Super Rich System

8 Vincent's Hatreds

Bram did not respond and looked back at Vino, but not to pick up his phone. His eyes narrowed, observing his best friend with the meticulousness he usually only gave to analyzing game strategies.

When Vino returned to their table, Bimo immediately bombarded him with questions.

"Vin! You're crazy! Since when could you fight like that? What kind of moves were those? You looked like a professional martial arts athlete!" Bimo nearly stood up from his chair from being too enthusiastic.

"That was taekwondo, Bim," Vino answered while trying to look calm even though his heart was still beating fast, not because of the fight earlier but because of the incident with Lina and Fenita.

"Taekwondo? Since when did you learn taekwondo?"

"It's been quite a while. I learned by myself at home, watching YouTube. There's this one famous taekwondo instructor from Korea who uploads regularly, I followed all of his videos."

Bimo accepted that answer with sparkling eyes. "Crazy, Vin! Just from YouTube you can be that good? Which instructor? I want to learn too! If I could do taekwondo like you, all the girls would definitely be interested in me."

But another voice cut in before Vino had time to answer.

"No way it was from YouTube."

That was Bram. His phone lay on the table with a dark screen, something that in Bram's daily life was equivalent to a rare natural phenomenon. His eyes looked at Vino with a sharp and calm gaze, a gaze that usually only appeared when he was analyzing an opponent's strategy in a game tournament.

"I've known you since high school, Vin," Bram continued. "You never learned martial arts. Never joined a martial arts extracurricular. Never watched MMA. You never even exercised besides cycling. Then suddenly you can do a spinning kick that hits right on someone's temple while maintaining perfect balance?"

Bram stood up from his chair and walked around Vino like a detective examining evidence. "What you did earlier was not the movement of someone who learned from YouTube, Vin. I might play games all day, but I've watched international taekwondo tournaments because there was a game inspired by it. What you did earlier was on par with national level athletes, maybe even higher. People who have learned taekwondo since childhood might not be able to do it that cleanly."

The cafeteria felt quieter than it should have been. A few people at surrounding tables also turned their heads, interested in their conversation.

"So," Bram tilted his head, "where did you really get that ability from?"

Vino swallowed. He had not expected that Bram, who all this time seemed not to care about the world outside his phone screen, actually paid attention to his life in such detail. Bram knew that Vino had never learned martial arts. Bram knew that Vino's movements earlier were not amateur movements. And Bram was too smart to be lied to with a story about a Korean YouTube instructor.

"Bram, seriously," Vino tried to laugh to lighten the mood, "I really learned it from YouTube. Maybe I just have a natural talent for it."

Bram stared at him for several seconds without blinking, then finally shrugged and sat back down. He picked up his phone from the table, but before turning on the screen, he said in a flat tone, "Whatever you say, Vin. But I know you're lying."

Then Bram turned on his phone screen and sank back into the game as if the conversation had never happened. But Vino knew better than that. Behind that glowing phone screen, Bram's mind was working, piecing together fragments of incomplete information, searching for the answer that Vino was hiding.

Vino felt uncomfortable. All this time he thought Bram was too busy with games to notice anything that happened in the real world. Apparently he was wrong. Bram noticed. Bram always noticed. And now Bram was getting suspicious of him.

But of course Vino could not tell them about the Solid System. How could he? He would have to explain about the mechanical voice in his head, about the taekwondo ability that appeared out of nowhere, and about Mr. Tono who died because he refused the first mission. Telling all of that not only sounded crazy, but was also dangerous. He did not know how the system would react if its secret was exposed.

---

After the afternoon class, Vino pedaled his bicycle out of the campus gate. The streets were starting to get quiet because most students had already gone home earlier. His thoughts drifted to the two new phone numbers in his phone. Lina and Fenita. Two girls who earlier this afternoon had given him their numbers without him asking. Something that had never happened in his entire life.

Vino slowed down his bicycle pedaling as he passed a familiar intersection. He was thinking about calling one of them. Maybe Lina, because Lina was the first one to approach him. Or Fenita. He wanted to get closer to one of them, wanted to prove to himself that the moment of courage earlier this afternoon was not just a momentary outburst.

That was when the mechanical voice in his head was heard again.

"Congratulations on the success of the first mission. The Solid System offers a new ability as a reward for the host. Do you wish to accept?"

Vino immediately hit the brakes on his bicycle. The front wheel screeched on the asphalt as the bicycle came to a sudden stop. He sat on his bicycle that had stopped at the side of the road that was starting to become deserted, and his face turned cold.

"No," Vino said firmly. "I don't want it."

"Are you sure? This new ability will be very useful for your safety."

"I said no." Vino gripped the handlebars of his bicycle tightly. "I still remember what happened to Mr. Tono. You gave me taekwondo abilities, then you gave me a mission, then if I don't carry out the mission you kill someone. I don't want to get trapped like that again."

'I'm not going to use this system anymore,' Vino resolved in his heart. 'If every new ability comes with a mission that can kill people if I don't do it, I'd rather not take it.'

"The decision is in your hands," the system said with its unchanging flat tone. "This offer is not coercive."

"Good. Because I don't want it."

The system did not say anything more after that. Vino breathed a sigh of relief. At least the system respected his refusal.

He pedaled his bicycle again, slower than usual. The streets that evening were relatively quiet. He took the route he usually passed, going past rows of shop houses that were mostly already closed, then entered a smaller road that cut through a housing complex area. That road was always quiet at times like this, but Vino liked it because there were no large vehicles that made him anxious.

His thoughts drifted back to his phone. To Lina and Fenita's numbers. He slowed his pedaling again, considering stopping for a moment and typing a message to one of them.

He did not hear the sound of a motorcycle approaching from behind.

Vincent Salim had apparently been following Vino since he left the campus gate. The motorcycle driven by Rio with Vincent sitting on the back moved slowly behind Vino, keeping enough distance so as not to be detected.

Vincent's right hand gripped a folding knife with its blade already open. His still swollen eyes stared at Vino's back with boiling hatred.