A notification chimed faintly at the back of Derrick’s mind.
[Ding!]
He ignored it.
The blur came out of nowhere. Derrick felt the impact before his brain even registered movement.
Kenny’s foot drove into his stomach hard enough to fold him in half, air leaving his lungs in one violent rush.
He rolled in the air before he hit the pavement for the second time in two lifetimes, and this time there wasn’t even the mercy of a quick death to look forward to.
"I should thank you, actually," Kenny said, standing over him, voice pleasant again in the worst possible way. "Ten pills. That’s what it took me to break through to low PSS. Your ten pills. But what I wanted the most was that spot of yours."
"My uncle took those pills off your corpse, or that’s how it was supposed to be. How did you fool him, huh? He is a Superpower Stage powerhouse, you know?"
"The same people who can throw cars around with one hand and crush you like the bug you are."
He robbed me. He beat me to death over a scholarship spot and then used my own stolen pills to get stronger. That... that’s actually brilliant evil for a side character.
Derrick thought as he tried to get up.
Thump!
"Look at you, squirming at my feet. Did you ever think a day like this would come in your life?" Kenny kicked him back down without any particular effort.
"Ugh..."
Every time Derrick found some scrap of leverage to fight back, Kenny simply moved faster, hit harder, and overwhelmed him before the attempt could go anywhere.
All the strength and speed he had gained with the new body and years of training meant nothing before someone like Kenny, who had taken 10 physical enhancement drugs and reached the first stage of the Physical Strengthening Realm.
Even though Derrick had crossed the threshold of peak human stats with his sheer training, Kenny was on a whole other level.
Enhanced by the effects of the drugs, his base stats had reached at least 20 in both criteria.
Compared to Derrick, he was on a whole other level.
A single kick from him felt like he had been hit by a truck. He moved like a blur that he could barely trace from the corner of his eye.
Urghh... it hurts so much. Why is this happening to me? I cannot die again. Apparently the universe had a running theme about Derrick’s complete inability to fight back against anything.
Fortunately for him, Kenny didn’t kill him. He didn’t even seem to want to, not really.
Not that he could, out in the public. Maybe he could beat someone to near death but not kill. And now that he had Derrick’s scholarship spot, he did not even need to do it.
"There is no point in even wasting my precious time on you. I have better use of my time, not to mention I have an ongoing mission." Kenny snorted and shook his hand like he had touched mud. "The next time I see you near Gwen, I will kill you."
When he finally got bored, he simply turned and walked away, straightening his cuffs like nothing had happened.
No one on the street stopped him. No one helped Derrick up.
Those people... they are all the same. Every one of them. Derrick gasped for breath, rolling on the concrete road. Blood and saliva dropped from his mouth as he struggled to get up.
From the corner of his eyes, he saw people looking at him in concern and whispering with a hand covering their faces.
But none of them stepped forward to help him.
Always there to watch others die but never willing to step forward unless it’s someone they know.
...
Before he even realized it, Derrick found himself standing before the entrance of his house. His eyes had lost their focus, but his bloody hand was already in the air, knocking on the door.
Knock!
Rebecca opened the door to find him half-collapsed against the frame and went white as bone.
"Derrick—!" She helped him inside and lay on the couch before he could get a full sentence out. "Wait here; I will call for an ambulance."
"No..." a raspy gasp escaped Derrick’s swollen lips. His eyes had blackened, and Rebecca could see bruises all over his body from the gaps in his clothing.
Whoever had done that to him had made sure that he could not even walk for a few days. She could not even imagine how Darrick had made it back home.
"What do you mean, no? Please let’s g... go to the hospital, dear." Rebecca spoke through her faint sobs as she knelt on the ground before him and held his hand. "Please. I don’t want to lose you, not again."
Derrick was left speechless, but he still was against the idea of going to the hospital. Not only would they charge him an astronomical amount of credits in bills, but the police might also get involved, and he did not want that.
Not yet, at least.
Who knows how far the connections of the West family went? He had to be wise about dealing with them.
’Don’t mistake my caution for cowardice. Mark my words, Kenny. I will leave you in a state much worse than this. Not only will you be able to walk again but you will also stop showing your face to the public.’
A trace of killing intent flashed through his eyes before it disappeared without a trace. Even Rebecca remained oblivious to the change and continued to pout her heart out.
"Don’t worry, I don’t think I have any broken bones. We have a medical kit at home, so we can use that. If I still don’t get better in a day, we would go to the hospital."
At first, Rebecca refused all of his plans, but eventually she was persuaded by his words.
She ran to the kitchen and brought a first aid kit back with her. She was shaking like a leaf, like she had been just pushed into a deadly storm.
She cleaned the worst of it in silence, jaw tight, and pressed a painkiller into his palm without a word.
As she applied the lesser healing medicine on his wounds and wrapped it in a bandage, she would glance at his face to see if he was in pain or not.
Fortunately, Derrick had a high tolerance to pain because of his past experiences, so she saw nothing but a faint smile on his face.
"I have things under control," Derrick said once the throbbing in his ribs let him talk. "I confronted someone. I am sure he had everything to do with what happened to me—"
"Stop." Rebecca’s voice cracked. "Please, Derrick. Stop looking into it."
He opened his mouth to argue.
"I already lost you once," she said, quieter now, and it landed like another kick to the stomach. "To whatever this was — the amnesia, all of it. I can’t lose you again. So please... let it go, for me. Please, Derrick..."
She clutched his shirt and buried her face in it, sobbing against him.
She doesn’t know how right that is. Derrick nodded; something in his chest cracked a little wider.
A notification flickered at the edge of his vision. He had ignored it before because he was in the middle of the confrontation, but now it was time for him to get stronger. If he wanted to take revenge, he had to get stronger, stronger than anyone else in the West family.
[Ding!]
[Mission 1: Investigate the death of the original host. Status: Complete.]