Chương 39: Chapter Thirty-Nine: Plan of Attack

Someone in Squad Five is my enemy. The worst part about it is that I have no one I can talk to about this either. I trust Wade, and I am almost certain it is not him, but the situation won't warrant it. In this world of mythical skills, I can't be sure that my own thoughts aren't against me. For me to tell another about my suspicions, I would first have to be certain that no one can read minds or something.

I think my skill <Fixation> could be enough for me to overcome any undue influence, but I have no idea to what extent a skill could override someone's own self-control. From what I have seen of The Pillar's control over the mobs, I know for a fact that a higher power could completely puppet someone without them being aware of the situation at all. It might be purely paranoia, but I can't be positive that another group member doesn't have a similar skill.

I doubt it would be anywhere near the point of controlling someone in an absolute sense, but perhaps reading another's mind in order to know how to manipulate them the mundane way is within the parameter of possibilities. This is all too annoying. I had originally been excited about having other people to talk to and work with during our climb of The Pillar. I was not, however, expecting to factor them in as another source of danger for myself. I need to fix this smoothly and as soon as I can. Wait a minute…

I think I could actually use this situation to my advantage after all. At this point, everyone still doesn't trust me for some reason. I'm getting the cold shoulder from basically everyone but Wade, Angus, and my trusty BFF Pawl. If I were to find out who crippled the others on Floor One with that scalpel-like cut, then maybe I can gain everyone else's trust. Those cuts might be my only hint at finding the traitor.

Narrowing down who started with what skill should provide me with enough information to form a hypothesis on who the individual is. If they were telling the truth, then I technically know Wade and Vince's starting skills, as well as one of Sandra's. None of the others have told me anything about their starting abilities, nor have I been able to really confirm the ones I already know about. It seems that I will have to engineer a situation in which I can confirm the others' skills.

It will be harder to document everyone's skills as time passes given the existence of learned skills. The longer I wait, the more possible skills everyone else can learn within that time. But if I can manage to properly observe all of their abilities, then I should be able to pin down who started with a severing type of skill. Finishing up my shower, I dry off in a flash using <Infuse> to turn the surface of my skin as hot as a stove top.

Throwing on the clothes I brought in, I take a moment to organize myself and my thoughts before heading back into the pit of snakes. From here on, I will start my investigation.

"Hey man!" Wade calls the second I walk out as expected. I notice he is sitting on a bunk with Benny at the end, still cuddling with Pawl. There is a sheet tied up around one of the posts to offer privacy, so I assume the particular bed must be Wade's. Heading over, I give Pawl a loving pet on the head while Benny gives me a toothy smile that is almost as bright as his short, platinum blonde hair. Stopping next to the kid, an idea occurs to me, and I crouch down to get on eye level with the boy.

"Benny, if you tell me your starting skills, I will give you another five more minutes with Pawl." I negotiate shamelessly.

"Okie! My starting skills were <Pact> and <Telekinesis> and my alias is BunBun!" He shouts excitedly.

"I didn't ask for your alias but thanks buddy. For equal payment, I will tell you that Pawl likes his tummy rubbed very much." I say while patting the younger boy on the head with a shit eating grin on my face. One down, eight more to go.

"What was that all about?" Wade inquires as I take a seat on the ground with my back against the metal locker to face him smirking at me from his bed.

"Just a bit of curiosity on my end. I was surprised that all it took was selling out my BFF."

"BFF? Did I seriously get beat out by a cat?" He laughs.

"Best Feline Friend, man." I lie. Pawl definitively beats Wade in the best friend category, but I won't tell him that just in case. How could I explain to him that the cat is my favorite because I can boop his little pink nose? We both fall silent for a moment as I watch Benny rub Pawl's belly with abandon. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"So, are you really not going to tell me what you're thinking about this whole thing? Sara's right, it was pretty obvious you were holding back earlier." I turn my attention back to Wade and look my old friend directly in the eye. My mental skill pushes my mind as far as possible, and I take in every single detail of his expression with <Fixation>.

The quirk of his eyebrow, the inquisitive glint in his pale blue eyes, and the slight wrinkle on his forehead tell me that he is the same boy I have known since elementary school. I want to tell him about what I suspect. Imagine how much easier it would be if I had someone else to work with on this.

"It's all good. I was thinking about the censorship of information we have experienced so far, but I think I'm still missing a couple of pieces to the puzzle. I'm playing around with an idea that there could be a couple sources of the censorship rather than one entity managing it all, but I don't know for sure."

"Hmmm…" He stares at me for a moment too long, and I wonder if he can tell that I suspect him.

"Y'know that theory is actually really good! How the hell did a middle school dropout think of something like that?" My worries about his suspicion melt away as I watch the slightly older guy's eyes light up in interest. Soon after, he calls the others over in earnest, and at first they are skeptical.

After I offer the information I had gathered and connected between my experience and theirs though, the group comes around to the idea and they even split off in a conversation amongst themselves attempting to workshop the theory while I just sit and watch it play out. As the group discussion goes on, I only listen with one ear while paying close attention to everyone's interactions within the conversation.

Vince and Sandra are discussing possible avenues to exploit my theory and test it with other mobs while Angus is excitedly theory crafting with Wade, Henry, and Sara. Kathryn and Nikki discuss some things amongst themselves while Kathryn sits next to Benny like a mother coddling her son. No one's behavior seems off at all, but I do notice that Nikki tosses me a weird look every now and then.

It would be more suspicious in my opinion if she was being more secretive about it, but her method of watching me is very clumsy, and I catch her eyes almost every time, which makes her immediately look away with an annoyed look. Is it possible she is the traitor? If so, how did someone who is outwardly being hostile toward me fly under the radar for this long. Somehow I doubt she would ever have been able to get away with sabotaging the people on Floor One if this is an example of her trying to be inconspicuous.

I decide to end the charade right then and there, and fix my attention on her.

"Hey Nikki." She turns toward me in surprise as if not expecting me to call her out on her behavior.

"Can we have a talk real quick?" I ask. She looks at Kathryn, who just shrugs while giving the younger girl an amused look. Nikki glares at her for a moment before standing up with a sigh. I lead her to the far end of the barracks room, and stick my hands in my pockets before looking her directly in the eye.

"Why have you been treating me weird? Did I do something I'm not aware of?" I ask straight up, not wanting to have to deal with the awkwardness that comes from beating around the bush.

"Erm…No you didn't do anything I guess." She says while frowning heavily and tapping her foot on the ground.

"Why then?" The younger girl huffs to herself while one of her pale, thin hands reach up to run its fingers through her long black hair in a display of annoyance.

"It's complicated," she states matter-of-factly.

"I don't really trust you, but I know Wade, Vince, and that other guy Angus does."

"Okay, and?"

"And what? That's it." I slowly let the mana I had been running through my hands die down as I remove them from my pants and cross my arms.

"I don't really mind if you don't trust me. Can you just stop looking at me weird though when the group is having a conversation? It makes me uncomfortable." The hand running through her hair freezes and her expression becomes confused and almost offended.

"What do you mean you don't mind? I just said I don't trust you. Aren't you even going to try and convince me I can?"

"I don't really care to be honest. It makes sense from your point of view. I probably just look like some random freak that just appeared here and assumed himself as part of the group without providing an explanation as to why." Her expression is hard to discern, but I feel like she is stumped for some reason. Is this seriously it? She has been treating me like the plague just for that?

Here I was preparing for her to reveal herself as the hidden killer in the group, yet she apparently just has a problem with my presence. What kind of high school bullshit is this?

"I- er, I mean, this place is life or death. If I can't trust you… then um, that basically just means you are another danger from where I stand." She finishes with some amount of the previous fire from before sparking back up in her eyes.

"Okay. I still don't care. I'm sure you'll start trusting me after we have to work as a group to finish the floor quest. Your stance on the topic doesn't bother me as much as it clearly bothers you. If anything, your suspicion of me will probably end up getting you killed in a fight if you are too worried about me to pay attention to your surroundings." Nikki doesn't say anything to that, and instead, I watch as her face cycles through shame, guilt, annoyance, relief, and then finally, rage.

Before she has the chance to blow up at me though, I exit the conversation and make my way back to the others before the younger girl causes a scene. I realize that she is only eighteen years old, but these levels of immaturity are practically on par with Benny. How is this girl allowing her emotions to control her to such a level in the middle of the serious situation we are in? I find myself a spot back next to Wade's bunk, and I watch as Nikki stomps back to her spot next to Kathryn.

Just as I expect her to blow up and get Kathryn to come over and talk to me, the slender girl instead just sits down and puts a fist under her chin while scowling at the ground. Perhaps I had judged her too harshly before? Just as I am about to put her up a notch on my board of respect, the girl locks eyes with me once again before the fist under her chin transforms into a middle finger pointed directly at my head. Well, that's just uncalled for.