Chapter 26: Another Meeting with the Boss

Deep in the South Zone, in the same seemingly abandoned warehouse that served as the base for Metal Body, the boss was inside rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers, an expression of irritation plasted on his face.

Inside his "office", there was Colt along with two other men, these were the guards of the 30th District and also the ones that brought Colt to the base.

"...How did this happen...?" The boss asked, looking at the deplorable state of Colt, who had arrived the night before thanks to the guards of the 30th District, who went to investigate the 31st District after hearing some shouting.

Since Colt had been sleeping since yesterday, he only could meet with the boss right now.

"I'm...really sorry, boss, but the hooded guy beat me..." Colt replied, visibly embarrassed, scratching his neck a little.

Although several hours had passed since he confronted Jay, the effects of the itching powder and hot sauce still lingered.

"Give me all the details." Said the boss, although he could imagine what kind of methods the unknown subject had used to defeat Colt, he still wanted to know the specific details..

"Yeah, uh, it all started when..."

***

'...How low...' thought the boss after hearing the whole Colt story.

He had sent Colt specifically because he was almost immune to surprise attacks, but who would have thought that the attacker would be so shameless as to use such methods!

'No...this is my fault, for not predicting this.'

After analyzing the situation better, the boss came to that conclusion.

He already knew that the attacker didn't have enough attacking power to defeat Taylor or Colt, so it was obvious that he would use special methods to defeat his enemies, so it was his fault for not warning Colt about it.

The only thing that was not clear to him was the fact that the attacker had not used what the boss assumed was his strongest card...his illusion skill, and instead, had shown that he possessed a wind control ability, with which he was able to hurt and blind Colt.

As to whether that was an illusion...judging by the state of Colt, it clearly wasn't.

Then, what was the right answer?

Did the hooded man have two esper skills...?

That was extremely unlikely, there were only a handful of espers in the world with multiples skills, so that option was ruled out.

Then, could it be that the attacker who defeated Colt was not the same person who had defeated Taylor...

Maybe it was two different people...?

That would make sense, one with the power of illusion and the other with the power of Wind Control...

However...their fighting style and appearance was too similar...

'Haa...annoying.' The boss thought after all those questions were formulated in his head.

Fortunately, although Colt had had to spend a painful night, with this the boss already had enough information about the extent of the subject...or unknown subjects' powers, so he could already send someone suitable to deal with the problem.

"Now then...did any of you managed to see something...?" the boss asked the two guardians of District 30.

One of them was a tall, thin man in his 20s with short, wavy black hair who was wearing a black long sleeve shirt along with gray pants, he had an attractive face that went very well with his gray eyes.

"Well, maybe we would have seen something if SOMEONE hadn't been late because they saw a cat!" replied the black-haired man as he looked at his partner.

"Hey! You don't have to mention that!" quickly responded his partner, who, unlike the black-haired man, looked much tougher.

This man, who had a military-style cut, was wearing black jeans along with a leather vest which exposed his torso and his stocky arms which were even thicker than Colt's, adding his tough-looking face, all together made him look more intimidating than anyone else in the room.

"It's the truth, we were delayed because you were distracted!" said the black-haired man again.

"I told you to go first!"

"And end up like Colt? Hell no!"

Although what he had said were words one would not expect to hear from a person whose job was to be a guardian, those present were already used to it.

'Haaa, these idiots...'

"Alright, that's enough." Said the boss, ending the conflict, "Even though you neglected your roles as guardians, since you brought Colt in, I won't make it too difficult for you...just 50% less in your salary this month.

"50?! But boss, it was his-"

The black-haired man tried to protest, but the boss quickly interrupted him.

"No buts, you're both to blame here, now take Colt to get his wounds treated, we don't want him to get some kind of infection, oh right, Colt, take a few days off, it's my fault you're like this."

"...Yes, boss." The guards of the 30th District answered, although the black-haired man was somewhat unhappy with the punishment, he knew that claiming something at this point would be futile.

"Thank you very much, boss." Colt said after hearing about the days off.

After saying that, the three proceeded to leave, leaving the boss alone with his thoughts.

"He..." Said the chief as he remembered Colt's appearance, besides his red eyes and nose, there was something else that caught his attention.

"He also looked like he had aged..."

Although the first time could be attributed to Taylor having had a very bad night, this time Colt had rested properly, so that excuse was no longer valid.

Instead, the boss came to another conclusion.

"They're taking away their vitality..." He said with a dangerous look, his eyes giving off the aura of a rank (C) super.

He did not know what they wanted the vitality of their subordinates for or what use they could put it to, but he did know one thing.

"I must take care of this."

With those words as his last, the boss then turned on his smart watch and searched his contact list until he came up with a certain name:

"Aiden"

That was the name of one of the few rank (C-) supers that were part of Metal Body.

***

Back at Jay's house, he was finishing up his housework.

"Ha, alright, I think that's all." He said after drying and putting away the last dish he had washed.

He had spent the entire morning cleaning his house, and because he always liked to leave everything piled up for one day, it had taken quite a while.

He then took off his dishwashing gloves and went to take a shower, cleaning had made him sweat a little after ll.

Jay hadn't yet asked the system why the parasites had a 2% per day bonus instead of the usual 1%, but it was because he liked to keep everything clean and tidy so he wouldn't have to worry later.

"Now this is refreshing." He said as he walked down the stairs with a new change of clothes, then he walked over to one of the couches and sat down, not without turning on the TV first as he didn't like to be in silence.

"Well, now that everything is clean, let's get started."

'Open, system, question, why is there a 2% per day in the status of Colt?'

_____________

Answer: [Proliferation] uses the host body as a base to create special parasites, if the Carrier infects a host using the parasites created in the body of the host, the assimilation process will be faster.

_____________

"...Hm, I see, that makes sense." Said Jay as he nodded his head.

It certainly was a really useful information, although it was a shame that he couldn't use [Proliferation] anymore.

In fact, if he had known earlier, he might have tried to use it on Noah instead of Taylor, even if it risked waking him up, that way, he could have gone to pick up his little ones today.

"Oh, well, there's no point thinking about what I could have done."

Now with that issue resolved, Jay turned his attention to something else, and that was, the days left to go pick up his little ones

Jay then turned on his smart watch and checked the date, today was Tuesday of the eleventh month, year 2154.

Considering that he had infected Noah on Sunday night, counting today there were still about 2 days left, before Jay could harvest his crop.

'Hmm, it looks like I'll still have to wait a little to get Regeneration...'

However, even though he had to wait a few days, Jay was not at all unhappy, after all, waiting a little while to get such a good skill was totally acceptable.

On the other side, the assimilation process of his other host, Colt, was progressing rapidly; in fact, Jay was planning to visit him tomorrow night, when the assimilation proccess was already finished.

'The problem is that I don't know where he lives...I guess I'll have to ask Noah.'

Just then, his smart watch vibrated, indicating that a message had arrived, and the sender was none other than Noah.

"Oh, how timely." Jay said with a smile on his face.

However, when he read the message, his expression changed to one of surprise.

[Hey, I think you'll be interested in this. A rank (C) super is the new guardian of District 31!]