Parasyte System

After climbing the stairs to the third floor of the building, Taylor took out his keys to open the door lock.

*Clang*

"Ah, f*ck."

But just as he pulled them out, the keys fell to the floor, making his mood even more sour.

The next moment, he bent down to pick them up and then opened the door of the apartment where he lived.

"Home at last..." He said as he entered, seeing his familiar home, which consisted of a large room which served as kitchen, living room and bedroom at the same time, with a small hallway to the right which led to the bathroom.

Although everything was in the same place, since the space was large, it didn't look messy or crowded.

"...Blergh, I smell like smoke...I can't sleep like this."

Taylor had planned to come home and go straight to sleep, but after smelling his clothes a little, the distinct smell of the cigarettes he had smoked assaulted him.

Then, despite the fact that it was late, Taylor went to the bathroom and turned on the bath faucet, since his mood was not the best, he thought that instead of using the shower, it would be better to take a long, relaxing bath in the tub.

His bathroom was also somewhat large, having enough space for a shower in the corner, a bathtub next to the shower and even a toilet in another corner.

There was also a sink with a large mirror on one of the walls, as for a washing machine, he didn't have one, but it wasn't a problem because there was a laundry room in the first floor that the three guardians living there could use.

Others might say it looked a little empty, but Taylor couldn't care less about that, in fact, most of the things that were on this floor were already there when he started living in this place.

After waiting for a couple of minutes, the tub filled with water, seeing that, Taylor took off his clothes and placed them in the laundry basket that was also in the bathroom before getting into the tub, letting out a sigh as he did so.

This morning he had woken up with an optimistic attitude, thinking that since he had a day off he would use it to socialize with his colleagues and enjoy the day to the fullest, he had even uploaded a photo to his Palu profile.

Unfortunately, despite his fervent attempts to socialize, he had never really fit in with his fellow guardians, and today was no different.

However, that didn't discourage him as it was a common occurrence, so he went to talk to some normal Metal Body members.

Even though he was the weakest guardian in Metal Body, he was still a guardian, which meant that normal members had to respect him and that some would approach him with hopes of improving their position in Metal Body, even if it just was little.

But when he went and wanted to talk to some of the members, not to mention that today none approached him, the normal members even seemed to give him looks of mockery and contempt!

Taylor had never been popular at Metal Body, but because of his position of guardian and the fact that the normal members didn't know exactly how strong he was, they respected and feared him to some extent.

Of course, all that changed after the news that he had been beaten up spread almost all over the South Zone.

"That guy...I'll definitely find him..." He said with a hateful tone, in his mind, everything that had happened was the fault of the unknown man that attacked him, so he directed all his bitterness against him.

After some time relaxing, Taylor washed up and got out of the tub, covering the lower part of his body with a towel that was hanging next to the sink.

He then started walking towards the door that led into the living room, not without first taking his smart watch, of course.

"Now then...where could I find..."

*BAM!*

"ARGH!"

But just as he opened the door and walked out of the bathroom, he hadn't taken even two steps before a hit caused him to lose his balance and fall backwards onto the bathroom floor.

"F*CK, IT HURTS!" he shouted in agony as he grabbed his head, which was the second most painful part of his body after his arms.

Although the bruises on his head were almost gone, they were still there, making this blow much more painful.

The next moment, Taylor quickly stood up, activating his ability and protecting his head with one hand while he grabbed the towel wrapped around his lower body with the other.

He had learned from the previous time that if he delayed even a few seconds, he would be giving the enemy time to hit him, so despite the feeling of weakness in his body, the hatred within him drove him to launch himself against the enemy.

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, BASTARD!!" shouted Taylor incredibly angry.

At this point, he could see that the person who had attacked him was the same hooded man who had attacked him the other night, but that did not frighten him; on the contrary, it fed his desire to beat him up even more.

As for the fact that he was almost naked, Taylor didn't care.

Because he was using his skill to the fullest and concentrated it on his legs, he passed the bathroom door in just a few seconds, intending to fiercely attack the unknown subject.

When he looked at the figure in front of him, he could see that this time, he didn't have any kind of weapon on him, so if he could close the distance, since they were inside his house, which was a closed space, he could definitely corner him and defeat him.

"TODAY I WILL GET MY REVENGE, YOU SON OF A-"

*CLANG!*

"-GAH!"

But unfortunately for him, just when one of his fists was about to hit the unknown man in front of him, he felt a much stronger blow on the back of his head.

He remembered well this sensation... a metal bat.

Then, Taylor fell to the ground.

*Thud*

Although he was able to take the first blow he received, it had actually done some damage to him, and with this second one, adding to the fact that he hadn't fully healed, it made everything spin for Taylor, in fact, he didn't even know how he was still conscious at this point.

"A-Argh..." He groaned in pain.

Everything was spinning, Taylor was incredibly disoriented and he was doing his best to stay conscious with sheer willpower.

But for some reason, ignoring his instincts that were telling him not to, Taylor looked up, even knowing that he was most likely going to receive another hit, he wanted to see exactly what had happened.

"...T-two...?"

At that moment, he could see him...no, see them.

Two hooded men that were looking at him.

However, before Taylor could think of anything else, another hard hit by the hooded man with a metal bat assaulted him.

Then, everything faded to black.

***

After Taylor had passed out, Noah took his smart watch and wrote on the holographic screen.

[It's ok that he knows there are two of us?]

[He would have found out later anyway.] Wrote Jay on his smart watch, they were comunicating in this way because they had agreed to not talk as it was risky if someone heard them.

Both had obviously realized Taylor had seen them, but Jay didn't care much that he knew there were two of them, after all, by the time he woke up, he would know he had been attacked by two persons anyways.

'But...Noah is very competent, uh...' Thought Jay as he watched Noah doing something in Taylor's smart watch.

Jay had originally thought about breaking the lock with brute force, but who would have guessed that Noah knew how to pick locks?

'No doubt this guy also had his secrets.'

[Alright, I got it, he has Colt as a friend in Palu.]

[Great, now how are you going to get his address?]

[I'll just send him an invitation to play a Palu game which requires you to activate the location feature.]

[I didn't know there were such games...]

[There are many things you don't know, anyways, I already sent it to him, now it's just a matter of time, since he's online right now, I guess it will take at least five or ten minutes, what do we do in the meantime?]

They both started to think, and after a few seconds, their gazes fell in different places.

Noah looked at Taylor's unconscious, half-naked body on the floor, and the next moment, a cold smile formed on his face, indicating that he had found something to do while he was waiting.

As for Jay, he was eyeing all of Taylor's belongings, eager to find out if there was anything of value in this place.

That way, both found activities to pass the time.