After the disappearance of Benny and Gabby Sanford, the news media exploded once again; their disappearances weren’t the only ones in the city, as another six children also were abducted the same day, confirming the initial speculations that Cynrik had made. If he were to follow the Modus Operandi that this group of kidnappers had followed up until now, then in 6 weeks, the bodies of Benny and Gabby would appear in a public location, severely malnourished and mutilated.

Back on Earth, Cynrik was obsessed with true crime novels, podcasts, tv series, and even serial killer documentaries. Brance was a cop, but Cynrik had always longed to be a criminal profiler. He might have even turned out to be one if it weren’t for certain…unforeseen circumstances.

He vividly remembered his FBI psych evaluation which ended with him screaming at the tester, “IM NOT UNSTABLE, YOU’RE UNSTABLE,” he then proceeded to flip a table while kicking over a chair and storming out of the office.

That aside, the thought of fighting against a group of serial killers excited him to no end. He could finally live out his childhood dream. Mind you, instead of locking up the bad guys in jail, he and Brance would steamroll them, gaining XP and riches in the process.

Cynrik spent the next two weeks digging up any information he could find about the serial kidnapper/killers and started formulating different courses of action. Unfortunately, before he could take any real action, he was beaten to the finish line.

The day started just like any other. The boys woke up, ate breakfast, and went to school. Cynrik slept all day while Brance was studious as usual; lunch came and went, followed by recess and then another long nap for Cynrik and more study time for Brance until the final bell rang; after school is where their schedule deviated.

Unlike every other day, when they came out to the parking lot to meet one of their parents who would pick them up and bring them home, they were met by neither Cinyah nor Rikard. After waiting for 30 minutes, Cynrik made the executive decision that they should just walk home, which was the TOTAL opposite of what Cinyah had beaten into his skull. He waved it off by just saying to himself, “With my strength, what could happen?”

With that in mind, he and Brance started walking home but not before Brance, who was the more responsible of the two, sent a message to Cinyah telling her that Rikard hadn’t come to pick them up and they’d be walking home. It wasn’t the first time they had been left hanging by their irresponsible father, who had more than likely gotten too heated in an Egress and was late. Cinyah quickly responded by demanding they wait for her to come to get them, and it was too dangerous, but at this point, neither boy saw the text, and they had already started their trek.

Things took a drastic turn when they were rounding the 3rd block and only were about 4 minutes from home. After looking both ways before crossing, they walked along the white path while holding hands and looking utterly defenseless. The two young boys had just finished crossing the road when a loud screech of tires was heard directly behind them, followed by a dull pain in their brains.

-You have received a mental attack-

-Attacker is attempting to render you unconscious-

-Due to your mind stat being significantly higher than your attacker, you have resisted.-

[OH, OH, IT’S HAPPENING WE’RE BEING KIDNAPPED, QUICK PLAY DEAD!!] Hearing Cynriks loud cackle through the mind link, Brance followed what his brother said and closed his eyes while falling into the grass; a soft thud directly to his side showed that Cynrik was doing the same. Lucky for him, since his eyes were closed, he couldn’t see how Cynriks tongue was sticking out of his mouth like a dead deer, or he would have burst out laughing at how ridiculous his brother was being and given them both away.

[KUEKUEKUEKUE, THIS IS GUNNA BE FUN AS HELL.] Cynrik was unusually excited at the moment. It was kind of out of character but also oddly enough in character; obviously, Cynrik wanted to toy with these kidnappers before enacting all the well-thought plans he had made since Benny and Gabby’s abduction.

[KUEKUEKUE Brance, think of all the XP kuekue, this is gonna be great. OH OHH, LOOK, THEY’RE THROWIN US INTO A VAN, HEY OLD MAN, I DON’T WANT YOUR CANDY AND FIND YOUR STUPID PUPPY ON YOUR OWN.]

[CYNRIK WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP AND FOCUS,] getting agitated at his brother’s constant babbling, narration, and creepy laugh, he had enough and tried to silence him. By activating Mana Sight, he could essentially see everything going on around him with his eyes closed. The only downside was he couldn’t make out the fine details of the men or even the vehicle; he could see their Mana flow, which took human form, essentially allowing him to monitor what was happening.

Coming down from his natural high, Cynrik went into action. The first thing he did was send a message to Cinyah and Rikard, giving them both a summary that they had been kidnapped but not to worry they could handle it and would bring back Benny and Gabby. Next, he powered down his Watcet, removed it from his wrist, and tossed it into his inventory when the Kidnappers weren’t looking. Next, he instructed Brance to do the same.

[Ok, the way I see it, we’ve got a couple of options, Option one, act like scared little kids and have them take us back to their base. Once there, we raid the whole thing, kill everyone, pick up your little buddies, and then call in the calvary to clean up our mess.] Cynrik started listing out all the potential routes he had developed.

[Option two, we just kill all 3 of them right now and say screw the base, forgoing any survivors;] this option made Brance mentally shake his head, disregarding it completely.

[Option three, turn on little kid mode and call in reinforcements once we get to their base.] Of the three, this was the one Cynrik liked the least. Option two was also out the window for him; he simply wanted to capitalize on their situation and take down the whole group.

After considering their situation, Brance agreed with Option one. Brance figured if the two of them worked together, they should be able to handle someone whose level was in the high teens, so he wasn’t too stressed out about running in Rambo style and murking everyone. His only concern was his two friends’ safety and any other children being held.

[NICE, option one it is. First things first, let’s distribute our stat points.]

Back in the HBTC, they had already decided on their future paths regarding how their stats would be shaped. With 56 Stat Points having been saved up, now was when they would have to confirm what they wanted to do with their builds officially.

[Are you sure about going tank? We don’t know if we will have any respecs (stat point reset)] Cynrik prodded one last time since his brother had voiced before that he may want to go warrior instead of the tank path.

[Yeah, with my Light and Earth Affinities, I’m already half a paladin at this point, so I may as well go Paladin tank.] Brance didn’t bother confirming if Cynrik was sure about his build. All he had ever seen his brother play in video games were assassin class or rogue characters. It was evident that now would be no different.

If anyone could hear their casual conversation, they would think the two kids were talking about a video game with how they treated Tobs. Unlike regular people, they had complete freedom over their stats due to their Distribution of 1 point in every stat, whereas an ordinary person would be limited to 1 or 2 guaranteed stats.

[ALRIGHTY THEN, don’t spend your Stat points just yet. I’m a bounce over to the RWT real quick and grab some gear for us, I couldn’t find that shack shop before, so I wasn’t able to gear up, but hopefully, luck is on our side today, send me your SP,] Brance mentally nodded and transferred over his 100 skill points. After receiving them, Cynrik gave Tobs the ok to move him to the RWT.

Choosing his Soul avatar instead of his Vinestra one, he dashed through the bazaar with his head down and arms swinging quickly. It didn’t take long before he ended up in the shady area where he had initially found Saylin’s shop.

In a hurry, he burst into the shop, startling the shaggy green-haired man. “Saylin, I don’t have time to explain. I need a Tier 0 Earth attribute Shield, two Tier 0 Wind attribute short swords, Two Tier 0 gauntlet style hidden blades, and a Tier 0 Fire attribute curved short sword; I’ll also need a skill book for the passive skill Dual Wield.” Cynrik hurriedly shouted out to the now confused man. Still, even in his confusion, the man showed the signs of a true professional, immediately showcasing an entire batch of different equipment pieces ranging all shapes and sizes.

Quickly but carefully, Cynrik began reading through all their descriptions.