The sharp blade of the debt collector was stopped at its base... purely by Jack's own skin—!
"W-what—?!"
"Haha~, that felt ticklish~."
The former tormentor was shocked—eyes widened and mouth agape—by how his prized weapon could not even make a scratch on Jack's neck...!
"H-how in the world—?! You're supposed to be DEAD—!"
"Well now, that's just what having a high Vitality can do for you~."
Jack then touched the sharp steel by its edge, gently pushing it away from his neck... and still not even a scratch appeared on his fingertips, while his former tormentor was frozen—still in a state of shock.
"High Vitality affects your defensive stats, making you resistant against a lot of things—such as this sharp blade of yours that couldn't even penetrate my 'thin' skin, and not just that—"
He gestured to the earlier shallow cut that the debt collector had rendered onto him...
And it was slowly starting to heal...!
The wound had already begun its drying process, closing in and patching up his wounds. Not only that, Jack could feel the aching pain that he'd endured just this morning was little by little disappearing, leaving him feeling fresh.
"—I feel like I just took the best nap of my life~!"
However, the debt collector gritted his teeth, frustration welling up inside of him—
"U-ugh...! D-damn you...!"
—and he pulled back his katana... only for him to try to take another swing at Jack's exposed neck—!
CLANG—!
The supposed 'sharp' blade grazed Jack's neck once more, but again... Jack was unharmed.
The long, thin steel simply stopped its advance on Jack's skin, as if it was cutting on a hardened steel beam.
For a moment, the debt collector was again left in a state of shock, his widened eyes stared back at Jack's own nonchalant ones accompanied by an easy-going smirk—
It was as if Jack was making fun of him.
"Come on, now. You know that's just futile."
"—! D-damn you, freak!!"
And the one-handed man continued to pull back his sharp eastern steel and tried, and tried, and tried to slash Jack's neck, in a faint, cruel hope of killing him and ending the grin on Jack's face—
But it was indeed... futile—
CLANG—!
CLANG—!
CLANG—!
The thin steel kept on being deflected by Jack's own tough skin, with little to no visible scratch on his person.
"Damn it—! Damn it—!! Damn it—!!!"
"Like I've told you: it's pointless. You can't hurt me like that," Jack stated calmly, even though he was currently being hacked away by the debt collector's 'sharp' blade, "though I do wonder why you can't in the first place. Hmm..."
Jack turned to pondering to himself... while still being attacked by the debt collector—!
CLANG—!
"My Vitality stat is pretty decent, but it's like on, uh, 43? But, if you pour like 1000 bucks on just Strength just like I've did before, technically you would have the same 43 stats as mine, enough to cut my head off clean—"
CLANG—!
"—But the fact that you didn't either tells me that you either didn't put all of your money on Strength, opting like still balancing your stats on few areas here and there—"
CLANG—!
"—While balancing stats is nice and all, I imagine it can get pretty darn expensive since the M-System's stat upgrades... from what I've read at least, gets more expensive the higher your tier is—"
CLANG—!
"—Or... your condition right now has weakened your stats. If I can make a good guess, you need at least 30 or so Strength stat which would be enough to at least make a scratch on me—"
CLANG—!
"—But the fact that you can't even do that means that your stats have been severely crippled, that it might have gone lower than 30—"
CLANG—!
"—I mean, I would be pretty bonkers too if I lose a limb PLUS having that wound—that bloody stump of yours—NOT cleaned and patched up? You're probably slowly dying from blood loss too—"
"—SHUT UUUUUUUP!!!"
Jack's mouth closed shut upon the debt collector's sudden yell, his expression an almost mocking-like surprise at the latter's outburst.
"Quit... huff... your fucking... huff...! Yapping...! Huff...! Huff...!"
"Hmm... Well, it was worth trying to communicate my thought."
Jack just shrugged his shoulder in defeat... but he stood still, just watching over the pitiful state of his tormentor.
And this... confused the latter greatly as he put up a deadly glare that went unfazed by Jack.
"Huff... what... what the fuck... huff are you even doing...?" the debt collector spat. "You... huff... YOU...! Huff... you could've escaped...!"
And it was indeed true—
Jack could have just run away from the debt collector, especially when he'd used his "earned" C-Points to upgrade his DEX stats.
However, he didn't, and that truly baffled the former tormentor of Jack.
"...You wanna know the truth?"
"...huh...?"
"Partly, I'm using you as a guinea pig for my new powers."
"W-what...?! Ugh...! D-damn you, fucker—"
"But that's not just the whole gist."
"...T-the fuck...?" the debt collector grunted. "Huff... w-what... what the fuck are you talking about...?! S-stop fucking bullshitting me, y-you damn... rat...!!!"
Jack ignored the unconvincing deadly glare, opting to ponder himself... before he revealed his reasons—
"Well, half of the reason is... I still want a compromise."
"...W-hat? C-compromise...?"
Jack's own expression suddenly turned serious, surprising the debt collector greatly...!
"As much as it pains me to say this... I don't want to continue running away forever."
"...h-huh?"
"Well, me being here? I'm actually planning to escape the city."
"...What... what the hell are you talking about...? What the hell does t-this... place have anything to do—"
"Sorry, but I'm not gonna further elaborate on how I WILL escape the city, BUT just so you know that I'm NOT planning to escape from my responsibility."
"...What the fuck...?"
Jack's words were quite the contradicting statements that it further confused the debt collector.
But... Jack wasn't finished. He looked straight into the debt collector's eyes with his eerie golden eyes—
"I'm willing to pay off all of my debt."