5 Times a Day

**Chapter 29**

To be honest, I had nothing against Jackson, nor did I have anything against his cronies. But they had pissed me off for the second time now—well, Jackson had—and his cronies were, how should I say it… just collateral? Yep, that was the word for it. Collateral damage.

Regardless, there was no mercy for anyone. I entered the convenience store and purchased a bottle of water and a pack of cup ramen. I placed them on the counter, and the cashier began to ring me up.

“That would be 3.99,” he said with a professional smile.

I nodded, but instead of handing over the exact amount, I placed ten ten-dollar bills on the counter and said, “Here you go.”

“Ahmm… Sir…” The cashier stared at the money, wide-eyed. “I think you’ve paid a little extra.”

“Oh, I certainly have not. This is a fair price. For the water bottle, the cup ramen, and…” I pointed at the door to my left. “For five minutes in there alone.”

The cashier looked at me, thinking it over hard before he came to a decision. He took the bills and reached under the counter. After a moment, he said, “I guess I should cover better spots with the cameras…” He hesitated. “The left side, maybe...”

He was terrible at this. Still, I smiled brightly and simply nodded. I hurried into the back room and made my way to the computer that stored the store’s camera feed. Once I finished what I needed to do, I made sure everything was back in place and left the room.

I returned to the counter, picked up another water bottle and ramen, and stood in the same spot as before. “Your CCTV system is working just fine.”

He didn’t know exactly what had happened, but he still turned the cameras back to how they were. I paid for both items and took the receipt. It was a blessing that the billing machine was connected to the same computer. It might never come up, but it was always better to leave no blind spots.

I left the convenience store. I threw the cup ramen into my inventory and started gulping down the water bottle while walking aimlessly through the city. Before I knew it, it was getting dark, and I was coincidentally in a secluded area.

“There you are.”

I heard a familiar voice and turned around. Imagine my surprise when I saw who it was.

Jackson. Believe it or not, I was genuinely astonished. Still, I kept the surprise off my face and said, “Hey, if it isn’t my good friend Jackson. What brings you here?”

Jackson’s expression twisted into something ugly. He lifted the baseball bat in his hand and tapped the head against his other palm in what he clearly thought was an intimidating gesture.

“Well, I just wanted to introduce you to some of my friends so bad that I couldn’t contain myself with joy.”

Sarcastic, are we?

“Well, I can’t wait to meet them as well. After all, who wouldn’t want to make friends in a new place like this, huh?” I tossed the empty bottle on the ground and opened my arms with a bright smile.

“Break those arms of his!” Jackson yelled.

Wow. Really? Could he have been any less cringe? Or was that line in fashion these days?

The second the B-grade villain dialogue left his mouth, the extras charged at me with bats, metal pipes, and chains raised.

To be honest, I was curious. How strong was I now? How strong was a human body at this level? At twenty, in all physical stats, I was at the peak of a normal human. Now that everything had gone higher and crossed the mortal limit, how strong was I really?

The answer came fast.

Crash!

The bat slammed into my ribs—

Crack!

No, no, no. Unlike the movies, the bat didn’t break. What broke was—

My fucking ribs.

“Kugh!”

I swallowed the sudden pain. Any desire to keep experimenting vanished like smoke. I stepped to the side, dodging the metal pipe aimed at my head and the chain going for my leg. That strike had been enough to do real damage, so I counted myself lucky it was only a slight fracture. The guy who had swung the bat was clearly thinking the same thing.

No matter how strong I had become, I was still within or very close to human limits. It was better not to test anything further until I finished the second quest.

I side-stepped again, slipping past the slow swings of the four guys. Jackson had joined in by now. I wanted to beat the shit out of them, but I also wanted to feel out my limits. Defense testing was done. Speed and power still needed checking.

I hadn’t tested pure power yet, but my speed was something else. The last time I had pushed myself this hard was about a year ago when I raised my agility to ten all at once. That had felt exhilarating—light feet, air brushing across my skin, effortless swiftness. The difference between ten and twenty-five was enormous. I wasn’t even out of breath. My heart wasn’t racing. What I was doing should have been exhausting, yet it felt easy.

“Haa… Haa…”

The same couldn’t be said for my new friends. They were huffing and panting, arms already heavy from swinging their weapons so many times. The feeling of no longer being fully human was strange… and a little depressing if I thought about it too long.

I decided not to think about it.

I simply set my feet, clenched my fists, and drove a precise strike into each of their livers. The accurate hits dropped them to their knees, gasping and unable to breathe properly. I didn’t linger. One by one, I broke their hands.

“Ahhh!!!”

Jackson, the last one, tried to crawl away even though he still hadn’t recovered from the liver shot. I stepped on his hand, then used my other foot to snap his forearm cleanly in the middle. I stepped back.

“Stay away from Sara. Next time it won’t be just one bone.”

I said it coolly and left them there in the dirt, four people in serious pain.

I had wanted to do more, but that would only overcomplicate things. Better to handle it slowly—one bone at a time—over the rest of the summer. These guys weren’t going to learn their lesson from a single night.

~~

“Mister Haller?”

The next morning, right after Sara, Mira, and Sasha left for school, Aunt Elise was busy in the kitchen, and I was trying very hard to ignore the intoxicating fragrance coming off her—it was getting tougher by the hour—when the knock came.

“Yes?”

A man stood at the door holding a badge. “I’m Detective Tent. I would like you to follow me to the station to answer a few questions.”

“Involving?” I asked, no panic in my voice. That seemed to throw him a little, but looking at the house behind me, he clearly assumed I was used to dealing with this sort of thing.

“Regarding an assault case at the park last night.”

I nodded but didn’t move. “And what does that have to do with me?”

He stared at me for a moment, then tried again. “All your questions can be answered if you just come with me.”

“Not until you tell me what it has to do with me.”

I stayed stubborn. The detective finally pulled a folder from his pocket and took out four photographs.

“These are the assaulted victims. They claim you attacked them. Eyewitnesses place you at the scene. I’d like to hear your side of the story before doing anything else, so it would be better if you came along and we settled this peacefully.”

Eyewitnesses? My side of the story?

What a kind gentleman, right?

Bullshit. There was a saying in certain circles: there are no sweet cops. Even the clean ones aren’t truly sweet. Of course I didn’t take the man at face value. Still, it was a good opportunity. Not every day did a chance fall into your lap to sue the authorities.