Chapter 38: Low Mental Resistance
Lucas couldn’t stop running until he had put a great distance between himself and that place. Even then, he didn’t feel tired. The only reason he stopped was because the horse had finally stopped running.
They had been sprinting together for what felt like forever, so he needed to make sure.
He stood still for barely a minute before the horse galloped over and came to a stop beside him.
"The fact that it’s no longer running... does that mean we’re out of danger?" he wondered.
He wanted to believe the horse had some natural instinct to sense danger, considering how it had acted earlier.
But then again, any animal that heard a screech like that would know that danger was approaching.
He could hardly believe he had frozen up like that again.
He punched the wall angrily, frustrated by his own weakness.
If he had wasted even a second more, escaping that monster would have been impossible.
He raised his head and looked at the horse.
"In a way, you saved my life, big guy," he said, stroking its side.
The horse neighed like any ordinary horse would before turning and sprinting off into the distance.
Lucas watched it leave with a small grin.
When he glanced at the floating screen by his side, he noticed there was now a fourth viewer.
[Queen_of_violence has sent 10 KP]
Lucas knew exactly who it was.
"Carol..." he muttered.
Just knowing that she had been watching was enough to make him break into a nervous sweat.
[TheSmartOne: Why didn’t you ride it? You would’ve looked so cool! Biggest fan btw.]
[TheSmartOne has sent 5 KP]
"Hey!"
A man’s voice suddenly called out.
Lucas turned to see a man slightly shorter than himself, accompanied by a larger man with a heart tattoo on his shoulder.
They didn’t look like they were interested in a friendly conversation. Both openly brandished their weapons.
The larger man held a bloody bat with nails hammered through it, while the shorter one carried a machete.
"What do you think you’re doing out here?" the shorter man asked.
"Can’t you see there are monsters everywhere?"
The way he asked made it clear he wasn’t speaking out of concern, so Lucas knew he had to be careful.
"You don’t have to worry," Lucas replied cautiously. "I can take care of myself."
"Who said we’re worried?" the larger man asked with an ominous chuckle.
"You see, we’re heroes. We go around fighting monsters and saving people."
"He’s right," the shorter man nodded. "It’s a tough job, you know. These monsters are really terrifying..."
"And that’s why we’re kindly asking for your support. Just a little KP, and we’ll be on our way."
Lucas’s first instinct was to give them what they wanted and end this quickly.
Then he remembered that Carol was watching.
What would she think if she saw him handing over his Karma Points to a couple of bullies?
But when he looked at their weapons again, he swallowed his pride.
There’s no telling how strong they are.
With a sigh, he transferred 10 KP.
He still had 103 left, so he didn’t think he’d feel the loss that much.
Yet the sting of giving in left a bitter taste in his mouth.
"Just 10? Come on you can do better than that," the big said,
"How do you expect us both to share it? Are you looking down on us?" he stepped forward. "Can you see he’s looking down on us,"
"No, I’m sure it was a mistake," the small guy said with a grin, "he was going to send mine, right?"
"Right," Lucas answered defeatedly.
But just as he was about to do it something stopped him
"On second thought, I don’t really feel like handing anything over,"
The grin wiped of his face in an instance,
"The fuck did you say?" He pointed his machete at him.
"You know what, I’d like you to return the points I sent,"
"Okay," the big guy answered cheerfully and immediately opened his system to do it.
The shorter guy nudged at him in confusion, "what the heck are you doing you idiot?"
"He... he asked for his points," he answered, his voice full of confusion.
"So you were just going to give it to him?! How stupid are you?"
Seeing this Lucas became even more calm, he had only tried his ability as a last ditch effort and although it didn’t have much effect on the smaller guy, the bigger guy hardly even had any mental resistance.
’I’m starting to understand this skill’
It was pretty very straightforward when he thought about it.
People with higher mental resistance needed more than just a command, they needed to be convinced, while people with low mental resistance were almost completely at his mercy.
He figured that it was the same for the monsters, that was why the horse from last night could resist his command while her child didn’t.
’Unlike monsters people with low mental resistance can still snap out of it at any moment’
But even at that he had already come up with a plan that would help him take these guys down.
’first I have to end the stream’
With quiet movements he did just that, while the two continued to argue.
By the time they shifted their attention back to him, he was ready.
’The secret is not asking for anything that would seem too difficult to do, that way he wouldn’t have to think about it too much’
He reasoned that focusing on the big guy was the easiest way to get out of this.
"Hey, could you tell me the average level of your stat?" He asked.
The shorter guy was shocked at the question, it was obviously stupid to even ask, which was why he was even more shocked when the bug guy answered.
"Level 2, but my strength is level 3" The big guy answered.
"Level 3? That means I’m even stronger than you," he scoffed with a head shake.
"What are you doing you big dumbass! You’re revealing our leverage! Don’t you know we have to make him think we are stronger!"
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