Psychometry

His perspective was through the eyes of the kidnapper; the vision began with the man watching John drop Meadow off at her house. He could see his friend and himself awkwardly saying goodbye. The girl gave him a hug and a peck on the cheek, before closing the door. The Gamer watched himself stare stunned at the door for a few moments before dejectedly leaving.

After watching himself leave and make the short walk home, the kidnapper sprang into action. He went over to Meadow’s and knocked on her front door, a moment later the door opened. “I’m glad you came back, John. Huh, you’re not-” She was cut short by the man doing a quick jab to her throat.

John could feel the man’s feelings of delight as the kidnapper watched the girl struggle to breathe or speak because of his sudden strike. He was treating it like a game, watching the panicking girl struggle to climb the stairs gasping for air, all while laughing and slowly following her. When the girl crawled toward the closet in the room that he followed her into, he started taunting her, “Nowhere left to run, huh, little mouse?”

His target was struggling to grab a box as he gripped her ankle. She stopped struggling, making it easier for him to drag her toward him. The blond woman flipped over all of a sudden with a gun in hand. “You should put that down, little girl, it's dangerous,” he mocked the girl as he started reaching for the gun.

Meadow still couldn’t speak properly since his blow to her throat, but it seemed like she tried to threaten him. Unintelligible murmurs and coughing were all that escaped her mouth. Finally, she pulled the trigger, but the bullet only struck a thin protective shell made of flames that seemed to erupt by itself around the man. The girl proceeded to fire bullet after bullet as the man laughed at her useless defense. After all her bullets were fired and the clicking sound of the empty gun attempting to fire was all that could be heard, the scared girl seemed to resolve herself to her fate. The Gamer could swear he heard her whisper, “I love you, John,” as the man knocked her ****.

After that, the vision shifted to the man following behind a woman with a pink braid, similar to the description the kidnapper gave to Jasmine. The pair were walking in an area with a few dilapidated warehouses. While the man carried the **** Meadow, he followed the woman into one of the buildings. After walking for a bit, they entered a barrier.

The building transitioned into a well-stocked laboratory. The kidnapper placed the **** Meadow onto what seemed to be a metal examination table with protrusions used to secure victims to it. The man clasped the slumbering girl's wrists and ankles in metal, securing her to the table. After that, the cloaked woman with the long pink braid came in, followed by the man John recently learned was Meadow’s father, Oak Paxton.

When the blond man saw his own daughter **** on the table, he started making a fuss. “Not her, I know it’s taking some time, but I refuse to risk my daughter’s life on this. Release her now or I stop.”

A long metallic tail came from behind the yelling father, stabbing itself into the table right next to the **** blond woman. “Professor Paxton, you don’t have a choice in the matter anymore; the only fully successful recipient of your device was you yourself. Since you originally designed it with yourself in mind, maybe the closest person to you genetically, your daughter, will be fortunate and also get the full benefit of your nanotechnology. If you don’t cooperate, she might meet with an unfortunate accident just like her mother did last year.”

The long tail retracted back toward where it came from as the clacking of heels echoed through the room. The woman with long flowing pink hair came into the kidnapper's view, wearing a dress similar to the one she had on when she assaulted Jasmine, only in a crimson color. There were two more cloaked figures, who looked female based on their breasts, walking alongside her. John could feel the kidnapper lust after the sadist woman as his gaze explored her curvaceous body from head to toe. “Trust me, her end won’t be as painless as her mother’s if you reject us like you did last time. I’m sure you know just how much I delight in torturing young ones like your daughter. So be a good little **** and test your daughter’s compatibility. If she’s lucky, she might become a fine weapon that has a higher chance of survival. If she’s unlucky, well, you know what happens to the completely failed products more than anyone else,” the woman threatened while shrugging.

“Please, I’m so close to a new variant of the nanomachines, please just wait another week and I’ll be able to work out the kinks. I’m no saint, but I didn’t want my daughter to experience this life, that’s why I ran away and never looked back, only sending her mother money to support them from afar.” The blond man was on the floor begging profusely. The Gamer could feel that his sobs were getting on the kidnappers' nerves; he felt the man scoff at the pitiful father’s crying.

The woman's tail wrapped around the crying man's neck and lifted him into the air effortlessly. He struggled grasping at the tail as he was hoisted about six or so feet in the air. “We have been hearing that from you for over a year now, professor. We have kidnapped over two hundred women in and around this city that have some latent talent and you have only been able to produce seventeen near-passable products and another forty semi-passable ones. You’ve been telling me and my employers for months that you’re close to a breakthrough, but you’ve kept failing. So, while you work on your supposed variant, use the original on your daughter and pray they integrate perfectly with her like they did with yourself.” After that, she tossed the wheezing, near-limp man toward the hooded woman with the pink braid, who caught the man as he gasped for air.

After that, the vision shifted to the man sitting in the bar drinking a horribly tasting drink. The kidnapper looked up to see Jasmine and John enter the bar. Upon seeing them, the man sent a text to a contact on his phone saying that he was found, after which he incinerated the phone in his hand.

Things played out as the Gamer remembered from there. He felt each blow that the reporter inflicted on the kidnapper with her shadows. The intense feeling of having his limbs ripped apart was driving John insane. The man smiled when he saw the beam of light heading in the direction of the woman who was torturing him.

When she blocked the blast, a huge torrent tossed his injury-riddled body around like a rag doll and he blacked out for a moment. The kidnapper came to and pushed himself free of the debris. The man saw the surprised John and immediately he struggled to move his mangled body, lunging at the unsuspecting teen with a sword made of flames that he hastily created. “Die, brat.”

It was horrifying to relive the first life he took from the perspective of his victim. The excruciating pain that permeated his body as he watched himself crush the man's leg. The worst was of course watching his dagger pierce into his head; feeling **** wash over him as he peered into his own eyes left John shocked.

The Gamer felt like he himself had died as everything went dark. In that darkness, time seemed to lose all meaning; he just felt like he was drifting. He couldn’t move or even feel anything. ‘Am I really dead?’ he asked himself full of worry as he felt his thoughts grow hazy.

““You’re not dead, John Newman.”” The silence was shattered by a genderless voice that sounded both quiet like a whisper and loud and echoing.

John was looking around panicking while trying to find the source of the voice, but nothing changed. He wasn’t even sure if he was moving since nothing in his field of view changed. “Who are you? What happened to me?”

““Me, I am the concept of ****. As for what happened to you, well, you accidentally peered at the world beyond the living, a place that shouldn’t be seen with the eyes of someone still alive.””

“I didn’t see anything, please don't hurt me. I only wanted to save my friend, Meadow, I didn’t mean to see anything else,” he began begging for his life.

““John Newman, I’m not here for your life. If anything, I’m here to save it. Even though from your perspective this is a world of nothingness, you still saw more than a living being should see, and for far too long at that. If left alone, your soul will keep trying to understand what happened here, pulling it closer and closer beyond the boundary, until it will permanently leave the world of the living. The worst thing is, your body won’t die, so it would be an open vessel for wandering spirits, or those with the proper knowhow to take possession of it.””

The Gamer tried to calm himself, but he was still very afraid of the situation he found himself in. “So, um, how can you help stop that?”

““Well, there are two solutions. Gaia sent me because she was sure you would reject one of them. The first is for her to rewind time and seal your ability to use that skill on corpses. She’s only offering this option because the skill you used was a gift given by her and not one you developed on your own.””

John instantly knew why Gaia had said he would reject it. He gained a lot of information that could save Meadow when he experienced that abnormally long and detailed psychometric vision. If he agreed to that, he would be willingly risking failure in her rescue. “I would prefer not to do that, so what is the second option?” asked the Gamer.

““The second option is for me to give you something that will help your mind and soul cope with seeing what lies beyond the boundary of life. It may sound like a gift, but with the current strength of your vessel, it will be more of a curse. I will use your memories from your time spent here to give you an eye that can perceive ****.””

“So, what you’re saying is if I choose the second option, I just need to get stronger?”

““It’s not that simple, boy. You won’t have any control over this power and **** is all around you mortals. I know you have your reasons to reject the first option, but I suggest you take your time to consider this properly. Those who have received an eye of **** in the past often went insane or accidentally angered a malicious spirit, because they weren’t ready for the power I bestowed onto them. I am telling you for a fact that you are currently inferior to those who gained this in the past.””

Deciding to obey the entity, he did his best to fight the haze plaguing his mind and think about the choices he was given. ‘OK, John, let’s think about this rationally. If I accept the first option, it essentially undoes everything I just went through. Unfortunately, if I accept Gaia’s offer, we won’t have the information we currently have. Sure, Reimi wanted to look into the guild that produced the list which he did research for, but there is no guarantee we will reach the same conclusion and be able to progress as much as I have.’

The Gamer wanted to save his friend and first love, but part of him felt like he had already risked enough. ‘This eye of **** scares me. I want to save her, but this might be an unnecessary risk. Maybe the people at the research center could point us in the right direction, the only thing I lose is the information gained during Psychometry.’ He imagined the helpless girl strapped to the examination table, to be used for an experiment that, to John’s understanding, was only successful on Meadow’s father. That image was all the convincing he needed. With the first option, there was a possibility, but taking on the risk allowed him to have access to more information. If there was one thing that he learned since joining the Abyss, it was the value of information. “Um, ****, no, you said you’re the concept of ****. Do you have a name? Actually, I guess that’s not important. I’ve decided to accept your eye.”

““Heh, I do have a name that those who I deem worthy are able to know. If you survive long enough and nurture your vessel enough to be able to see the mortal form I adopted, I will give you that privilege. Until then, I truly hope you don’t regret this choice in the future.””

A searing pain assaulted his left eye. This was the first thing he felt since he arrived there. “Yay, more pain,” he said aloud sarcastically

““I suggest you don’t use that skill on corpses, still. The eye will help keep you from trying to peer beyond the boundary. If you use that skill on another corpse, you’re likely to see their **** just like this time and during your next visit you’ll be able to see more than a void of nothingness, your attachment to the mortal world will be severed. You will awaken shortly; Gaia will handle the rest. Good luck, John Newman. I’ll be seeing you.””

With the entity’s farewell, the Gamer saw a twinkling light grow in the distance. A moment later he was staring at the ceiling. There were a few notifications that appeared in his field of view.

Achievement Unlocked: Peer Beyond the Boundary of the Living
You took a peek beyond the world of the living. (You did it through someone else’s eyes, but you still did it.)
Reward: +1 Level

Level Up

Achievement Unlocked: A Chat with ****
Have a conversation with the embodiment of ****.
Reward: Your life. Seriously, if someone else did this with your level of control, the best outcome would be insanity.

New Skill Unlocked: Eye of **** Lvl -7
The user is not able to see the description
The skill is out of the user’s control. There is no MP cost.

Achievement Unlocked: Don’t be too Negative
Acquire a negative level skill
Reward +7 free stat points