Drugs Are Bad

Deserted place... Deserted place... Deserted place... Deserted place...

I went through the whole travel while trying to mentally change my arrival to a place without people.

I can only arrive in a new world in an “important location” to the said world standards, like Alabasta in One Piece or Coruscant in Star Wars. It’s a good mechanic and still gives a lot of freedom of choice, but I can only choose the overall location. 

If I chose the Leaf Village, I could maybe appear in the Ninja Academy, the Ichiraku Ramen, or even in the Hokage monument... I can’t control that.

Or at least it doesn’t show me that I can control it. I’m testing right now. 

When I reappear is not night anymore and I smile.

“An alleyway...” I was thinking about a rooftop but this is good too.

It really seems that my power is not that tightly restricted, remembering that it only appears as a screen because it’s easy for me to visualize. It’s not a System or anything like that.

Arriving at this empty alleyway is proof that I can practice and get better at traveling the Omniverse. Well, it’s non-conclusive proof, I need to test it some more times before I’m sure.

This alleyway could very well be the place where I would appear anyway, independently of myself trying to change it.

“Hahaha” I suddenly hear a voice from behind me. Fucking again?”

“What do we have here?”

“Did you steal a bank or something?”

I turn around to see three wannabe gangsters walking in my direction with an exaggerated and cringe swag. Wearing wifebeaters, headbands, and loose pants that are almost falling...

I thought the cliche would only start when I go to anime worlds...

“A jewelry shop.” I answer fearlessly.

I can’t blame them for trying to rob me. I would try to rob me!

A guy wearing a jacket with a hood, and a face mask, carrying two, apparently filled to the brim duffel bags, and with a backpack on both his back and on his front.

I’m screaming criminal or really dumb tourist.

They laugh at my serious answer thinking that I’m joking.

“So do you need any help?” One asks with bad intentions

“Yeah, let me carry those bags for you.” Another says, the last one is already circling behind me.

“Thank you, but no. I’m good.” I answer calmly.

This is nothing. I got myself in some dangerous situations before. To put it nicely, I’m not in danger and to put it in an asshole way... They are insects to me.

“Just let me leave... Guys, you just met a weirdo in an alleyway. Do you really want to get involved with me?” I give them one last change “Be smart.”

“Are you threatening us, fucker?!”

“I’m gonna beat yo ass!”

The silent one is acting like a fool to make himself look dangerous.

“...” Well, it’s expected... No one would believe that they would meet the only esper in the world. It’s like trying to mug Clark Kent... But Injustice Superman...

The silent one tried to reach for my hood, to reveal my face...

“Crack Crack Crack

Without another word, I break their arms. And blast them a little away from me.

Praise me, I did that with only a move of my chin as a trigger. I didn’t waste the last year.

“I warned you all... But I can’t blame you either.” I saw before blasting them again, in the stomach, with the strength of a good punch. They wheeze, cough, and groan on the ground.

I look at them coldly “You are all lucky that I covered my face... And that I don’t want my first kill to be you guys...” I say before floating away.

Who would believe them?

..........................................

It’s day, so it’s risky to fly, but people rarely look up.

And I’m careful enough to only simulate jumps from rooftop to rooftop.

But I can’t go too far... I’m already in the location where I need to be.

I’m on the roof of the building in front of where the Main Character of this world lives. I’m in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And I’m in another movie that happens in a modern setting, the year is 2011 and I’m here to steal a certain drug.

In the plot of the movie Limitless, there’s a drug called NZT that makes people super smart. That’s the only thing I want in this world, exactly like how I did in the world of Chronicle, I will take what I want and disappear from the plot of the movie.

It’s not like there’s anything or anyone interesting here, no hot babes.

Now, I don’t remember much, but I remember the best moment to steal the NZT drug.

“But it will only happen tomorrow...”

I will be truthful, my only reference here is the face of the main character, that good-looking actor. So I will wait here to follow him.

“Luckily I brought some energy bars and water...” I say while sitting on the rooftop and paying attention to my target, I even have some binoculars.

I never laid an “ambush” like this, but I’m not that worried. In the worst-case scenario, the main character will acquire the thing and I will steal it from him in the future. 

And I’m a patient guy... I wait and wait. I waited for hours. I need to pee... They never tell you those things in the movies.

Should I abandon my post... Like, I know that he will come back eventually. At night, he will be home anyway and I will only act tomorrow... Oh, there he is!

Yep, even trying to make him look like a homeless, the actor is too good-looking. Oh, he is taking the pill! Yep, I’m at the right moment! Time to go.

I grab my bags... Ugh... dude... I need a fucking Pocket Inventory power or a magic bag. How I envy those bastard MCs with game systems and their inventories!

I took off my mask and hood, revealing now my bald head to the world, and crossed the street to the rundown building. The NZT must be kicking in, and if I remember well he will end up fucking the young Asian wife of the landlord. That scene is iconic.

A good first thing to do when you gain powers, too bad  I didn’t have the time for that yet... One day I will relax, that’s why I’m focusing now.

Carrying my many bags and receiving some strange looks from the people nearby I enter the building and start climbing the stairs, hearing a woman scolding someone in a loud voice.

Better cockblock him. Cheating is bad guys! NTR is a trash fetish, except when I am the one stealing the girls.

“Excuse me...” I call, making the MC look at me blinkingly, looking groggy and the Asian cutie stops shouting.

I must be being analyzed so I will just be brief.

“I couldn’t help but hear the talk...” I say with an awkward smile “Are you the landlord's wife? I wanted to rent an apartment for a month.” I say and then raise some stacks of money “I will pay upfront.”

Money... Another great power. Batman knows what I’m talking about.

The Asian wife instantly abandons the MC, whom I still don’t remember the name, and turns to me with a smile. Better spend your time with a new guy with money than a brokie, right?

“We did not finish this talk.” She looks at the MC with a glare, shooing him away before turning again at me with a smile.

Damn, she can change expressions fast.

“Come, come. Let me show you a good apartment. It’s small but is cozy and clean.” She guides me to another floor while I watch the Main Character absentmindedly enter his own apartment, memorizing the door.

He must be super smart already, but the effects will last till tomorrow and tomorrow he will want more. Then I will follow him.

We end up settling in an apartment on the same floor as the MC, there’s a magic eye on the door so it will be possible to spy on him. But I will not need to do anything till tomorrow, after all, he is riding the waves of being super smart.

Now let’s take away all those things around my body. Ugh, jewels… So useless. I will just keep a watch for the utility, not even the most expensive one, just the one that looks more robust and discreet… Oh, he is not cheap either… Damn, that much?! Whatever…

Now, I’m a little hungry but I can’t leave the apartment for now. Luckily I still have some snacks. Not ideal, but I can survive for a day. What really matters now is keeping an eye on the Main Character.

As another stroke of luck, this building has really thin walls, so I will hear when he leaves- Hm, I had an idea!

Acting fast, but silently, I decided to pull a “harmless prank” on the dude. I look around and find an ideal wooden board in the closet. If I hadn’t found it, I would use a chair…

Leaving my apartment, I put the wooden board beneath his door handle.

Now he is stuck. This harmless prank that no one would think much of it and will force him to make enough noise to me be aware of when he leaves. Or he will call the landlord, or he will scream, or he will force the door open… Checkmate.

What matters now is the intention and awareness. He is not aware that there’s someone in the dark plotting against him, so even if he know that was me, curse me, hit me, or whatever… It will not matter.

We are on different levels.

Now I can go back to my shitty apartment and wait. It’s still too early to sleep and there’s nothing else to do, so I will organize my loot.

I open my bags on the floor casually, I do not value stolen goods that much. All this tech… Most of it is for me to break it down to study.

I did not completely abandon my studies in the last year. First of all, school is a scam. That thing doesn’t really teach important and essential things to the future, it only teaches you how to get a job. And it never encompasses all the possible jobs!

I have enough discipline to study alone, so this is exactly what I did. But I ignore many subjects to focus on others. I studied physics, biology, and chemistry much more than history and geography. I deepen my knowledge of programming and languages too.

It was not much but I created a base for the future. One day will visit sci-fi worlds, I don’t want to be a complete caveman.

I’m not any genius savant but I have time to catch up with them.

Talking about time, as I take everything off my bags, I remember my main priority now… Get immortality. The Omniverse is infinite but my lifespan is limited. I need to be immortal.

That is one of the differences between me and the MCs I saw in many fanfics, I will need to get those things on my own.

Not that will be too difficult, I have some ideas. Before I can use [World Attunement] again, I will travel to worlds that will give me a boost in many “stats” and acquire many “perks” that are necessary to continue my travels.

Why did no one ever think about diseases and other similar things when talking about traveling to other universes? Like… Pandemics start when some people carry diseases from one continent to another, imagine when someone travels from one universe to another.

One of the reasons I’m only visiting modern worlds, for now.

“I need an enhancing serum or something…” I say out loud while categorizing everything I have.

“Money is getting short… Dollar bills. But that was on purpose, I didn’t want to carry too many bills from another universe here…” I take some fancy jewelry and put it in a separate spot. I will pawn those when I get the chance “I need to find a good pawn shop too…” Good in the sense that it will not ask many questions.

At this point, I don’t even care about being ripped off. After I organize everything, I put it all again in my bags, but in an orderly fashion. I will not stay here for long anyway. Three days at most, just enough to do what I need to do and get some travel supplies.

One of the lessons I learned on the road is to away buy things when you have the chance. You will never know when you will be able to buy them again.

Before sleeping, let’s do some basic exercises to tire myself a little.

But not normal exercises, I will train my telekinesis.

I’m obviously self-taught in this aspect, so I can only rely on fiction to train my power. My training consists of many tasks that I execute, like… 

Keeping things in the air while I go with my daily life, to train my unconscious concentration.

Moving things at the same time but doing different movements, like those people who draw a square with one hand and a circle with the other.

Folding origami, building legos, and other similar tasks to train my fine control.

And much more.

In the end, even if I don’t do “muscle” training, my power will not stagnate and atrophy. Obviously, it will not grow fast enough to make me Tatsumaki from One Punch Man in a year, but I have time.

And to me, control is much more important than destructive power.

I remember reading somewhere about the script of a possible second Chronicle movie, and there’s a part talking about how one of the guys used telekinesis to heal himself from a cold… This is big! This is fucking big!!

If this power really has the potential to mess with microscopic organisms and matter… Huhu~ Forget about Tatsumaki… I will end up being Atom Eve.

…………………………..

Next Morning

Blam Blam

As I calmly take a sip from my cup of water, I hear a loud sound coming from the corridor, and I can’t help but let a smile spread on my face.

“Finally he woke up… He is sure lazy to someone broke and jobless.” I remark, a little annoyed.

I woke up before the sun rose, and waited and waited till he left his apartment.

Blam Bam

“Oh Shit!!...”

I open my door to spy on him only to meet the sight of him falling on the ground. It seems that he went with the option of trying to force his way out. The wooden board gave in and he fell on the ground after losing his balance.

Thinking about it, it seems that this was the obvious approach that he would take… He is broke but somewhat prideful, he would not ask for help. And he is also at odds with the landlord and his young Asian wife.

“Are you okay?” I ask while stepping out of my apartment.

He is carrying a big envelope… Oh yes, he is gonna take to the publisher the book he wrote under the effects of NZT.

“No, no… I mean, yes. I’m good. Just fine…” He answers fast, taking the wooden board from the ground and putting it leaning on the wall while muttering some curses.

“Okay then. Good morning.” I say uninterestedly while entering my apartment and closing the door behind me.

“Good morning, huh? I will need it…” He comments and if he says anything else I did not hear because I shut the door.

I wait for him to start going downstairs, spying on him through the magic eye, before re-opening my door, putting on a different jacket from the one of yesterday, and following him.

In the pockets of my jacket, sunglasses, gloves, a ski mask, and my newly acquired gun.

I could wait at his apartment, but it would be too boring, and if he comes back high on NZT he will notice my presence.

It’s better to take it from his hands before he gets it, I don’t want to depend on his plot armor that much. And I never pursued anyone before~ This is a little fun~

………………………………

Third Person P.O.V.

Eddie Morra is a broke writer who was suddenly presented with the solutions to his problems in the shape of a transparent pill. In just one night, he not only cleaned his whole apartment, but he also did more work than his procrastinating former self had done in months.

He re-read the first part of the book that he was able to write and is so good that he almost can’t believe was written by him. He is completely confident in it being approved. The initial ideas written are so good that even the him of now, without enhancements, can continue the book.

But it would be a mediocre ending… If only he had more of that NZT stuff that his ex-brother-in-law, Vernon, gave to him…

He called his ex-brother-in-law and was surprised to see him with some bruises and a black eye after arriving at his home. After a little talk and knowing how desperate Eddie was, Vernon decided to use him as an errand boy. It’s obviously a little humiliating, but Eddie will gladly do it for the NZT.

When Eddie comes back from taking Vernon's clothes from the laundry and with some food, he is surprised to find the door to Vernon’s apartment open.

“...” He cautiously opens the door “Vernon!” But he doesn’t have enough caution and shouts for his ex-brother-in-law, now drug dealer and boss.

His fearless prevenient from ignorance is short-lived when he finds the body of Vernon on the couch, obviously dead because of the fatal bullet wound on his forehead.

“Oh my… Fuck!” Eddie stumbles and trips on himself, letting everything on his hands fall on the ground. He crawls away to a corner and now he starts acting cautiously, afraid of the perpetrator still be inside the apartment.

He ends up making a lot of noise which only aggravates his nerves, he also appears to hear some sounds too, which makes him call and yell back, maybe trying to scare the murderer.

Eventually, nothing happens and he pulls out his phone to call the police, but as he is typing 9-1-1…

Click

“Put the phone down and don’t move.” A male and seemingly disguised voice talks to him, but he can only focus on the barrel of the pistol pointed at his face.

“Drop.The.Phone.” The voice repeats, impatient.

Thud He doesn’t dare to hesitate and left the phone fall on the carpet.

“Li-listen, dude… I-I’m only a delivery boy… I will not tell anyone. Please… D-Don’t kill me.” He pleads while raising his hands.

Eddie finally takes a good look at the other person. It’s obviously a man, wearing all black. He is covered from head to toe in a very exaggerated outfit… Gloves, a ski mask… you can’t even see his eyes because of the sunglasses.

“I will only kill you if you try anything…” The other person says deeply “I don’t want my first kill to be you either…” The one that is obviously Hector's comments.

Internally, Hector finds it funny that with a gun people listen, while the thugs that tried to rob him the other day didn’t listen. He is more dangerous without the gun… The need for an obvious threat to put things under control. He learned something new today.

While pointing his pistol at Eddie, Hector moves around the kitchen and checks where he knows the NZT is… Inside the Oven.

After a little probing, he finds what he wants, some hundred dollars, documents, a small notebook, and a zip bag filled to the brim with NZT. There must be at least a thousand inside it.

Eddie's eyes widen seeing the bag, and Hector obviously notices his expression.

“ ‘Birds die for food, people die for money’… Don’t be greedy.” He quotes a Chinese proverb to warn Eddie. He was reading too many novels and mangas in the last year. “And you are not only a deliver boy, huh?” He says afterwards with a knowing tone.

“...” Eddie just outed himself by reacting too strongly to the NZT.

“Dumbass… Which drug is not a slow trap?” Hector comments “This would fry your brain eventually, idiot.” 

Hector then opens the zip bag and his gloved fingers takes exactly two pills and puts them on the kitchen counter.

“Here, use them sparingly and to change your life…” He says. With those, Eddie can finish his book and live off the Royalties.

‘One for leading me here and one for being the MC of this world…’ 

After that, Hector moves around Eddie and says “After I’m gone, you can call the police. By the way, I’m not the one that killed the other guy… I hope we never meet again.”

Hector leaves the apartment, but instead of going on an ordinary path, he jumps from a window and flies away. Not caring if he will be seen, some blocks way he lands on a rooftop with an emergency staircase and calmly goes back to his apartment.

………………………………..

Hector P.O.V.

Once again, I got exactly what I needed very early. Aah~, if only there was no cooldown to the travels… But I can’t complain much.

I’m getting my job done easily because those are low-risk worlds. And I will continue this way for some more time. I can use the extra year to study and train anyway.

Another reason for me to choose modern worlds is because they have the resources for me to improve myself. A lot of knowledge for me to study a lot of means to me to train.

By the way, one of the reasons why I read a lot in the next year was for this very moment…

I grab a pill of NZT… “This will allow me to access the total potential of my brain.” And no, I don’t plan on using this a lot. In truth, this can be the only time in maybe forever.

If I use it again in the future, it will be only to cheat a little.

This thing can hurt me in the long run, I’m not stupid.

I’m even breaking down the pill to consume only a small part of it. Either the effect will be smaller or the time will be shorter, I don’t care. I only need it for a little while anyway.

“Here goes nothing…” I couldn’t break it down evenly, so I took the piece that is ⅓ of the total pill.

Gulp

“Okay… Not is happening… Was the dosage too small or it take tiiiime? Oh… I see…”

This is something that I never experienced in my entire life…

I even take off my glasses because they are unnecessary at this moment. It’s like I was watching a video in 480p and suddenly the internet gets fast and I can watch it in 4K. Or I play a game on my PS2 and then I play something on a last-generation gaming PC.

I was blind and now I can see… Now I know why this can be addicting, but my will is a little stronger now. And the knowledge of what happens to the ones that indulge in this luxury arms me against the attacks of temptation.

I’m remembering everything and is not as painful as one would expect, my memories are being neatly organized and advancing to the forefront of my mind in accordance with my wishes.

Now I know why smart people are arrogant. They have the qualifications to do so, I fear.

I instantly focus on my task at hand without procrastinating. Grabbing my notebook and pen, I start writing plans for the future.

Yes, that’s it. I accumulated a plethora of knowledge and consumed a lot of fictional content to lay the foundation for my future plans… And who better to be the architect than myself, but with an IQ of four digits?

The pen moves on the paper with ease as ideas float in my mind. I wish I had more hands...

Yes… yes… This idea hadn’t crossed my mind before… I had already forgotten about those fictional words too…

I’m tracing my future path, no… I’m tracing dozens of future paths. Like the branches of a tree. I list worlds where I can acquire essentials for my future endeavors, I write the pros and cons, and even classify them in tiers to show how strong I must be to go there.

I don’t plan to use the NZT in the future, but this feeling is simply too good. I lack the sheer knowledge necessary to make this permanent, but maybe with a combination of enhancing serums of other universes… Yes, some of those ideas can work. I will write them down.

And a final surprise… The cherry on the top… My telekinetic powers are tremendously enhanced while I’m in this state. I’m not even looking back, but I’m controlling many objects simultaneously with an expertise that I lacked before.

The whole room is floating freely and not a single object is touching the other even with this convoluted traffic.

In a risky situation, I will be able to use the NZT to gain a boost. Noted.

“Oh, I’m already filling all the pages… let me write it smaller.”