Eagerly, I tried out my new skill. A holographic radar projected from my right wrist. By focusing, I could summon it at any location on my body.

I had the radar search for people. A dot appeared in the center, and I had it display more information.

Name: Kim Jae-yoon

Age: 22 

Skills: [Steal] [Radar]

Wait. Why was I the only dot on the radar? 

I looked around the corner. Seo-jun was still there, unmoving.

Oh. That meant… he’s dead.

My face sunk.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. He was standing in place with a rusty metal bar sticking through his heart. It was easy to see what had happened to him.

But still… It made me feel empty. I obviously despised him with my entire being, as I did the rest of my raid team. You could even argue that he deserved this - He had most likely killed dozens of others, if not more. But it wasn’t something I could bring myself to be comfortable with.

It wasn’t a feeling I ever wanted to have again. 

I had no way of covering it up, so I took the weapon as well as his phone and threw his body into an alley before I frantically left the scene. If I didn’t feel like a criminal yet, then it sure did set in now.

I dashed home and sat in my apartment, filled with anxiety. I’d come to terms with what I’d done now, but I was still worried that I would be found out. I felt guilty, but it didn’t mean I wanted to die alongside him.

To distract my mind while staying productive, I set back into my original plan, looking online for any known skills I might be able to take.

As I expected, information was lackluster. [Transfer] could be used to give the members of my group up to 5 additional skills, but even the leader of our group has only two skills listed online. 

Regardless, I wasn’t interested in getting skills from him, not yet. I was looking for something to save my skin. Seo-jun would be found missing by the next raid, if not earlier. If all I did was take Seo-jun’s skill from a distance, It’d be hard for them to suspect me. But since he’s dead, it would be easy for them to say I was the culprit. Even if they had other suspects, soon after investigating me they’d know I did it. I’d need to get myself insurance before then.

I looked at a selection of skills that were useful for my situation and had users that lived in Korea.

[Barrier] - Lets you make invisible, impassable barriers.  

A good choice, but the user’s location is unknown. If I had a lead on the user, I’d probably be willing to look into it, but I need to look for skills I can get soon. 

[Charisma] - Infatuate those in a short radius around you.

Good on paper, but loses effect when out of range. Besides… I don’t think I have the skillset to complete the imitate condition.

[Warden] - Make up to ten people you’ve touched follow a singular rule that you set. 

This one was interesting. The user, Jeong Hyun-woo, was able to touch the leaders of all 3 major organizations, which let him enact the ability on them. Apparently, he set the rule “Let nothing bad happen to me.” I doubt I’d be that lucky, but I could use the skill to silence my other raid members.

Furthermore, he wasn’t hard to find, since apparently he lives publicly and comfortably with the insured protection from the organizations. 

That comfort was nothing more than complacency. The names of 3 large groups is not enough on its own to protect you. And I planned to abuse this fact to my advantage. 

My first goal was officially set in stone. 

My target was… [Warden].

The main problem would be the imitate condition. I had a guess or two as to what it might be. “Make 10 people do whatever you ask.” Something like that. It seemed easy, but I didn’t want to get cocky. The conditions are hard to predict, and there was also a good chance I’d butt heads with someone while pursuing [Warden].

So, I should probably get another skill or two to make sure I’m prepared. And this is where the second issue arises. The raid we had planned for next week is just 6 days away. 

It’d be hard to get one, let alone two, skills in that timeframe. Finding skill users unaffiliated with any groups was… difficult, to say the least.

There are three major groups of skill users, and they are as follows:

The Gyeong-jin organization, which I was a part of. It’s more of a gang, if anything. The centerpiece of the group is the skill [Transfer], which lets its members have more than one skill. They use every underhanded tactic in the book: kidnapping, stealing, and even killing those with bad skills in hopes that more skill cards will appear.

The Golden Spring Company. The skill [Trade] lets the CEO purchase anything he wants with his capital, even the supernatural. He’s used his ability to force all his workers to remain under him forever. It cost him a hefty sum, I’m sure.

Lastly, the World Harmony Initiative, based in Britain. I’d heard a lot about these guys through gossip from the raid members. The group keeps the reputation of a good-natured organization, but they’re actually rotten inside. The leader’s skill, [Peacemaker], lets him ally with anyone he beats in a duel. The type of duel doesn’t matter, even a match of chess counts. All the members of the group have been brainwashed by his skill and do his bidding without hesitation.

Now, do you notice a pattern in these organizations? No? I’ll spell it out for you.

Once you’re in, you can’t get out, and don’t worry; The leaders will be sure to take care of your initiation.

This was bad news for me, because it means the supply of skills I can steal without pissing off any of these groups is quite limited.

*Sigh*. Everything led to more problems. 

A goal that seemed like a mountain loomed over me, and I had just four days to clear it or die.

Well… I guess it all starts with the first step.

I got up, stretched, and prepared for the worst.

Skills stolen (1)

[Radar]

Author's Note: Hey everyone! I'm back, and I'm going to be posting the 8 chapters that I never released when I originally wrote the start of this series around four years ago. That means every Thursday at around 11:30 AM, I'm likely going to be posting 2 new chapters every week until we reach chapter 11. Notably, I'm not publishing more because I've written more of the story - I actually am planning to rewrite the series from the ground up now that I'm a better writer. Instead, I'm releasing all of this old content as a lead-up to the new, much better novel I'll be posting some time in the near future. Please be on the lookout for that once it comes out, and I'll get around to rewriting this series one day, so please look forward to that as well.