The customer's voice coming from the shop had gone quiet. Maybe Diego had resolved the issue or the guy left angry. Either way, Ray was about to lose his cover.
He crawled out of the bushes, wincing as thorns caught his shirt and scratched his arms again.
He looked back to check if the frame was invisible.
Well it was.
Good.
Ray stood up and cleaned the dirt on his knees. His shirt had a tear in it. Sabrina would notice and ask questions. He would d have to come up with a story. Playing in the Graveyard, maybe.
He went back to the house.
He needed to find a chainsaw. One that someone had thrown away, hopefully.
People threw away so much. Perfectly good things, just waiting for someone desperate enough to see their value.
Ray was desperate enough.
He entered the house through the back door. Sabrina was in the kitchen, chopping vegetables. She looked up when he came in, and immediately saw his torn shirt.
"Ray! What happened?"
"I was playing in the yard," Ray said. "Climbed on some stuff and fell."
Sabrina's face looked worried. She put down the knife and walked to him, turning him around to check for injuries. "You have to be more careful, mi cielo. That yard is dangerous."
"I know Mama. Sorry."
She sighed and gave him a forehead kiss.
MWAHH
"Go change. That shirt is torn. I'll see if I can patch it later."
Ray nodded and went to his room. As he walked away, he heard her say something in Spanish. Something about boys and their need to destroy everything they touched.
If only she knew.
Ray changed into a clean shirt and looked out his window. Somewhere out there, someone had thrown away a chainsaw they didn't want anymore.
He just had to find it.
The system icon flashed, like it was reading his thoughts.
[NEW OBJECTIVE: FIND AN ENGINE]
[HINT: SCAVENGE FOR USED SMALL ENGINE]
[SEARCH RADIUS: 500 METERS]
He went back downstairs. He saw that Sabrina was still chopping the vegetables. Ray could also hear Diego's voice coming from his office.
"Mama, I'm going outside to play," Ray said.
"Don't go too far," Sabrina said. "And no more climbing!"
"Okay!"
Ray went out through the front door and into the sunny morning. The street was full of houses that looked old.
Ray walked down the street casually. He kept his eyes open, looking for bins and piles of stuff people didn't want anymore.
Three houses down, he saw Mrs. Garcia's place. He knew her from the system scan, though the original Ray had probably known her his whole life.
And next to her trash bin was a chainsaw.
Orange plastic housing. Stihl brand. The chain looked rusty and the bar was bent. But it was a chainsaw, which meant it had an engine. A two-stroke engine that might be what Ray needed.
He couldn't just walk up to it and take it. He had to be smart about it.
Ray sat on the curb across the street, pretending to rest. He was observing the area and waiting.
Fifteen minutes later, Mrs. Garcia came out of her front door, holding a trash bag. She put the bag in the bin and paused. Her eyes went to the chainsaw. Ray thought she was going to take it back inside.
But she just shook her head and went inside her house.
Ray gave it five more minutes. Long enough to be sure no one was seeing him. Then he stood up and crossed the street.
The chainsaw was heavier than he thought. The whole thing probably weighed fifteen kilos. For a seven-year-old, that might as well have been fifty.
Ray picked it up with his hands. His arms ached badly from the weight. His back didn't like it either. But he got it off the ground and started walking back to his yard.
The first fifty meters weren't that bad. Adrenaline carried him. The next fifty were harder. His arms were shaking. The chainsaw kept slipping out of his hands. He had to stop twice to adjust his hold, scared that he would get caught and lose it.
But nobody noticed him.
When Ray finally got to his yard, he felt like he was going to faint. A display bar appeared in his vision. It was flashing red, nearly empty.
[STAMINA: 8%]
[WARNING: YOU ARE ABOUT TO PASS OUT]
Ray didn't care. He was almost at his yard. He just had to get to the bushes and hide the chainsaw with the frame. Then he could rest.
His foot hit a rock. Ray stumbled, and the chainsaw's weight dragged him down. He fell hard and landed on his elbows. The chainsaw hit the ground with a loud noise
Ray lay there for a second, breathing hard. The stamina bar in his vision was at 2%.
But he was in the backyard now. Behind the workshop.
He crawled the last ten meters, dragging the chainsaw beside him.
Ray pushed the chainsaw into the bushes. It crashed through branches and landed next to the frame.
Mission complete.
He fell face-first onto the ground.
[STAMINA: 0%]
[AUTOMATIC REST MODE ACTIVATED]
[RECOVERY TIME: 2 HOURS]
Ray was already passing out. The last thing he saw before everything went blank was another notification.
[ITEM ACQUIRED: STIHL MS170 CHAINSAW]
[CONDITION: NON-FUNCTIONAL]
[ENGINE STATUS: SEIZED PISTON]
[HORSEPOWER: 4HP]
[DIAGNOSIS: REPAIRABLE]
[PROJECT LAZARUS PROGRESS: 0.02%]
[COMPONENTS ACQUIRED: 2/47]
Ray would have laughed if he was awake. Instead, he just lay on the ground, hidden behind the bushes with his stolen chainsaw and his rusted frame.
And somewhere in his mind, Jackie Chin whispered that this was better than anything he had ever done in London.
This was real.
This was his.
And he was just getting started.