“Are you a half-man with some kind of deception skill card?” I asked.

  He was dying, but he managed to speak. Spitting blood and struggling for words, he rasped, “You… shameless brat.”

  “Hey, hey. Answer my question, shithead,” I barked.

  He raised both arms high. “I’ll take you down with me!”

  He was about to swing them over my head when, all of a sudden, he froze—as if struck by a bolt of lightning. Visions exploded in his mind; I had used Mind Projection to bombard him with my memories of brutally slaughtering the half-men in the jungle.

  “Tell me what I want to know, and I’ll heal your fatal wounds,” I declared.

  His mouth trembled. “I’m not a half-man… I just work for the organization.”

  “What do you all do?” I pressed.

  “We collect the bodies…”

  “Why?”

  “We…”

  His entire body turned rigid, like stone, which confused me. Then he started gurgling his own blood as his stony flesh swelled—and then, he exploded. The blast was like a grenade going off: fragments of stone-like flesh burst outward, piercing walls, ceilings, and the ground like shrapnel.

  Yet I was only mildly hurt. My clothes—especially around my stomach—were shredded. I was bleeding, and a few stone shards were embedded in my skin, but that was about it. Still, I knew I had to deal with the situation—and not alone.

  Perhaps that was why the woman’s expression changed when she learned our levels—we were not prey. I stepped out onto the veranda, where the other men gathered at their doors looked at me with concerned expressions.

  “Lumine!” Hessien shouted, his voice tinged with anger and disappointment. The woman beside him looked equally unhappy; they must have heard the explosion.

  Then Hessien noticed my slightly wounded state. “Wait, what the hell happened?”

  “This whorehouse is a scam. They’re luring people here to kill them. Don’t kill that lady—she probably has important information,” I explained.

  The woman shook her head furiously. “H-have your friend gone mad? We wouldn’t do such a thing!”

  While she ranted, I glanced at the men on the same floor. At the tip of each of my fingers danced a small fireball. I wondered if I should kill them. “If you didn’t know about the murders, raise your hands,” I commanded.

  All sixteen men raised their arms. “I—I’m new here!” one stuttered.

  “I didn’t know anything about murders!” another protested.

  “Y-yeah, first time hearing this too!” a third chimed in, while yet another insisted, “I swear, I wouldn’t get involved in something so sick!”

  Then I noticed one door was still closed. “You,” I pointed at a muscular blond man, “open that door.”

  He hesitated but obeyed, anxiety etched across his face as he grabbed the handle and slowly opened it.

  “Hey, hey, what the fuck, man?!” a voice bellowed from inside. “Close the fucking door!”

  The blond winced, trying to sound polite. “Calm down… You gotta… um, stop for a bit. There’s an emergency.”

  “Fuck off! Jealous bastard. You’re just mad you’re not getting a bonus this month,” he snapped.

  Blondie sweated even more. “Come on… let’s just cool it.”

  Heavy footsteps approached the door. “Hell no!” A skinny guy with messy brown hair stormed out, pointing angrily at the blond man. His hands were stained with blood as he fumed, “Last month, I asked for a spare brain to make my quota. I didn’t get shit! Now you're here trying to steal my—”

  “Brains?” I asked.

  All the men—except the angry one—stood dumbfounded, babbling excuses. “N-not literally. It’s a metaphor—”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  One stuttered. “Y-yeah.”

  “As in, like, cool… points for hot women…?”

  The angry guy glanced at me and sneered, “Who the fuck are you?”

  “Is the person in that room alive?” I asked, planning to figure out his meaning of ‘brains’ later.

  He looked even more pissed, glaring at the fireballs at my fingertips as if they were a cheap party trick. “Bitch, I asked who the fuck—” Before he could finish, four fire bullets shot out, burning through his head in an instant.

  He didn’t get to talk. He collapsed, lifeless.

  The rest panicked—some ran, some summoned their skills to fight back, and others begged, claiming innocence. But none of them were truly innocent. Screams erupted from the other floors as some abandoned ship, fleeing. Yet I made short work of everyone with Time Freeze. There was no fear of them tagging me once I turned off Time Freeze to kill them—they were all just level 16 to 19.

  By the time I was done, I had reached level 30. But that wasn’t what mattered. I searched every room during the frozen time to check for survivors. There was only one.

  She was in the room from which the angry guy had emerged. It was a mess: the white bed lay broken and soaked with blood, and cracks marred the walls. It appeared she had put up quite a fight when she realized what was about to happen. I stared at her—brown-reddish hair, a skinny frame as if she’d been starving. She lay on the ground, in a pool of blood leaking from a wound in her stomach.

  I had no idea how long my Time Freeze lasted, but I didn't want to try pushing my luck. I unfroze time, then froze her in time. Picking up her body, I felt relieved that I could reposition things locked in time.

  I walked over to the others. Vacinay muttered, “That Time Freeze is seriously scary. One moment, people were running for their lives, and the next, they were all dead and there was blood everywhere.”

  I handed the woman over to her and released the freeze on her. “And you still wanted to fight me?” I remarked.

  “And I’d win,” she replied calmly as she took the lady from my arms.

  “I already told you how I’d kick your ass.”

  “You act like we can’t gain skill cards to counter other skill cards.”

  “...We should be using our precious points to coordinate and kill enemies, not for one-upping each other,” I snapped.

  Vacinay just shrugged. “Who knows when you might get mind-controlled.”

  “Just… heal the lady, please,” I urged.

  “I’m trying.” Vacinay’s hand pressed against the woman’s stomach, but I noticed something was off.

  “Why isn’t the wound closing?” I asked, confused.

  “Yeah… I don’t think my Self-Repair is working on her,” she admitted.

  “But it worked on Hessien!”

  Ghomas chimed in thoughtfully, “Maybe it’s because she views Hessien as part of her? If she doesn’t know this woman, her skill can’t see her as an extension of Vacinay, so Self-Repair can’t be tricked into healing her.”

  Honestly… that didn’t sound insane. I glanced at Vacinay. “Is that true?”

  “Hm… yeah, probably. Makes me wonder if my Self-Repair would even work on you guys.”

  I took the woman back and froze her in time again. “We can figure that out later. Right now, we need a hospital.”

  Hessien asked, “And what about Miss Pimp? Just hand her over to some random guards to figure out what’s going on here?”

  “P-pimp?!” The woman’s face twisted in disgust. “You damn ingrates, you have no idea what you’re doing!”

  Hessien grabbed her by the shirt, lifting her off the ground. “Then tell us.”

  “And what, so you can kill me the moment I give you what you want?” she retorted.

  She had a point. I stepped forward. “Let me help you with that. Tell us.”

  I used Mind Projection, but instead of projecting my memories into her, I attempted to pull hers into my mind—only for my thoughts to go blank. Suddenly, I felt distant from everything. This—this wasn’t how the skill was supposed to work. What was happening?

  The she-pimp smiled, and I heard her thoughts echo in my mind, “You shouldn’t have done that. Stupid little girl.” Then a crushing pressure closed in around my head.

  Vacinay’s voice broke through the haze, “Hey, you okay?”

  I wanted to respond—wanted to say no—but I couldn’t even open my mouth. What the hell?! I felt as though I could move, but my body wouldn’t obey; I screamed at myself to move, but nothing happened.

  Hessien noticed something was wrong and moved toward me, but Vacinay stopped him. “That bitch is probably behind this. Keep an eye on her; I’ll try to help Lumine,” she ordered.

  “How?!” I managed to croak.

  I wanted to touch my face, my throat—anything—but my body shook uncontrollably. The only thing I could move were my eyes. Then Vacinay grabbed my shoulders. Her head morphed into the giant maw of a tiger, and she bit through my throat.

  Oh… that was smart.

  “P-pimp?!” the woman cried out, as if she’d been called a slur. “You damn ingrates, you have no idea what you’re doing!”

  I reached up, touched my neck, and opened my mouth. It felt strange—but I was back. I was in control again. “Ah…” I uttered softly. I could talk. I exhaled in relief. I was free.

  I turned to confront the pimp, ready to declare that I knew about her mind control, but she made eye contact with me. Suddenly, my heart hammered and my throat dried up.

  “Have I conquered your mind before?” she asked.

  “W-what are you talking about?” I managed.

  Hessien narrowed his eyes. “Is she trying to scare us?”

  “A lame attempt,” Ghomas scoffed.

  The pimp’s gaze never left me. “So we have. And yet… you came back to me?” she stated, looking surprised, then delighted. “I’m happy.”

  A strange feeling wrapped around my heart—fear. “Let’s kill her,” I said, my voice tight.

  Hessien frowned. “What? No, we need information from her.”

  “She’s dangerous. We have to kill her now!” I declared, feeling my body heat up as flames slowly licked my skin.

  The woman just smiled, and it made me sick. I shouted, “What’s so fucking funny?! I thought you wanted to live—now this is funny to you?!”

  “Lumine, calm down. She’s probably using some kind of emotion skill to mess with you,” Hessien said, trying to steady me.

  I wanted to explain what had happened, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want her to know why I was scared, and I couldn’t project my thoughts while she was there. Then she said softly, “When I get in your head this time, I’ll make it worse. I promise you that.”