I Reject Quests

Amidst the numerous cars, Rewen instantly spotted Hase's car. He walked towards the car and lifted the deck. "Let's see…" After a few seconds of search, he found the Gruer Detector and walked away after locking the car.

On the way back to the room given to him, he passed through the field where Hase was personally training the rookies by sparring them hand-on-hand. He decided to watch the sparring for a while before going to his room which was on the second floor.

'Simply by using my martial arts, I can probably defeat Hase if I had the POW… I haven't fully utilized my [Full-Body Channeling] but it wouldn't significantly impact my combat prowess. If only I had a bit more base POW. Well, whatever. Let's see how much POW I currently have.' 

Rewen tossed the Gruer Detector in his hands. "Synchronize." He said, and a few letters appeared on the Gruer Detector.

---

POW: 4.5

G.C.: -1

---

"What?" Rewen rubbed his eyes. He had somewhat underestimated his increase in POW but that wasn't his main concern. "-1" is a reading which is impossible. How in the world does a person have a negative value for G.C. and what does it even signify? If G.C. is zero, then the person doesn't have any G.C. and if it's positive, it has a value. 

Seconds after being visibly shocked, Rewen muttered in a low voice. "I should try this again.

Synchronize."

---

POW: 4.5 

G.C.: -1

---

Rewen kept the Gruer Detector on the table near him and his eyes turned serious. 'What should I think of this? There are only two possibilities. Either the device is faulty, or my G.C. is really in the negative. I'm more inclined to believe in the latter. Not because it works in my favor, more appropriately, it should work in my favor, but it's also because this is a fictional world and this ought to be some trope.

'As for where I got this abnormality from, I don't need to think twice to know that this abnormality is directly related to the Black Orb I consumed back in the competition.' 

He rubbed his chin. 'This should be a good signal and it would be ignorant of me if I don't try it out. But the question is, how? How can I see if there's changed that has assimilated within my G.C.?' He quickly arrived at the answer. 'I can always shape an arrow… but wait, I shouldn't do it here. Even though I can't see any, it would be really risky to ignore the fact that there might be surveillance cameras… hmm, I don't think there's any place in the mansion where there's no surveillance camera. Do I have to leave the mansion just to do this?'

Rewen wasn't always an overly cautious man. He tries to be as relaxed and carefree as possible but if needed, he could be pragmatic to an insane degree.

He picked up the Gruer Detector and appeared to examine it when it suddenly slipped from his hand. It rolled into the extreme corner of the bed. 

"Tsk." Smacking his lips, he went to the bed and crouched, then extended his hand to get the Gruer Detector but on his way to get it, he turned his stretched palm into a fist.

G.C. Channelling!

Shape!

A small arrow materialized on his fist. It was barely any different from when he used the arrow previously, except for one part. That change was enough to make him speechless.

The color of the arrow was black!

It has to be known that G.C. 's color in its purest form is bluish-green, bordering towards blue. Of course, that doesn't mean that the [Combative] skills which use G.C. as the primary source always has bluish-green color. Everything depends on the kind of skills but G.C at its purest form was always bluish-green. That is to say, every weapon shaped by G.C. is bluish-green.

So, why is it that the arrow is weirdly black?

'This looks interesting.' Rewen smiled briefly before dematerializing the arrow and got hold of the Gruer Detector, and then proceeded to get up.

With some thoughts revolving around his head, he laid on the bed. During this time, he had his eyes wide open. The humid air was coming from the windows while the air conditioner was running freely. Moreover, it was late afternoon. The perfect time to take a good old nap. However, for some reason, he couldn't sleep in the afternoons.

But he did try to, once in a while.

After a couple of minutes, he gave up and exited the room to get some fresh air.

'Hmm, should I go outside the mansion or just take a round around the mansion?'' He looked up at the sky. 'It's too hot. I'll just take a walk around the mansion.' 

***

"Are the guests served?" Michi asked in an exhausted voice with sweat dripping from her forehead. Opposite to her were some women a bit older than her. 

The women looked at each other and smiled. One of the women patted Michi's shoulder. "You can go and take a rest. It's your first day. It would take some time to adjust."

Michi wanted to say something but she figured that overexerting would not work and thus decided to comply. With a 'Thank you', she started walking to her room. As she was about to step into her room, she felt her rear grabbed by a large hand. A chill went down her spine. 

Someone grabbed her rear. 

She opened her mouth to scream but just then, the person who had groped had taken his hand back. With fear and anger in her mind, she turned around to see a tall man looking at her creepily.

"W...who are you?"

The tall young man chuckled. "I'm the City Lord's eldest son. You look pretty cute so I thought of taking some liberties with you. I hope you don't mind."

Michi's throat went dry. Forcing a smile, she said. "I'm tired."

The tall young man looked at her from head to toe. "Of course, sorry to disturb." He said, before walking away.

Michi stood there in a daze. A few seconds later, a single tear fell down her cheeks. She had never felt so helpless. Someone just harassed her out of nowhere and she could do nothing. 'Where is my self-respect?' She questioned, then closed the door.

***

Standing at a distance, Rewen watched the entire thing. 'Just wow. I have never thought that stereotypes of a noble didn't exist in modern times.' His eyes then turned to the tall young man who entered a room guided by a maid.

'I might be jumping the gun here but he seems to have sex with his maids quite often. Well. I'll just have to see."

Next day.

Basement.

"Rule No. 3. Play board games with your slave(s)." Rewen read out loud the third rule listed in the book - A Guide To Slavemastering.

Yukiko and Asa lightly laughed when they heard the rule. Kaori had a bored look on her face. "Is this what we are going to do? Play board games all day?"

"Yes. Isn't it great?" Yukiko was in favor of this.

"Which board games are we going to play? Cards?" Asa Chinatsu was also interested.

Looking at the three women, Rewen inwardly sighed. 'They think that faking would reduce the effect of the brainwashing. Rather acting would work in my favor. I'm no master in psychology and understanding human emotions but 2-D characters are at the end of the day, just 2-D characters. As long as you can follow their rules and don't trigger their trigger points, it's not difficult to manipulate them.

'If the ones sitting in front of me were real people, there is no way something like this would work. Obviously, brainwashing people into believing they are slaves is way harder than it sounds. I'm not even sure if you can even do that. Maybe you can make them submit to your power and influence but how long does it take for them to accept their identity as slaves? Wait, wasn't there something called Stockholm's Syndrome in the pre-apocalyptic internet.

'Ah, doesn't that mean that every slave is essentially a victim of Stockholm Syndrome? This means… it is indeed possible to make slaves submit completely. Hmm… this is really a very weird and creepy train of thought.' 

Shaking his head, he looked at the three confused women. While there was a part that felt pity for them, he had very few choices in hand.

One, he could continue with his brainwashing.

Two, he could pretend to continue with his brainwashing. But then again, supervisors would come and check the women every week. If they see no notable differences, he would definitely be deemed as someone who is not fit for the job.

Three…

Rewen took a deep breath and clutched his forehead in silence.