Chapter 113: Perfect Replication

Perfect Replication.

A Talent that only worked on Awakeners by replicating their skills and abilities to perfection.

Yelena basically had a Talent that could copy skills and was calling Kaelen out for his made-up Talent.

That could only mean two things.

Either the Talent had limitations on what she could replicate, or the Talent simply couldn’t work on Kaelen, who literally didn’t have a real Talent and got all his abilities through the system and extracted abilities just like hers.

Yet, she was deciding to keep it to herself and still let him guide them to the ruins. This made Kaelen wary of her.

"Who are you?"

"I’m Yelena. Don’t misunderstand me. I didn’t save you. I was only being selfish because I was really curious about you. You resemble someone I might know." Yelena said, with her jacket still outstretched.

Kaelen’s hands instinctively shot up to feel his face. "Someone you might know?"

Yelena shoved her jacket at him in reply. "Take this. I think I have a spare somewhere." She said and turned to leave, when Kaelen suddenly grabbed her arm.

His Mask of Mediocrity was still on and was a Mythic Tier item, which shouldn’t be easy to see through, just like it took Black Rose a moment to have a hunch.

But the blonde woman had just revealed she could copy Talents and could very much have a stolen ability that could see through his mask, hence the special treatment Reiner had pointed out earlier.

Yelena tilted her head to look at him.

"Do you know me from somewhere?" Kaelen asked as his gaze peered into her dull gray eyes.

Yelena didn’t shy away from his gaze and stared back. They were in a deadlock for a moment before she finally spoke.

"You both have the same eyes. But if you were the same person I have in mind, he has no reason to react like this.

"But I still think we have so much in common... we’re both victims of our cruel fate. So I guess that’s okay." Yelena said and grabbed his hand, which was still wrapped around her arm.

"You’re very touchy. You should learn to keep your hands to yourself, or you might start to give off the wrong impression to the others." She said and ripped his hand away from her before walking away without another word, leaving Kaelen standing there as he stared at her receding back.

He didn’t know who this woman was, but she definitely knew something he didn’t. And the fact that he found her familiar wasn’t helping the matter.

Victims of the same cruel fate?

What was that even supposed to mean?

Kaelen’s fate was definitely not cruel. Not with the 10,000× Reward Multiplier System and the Eternal Myriad Scripture.

She also couldn’t be talking about his past in the slums, because he knew the Mask of Mediocrity was doing its job. Otherwise, the other mercenaries would’ve either attacked him already or fled.

’Yelena, huh.’

One mystery after the other.

’You better not be bullshitting me to mess with my head. But I guess I’ll have to take that into consideration too.’

"Alright. Let’s get going." The Commander called out, and the mercenaries began climbing into the trucks when one of the men suddenly screamed and dropped to the floor.

Everyone immediately stood on guard and scanned the surroundings. It was clear, and there were no suspicious figures or movements in the bushes, making everyone relax their shoulders as one of them went to check on the man.

Kaelen was also confused about what had happened and decided to approach as well.

"W-What the hell?" The mercenary that went to check on the man suddenly blurted out in shock.

"What’s wrong?" The Commander asked, with his eyes still open for any signs of danger.

"H-He’s dead." The mercenary stammered in disbelief, making everyone freeze in their tracks.

Kaelen didn’t pause and crouched before the man to check his breathing and heart rate.

There was nothing.

He had really died in an instant.

But Kaelen didn’t panic and ran his eyes across the man’s body and exposed skin when he noticed a tiny bite mark with a stinger still sticking out of it.

"What the hell did you do to him, Kael?" Reiner suddenly said. "Isn’t your Talent supposed to keep any danger away?"

Kaelen didn’t immediately reply as he swiftly dug out the stinger and flicked it away. He already recognized the bite mark as being from a highly venomous insect, but it didn’t kill instantly.

Meaning the man had been bitten a while ago but ruled it out as nothing, as it was closely similar to a mosquito bite.

"Exactly, Reiner." Kaelen said as he stood up. "My Talent repels the majority of beasts away but has no effect on people." He calmly said, his words making everyone frown.

"Are you saying he was murdered?" The Commander asked with a scowl.

"He was poisoned." Kaelen replied.

There was no use in telling them he was stung, as that might give away his usefulness. So he might as well prey on their ignorance to sow discord amongst them, so their hostility didn’t rest on him alone.

"What the hell are you saying?" Reiner barked. "If he was poisoned, then it had to be you. You were the only one who sat at the back of the truck and messed with our supplies. I knew you were fake from the beginning." He sneered as he drew his blade for the second time that day.

This time, the majority was convinced, as all evidence pointed at Kaelen, and they drew their blades as well, when they noticed neither the Commander nor Yelena had moved.

"Commander, what are you doing?" Reiner asked with a deep frown. "He’s clearly the murderer. He deserves to die."

Commander Marco didn’t reply for a moment as his eyes remained on the dead man, before he raised his gaze towards one of them. "Aaron, what truck was Berthold sitting in?" He suddenly asked.

The man hesitated for a moment. "He was with me in truck 5."

"I’m assuming you two got your rations from truck 5, is that right?" The Commander asked again.

Aaron exchanged glances with the other men before he slowly nodded as he lowered his sword slightly.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Reiner roared again, his impatience growing.

"Reiner, if you haven’t figured it out yet, Kael was in truck 2, and Berthold was in truck 5. I also don’t remember Kael ever coming close to or interacting with truck 5. He was also with Yelena throughout the break period and a good distance away from the truck."

Reiner slowly looked around at the mercenaries surrounding him.

For the first time since the journey began, suspicion appeared in his eyes.

"...Then one of us did it."