World Domination System

11. Superhero Duties

As Leonard walked out of her house, he didn't care if he had been rude or not, one thing was certain, he wouldn't allow her to ridicule him and his mother. 

His mother could fall for her tricks and acting, but Leonard was able to see things more clearly. Also, he knew that his mother had a naturally kind and agreeable disposition, but he was at least not like her completely. 

He was quite glad that he had given her that warning, and now, he knew that she would think so much about it before she uttered her mouth to say any more demeaning words.

Walking towards his house, the system dinged all of a sudden. Since he was already used to the beeps the system made as soon as a new task was launched, he could guess that he had a new task. 

[New task activated]

Leonard went to a corner of the road to listen to what it had to say. 

''What's the task?'' Leonard asked.

He wanted to be sure if this was something he could do. Even though he needed the money to get him and his mother by every day, there were still some things he would never think of doing and the first was killing someone. No matter how much money they offered him, he would never do that.

[The system will never tell you to terminate the life of a person] 

Leonard was momentarily startled because he never thought that the system would know what he was saying in his mind.

He chuckled to himself as he felt like he had missed out on something so obvious “Who are you fooling, man? Of course, they know what you're saying.”

[New task- stop the robbery happening in the next ten minutes. Prize money- $2500]

Upon hearing the amount, Leonard's mouth went dry. Of course, he had earned a thousand dollars before, but this was on another whole new level- A level he wasn't sure he could attain.

[Why do you have doubts?]

''Oh… nothing… I'm just nervous, is that all? What if they are armed? What do I do? I have no training yet in arms combat.'' he said.

There was a small silence for a while which was then broken by the low mechanical voice from the system. 

[All clear- no arms detected]

Leonard heaved a sigh of relief. It was one thing to fight thieves and another thing to disarm them and now that it was confirmed that they had no arms with them, he could go ahead with it and hope that luck was on his side.

[Go]

Like lightning, Leonard dashed off. He didn't know where he was going but at the same time, he had this feeling that something was leading him. As he ran, he had this sense of direction within him and he knew it could only be the system leading him.

This was considerably fair as the last time, he had to use his intelligence to get the exact location where the kidnapping was taking place. Perhaps, it really got easier the more he was tested. 

Soon, he got to a small, quaint mart that stood in the middle of the elite street. Looking around, the only people he saw were two women who were picking some apples just in front of the mart. The apples were in a basket and they picked the ones they wanted to buy before walking into the mart to pay.

''I don't see anything strange,'' Leonard said.

He knew that he shouldn't expect any answer from the system seeing that it had already given him instructions but still, he couldn't help but hope that somehow, a miracle could happen. Just as the streets were silent, so was the system. 

Apparently, he wasn't expecting any response and so, he just had to do this his own way.

Just then, a man walked towards the Mart and Leonard didn't need to be told that this was the thief. As he walked very fast, the dark-hooded man kept looking behind his shoulder as if he was scared of someone following him. His hands were in his pocket and Leonard had no idea what his skin color was in case the police somehow called him in for questioning.

''Show time.'' he murmured

He walked out of his hiding place behind the shadows that had hidden him as he stared at the strange man. 

The pace at which the man was was very fast and Leonard knew he had to catch up with him before it was too late. As it stood, he was already getting closer and closer to the woman who unknowingly had their purses hanging loosely from their hands.

Leonard knew that if he didn't get to the scene very soon, the man wouldn't mind dragging the purses from the women, and in turn, that would surely hurt the women. The way he saw it, the only way he could avoid all of that was by getting to the women as fast as possible and so, he quickened his pace.

Even though the man had longer strides than him, Leonard wasn't deterred. He was determined and when he was in this state, absolutely nothing could stop him.

''Give me your purses now.'' the man barked.

The women, frightened by this, screamed in shock as the man finally got to them. Leonard was just a few meters away from them and just as the man was about to grab their purses, he pushed him from the ground. The man tumbled to the ground with Leonard on top, punching the life out of him. The women, scared for their lives, ran a little distance away from the scene as one of them called 911.

Leonard, who was gaining the upper hand at the beginning, was suddenly pushed back by the man. He landed a punch on his face, just near his eyes and just as he was about to land another one, he got dragged by some uniformed police officers who, thankfully, had arrived.

''Are you alright?'' a voice asked.

The last thing Leonard saw before everything went black was the medics reaching out to him to help him.