on again. All of his senses on alert, his Scan picked up the mission hub. It was a perfect replica of the one he destroyed—even the map on the ceiling was back.

  It’s only been 8 years since I destroyed this place. How long did it take for them to fix it?