Emotional blackmail is a powerful form of manipulation.
It clouds your mind with a thick fog of Fear, Obligation, and Guilt, leaving you feeling trapped and powerless.
It’s a manipulation tactic that preys on your deepest fears and insecurities, leaving you at the mercy of the manipulator.
Fear is the most potent weapon in the arsenal of emotional manipulators.
It is a universal emotion that can be triggered in anyone, and once the manipulator discovers what triggers that fear in you, they hold power to conquer your mind, body and soul.
It’s a dangerous game, one where the stakes are high and the consequences severe.
However, there’s one more tool. Albeit not as effective as fear, it still has its own perks—Guilt.
Unlike fear which directly targets the victim, guilt is a subtle form of manipulation that can be just as effective in controlling the victim.
It makes the victim feel responsible for the manipulator’s feelings or actions, causing them to take actions they wouldn’t normally take.
Hmm? Why am I telling you all this, you ask?
You’ll understand soon enough.
Anyway, right now, I was just getting ready for today’s event—The unit test.
All cadets from classes 1-A-1 and 1-C-8 are going to be at the 5th district forest for this test.
No, unfortunately there’ll be no drama today. Yes, there will be some ‘accidents’ since both classes, at this point, hate each other, but nothing major.
Of course, just because there’s supposed to be no drama today doesn’t mean I can’t create it myself.
Starting today, I’ll set my plan for the mock war in action.
“Huaaaa~” after stepping out of the bathroom, I glanced at myself in the mirror, ensuring I looked presentable. Even after a shower, I still felt sleepy.
Normally I would have made a narcissistic comment on my beautiful appearance, but today I was in a hurry.
I’ve been working hard the last few days to develop a plan. I made sure to think through every little detail and account for any potential surprises.
I made sure to make my plan foolproof so I didn’t want to mess up by showing up late to the training session today.
So I promptly walked to the side table next to my bed, opened one of its drawers, and found it filled with various stationary items such as pens, papers, tapes, and a thermocol cutter.
I removed all of the items, emptying the drawer completely. Once the drawer was empty, I opened a hidden compartment by tapping at the corner of the bottom of the drawer, which flipped open to reveal a false bottom.
Upon taking out the false bottom, a shiny red quill feather pen was revealed, eliciting a smirk of excitement on my face.
Why did I hide it here instead of keeping it in my smart bracelet? Well, I keep it in my smart bracelet during the day and then shift it here at night before going to bed.
Anyway, I took the Pen out and glanced at it for a moment. Nodding satisfactorily, I grabbed the thermocol cutter and one of Lucas’ old wristbands.
I placed the cutter over the wristband on the bedside table and took a step back.
“Fuuu,” letting out a short breath, I aimed my Pen at the cutter and immediately a red translucent rectangular window popped in my sight.
===
Item: Ordinary Thermocol Cutter
Status: Normal
Condition: Good
Abilities: None
Rank: None
Edit: ____
===
===
Item: Ordinary Wristband
Status: Normal
Condition: Good
Abilities: None
Rank: None
Edit: ____
===
For the past few weeks, I’ve been experimenting with the Pen. I’ve noticed that even a small involvement in the plot earns me some Edit Points.
I’ve been using those points to test the limit of my Pen. And honestly, I’m pretty amazed to say I can do anything.
This Pen has the ability to completely rewrite reality and change an object to anything I desire– as long as I have enough Edit Points of course.
It would’ve been awesome if I could control the living creatures with this Pen too but oh well.
Even without the power work on living creatures, this Pen was absolutely broken.
With this Pen in my hand, I can even combine two objects to make a new one. And that’s what I was about to do here.
I began moving my Pen and started writing in the Edit section of the two object’s status screens.
===
Item: Ordinary Thermocol Cutter
Status: Normal
Condition: Good
Abilities: None
Rank: None
Edit: Become an automatic retractable hidden blade.
===
===
Item: Ordinary Wristband
Status: Normal
Condition: Good
Abilities: None
Rank: None
Edit: Become the strap of the hidden blade.
===
𝓷𝔬𝚟𝐞𝓵𝔫ℯxt.𝓬𝑜𝗆
One more thing that I’ve discovered about the Pen is that if I have a clear picture in mind of what I want the object to look like after the Edit, I can be as vague as I want and I would get exactly what I want.
[Finalize your Edit for a total of 14 Edit Points
Yes/No]
Suddenly, another red translucent screen appeared in my vision.
Arghh, 14 Edit Points? That’s nearly everything I have!
Touching my chin, I contemplated for a moment or two before finally gritting my teeth.
“Tsk, fine.” clicking my tongue in frustration, I tapped on the ‘Yes’ option on the translucent screen.
In an instant, the cutter and the wristband started glowing in a brilliant white light, forcing me to squint my eyes in discomfort.
In a second, however, the light subsided and I was able to look at the object in front of me.
There it was—a retractable hidden blade.
Ahh~ I have always been a fan of the hidden blades from a game I used to play during my childhood, as I found it very cool.
So ever since I transmigrated into this world, I desired to have something like that for myself.
And here it is. After only a few days of coming to this world, I’ve acquired a hidden blade for myself!
Now all that’s left is to create a group of assassins and make this weapon our trademark! Muahaha!
Kidding. I’m obviously kidding.
Anyhow, I quickly picked it up and, with sparkling eyes, wrote it on my right wrist since my smart bracelet was already on my left.
Oh~
The wristband had transformed into a black leather brace that extended along half of my forearm.
The blade was hidden within the leather material and I discovered it was securely encased in a metallic sheath.
To release the blade, I closed my wrist and gave it a swift flick.
Click—!
I heard the sound of the spring mechanism deploying and instantly, a narrow steel blade emerged from the leather brace.
Cool! It was so cool! Kyaaaa~!
“Ahem,” coughing to hide my overly excited face, I quickly calmed myself down.
I need to focus. This isn’t the time to fawn over a new toy.
Shaking my head, I retracted the blade back and wore the academy’s first-year red and black tracksuit, hiding the blade by covering it with my jersey’s long sleeve.
Okay, everything was ready. I should start going now.
“Ah!” but before I could even walk a step, I remembered something and halted my steps.
Instead of leaving the apartment, I walked towards my wardrobe and opened it. Inside, I found a collection of 47 luxury watches in the lower compartment.
“Arghh,” a frustrated sigh escaped my lips as I thought of something.
“Fine,” I said to myself and took out one of those watches before putting them in my smart bracelet’s dimensional storage. “Now, let it begin.”