Gary was over the moon with being granted the pawn points. He could use these to either upgrade the stats that couldn't be upgraded through the crystals, evolve his subordinates, or use it to unlock new skills as well.
It was the reason why he had entered the tier-4 city in the first place. In hopes that he would get quests to help him grow. The fact that he had found beast crystals was an extra bonus.
On top of that, he was able to test out his new strength. He could feel his body becoming lighter, his movements moving with ease, and his mind syncing up more so with his body. It was hard for Gary to explain, but when he transformed as a werewolf, although he could move faster than he ever could in this form, there were times where he just thought the body was still lagging behind the thoughts in his mind.
As he grew stronger, the delay between what he wanted to do and his boy was getting shorter. It was perhaps because of this that Gary actually hardly struggled with adjusting to his werewolf body and using it.
Because, his mind was already well ahead of what his body was capable of.
“Are you, Gary Dem?” Elijah asked.
Lifting up his hands, Gary went to touch his face and could feel his fingers bounce off of his soft skin. The mask had fallen, his disguise was now gone.
“Oh c*ap!” Gary looked on the floor and could see the mask on the floor in two pieces.
There were two reasons for Gary wearing the mask. One of them was if he was to act and beat up a few people from the gangs then they would have no way to try and link the attack back to the Howlers.
If news got out that the recent tier-3 gang that had been very active was going around messing with the lesser cities, there was no doubt that the other gangs would act. Even though they had been doing the same thing secretly and behind the scenes for a long time.
As for the second reason, Gary’s face was just too well known and popular. After the TV segment about up and coming Altered, and then his debut match. He was a face that many had seen in recent times.
Maybe after a few months people would forget about him, but it hadn’t been too long since the recent incidents, and it was why Elijah had recognised him. In one of the most recent reports, Gary’s opponent from the AFC was involved.
“Hey isn’t that… yeah it is, it's Gary Dem, that rookie AFC fighter!” one of the workers said, jumping up and down. Soon quite a few started to recognise Gary as well, but not all of them.
“AFC fighter, what do you mean, who is he?” Earny asked.
“Come on Earny, you must of heard of the AFC?” Barret said, to which Earny shook his head, of course he knew of them but didn’t really follow what they did. So he was only familiar with the top of the AFC whose images and photos would be posted all over the place.
“Gary Dem, was an up and coming rookie that everyone had their eye on, yet for some reason he decided to pull out of the AFC immediately after his debut. So he was talked about quite a bit. It makes me wonder, why is he here of all places?”
Now all the workers had understood how a person could defeat all of the gang members, it made sense for an AFC fighter to be so skilled and it was clear as day that Gary was an Altered, they just couldn't figure out why he was here, and that was the same for Elijah.
“Crap, what do I do now?” Gary mumbled to himself, his hand squishing the skin on his forehead together. It was clear he was meaning to keep his identity a secret.
‘Gary Dem, what are you doing here?’ Elijah thought. ‘We did some research on Gary after the fact. I didn’t look at his file fully, but wasn’t he affiliated with the tier-3 gang, the Howlers? Perhaps him dropping out of the AFC in the first place is related to the gang, and there is a good chance it could be the reason why he’s here.’
While thinking all of these thoughts, Gary started to move, rather than trying to explain his way out of the situation, instead he went to go and grab a big blanket, and laid it over the top of the dead Rex.
‘Considering the system knew this guy would be easy work, and it hasn’t given me the usual quest to consume him to get stronger, it won’t do much of anything. If I was to eat him, and do it in front of everyone, it would just scare them anyway. So far now the best thing I can do is just cover him up.’
Seeing these actions, no matter what his background was or who he really was, Elijah was remembering the last couple of days he had spent with Gary and his actions back then, they were all of a good person.
“Hey, Gary!” Elijah asked as he came over to his side, walking past the groaning men that were still on the ground.
When Gary turned around he looked nervous, having still not come up with a good excuse as to why he was here.
“Look, I don’t really care why you are here, but the fact is, we're quite deeply involved in this mess right now. About what you said earlier, I want to know if you were really serious, are you serious about not letting these guys get hurt by the Scavengers? You know after having done what you’ve done now, there’s only one way to do that right?” Elijah said.
It was clear, having gone this far to the point of killing one of their Altered, it meant that they wouldn't stop now. After Kai told him not to get in trouble, the only way out of the current situation was to take out the Scavengers.
“I am.” Gary said. “I’ll get these people out of here.”
“I thought you might have said that. Look I know you might have the backing of a gang.” Elijah said, which shocked Gary a little, but he continued listening to what he had to say. “But the infected Altered, it's clear that this case isn’t normal.
“The infected Altered is a solution that is coming from somewhere else, it's not these weak Scavengers, if you take them out, then most likely you will get the attention of those that are even higher than them. It could be the Dark Guild, or another tier-1 gang.”
There was another suspect that Elijah had, but he didn’t say the name out loud in front of Gary.
“You might have a strong backing from your gang now, but when they learn who they might be involved with, they’ll leave you behind.”
There was a reason Elijah was saying all of this, because after seeing Gary act and the way he was, he felt like he was more suited somewhere else.
“Why don’t you… why don’t you join the White Rose, if you do that, we can protect you.” Elijah said
*****
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