The Reincarnated Hitman

Chapter 5: Limits

It took Liam almost two hours, but he finally understood what the former Liam’s...or rather, his Factor was capable of.

"I’m never doing that again," he muttered, crashing into the sofa in their living room, completely exhausted.

Despite saying that, the grin on his lips told a different story.

His Factor truly was as versatile as he originally thought. It allowed him to create anything he could imagine.

Literally anything.

Well, he hadn’t tried creating living things yet, but that was only because of the limit on his Factor.

Or rather, a limit brought about by his low Pragma levels.

Because the Factor itself had no limits.

That much had become abundantly clear over the last two hours of testing.

Every time he’d pushed against what he thought was a ceiling, it turned out to be a Pragma ceiling, not a Factor ceiling.

The ability didn’t cap out nor did it have a maximum complexity threshold or a size restriction or a category of things it simply couldn’t do.

It just needed fuel.

And his fuel tank was currently the size of a teacup.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t create anything at all, and that was where his second observation came from.

The more knowledge he had of an object, the less Pragma it took to create. For example, he knew so much about guns, down to each part, that it barely took any Pragma to create.

On the flip side, the less he knew about something, the more it cost him.

He’d learned that particular lesson the hard way when he’d tried to create a smartphone out of curiosity.

It had only taken three seconds for his Pragma to completely bottom out, leaving a barely formed smartphone in his hand.

So his second limit was knowledge¹.

Liam also learnt that the objects he created wouldn’t last forever, they only lasted until his Pragma reserves ran out, causing them to disappear into nothingness.

Though the feeling of an empty Pragma reserve wasn’t the most comfortable, after all, it felt like he had been running for miles.

He supposed that made sense. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

Pragma was biological energy, running it to empty wasn’t going to feel like a gentle tap on the shoulder.

Hence the reason he was currently sprawled on the sofa, going through everything he had learnt.

In summary, his Factor, which he so humbly named Genesis, had three limits currently, Pragma, knowledge, and duration.

All of which could be dealt with.

Now, he just had to decide on what to do, whether he’d reveal his ability to the HA and get recruited or go a completely different route.

But the answer to that depended on how much money he stood to make.

Before he could figure that out, his thoughts were interrupted by the sudden ringing of his phone.

One he had left all the way on the dining table.

"Come on," Liam grumbled, "I just got comfortable."

Still, he had no choice but to get up and go get it, so he did.

He crossed the room, picked up the phone, and looked at the screen.

Boss #5

He let out an exhausted sigh before answering it and saying, "Liam speaking."

"Don’t ’Liam speaking’ me, do you know what time it is?" He was forced to move the phone away from his ear as a loud voice came from the other end.

According to the memories, Boss #5 was a middle-aged man known as Park who owned a small moving company.

The original Liam had been working for him for three months now, and today was supposed to be a big day for Park.

Unfortunately, his hardest-working sla...erm... worker was missing, hence the reason for his anger.

"I’m guessing that was a rhetorical question?" Liam placed the phone back to his ear and said.

"FIVE MINUTES."

He moved the phone away again.

"OR YOU’RE FIRED."

Without waiting for a response, Park hung up, causing Liam to put the phone down again.

He wondered if the job was truly worth it.

According to the memories, he was promised a pay of two hundred dollars, a meager amount for someone like Zero, but to the original Liam, it was a lifeline.

And as it turns out, that was exactly how much he needed for this month’s rent, so he gave up and decided to go, at least, for the last time.

But before he could walk back to his room, the sound of their TV caught his attention.

[Breaking news, we are receiving reports of an ongoing hostage situation at Westfield Integrated School in the east district. An armed group identifying itself as the Splinters has taken an unknown number of students and staff hostage.]

Liam immediately froze.

[The group is reported to have Delta-class Awakened Humans among their members and has issued demands to the Hero Association, threatening harm to hostages if.....]

Still in disbelief, he picked up the remote and turned the volume up.

[.....Westfield Integrated School, east district, where authorities have confirmed that classes were in session at the time of the incident....]

Westfield Integrated.

According to the memories, that was the same school Eli and Lea attended....which meant his siblings were part of the hostages.

Without getting the chance to even think, his body moved on its own, only to stop when he was at the door due to his ringing phone.

It was an unknown number, but he still answered it.

"Liam?" A girl’s hushed voice came through, "It’s Lea, don’t hang up, I borrowed someone’s phone, mine is—"

"Are you hurt," Liam cut her off, his tone sounding a lot different from its usual light-hearted one.

"No, we’re in the gym, they put everyone in the gym, there’s about forty of us, three of them are guarding the door and.."

"Is Eli with you?"

"He’s here, he’s fine," she paused and immediately realized something, "Liam, don’t do anything stupid, the HA is going to—"

"Stay in the gym," he said, "don’t draw their attention, and make sure Eli is always close to you."

"Liam..." Lea started but was cut off again.

"Do you understand me?"

Lea went silent on the other end for a while and Liam calmly waited for her response.

"Yes," she said quietly.

With that, he ended the call and pocketed the phone.

He stood at the door for a while before letting out a sigh of relief and saying, "I know you want to go rescue them immediately, but we need a proper plan."

Liam was speaking to himself, or rather, whatever was left of the original Liam.

After all, the emotions that had tried to overwhelm him earlier clearly didn’t belong to him.

"Good," he muttered as he felt himself calming down, "now then, let’s go rescue our siblings."