In the early morning, near Recalm City, a dead wooly rhino lay on the ground. Its massive furry body had in it tens of bullet holes, and one of its legs had been blown off. A few minutes ago it had been eating some apples, but now it just lay there motionless. Being dead didn't prevent it from showing off though. Its horn still stood up, and it glowed red even as the animal had passed away.

  Bonus: You have survived and defeated a difficult opponent. Your contribution was moderate. 1 point gained.

  Lester stared at the text. The rhino fight had definitely been worth at least one point. He'd almost died twice. When the thing had charged, it had left a fiery trail behind it, and it had even smashed through a large boulder, shattering fragments of rock all around, sending one such sharp piece to slice open his cheek. They had finally gotten it to stop by using an anti-tank mine. After that, it still had taken several hundred bullets to make it totally dead.

  Lester thought about the point he'd gained. He was, with a Might of six, six times stronger and more durable than he would otherwise be. And according to some math, he healed, with a Vitality of five, twenty-five times as fast as he would otherwise. And his Reflex made him more dexterous than any normal human and made his neural reaction speed five times faster.

  For a moment, Lester thought about putting the point into his mental stats. Intellect and Will were both at one.

  But I'm in the forest fighting monsters. This is definitely not a mental challenge.

  Lester whispered, "Interface, show me my quest."

  Quests:

  Survive for one month as a monster hunter.

  6/30 days remaining.

  Award: 3 points.

  Lester's eyes were drawn to the number six. Six days and then he would have the three points he'd been working for almost a month now.

  Lester was pulled out from his musings by Armie's words, "Okay boys, let's grab that horn. It's worth at least a hundred thousand."

  As he fished an angle grinder out from his pack to cut the monster, Lester noticed Armie come next to him and heard her say, "By the way, you did a good job there." Then he felt her pinch his cheek gently. She was definitely interested in him. Even if she hadn't said anything about that night he'd woken up in her bed a week ago. She might have forgotten. Or that was his assumption. But maybe she hadn't. But he had also forgotten at least most of it. Whatever they had drank had a thing with memory. But she was definitely into him.

  Lester smiled and said, "Thanks."

  As Red used the angle grinder to slowly cut through the root of the horn, Lester thought about himself and Armie as a couple. She was more than twice his weight—all muscle. It hadn't been something he'd dreamed of. But yes. There was something there. And also, it might not hurt if he too got stronger.

  Lester whispered so no one heard, "Henchman Interface, put one point into Might."

  Might increased to 7.

  The animal's horn was tough, and after an hour and one ruined circular blade later, Red had only made it two-thirds of the way through.

  Suddenly, Armie stood up and said, "Drop what you're doing. We have a new job."

  "But we're almost there," Red said.

  "This is high-priority." Armie had her phone out, and she showed it to the others. It was, Lester noted, almost the exact same app as the Justice and Valor app he'd used as a hero. This one, however, had a darker theme to it.

  Armie continued, "The reward is half a million."

  Red and Whiskers both let out a whistle.

  Lester calculated the numbers. Half a million was a lot, and his part of the reward would be over ten thousand—more than he would have made in a year doing hero work.

  They leaned in closer to see the job details. It was a recovery mission and there was a picture of a kid. And as he looked closer, Lester noticed a certain familiarity. The boy in the picture, around sixteen of age, did look a lot like he himself had in his youth. However, this boy's skin was pale. Pale like he'd never seen the sun before. The boy was also muscular. Like a professional athlete kind of muscular. This didn't feel right.

  Red said, "Looks a bit like Lester."

  Lester just shrugged. Part of the deal with Armie's Strongarms was that they didn't ask about each other's pasts. But Lester did notice Armie compared him to the picture. Would she sell him for half a million? Probably not, she definitely liked him. Although, she was technically a villain. So maybe she might.

  The job description said that the target, meaning the boy, had escaped and had managed to kill six people and was now somewhere in the forest around Recalm City. And the target was to be taken alive.

  "Who's the job for," Red said.

  "It doesn't say," Armie replied, "But it's a high-priority job so it's most likely for one of the city's master villains. And because we're the only team nearby capable of handling it, we are obliged to take the job. It means—and I want to make this clear—that if we fail this mission, there will be consequences."

  The others nodded with grim expressions. Disappointing a master villain wasn't really an option if you wanted to live a healthy life.

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  Lester had a suspicion of who the master villain might be. There were only six official master villains in the city, and Doctor Nastybrain was one of them. Given that and the resemblance of their target to his younger self. What were the odds?

  ***

  After an hour of fast trekking through the forest, Lester stared at the city behind the checkpoint. From here he could see the minefields and autocannon turrets, behind those the crops, behind them the buildings, and all the way to the center where there were skyscrapers and the Tower of Justice and Valor at the center of it all. It was Recalm City. The city had been his home for several years. But for now, he was going to stay away from the place because of the bounty on him. But then again, the tracker in his head had been disabled, and he no longer looked like he had a month ago when the bounty had been posted. But still, hopefully he would not have to enter.

  The checkpoint, which led to the city, was now empty of people going in except for two persons, by the looks of them superheroes, making certain that no one who wasn't supposed to would get in. Both had the same type of coloring to their costumes, bright red with yellow stripes. One was a woman with a cape and a domino mask while the other was a short and broad man in full body armor including a closed helmet. The man was also holding a two-handed warhammer.

  Armie approached them, taking out her phone. "Excuse me, dear protectors, would you be able to help us with a problem we're having with a missing person." She showed the picture of the boy in her villain app. "This here kid was said to have run off from here and into the woods."

  The woman wearing the cape answered, "Yeah, we saw the kid. He climbed over the fence and ran across the dead zone. We had to shut down the mines and autocannons, otherwise, he would have been pasted. Ran into the forest." She pointed at the woods. "Also, the kid was butt naked."

  Lester noted the casual way the superhero reacted to her seeing the villain app. She would have certainly recognized the app and immediately known they were villains. You didn't really expect it, but a lot of interactions between superheroes and supervillains were non-violent. It just never got to the news when a villain asked a hero for directions, and the hero pointed the way.

  "Thank you for the help," Armie said.

  "What are you gonna do with the kid?" The hero with the warhammer asked.

  "Take him home, of course," Armie said.

  Lester couldn't see the reaction from the hero behind the closed helmet, but he did hear a snort. The guy probably had a suspicion that they, the villains, might not be looking out for the best interest of the runaway.

  The warhammer hero added, "Well, the kid won't last long in the forest, jumping around naked, so you should hurry up."

  ***

  Lester could barely make out the tracks they were following, but he did see some human footprints here and there. Fortunately, Whiskers was much better at this, and with his tracking ability they followed the tracks with a speed that was slightly above casual walking.

  After they had been going on it for hours, they came across a dead bear. Its head had been torn off, and blood had been sprayed across the trees and bushes. Considering the carcass was the size of a car, Lester guessed, the thing that had killed it must have been quite strong.

  "Did the boy do this?" Red said.

  Whiskers nodded. "Tore the head off with bare hands. All the blood here is from the monster."

  Lester looked at the others. They were likely wondering, like he was, about the feasibility of their mission.

  "We get the target alive," Armie said and then added, "and uninjured."

  "How long?" Red asked Whiskers.

  Whiskers peered at the ground, where the blood trail continued into the forest. "Tracks are ten minutes old."

  Lester touched the rope that he'd taken from the bag. It was thick and made out of some extra strong material. It might not be enough to hold his teenage clone. His bear-killing teenage clone.

  Lester looked at the others, seeing them nervously check their non-lethal weapons, as their regular weapons were on their backs. Armie and Whiskers had electric stun batons, which could temporarily incapacitate someone way above a normal human. Red had a shotgun with tranquilizer darts, which, Lester had heard, could take down a moderate-sized monster, but Red was not to use it on the boy unless there was no other choice. The substance in the darts would kill a normal human, and they didn't know how resistant the boy was.

  "Let's go," Armie said.

  They left, following the path consisting of clearly visible drops of blood.

  Soon they came upon an edge of a cliff, where the forest disappeared and the sky became clearly visible. On the edge, was a figure, a naked boy sitting there, his back toward them, feet hanging off in the air.

  The boy glanced their way then turned back. Lester realized what the fellow was doing. He had stopped here to watch the sight. It was day and the sky was clear with only some white clouds in the distance. Below the sky, stretched the forest, treetops reaching upward. On the horizon, mountains stood. There was the sound of birds and the sound of the wind in the trees. The boy had stopped to appreciate the moment, his hands bloodied by the bear he'd just killed.

  Armie held out a hand for the others, indicating them to stay as she put down her stun stick and heavy machine gun from her back. She then gingerly walked toward the boy, letting him know she was coming. He got up and turned toward her, seemingly not at all aware of his lack of clothing.

  "Do you want to harm me?" the boy asked.

  "No, I'm here to help." Armie stopped, showing her hands in a gesture of calmness.

  "I'm okay. I don't need help."

  "Everyone needs help sometimes. And you don't know where you are."

  "I'm in the forest." The boy swept his hand around, displaying the scenery from the edge of the cliff.

  "Yes, but you are here alone. You don't want to be alone in the forest when it gets dark."

  Lester could now see the boy more clearly. The resemblance to his younger self was too uncanny. The guy was definitely his clone. And here he was trying to take the kid back to Doctor Nastybrain. Maybe the boy would be better off in the woods.

  The boy answered Armie's question, "How do you know that I don't want to be here when it gets dark?"

  "The most dangerous monsters come out when it's dark."

  The boy looked at her, seemingly confused about something. "But how do you know I don't want to be outside then?"

  "I just do."

  The boy stopped and looked up at the sky. He remained silent for a while then turned back to Armie and said, "Are you my villain?"

  Armie nodded slowly and said, "Yes, I am your villain."

  The boy took a couple of steps toward her and said, "Okay."

  Lester noted the boy's casual manner. It was like the kid had just accepted Armie's words as truth. There was definitely some mental shit going on.

  Armie let out a small smile. "My name is Armie. What's yours?"

  "The man with the big head said that I was the first real success. He called me the first."

  "First. I will call you First then," Armie said.

  Lester realized what his clone's words meant. Even if the boy's name had been First. It had meant first success. So that meant there might be other clones of him somewhere out there. Less successful ones.

  New Quest: Find out if you're a clone or not.

  Award: 3 points.

  Lester stared at the text. The Henchman Interface had definitely gone crazy again. And he was absolutely certain of this. He was not a clone.