“Noah, hey, wake up…!” Jay said as he shook Noah to wake him up.

After that strange interaction he had with the other guard, Jay didn’t waste a second and took Noah into the backyard of a nearby house, which had a small, five-foot-high wall surrounding it, enough for both of them to hide.

“U-urgh…”

Fortunately, it didn’t take Jay long to wake him up.

‘Finally…’

Seeing that Noah had already awakened, Jay let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the little wall.

“!”

However, just after he woke up, Noah got up and started looking around, visibly alarmed, it seems that he still thought that he was trapped by the guardian.

Without giving him time to do anything else, Jay pulled him by the sleeve of his sweatshirt and forced him to sit down while he showed him his smart watch.

[Calm down, I managed to rescue you from the guard who caught you.]

“…Oh, Jay…thanks then.” Noah said, visibly relieved.

[Don’t talk, write on your smart watch, and start by explaining to me exactly what happened.]

[I’m sorry, and, well… after I sent you the message saying that there were trouble…]

***

‘…What a good time I chose to pick up my little ones, haha…’ Jay thought sarcastically, making a bitter smile._.

Turns out that when Noah was on his way to his apartment, he noticed that someone was following him, which surprised him as he had been quite cautious all the way.

However, he quickly composed himself and changed his route so that he could lose the person following him.

But despite having walked for several minutes continuously changing direction, instead of losing the person following him, he had the feeling that even more people were following him.

Until finally, instead of watching him, they decided to catch him, and they were coming at him from all directions, so Noah had no choice but to run in the one direction where he couldn’t see any of those people, towards the park, that’s when he hurriedly sent that message to Jay, in hopes that he could gain time until Jay arrived.

However, before he could even get to the park, he ran into a guardian who seemed to be talking to someone on his smart watch, he had a focused expression on his face as Noah remembered, which is why Noah thought he might be able to get through without being noticed.

Unfortunately, the moment Noah ran up, the guardian noticed him instantly and caught him, not without knocking him out first of course, and all without ending the call.

As for the people chasing him, they had apparently stopped before Noah met the guard.

‘Hmm…people who were chasing Noah but avoided the guardian…and the guardian said that they were under attack…’

Now with Noah’s story and the information the guardian had given him, Jay could make an assumption as to what was happening.

[It’s Wolf’s Fang, they’re attacking Metal Body.]

[…Yes, it’s most likely, even though it’s true that things have been quiet in the last few months, it could have been to gather their forces to launch an attack right now…]

Both agreed with this conclusion, which was the most logical one, after all, who other than Wolf’s Fang would be capable of attacking Metal Body in its entirety?

[Well, even if they’re not, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s very dangerous to go out there right now.] Jay wrote on his smart watch.

Judging by the explosions he had heard before, Jay was absolutely certain that regardless of whether they were caused by the collision between two supers or by the use of some explosive, it was still incredibly dangerous for both of them.

[What do we do then, wait here until tomorrow?] Noah asked.

[No, we have to leave the South Zone, judging by what the guard said, this will only get worse, and that’s why…I need to do something before we leave, can you open the door to this house?]

Noah nodded and started trying to open the lock on the back door, even though he would had said something like “It’s 5 credits” or something like that before, he knew that in this situation it would be best to hurry as much as possible.

As for what Jay needed to do, Noah now trusted Jay more after what he had done for him, so he simply did what he asked without asking, keeping his doubts to himself.

*Click*

With that sound, the door opened, and both entered the house, not without first making sure no one had seen them enter the house.

The interior was as they expected, an empty kitchen in an evident state of abandonment, which led to a large living room devoid of any kind of furniture.

‘I really would have liked to do it at home…but it seems I have no other choice.’ He thought as he cleaned a place in the middle of the room with wind.

[Well, I’m going to do something important here, can you stand guard outside the house?]

[How much time will you need?]

[10 or 15 minutes.]

[Alright, I’ll be outside then.]

[Don’t shout if someone comes, send me a message, so I can attack them while they are unaware.]

Noah didn’t answer and only gave him a thumb up as he headed to the kitchen to get out of the house.

‘…I better get started.’

Then, he opened the system interface and selected the [Status] option, which was the only one that had changed.

This was something that Jay had already checked before, unlike the time he got the “Wind Control” parasite, which appeared in the [Skills] option, this time the parasite appeared in the [Status] window.

_____________________

[Status]

(Current limit reached.)

Strength: E+

Agility: E+

Resistance: E+

Parasyte: Limit Breaker (Body) (D) (Ready for assimilation) (Extremely Stable)

Description: This parasite will allow you to break your body’s current limit to achieve greater strength, agility and resistance. (Only useful if Carrier’s body grade is below the (D) grade.)

Do you want to assimilate this parasite? (Y/N)

(Warning: The (Limit Breaker) parasite will cause heavy damage to the carrier’s body, proceed with caution.)

(Remark: The parasite is in an extremely stable state, so the Carrier will be able to fully assimilate this parasite, achieving the same body grade as the original host, good job, Carrier!)

_____________________

‘Oh, so just as there is a risk that the rank can vary if the parasite is unstable, I get benefits if it’s stable…I have to make sure I use the right type of parasite in the future then…’ Jay thought after looking at the information displayed in the system window.

As for the rest, it was pretty much the same as the message he had seen the first time, except for the remark…apparently the system was getting more talkative.

‘It’s going to leave me seriously injured…well, I expected that, good thing I brought this…’ said Jay in his mind as he pulled out the small cloth bag Sarah had given him.

In this little cloth bag, Jay kept the regeneration pill that Sarah’s aunt had given him.

Because he didn’t know at what point he might be injured while in the South Zone, Jay always carried this small cloth bag in case something bad happened.

Jay then put the pill in his mouth without swallowing it and selected the “Y” option, preparing for what was to come.

_____________________

Beginning assimilation.

Complete assimilation: 0%

(Warning: If the Carrier passes out during the assimilation process, the assimilation will be cancelled and will have to start over.)

_____________________

‘Well, that’s just great-URGH!’

Immediately after starting the assimilation, he felt an intense pain in his chest, due to the parasite that had moved there again at the moment of starting the assimilation.

He then fell to the ground while grabbing his chest with one hand and supporting himself with the other.

Fortunately, Jay was already prepared for this, although of course, that didn’t mean he didn’t feel an incredible amount of pain right now.

This time the feeling was different from when he assimilated the “Parasite: Wind Control”, where he could feel a small, refreshing sensation gradually running through his body.

In this case, he did not feel any new energy, but rather how all the muscles and bones in his body were slowly changing.

*CRACK*

“S-SOMETHING JUST BROKE, DAMN IT!”

Jay could hear the sound of a bone breaking, he had actually felt that, so he panicked a bit, but fortunately soon after he could feel that the bone repaired itself as if by magic.

However, as if not wanting to give him time to rest, the next thing that happened was that simultaneously, several muscles in his body ripped, causing Jay to spasm and almost making him swallow the pill he had in his mouth.

“N-NOT YET, F*CK!” Jay yelled as he tried hard to stop the involuntary spasms he was having.

In fact, if someone could see his appearance right now, they would notice that at this point, the part of the bandages that covered Jay’s face were no longer white…but now had a certain reddish color due to the blood coming out of his eyes.

Although Jay wasn’t even aware of it because the pain all over his body was incredibly intense, forcing him to put all his concentration into trying not to faint and letting out insults.

Then, because this moment felt like hours to Jay, he looked at the system window indicating the progress of assimilation, but when he saw the current progress, he could not help but cry blood…literally.

_____________________

Complete assimilation: 5%.

_____________________

It seemed that this night would be painfully long.

Unfortunately, there was only one thing he could do…. grit his teeth and hold on.