The boy stared at David with a face as dark as iron. This guy had wasted so much breath talking to him, only to flat-out reject him in the end?
"So... you're playing with me?"
David waved a hand. "No, I'm not playing with you. I actually considered your proposal very seriously, and I completely agree with your theory about fear. But... if you'll excuse my frankness, you don't yet possess the ability to make me feel fear. Naturally, therefore, I have no reason to submit to your will. After all, I don't keep rabbits or pets like that..."
The boy pressed his lips together, a flicker of scarlet light seeming to flash through his pitch-black eyes. David's words were undoubtedly dripping with mockery.
"If you have nothing else to business here, please leave. I still need to fix the door lock you broke." David issued the dismissal with a calm expression.
"You're provoking me... But you got one thing right: without power, one truly isn't enough to make others feel fear. So... what makes you think I don't have that kind of power?" The boy gazed at David, his tone icy and mocking, looking altogether like a venomous snake locked onto its prey.
David was about to say something when suddenly, he noticed that the chair fragments he had thrown on the ground were all slowly floating up into the air! He was certain he hadn't done this!
"I see. So this is your backing?" David watched the floating debris, a flash of pleasant surprise and realization crossing his eyes.
Clearly, there really were people in this world who, just like him, possessed this special ability! And what's more, this person was right in front of him!
Seeing that David did not show the panic expression he had expected, a trace of doubt stirred in the boy's heart. Yet a mere hint of doubt wasn't enough to dispel his intention to thoroughly teach David a lesson!
The next second, the debris floating in the air hurtled straight toward David with fierce momentum.
Had it been any other child, they naturally would have been frightened by this bizarre spectacle, but David was no ordinary kid.
In fact, having gone through hundreds of experiments and thousands of practices, David felt that the boy's mastery of this ability appeared far too amateurish.
David made no superfluous movements, nor did he look at the flying fragments; he simply stared quietly at the boy, as though examining a magnificent test subject.
"Swish, swish, swish!"
The rapidly hurtling debris abruptly hovered to a halt right in front of David, unable to advance another inch. Without a doubt, his mastery over this bizarre ability was indeed superior to the other's.
The boy stared at the scene in utter shock.
"What happened?! Could it be... you... you can do it too? No! That's impossible! How can this be?! How is it possible that you can do it too?! This is supposed to be something only I can..."
"Why would you ever think you were the only special one?" David looked at the boy mockingly.
The boy's proud heart was deeply stung by that look. "So... we're the same kind of people?"
"The same kind? No, I am not like you. You possess such a special talent, yet I haven't found any trace of practice on you. You wouldn't just use this power for something as boring as scaring ordinary people, would you... If that's the case, having such a special talent is, I must say, a pathetic waste."
David waved his hand, and the chair fragments clattered noisily to the floor.
The boy glared fiercely at David, his eyes looking as if they would spit fire. "You do have special abilities just like me, but... that doesn't mean you can, right in front of me—"
"Thud!"
The next second, the boy was horrified to find himself somehow pressed flat against the ground. Even though there was nothing on his back, he couldn't move so much as an inch! It was as if an invisible, giant hand was pinning him savagely to the floor!
David slowly walked over to him, looking down from above. "What was that you were saying?"
The boy looked up in angry terror at the worn cloth shoes before him, because he couldn't lift his head at all!
"Nothing... I didn't say anything..."
His immobilized body, coupled with the invisible pressure on his back that seemed to grow heavier by the second, filled his heart with unease!
"I sense the aura of fear in you. So... according to your own theory just now, shouldn't you listen to me now?"
David's gentle voice came from above, yet it fell on the boy's ears like a demon's whisper.
The boy nodded laboriously, even his gaze clearing up significantly.
A moment later, he felt the heavy weight on his body suddenly lift, and the immense pressure vanished into thin air!
"Good. I like obedient people." David pulled the boy up from the floor and considerately brushed the dust off him. "By the way, I still don't know your name."
The boy took a ragged breath, the recent ordeal still lingering in his mind. That crushing weight... he could clearly sense that David was genuinely capable of killing him with absolute ease!
"Riddle... My name is Tom Riddle..."
"Ding! Host interaction with the future Dark Lord detected! Merit System officially activated!"
"Ding! Host has given a wicked little brat a harsh lesson. Rewarded with 50 Merit Points!"
David: ?
...
Tom Riddle? The future Dark Lord? A Merit System...
"So that's how it is... Tom... Tom Riddle."
David carefully looked the boy named Tom Riddle up and down once more.
Tom felt his heart tighten under David's abruptly shifted gaze.
Even if he would grow to become the terrifying Dark Lord in days to come, right now he was just a brat who had been beaten into submission—and besides, he really didn't want to die!
Therefore, toward David, who seemed capable of taking his life at any second, Tom's present fear was beyond description.
Just then, Tom felt a weight settle on his shoulder. It was David resting a hand there.
Cold sweat instantly beaded on Tom's forehead.
"Don't be nervous, Tom. I just thought your name sounded a bit familiar."
The name indeed sounded very familiar. Combining the Dark Lord with the name Tom Riddle already explained a great deal.
Moreover, it was only now that David recalled two key pieces of information he had previously overlooked.
Namely, this orphanage was called Wool's Orphanage, and the matron was none other than Mrs. Cole. Without a doubt, this was the exact "starting spawn point" of the second Dark Lord, Voldemort.
Thus, David finally understood that he had transmigrated directly into the world of Harry Potter, even though it was still decades before the events of the novels.
Which meant... this bizarre power of his wasn't some mutant superpower after all—it was magic!