Although Zain did expect to get caught with the crystals, at least not so soon. He expected others to notice this when they perhaps went on another outing and needed to place the crystals inside again.
On top of that, he had prepared himself to be caught by Shark, not Kun. Out of everyone here, Zain liked Kun the best. The latter was the first Reborn he had met, so the last member of the group he would want to deal with would be him. This was why he was genuinely taken aback when Kun called him out.
"You can't just take those crystals! And Why are you handing them to Skittle? Oh man, if Shark finds out about this, he's gonna rip your head off. I don't even know why, but he really cares about those things!" Kun was speaking incredibly fast and was taking deep breaths. It was hard for him to speak, and Zain could tell the situation was tough for him as well.
"Please just put the crystals back, Zain. I know you like doing crazy sh*t, but now is not the time for this. We can easily resolve this, and I'll just pretend I never saw it." Kun pleaded.
The fact that Zain wasn't saying anything and was looking at Kun like he was hesitating about how to answer was worrying the former. Kun now wished that his curious mind hadn't gotten the better of him.
When he saw Skittle walking this way, he decided to follow. Seeing Skittle enter the office did raise suspicions, but it wasn't like any area in the club was off limits. However, wherever Skittle went, he knew that was where Zain would be as well.
Still looking Kun directly in the eye, Zain moved his hands, clinging to Skittles' fingers, and the next second, the system message appeared saying the Crystal had been absorbed.
"What are you doing? Are you even listening to me!" Kun shouted.
"I'm sorry," Zain replied. "The crystals, I can't just put them back."
"What do you mean? Please, Zain, I'm begging you. Can you do it for me, just this one time? I don't want to see you get kicked out of this place. Not after you helped us out so much already." Kun pleaded again.
Letting out a sigh, Zain opened the palm of Skittles' hand, only for Kun to find it empty.
But Kun was sure he had seen the Crystal placed in Skittles' hand, so how could it suddenly disappear?
"Is this some type of magic trick?" Kun asked.
"It's not magic," Zain replied. "I came in here, wondering why Shark insists on us collecting the Crystals. I mean, it doesn't make sense if they do nothing, but what if they really do nothing?
"You told me yourself, if a Zombie eats one of these crystals, they will mutate and get stronger. So there has to be a reason for that, right? So what if we can use them somehow? These crystals, we can use to get stronger." Zain revealed his theory.
This was the best way out of the current situation, to bring Kun over to their side. In a world they were currently in, it wasn't money that people cared about, rather, it was the strength to survive the cruel world that he needed.
Getting stronger would be too tempting, and if Kun were on his side, who seemed to be popular with nearly everyone in the Reborn group, including Shark himself, then it would be a big bonus.
"I'm not lying. You can try it for yourself." Zain took one of the Crystals out of the box and walked over to Kun. "Let's try, and you can say it was me. You can tell Shark that I absorbed the Crystal, but don't you think it's unfair?
"Shark kept these crystals for himself because he knew it was making him stronger. Everyone in the Reborn was collecting them, and no one but only he was benefiting from them."
Kun knew much more than Zain did. He was closer to Shark. It was clear that Shark also had no clue what these crystals could do, but what Zain said made sense, and if that was the case, why didn't the others tell Shark?
Were they just using their group?
Kun closed his eyes and held out his hand without saying a word. Zain placed the Crystal in the palm and closed it. He wasn't sure how this would work because the system had done the job for him when it came to Cobra.
So instead, he thought back to the feeling when he had absorbed the Crystal into his own body.
"When holding the Crystal, you should be able to sense or feel some heat in your palm. That is Crystal's energy. What you need to do is draw it out inside you.
"Focus on the palm of your hand, then focus more on the part of the skin where the Crystal is touching, the top and bottom of it. Now feel the heat, the energy on the surface of your skin flowing into you. Imagine that it's moving the Crystal into yourself."
Having already absorbed the two Stage 2 crystals, it was much easier for Zain to describe the sensation he had felt, and he could see that it was starting to light up slightly through the cracks and sides of Kun's hand.
Finally, Kun opened his eyes and opened his hand, and the Crystal disappeared from his palm.
p "It actually worked. I felt the Crystal get absorbed into my body and even felt some change. How? How did you manage to figure something like that out."
The feeling Kun had experienced was impossible to describe, but he could tell a change was happening in his body, and he wanted to do it again. However, just as Kun went to move forward, someone else stepped into the room.
"Now, what is going on here?" Shark frowned.
*****
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