Meanwhile…
_SOMEWHERE ALONG THE SCANIAE COAST, SVEARIKA_
Once Altair vanished from his kitchen he appeared here.
He started with a few stretches, then he completed the tasks of the Daily Quest in such a record time that he kind of felt empty after completing it.
With his speed having increased from 30 km/h to nearly 70 km/h, Altair only needed eight minutes to be done with the 10 km run compared to the 20 minutes of the last 2 weeks.
The other exercises were even more of a cinch, since he was already very used to the form for each of them.
After everything was done, his body barely started to warm up, and he was not even sweating. He left the coast with a teleportation.
_STOCKAR CITY, ALTAIR'S HOUSE_
After vanishing from the coast, Altair reappeared in his house and proceeded to go and have a bath.
.
One advantage of the Full Status Recovery was the fact that it could do away with even sweat while he only needed to change clothes to be all clean again.
However, since he was saving those and since he was not tired, he still had to do things the conventional way.
'Besides…' Altair brought up the status bar.
Under the status tab were the words.
[Full Status Recovery (5/5)]
For some reason, there was a limit to the number of these that he could keep. This started appearing about three weeks ago, after he kept the second Full Status Recovery without using.
.
After the very refreshing bath, he teleported to the kitchen and got some breakfast ready. Following which, he teleported again, to the living room to watch TV while having his breakfast.
There, something unexpected happened.
"You travel a lot, Mr. Rohan."
Altair heard an unfamiliar voice a certain distance behind him even before he powered on the TV.
His heart rate quickened and his breathing stalled. He was understandably startled, and his mind started thinking very quickly.
Nevertheless, he took a silent deep breath, calming himself as he stood up from his sofa.
He turned to look in the direction of the voice and then, he saw a man standing by his wall.
The man had his right side towards Altair as he looked with his head turned sideways at the images of different locations which Altair had pinned to his wall.
"Who are you?" Altair asked the man, after calming himself.
With all that had been going on in his life, Altair naturally felt confident in his survivability these days.
At the very least, he was confident that whoever this person was, if push came to shove, he could escape safely from him.
Therefore, he did not feel pressured, and calmed down easily, despite not knowing anything about this person.
The man in question, Ronald, looked at Altair for a moment before returning his attention to the wall of pictures.
His expression was flat and serious as he replied calmly.
"Who I am is not important. What matters right now is you, Mr. Rohan."
"How did you get in here? The doors should have been closed." Altair asked with a frown slowly forming on his face.
"You are not listening, Mr. Rohan…" Ronald replied.
Here, Altair interrupted Ronald, now talking in a somewhat aggressive tone of voice.
"No, you, are not listening to me. Who are you? How did you get in here?"
Ronald was unfazed by Altair snappy reaction, and just talked after him. In his response, his voice seemed measured.
"We know who you are, what you can do. We know everything about you and about what you've been doing."
At first, Altair was confused, but soon enough, worry started sipping in, and he questioned himself.
'How? When did that happen? No, I've been very careful.'
Having only questions, and no answers, Altair asked the man in front of him while feigning ignorance. "What are you talking about?"
In response, Ronald said in his deep and steady voice.
"Your, activities, over the last few weeks were not exactly… subtle. And yet, there's no news. No leaks. Have you wondered why??"
"I don't know what you're talking about…" Altair started.
Just as Altair was about to bring him into a spiral of denial, Ronald interrupted him.
"The refugees in Hzat, your 'donations' in Kyrnac, the evacuations in Marash, the evacuations in Balansiya… need I continue?"
Hearing Ronald's words, Altair was certain Ronald knew, but he did not immediately leave.
With a deeper frown on his face he asked in a slightly more apprehensive tone. "Who are you?"
"I told you, this is not about me, it's about you." Ronald said.
"What do you want?" Altair asked.
"Order, Mr. Rohan. You must stop your activities. Completely."
The atmosphere suddenly started tensing up. Even more so than it already was.
With his thoughts racing, Altair started talking after a short moment.
"You can't just tell me to stop."
Ronald interrupted him, still speaking in a measured tone.
"Your actions are irresponsible and reckless. The… damage, you leave behind does not vanish. Someone, always, has to clean it up. The world does not have the time to babysit you, or clean after you specifically, Mr. Rohan.
Hearing the man speak, Altair wanted to agree to stop his activities.
However, he considered the situations he had witnessed.
He started a careful reply.
"You don't understand. What I've seen…. What I've done…"
.
Over the past month, he saw many things that, almost every other time, reinforced his determination that he could not just do nothing.
He couldn't just comply to what Ronald commanded, knowing that there was so much that he could do that would help.
He saw people who had their lives turned over because of the increasing number of conflicts erupting all around.
As if that was not enough, there were also natural disasters or different accidents of different kinds turning over people's lives.
In a sense, the world was being torn apart, and although he could not do anything about that, he could at least reduce the casualties, the innocent people that were just in the middle of it as things happened.
.
"I can't stop," Altair finally spoke, he had made his decision. "If you know what I've done, then you know why I do it. People need help. And I'm one of the few who can give it."
For the first time in the conversation, Ronald frowned. A slight frown, but a frown nonetheless.
He had a no-nonsense expression on his face as he said his next words with his hands in the pockets of his trench coat.
"I am not asking you to stop, I am telling you to do so. This is not a negotiation but an ultimatum."
"And you can't enforce it." Altair countered in defiance. With growing confidence, he said. "You can't stop me."
Ronald sighed, almost imperceptibly.
"You're mistaken." He said to Altair.
Before Altair could say or do anything, a bolt of electricity suddenly struck him straight on the shoulder.
He had prepared for several things including Ronald teleporting to his position, but this was out of nowhere. He did not even know where the hit came from.
'He almost dodged. Reflex?' Ronald thought, a different frown, a thoughtful one, present on his face.
Ronald did not stop his actions in his thoughts. Right as the bolt stunned Altair, Ronald, with his right hand, took something from under the left breast side of his coat, which he immediately flung towards Altair.
It caught onto one of Altair's hands, and in an instant, circled his wrist like a bracelet.
Following this, Ronald pressed on a one-button-remote he had in his left hand, before discarding it to the side.
From the bracelet on Altair's arm, came out a wire that connected to the ground with such speed that it dragged his body downward.
This sequence of actions, throw bracelet, press remote, and rope binding, happened so fast that, it was only at this time that Altair brought his other hand to try and pry the thick bracelet, now a cuff, from his wrist.
The bracelet suddenly sent a strong electric discharge through his body.
He instinctively retrieved his hand as his body jolted from the transfer.
The whole situation was shocking, figuratively and literally.
Altair could not keep up.
Just a moment ago, they were still discussing.
Altair tried to pry the cuff from his wrist.
*nyeurgh*
Then he tried to yank it out.
*nyeurgh~*
He failed in doing so, and received another electric shock, coming from the bracelet.
*aargh*
He quickly tried to teleport, but even this failed.
Since obtaining the ability to teleport, this was the first time that it failed him.
At the same time, he kept receiving electric shocks at random intervals and whenever he tried to teleport.
Then, he saw Ronald approach him holding a baton-like object in one hand.
On Ronald's weapon, there were visible flickers of electric current.
"You seem to be under the false misconception that being a Slinger puts you above others. Let me educate you."
The fear and confusion on Altair's face were so clear, so vivid, that anyone could tell what he felt right now.
His struggles to pry or yank the cuff intensified, and since he could not form images in his mind he tried to teleport to one of the locations in the images on the wall.
His body flickered several times in place but he did not go anywhere.
Ronald saw the flickers and was unsettled but he did not show much reaction, however, his grip on his baton strengthened as he said.
"Let's get this over with." He had a more serious expression on his face, and his voice was a little deeper.