How John convinced a mysterious stranger of his innocence

To all the students that had seen them after John and Ember had left that strangely empty hallway, they would have looked like a somewhat normal couple, even if the members of that couple were quite strange in their appearance.

Unlike what John had seen earlier, however, Ember seemed to the students to be wearing a completely normal school uniform and looked just as young as the rest of them. The knife held to John’s throat was invisible to them. Instead, Ember’s arm looked like it was wrapped around John’s upper back in what was probably perceived as the somewhat normal behaviour of a young couple. She had done this because she knew how dangerous it would be to move John outside of the school otherwise, though she did not enjoy the glances thrown her way and especially the snickers that accompanied those glances.

John was not aware of that appearance, however, so while they walked out of the school with some machination Ember had developed guiding them, he was lost wondering how it was that no one noticed this strange situation. If the situation was different, he might have still been panicking, but he understood that she did not intend to harm him unnecessarily, and it was very likely that if she truly had a way to tell when he had gotten his powers then he would not be harmed at all. That realization led John to the decision to do nothing for now. That decision didn’t last long, however, as he noticed Alice some distance away.

When he first saw her she did not seem to notice him, which led John to relax, but then he understood what would inevitably happen if she did; he was currently walking around with a girl who, if he had judged the occasional glances and snickers correctly, probably looked like she was doing something other than holding a blade to his throat. If that was the case, there was a very strong possibility that they looked entirely normal. While he did not know Alice to be the jealous type, John’s panic addled mind did not consider anything more than the worst possible outcome. That was the loss of the thing he had only so recently gained, her trust, and the thing that he valued above all else. All this led John to act as hastily as he possibly could.

That began by John attempting to think about how he could solve the situation peacefully, as he did not have the tools necessary to escape from the woman that was still holding a knife to his throat. Given that fact, John’s mind went to his more peaceful tools, his Charm and Psychic Connection abilities. For a moment he also considered using Modify Emotion, but that thought disappeared as soon as he realized what that meant doing to this person who, while holding a knife to his throat, was not actively harming him or anyone else.

’If Ember is not capable of disabling Charm or Psychic Connection I might just be able to convince her that I am, in fact, telling the truth if I play my cards right,’ John thought; determined that was his best course of action. The way he could use Charm was obvious to him but seemed like it would not be enough to convince her. What was not obvious, however, was how he could use Psychic Connection; that was until soon after when he remembered what he had done with it up until now. He had used it to glean information from the minds of the individuals he had touched, and if he could do that it seemed to him to be very likely that he could do it in reverse; he could let the woman named Ember judge him by his mind and not his words.

In the short period of time that he had before he believed Alice would notice him, John came up with a plan. A second later, he executed that plan. It began with John using Psychic Connection to connect his mind to the now open mind of Ember. Her mind being open was something of a lucky break for John as he had not prepared for any alternate possibilities in his rush to come up with the plan. This success also continued to build his unwarranted confidence in the plan, which was mostly built on guesswork, speculation, and hope, nonetheless, that confidence would prove correct. Next, John attempted to do something that felt opposite to digging through her mind for information; he attempted to bring information from his mind into hers. He did so simply by thinking about that information and willing it to move into her mind. Surprisingly, his plan seemed to be working, as the next thing inside her mind was not one of her thoughts, it was his message.

’I am John Newman, a normal high school student. Yesterday I got these weird powers which function like a game, and I have been struggling to find out where those came from since then. I am capable of speaking to you thanks to an ability called Psychic Connection,’ She heard a strange voice say inside her head. Then a moment later, John was kicked out of her mind, and something far more dangerous to his goals happened.

“You think you can enter my mind and influence me? You’re a fool,” Ember said, and the blade in her hand moved closer to slitting John’s throat. Meanwhile, all around them grey had replaced the colours, and nobody seemed to notice them at all.

Before the blade reached his throat, however, John activated the second part of his plan. He used Charm and began speaking quickly.

“I am telling the truth. I know it’s hard for you to believe, but it’s all I can give you. If you have some way to access my mind I’m sure you would have done so already, which is why I entered your mind. I didn't do it to influence you but merely in order to convince you that I’m not lying to you,” For some reason, as soon as John started the knife stopped it’s movement, and when John stopped his speech for a moment, the knife, along with her arm, dropped to the side of Ember’s body.

“I know it’s hard to believe, but since yesterday morning I have been getting skills like in a video game; it’s been hard to believe for me as well, but somehow my life is like a video game now, and I don’t even know why. First I got a skill called Observe. The skill lets me look at something and tells me what it is, it’s how I found you. Then I got another skill which lets me charm people. I got a few more skills, and I even got quests and achievements. Hell, I’ve even levelled up. I don’t expect you to believe me right away or anything, but this is the truth, and I hope you believe me enough to not kill me and maybe even explain some things,”

Charm successful, RP increased by 30

“I don’t know why, but I believe you now. This changes things. First, if you are truly a late bloomer, it is my duty to give you some basic information. Whatever powers you may have, you are now part of the Abyss. The Abyss is a world adjacent to our own, it is one filled with magic and fantastic things, but it is mostly filled with danger. As one might expect of a place where there are people so strong as to defeat entire organizations, the strong rule and the weak die if they are not under their protection. It is not a good place to live in, but you are now a part of it nonetheless. I come from an organization named the Council of Exploration, something that earlier you said you already knew. The Council is responsible for exploring a sort of pocket dimension called the Gateway. That is where we were going to verify your identity, but as that is no longer necessary, I must return to my duties. I will be back, however, as you are a late bloomer, and according to the code of my organization, that means I must report you. I hope I will come back here to ask you to join us and tell you more about your new world, and that is why I will tell you to stay around this school or at your home, but even if that is not the case, and I or some other person is commanded to eliminate you, I hope you find luck in this cruel new world you found yourself in, ” Ember said, her voice showing more emotion than ever before, and disappeared.