[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 179 - Life Experience

Freddy was surprised to find all three of them awake. 

Sophia was the one who had knocked to get his attention, for which Freddy wanted to chide her, but opted not to. 

To say that Lucas was awake was a bit generous. His eyes were open, yes, but even with Janice hugging him and sobbing into his shoulder, he was completely unresponsive, just staring at the ceiling with a blank expression. 

For a long moment, Freddy got flashbacks to when Sophia was catatonic, but in a moment, he realized this was a bit different. “You’re here,” Lucas said.

Releasing a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding, Freddy nodded. “Yeah.”

“Mmh,” was all Lucas added before going back to being quiet. 

Janice grabbed his face and kissed him on the lips. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

Freddy barely resisted saying that, no, Lucas was not okay. He was physically healed, yes. But such brutal torture left a scar that not even supreme-quality healing could make go away. Nothing could make it go away.

They spent a few more minutes standing there while Janice wept her relief into the young man’s rather wet neck by this point. Then, Freddy asked, “Tell me what happened.”

Janice hesitated at the question, but then retold the story. 

Apparently, a masked man who could meld with shadows appeared in their room, then kidnapped them, then tortured Lucas somewhere in an abandoned warehouse, and then snuck them past the guards and told Janice where Freddy’s room was. He threatened her with death unless she obeyed and made vague promises about how Lucas would be magically healed if she listened to him.

Naturally, this was a false promise meant to taunt Freddy. Little did they know that it was actually true. Or perhaps this was a way to suss out the full extent of “Skull’s healing methods”. In any case, it was a scarily calculating move that would have put Freddy in a terrible situation regardless of the outcome. 

As for the perpetrator, Freddy was tempted to conclude that Matt Canstone was the person Basilisk sent. But this thought loitered in his head for all of two seconds before he discarded the possibility. It wasn’t that he had some kind of irrefutable evidence that it wasn’t Matt, but he knew he was right.

Why?

Because that’s exactly what Basilisk wanted him to think. 

It was no coincidence that the bastard sent someone with a similar talent to Matt’s. He had done that fully knowing that Freddy would be suspicious of Matt. Given what Matt told him about how Basilisk backstabbed them when they went to try and save Freddy, it was obvious that his relationship with Madame wasn’t exactly stellar. 

Freddy refused to fall for it. 

If there was a reason Basilisk didn’t want him and Madame meeting, then that was all the more reason to spite him. 

Freddy learned who Basilisk was the hard way. He was a cunning, despicable psychopath. And an enemy Freddy had to get rid of as quickly as possible.

Once Janice concluded her story, it was time to make a decision. And there was only one real choice. “While I’d like nothing more than to let you guys spend a few days resting from everything, unfortunately, we don’t have the time,” Freddy said, steeling himself for what came next. “So we’ll have to get it out of the way right now. You two are dead.”

Lucas lunged out of the bed, picking Janice up and leaping to the other side of the room. In a flash, he conjured a spear of stone and pointed it at Freddy. “I’m not gonna let you hurt us!” he shouted with a manic look in his eye.

Freddy sighed. “I’m not going to. The people who did that to you, however, will.”

Lucas gritted his teeth. “This is all your fault!” he spat. “I hate you!”

The worst part was that Lucas was entirely right. Freddy grabbed the back of his neck as he considered letting Sophia take care of the situation. 

But then, something unexpected happened. 

Janice slapped Lucas across his face, hard enough to knock him on his ass. “Stop blaming him for everything!” she shouted so hysterically that her voice broke. Then, she pointed at Freddy while glaring at Lucas. “Without him, you would be nothing… We would be nothing! Why do you always keep blaming all of your problems on him!?” she screamed so hard this time that she broke into a coughing fit. “Do you have no shame!?”

Freddy’s expression must have been a sorry one, given how Sophia patted his shoulder and whispered, “It’s okay…”

Sighing, he gently brushed her hand away. “No, Janice. He isn’t wrong. I am to blame for this.” That made everyone pause to look at him. “Back when I got involved with Lucas, I had done so for entirely selfish reasons. I guess I wanted to prove that, should they want to, those with power could easily be fixing the world around them and making lives better.” His voice grew bitter. “But I was wrong.

“It can be done. But it sure as fuck isn’t easy. Sure, had I done nothing, his life wouldn’t have been easy by any means. But is this any better?” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Lucas, are you even faintly aware of just how bad of a state you were in? There is likely no more than a handful of people in existence who could have brought you back from that.” 

He pointed at Sophia. “She is one of them. If you walk out of here unhurt, her secret will be out. And while I owe you for what happened, I can’t let Lucas Black walk out of here alive and well.”

Everyone’s expression darkened at that and Lucas raised his spear. 

Freddy growled. “Not like that! I’m not going to kill you, you dumbass. Sophia will change your face and you will change your name. I’m not letting you out otherwise.” He briefly eyed Janice. “You too. Either that or dump him, because people will catch on.”

Janice nodded enthusiastically. “I’ll do whatever it takes. I promise.”

Lucas, for his part, didn’t actually refuse. “Under one condition,” he said as he got to his feet. “I want you to bring me with you.”

Freddy scowled. “Where?”

“Out in the monster hordes. I want you to take me and help me grow stronger.”

Freddy sighed. “Stronger? You’re going to die out there, Lucas.”

“You owe me!” Lucas screamed. “You owe me…”

“Lucas…” Janice tried, but—

“Don’t touch me!” he shouted as he pushed her away, taking nervous steps back. “I can’t live like this! I don’t want to live in a world where someone can just… do that to me,” he said with a haunted look. “And I couldn’t even fight back…” He leaned against the wall and dropped to the ground, hugging his knees. “I can’t.” He looked back at Freddy. “Either you take me with you, or I’ll kill myself! And it will be your fault!” 

Without a single warning, Freddy just turned around and punched the wall behind him. The whole room shook as cracks spread all around where he punched, and the thud was deep and loud enough to shut anyone up. Lucas included. 

Silently, Freddy slowly turned around and walked over to where Lucas was sitting against the wall. With how large Freddy was, he fully enveloped the young man in his shadow. He slowly squatted until he was at almost eye level with him. Then he allowed the silence to fully settle before opening his mouth. “You are making a mistake.”

“And what the hell do you know…?” Lucas gritted his teeth and looked down. “You can’t even imagine what I’ve been through.”

“Yes I can. I was once tortured for half a year straight. And by now, I’m not even sure if that fits into the top five worst things I’ve been through. Trust me, I know how you feel.”

Lucas tried to meet Freddy’s gaze in an attempt to challenge his claim. But the look in Freddy’s eye was clearly evidence enough that he wasn’t joking. Looking away with a blend of spite and shame, Lucas whimpered. “So what? You think you’re better than me, then? You think I’m weak for being like this?”

“I don’t,” Freddy said with a deep, slow nose sigh, closing his eyes for a moment to cool down a little. By the time he opened them, he was looking at the young man with an altogether different kind of gaze. “You will never be strong enough that nobody can hurt you. Never. Look at me—I have the pain tolerance to handle any kind of torture. And yet, people still keep finding new ways to make me miserable.”

“So what the hell am I supposed to do, then?”

“I don’t know,” Freddy admitted. “But I do know what you shouldn’t do. You shouldn’t go down this path where you keep looking for power at any cost. Where you become an animal. And where push everyone away. Because eventually, you’ll realize that the best way to not get hurt is to have nothing at all.” He paused. “That’s what I did. And somewhere in the middle of maximizing my own misery, I realized that I was living for nothing at all. And if you plan on living like me, you’re better off killing yourself.”

“Holy shit…” Sophia muttered, causing Freddy to turn around, where he saw her staring at him with pure shock. “Did you just give him… good advice?” She put a hand to her forehead. “I need to lie down.”

Freddy chuckled and shook his head. Then, he turned back to Lucas and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Do you want me to ask the adjudicator to send you and Janice to the empire?”

Lucas looked at him with shock. Then he looked over at Janice, who told him, “If that’s what you want, then I’ll follow you.”

“What about your parents?”

She hesitated. “If it’s between you and them, I choose you.”

“Damn, gurl!” Sophia shouted. “At least ask if they can come with you, first!”

Janice turned beet-red at Sophia’s words.

“I can arrange that… probably,” Freddy said. “What do you say?” he asked Lucas. 

Lucas spent a few moments thinking about it. “Is life less shitty there?”

Freddy made a so-so gesture. “A bit.”

The young man sighed. “All right.”

Freddy nodded. “Be right back.” He left the room, pulled out his communication crystal, and called the adjudicator.

“Is there a problem?” the man immediately asked with good deal of concern in his voice.

“Yeah, sort of. Hey… about that favour you said you owe me… Would you be willing to get four people back into the empire?”

The line was silent for a few long seconds. “One,” the adjudicator said. “I can bring one person over.”

Freddy winced. “What about two?”

“This is non-negotiable.”

“Why?”

“It isn’t that I don’t want to help you, it’s that I can’t. Anyone I want to bring over will have to be reported to a special council. I have the authority to name someone an exception every once in a while. But if there is more than one, then I have to wait for formal approval. And given the crisis we’re dealing with, that will take a while.”

“How long?”

“Long enough that the crisis will be over by then, in one way or another.”

Freddy clenched the communication crystal in his hand. For a moment, he was tempted to ask whether the man could smuggle them over, but immediately realized how stupid it would be to ask an adjudicator to break the law. “I understand. Thank you for the information.”

“If you need me for anything else, feel free to call.”

“I will.” He cancelled the call. 

He conveyed the adjudicator’s words to them, which rather ruined the mood. This started a rather cheesy scene of “No, she should be taken—no, he should be taken away” that Sophia relentlessly rolled her eyes at until she finally broke. “Freddy, why don’t we just take them with us?”

Lucas and Janice looked over at them, which made Freddy shake his head. “Sophia, that is completely insane. I’m barely considering taking you as it is. I can’t babysit three weak one-stars and kill a horde of monsters at the same time!”

She raised an eyebrow at that. “I’m not weak, Freddy.”

“The two of them definitely are.”

Grinning, she raised a finger. “But what if I could change that?”

He snorted. “What? You gonna give them a body mod? That’s not going to change much.”

“Freddy, I’m not joking when I say my Body Modification is a lot better now than it was back when I did it for you. And they already know about my talent, so I can heal them even if something does happen to them!”

“Counterpoint—we will be constantly surrounded by scouts, among others, who will undoubtedly be taking constant peeks at us to keep track of what we’re doing. And on top of that, I would like to recruit a couple extra mercenaries so we could have some supports on our side.”

“Counter-counterpoint—we deck them out in high-end gear, hire a scout support to help us make sure nobody is watching, and then play it as safe as possible.”

“The people we hire are the ones who will be watching us, Sophia!”

To his surprise, she vehemently shook her head at that. “Actually, no! I’ve done quite a bit of talking; a number of mercenary groups have arrived here to sell their services, and any of their members are absolutely going to keep their mouth shut, no matter what you do.”

“Pfft. There’s no way to guarantee that.”

“Oh yes there is,” Sophia insisted. “These are groups who work alongside elites who have all sorts of secrets. You can’t even get a job at a company like that without extensive psychological testing to make sure you ain’t a blabbermouth. Freddy, when I say they’ll keep their mouth shut, I mean it. The reputation of the companies they work for is at stake, and they’re under so many restrictive contracts that, should they ever violate them, their lives will be ruined in more ways than you can imagine.”

Freddy hadn’t known about this, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. After all, what kind of powerhouse would willingly work alongside people from a company known for selling out secrets of the people they work with? “But still…” He thought about it for a few moments. “Final counterpoint—why not just change their faces and let them go do their own thing? Bringing them along will put them into unnecessary danger.”

Sophia briefly eyed the two of them, before gesturing at Freddy to come closer. Then, when he did, she whispered into his ear, “This is your chance to finally make up with Lucas.”

Freddy violently rolled his eyes at that as he moved away. “That’s fucking childish.” 

In response, Sophia glared at him and aggressively gestured at him to return. 

Sighing, he obliged, and she whispered, “Stop being a pussy! I know you like the kid, and I know it bothers you that things went sour with him. How about you take your own advice and stop pushing people away?”

Freddy looked torn at that. But his thoughts were interrupted as another knock sounded over at the entrance to the apartment. “We’ll talk more about this later,” he said as he moved to see who it was this time.