The path of greatness was there… on the ground.
Killing two men with identical tattoos and guns on them, not even talking about the gold jewelry.
He knew very much they belonged to somewhere, some gang or mafia, maybe a cartel or just a small-time gang from the favela streets, but the fact that he knew they belonged somewhere meant that people would come to avenge them, which would be the perfect time to level up even more and get enough blood.
How much blood can I store?
[System: Because you can store thirty liters of blood.]
"That is good enough." He said as he looked down at the two bodies and pointed his hand at them. "Blood Art: Reservoir."
The moment activated the Skill, the two bodies on the ground started lightly shaking, and just like what happened to Marcus and Daniel, their blood just came out of their bodies like as if their veins just popped, flowing toward Josephi and going into his body as if it was merging with him, and indeed it did.
The Skill he used, the Reservoir, enables him to store others' blood and use it as Blood Art to kill others or defend himself, or to use any Skills in any situation where there isn't blood he can use, and the System stores it for him. One of the overpowered skills the Blood Emperor System has, and the only reason he did not have it during his interrogation was because he actually used it in the desert with the two warlords.
They weren't killed by the drone strike, no, it was just a cherry on top he wanted to use like a show, but he actually killed them with the Blood Art and with the Reservoir.
[System Notification: Ten liters of blood were successfully added to the Reservoir.]
"Good." Joseph said as he closed his eyes as came the next effect of the Reservoir Skill.
The two men's blood didn't flow into Joseph's body like normal blood, it went to the Reservoir, but he still felt it as if it were part of him, bringing a sudden surge of power and an almost transcendent feeling, as he was tasting another world through their blood.
One of the truly unique effects of the Reservoir is the "Blood is my witness." It is basically a passive of the Skill that enables him to see into their memories and well there was a lot about them.
"Favela gangster, huh?" He whispered and smiled as the two men's memories started flashing in his mind. He didn't see complete images, only fragments, like broken pieces of a puzzle, but he could put them into the full picture and understood that he had truly killed people who were criminals, more so members of a gang.
Though he forgot the fact that his mother was there on the ground just watching all of it play out and it just pushed her more into shock than anything else.
Like seeing just liters of blood flowing out of the two persons in literal waves and merging into Joseph's body was something else entirely.
She felt like she was hallucinating or dreaming or something, because there was no way it was really what she was seeing. Moreover, seeing the two bodies looking like in the movies where vampires suck out the blood of their prey and leave behind only this dried out snow white body.
But she understood one thing clearly, that it was a Skill, something she had seen in the news, something she had been hearing people talking about, the same phenomenon that struck the Earth and enabled people to use this mysterious power, but she never even thought that her son had something like this.
"Are you… a Blessed One?" His mother's voices suddenly came, broken and trembling, but she still found the strength to say that word, to get his attention, which actually surprised Joseph because he did not expect her to actually be able to speak.
Silence followed but Joseph noticed it. There was a spark of hope in her eyes.
As surreal as it was, just seeing a wave of blood, experiencing and seeing two men bleeding out, she still had that hope in her eyes.
I hate her eyes. Joseph thought as he kept looking at her, because the memories just kept flooding him, the same eyes they had, his real mother, his real sister.
That hope… but that hope died with them.
"Stand up." Joseph said as he offered his hand to her, and she grabbed it without thinking too much, which surprised him more than anything else, because she had just seen him kill two men and yet she did not look at him like he was a monster. "Who were they?"
"I do not know." She answered with shaking lips as her eyes moved to the bodies for a moment before quickly returning to him. "The older one was my customer, but I do not know anything."
"The tattoos and the weapons," Joseph continued immediately, watching her carefully and searching for any sign of a lie. "Are you sure you know nothing?"
"I just work, Joseph-" The way she said those words made it clear what she meant without needing to explain more and immediately broke something even more in Joseph as he understood her immediately because just minutes ago she asked for condoms and he knew exactly what kind of work she was talking about.
A mother sells her body just to survive in this world, fighting poverty and hunger in the only way she can, not because she wants that life but because she has no better options, and she does not even have the luxury to choose who she sleeps with as long as she can earn enough to keep going.
Even with his emotions debuffed he could still recognize suffering when it stands right in front of him.
That is the dangerous part, because feeling nothing makes him strong, but feeling even a little makes him vulnerable, and he already knows what the price of vulnerability is… though before any emotional speech or that type of bullshit that Joseph hates, something else came into the picture, and that was the loud sounds of car tires screeching on the road as they stopped, and by looking out of the window, it was clear that the people who hopped out of the cars did not come to have nice words.
They looked more like they were in search of their boss.
[System: Perfect timing, you can kill them and level up even more.]