Lucas arrived home a short while later.

He collapsed on his bed with a heavy thud.

’Today sucks ass’ he let out a depressing exhale.

’Although I did receive some Karma Points, it was nothing compared to what Arnold received’ he covered his face feeling a bit frustrated.

’How is that jerk so strong?’

According to Carol, it wasn’t just his strength that makes him amazing but his star power. He has more viewers than any other member of the team, including Damian.

His obnoxious and rude attitude is seen as an honest display of character.

’Meaning they don’t care as long as he continues to do cool stuff’

He could say this because he witnessed Arnold do something so cool, he almost forgot how much of an ass the guy is.

Just thinking about how he confidently stood against that wild horse and took a hit like that, only to flip it over with his bare hands...

"Damn" he sighed.

"I wonder if I’ll be able to do something like that..."

Somehow the thought didn’t seem too possible.

’With my talent the only chance I’ll have of doing something like that is by raising my stats and to do that I’ll need more Karma Points’

He let out another sigh.

"Maybe I’ll just go out and fight on my own"

He said it as only a joke but the more he thought about it, the less of a bad idea it was.

In today’s battle he was hardly productive, even when he tried to help.

His ability, although works on monsters, it’s not the same for all of them and to understand it better he needed to test it even more.

’I can’t properly do that with the team around, they might not have the patience for it and end up thinking I’m a dud’

That wasn’t the only reason, he also wanted to keep his true abilities hidden.

For a while at least.

Until he was strong enough to protect himself or he had at least mastered his ability.

"That’s it, tomorrow I’ll venture out on my own!" he said it out loud as if that was the final stamp of approval.

The next day he packed a few essentials in a small shoulder bag and headed out.

His mission today was to see if he could understand his skill better, maybe test it out on one or two monsters.

From the moment he left his apartment building he could feel like someone was watching him.

That thought reminded him about streaming.

There wasn’t much point in taking a risk like this if there was no one to see, maybe that way he could even earn a few points from them.

He started the stream, and almost immediately three people joined.

[RichFarmer: you’re alive?!]

[TheSmartOne: This guy!!!!]

[Salvation_Father: Peace be with you]

’Damn, it’s these guys again’

He rolled his eyes as soon as he saw the names.

’I wonder how the camera for this thing works’

He could see himself from almost any angle, even though there was no camera.

As he walked further away from his apartment, he could still feel the eyes of someone staring at him.

Only when he finally turned a corner did Stacy close her curtains.

He continued through the empty street until he found a few zombies walking.

He quickly hid behind a car.

"Stop," he whispered a command.

But the zombies continued to move without breaking, luckily for him they didn’t notice anything and just dragged their feet away.

After that he pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down his findings.

"Doesn’t work on zombies... why?"

The only reason he could think of is that they were dead, or maybe their have a powerful mind.

In an attempt to understand his Skill better, he already began to understand that all minds were not the same.

Some naturally had more mental resistance than others and figuring that out would be the piece that would allow him to use his power efficiently.

[RichFarmer: what are you doing? Fight them...]

"Fuck no," his voice was a bit loud making the zombies to pause for a bit, before continuing.

[RichFarmer: I’ll give you KP]

"I don’t want your stupid Karma Points, you should even be offering to pay me for the last time. I kept my end of the bet"

[RichFarmer: you’re right]

[RichFarmer has sent 25KP]

[RichFarmer: Now do it! I want to see blood]

’But I thought they said zombies don’t bleed?’ he thought of asking who’s blood did he want to see but was too interested in what the man was willing to offer.

"How much?"

[RichFarmer: 10KP]

Lucas considered it.

It wasn’t just about the Karma Points the man was offering, he wanted to keep them entertained enough to stay.

’If I can be as viral as Arnold, then I’ll be strong in no time’

In a world like this, your fans was almost equal to your strength. Killing monsters and completing Rank missions would earn you some Karma Points, but you stand to earn far more from the people watching at home.

Lucas took off his strap back and pulled out the dagger from the sheat on his waist.

’Okay, this is going to be easy’ he told himself.

’All I have to do is sneak up from behind and take them out’

’It didn’t look too difficult when Carol did it so hard could it be’

There were three zombies so he still had to be very smart about it.

The first thing he had noticed from his previous encounters, was that they reacted to sound. So he made sure to be as silent as possible as he approached.

Until he was almost standing directly behind one of them, then without thinking too much about it, he launched an attack.

His blade went through its neck with surprising ease, he could see the rotten flesh under the pale skin.

But then nothing else happened, instead the zombie slowly turned to face him.

"Fuck," he muttered under his breath.