Chapter 35 - Stage 2 : Acting

While Cynrik and Brance were trying to figure out how far away they had gone, the kidnappers finally spoke up. "Gal, we're almost there. Wake the kids up and put the hoods on them."

A second voice spoke up a few seconds later, "The hell? I canceled my Psyonic Nightmare; they should have woken up instantly."

"AYE, WHAT THE HELL, GAL, YOU DIDN'T KILL THEM, DID YOU!" The first kidnapper screamed angrily at the man ironically nicknamed Gal.

{Shit, we fucked up; I GOT THIS.} Hearing the two of them start panicking. Cynrik put on his little kid facade, worked up his best crybaby face, and started screaming wildly.

"WAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"WAHHHHHH!"

"I WANT MY MOMMY, WAHHH," Cynriks acting skills were so good it almost even convinced Brance for a moment before he realized he was supposed to be awake too, and started fake crying but not nearly as well as Cynrik.

"Big brother, who are these bad guys? Where's Mommy and Daddy? Sniffle, Sniffle," hearing his brother's lame acting caused Cynriks left eye to start twitching and almost made him stop his cry baby act.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU BRATS, DO YOU THINK I WON'T CUT OFF YOUR FINGERS AND TOES?" a large man wearing a black robe, sitting in the van's third row, screamed while leaning forward in his seat, expecting to intimidate the two children. However, his actions only fed the flames further, causing Cyrnik to literally lose his shit as he started thrashing around in pure terror while screaming and trying to climb into the front seat.

{What the fuck Cynrik….} Brance was absolutely beside himself as he watched his brother flail about and scream how he was gonna pee.

While Cynrik's act of spazzing out in terror may come off as entirely random movements, to Brance, it was evident that wasn't the case at all. Each one of his seemingly random convulsions put him closer and closer to the kidnapper named Gal, who was sitting in the passenger seat.

With nearly perfect manipulation of his body, Cynrik reached up and snatched down Gal's hood, revealing a horrific sight that momentarily made even the fearless Cynrik pause. Instead of a normal human face, what greeted him was a mutilated and scarred appearance. Missing were the man's nose, ears, and lips; in their place were empty holes that allowed a person to view this man's Skull. His teeth were blackened as if he hadn't brushed them his entire life, and some were even missing. Instead of pink human gums, Gal's were a necrotic black color.

Cynriks mind blanked for only a millisecond as he went straight back into his act and started screaming wildly, kicking at the passenger seat in an attempt to jump back to his brother's side.

What he wasn't expecting was to be grabbed the second his back hit the comfy seat. Catching the flailing child, the muscular kidnapper looped his right arm around Cynrik's neck before he started squeezing like a boa constrictor. Next, the kidnapper leaned right against Cynrik's ear and whispered, "If you don't shut the hell up ill pop your head… like a fruit," to which Cynrik very quickly shut up and went limp, acting as if he had fainted.

Feeling the boy's body collapse, the muscular kidnapper let him go and slowly turned his head towards Brance, "You'll be a good kid and not scream too, right?"

Nodding very, slowly showing clear signs of terror, he shot a message through their mind link to confirm if Cynrik was ok, only to receive "Homies weak AF" as a response, nearly making him swear at his psychotic older brother.

"Good, now put this on and put one on your big brother as well," the man tossed two sets of pitch-black robes that seemed to be in their sizes at Brance, who quickly put it on before forcefully slipping his brothers over his head without being the least bit gentle. He even snuck in a couple of cheap shots to the top of Cynrik's head to scold him for his antics.

"Now then, here's the deal, you'll stay quiet, or we're gonna start chopping things off. When the HoverVan Stops, you will get out obediently and join the group of other children. Do you understand?" the Muscular man spoke slowly while still holding an aggressive tone to the now wholly obedient Brance, who nodded and replied with "Y...Yes…s...Sir"

Hearing what he wanted, the man leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms, not missing the chance to make fun of the man named Gal, who had clearly messed up big time.

{Start assigning your stats now; we don't have much time, and we have no idea what kind of shit storm we'll be walking into;} Cyrnik had already started assigning his Stat points the second he chose to play dead, but he wanted to be sure Brance was prepared as well.

Checking the Stat requirements for his gear and making a quick decision, Cynrik began distributing the 56 Stat points he had saved since birth. With each point, he felt power warmly radiate through his body on a massive scale, much like when he killed a virtual creature and got attribute points. While he was slightly unhappy with allocating so many points to DEX, there was no way around it for what he had planned. So he pushed up his DEX and AGI Stats with the bulk of his points to meet the requirements for all his weapons and Dual-Wielding passive skill.

By the time the vehicle stopped at their destination, Cynrik had "Woken Up" and was proudly staring at his newly improved stat panel that would make even Level 15's jealous.

: STATS :

: HP 400/400 :

: Mana 186/186 :

: Stamina 200/200 :

: Stat Points- 0:

: Skill Points- 80 :

: Strength- 21 : (+6)

: Dexterity- 50 : (+25)

: Agility- 50 : (+20)

: Intelligence- 20 : (+5)

: Vitality- 40 :

: Mind- 31 :

: Affinity :

:(SAG)Dark-Tier 0 (Proficiency= 10.0%): :Expand:

:(BG) Fire-Tier 1 (Proficiency= 10.0%): :Expand:

:(BG) Wind-Tier 0 (Proficiency= 25.0%): :Expand:

Reviewing his current stats before finalizing his distribution, Cynrik had allocated the remaining points to STR and INT not to let them fall too far, being, after all, they were his two lowest Stats. Still, while he considered them inferior, it was actually where they were supposed to be if he didn't have Tobs as his system. Cynrik had done extensive research on what an average person's Stat profile should be and noticed how, at level 6, they would be lucky to have even a single stat over 20. Yet, one look at Cynrik or Brance's stats, and any person would call foul and scream how they were the stats of someone significantly higher level.

His new stat profile may not fall into the same category as an Assassin or Rogue, but he felt it fit his wild style well. The added STR would allow his consecutive hits to rack up more damage, while the added Magic power and MP from raising his INT would help him balance his mana consumption in combat.

While his brother casually pulled up his hood to hide the wide smirk he was currently emitting, Brance emulated him in putting up his hood while also admiring his new stat profile. He had gone for a more balanced approach with his allocations. However, he wasn't expecting that when he pushed his VIT up to 60, Tobs would tell him he needed to raise his level higher to raise his STR further.

: STATS :

: HP 600/600 :

: Mana 176/176 :

: Stamina 300/300 :

: Stat Points- 0 :

: Skill Points- 0:

: Strength- 41 : (+7)

: Dexterity- 35 : (+15)

: Agility- 25 : (+4)

: Intelligence- 20 : (+10)

: Vitality- 60 : (+20)

: Mind- 21 :

: Affinity :

:(SAG)Light-Tier 0 (Proficiency= 10.0%): :Expand:

:(BG) Earth-Tier 1 (Proficiency= 10.0%): :Expand:

:(BG) Wind-Tier 0 (Proficiency= 25.0%): :Expand:

Upon completing their point allocation, both siblings sent their new Stat profiles to each other and discussed the revelation that a Stat cap was imposed on them based on their level. At level 6, the cap was 60, which meant that it would increase by ten every time they leveled up.

Once they finished admiring each other's new Stats, the two of them simultaneously closed their System Panels and observed their surroundings. It had been several hours since their kidnapping and was now the dead of night. While Brance was having difficulty adjusting to the darkness, Cynrik's Dark affinity gifted him excellent night vision, so he could see the same as if the suns were up.

The First thing they zeroed in on was the fact that they were currently in a run-down industrial area. Abandoned factories and buildings littered the surrounding grounds. The pavement was cracked and showed signs that it hadn't been in use for several years, and all of the street lamps they could see were currently burned out, which gave an eerie feel to their lifeless surroundings.

The burly man in the back seat of the van spoke up, breaking their concentration, "Get out of the van and stand next to it or else."

The two brothers obediently got out of the vehicle's safety and stood next to it as they were told before making further observations.