Tower Climber (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 1) Jakob Tanner (reading comprehension books TXT) 📖

“I’m hooooome,” said Sakura, stepping into the apartment. “It smells good in here. What did you make, Max?”

She found Max in the living room, asleep on the floor. Four blackened monster cores lay in front of him.

“Couldn’t wait up for me, huh?” she said.

She looked down at the boy and the blackened monster cores. The boy continued to impress her. He had figured out how to drain them of their mana all on his own. This kid was something else.

She picked him up gently and placed him back down on his bed and covered him with a blanket.

She smiled down at the boy and then sighed.

At what point do I talk to him about what I know, she wondered. Not that I know much, but I guess I know a little.

Definitely not tonight, that’s for sure.

But when? And what will he do when I tell him?

33

Just after midnight, Bruno Slevsky finished his shift at the Pole Dancer’s Lounge, a strip club in the tower-zone’s red light district.

Most nights he worked as a bouncer for the owner, one of the city’s ruling mob bosses. Some nights were more unusual than others: less bouncing and more going to someone’s house and beating them up because they owed his boss money. Sometimes he did more than beat them up.

Tonight, however, wasn’t one of those nights. Tonight was a typical shift, which meant, standing in front of the door in the cold dead of night, making sure the lowlifes who came in were the kind of lowlifes that spent money and didn’t cause trouble.

It was the end of his shift, so he collected his share of the tips and then left the establishment, making his way home for the evening.

Bruno Slevsky had no idea he was being followed.

He turned into an alleyway. It was the usual shortcut he took on his way home.

It was one of those banal quirks you never thought about. The type of habit so mundane and routine, you didn’t realize you made it every single time you went home. It was the kind of detail that meant nothing to the person making it, but everything to the person secretly watching you.

The alley was empty and dark.

Bruno was halfway across it when he found himself unable to move.

He wasn’t even squirming. His legs and arms were frozen in place.

He tried to speak.

“Hello? Is someone there? I...uh...need help?”

A figure stepped out at the front of the alley.

The figure walked closer, stepping in and out of the shadows.

It was a teenaged boy with blonde hair.

“Hey kid,” shouted Bruno. “Would you help me out here? I’m stuck!”

The boy smirked at him. “What would you like me to do, Bruno?”

The man froze. “How the hell do you know my name, kid!?”

“I know everything about you,” said the boy, calmly. “What you like to eat, what you like to drink, where you work, what you do in your spare time. Ask me anything. I’m an expert of all things Bruno Slevsky.”

The man’s eyes bulged. “You better be careful now, kid. Do you know who I am? I work for some very powerful people.”

“That’s true, but you’re also replaceable. You’re a meathead enforcer. There’s a dime a dozen of you. Plus, you’re nothing but a traitless. I’m sure your boss could hire an ex-climber to do a much better job than you.”

“Screw you, kid. I’ll beat you to death here and now.”

“Except you can’t,” said the boy. “Because unlike you, I’m not a traitless. I have a trait and a rare one at that. Aren’t you curious why you can’t move? That’s cause of me.”

The boy opened his jacket and pulled out a long silver scalpel.

A surgeon’s knife.

“Okay...” said the man.

He was becoming less angry now and much more fearful.

“Just let me go kid...I’ll give you whatever you want...”

“But you are what I want, Bruno,” said the boy. “I want someone that nobody cares about. Not even law enforcement.”

“Please...” squirmed the man. “Let me go...”

“I wish I could do that,” said the boy, admiring his reflection in the shine of his silver knife. “But I’ve had an aggravating day and I really need to unwind.”

He stabbed the man right in the gut.

“Aghhhh!”

The man screamed out in pain.

“Don’t worry, Bruno. I’ve stabbed you right between your major arteries. You see, that will cause you the most amount of pain and least amount of blood loss.”

The man squirmed in pain.

“The average adult human body contains around one and a half gallons blood. Most humans die of exsanguination if they lose just over half of that. I’ll keep stabbing you between all the major arteries so you don't die straightaway because that wouldn’t be fun now, would it?”

Bruno screamed again and the boy put his hand over the man’s mouth.

“No more screaming, Bruno,” said the boy. “Let’s not rush this.”

He stabbed the man again in the stomach, twisting the knife through his flesh, but making sure not to burst any of the important arteries that would turbo-charge Bruno’s remaining lifespan from minutes to seconds.

“You see, I come from a very important family, Bruno,” said the boy. “One where it would be frowned upon for me to get arrested. That’s why I must be careful about who I target. But you, I can do anything to you. I’m from a prestigious family and you are nothing.”

The man squirmed as the boy tortured him some more.

“My family isn’t so prestigious because we all have rare invaluable traits. No, it’s because we have a hereditary trait, passed down between the fathers and sons of the family. You see—I don’t just know where your important arteries are, I can see them beneath your skin.”

The man continued to squirm in pain. Tears leaked out of the man’s eyes.

“This hereditary ability is called blood eyes,” said the boy. “And it’s why the Archer family will one day rule this city.”

The boy was about to stab the man once more, when his phone began to ring in his pocket.

“Shit,” hissed the boy. “Right now?”

He