It took me 2 days to get [Barrier]. At this point, I only had two days left until Seo-jun would be officially found missing.

But none of that particularly mattered to me. [Barrier] was a skill I’d wanted from the start, and one I had no idea I would get so soon. This skill was more than enough for me to search out for Jeong Hyun-woo now.

And so, I set out to look for him. I had already planned what rule I was going to set:

“Do nothing that may expose my identity.”

I could make a broader rule, but there might be loopholes in it. This was all I needed the skill to do, so it’d work fine.

Now that I had a new apartment, I could hide away all the people who threaten my anonymity in it. Naturally, if I let them live in their normal houses, I’d be found out regardless of whether or not they spilled my identity - It’s the first place the Gyeong-jin organization would check. To remain safe, I planned to stage it as though our upcoming raid failed and we all went missing. It was a temporary, but good solution for now.

It took a little digging online, but I even managed to find out where Hyun-woo worked at on top of his address. Eventually, after checking multiple locations where he might be, I found him.

Name: Jeong Hyun-woo

Age: 35 

Skills: [Warden]

I kept my distance from him and checked out his skill page.

________________________________

[Warden]

A Tier

The user can bind up to 10 people they have touched to follow a single rule they choose.

Rule: “Let nothing bad happen to me.”

Prisoners (4/10):

Kang Gyeong-jin [Petrify]

Hayden Walker [Peacemaker]

Yuya Hageshii [Trade]

Jarek Gradz [Lock]

________________________________

I didn’t expect that the description would be filled in with his personal usage data. If I stole it, would it keep the same data? If so, it would be a colossal score. I’d have basically spedran all of my goals - I could make all of the organization heads do my bidding.

I gathered my resolve into the tip of my pen as I signed my name on the back of the page.

________________________________

Imitate Condition

Time limit: 24 hours

Make the user follow a rule you set for 12 hours.

Progress:

User not following your rule

0/12 hours

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Perfect. This would be a cakewalk with my skills - Especially since I’d planned ahead for this result. Making him follow a rule would be easy - I’d have to stay up into the night to keep watch of him, however, but it shouldn’t be too bad. I was a little disappointed that I had to interact with the user directly, though - I had hoped to complete the condition by choosing my own test subjects, like with barrier, so there wouldn’t be a possibility of drawing out Hyun-woo’s protectors by mistake.

Regardless, I quickly made a wall of barriers around Hyun-woo, which disabled him from activating his skill on me. Getting [Barrier] was a lifesaver. I was moving through my plans at a lightning pace, and was already on to the next step of the process.

*Sigh*. Well, this next part would be awkward, but…

“Do what I say or else I will kill you.”

…

I took a moment in my head to reaffirm that I was the good guy here. It’s all a bluff, anyways, so it’s fine, right?

“I want you to go home for 12 hours and stay inside until I say you can leave. And don’t call for help.”

Even with the threats, he was hesitant. I deployed another strategy to convince him further.

“If you don’t comply, your loved ones will be in danger.”

I showed him the illusion paper, hoping that I had convinced him by now that I might have something like a picture of his friends or family.

He was visibly shaken, and affirmed that he would do whatever I asked.

Again, I was on the side of justice here. This is for the greater good… was all I could tell myself.

He led me to his house while I quarantined him from me with barriers.

Just from a glance, his house looked absolutely insane - Even in my dreams, I wouldn’t think to live in such a luxurious building.

As we approached, 3 more dots appeared on the radar. They all had the same surname as Hyun-woo, and two of them were only 9 and 11 years old.

I instantly felt far worse. Far, far worse. I could only pray my ancestors couldn’t see me now.

I violently pushed out thoughts of my degrading moral compass and focused on my goal. Once Hyun-woo was led into his house, I took post nearby and watched to make sure nobody came near. I surrounded his house with barriers as well so nobody could go in or out. All I had to do was wait here for 12 hours and I’d be in the clear.

I had already cleared my first major goal, and now I was just taking my victory lap. Life was good.

…

I was nearly dozing off, when at around 2 AM, I saw another dot appear on my radar.

Upon looking at its information, I noticed he had six skills, so I could only assume he was from the Gyeong-jin organization. I was worried that Hyun-woo might have reached out for help so I cautiously eyed him.

He walked straight towards the house and ran into the barrier I had set up. He clearly was here for Hyun-woo. I wasn’t concerned since I could silence him as soon as I got the skill - and I could stall him until then easily with barriers.

The man appeared confused for a moment before running his hands across the invisible wall. He sized it up, felt across it like a mime, and knocked on it a couple of times.

Then suddenly, he walked through it.

Skills stolen (3)

 [Radar] [Illusion Paper]

[Barrier]