Totally Tactical Evasion

As the golem drifted away into nothingness, John finally looked at the popups that he had accumulated in his peripheral vision.

Mana Javelin has reached level 3!
Machine Mind has reached level 2!

+294 XP
+$531

Achievement Unlocked: Best Served Cold.
Defeat an opponent that has bested you in combat or severely injured you previously.
+23 XP
+$200

John enjoyed the level ups to his skills and the general experience, but what he was really over the moon about was the amount of money this stuff was giving him. Why am I getting so much money already? I’m such a low level that this must be nothing in comparison to nearly anything.

Thinking a bit about that in the background, John looked at the loot he had gotten for today.

Aside from self-explanatory stuff like chunks of stone or wiring, that was about it. John was about to close his inventory before he remembered the thing he had gotten from the robot earlier.

That’s very useful for when I start actually making stuff that might need it, John thought, before feeling his stomach grumble in a quite audible fashion. He glanced around to see if anything heard that before slightly chastising it for doing so.

John was sitting on a bench nearby, finishing the last of the BLT he had hastily made this morning and had stored in his inventory. Overall, it was quite good, it was even still warm from when he had toasted the bread. John sat there, musing a bit, before coming to a conclusion.

I suppose the Abyssal economy could be completely fucked to the point of Capitalism NG+ in comparison to the mundane world. That would explain why I’m getting this much money so early on. There’s no way for me to confirm that yet, though, so let’s just keep it on the backburner for now.

John sat there for a while, just taking it all in. The thankfully non hostile worker golems were carrying planks of wood and nails, patching up the hole he had created with his body earlier. The faint, methodical clunk of machinery in the distance was comforting, in a way.

Jeez, these two days have been very eventful. On one hand, I’ve nearly died twice already and have learned that my life, or at least freedom, could be in constant danger. On the other hand, I’ve gained awesome powers, learned about a secretive underbelly of normal society based around magic, learned a fuck ton, and the ability to finally better myself is more accessible than ever before.

John fully sat back for a moment, before rising to his feet.

Well, Faith did warn me of that, and if I truly do continue on this path, then it’s nearly inevitable. Shying away from the facts won’t do shit. I might as well face it head on and try to plan out my survival as best I can

Filled with renewed determination, John cast Barrier Dive to exit the barrier and was greeted by the room he had been in, the one with a ton of cobwebs and dust all over the place. John looked around, inspecting the room, but found that the only change was the lack of the desks that had previously been stacked in the corner.

Taking a step to exit the room, John was greeted by the alarm he had set on his phone previously. Scrambling to turn it off, John fumbled around for a few seconds before swiping on the screen to delete it for good.

John immediately put it into his inventory and froze in his tracks as he heard something.

An unknown voice said “Hello? Is anyone here? I swear to god, if it’s another goddamn student fucking around in here, I’ll **** them” The speaker, who John assumed was one of the school janitors he could never remember the name of. John could then hear footsteps approaching the room where he currently was.

John immediately began to plan how he would escape from this situation, only after mentally cursing about not keeping his phone on vibrate, however.

Racking his brain for a solution, John eventually found one after a few precious moments of thought.

Activating Machine Mind, John attempted to turn off a light in the hallway in front of him. Which promptly flickered and turned off; however, it shortly reactivated. Realizing the futility of this action, John instead took note of the wiring that coursed through the ceiling and found the point where it all connected, which was presumably the main switch for the lighting.

Making sure to memorize the layout before he deactivated Machine Mind, John quietly poked his head out of the room, finding that the coast was clear for now, tiptoed out into the concrete hallway, and backed away from the noise of rapidly approaching footsteps.

John creeped as quietly as he could towards the hallway that would lead him closer to the switch.

Surprisingly, he reached it fairly shortly without interruption. As it turned out, it was a breaker panel that looked as if it hadn’t been touched in years. John opened it with an audible creak, which he internally cringed at. Looking inside, it was pretty much a normal breaker panel, except it was covered in dust and cobwebs.

Well, that can’t be up to code, John thought, activating Machine Mind for a second to determine which switch led to the lighting, since there was no labeling of any kind to be seen. After finding it, John took care to disturb the mess inside the panel as little as possible, to leave minimal signs of his presence.

Mentally preparing himself, John set his finger next to the switch before flicking it into the off position with one fluid motion.

The basement was promptly plunged into near complete darkness. John then noticed the one downfall of his master plan: the fact that he didn’t account for the janitor being between him and the exit.

Mentally cursing to himself once more, John began to hear footsteps, the janitor talking, “Fuck, that’s probably the breaker, I should go check it out,” and the click of a flashlight activating.

John felt his way around the hallway, only stopping when he sensed that he was near a bend, and waited for the janitor to get closer.

Waiting for a few stressful seconds, John began to regret his decision to come down here in the first place. As the janitor rounded the corner, John released the Move he had prepared in the brief seconds onto the flashlight, causing it to tumble and crack on the ground, its bulb growing dim as it had evidently broken.

Seizing this moment as the janitor was scrambling to retrieve his flashlight, John began to sprint through the hallway, activating Machine Mind to guide him through the wires embedded in the walls for the few brief seconds it took him to maneuver his way out of the basement.

Upon reaching the staircase that led up, John slowed down to a more reasonable pace, mostly to catch his breath but also to not seem incredibly suspicious. He then had a look at the popup that had appeared just before he had started sprinting out.

Machine Mind has reached Level 3!

John then brought his backpack out of his inventory before walking up the stairs, intending to head for his next class.