Chapter 120: I Said Stop It

The air was thick with lingering hesitation and fear, but Max wasn’t a weakling either.

When he saw that Jacob still hadn’t started to convey the entire story, lightning began to crackle around Max’s muscles. Sharp arcs of brilliant, jagged blue electricity hissed through the damp atmosphere, snapping against the concrete floor and leaving scorch marks around his boots.

His gaze focused onto the cowboy hatted, neon jacket wearing man.

Jacob swallowed his saliva, acting like he was mourning, scared and deeply regretful. His hands trembled visibly in front of him, his posture hunched, selling every bit of vulnerability to the spectators watching from the periphery.

But inwardly, he wasn’t feeling a single bit of remorse.

He checked his inner list of requirements, suppressing a grin when he saw that one requirement was completed... Just 3 more.

The notifications floating in his private interface were practically glowing. Max was already drowning in self-reproach, regretting leaving Christine behind the moment he saw her corpse.

And now... Jacob planned to accomplish another requirement.

He lowered his head and continued, "Brother... I am sorry. I managed to kill the zombie but it was too late. It was too fast for us to react and too smart to slow down." He said with emotions behind his voice, "By the time I was able to put him down, he had already... injured Christine beyond recognition..."

He paused, his chest heaving as if the mere recollection made him sick.

He gulped as if recalling the gore, "The neck was tore apart... bleeding... Even her face wasn’t spared... We all heard her screams... We all wanted to help her–"

"Stop it." Max breathed out a rugged breath, the lightning surrounding his body crackling with greater ferocity as Aadav and Jenny both kept their distance, staring at their friend with a mix of grief and sadness.

Every muscle in Max’s frame was taut, strained like a high-tension cable about to snap. He couldn’t bear to hear such gorey descriptions about Christine’s end...

The image of her mangled flesh, the thought of her crying out for him in the dark while he was scouring a desolate high school across the city, was tearing his sanity apart from the inside out.

But Jacob’s requirement hadn’t finished yet. He needed the man’s emotional barrier to rupture completely. He needed the desperation to peak.

Just to deal a final blow... he whispered, "In her last moments... She was calling out your name but– ArGh!"

Before Jacob could finish his words, Max shot his hand in his direction as crackling streak of electricity was discharged straight towards Jacob.

The discharge was deafening, tearing through the warehouse air with the sharp, violent crack of thunder.

Jacob screamed in pain as his entire body felt paralized, electrocuted and unresponsive as faint wisps of smoke came out of his skin. The sheer concussive force lifted him off his feet, tossing him backward.

He slid backwards across the tiles from the impact, silencing the entire crowd as Max grit his teeth, his eyes bloodshot, "I said stop it."

The static charge lingered in the warehouse, making the hair on everyone’s arms stand on end. Toby and Clara flattened themselves against the cold metal racks, terrified that the lightning-wielding giant would turn his wrath toward them next.

Jacob grunted in pain, pushing himself off the floor as he dusted his clothes, keeping his emotions in check.

His fingers were twitching from residual neural shock, and the smell of singed polyester rose from his neon jacket, but his face remained a portrait of solemn, patient endurance. He didn’t show aggression towards Max even though the man had assaulted him directly.

It helped him raise his image in eyes of others, as Jacob appeared more like a humane... More emotionally capable. To the bystanders, he was a brave survivor enduring the irrational wrath of a grieving widower with dignified restraint.

Although, that was what everyone thought, except for Fredrinn.

Standing near the perimeter, leaning with apparent nonchalance against a support beam, Fredrinn watched the entire exchange with cold, analytical detachment.

Fredrinn already knew of Jacob’s skill, skill drain as Jacob had used it on him first.

Fredrinn’s system easily allowed him to shake off the parasitic skill, but that wasn’t true for other awakeners. They weren’t knowledgeable about Jacob’s skill and the unknown requirement list that he possessed to complete to steal their skill...

He was 90% sure that whatever transpired inside the storage room today wasn’t entirely coincidental.

Even if Dickens had turned purely based on luck and Jacob had no hand in it, as an awakener, he was more than capable of taking Dickens down before Christine could be compromised. With the enhanced reflexes and physical speed that came with Awakening, Jacob could have easily pinned Dickens to the wall before the infected could cross the open storage space.

So since he didn’t, it only left the possibility that Jacob wanted it to happen.

In addition, Fredrinn knew that Jacob was highly adept at talking.

He had a glib tongue that screamed of slimy politicians that Fredrinn had seen in Apolasia. In those grand marble halls across worlds, he had seen courtiers orchestrate massacres with polite smiles, nudging rivals into fatal traps with carefully placed words. There was no way that Jacob would make a mistake of riling Max up for no reason unless he had a good reason to do so...

Every word out of Jacob’s mouth was a calculated scalpel stroke, deliberately prodding Max’s deepest wounds to fulfill some unseen condition.

’Should I intervene?’ Fredrinn thought as he glanced at the ongoing drama.

Logically, getting rid of Jacob could be good for him because Jacob was like a ticking time bomb. Who knew what next he would do to complete his requirement list? An unpredictable sociopath with a parasitic ability was an inherent hazard in any group dynamic.

But then again, the fake requirement list that Fredrinn had given him was entirely positive.

Through the system’s interference, Jacob was under the firm belief that getting on Fredrinn’s good side, acting subservient, and serving him loyally was the only way to steal Fredrinn’s abilities. Jacob wouldn’t choose to antagonize him at all because that would be detrimental to his plans.

So...

For Fredrinn, Jacob could be useful.

A snake that thought it was manipulating the hawk could be pointed at other threats before being crushed.

Fredrinn glanced sideways at the grieving Max before he moved aside and walked towards the others. Max needed time to burn through the initial shock of loss, and standing around watching the theatrics offered zero value.

Across the room, Andrea saw him approaching as she swiftly shot up to her feet, running directly into his arms and hugging him.

The impact of her soft body against his chest carried genuine warmth. She buried her face into the crook of his neck, her breath hitching as her hands gripped the fabric of his shirt.

He smiled gently, stroking her back as he whispered that it’s okay.

Naomi and Rhea were also safe and uninjured, standing behind Andrea with a mix of relief and lingering grief. Both women looked pale, the stress of the incident visible in their hollow, tired eyes, yet the tension visibly drained from their shoulders the moment Fredrinn entered their space.

"What really happened? I understand Christine and Dickens, but what about the other two?" Fredrinn asked when he felt Andrea calm down a little.