I Reincarnated Into A Single-Celled Organism! - I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 119

“Come, this way, it’s quicker.” The Grandmaster’s eyes flickered as he ushered me into an alley.

I stumbled forward drunkenly, pretending to only realize he had let me go after I was halfway down the alleyway. When I looked back in confusion, Grandmaster Bai had already disappeared and a thug was standing in his place. When I looked the other way, thugs were standing there too. I recognized these thugs. They were the ones who had tried to rob me the previous week before I had been ‘saved’ by Lady Lou.

Grandmaster Bai didn’t want to get his hands dirty. He had done everything properly. It’d be exceedingly hard for me to prove he did anything except buy me a drink. His actions were so smooth that in my drunken state, I might not even realized the Grandmaster had betrayed me in the first place. At least, that was the level of his nefariousness. None of that caught me off guard, but I had to admit it was a surprise that he was using the same thugs I had encountered previously.

It was dark and I was wearing a cloak, so the thugs didn’t seem to recognize me from before, but even if they did, it probably wouldn’t have changed much. I held up my hands continuing with the confused drunk act.

“Who are you? What do you want?” I asked.

The men around me all chuckled as they descended on me. The next thing I knew, one of them was throwing out a punch. He struck me directly in the face. I blinked, as did he. Then I grabbed my face and stumbled back.

[HP -0]

“Ow… that hurt!”

“Look at this guy.” The man who punched me rubbed his hand. “He’s so drunk he’s barely even able to feel it!”

I just didn’t have a lot of practice on faking being hit. Thankfully, these guys convinced themselves that my delay in response was a result of being drunk. Another guy struck me from the back.

[HP -0]

I didn’t know why the system kept revealing the damage of 0, almost as if it was bragging that these low-level-thugs couldn’t even break through my defense. However, whether it hurt me or not, I still played the part.

[HP -0]

[HP -0]

[HP -0]

[HP -0]

[HP -0]

[HP -0]

The men all kicked and punched me as I cried out and fell to the ground. It was the most ineffectual beatdown ever delivered. No one came to save me this time. It was already dark after all, and someone who found themselves in an alleyway in Stormberg at night was asking to be assaulted, so even those who could hear held little sympathy.

I curled up on the ground and continued to let them kick or hit me as I played like I was unconscious. It was harder than I expected. I felt a sense of indignant rage. I could easily wipe them out if I wanted to, and I was only choosing to allow them to do this. However, if any of them took things a step further, I wasn’t confident I could hold myself back. Although I didn’t have much in the way of pride, having grown up in a gang, I still had a bit of pride when it came to giving as good as I got.

I decided that I would return every kick and punch these guys had given me when the time was right. Unfortunately, that time wasn’t that moment. So, I remained motionless like they had knocked me unconscious. Even though I had stopped moving, they still spent another five minutes kicking and punching me before one of them stopped the others.

“He’s out…”

“He feels like kicking a rock, I wasn’t even sure I was doing damage.” One of the men cursed.

“Here…this will finish him off.”

One of the men pulled out a mess. Oi! Oi! Wasn’t that a little excessive? I very nearly blew my cover as I forced myself to allow the guy to stab me. Even all of my years as a pond didn’t make it easier to allow someone to just stab me while I did nothing.

[HP -1]

Well, at least that managed to do some damage. I stopped pretending to breathe and stilled my body completely. I also stopped producing heat so that in about five minutes, I’d be ice cold. In essence, I was dead. However, in my nonexistent heart, I was feeling someone angry. For all these guys knew, I was just a random guy. Beating me up and robbing me was one thing, but this was murder.

I felt my body being frisked. The bag with the herbs on it was grabbed, but I hid everything else in my Luminal Space.

“Damn… cheap skate!” One of them cursed and kicked me when he realized he couldn’t find anything else.

“Hey! Master Bai… we got the bag!” One of the men called out.

“Shhh! Will you idiots be quiet? Don’t talk to me! Just take it back to your hideout. I’ll meet you there later tonight to collect my award.” Bai hissed from a distance.

The men agreed and soon I was left abandoned in the ally, cold and abandoned. I waited another minute and then lifted my head. My eyes flashed a cold fury as I reached behind myself and pulled the knife that had been plunged into my pack. The guy had decided to leave the knife, although I didn’t know why. After stretching my body, I stood up and stared in the direction the thugs were heading. Of course, I had put a sentinel in the bag. The only reason I had allowed any of them to leave alone was because I wanted more information.

Twice, these thugs had tried to rob me. They also seemed to be connected to this Grandmaster. I planned to stop whatever criminal ring they were running and take all their income for myself. As far as anyone who got in my way? It was time to stop playing in the dirt. I got up and brushed myself off. I glanced at the knife in my hand. There was no blood on it, but those thugs didn’t seem to have noticed. Perhaps I needed to create a fake blood in the future to better blend in.

The was an insignia on the hilt of the dagger. It is considered a fist holding a sword. This must have been indicative of whatever gang they were a part of. I was all too familiar with leaving your gang sign behind. They didn’t finish me off with the dagger for fun. It was a means of declaring who killed me. Perhaps, the city guard knew to look the other way if they saw a certain insignia. It wasn’t uncommon for guards to be in the pockets of criminals.

I began to follow the thugs. This time, I lifted my hood and hid myself within my cloak. I even compressed myself at the cellular level, causing me to appear shorter and smaller, and thus less noticeable. The thugs continued from alley to alley, but their movements didn’t show any awareness that they were being followed. During that time, I could even hear them speaking.

“A bunch of dead plants? That guy used us to steal a bunch of dead plants?”

“Will you shut up? They’re alchemy ingredients. You remember that pill that which healed you after you got stabbed, right?”

“Ah, he can make one of those with one of these?”

“Tommy, just let me think about now on, will ya?”

“I’m just saying, why do we get to do some old man’s bidding? An old bastard like that, he’s probably not even going to pay us anything. At least we could be doing stuff that makes some coin.”

“Coin? Who cares about coin when we could be making joules?” He snapped. “You want to know why you working or him? Because he’s an evolved, and we’re not. We’re still just mortals… but if we do just a few more of these jobs, I’ll become an evolved. Then, our lives will be completely different. The Bosons will treat us with respect.”

“Hey, um… once you become an evolved and move-up hire in the Bosons, you wouldn’t forget about us, right?”

“What are you guys saying? You’re my brothers. I won’t forget about you all. As soon as I’ve evolved, I’m going to help you all evolve too. Eventually, we’re going to own this town. One day, I plan to own the Bosons.”

“Is that so?” A somewhat distorted voice spoke.

“Ah! B-boss, what are you doing here?”

“You were being so noisy as you came into my secret base, you might as well tell everyone.” They snorted. “I suppose you’re here with Grandmaster Bai’s stash? He already sent me a message. Give it over. I’ll deliver it to him myself.”

“Boss… everyone knows the Bosons is yours… I was just saying that the Bosons will be too small for you one day. When you leave, someone will need to take your place.”

“Hmph… just hand over the bag.” The voice snapped. “What? What is this? There is… magic being transmitted… you’re being tracked?”

I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in surprise. Someone had discovered one of my sentinels? That was a first.