Chapter 400: Way Out

Jayden paused, carefully modulating his tone. "Yeah. That’s me. How did you know?" he asked cautiously.

"I was there," Silas said casually, leaning against the counter. "My niece goes to Eleanora high too, so I went down to watch her compete in the tournament. I saw your matches."

"Oh. I see." Jayden said, acting surprised and intrigued.

"You’ve got serious talent, kid," Silas continued, his tone shifting into one of genuine praise. "I was impressed. Especially with your composure. You stayed completely calm the entire time, even under pressure. Most people panic in the face of battle."

"That was nothing, really," Jayden said, looking down at the floor. "The global tournament is the real challenge."

"With that cool ability of yours? You’ll win the tournaments for sure," Silas chuckled. He then crossed his arms, his expression turning surprisingly serious and paternal. "Listen to me, though. After you win, a lot of factions and academies are going to try and recruit you. They’ll promise you lots of perks. Don’t join any of them. They’re all the same. They’ll just use you as a pawn, squeeze every drop of potential out of you, and leave you out to rot the second you’re no longer useful."

A heavy, suffocating silence descended over the tiled room.

The hum of the fluorescent lights felt deafening. Jayden slowly raised his head. The awkward, polite teenager was completely gone. In his eyes was a cold, hollow abyss.

"You say that," Jayden murmured, his voice dropping into a chilling, deadpan register. "Yet you worked for the Black Cobra Syndicate for years."

Silas froze. The color instantly drained from his face. He stared at the kid, his mind struggling to process the impossible sentence he had just heard. How did he know that? he thought.

Before Silas could form the words to ask, Jayden took a slow step forward, cutting him off.

"...and now, you’re currently working with the EVA to capture the Hunter," he chuckled darkly. "You’ve been nothing but a lapdog for two different factions. Yet, you stand there and tell me not to join one?"

Silas was deeply stunned. The words hit him like a physical blow. The intel. The syndicate affiliation. The classified EVA operation. How could a high school student know the deepest, darkest secrets of his underworld dealings?

Silas looked at Jayden’s eyes. He looked at the calm, terrifyingly relaxed demeanor. He registered the height, the build, the absolute lack of fear. And that was when the puzzle pieces came together. This was no ordinary teenager. He was undoubtedly the vigilante.

There was no mask. There was no suit. But the aura was identical. Silas’s eyes blew wide open in sheer terror as the realization hit him. This was the Hunter.

He couldn’t believe it. The monster that had been hunting him across the city wasn’t a veteran mercenary, or a rogue assassin. It was a mere teenage boy.

Silas took a step back, his mind struggling to process the shocking discovery. "That’s impossible. Y-You’re the—"

Slash.

Silas’s words caught in his throat as Jayden unleashed his claws in the fraction of a second, infused it with poison, and slashed it horizontally across the Pioneer’s throat.

Silas felt a sudden, icy sting across his neck, followed instantly by a torrent of heat. He reached up, his trembling hands grasping his throat, but the blood was already spilling rapidly through his fingers, splashing heavily against the pristine white porcelain of the sink.

He stumbled backward, hitting the bathroom stall door. He tried to scream, to call out to the EVA guard standing just inches away on the other side of the main bathroom door, but his severed vocal cords produced nothing but a wet, horrifying gurgle.

Then, the poison took hold.

Silas dropped to his knees, his eyes bulging as blinding agony ripped through his nervous system. Thick, pitch-black veins rapidly webbed up his neck, crawling across his cheeks and into his eyes as the toxin aggressively shut down his internal organs. He couldn’t activate his ocular powers. He couldn’t fight back. He was entirely paralyzed, drowning in his own blood and venom.

Jayden stood perfectly still, looking down at the dying S-Rank Pioneer. His face was a mask of utter indifference. There was no guilt, no hesitation, and absolutely no remorse. He watched with a cold, merciless gaze as Silas convulsed one last time and fell to the ground, his eyes locking onto Jayden’s in pure terror before finally going completely still.

He was dead.

Jayden stared at the corpse for a few seconds, letting the silence of the bathroom wash over him.

Satisfied, he turned his back on the body, activated his intangibility, and stepped seamlessly through the exterior brick wall, leaving the bloody scene behind.

As he materialized back into the cool morning air of the alleyway, Jayden adjusted his black cap, took a deep breath, and dashed out of the district.

The mission was a success. Another Pioneer had been crossed off the list.

.....

The morning sun was climbing higher over Emerald City by the time Jayden returned to his neighborhood. He took a circuitous route, ensuring no surveillance drones or lingering mercenaries had tracked him from the diner. The adrenaline from Silas’s assassination had finally begun to fade, replaced by a cold, calculating focus on his next move.

He opened the front door and stepped into the entryway, expecting the usual quiet hum of the house. Instead, he heard the rich, booming sound of laughter coming from the dining room, mingling with the clatter of silverware and the smell of freshly brewed coffee.

Jayden pulled his cap off and stepped fully into the house, closing the door behind him. And as his gaze shifted towards the dining table, his eyes widened in shock.

Sitting comfortably at the head of their glass dining table, taking up roughly two chairs’ worth of space with his massive, heavily muscled frame, was Big T. The notorious underworld broker was holding a delicate porcelain teacup in his gigantic hands, wearing a tailored, surprisingly elegant maroon suit. He was smiling warmly at Jacob and Harleen, who were sitting across from him, entirely oblivious to the fact that they were having breakfast with one of the most dangerous gang leaders in the city.

"Oh, there he is!" Jacob called out, noticing Jayden in the doorway. He gestured toward the giant of a man. "Jayden, your friend came by to see you, but you were already out for your morning run. So we invited him to wait and have breakfast with us."

Big T turned his head, locking eyes with Jayden. A knowing, amused smirk spread across his scarred face. "What’s up, Youngblood? How you been? Good to see you after a long time."

Jayden’s jaw tightened. He forced the corners of his mouth to twitch upward into a stiff, completely artificial smile. "Yeah. Good to see you too."

He walked slowly toward the dining table, every single combat instinct in his body screaming at him to prepare for a fight.

Harleen smiled warmly, passing a plate of pastries toward their guest. "Jayden, we didn’t know you had such... big friends."

"I didn’t know either," Jayden muttered, his eyes never leaving the giant man. He stopped a few feet from the Big T’s chair. "Hey. Why don’t we head up to my room and... catch up properly."

"Sounds like a plan," Big T agreed effortlessly. He carefully placed the teacup down on its saucer, dabbed his mouth with a napkin, and stood up to his full, towering height. He offered a polite bow to Jayden’s parents. "Thank you for the hospitality, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The breakfast was exquisite."

"Anytime, Theodore! You’re welcome here whenever you like," Harleen said.

Jayden led the massive man up the stairs and down the hallway in absolute silence. The moment they stepped into his bedroom, Jayden slammed the heavy wooden door shut and locked it.

"You’ve got a really nice family," Big T remarked, looking around the room casually. "Your old man is a funny guy—"

SNIKT.

The sharp, metallic sound of Jayden’s knuckle claws extending cut through the air. Jayden spun around, the razor-sharp biological blades pointed directly at Big T’s throat. His golden eyes flared with a lethal, uncompromising warning.

"What the hell are you doing in my house?" Jayden demanded, his voice a low, dangerous whisper.

Big T didn’t even flinch. He looked down at the lethal claws hovering inches from his jugular and let out a deep, rumbling chuckle. "Is that any way to treat your old business partner?"

"How did you know where I live?" Jayden asked sharply, ignoring his remarks.

"Come on, kid, you didn’t think I wouldn’t find out, did you?" Big T sighed, casually leaning against the wall despite the blades at his neck. "From the very first day you walked into my club asking about Black Cobra, I made sure to dig up everything there was to know about you. Including your address. It wasn’t personal. It’s just standard business protocol."

Jayden didn’t lower his claws. "Why are you here?"

"Why don’t you put the claws away first, huh," Big T said, his tone shifting to something slightly more serious. "I’m not here to cause trouble, Youngblood. Honest."

Jayden didn’t put them away. He didn’t even consider it.

Big T let out a heavy sigh, raising his hands in a gesture of peace. "I actually came to propose a business opportunity."

"I’m not interested," Jayden replied instantly.

"At least hear me out first," Big T pressed. "I’m offering you a way out."

Jayden raised an eyebrow, keeping his guard up. "A way out of what?" He asked.

Big T smiled, his gold tooth catching the light. "A way out of the planet."