It's going to happen again. I could feel it. The chill that crawled down my spine.
Someone was following me. I could hear their footsteps, their hurried and ragged breathing. The smell of sweat on their hands as they tightly gripped cold steel.
Letting out a resigned sigh, I pulled up my hoodie and shoved my hands into its pockets. I walked into an alleyway, I may as well make it easier for us. It was dark and filled with trash, full with disgusting centimeter high puddles that made a splash as I stepped in them.
It probably smelled ghastly, but, honestly? Everything here did. And after fourteen years, my nose was all too used to it. Fresh air would probably hurt my sense of smell more than the stuffy, trash scented air of this city.
Then, as I was stuck in my thoughts, I was pushed harshly into the brick wall. The perpetrator pulled on my shoulder, turning me around. What greeted me was the cold barrel of a pistol pushed against my forehead.
The man holding me up had palid skin covered in sweat, five o'clock shadow, and greasy long hair. He looked like a druggie.
I just raised my hands, and like clockwork, he got to patting me down. Searching for any valuables on my person. We didn't even need to exchange any words, this routine all too familiar to… practically everyone in this godforsaken city.
But, unfortunately for my would-be robber, he had chosen the wrong target. As he began bending down, I chose then to strike.
[Killer's Implement]
A Killer's implement could be anything. A crowbar, a pipe, a statuette, a scalpel, a rope, and even a plastic bag.
Of course, since I was the Killer I got to choose. And, I obviously picked my favorite.
A Knife. Knives were simple. Sharp, lightweight. They didn't make a good weapon, especially in combat, but you didn't need to fight someone to kill them.
I, for one, knew absolutely nothing about fighting. But what I did know was where I needed to target to make someone's body stop functioning.
And Knives? Well, they were perfect for that.
With little fanfare a standard bowie knife appeared in the palm of my hand. With my other hand, I deftly turned on the safety of his gun. And then?
Well, I killed him. Stabbed him right in the carotid artery. He didn't stand a chance.
He helplessly stumbled back, one hand clutching at his throat. The other desperately waving his gun toward me, a series of useless *clicks* coming from it as he repeatedly pressed the trigger.
Within seconds he was on the ground, gurgling on his own blood that rapidly escaped, even as he tried to put pressure on the wound. A lot of blood got on my hand and knife, but, with just one flick of the wrist, it was all gone.
Within three minutes he was dead. The knife disappeared as soon as I let go of it.
[Calling Card]
Summoning a random flower, I carelessly tossed it onto his corpse.
Stepping over his body, I made my way out of the alley, and back into the streets of Gotham. No one any the wiser.
Well, actually, they probably were aware. But they weren't going to say anything.
[Congratulations! You have killed your 100th person!]
[You have leveled up!]
God, I hated this city.
I really needed to move.
Stretching, I dismissed the notification for later. But, just as I was about to continue on my way, my phone rang.
"Hey Maps," I answered.
"Where are you!?" I smiled. As expected, she was angry. Well, not angry, I don't think she had a hateful bone in her body. She was more so… impatient.
"I'm on my way."
"You've been on your way for nearly an hour!" she said.
My smile grew. I listened to her complain and chatter for a few minutes before I decided I was done with the conversation.
"Hey, I see you," I said.
"Really!?" I could hear her perk up through the phone, her head swinging around, trying to spot me. It was a hopeless endeavor.
"Nope."
End Call
I resumed my stretches.
I'd get there when I'd get there. And not a moment sooner.
*****(Page Break)*****
"Another murder by Gotham's Pale Caretaker has been found in an alleyway downtown. This marks the one-hundredth body found since the start of his rampage 9 years ago," the anchorwoman said.
"The GCPD has yet to apprehend the Killer. The nearly decade old mystery of the man behind these murders is still ongoing."
"Though from the evidence the GCPD's Criminal Profilers have, they suspect the murderer to be a caucasian male, in his late twenties to early thirties-"
I snorted and turned off the television. 'Bitch, please. Thirty? I've been killing people since I was five! Like hell I'm thirty!'
While it was fun to be famous, or rather, infamous, so much so that I was on the news of all things, it was also quite disheartening to see them be so off the mark. I really thought I'd be caught by now.
If not by the police, then at least by Batman. Sighing, I leaned back on the couch. My brows furrowed in consternation.
'Has it really been fourteen years?' I asked myself.
Fourteen years since I was reborn in a world where the fantastical was just an every other day phenomenon. In a world teeming with Villains and Superheroes playing an eternal game of Cops n Robbers.
I remembered when I first realized I had a system. I was so excited. I could be a Hero. Or something like that. At least, that was what I thought. And then I found out that all I could do was kill people and get stronger for it.
All my levels, all my skills, all my perks, all my abilities. Obtained and used for one singular purpose.
I was bitter about that fact for quite a while. But Gotham hit me like it hit every other poor bastard residing in its hellish embrace. And I realized I needed to get stronger if I wanted to even survive just walking down the streets on a daily basis.
Of course, I didn't go looking out for people to kill. I wasn't that far gone. But there was no shortage of people looking for trouble in this city. And I found it harder to give a shit about morals when someone was in the process of robbing me.
'Still, over ten people killed a year for nine years straight.' I've been nearly robbed, kidnapped, or killed hundreds of times. Gotham was truly one of a kind.
And while I was disappointed that Batman hadn't apprehended me yet, that didn't mean I actually wanted to go to jail. I just expected better from the world's supposed greatest detective.
'Though considering my entire powerset revolves around committing murders without getting caught…' I guess I didn't need to dog on him too hard.
'Though speaking of a hundred…' I pulled up my status.
Ainsley Laurier
Level: 10
Class: Serial Killer
Race: Mortal Human
Condition: Peak Human Physique
Superpowers: [+]
Abilities: [Killer's Implement], [Recordless], [Calling Card],
Perks: [Killer Smile], [Eyes On You], [Killer Instinct], [Menacing Presence],
Skills: [Marksmanship Lv.10], [Throwing Lv.17], [Knives Lv.20], [Biology Lv.30], [Stalk Lv.39], [Terrify Lv.68],
'Last level I had an Olympic Physique, now I'm Peak Human?' I wondered. Not to mention, the Superpowers part of my status had a blinking plus sign. I mentally opened it.
[You have reached Level 10! You can now choose a Superpower.]
I blinked. 'A power?' I could choose a Superpower? Seriously? Finally!?
I excitedly agreed and… my excitement was gone in a flash. I had three options.
[Predict Wind]
[Psychometry]
[Generate Bubbles]
Predict Wind would allow me to, well, predict the course in which the wind would follow. Generate Bubbles allowed me to make soap bubbles. And Psychometry allowed me to learn the history of an inanimate object by touching it.
While I could see the use of two of these powers, in general, they were a bit… underwhelming. So I needed to think.
'What would the logical extreme of Predict Wind be? Maybe being able to dodge attacks due to fists changing the course of the wind? That could be very useful. Though, it'd be useless against guns. I can't exactly predict a bullet while it's in the chamber. And if it's already shot, the likelihood of me dodging it, even with a Peak Human Physique is zero percent.'
Plus, I had eyes. I could already predict where someone was going to shoot as long as I was paying attention and preemptively dodge it.
Psychometry was next. To be honest, I was already leaning towards this one due to lacking any information gathering abilities, skills, and perks of any kind.
'Now, Psychometry. This one's interesting. Pushed to the logical extreme, I could know exactly how an object, any object, was made. Who had it, what it was made of, how it got there, ect. With that knowledge I could, theoretically, fix or replicate anything. Not to mention I could also potentially know the best way to use any object.'
Of course, this wouldn't make me any smarter. Or a God at using a knife or gun. I'd just be starting at a higher point at anything I tried, crowbars, lockpicks, ropes, guns, bows, and ect.
'Wait, that's actually… if that's true…' Was Psychometry OP? Then, another thought hit my mind.
'Do corpses count as inanimate objects?' There were so many possibilities that my head began hurting.
'If that's the case, then…' I had no choice but to take it.
Of course, there were some concerns I had. Like, I needed materials if I wanted to fix or replicate something. While my parents were pretty well off, they weren't that well off. Not to mention that I had no idea if there would be any downside to using Psychometry.
Like migraines, or potentially needing to sleep more to process the large amount of memories/knowledge I would obtain. Or maybe it relied on some esoteric psychic energy reserve. But, then again, superpowers were bullshit, so maybe there weren't any drawbacks.
Now? They were my bullshit.
I felt a grin spread across my face. I could feel it. My mind. The endless well of potential that I was only just now tapping into.
I leaned forward and touched the coffee table. Pulling the intangible, yet very present energy, I pushed it through my hand and into the table.
And then…
My face scrunched up. 'An IKEA table?'
I knew the materials it was made out of instinctually. The wood, the honeycomb fillings, particleboard, ect. But I could also see my parents arguing over how to assemble it. As well as the machine that made it.
It worked exactly like I had hoped, but… I grimaced. The drawback was the stinging pain I felt right behind my eyes.
'I thought I had escaped migraines.' It seemed like they would follow me in every lifetime.
Moving away from those distracting thoughts, I gazed at the table thoughtfully. 'My head started hurting from just seeing the history of a two year old table. What kind of headache would I get from seeing an entire person's life?' A debilitating one, that's for sure.
While that was worrying, I knew that I could train this power. Superpowers were like muscles. At least, the only one I had was like that.
I looked over my status once more. My grin grew wider. I probably looked like an idiot just staring into the air with a stupid smile on my face. But I was happy.
[You have reached an important Milestone! You can choose 1 Milestone Perk and 1 Milestone Ability!]
Looking over the options, I barely needed a second to decide. Two of these were far better than the Rest.
[You have chosen the Milestone Perk, Unstoppable!]
[You have chosen the Milestone Ability, Now You See Me!]
[Now You See Me] was an Ability where if someone spotted me, and then looked away, I could then teleport anywhere out of their line of sight within a hundred meters.
[Unstoppable] was a Perk that allowed me to move as if I were uninjured even if I was basically crippled. It also gave me a hige boost to stamina. Of course, this didn't make me more durable or immortal, things that would kill me would… well, they would kill me. That still didn't make it any less of an excellent survivability Perk.
'I just got a huge power up. With these perks and abilities, especially Psychometry, I can get more out of…' I stopped that thought cold in its tracks.
'No, no, no! C'mon, stop, just be fucking happy!' It didn't work. My grin was slowly erased from my face, until I could feel my lips settle into a thin, neutral line, as if it had never existed.
I sat there in silence. Just thinking. In the end, the conclusion I came to was simple.
'I would do it all again.' I didn't regret it.
I let out a short, mirthless laugh. 'I wanted to save lives, and yet all I'm doing is taking them.' The answer I would have had fourteen years ago had changed so drastically. I continued to sit in silence, stewing in my thoughts.
'When did it become easy?' I tried to recall. 'It was by the tenth I stopped agonizing over it. And… it was somewhere around the twentieth when I stopped hesitating.'
After that, the murders I committed sort of just blended together. I knew logically that I had killed a hundred people, but…
When someone thinks of killing someone, they don't think of it as easy, do they? At least, they shouldn't, right?
When did the value of life go from priceless in my mind, to something I could just thoughtlessly take?
In the end, I could only conclude that it was a gradual progression. Not something that just suddenly changed from one moment to the next. I also wasn't forgetting the dopamine rush I would get when leveling up and getting new Abilities and Perks.
My brain has probably been slowly rewiring to think that murder = reward. Which, well, in this case, it wasn't wrong.
I rubbed my face, suddenly tired.
'Okay. As long as I kill criminals, or people who try to harm me and the people I love, I should be fine. No more imagining how many levels I'd get if I went into a crowd and suddenly started shoo-…'
I shuddered and shook my head. 'Nope, nope, nope! Don't go there. Okay. Alright. I'll be good.'
In the loosest sense of the word, at least.
*****(Page Break)*****
For those interested, here's all the descriptions of his powers. If you're not interested, you can just skip to the next chapter.
Perks
Killer Instinct:
Allows him to tell who would make a good target to kill. Also allows him to sense people who are murderers as well. Also enhances all of his senses by a minor amount.
Menacing Presence:
Easily intimidates people. He has the presence of a sharp knife.
Killer Smile:
People will be put off by his smile. So much so that they may hesitate to attack him.
Eyes On You:
Goosebumps. A chill that crawls down his spine. Hair raising and chafing against his clothes. All these are signs someone is watching him.
Unstoppable:
Wounds don't affect the performance of his body.
Abilities
Recordless:
He doesn't leave hair, skin, or any type of DNA at a crime scene. Nor does he appear on any technology. Can easily clean his weapons and clothes. Both of these can be toggled on and off.
Calling Card:
Every renowned murderer has a symbol by which they're infamous for. Whether be a specific way they murder, what they leave at the crime, ect. Summons his calling card.
Killer's Implement:
Summons things that can be used to kill people depending on what he wants.
Now You See Me:
Now You Don't. There's always that scene in every slasher movie where the final girl looks out a window or something akin to it and sees the horror villain. They look away, and by the time they look back, they're gone.
Powers
Psychometry:
Allows him to view the history of an inanimate object.
Also, while a bit shameless, could you guys give suggestions for Perks, Abilities, and Superpowers?
I always struggle with coming up with those. Especially ones that don't make Ainsley too powerful.
I think I'very done a good job with that so far. I'm very excited to share this story with you all.