Universal Power System

“Where did you get that?” Mako asked in a shaky voice as he stared at the green vial that he had been desperately searching for the past 24 hours.

“I looted it off a guy while I was looking for you. I didn’t really know what to do with it and just kept it in my bag in case I ever need it later.” Leon replied.

“Oh, thank god!” Mako exclaimed as he fell to his knees with tears in his eyes. The constant timer alarm for the quest was driving him insane, but now it would finally go away as he had finally been able to find the anti-venom.

He opened the tarp and gently laid Bill on the floor again. After that, he walked over to Leon who was still on the ground with his leg still frozen. He reached out to grab the vial from his hands but Leon pushed his hand away.

“Leon? What are you doing?” Mako asked as he saw a grin appear on Leon’s face.

“You know… this is the only anti-venom I have and maybe I have to use it later down the line for myself. What makes you think that I was just going to hand it over?” Leon replied.

Leon’s words made Mako feel like a thousand needles were poking his heart.

“Wh…at…” Mako was so shocked by Leon’s response that he couldn’t even get the words out of his mouth.

It felt like he was just in front of the finish line about to cross it over, but suddenly the finish line itself started running away from him.

“DO YOU ACTUALLY HEAR YOURSELF?!” Mako shouted at Leon with a face full of anger and frustration.

“A guy is dying literally 20 feet away from you, and you have what it takes to save his life without putting yourself at any kind of risk and yet you still decided to choose yourself! He may not even make it till the end of the day given his condition!” Mako shouted trying to make Leon realize the gravity of the situation.

“We are in a test, aren’t we? Out here, it’s every man for themselves. I have to ensure my well-being and take care of myself first; not worry about what situation someone else is in. If he was weak enough to get himself poisoned then there is no use giving him the anti-venom, he would just get poisoned again.” Leon gave his justification in a calm and relaxed tone which was meant to tick Mako off even more.

The strategy worked and Mako started grabbing his hair out of frustration after hearing Leon’s reply. Leon actually wanted Mako to get angry; so much so that he would try to attack him. It was a very natural response when a person got to a point where they get overwhelmed by frustration and anger as they resort to physical violence to make the problem go away.

In this case, the problem was Leon who was acting as the barrier between Mako and the anti-venom. Once he would attack him, Leon would have justified all of his actions as this was exactly what he felt. He was frustrated and angry for losing and being humiliated and so he tried to take revenge, but Mako called him pathetic for doing so.

Now Mako was going through the exact same thing as Leon and if in this situation Mako choose violence, it would prove that he was doing nothing wrong at all as he was also resorting to violence to get rid of his pain and anger.

‘It easy to just preach to other people when you don’t even know how it feels. Well, now you do, let’s see you live up to your preachings when you are in the exact same position as me.’ Leon said to Mako in his thoughts.

Mako was still holding his hair full of anger as he couldn’t believe what was happening right in front of him. He didn’t know what to do. He knew that it would be useless trying to reason with him nor would he accept any bargain. Mako understood that he was doing this purposefully and wanted to make him feel miserable.

The constant reminder from the system about the time remaining for the quest was the final straw for Mako. He quickly stood up in anger and looked Leon dead in the eyes. This was exactly what Leon wanted but he was not going to lie, he was a bit intimidated by the seriousness in Mako’s eyes.

*Silence*

Mako stared at Leon for a couple of seconds who stared back with an annoying smile on his face. The smile was to make him even madder and any second now, he would try to attack him and take the anti-venom by force.

Without saying a single word, Mako turned around and walked back toward Bill, and picked him up back up again. He secured him on his back with the tarp and started walking toward the exit. 𝑏𝑒𝑑𝘯𝑜𝘷𝑒𝑙．𝑐𝘰𝘮

“Huh?!” Leon exclaimed as he watched Mako walk away again.

He couldn’t believe his eyes. Nobody would be stupid enough to leave when they were so close to attaining their goal. Why won’t he just take it from him? Was he really so hell-bent on his morals that he would rather look for an alternative rather than just take it from him when he was in a vulnerable state?

Leon was truly amazed by Mako’s action as he had proven the exact opposite of what Leon wanted him to prove. Leon watched silently as Mako continued to walk toward the exit. Suddenly something clicked inside Leon’s head and he clutched the vial tightly in his hands. Mako was about to reach the exit of the cave when Leon shouted at the top of his lungs.

“WAIT!!!” He screamed; however, Mako didn’t stop this time. Mako continued to walk forward. Leon tried a couple of more times, screaming at the top of his lungs trying to get Mako to stop. The screams were so loud that they echoed a couple of times

But still, Mako continued to ignore Leon’s shouts as he walked toward the exit carrying Bill on his back.

Seeing that Mako wasn’t in the mood to talk anymore, Leon knew he couldn’t stop him with just his words alone. His wound still hadn’t healed up and it was extremely painful for him to put any weight on it, but still, he pushed through the pain and stood up on his feet. He started limping after Mako and continued to call out to him.

Mako heard Leon’s voice getting closer and closer and against his better judgment, he stopped once again to hear what he had to say. He turned around and could Leon approach as fast as he could with an expression that screamed out pain.

Mako didn’t know why he was running after him but he could see that he was in a great deal of pain from his leg and so he walked back and grabbed onto him so that he wouldn’t have to walk as far.

Leon was huffing and panting really loudly. It looked like just covering a small distance was enough to sap away all his willpower and energy. Leon was in so much pain that he couldn’t even get words out of his mouth.

He was holding the anti-venom in his right hand and he slowly brought it closer to Mako and placed it in his hands. Just after giving the anti-venom to Mako, the pain became too much for Leon to bear as he passed out in Mako’s arms.

Mako didn’t even know what just happened. It looked like Leon had no intention of giving him the anti-venom and so Mako decided that it would be a waste of time to argue with Leon anymore and he decided to stick to his original plan of finding the anti-venom himself.

However, to his surprise, something clicked inside Leon and it made him chase after him on an injured leg to give him the anti-venom that he refused to give before.

It didn’t make sense to Mako but he didn’t care about that now as two guys were knocked unconscious near him, one on his back and one in his arms. He decided to make sense of it all later as right, he needed to administer the anti-venom to Bill.

He carried Leon back to where the burnt-out campfire was and gently laid him against the smooth boulder. He then opened the tarp and placed Bill right next to Leon.

He opened the cap on the vial and it revealed a needle inside. There were instructions printed on the vial and it told Mako to inject the anti-venom near the wound where the patient was poisoned from. Mako inserted the needle inside Bill’s arm and the green liquid inside auto-injected into his body.

*DING!*

[Emergency Quest Complete]

[Find an anti-venom and save Bill Johnson’s life within 36 hours]

[Processing Suitable Rewards]

[Processing Complete]

[…]