BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM
The human race is fending off the assault of the thaids, strange monsters evolved by animals occupying most of the earth's surface. Because of the monsters, society has evolved into one based on individual fighting prowess; Erik is an abandoned young boy living in such society with the most useless of the powers. Everything changes when his father returns home, bringing something he would have never expected. [DOWNLOADING INFORMATION FROM THE HOST -GENERAL KNOWLEDGE- IN PROGRESS] [0%...1%...5%...30%...70%...100%] [DOWNLOAD COMPLETE] [ALL SYSTEMS READY] [WELCOME TO THE BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM, HOST ERIK ROMANO]
BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM #Chapter 1 Erik Romano - Read BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM Chapter 1 Erik Romano Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT
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Erik was walking down the corridor. He was leaving the school building, heading home, and minding his own business, trying not to get anyone's attention. Life wasn't easy for him since he lived in a country where power reigned supreme, and he was severely lacking in that aspect.
There were multiple people in that corridor: Anderson Worthington, the most popular guy in school, and his clique of friends, Aarron Greig and Mikey Dixon, the two with the school's most bizarre brain crystal powers, that allowed one to create a slimy corrosive substance he was trying a way to develop into a usable weapon, and the other to birth flesh-eating bugs.
They had weird powers, even by Erik's standards, and he had the power to make plants grow faster.
Though, it wasn't their presence that scared the young man, making him try to be as inconspicuous as possible. It was Logan Reid and his group of friends.
Logan was walking through the corridor in Erik's opposite direction. The boy saw him approaching and made the mistake of looking at him for more than one second. Logan went past Erik, making the young man heave a sigh of relief, but it was then that Logan turned and said at the boy, "Hey, Erik!"
Logan grabbed the young man's shoulders and punched him in the face. The boy fell to his knees, holding a bloody nose. Logan punched him again, and Erik could not look at something different from his tormentor's face.
It was the face of his nightmares, the face of a monster. "This is because you are a loser!" The bully shouted with an evil grin on his face. The other boys nearby snickered at their friend beating up Erik.
"Stop, Logan, please!" Erik held his bloodied hands out defensively.
Logan grabbed one of Erik's arms and whirled it behind his back. His arm twisted painfully into an awkward angle. The pain from the previous day's beating surged back like a fountain.
"Logan, please!" Erik yelled as he tried to escape the larger boy who was now trying to suffocate him.
"Shut up!" Logan screamed at his friend.
Multiple people stared at the scene from a distance; there wasn't an ounce of compassion in their eyes. Erik was trash, as his Brain crystal was.
His brain crystal was useless to fight; it was also almost useless from a utility point and was ranked low because of this.
It was ranked E on Jorm's scale, the one made to rank how useful and versatile a power was. It was only ranked F on the Ferebitz scale, a power scale that indicated how much mana the brain crystal could store and use.
This made it increasingly difficult for him to make new connections between the brain and the crystal.
The brain-crystal connection meant everything for an individual since the more one had and the stronger the brain's crystal power, or BCP, as people were used to calling them.
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His only connection was the one he was born with, which barely allowed him to use his power, making him stay at the low FSIGMA1E rank, one of the lowest ranks there could be.
Erik struggled to break free from Logan's grip, but the young man was much weaker than the bully. Erik looked at the people nearby with pleading eyes, but no one was interested in helping the school's human trash. They looked at him as if he was an eyesore, someone who should have never been born.
The bully finally released the young man and kicked him hard in the stomach. Erik felt like he was going to vomit. Logan looked at him and then turned to his friends, who were laughing at the poor boy on the ground.
"GAH!"
"GAH!"
"GAH!"
pAnD The young man's saliva dripped from his mouth; he had difficulty breathing. The kick was strong.
Erik stood up slowly and wiped the blood from his face. People observed the bullying but didn't do anything; they were indifferent to the suffering young man.
"Trash!" Logan's friends said while leaving the place.
Erik took off down the hall with tears falling from his eyes; he was constantly being picked on by bullies with better Brain crystal powers. It didn't matter that Erik did well in school; his power was useless, and that meant everything.
The young man left the school's aisle and went out of the the building. He walked home with tears dripping down his face; people looked at him puzzled, but the shop owners nearby recognized the young man.
This was a daily occurrence for him, but even they, despite being adults, looked at the young man as if he was a bug. They knew who he was.
The thrashy son of Lucius Romano, who, despite being an astonishing individual with the incredible AKAPPA3C power to make four shadow clones was good for nothing.
The young man arrived home after a long walk from school; he had no one coming to pick him up as most other students had. Being friends, parents, brothers, sisters, lovers even. He was alone in a world that rejected him with his father, who knew where.
He entered the house. It was the same usual view that came before him; a small apartment located within an old building, with the bare minimum: a kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room which he also used as a bedroom.
He had no high-class furniture, and his father left him the bare minimum to survive, but it wasn't enough to live a comfortable life. In fact, the young man had to work after school, he used his power to make plants grow faster on a farm not far from New Alexandria city, but the pay was meager.
Despite being a high-ranked individual, his father was penniless because of his obsessions. He left his son alone for two years before to search for the cause of the sinister cold.
This virus led to the development of brain crystals and the birth of the thaids, heavily mutated animals with powers capable of changing the natural order.
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The creatures forced the human race to live on a single continent instead of the two they previously inhabited.
Even then, claiming back the land from the beasts came at a high cost, so divisions among humans started taking place. The process ended with the birth of seven nations: Hin, Prare, Reraiaph, Khunelerp, Legarm, and Frant, where Erik lived.
The young man didn't know how the situation was in the other nations, but here, in Frant, it was bad. The government was militaristic and based one social standing on the brain crystal power one possessed.
Discrimination and hate were the basis of this nation, and the young man hated it. No more as he hated himself or how he hated his father for having abandoned him.
Erik left his things on the living room table and went to the bathroom; since he was constantly bullied and beaten, he spent a lot of money on first aid kits he used daily to heal his wounds.
After he was done, he went to the computer; the young man was obsessed with war news. It gave him comfort knowing that the people who treated him like garbage were dying in the war against Hin.
Erik opened the browser and clicked on the news site. A headline caught his attention:
"STALEMATE IN WAR"
He read the article.
"BETWEEN THE TWO NATIONS, THERE WERE NO SURRENDERS AT BOTH EASTERN FRANTIAN AND HINIAN COAST AS OF TUESDAY MORNING."
In the middle of the night, a battle between Hinian and Frantian forces broke out near the country's eastern coast. As of Tuesday morning, there was no sign of either side backing down.
"THE FACT THAT THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR THREE DAYS AFTER SOME SMALL SKIRMISHES BETWEEN FRANT AND HIN MEANS THAT NOTHING WILL CHANGE UNTIL THE TWO NATIONS AGREE TO SETTLE DOWN." The author stated.
"AH! THAT'S WHAT YOU DESERVE, MOTHER FUCKERS!" the young man said. Hate ran deep through Erik's veins.
His hatred got stronger when he saw footage of the battles. His eyes were glued to the screen. The young man watched the soldiers killing each other, making him feel sick to his stomach but happy for their deaths.
A few minutes later, he closed the browser. He walked over to his bed, put down his backpack, and took off his uniform.
Once he was naked, he stretched his arms above his head. He then placed his hands on top of his head, and as he did, he felt the warm sensation spread across his body.
He moved his legs apart, and his feet touched the floor. He pulled them closer together. Once he was in a position similar to yoga, he began to move his hips.
He rolled his shoulders. He rotated his neck.
Then, he focused on his right hip and worked on it for a while. Over time, the pain and stiffness became less noticeable.
After stretching every part of his body, Erik stood up. He had been doing this for a long time, but his muscles still ached despite his obsession.
He sighed; he was only sixteen but already looked thirty due to the constant beating. Multiple parts of his body were not the same anymore and ached when he did some movements.
At that moment, with the sun still high in the sky, Erik heard a pair of keys being inserted into his door. The young man turned to look at his door opening, and once he did, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. His father came back home.
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Erik looked at the person coming through the door with incredulity. The last time he saw the man in the flesh was two years prior. His face was exactly how he remembered it, but a long black beard adorned it instead of shaved skin.
There was something else weird, though; Lucius looked in a hurry. His movements were quick and full of anxiety; his eyes darted left and right, scanning the room and searching for anything suspicious.
"Dad?"
"Erik..."
An uncomfortable silence hung over them; the tension could be felt, almost touched. A sense of unease permeated the air that evening.
Lucius returned from whatever he was thinking about by looking up at his son and saying: "I'm sorry I haven't been around much."
Erik didn't reply, he would have liked to say some things to his disgrace of a father, but he was unable to. The young man's breathing became rugged; his eyes threatened to make tears flow out. But he refused; he didn't want his father to see him in that state.
"What do you want," was all the young man could utter.
"I don't have much time to explain. I came by to drop something important, Erik. You have to hide it somewhere safe and make no one gets his hands on it."
"What? You came here to dump me more problems?" Erik angrily replied. His father, in the meantime, took a big glass container from his backpack; a strange liquid was inside of it and immersed into the liquid, a weird creature. It had a sort of arachnid body, with a long tail ending up in a hook and eight disgusting and long legs. There was also what the young man assumed was the mouth. It resembled a mussel, but it had some weird pointy tooth.
"A thaid?" Erik asked. Did his father just bring a deadly creature to his battle-impaired son?
"No," Lucius replied.
"Then what is it? You have to tell me at least..."
Lucius looked at his son with a serious look. The young man stared back at him intently as well.
"This is the cause of the sinister cold," Lucius replied.
After hearing Lucius's words, Erik turned away from his father and started walking toward the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water and drank it in one gulp; he wiped his mouth off with his hand, threw the glass into the sink, and then returned to his living room.
His dad followed after him.
"You're not taking me seriously."
"How am I supposed to take this?"
"Erik, look at me. This is not a joke, and I can't stay here any longer. Put this in a safe place where no one can find it. I will come to pick it up later; until then, you have to say no one I was here."
"Why? And why are you being so secretive? If you did find the reason for the sinister cold, why don't you simply give it to the militaries?" Erik asked.
Lucius sighed. "It's complicated," he said.
"Come on, Dad! Just spill the beans!"
pAnD Lucius shook his head. "Look, I know you're scared."
The young man couldn't believe his ears. It was like his father, the proud Lucius Romano, was pleading to him, something he had never heard of. He had never seen his father look so weak before.
"But I assure you, there's nothing to worry about," Lucius continued. "This, unless you tell someone about this." Erik stared at his father in disbelief. His rage didn't stem only from the fact that he left him alone for years while searching for whatever he found, but he was also giving him the hot potato.
What would happen if the military found this thing inside his home? Countless thoughts flashed inside the young man's mind, but none of them was comforting at all. He imagined being tortured by the military just to get information about this weird creature, the cause of the sinister cold, as his father was saying.
Erik didn't know if he had to believe the man, but everything pointed out that he was telling the truth. His look, his tone, his eyes even.
"Okay, okay," Erik finally relented. "I'll keep it hidden. Can I ask you something else, though?"
"Yes, anything."
"Why are you doing all this?"
Lucius frowned. "For both of us. And to protect what remains of our world."
"Protect our world? From what?"
"From something worse than the sinister cold." Lucius heard a noise, and he hurriedly went to the window.
"I can't stay here any longer," he said. It looked like he saw something outside the window.
" Will you leave me again?" Erik asked. He felt betrayed and abandoned again by his father. A surge of emotion swelled inside of him, but he didn't know what to do about them. He was close to yelling at his father to go fuck himself, but he gave his word he would hide the glass contained, and whatever was in.
"Don't be stupid. I'm coming back. But I need to go for now. Stay here, and I promise I will return to pick you up."
And with that, Lucius disappeared. In a blink of an eye, he was gone.
Erik stood still. After his father's departure, he sat on his desk chair and placed his face between his hands.
He was starting to feel dizzy, and his heart started racing.
"Dad... I hope you come back soon," Erik muttered. Despite being angry at him, he could do nothing but hope that Lucius would come back and take care of him. One thing was sure, though, by agreeing to his father's demand, he got himself at huge risk from what or whom Erik didn't know.
Erik looked at the glass container on the table; close to it, there was a clock, and it displayed 03:00 PM.
"Fuck, I'm late for work!"
The young man rapidly changed to more fitting clothes, the ones he used on the farm. Thanks to his power, he was able to make crops grow faster. It wasn't a useless power but could do nothing in battle. He was expected to join the military academy in three months, and he didn't know what to do then, and the thought of more bullying scared him a lot. People were stronger and older there; what if they ended up killing him?
After changing, Erik went to his room and grabbed his backpack. He glanced at his computer monitor, which still showed the article he was reading. He didn't want to join the militaries if he could; the mere thought of having to help this rotten country survive against the Hinians disgusted him.
Erik picked up his jacket from the wardrobe and then went toward the table to pick up his house keys with his jacket on his left arm. As he walked beside the table, the jacket hit the glass container, which crashed into the ground. The container shattered into countless pieces, and the liquid poured over the ground and the creture inside of the container fell to the ground with a sonorous thud. Erik didn't know what the hell it was, but it was certainly dangerous, being related to the sinister cold.
"FUCK!" the young man shouted.
Erik observed the creature; it didn't move and stayed immobile on the ground.
Maybe its dead... the young man thought.
All of this was a big mistake. Agreeing to his father's request, breaking the container, everything. The creature was meant to be locked inside that container and not to find its way out. Erik trembled at the implications of what just happened. Did he just mess up what his father had worked on for years? Did he ruin the chance to find out what the sinister cold really was?
"Shit! Shit, shit, SHIT!"
Erik turned around and ran to the bathroom, searching for where to put the creature's body.
"Dammit!"
Erik remembered the plastic bags he had bought some days ago. He found them in his closet and took them, but once he returned to the living room, the creature was nowhere to be seen. Dread filled the young man's mind.
"SHIT!"
Erik then dropped his backpack and searched everywhere for the damn thing. He couldn't believe what he had done, and his father had left the house not even ten minutes prior. If it wasn't bad enough that he dropped the liquid, which was now staining the ground, the creature previously contained in it now roamed his house. The young man went to the kitchen to grab a knife and defend himself.
"I have to get rid of it now..."
There was no time to waste.
As the young man turned to search for the creature again, this time with the knife, he heard a noise behind him. He turned to look what the source of the noise was, but it was then that the creature suddenly shot up from the floor, its mouth opening wide. With weird legs extended and teeth showing in its jaws, it lunged at Erik and attached itself to his face.
Erik gasped in pain as he fell backward onto the wooden floor, unable to do anything to stop the creature. His eyes widened when he saw the creature on his face.
Erik tried to scream, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he felt the creature inserting something into it.
Then a stinging pain hit the young man on the chest; the creature, or whatever it was, stung him with its tail, injecting something inside of him. Slowly, as the young man was losing consciousness and falling to the floor, he started seeing something.
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Erik did wake up to the image of his house ceiling. He felt confused, as he couldn't connect the dots of what had happened to him. The young man slowly stood up; he looked at his body to see if something was out of place, and once he looked at his chest, he saw a pile of ashes. At that moment, he recalled what had happened before he lost consciousness.
"AAAH!" he immediately tried to get rid of the ashes on him. He was on the brink of having a panic attack. What exactly did happen to him? What about the creature?
The young man stood up and went to the bathroom to wash away the ashes. He had a hunch about what these could belong to, but he had no proof.
He went to the sink, made the water run, and then used it to wash the powder.
"THESE ARE THE MONSTER'S REMAINS!" the young man said.
He washed away all traces of the creature on him, including the ash-like residue. Then he stared at his reflection in the mirror, staring at the blackened area near his neck. There was no doubt: it was the creature's remains.
"But how?" the young man said. "What happened?" he asked himself out loud.
After cleaning off the remaining ashes, Erik decided to shower—to cleanse himself from any other remnants of the creature; it was faster and better.
He quickly undressed and went in. Warm water ran through the young man's body, soothing a few of his worries. But there were still many questions left unanswered that bugged his mind.
After having washed, the young man went to the living room, the clock hung over the desk, and it showed 08:00PM.
Erik whitened; he immediately picked up his phone to call his employer, Mister Fox, but something weird happened.
[DEVICE FOUND: SMARTPHONE. DO YOU WANT TO CONNECT TO IT?]
"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Erik shouted. He jumped back when he saw the screen in front of his eyes, but he tripped on the small table in front of the couch and fell.
"AUCH!"
The young man blinked, and for a moment, the screen he saw disappeared, but when he opened his eyes again, the window was still there.
[DEVICE FOUND: SMARTPHONE. DO YOU WANT TO CONNECT TO IT?]
Incredulity was plastered on Erik's face; what the hell was that? The young man contemplated but could not find any explanation for what he was seeing. Then, he did the logical thing one could do in that situation. Trying to understand what was happening.
"Yes!" the young man said.
[CONNECTION TO THE DEVICE: ERIK'S SMARTPHONE, COMPLETE.]
It was then that a sort of feeling spread in Erik's mind. It was like, the weird screen said. He really felt a connection to the device. He picked up his phone and immediately looked at it. It was the same as always, but something was different simultaneously. The young man then recalled that he had to make a call to Mister Fox, and as soon as he thought about it, the phone went to his contacts and chose Mister Fox's number, and then the call started.
What? Am I controlling the phone with my mind? the young man thought while the phone rang.
"Hello?" the voice of Mister Fox rang directly inside the young man's ears. He could still hear his surroundings clearly, but at the same time, he could do so for the phone too. He didn't have the device in his ears; he simply heard the phone in his brain or ears... He didn't know.
"Hello? Mister Fox?"
"Erik?! Where the hell are you?"
"I'm sorry I didn't show up today, Mister Fox, but..."
"You are sorry? I will give you a reason to be sorry when you bring your ugly ass here, you dumb kid!"
"Please, Mister Fox, it won't happen again."
"I bet it won't, or else you will be fired. Do you understand me, kid? Besides, what did you have so important to do that you couldn't even call to tell me you wouldn't come?"
The young man couldn't say what had happened to him, so he tried to find an excuse for the situation.
"I got beaten up and lost consciousness, sir..."
The old man didn't reply; he was stern with the young man and often took advantage of him thanks to his power, but in a very deep, deep, deep... very deep and weird way, he cared about him.
"Well... Next time try to stay out of trouble..."
"I will, sir. Again, I'm sorry," Erik said.
The man sighed, "Come tomorrow at the usual time if you don't consider yourself jobless."
"I will come, sir, don't worry."
The man then hung up, and then the line went dead. He stopped hearing the phone and could see the screen in his vision. It was like he could see and not see the screen simultaneously; it was weird.
"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!" the young man shouted. He didn't know if he had to be happy for the weird power he had developed or scared. Then he thought back at the monster his father brought back, and he started making connections.
Is it possible that the creature inside the glass container wasn't a thaid? the young man thought.
He remembered how the thing looked exactly like a thaid from the stories his mother read him before bedtime. His parents were both avid readers; they would buy books almost every week and share them among themselves. They also told him all kinds of stories and myths. As far as he knew, his family was very close-knit. He loved his parents more than anything in this world. He never wanted to disappoint them, but his mother died, and his father disappeared.
Is it possible that all of this is related to the creature? What the hell did it do to me?
[ANSWER: I, THE BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER, IMPLANTED MYSELF INSIDE ERIK ROMANO'S BRAIN, MAKING A CONNECTION TO THE BRAIN CRYSTAL]
"What the hell?" Erik tripped again when the screen appeared before him. "This thing reads my mind!" then he elaborated on what the screen said.
"It implanted itself inside my brain? What are you talking about?" he said as if he was talking to someone.
[I repeat, I implanted myself inside your brain. Are you stupid, perhaps?]
"What the fuck! Now you are talking normally!" Erik said.
[This Supercomputer had to tune down his language skill to make the Host able to understand. Do you understand?]
"I'm not stupid!"
[Danger: the Host is becoming angry. Release of calming substance into the brain in 3...2...1]
Erik started calming down; the feeling of being controlled by this Biological supercomputer, or whatever it was, was horrifying. Though, as he calmed down, he started thinking more logically.
"What the hell are you?" he asked the computer.
[Answer: The biological supercomputer is a technology created to enhance individuals. It requires a source of energy to work. Hence, the Biological supercomputer had to connect with the Brain crystal. Though, the amount of mana the host Brain crystal provides is barely enough to allow some essential functions. The Host is advised to strengthen the brain crystal as soon as possible to unlock all the functions.]
"Strengthening the brain crystal? What the hell are you talking about?"
The Host is advised to give a look at the [Powers] window in the Biological supercomputer system]
The reply came quite easily to the young man, "And how am I supposed to do so, you stupid machine?"
[Incorrect. The Biological supercomputer is not a machine; it's a powerful biological AI]
"Whatever!"
[To go to the power window of the Biological supercomputer, the Host must will it to do so. You can also say "Powers" to make the process easier.]
Erik wondered if all that was happening was only a hallucination; after all, he was being attacked by what looked like a thaid. Maybe the creature injected a potent venom into him that made him obedient so that the creature could eat his brain or consume him whole. Who knew? Though, the young man also hoped that maybe, all of this was real and he had earned something powerful. Something that could potentially help him get a better life.
"Powers," the young man said while willing to see the screen the supercomputer was referring to. Immediately, as when he communicated with the interface, something appeared before him. He could not touch something that wasn't in front of him yet that he could see.
A list of what the Biological supercomputer said were superpowers he had unlocked flashed before his eyes. He couldn't believe what he saw.
--
[Powers]
[Biological Super Computer Powers]
-Brain Crystal Manipulation
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- Brain Crystal Power Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the energy attribute points)
-DNA Manipulation
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
-DNA Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity attribute points)
- Analysis
(Gives the host information about his surroundings, plants, creatures, and ores)
-Brain Information Injector
(It allows the injection of information directly to the brain-Based on touch)
-Device Manipulation
(Allows the Host to manipulate electronic and mana-driven devices- Based on touch)
[Host's Powers]
-Rapid Growth [Plants] (FSIGMA1E-Ranked)
(Allows the Host to make Plants Grow Faster)
--
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?"
He said while staring at the strange window appearing in front of him.
quillbot-extension-portal/quillbot-extension-portal
[I remind the Host that this is the available list of powers]
"..."
Erik paused a bit, he wanted to understand better what was happening and had many questions. Based on his interaction with the Biological supercomputer or whatever it was, Erik could safely assume that the system wasn't bad. Having access to the devices was an incredible power, after all. That should have been Device Manipulation.
There was more, though. The list of available powers showed multiple locked ones and two others available besides device manipulation: Analysis and Brain Information Injector. According to the brief explanation, this power would allow him to get information instantly from the Biological supercomputer, but the young man was trying to understand how.
"Hey BSC, can I call you BSC?" Erik asked the computer.
[Host can call the Biological supercomputer however he wants.]
"Good, then can you tell me what analysis and brain information injector do?"
[Yes. The analysis is a function that gives information about the surroundings to the Host. It is activated by looking at things and thanks to a window. The brain information injector works with data; the Host must touch a device, and information stored on the said device will be downloaded into the brain. This will help the user grow his knowledge, and it will help the Biological supercomputer gather information for better functioning. As usual, the powers work by willing them to work.]
Erik read what the BSC said and immediately tried the analysis power as soon as its explanation ended. He looked at his computer and then willed to see the analysis. Immediately, a screen appeared before his eyes. It wasn't really there, but he could see it.
--
- Erik Romano's computer.
- Two years of life.
- Builder: Klinio corp.
- Operating System: Linux 60.0.1
...
...
...
--
A sequence of information was shown about the computer. Some unknown even to the young man. Erik wondered how the BSC could acquire such information, but it was probably something related to mana or electricity.
"Well, I saw how analysis works, but what about the other one? The interface says that I must touch the object I want the information from."
The young man then went to his PC and touched it.
[DEVICE FOUND: ERIK'S PERSONAL COMPUTER. DO YOU WANT TO CONNECT TO IT?]
"Yes," Erik said.
[CONNECTION TO THE DEVICE: ERIK'S PERSONAL COMPUTER, COMPLETE.]
I want to inject information the young man thought. Then a list of multiple books appeared on a window in front of Erik.
--
List of available information:
-COMPUTER CHARACTERISTICS
-COMPUTER ASSEMBLY GUIDE
...
...
...
-HEIRS AND HORSES
-LIONS AND HUNTERS
-STRIFE OF THE NIGHT
-SUCCESS OF THE LAND
-DECAY WITHOUT SIN
-DETERMINATION OF REALITY
--
The last ones were titles of books that Erik had already read and that he had on the device.
"So, I have to choose among these, and then the book's content will be downloaded in my brain?"
All right, inject DECAY WITHOUT SIN the young man willed.
After doing so, he felt an incredible rush of energy flowing through his body and mind; as time passed, he gained actual knowledge! Not just random facts either; he actually learned the book's content. He already knew what the novel talked about. Still, this time he could recall line after line, every description, every character, every paragraph. It was incredible. After the process ended, the young man was ecstatic. For once in his life, he got lucky.
"That will effectively allow me to skip studying for the rest of my life," the young man said, astonished.
pAnD [The Biological supercomputer suggests to the Host to check his daily quests.]
"Daily quests? What do they do?"
[Daily quests allow the Host to unlock features and to gather the required energy to strengthen the DNA or the brain crystal through the two related powers. The Host can choose how to strengthen the DNA through the information screen. To access it, the procedure is always the same.]
The young man then willed to see the information screen, it was simple, and a new interface appeared after a couple of moments.
--
[Host Information]
-Name: Erik Romano
-Age: 16
-Level: 0
-Experience: 0/100
-DNA points: 0
-Health: 89/100
-Mana: 10/10
[Attributes]
-Strength: 3
-Intelligence: 6
-Dexterity: 4
-Energy: 1
[Available Attributes point: 0]
--
"Basically, my physical characteristics are summarized by this screen? My mana is at ten... That's why I have an F-ranked power, I guess."
The young man inspected the screen; he assumed that once the Experience were at one hundred, he would gain points that he could then use to increase his attributes. These were very simple to understand. Strength probably measured physical prowess, intelligence, how fast one could think, and how his or her memory was good. Dexterity was, instead, probably related to how easy it was for the individual to move his body. Erik then asked the BSC for clarification, and it told him the same things, and everything started to make sense.
"Quests," the young man said, and then a screen appeared in front of his eyes.
--
[Quests List]
[Daily]
Eating Habits:
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Eat a healthy meal)
(ACCEPT QUEST) (REFUSE QUEST)
Physical training:
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Train for at least an hour. The Host may choose whatever exercise to complete the quest.)
(ACCEPT QUEST) (REFUSE QUEST)
--
Erik only had time to make one of the two quests and decided to make the first one. He prepared dinner; it wasn't particularly fancy, but it was good. He gained ten experience points, the quest could be made just once a day, but he could gain twenty points a day from the daily quests meaning that he could jump to level one and get the attribute points in five days. As he ended his meal, he saw the Experience increase. What was at the basis of its working was unknown; maybe the BSC transformed the energy he gained into something that it then converted into points.
Erik spent the following hours trying to understand what the BSC really was and how it was related to the sinister cold. Besides telling him it was an AI, the system had no information regarding the strange disease; all it knew came from Erik's knowledge.
As much as the BSC said to him, there was no way for the computer to be removed besides killing him. It also told Erik that, once he died, he would become a BSC himself and that he would then have to find a host and replicate. It looked like this was really a computer meant to enhance individuals but that, as a side goal, the creature, or whatever it was, wanted to replicate as any biological creature.
The young man took his time to process what he had learned that day. The thought of becoming a Biological supercomputer would have scared any other person, but he reasoned that it didn't actually matter since he would be dead. He then went to bed; the following day, he had to go to school and then to work. He couldn't afford to miss either of them, or grave consequences would happen.
Erik woke up early, feeling tired. His eyes were red, he hadn't slept well, and his dreams troubled him. He checked his list of daily quests and saw that the eating habits quest did reset, so he ate something and got ready quickly, completing the quest at the same time.
He put on some clothes and left his room. The young man quickly made the bed and left the house. New Alexandria was a beautiful city, despite awful people living inside of it.
Erik walked down the street until he reached the main square. There was a huge fountain where many citizens gathered at night to socialize. On the other hand, a small park was nearby, full of trees and flowers. People enjoyed their coffee while looking at the sky above them, admiring the stars at night.
In front of the park was a statue of a man holding his head high, he seemed proud and strong. A plaque next to the sculpture explained who he was.
Erik read the inscription carefully. "Solomon Judd, Saviour of humanity." Solomon Judd was the first X-ranked individual on the Ferebitz scale, his full rank has been kept undisclosed, but he was powerful, judging by his achievements.
Up to now, he was considered the strongest man in human history, thanks to his powers, he was able to free the continent on which the seven-nation prospered. The other continent was controlled by the Thaids, and expeditions were made to eliminate them from there.
Richardson joined the team, but unfortunately, the last expedition was unsuccessful. A powerful thaid killed Solomon Judd and all the heroes that went with him. It was then that humanity split into multiple nations.
Another person was sitting on a bench nearby the statue. He wore a long coat over a suit, both black, he and Erik exchanged glances. The older man nodded toward Erik, but nothing else happened. The man recognized the young boy; he usually saw him full of bruises and marks made by his classmates, and Erik usually saw him sitting on that exact bench. But they didn't know each other.
New Alexandria, the city where he lived, was Frant's capital, one of the seven nations. The city bordered the coast and was located northwest of the nation's center. The city was divided into three districts, North, east, and west districts.
Each district had different characteristics depending on the population density. Due to a large number of businesses and buildings, the northern one was mostly populated by adults and business facilities. It was the only industrial zone of the city, and it had factories producing goods for the rest of the nation.
The city's eastern part had more families, children, and old people. It was mostly a residential area with shops scattered here and there. It was the place to be if you wanted to enjoy life; it had plenty of bars and restaurants, clubs, theaters, and cinemas. But it was also the city's poorest area, even though it had a lot of shops and markets.
It wasn't uncommon to see beggars walking around the streets, asking for money. The western part was mainly composed of academic and military facilities. Erik has been going there since his high school was located there.
After fifteen minutes, the young man kept walking down the city streets and arrived at the main train station.
He jumped on the designated train and sat on a seat near the door. As soon as the compartment was being closed, a few kids ran past him. They weren't very polite and almost hit him several times because of their playing.
After ten minutes of traveling, he finally arrived in the western district and then at school. Another nightmarish day was going to start.
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Erik entered the building and started walking down the corridor, heading for the class. Thorton Highschool, where Erik attended, was located in the western district. It had been founded by Max Thorton, a powerful individual in New Alexandria.
Outside the building, countless floating cars were streaming in to leave the kids near the entrance. Thorton highschool was a famous one inside of Frant since powerful individuals from the blackguards came from it. This organization was what kept the thaid out of Mefi Continent, and they also dealt with the various criminal factions all around the word. In fact, the presence of the Brain Crystal Powers made a lot of people turn to crime, many factions were born inside the nations, and it was the blackguard's duty to stop them.
The school was situated in a giant building; the walls were made out of metal that gave it an industrial look while at the same time being quite attractive to the eye due to its shape.
The place had a huge skylight that let natural light into the room, through which students could see what was happening outside without having to open any doors or windows. This way, the air inside remained fresh all year long, with only slight temperature variations between summer and winter.
The building had multiple classes strewn across long corridors that made a giant maze inside the building. A Cafeteria/Restaurant. The cafeteria's kitchen was large enough so that every student would be able to get their food quickly, even during rush hour.
There was also a bar where drinks like coffee and tea were sold along with some snacks such as pastries and sandwiches. The restaurant section served meals from breakfast till dinner. However, there wasn't much variety compared to other New Alexandria restaurants.
Still, the quality of food offered here was more than decent, and most people enjoyed eating in this particular part of the establishment. The library was one of the biggest ones in the city since it contained thousands of books on different topics.
Students who needed help with their studies usually visited it, especially those who couldn't afford tutors or didn't have access to the internet. It was weird in a time and age where technology was so advanced, but still, poor people existed in every age.
Lastly, the gymnasium. It was the most important part of the building since it was there that the kids learned to properly use their Brain Crystal Power.
The facility included a swimming pool, several training rooms for martial arts and gymnastics, as well as two gyms equipped with treadmills and exercise bikes. All these facilities allowed the students to work out whenever they felt like doing so, regardless if it was raining or snowing outside. In addition, the school also provided various sports equipment such as balls and bats, that were free to anyone interested in practicing them.
Basically, all the kids in the city attended it. Every young man and woman had a Brain crystal power, so the classes had to be changed in order to make the young boys and girls learn how to use them properly.
The school taught young individuals how to make connections between the brain and the crystal, and they taught them how to control the power properly to avoid accidental injuries. When one went to the military academy, one had to learn how to use such powers to fight.
This morning, the young man had a class that taught him how to make the brain crystal connections. Erik was usually embarrassed whenever he had to follow the brain-crystal-related classes since he wasn't able to do anything with his. The young man tried to make connections every day, but it was futile as the mana he could control was too low. Luckily, he was pretty good in the other classes since he naturally had a good memory.
The corridors of the high school were filled with students going from classroom to classroom. Most of those who passed by him looked at him weirdly. Some even called out names like "plant hugger" or other similar things. Erik just wanted to get through his day without being noticed. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned as Logan Reid turned the corner and went into Erik's same corridor.
"Ah, plant fucker!" yelled the boy loudly, making everyone around laugh.
Erik blushed furiously. The young man usually ran away from the confrontation, but there was something that day that stopped him from doing so. He was too happy for his new power. He had to keep it hidden, sure, but he still had it nonetheless. So he stood up straight and faced Logan, who laughed at him. "What, you got balls today?"
"You're an idiot," Erik said to the young man. Logan then punched Erik in the face
The young man fell on his backside and rolled onto the floor. Blood trickled down his nose, and his cheek was swollen. A few people gathered near Erik to see what happened. Logan approached him slowly. His friends followed behind him. They were about to pounce on the young man if needed.
Logan pointed at Erik with his finger. "I'll teach you not to talk shit."
Logan started punching Erik in the stomach over and over again until blood spilled out of the young man's mouth. After a while, he felt someone grabbing his arm. He saw two figures approaching him, one tall and the other short. One wore black clothes and the other red; they were Logan's friends.
"You better stop now, Logan..."
"Yeah, look at him. If you do more, the teachers are going to find out."
Both of them pulled Erik up by his arms and dragged him toward the wall. The young man coughed violently after being thrown against it. As he was pinned to the wall, Erik looked at the ground and saw a phone.
[DEVICE FOUND: LOGAN REID'S SMARTPHONE. DO YOU WANT TO CONNECT TO IT?]
Erik stared at the notification; he couldn't believe his eyes, even though he could have predicted a similar situation. That was Logan's phone. Countless thoughts started taking form inside Erik's mind; that was his opportunity.
YES! the young man thought.
[CONNECTION TO THE DEVICE: LOGAN REID'S SMARTPHONE, COMPLETE.]
Logan's phone's main screen appeared in the corner of Erik's vision. The young man smiled.
"What the hell are you smiling at, Freak?" Logan said while giving one last punch to his stomach.
"ACK!" Erik winced in pain. People looked at the scene as if they were watching a comedy show. They laughed and pointed at Erik, showing scorn and disdain toward the young man.
Logan then left the corridor with his friends. Erik took the opportunity to run inside the bathroom, locking himself inside one of its stalls. Once he locked himself in, his body shook uncontrollably. Tears formed in his eyes and he couldn't hold his breath anymore. He began coughing violently, spitting out blood and mucus.
After some minutes, Erik finally calmed enough to stand up and wash off the blood; the truth was that the Biological supercomputer was helping the young man regain his composure.
Only after he cleaned his face and hands he realized how much damage Logan had done. He had a swollen face, and bruises were forming on both sides of his cheeks. His abdomen was in pain, and he knew he wouldn't be able to sit properly anytime soon.
He sighed; this wasn't the first time something like that had happened to him, not that it happened every day, but it still was frequent. This time, though, there was something different. He was connected to Logan's phone and was bound to find something there. The young man smirked because of the opportunity.
Erik went out of the bathroom and walked up the stairs until he reached the third floor. When he opened the classroom door, he saw it was still empty.
As he sat on the chair near the door, he heard someone coming inside. A few seconds later, Mr. O'Leary came into the room carrying a cup of coffee. The old man placed it on the desk next to the blackboard. He then observed Erik and noticed how he was full of injuries.
"What happened to you, young man?" O'Leary asked.
"I tripped."
The teacher didn't reply, he knew that the young man was getting bullied, but he didn't care. Erik wasn't valuable enough to try and stop the situation.
Erik didn't care because he was going to make Logan pay. The young man checked if he was still connected to the bully's phone. He was.
Looks like the connection is on the young man wondered if it would still be on when they went to their respective home, but he didn't need it at the moment. The young man searched through Logan's phone. Initially, he didn't find anything useful, just some stupid text he sent to his friends and conversations about girls, but it was then that he finally found something.
In Logan's gallery, there was a video of a fire. It wasn't a simple fire, but it was placed inside a school bathroom. The fire clearly made the bathroom unusable and there were damages for several new dollars. The school knew it was a student who started the fire they didn't know who to blame for it.
Erik went to properties, then to share, and lastly to all. He controlled Logan's phone through his interface; apparently, the young man couldn't see anything. Erik was still alone inside his classroom, but he would have heard several phones ringing if he was elsewhere. They all received the video, teachers included.
Logan then received a text message:
--
Alex: Bro, what the hell are you doing?
Logan: What do you mean?
Alex: Bro, you just shared the video we did in the bathroom.
Logan: No way, man.
--
Logan went to check, his phone did actually send the video to multiple people. Dread filled the young man, this could be a problem when he went to the military academy.
"What the fuck did just happen?"
quillbot-extension-portal/quillbot-extension-portal
At that exact moment, people started coming inside Erik's class. On his face, a grin was plastered since he heard the students talking about the bathroom fire.
He immediately understood he was successful and got a lot of pleasure from it. His face was so radiant that multiple people noticed the odd behavior, but Erik didn't care. It felt great being able to manipulate someone like that without them even noticing.
"All right, guys," Mr. O'Leary said. "We will spend the next hour trying to establish connections between the brain and the crystal, the neural links. As I already explained to you multiple times, neural links are important to increase ranks. Currently, most of you are at the sigma level on the Idor scale, which classifies the number of neural links you made. From one to three, you are sigma individuals, regardless of the Ferebtiz and the Jorm scale; from four to six, you are rho individuals." Mr. O'leary said while walking around the room. The teacher used a very calm tone as he spoke, ensuring everyone understood him clearly.
"As i explained several times," he said while looking at Erik. "To create a neural link, you have to channel mana through the brain crystal and connect the crystal to the brain. You must open a path between the brain and the crystal and use mana for this purpose. It is natural, this operation, I mean. You should understand what to do once you channel mana through your brain." The teacher looked again at Erik, knowing he was the only one in class still at the SIGMA1 level while most of his classmates were at the SIGMA3 or the RHO1.
"I can't stress enough how important the neural links are. They allow you to control your Brain's Crystal Power more easily and generally represent your individual power. Yeah, you also have to consider the Ferebitz and the Jorm scale to fully understand how good your power is. Still, everything starts from how you can use your power, not on how much mana it can harness or how useful it is. Lastly, the more neural links between the brain and the crystal, the greater the amount of mana that can flow through your body. This makes you mutate; your DNA gets empowered, making you faster and stronger."
The teacher looked at the students with a serious look. He believed in what he was saying.
"Now, let's channel mana again, all right?" Mr. O'Leary asked.
Everyone nodded and began using their brain crystals to create a new neural link. The task was not as simple as the teacher made it seem, and it took months for the students to reach the level they were. Making brain crystals was natural, yet insanely hard.
This spoke volumes about individuals at the ALPHA level if they existed. Many said that not even Solomon Judd could get to the ALPHA level, which was why he perished during the expeditions to the other continent.
Erik focused on the task at hand; this was one of the few things he was desperately trying to accomplish. He wanted to become stronger, to get out of his insufferable life. Even though he knew it would never happen, he kept believing there was a way to escape.
A chance to leave everything behind and live without concerns, but that was only possible through having more neural links. That daydream always gave him hope when reality became too harsh.
He concentrated harder than ever before, focusing on the task at hand. He tried to channel mana through his brain crystal. Still, suddenly he couldn't feel the sensation of mana flowing through his body anymore. This was a usual occurrence. He couldn't go past this level because every time he used mana to make a neural link, he lost connection to the ethereal substance without reason.
However, something different happened this time.
[WARNING: A DEFORMITY OF THE BRAIN CRYSTAL HAS BEEN FOUND. USAGE OF MANA IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED]
WHAT?! Erik was almost shouting.
[WARNING: A DEFORMITY OF THE BRAIN CRYSTAL HAS BEEN FOUND. USAGE OF MANA IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED]
YOU ALREADY SAID THAT, PLEASE CLARIFY THE SITUATION!
[THE HOST HAS A SLIGHTLY DEFORMED BRAIN CRYSTAL, THIS DEFORMITY STOPS MANA FROM FLOWING CORRECTLY. THE HOST IS ENCOURAGED TO TAKE ACTION TO REMOVE THE PROBLEM]
Stops mana from flowing correctly? realization downed on the young man. Was it possible that all his problems increasing in ranks were due to this deformity? What if he was only F-ranked because of this? What if he could control more mana?
The problem is that my power is still useless... Though If what the system says is true, I have hope... System, you said there is a solution. Do you mind clarifying?
[YES. THE BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER CAN MODIFY THE DNA AND THE BRAIN CRYSTAL. THE FUNCTION IS, THOUGH, LOCKED, BUT THE HOST CAN TEMPORARILY USE THE POWER BY CONSUMING DNA POINTS]
A spark of hope ignited in the young man, not only because of the possibility of solving his deformity problem but also because of what the BSC said: the power to modify the DNA and the brain crystal. Erik wasn't sure what this would mean or imply. Still, he couldn't stop thinking about it.
You still haven't explained what the DNA points are, Joachim inquired.
[ANSWER: DNA POINTS REPRESENT THE ACCUMULATION OF GENETIC MATERIALS. IT IS REQUIRED TO USE THE POWER OF THE BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER; ENERGY DOESN'T COME FREE AFTER ALL]
Erik was perfectly aware he could get DNA points from quests, but he wondered if he could do the same in another way.
Are the DNA points acquirable only through quests?
[ANSWER: DNA POINTS CAN BE ACQUIRED BY ABSORBING HIGH QUANTITIES OF MANA. THE SYSTEM SUGGESTS DOING SO BY CONSUMING THAID FLESH.]
pAnD Thaid flesh? Is it edible?
[ANSWER: YES]
What do I have to do to use the power?
[ANSWER: THE HOST NEEDS TO COLLECT A HUNDRED DNA POINTS TO USE THE POWER AND REMOVE THE DEFORMITY. THE SYSTEM WILL DO THE REST]
Luckily, I already have twenty DNA points... the young man thought.
After an hour of class, in which the young man didn't even try to make another neural link, the lesson finally ended. Then the other classes followed suit; math, geography, history, and the like were the subjects taught. Then lunch break began. The students had it at the cafeteria.
Erik, as usual, sat alone in the corner of the room, but this time, he was as happy as ever. Not only because of what the biological supercomputer said to him about his deformity but also because of Logan.
In fact, he heard that he was summoned to the principal's office, where he talked to him for at least an hour; no one knew the content of the conversation. Still, he imagined it didn't go well since Logan and his friends had dark looks on their faces.
Lunch break passed by quickly; soon enough, the last bell rang, announcing the end of the day. The students hurried out of their classrooms, heading towards the exit. They gathered near the door, waiting for someone to open it. While they waited, some students started talking among themselves. Erik was listening with great interest to the conversations going around.
They talked about Logan. Clearly, Erik was perfectly aware what he was doing wasn't good, but he couldn't stop feeling good for what he did. Did he possibly ruin Logan's and his friends' lives? Maybe, or not. He hoped he did.
The young man hurriedly went out of the building. Usually, people his age remained at the gym to train their bodies and brain crystal powers, but Erik could do nothing in such places. So, he was headed toward Mr. Fox's farm, and then, he planned to train at home and make the second daily quest. He could have trained more efficiently at school.
Still, he didn't want to garner more attention than he already did by having an F-ranked power on the Ferebitz scale. He wanted to risk bullying, beatings, and swearings, so he simply decided to go to his workplace, where he could use his power and complete the quest. If everything goes well, In four days, he will be able to level up and cure the deficit in his brain crystal.
The young man had to go to the northern district to reach the place. As usual, he had to take the train to get there, so he started walking.
The city was as lively as ever; the streets were full of flying cars, trucks, motorcycles, and pedestrians walking down the busy streets free from vehicles traveling into the air. The young man walked along the sidewalk, looking at all the shops.
Most of the buildings looked new and had a militaristic style. Erik cringed at this stupid nation's taste for esthetics, but that was the last of the problems that the higher-ups there really had. As he walked, he saw people going in the same direction, the young man was still injured, and people looked at him from time to time, but no one stopped to ask if he was okay. No doubt, everyone here was used to seeing people like him.
As he got closer to the train station, the city became dirtier. More homeless, beggars, and drug addicts appeared. There was a large area covered in trash and garbage. People who lived nearby were cleaning the mess.
Soon after, Erik reached the train station; it was huge compared to others in the country. He bought two tickets to the north part of town, as he did every day, and then entered the train and sat. Soon he arrived at the destination, the farm.
It was surrounded by fences made of steel bars, the gates were locked tight, and the young man approached them cautiously. He put his hand inside the pocket of his hoodie, took out his keychain, and inserted the key to unlock the gate. After opening it, he entered the premises.
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The area was massive. Besides the large house standing in the middle of the property, there were also several enclosures with animals inside. Dogs were guarding sheep, ducks, and chickens against wild animals. Erik had always thought that it was useless to have dogs since, thanks to the thaids, there weren't wild animals on the continent, but Mister Fox insisted on having them.
Still, the mutated animals attacked the city there and then, making it essential for every farmer to have at least some self-defense means. Not that dogs could do anything, but they were good at alerting people of thaids presence.
Beside the house was also a large barn where Mister Fox and his wife stored their equipment and animals, along with several sheds containing various tools. In one corner stood an old building that served as both a garage and workshop. A few meters from this structure stood a small wooden cabin used only during summer months by Mr. Fox.
He walked towards the main house, hoping to find someone home.
"Hello?" Erik called out loudly. No answer came back. "It's me." Still no reply.
But when he got close enough to see through the window, all he could make out was darkness, as if nobody was around. With a sigh, he turned back and headed towards the shed. Inside lay some tools on shelves; next to them were boxes full of spare parts and other materials needed to repair machines and vehicles. There was also a workbench covered with saws and drills, but right now, it had been left unattended.
As Erik stepped into the shed, he heard something moving nearby. He turned to look and saw Mister Fox looking at him with an annoyed look.
"Ah, you finally arrived," Mister Fox said to the young man while holding up a torch in his hand.
He must have just come inside himself because his clothes still smelled like oil and grease. It didn't take long before Erik spotted what looked to be a mechanical arm attached to his body. Mister Fox lost his arm to a thaid during his military years.
Still, he was forced to serve for the entire ten years that the law required him, technology substituted whatever appendage you could lose, so there weren't excuses. That arm was indeed a piece of technology, and Erik often wondered how it worked. On top of Mister Fox's head sat two goggles fixed onto a helmet covering his face. When he spoke, the words seemed to echo slightly within the confines of the room.
"Yes, I'm here, Mister Fox," Erik said.
"Good, now put on the working attire and start using that power of yours; the plants aren't going to grow overnight unless you do your job." He ordered.
With those last words spoken, Mister Fox left without saying another word. Erik sighed again.
After leaving the house, Erik went straight toward the barn to change. It took him quite a bit of time to get everything prepared. First off, he changed into the uniform provided by the farm: trousers made of thick fabric and a shirt similar to a lab coat. The sleeves were rolled up twice and tied together with a leather string. Next, he removed the shoes he had worn earlier and placed them aside. After that, he grabbed a pair of rubber boots.
The young man then left the barn and went to the back of the property, where a huge field could be seen; it was here that he was going to work.
He had a section of ungrown plants to use his power on. After he was done and could leave the farm, he had to wait for Mister Fox to get all the fruits, plants, and vegetables so that the process could be repeated. Having Erik grow the crops in a matter of minutes was very remunerative because the old man could harvest the goods and sell them the same day the young man finished. Erik didn't get much by it, but he was, in a sense, lucky because other people refused to give him work; they all treated him with contempt because of his weak ass power.
The problem was that one's brain crystal power was strictly related to one's physical prowess because the greater the neural links and the ranks on the ferebitz scale were, the higher the strength of the individual, in purely physical terms, was.
This meant that there was no reason for people to employ him since there were other guys who could do a better job since they were stronger, and the young man was too young and had insufficient knowledge to work inside an office.
Erik approached the chunk of plants he still didn't use his power on. He leaned on the ground and reached out to touch the soil.
When he did, a sensation of electricity spread throughout his entire being, causing the hairs on the nape of his neck to stand up. He felt lightheaded and dizzy. Then suddenly, a strange feeling emerged, which was hard to describe. Still, he knew what it was, a sort of pressure as if his body was filled with energy and he was ready to explode.
Soon he couldn't hold it anymore and pushed it toward the ground, releasing the energy from his hands. A wave of heat hit him at once, and the air around him became hot and humid, the smell of freshly grown vegetation filling his nostrils. In seconds the plant had sprouted new leaves and started growing quickly.
This was only the beginning; Erik used his power more aggressively, and soon, the whole area was covered in green grasses and bushes. The crops increased, and vegetables started coming from the bare earth. Soon enough, he stopped when he noticed that his temperature had risen even further than usual, sweat trickling down his forehead. His breath came heavily through his mouth. He felt exhausted yet invigorated simultaneously, and the rush of adrenaline flowing through his veins stopped.
A second later, the power dissipated, and he collapsed to the floor.
"Are you alright?" asked Mister Fox. "You look really pale..."
Erik opened his eyes slowly and tried not to move.
"...and sweaty!" added the farmer.
The boy looked confused for a moment until he remembered what had happened just moments ago...he had released an enormous amount of energy. And now he was lying on the floor like a dead fish.
Mister Fox stood beside him, holding a glass of water. Erik drank it all and lay down on the grass.
"Yes, Mister Fox. I think i'm done with today's job..."
"Good."
Mister Fox wasn't totally bad toward Erik. He knew the young man had a hard life and tried to not exploit him too much due to his conscience.
Still, it wasn't like he didn't take advantage of him. The fact that he could earn a lot of money from his power while Erik only got the crumbs spoke volumes about the person.
pAn,D a-n0ve1,c-o-m Still, they treated him like a human being, at least, something that other people didn't. That's why he liked working here, despite the situation.
As he lay on the grass, countless thoughts flashed inside the young man's head. What would happen once he got rid of his brain crystal deformity? What would the future hold for him in general? The Biological supercomputer was an opportunity or a sentence?
Would he become some kind of freak show, a monster among humans? Or maybe he'd be a hero, a savior of humanity?!
No matter what he thought about the subject, his mind kept drifting into the past, remembering the first time his power got measured. He was four years old then.
His father took him to the laboratory, where a scientist named Doctor Zoltan performed several tests on him. In the end, he gave his son the results. His father read the numbers again and again until they finally sank in.
It was true, his powers were lower compared to those of others, and his son was only ranked F. It didn't mean anything to Erik at that time, obviously. Still, for his father, it was a sentence to live a miserable life.
Erik wondered if it was this that pushed Lucius to search for the cause of the sinister cold. If he was successful, Erik didn't know; what he knew, though, was that he brought home something interesting.
The Biological supercomputer had a brain and DNA editing power; its implications were unknown, but Erik fantasized about it. What if he could change his power? Make it better, stronger, faster, and whatever. The mere thought of this made him tremble in excitement.
He sat up and walked over to the crop field, looking at the beautiful sight of nature. After all, there weren't many places left on earth that hadn't been polluted by mankind.
Even so, nature was always trying to return to its former glory, and Erik admired her resilience. He watched the sun shining above him and closed his eyes.
"Hey, kid," said Mister Fox after a few minutes. "I need you to harvest the carrots before dark, okay?"
"Sure thing, Mister Fox."
After he finished harvesting the last carrot, Erik went to the shed to get changed and head back home. As he did, he heard voices behind him.
Two men entered the shed, one tall and skinny, the other short and fat. They wore leather jackets, and their faces were hidden under masks.
They didn't have weapons but probably had deadly BCPs (brain crystal powers). On their jacket, there was a pin sporting a cross. They were members of the Crystal Cross gang, a powerful criminal organization with several branches throughout Frant.
One of them pointed at the young man and yelled:
"Where is your employer?!"
Erik recognized them. "Mister Fox went to his house to change," Erik said, trembling. These men were not to trifle with.
The man stepped closer to Erik and raised his hand to grab the kid, who flinched away from his touch.
"Tell him to come to pay his due. Fast."
Erik then ran out of the barn and went to warn Mister Fox that members of the Crystal Cross gang came to extort his money as they did every month. The old man came out running and paid the money to them. Ten thousand new dollars, to be precise.
When the men went away, Mister Fox spoke. "Damn, Blackguards, shouldn't they stop this shit from happening?"
The man then paid Erik twenty new dollars, and the kid then left the place in a hurry.
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Erik left the area as soon as possible. It wasn't the first time members of the crystal cross gang had come to Mister Fox's farm to extort his money. Still, the young man wanted to stay as far as possible from them, especially from Mister Fox when they came since he usually took it out on him.
The young man ran toward the train station that was only ten or so minutes away by foot; there were no other means of transportation available since he didn't have money and could only take the train.
Erik walked down the street, arriving at the city, the farm was not close to it after all, and then he went toward the station. Around him, countless flying cars flew around, each one carrying someone inside, while others stood still, waiting their turn at some stopping point. The young man watched them with awe, thinking about how amazing it would be to have one of such cars. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough money to afford such a vehicle.
He then arrived in front of some staircases on the side of the road. They had plastic and transparent protection that shielded people from the rain and allowed people to see the road below. The stairs led to a building and then to an elevator. The young man took it, and after more or less twenty floors, he finally arrived at the station.
The place was massive; it had multiple shops inside the building selling various goods like clothes, food, books, electronics, and weapons. Everything one could think of, really. However, Erik just looked at the window displays, unable to spend his money on anything. Multiple floating tracks were going out of the building and toward every direction, north, south, west, east, the sea, and the mountain.
The young man searched for the right track to return to his home in the eastern district. After searching for some time, he saw trains coming to the station through the openings on the side of the building. The trains were approaching a platform full of passengers surrounded by a barrier that stopped people from falling. He waited until it arrived and had to wait for people to get off the train before he could enter and sit near the door. The train at this hour was really crowded since many people were returning home, but he luckily found a seat.
When the train departed, Erik began looking outside, admiring the scenery passing by, the buildings, the mountains, and the ocean in the far distance on two opposite sides. All these things amazed him, making him happy even though he never left the safety of the city. Yes, he went to the farm, but the place was still on the premises of the city's barrier, which protected from thaids attacks.
Luckily, on his continent, there weren't many thaids, and the ones present were not that strong. Also, they were killed relatively fast once seen by the blackguards or the militaries, so even if some managed to enter the city, it was relatively hard to see them.
So, Erik looked at the mountain, at the sea as if they were not even real. He never went there and now was starting to hope that, one day, he would be strong enough to fend off all the thaids living there so that he could see these two mythical places.
After what seemed like forever, the train reached its destination: the east district. The difference between the east and the north, where the farm was locate was that the latter was much bigger than the former; several streets lined up together, forming long lines of shops, small businesses, and factories.
It was dark already, the sun setting over the horizon leaving behind the orange color of the sky. It was a beautiful sight to watch, but the young man couldn't appreciate it because he knew that tomorrow would start another scary day.
As the train entered the eastern station, Erik got out of it. As usual, he went straight towards his house, but he had to walk through the usual streets where everyone knew him. The look of the people watching him with scorn didn't make him feel well, but he didn't let this stop him. He finally had an opportunity to make things better. He only had to make two daily quests a day, and he would be able, in five days, to acquire enough DNA points to briefly unlock the power that would allow the supercomputer to fix his brain crystal. This way, he would finally be able to improve his rank by making more neural links, which would allow him to become stronger, faster, and more powerful. It would stop people from harassing him; maybe they would even respect him. But first things first, he had to complete his quest.
Erik looked at his surroundings while walking down the street. He arrived at a park that wasn't too big, and as he passed by, he admired the birds chirping over the trees. He then looked at a bench and saw a woman sitting. She wore a white dress that contrasted with her dark skin; she was wearing a pair of open shoes and a necklace made of beads. Her head was covered by a shawl, revealing only her face.
On the other side, two men were walking down the street talking about something. They were both tall and muscular, their hair cut short, blue eyes, and pale faces. One of them held his phone in his hands, while the second had a water bottle. Both of them wore heavy clothes, probably due to the cold weather. As Erik observed the people, he started wondering if there were many people in the same situation he was in. With a weak power that made them subject to discrimination. Though, albeit possible there weren't many people who suffered like him since most people had an E-ranked power, and being F-ranked was rare.
The young man went past the park, and after walking down a bit, he finally arrived home. The building was not in good condition, the paint was peeling off, and there were multiple cracks in the wall. But despite that, Erik liked the place.
He walked into the entrance hall, then went upstairs, taking the stairs slowly, trying not to disturb anyone. When he got to the third floor, he opened his apartment door and entered. He closed the door behind himself and leaned against it, sighing heavily. His mind wandered away from reality for a moment, thinking about how great it would be to have a normal life without worrying about his survival and the bullying. Then he remembered what he had to do, the daily quest.
"Show quests," Erik said as soon as he was sure of being alone.
--
[Quests List]
[Daily]
Eating Habits: COMPLETE
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Eat a healthy meal)
Physical training: ACCEPTED
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Train for at least an hour. The Host may choose whatever exercise to complete the quest.)
--
Erik looked at the screen in front of his eyes and immediately realized there was a problem; he had never trained and didn't know what to do.
I should look at some exercise on the internet, the young man thought.
He then looked at the computer; he had turned it off the night before to save money, so he turned it back on.
[CONNECTION TO THE DEVICE: ERIK'S PERSONAL COMPUTER, COMPLETE.]
The connection to the device was automatic, then his desktop appeared in his vision, and he willed the computer to go on the browser and search for training information. He searched for videos and books, and by using some totally legal means, he downloaded them all.
I want to inject information the young man thought after he had everything ready. Still, he willed to get only the information about the training. Then a list of multiple things appeared on a window in front of him.
--
List of available information:
- How to build massive biceps: explanation of the optimal workout
-Eight Best Shoulder Exercises for Boulder Shoulders
...
...
...
-Nine Exercises To Build A Big Back
-Human Anatomy
-Old School leg training
...
...
--
These were all videos and books Erik had downloaded, he had already seen them, but he wanted to be sure he remembered them before starting to train.
Inject all the books the young man willed.
Again, he experienced a tremendous surge of energy rushing through his body and mind and absorbed the information immediately; he could recall the videos as if he were watching them. Recall the human anatomy book lines as if he was reading them.
After absorbing the knowledge, Erik felt dizzy and fell onto his sofa. It took him several minutes until he regained control over his senses again. After checking everything twice, he sat up and read the texts he had just received.
[DOWNLOAD OF THE INFORMATION COMPLETE.]
What do I do now?
The young man thought about the exercise to complete the quest and started with simple pushups, squats, sit-ups, Reverse lunges, Squats and presses, Planks, and others. He pushed, jumped, stretched, and after an hour, he was done. The problem was that if he wanted to train properly, Erik had to go to the school gym since he couldn't afford to buy the equipment. The problem was, would people leave him to train in peace? He wasn't sure about that.
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--
[Quests List]
[Daily]
Eating Habits: COMPLETE
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Eat a healthy meal)
Physical training: COMPLETE
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Train for at least an hour. The Host may choose whatever exercise to complete the quest.)
--
I finished the second daily quest, Erik thought with satisfaction. Then curiosity arose, "Status," he said, and a screen appeared in front of his eyes. Was it a mirage? A projection? An illusion?
--
[Host Information]
-Name: Erik Romano
-Age: 16
-Level: 0
-Experience: 30/100
-DNA points: 30
-Health: 100/100
-Mana: 10/10
[Attributes]
-Strength: 3
-Intelligence: 6
-Dexterity: 4
-Energy: 1
[Available Attributes point: 0]
--
He was satisfied with his training. He had thirty DNA points, only seventy missing to reach his goal. Then the future would be unknown. If now he knew that he was destined to suffer because of his unfortunate power, with the system, everything would be different. There was hope.
Erik was not athletic; he had no visible abs and was a bit chubby. He wasn't strong since his brain crystal power was the worst in terms of mana efficiency, but he was relatively good-looking. He had brown eyes and raven black hair that gave the kid a mysterious look. Too bad he was shunned by society or he would have had a lot of success with women.
Sweat trickled from the young man's forehead when he ended the exercises. He had to take it slow because he would risk a muscle contracture at best if he rushed things. He sat on one end of his old sofa while resting his back against another armrest.
He was sweaty, and the sensation of his wet skin on the dry couch wasn't the best. He was tired and wanted to rest a little before taking a shower, having dinner, and going to bed.
The room looked like something out of an antique store: sofas with wooden frames covered in floral patterns and tables made entirely of wood. The furniture was old and probably second or third-hand; he couldn't afford a new one.
A single window stood open behind him, allowing moonlight and fresh air into the living space. It also let Erik hear bugs outside—a rare thing those days, thanks to pollution.
There weren't many trees left either because he lived in the city. His apartment building itself was quite large compared to most others around it, which meant more people could live there. But since the building was not in its best shape, there weren't many people living in it, and it didn't feel too overcrowded. Though, since the place was not in the rich part of the city, there were many people roaming the street at night, and Erik didn't feel very safe coming home late at night.
When Erik was about to go wash, his smartphone started ringing. It was an old device given to him by his parents. He hadn't upgraded his phones recently because they still worked perfectly fine, and he didn't have money, but it was worn out.
The screen was broken due to all the beatings the young man did take, but luckily, there weren't any problems. Erik picked up the phone and looked at the caller; it was Benjamin Kaminski. He was his father's oldest and best of friends.
The man took care of him in his father's absence, helping him through difficult times. Whenever he didn't have money to buy food, he gave him; whenever Erik needed something at school, he bought it. If there was a parent-teacher meeting, it was he who went.
He was the father Erik never had, but he too couldn't be there whenever he needed something; he was a busy man as a military sergeant. So instead, he helped where he could.
"Uncle Benjamin!" Erik replied cheerfully.
Benjamin chuckled, "You're always happy." The young man tried not to be a burden to this person, so he didn't report the bullying he was subject to.
The older man continued, "I'm doing great, by the way. How about yourself?"
Erik sighed deeply, but he tried to not make Benjamin hear it. He then put on the biggest smile he could and said, "Yeah, things are going well," It was not true, obviously.
His uncle paused for a moment, he was probably aware of what happened to the young man, but if he didn't say anything, he didn't want to insist. After some time spent thinking, he spoke again, "is there something I can do to help you?"
That question was hard to answer, honestly. No matter how much he told Ben that he was okay, Erik wished someone would come along and save him from the hell he endured every day. But saying that aloud wouldn't change anything, so he kept quiet about it.
"I don't need anything. Thank you, uncle Benjamin," the young man said.
After a few moments of silence, Benjamin said, "I was thinking of paying you a visit."
"What? When?" Erik exclaimed. This was unexpected. Not only was he surprised, but he was also thrilled as well. Uncle Benjamin rarely visited him anymore, maybe once a month or less. Now that he mentioned it, it had been over three months since the last time.
"Is tomorrow good for you?"
It was perfect. Tomorrow would be Sunday, which meant no classes.
"Tomorrow is great!"
There was a short pause between them until Ben finally broke it.
"So why don't we meet up at noon? I'll bring you to a fancy restaurant," Benjamin said.
"Yeah, that would be great!" Erik replied.
"Good," Benjamin said.
The two talked a little bit more and ended their conversation after a while. Erik sat back on his couch, smiling happily while rubbing his hands together. Tomorrow he'd get to eat lunch somewhere nice with his favorite relative. For a kid like him, that was priceless.
The young man then stood from the couch and went to the bathroom; he had to take a shower. As usual, he changed clothes quickly when he got out before heading towards the kitchen. He grabbed his bowl filled with rice, chicken soup, and salad and ate dinner.
The following day was bound to be a good day, and his mood was good. It was something rare for him, well, he was happy when Benjamin came to visit him, but this time it was also thanks to the Biological supercomputer and the possibilities that it opened for him.
After dinner, the young man went to bed and drifted into Morpheus's embrace a little while later.
-Inside another building.-
"How could you do that?" Logan's mother said. She was angry, really furious.
Logan stayed silent; he wasn't sure what else he should say. His mind was blank. He didn't know whether he wanted to cry or scream. He felt helpless and scared.
Logan's father remained silent.
She continued yelling at him, screaming. Her voice echoed throughout the room, shaking walls and rattling windows. At least she stopped beating him, although the bruises were already forming over his skin. That woman was crazy.
Maybe this was why Erik was bullied so much by the young boy.
"I swear, mom, I didn't do it on purpose!" Logan replied.
"It doesn't matter, you all damaged the school, and now we have to pay back the damages," his mother screamed.
"Mom..."
"No, shut up!" She yelled.
He knew that one word was enough to trigger his mother. He decided to keep quiet instead. If he talked, it might end badly. So he did just that; he closed his mouth and waited patiently for her to calm herself.
As the seconds ticked away, Logan started wondering where his friends were.
Eventually, the screams subsided, and his mother calmed down. "I forbid you to see Orson and Conal," his mother said.
"WHAT?! MOM, PLEASE!"
"NO! Logan, can you understand how grave the situation you put us in is? Besides, you probably ruined your future because of what you did. What if you won't get job opportunities after the military years because of this stupid thing you did?"
"Then I will simply stay in the militaries!" Logan replied.
"And fight the thaids?!" His mother replied.
"Why not? Isn't this our duty as citizens of Frant?"
Logan's mother looked at her son with incredulity. "Do you even hear yourself when you speak?"
"Yes, yes, of course, I am aware of my stupidity," Logan replied sarcastically.
His mother gave him an exasperated look.
"Look, I'm sorry," Logan apologized. "But please let me hang out with my friends again, they're the best people ever, and without them, life sucks."
"They are troublemakers," his mother said.
It was then that his father spoke. "Look, dear, stopping him from hanging out with his friends look a little too much?"
"Are you on his side now?" she asked.
"I'm not, honey." Logan's dad said to his wife.
Logan knew he had done something bad, but he couldn't stop wondering if what they were doing was too much.
"We are only concerned about you, sweety," his mother said.
Their only concern was Logan; it was true. Albeit, they showed it in a strange and twisted way. And that concerned them both equally.
"You need to learn some discipline, Logan," his mother added. Discipline. Wasn't he disciplined enough for his parents' liking?
"Now, go to your room," his mother said. He did as she said, but there was no way Logan could fall asleep that night. He lay awake staring at the ceiling for many hours. Did he really ruin his future? That question hunted the young man. Eventually, exhaustion took over, and he fell asleep, not knowing that Conal and Orson were in the same situation.
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The following day Erik woke up refreshed. The young man was in a good mood first of all because at noon, he would be having lunch with Benjamin, who he called uncle.
The young man was very grateful to him since he was the one who took care of him when his father left home. He also knew that it wasn't easy for Benjamin to take on someone else's child as if they were their own.
A person willing to open himself up to another so completely expecting nothing in return wasn't common anymore in this age and society.
Even now that his father had gone missing for more than two years, Benjamin was still taking such great care of him! It made Erik feel warm inside just thinking about how kind this person was.
Erik's biological supercomputer system, which he was convinced would ultimately turn his life around, was the second factor contributing to his optimistic mood.
"Quests," the young man said, willing for the screen to appear. Immediately, a blue and white semitransparent window appeared in the corner of his field of view.
--
[Quests List]
[Daily]
Eating Habits:
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Eat a healthy meal)
(ACCEPT QUEST) (REFUSE QUEST)
Physical training:
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Train for at least an hour. The Host may choose whatever exercise to complete the quest.)
(ACCEPT QUEST) (REFUSE QUEST)
--
The young man looked at the screen as if it was an illusion, which it actually was in a certain sense. He accepted both quests and then started the day by having breakfast to have the required energy to do his workout.
He went to the kitchen and prepared some fruit juice before eating a bowl of oatmeal. Then he headed out into the living room, where he sat down to eat.
While doing so, he watched television while listening intently to what was being discussed on TV news shows.
The news discussed the war between his nation, Frant and Hin. Apparently, the two armies resumed their skirmishes on Hinian shores again.
On top of that, rumors had begun circulating among the public that the conflict might worsen from there on. The war, these days, was not as in ancient times, where ships, tanks, and fighter planes sent missiles; the war was fought by people.
There were two reasons for this. First of all, practically every city had barriers encircling it; some of these barriers resulted from military technology, whose main purpose was to keep thaids out of the cities.
The wild was, in fact, full of those creatures, and there were many species belonging to this supergroup called thaid. It was impossible to kill them all. The barriers also worked against missiles and the like, making them useless.
Some other barriers were the result of brain crystal powers. First, nuclear bombs couldn't be used because powerful individuals could stop them and redirect them back toward the sender.
Still, the second reason was that the only continent humans lived in was precious. Hence, a nuclear catastrophe was a big nono for any sane human being.
Humans still unleashed hell with devastating brain crystal powers, but at least it didn't have environmental side effects.
The second reason for discarding such weapons was that such technology became useless since the brain crystal powers appeared.
After all, many people could send devastating attacks capable of destroying buildings thanks to their crystal power, making the production of such weapons obsolete.
Still, transportation means were present, and technology developed in a direction where maneuverability and speed were the main focus.
The battle between Hin and Frant was, at the moment, fought on the Hinian shores. Frant was the attacking nation; it was trying to conquer Hin, situated on a stretch of land on the thaid-infested continent, Mur continent.
The problem was that Hin forces were powerful since they were used to fight the thaids that threatened their borders.
Even with the incredible troops that Frant used, they could only arrive on the shores, and arriving there wasn't simple since there were multiple and terrifying sea thaids.
Still, crossing over to the other country's territory was relatively easy once you got close enough to the shore. It was there that the problems arose since the Hinians' defense lines were strong. So although Frant tried its best to invade Hin, the latter simply did nothing more than defend itself.
It was like playing chess while you kept moving pieces around the board endlessly without ever capturing or taking control of one square. In short, it was frustrating for Frant.
The young man finished eating and went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. After that, he waited an hour, during which he kept reading and listening to news about the war.
The young man was happy when Frant lost battles. He hated his nation, and there wasn't anything more that he wanted to see than looking at this rotten place burn.
After an hour passed, the young man started his training routine. He did the same exercise he did the previous day, pushups, squats, sit-ups, reverse lunges, squats and presses, planks, and others.
The training was simple but effective because he had never trained before the previous day. The young man ended up being tired after finishing his workout. And took a shower soon after.
"Quests."
--
[Quests List]
[Daily]
Eating Habits: COMPLETE
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
pAnD -Failure Penalty: None
(Eat a healthy meal)
Physical training: COMPLETE
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Train for at least an hour. The Host may choose whatever exercise to complete the quest.)
--
Erik acquired another twenty experience points and twenty DNA points, bringing him to fifty of both. To temporarily unlock the system feature that would enable him to modify the brain crystal and treat his deformity, if that was the proper way to put it, he simply needed fifty more DNA points.
After that, it was a jump into the unknown. If Erik's hunch was right, he could make neural links, increasing his rank and becoming stronger.
His power was useless, but at least he would never starve, thanks to it.
The young man thought about starting a farm, as Mister Fox did. Still, it wasn't easy to get permission, mainly because, to do so, one had to become affiliated with the Stone family, which was the most prominent food producer inside the city.
Doing so wasn't simple; the family itself didn't move for a small business like the one Erik would eventually make.
They were prideful people, in addition to being filthy rich. A single mistake could ruin him, shattering his recently acquired slim hopes of a better life.
There were many rumors about them making entire families lose their assets and putting them into debt, something he couldn't afford.
He could barely afford to live, thanks to the fact that he was the owner of the house and to the small amount of money he got working for Mister Fox, after all.
Erik then changed into more fitting clothes, jeans, and a shirt. It wasn't very elegant, but it was everything the young man had.
After waiting a couple of hours, Erik left his house and walked through the streets until he reached where Benjamin was supposed to pick him up.
The sun was high in the sky, shining its light upon the buildings lining the road.
Erik always felt the urge to go back home and hide from the people. His neighbors knew who he was, so they all looked at him while he walked, looking at him as if he was a cockroach or some other bug.
Some even spat on the ground when he walked near him. But Erik kept walking, ignoring them.
As he went, he saw multiple people walking, some peculiar ones among them too. One elderly woman was walking around with a big bag of trash.
A different girl was racing across the street while sporting a hoodie and shorts, and a man in complete black then appeared from a corner, walking down the street headed who knew where.
He wore no shoes, and his feet were dirty. Something told Erik that he lived somewhere around here, inside some thrash can.
He was probably someone with a weak power that even the military deemed as useless.
In either case, the sight made Erik uncomfortable as that could be Erik's fate too. He hated seeing those poor souls.
When he finally arrived at the meeting place, the young man waited for Benjamin's flying car to arrive. When he spotted it coming toward him, he stood straight and observed. "Hey!"
Benjamin landed the vehicle smoothly and came closer.
Benjamin lowered the window, wearing a fancy suit today instead of his usual casual wear. He was tall, with a thin build, despite being in the army.
He had dark skin and was in his mid-thirties. His hairs were black, long, and tied in a ponytail. He was wearing a pair of sunglasses, and when he saw Erik, he lowered them to say hi. He then smiled at Erik.
"You look nice," the young man said to his father's friend.
Benjamin smiled broadly. "Thank you," he said.
Erik then jumped into the vehicle, and then the sergeant sped toward the restaurant.
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The view of the city from that height was majestic. The sun had risen in full force, and as it rose above the horizon, its rays cast a golden glow over the buildings below them. They glowed like so many fireflies on display for all to see.
He could hear birds singing their songs far overhead somewhere among the skyscrapers—a beautiful symphony echoing off the surrounding concrete walls around him.
It reminded Erik very much of his first time flying with his father years ago: how he'd felt when he took him up into this same sky, high above everything else.
He was younger then and free of any worry. Now he knew better than anyone what kind of world lay beyond these skies.
A dark place where nothing lived but monsters lurking, and he wasn't talking about the thaids. Something about being at such an altitude made him feel safe somehow.
As though reaching such heights meant he could escape those who persecuted him.
Countless skyscrapers surrounded him now, each one standing taller than the last. They were arranged in neat rows along both sides of the streets below, some rising higher still, while others seemed more run-down or dilapidated.
Each building had multiple shop signs advertising this or that product. Food stands selling hot dogs, coffee shops offering lattes, fast food restaurants advertising hamburgers, pizza joints serving pasta dishes... All of which looked delicious enough to make Erik start salivating.
He saw people moving between the various structures below as they flew past. Some went inside, and most simply walked right across their front doors.
Others stood outside, smoking cigarettes or chewing gum. Their faces wore expressions ranging from boredom to anger or sadness as they moved back and forth under the watchful eye of security cameras positioned at every corner.
They looked like tiny working ants scurrying through a maze beneath giant feet. Some of them seemed unhappy, some others the opposite.
"Are you ok?" Benjamin asked the young man, who could do nothing but look out of the car's window in awe.
Erik shook himself out of his reverie before replying. "Yeah," he said quietly. Then louder: "I'm fine."
"We almost arrived at the restaurant," Benjamin said.
Erik's stomach then growled loudly, reminding him just how hungry he was. He hadn't eaten since breakfast this morning. Erik's cheeks reddened because of embarrassment. "Sorry," he said to Benjamin.
"Don't worry," the latter replied.
They finally arrived at the restaurant. It was a giant building with an indoor parking lot directly built inside the building. The two entered it, passing by a sort of blue barrier, and then Benjamin parked in an empty spot.
The parking lot was huge, easily large enough for several dozen vehicles to park side by side without interfering with one another.
It was lit brightly even during night hours, thanks to dozens of fluorescent lights lining the ceiling. Benches lined either wall, and vending machines were placed sporadically throughout the area. In fact, it looked more like a mall than anything.
Far from their position, Erik saw multiple people lined up to take the elevator down. Two men wearing suits waited patiently in front of the elevator's door; they were probably bouncers.
The two waited in line, and Benjamin showed his ID when it was their turn.
"You can enter, sir," one of the bouncers said. Then Erik and Benjamin entered the elevator. The technology behind it was incredible; the machine didn't make a sound, and the two could barely feel the difference between moving and staying still.
They only figured out they were inside the restaurant because the elevator's door opened, revealing the huge restaurant room.
The place was massive, to say the least, distributed into multiple floors connected by elevators. The place was white and gold. On the tables nearby, the two men could see golden cutleries on top of plates containing all sorts of foods. A waiter approached them after the elevator stopped, holding a menu.
Benjamin smiled politely. "If you are gentle enough to follow me, I will bring you to your table," the server said.
With that, he led Benjamin and Erik away, walking straight ahead until reaching the far end of the hall where their table was.
The furniture was in front of a giant window that allowed the two to see the city in its entirety. Outside, traffic flowed smoothly, with flying cars driving in different directions.
After being seated at their own table, Benjamin ordered for two. His choice consisted of a steak dish and a salad. For his part, Erik wanted something much heavier on the stomach since he couldn't come here often. So he chose a pasta dish. When the food arrived, the waitress brought them a bottle of wine for Benjamin and one of water for Erik.
The two ate their lunch while enjoying the view of the city outside the windows. They would sometimes talk about random things, mostly work-related topics for Benjamin and school-related ones for Erik.
They also talked about sports, movies, books, music, and TV shows. The duo's mood was good until Lucius's topic came out.
"So, did you hear your father recently?"
Erik couldn't say that he returned from his trip and left him the biological supercomputer. Not only that, he couldn't even say that he saw him at all.
His father made him understand that something big was happening and that it was related to his situation, so reporting weird things to a military man was not safe. He trusted Benjamin, but there were some things it was better to keep hidden.
"Not at all. He disappeared. As much as I know, he is dead," Erik obviously lied.
A silence fell over the two men. Benjamin stared blankly at Erik for a few seconds before saying, "I'm sorry..."
"No! Don't be...It doesn't matter anymore, anyway. My dad chose his life, and his and only his are the consequences of his actions."
The conversation ended abruptly, with both men staring silently at each other for a moment. After a short pause, Benjamin spoke again. "You know that if you need anything, you can count on me, right?" he said.
"Yes, thanks, uncle Ben."
The two kept eating and ordered a dessert. While eating sweets, Erik thought about his life and how much he wanted uncle Benjamin to be his real father.
He was a lovely man, always smiling and kind, who loved talking to anyone regardless of age or social status.
Erik wasn't sure if Benjamin's actions were motivated by compassion for him, because he cared about him, or because of his father's friendship.
In any case, it was nice to have a friend with whom you could have casual conversations about dreams, relationships, girls, and school.
All those simple human aspects meant the world to him. Uncle Ben had become like an older brother to Erik.
Then, the pair finished their meal. Benjamin had already paid the bill earlier, leaving no debt whatsoever.
With that, the two got ready to go home. Erik felt a little bit lonely since his time with Benjamin had ended, but he knew that the man was busy and couldn't ask him to stay any longer.
In fact, they barely spent two hours together. But still, it was great to spend some quality time with him. It reminded Erik why he liked this guy.
They took the elevator again and walked toward the car. On the way, Benjamin told Erik that he could call him anytime.
If he wasn't too busy, that is. That seemed to please the young man. Then, the ride back home started.
Benjamin didn't immediately go to Erik's home but made a slight detour to make the young man look at the city again.
When they reached the house, Benjamin stopped in front of the building. Before landing the vehicle, he turned around and looked at Erik. "Take care, kid. I'll see you next weekend."
"Really?"
"Yes," Benjamin said while smiling widely.
"Thanks, Uncle Ben!"
Benjamin smiled, then opened the passenger side door, and Erik jumped out of the car.
"Bye, Erik."
"Bye, Uncle Ben!"
Then the man left the young man there, alone. Erik then grabbed the keys to his house and went to the entrance hall.
He then proceeded to go to the upper levels of the building by using the stairs. As soon as he reached the third floor, he unlocked the door to his apartment and walked inside, but when he opened the door, a chilling view appeared before him.
Someone had been inside his house; everything was messy. It was evident that whoever came searched the entire house for something specific.
The first thing that Erik thought was that some thief had entered in. However, he looked to his left side and saw the computer still on the desk, meaning that nothing important was stolen, besides he got nothing valuable besides his clothes.
Then, immediately, another thought spread inside his mind, this situation probably happened because of the biological supercomputer. Whoever was chasing his father knew that he had met him here. And now he, too, was implicated in the matter.
He sat down and sighed heavily, not knowing what else to do. Erik was scared but could do nothing to solve the current situation. For now, he could only wait to fix his deformity problem and then hope that he would be able to become stronger so that such things would stop happening to him.
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Three days later.
[LEVEL UP.]
Erik was at his home, he decided to stay at home that morning since he had something important to do. He was staring at his status window; there were three things he was looking at, his level, the number of DNA points, and the two powers he had unlocked.
--
[Host Information]
NAME Erik Romano
AGE 16
LEVEL: 1
EXPERIENCE: 10/200
DNA POINTS: 110
HEALTH: 100/100
MANA: 10/10
[Attributes]
STRENGTH: 3
INTELLIGENCE: 6
DEXTERITY: 4
ENERGY: 1
[Available Attributes points: 5]
[Powers]
[Biological Super Computer Powers]
-Brain Crystal Manipulation
-Brain Crystal Power Extraction
(Allows the absorption of the brain crystal, allowing the host to acquire the power within. Notice: the DNA must be changed to allow the body to use the power. See DNA extraction.)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- Brain Crystal Power Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the energy attribute points)
-DNA Manipulation
-DNA Extraction
(Allows the absorption of foreign DNA, allowing the host to replicate it inside his own body. Notice: Changing the DNA is a slow process, and it is required to use new brain crystal powers.)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
-DNA Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity attribute points)
- Analysis
(Gives the host information about his surroundings, plants, creatures, and ores)
-Brain Information Injector
(It allows the injection of information directly to the brain-Based on touch)
-Device Manipulation
(Allows the Host to manipulate electronic and mana-driven devices- Based on touch)
[Host's Powers]
-Rapid Growth [Plants] (FSIGMA1E-Ranked)
(Allows the host to make Plants Grow Faster)
--
DNA Extraction and Brain Crystal Power Extraction, uh? the young man then looked at his level.
"Finally," Erik said. Now he had only to choose where to spend his attribute points. From a certain point of view, he couldn't improve the mana storage capability that his Brain crystal could harness because he didn't have the means.
The military developed some techniques that strengthened the brain crystal. Still, he had no access to them now, meaning that increasing Energy was necessary.
Usually, strength, intelligence and dexterity increased as the number of neural links increased because the higher the number of neural links, the higher the amount of mana that went from the brain crystal to the rest of the body.
That, even if no one understood how, changed the body at the molecular level. Erik wasn't sure of the mechanism behind it, but it probably had something to do with the DNA.
After all, even the biological supercomputer system often talked about DNA. This meant that there was no reason to increase Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence at the moment since, by making neural links, his stats had to increase naturally.
[HOST IS ADVISED TO USE THE DNA POINTS TO FIX THE DEFORMITY PROBLEM BEFORE INCREASING ENERGY]
Are you reading my mind? Erik said.
[THE BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER AND THE HOST ERIK ROMANO ARE NOW INTERTWINED. THEIR THOUGHTS ARE NOT THEIRS ANYMORE BUT BELONG TO BOTH.]
Ah. Why should I fix the problem before increasing the attributes? Erik asked the system.
[ANSWER: THE BRAIN CRYSTAL WILL EXPLODE IF IT PROCESSES MORE MANA.]
"WHAT?!" Erik shouted. He couldn't believe what the system was saying. He was basically going to kill himself a couple of seconds ago.
Ok, then start the procedure to fix the problem.
[HOST IS REQUIRED TO USE A HUNDRED DNA POINTS TO TEMPORARILY UNLOCK THE FEATURE AND FIX THE PROBLEM, DO YOU WANT TO SPEND THEM?]
"Yes," the young man replied.
[UNDERSTOOD, THE SYSTEM WILL NOW TEMPORARILY UNLOCK THE FEATURES: DNA EDITING AND BRAIN CRYSTAL POWER EDITING, TO FIX THE BRAIN CRYSTAL DEFORMITY LOCATED NEAR THE FRONTAL LOBE. WARNING: THE HOST MAY INCUR IN PHYSICAL PAIN DURING THE PROCEDURE.]
"Oh, shit..." were the last words Erik could say before falling to the ground. A sharp pain penetrated his head like a knife through butter.
It felt almost impossible for him to think. The world around him started to spin, and at the same time, he started to feel a weird sensation in his ears.
His earing suddenly decreased its sensitivity, and he suddenly had tinnitus. Though the pain increased and increased as the procedure went on, now it wasn't any more like being pierced by a knife, but it was worse; it was like his brain was on fire.
"This is so fucking wrong!" he thought. He tried to get up, but he found out that his legs weren't working correctly anymore. Something didn't work right.
Then everything stopped, becoming dark once the pain became unbearable, and Erik lost consciousness...
[PROCEDURE COMPLETE. BRAIN CRYSTAL DEFORMITY FIXED.]
When Erik woke up again, his head hurt so badly that he didn't know whether or not he'd be able to stand.
Then there was also the fact that the room was completely dark, but some faint lights came out from outside the window, slightly illuminating the place. Erik realized that it was already nighttime.
Things seemed different somehow. There was no visible change; it was more a feeling than anything else. The young man tried to stand up, but his legs were weak.
After a lot of effort, he finally managed to get up, and then he went to the couch. His legs gave way under his weight while he was sitting down on the sofa, and he sank in.
He lay still for a while, unable to think clearly or move. When his mind was clear enough, the young man looked at his status again
--
[Host Information]
NAME Erik Romano
AGE 16
LEVEL: 1
EXPERIENCE: 10/200
DNA POINTS: 110
HEALTH: 100/100
MANA: 30/30
[Attributes]
STRENGTH: 3
INTELLIGENCE: 6
DEXTERITY: 4
ENERGY: 1
[Available Attributes points: 5]
[Powers]
[Biological Super Computer Powers]
-Brain Crystal Manipulation
-Brain Crystal Power Extraction
(Allows the absorption of the brain crystal, allowing the host to acquire the power within. Notice: the DNA must be changed to allow the body to use the power. See DNA extraction.)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- Brain Crystal Power Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the energy attribute points)
-DNA Manipulation
-DNA Extraction
(Allows the absorption of foreign DNA, making the host able to replicate it inside his own body. Notice: Changing the DNA is a slow process, and it is required to use new brain crystal powers.)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
-DNA Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity attribute points)
- Analysis
(Gives the host information about his surroundings, plants, creatures, and ores)
-Brain Information Injector
(It allows the injection of information directly to the brain-Based on touch)
-Device Manipulation
(Allows the Host to manipulate electronic and mana-driven devices- Based on touch)
[Host's Powers]
-Rapid Growth [Plants] (FSIGMA1E-Ranked)
(Allows the host to make Plants Grow Faster)
--
It was there that he had a pleasant surprise. His mana increased by twenty points.
"YES!" the young man shouted. His problem was fixed; from that point onward, he would be able to make neural links between his brain and the crystal.
This would make him physically stronger and able to use his power more efficiently. There was a but, though, the system kept recognizing his power as F ranked. As the young man took notice of that, he sighed.
"I guess this nightmare won't stop soon." Though despite this little problem, Erik now had a chance to make things right, but it was then that he recalled the attribute points. "That's right," the young man said.
System, allocate all the attribute points toward Energy, the young man telepathically ordered.
[UNDERSTOOD, FIVE ATTRIBUTE POINTS SPENT OVER ENERGY]
The young man then felt a surge of energy spreading inside his body, starting from the brain. He couldn't quite discern exactly where it started but assumed it came from the brain crystal.
The feeling was indescribable; it was fantastic. A mix between tingling and soothing warmth spreads through every cell of the body.
It made sense, after all, the brain crystals were, in a sense, like batteries. With those five extra attribute points allocated to his energy attribute, the young man knew that he could do much more than before.
Erik again looked at his status, and it was then that he received a pleasant surprise. Not only his mana reached one hundred and fifty points, but his health increased to two hundred and twenty. This was not the most surprising thing of all, though.
There was one that was much more meaningful. His power was no longer listed on F on the Ferebitz scale, which measured the mana storage capacity of the brain crystal but on E, meaning that his brain crystal was stronger.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAH!" Erik laughed. He laughed like he never did in his life. That was a turning point for him.
After so long, he finally got something back from life. Something tangible. No matter what happened next, he had a chance to fight back and become who he wanted to be.
After some time contemplating, Erik decided to prepare something to eat. He went to the kitchen, grabbed a few ingredients from the fridge, and then ate.
He later went to bed thinking about his father; for once, the old man did something good for him. But where was he? What was he doing? Didn't he say he was going to come back? Why wasn't he here yet? All these questions swirled around in his head, and the young man fell asleep after a while.
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Erik woke up that day; he had to go to school and justify the fact that he had missed the previous day of school.
Regardless of the consequences, he was happy since now his problem was no more, and he could concentrate on making neural links.
But first thing first, he went to the bathroom to wash and then prepared himself breakfast. After that, he checked his daily quests.
[Daily]
Eating Habits:
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Eat a healthy meal)
(ACCEPT QUEST) (REFUSE QUEST)
Physical training:
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Train for at least an hour. The Host may choose whatever exercise to complete the quest.)
(ACCEPT QUEST) (REFUSE QUEST)
--
The young man accepted the two quests, but he knew that he could only do the second one after finishing his farm work, meaning late in the evening.
He then ate his breakfast, completing the first of the two quests. After that, he got ready to go to school, and while doing so, he opened the TV going, as usual, on the news channel.
"AUTHORITIES REPORT AN INCREASING NUMBER OF THAIDS ATTACKS ON THE CAPITAL, NEW ALEXANDRIA..."
According to the news, more and more incidents regarding the thaids were reported each month. First, it started with just some random attacks here or there, but now they seemed to be growing exponentially.
As soon as Erik heard this report, his mood changed. He couldn't say if for the best or the worst. On the one hand, he was happy that more troubles arose for the city, but at the same time, he was worried that the beasts could enter the city.
This was not something that rarely happened, as there were speculations that a hole inside the barrier allowed the monsters to enter inside, mainly from the east, meaning that the problem lay there. Still, no solution was proposed to solve the problem.
The young man then left the house, heading towards school like every other morning. It took him some time to arrive at the train station, and from there, he headed to school in the western district.
It wasn't too bad considering how fast the trains traveled, and he got there in a relatively short amount of time.
Once arriving at the school, Erik decided to take the path behind the building instead of walking down the main entrance in order to avoid Logan and his friends.
They weren't the only ones that bullied him, but they were the most ferocious ones. Even though he tried to ignore them, sometimes their words hurt, especially when they mocked his family.
After reaching one of the corridors, Erik walked toward his class; people looked at him while he went as if he was a sort of circus freak.
A few times, someone bumped into him accidentally, which caused them to swear at him and go without apologizing.
And still, despite all these things happening around him, Erik didn't feel sad, all thanks to the biological supercomputer.
When entering his classroom, he sat next to the window and waited until the bell rang and the other students came in.
Professor Mc Allister came in shortly afterward. He was the teacher tasked with teaching the students how to use their BCP properly. For this reason, he always brought the students to the gym, where they practiced with their powers under strict supervision.
He was a short man with a bald head. His eyes were blue and cold as ice. Despite being a professor, he never smiled during the lessons, as he was stern.
For a moment, Erik wondered why such a harsh personality chose to teach as his profession. Then realized that maybe it was because he wanted others to see how a proper individual should behave in that harsh world.
"C'mon guys, your training won't start if you don't move your asses from that chairs." Professor Mc Allister said. Then the whole class went out of the classroom and headed toward the gym.
As they walked, the teacher resumed his speaking, "Today, we're going to do the last part of our program before graduation."
Once everyone had arrived at the gym, Erik found himself standing near the wall, looking outside through a glass door. There he saw the rest of the classmates getting ready to use their power, but he stayed where he stood.
When the teacher noticed him, he turned back and spoke again, "You need to get moving; otherwise, I'll leave you behind!"
At those words, Erik finally moved forward. On the way to the open field where they were going to train, he ran into Logan, who laughed at him loudly, causing him to turn away angrily. He couldn't show his anger, or something worse than mocking could happen to him.
Erik arrived on the field and put himself on the edge of the row of students that were going to practice their BCP.
The students then started their training. Some of them had incredible powers,that allowed them to send Psionic blasts.
Some others could create water from nowhere, and others could create physical restraints to restrict or imprison other people.
There was a variety of powers out there, but the most impressive one of them all was Nathaniel Mc Connell, a brown-haired and handsome kid who had a form of energy control that allowed him to use a sort of Force fist and deploy an energy shield.
His power was a BSIGMA3B which was impressive. Being D on the ferebitz scale meant a lot already, but his power being ranked C on the Jorm one was even more astonishing since it told how useful the power was.
Nathaniel's future was probably bound to be good, as the army was really interested in such a young man.
Though, if things didn't go well with the military, he could always work with his father. No one knew what he did, but they had a lot of money.
There were even rumors about Nathaniel's father saying that he was the leader of a criminal gang. These were baseless rumors, though, and no one had found proof of such claims.
Nathaniel was targeting some mannequins a couple of meters ahead of him, showing his battle-oriented power to the class, who looked at him with envy.
The boy showed off by throwing empowered punches like he was fighting a real opponent. It was impressive indeed.
He tried hitting the dummy with a punch that would have broken any human bone and destroyed part of it after a flurry of punches.
Then he got closer to the mannequin. He stopped punching and instead grabbed its neck and twisted it violently. In that instant, the mannequin fell apart to the ground.
Everyone watched him with amazement. Even Erik felt impressed watching him; he was so impressed that he briefly forgot his own problems.
While everyone else trained, Erik just kept staring at the ground, lost in thought. He wished he, too, could develop his power in a battle-oriented sense, but he had no idea how to do that.
Since all the students were doing their best, and his teacher was looking at him, he started using his power.
The young man approached the flower beds on the side of the field and started gathering mana through his brain crystal.
The feeling was vastly different from the last time he used his power the previous day at the farm because of the amount of mana the young man could now control.
Then the usual sensation of electricity and pressure spread throughout his entire body, causing the hairs on the nape of his neck to stand up. The lightheaded feeling came back in full force, and his power started to emerge.
When he couldn't hold it anymore, Erik pushed the force he was feeling toward the flower bed, releasing the energy from his hands.
Then the usual wave of heat hit him, and the air around him became hot and humid. The smell of freshly grown vegetation filled his nose, and the plants sprouted new leaves in seconds and started growing quickly.
Compared to the other times, the plants grew faster and more robust than usual. They started from a couple of centimeters and ended up being meters high.
The students looked at Erik's power with scorn, unaware of the differences between then and now. Only professor Mc Allister's keen eye could see the difference in his power.
The teacher's expression changed for only a second when he saw what Erik had done. After that moment, he returned to his regular face.
Then, when Erik stopped channeling mana, contrary to what happened every time he used his power, he didn't lose consciousness, which was one of the reasons why he didn't want to use his power in front of the class. This was a pleasant surprise.
After an hour of exercising, the students returned to their classroom and did the rest of their classes. When the bell rang, signaling lunch break, most people rushed out to grab something to eat while others stayed behind to train or talk to each other.
Nathaniel was among those who wanted to practice his skills. While Erik went to the cafeteria to eat and then left the school to go to the farm, he couldn't stop working and couldn't train at school as the other kids did.
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The young man walked through the city streets and headed toward the train station. As any other day, he was going to work at Mister Fox's farm in the northern part of the city.
The young man was surrounded by people, going in different directions and minding their own business. They all had jobs they needed to do or things they wanted from life.
There was a man who sold food, and another woman instead stood behind an information stand advertising her services as a masseuse. Another offered advice on where to go if someone wished to find companionship, and another was trying to sell something that looked very much like drugs.
Despite living in a militaristic society, the world wasn't freed by criminals. They became worse with the advent of the brain crystal powers and brought much damage to society.
Erik later arrived at the train station; the place was always full of people and trains leaving and coming.
He spent some time looking at the shops around him; they were full of things the young man had never had the pleasure of using.
One shop sold weapons; knives and swords hung above the entrance. Next door was a small clothing store selling mostly women's wear; at the end of the building, Erik saw a barber pole standing proudly against the shop wall.
In front of it, several men waited patiently while waiting for haircuts. Most of them wore uniforms: soldiers, police officers, firefighters—they came here every month to get their cuts.
It seemed this establishment was popular among those professions because the owner himself happened to be one such person.
The young man bought tickets for both ways, then boarded the first train heading north. After riding along the rails for about some time, Erik noticed that everything around them began to change; houses turned into fields, and buildings were replaced with forests.
Soon enough, they entered the city's edge and reached the area where Mister Fox lived and worked.
The place was beautiful and in stark contrast with the city, where technology reigned supreme. Here, instead, nature took its rightful place.
Trees grew freely everywhere, even up high on the walls surrounding the houses. The sky overhead shone brightly under the sun. Birds flitted across the skies, singing sweet songs.
Mister Fox owned a large portion of land and used most of it for growing plants and vegetables. Some of the crops were grown indoors, but not many people did that anymore since it only resulted in higher prices when buying food.
The place was littered with flowers and grasses, making walking down the path almost surreal. The air itself felt cleaner than anywhere else.
This was the kind of environment where the young man would want to live, and he hoped he would one day be able to do so after retiring from the military.
When the train stopped, the young man went running toward the farm and arrived fifteen minutes later. From a distance, Erik saw Mister Fox tending the field.
His hands moved rapidly across the soil, which appeared somewhat moist despite being dry outside. With every move, dirt flew away in dust clouds, revealing a small mound of the earth below each hand.
The young man arrived at the gate of the farmer's property, and he greeted the old man. "Good evening Mister Fox; I came to work."
The man looked up when he heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Then, he looked at the boy standing in front of him and coldly said to the young man, "C'mon, kid, these plants won't grow alone."
"Yes, sir!" Erik replied. He then went to the barn to change, he still had his school uniform, and he couldn't risk dirtying it. Once he changed, he ran out again, "Go there," Mister Fox ordered, "I already collected all the product and cleared the soil. Now go make yourself useful."
Erik ran there to use his power, as he did every day, and after a while, plants started sprouting from the ground.
He decided to start collecting the plants that he made grow. Some grew taller and bigger than others, which were shorter but thick and tough. All of them provided food and nutrition for the farmer's animals but most of them were sold to the government.
The sun started to set as he worked, but Erik was too focused on his task to notice.
"Ah... Ah... Ah..."
The sound of footsteps echoed inside the forest surrounding New Alexandria. A soldier tried desperately to hold back the tears that threatened to fall down his cheeks. Behind, thaids were chasing him. They appeared like rats, but their teeth were razor sharp, and the creatures were as big as house cats.
These creatures were known as Densoph; the soldier recognized them immediately since it was his and his team's task to find out what was happening inside their population.
The militaries, in fact, found out that the creatures had been behaving strangely recently since they were moving outside of their usual territory and were often attacking New Alexandria.
The soldiers who survived the assaults claimed the monsters attacked without reason or provocation. Since there wasn't any apparent reason for those things behaving like that, a team was dispatched to find out.
It took some days before the team managed to enter the deep woods east of the city. Their mission was simple: investigate the situation and report to the military command center.
However, the investigation proved difficult because multiple thaids were spotted along the way, and they all had the same behavior as the Densoph.
They attacked indiscriminately and were far out of their usual territory. After much difficulty, the team finally arrived at the Densoph territory. The team, though, found it completely empty, not a single one of the weird rats was there, and they searched for days.
Eventually, the team realized that the Densoph must have been driven away by another species of monster, so they headed west, trying to go back toward New Alexandria. After a while, the beasts came out of their hiding place and swarmed the team sent by New Alexandria.
The monsters were too much for the team to escape. It didn't matter if the soldiers fought well against them. Once they surrounded their position, the fight became impossible.
"Martin, Luke, you have to run. Make sure you are able to warn the city about the monsters!" the team leader said. Both men nodded and ran off.
As soon as they disappeared into the trees, the remaining members turned their attention to the monsters closing in. They were outnumbered, and even though they knew how to handle themselves, there weren't enough people left to take care of the group of monsters. They were all killed minutes after, swarmed bu the high number of monsters.
At the same time, Luke and Martin fled deeper into the woods, hoping to reach safety somehow. But no sooner did they leave the sight of the monsters than several others of them chased relentlessly. Martin tripped over an obstacle and fell face-first onto the ground.
In less time than it takes to blink, a monster grabbed its throat and ripped it open with little effort, dying during the escape.
Luke, instead, lost the usage of an arm due to a monster surprising him by jumping from behind a tree and biting him. In spite of this, the soldier kept going until he reached the city's border. Still, as he thought he would be safe, the monsters rushed out from the forest and started chasing him.
"Fuck!" He screamed. "Help me! Please help!"
The creatures were on his tail now, he knew he wouldn't survive if they caught him, and he didn't want to die. So he turned left and ran through the forest.
The young man used his power to make illusions to drive away the creatures, but the thaids had a powerful sense of smell and were able to chase the man deep into the forest.
The place was surrealistic, with trees towering above him and strange flowers blooming everywhere. As he got deeper into the woods, the sounds of nature became more intense, birds chirped loudly, and insects buzzed incessantly. It was almost impossible to hear anything except the noise created by the environment.
The soldier kept running, sending illusion after illusion of himself going in different directions. This confused the pursuing monsters and gave the man enough time to run ahead and hide.
The creatures kept following the man each time, separating into different groups to chase the new illusion. This didn't last long since the monsters could differentiate him from his illusions thanks to the smell. Soon, they began to chase him relentlessly again.
Luke made sure to stay as hidden as possible by staying under a giant boulder, hoping the cover might protect him from the pursuit. But even then, the monsters were getting closer to his position.
The scent of sweat and blood was strong on him, alerting the creatures of his position. One of the thaids jumped onto the rock beside him, its claws digging deeply into the stone.
The soldier resumed his running, but he eventually, tripped over a rock and fell onto the ground, landing hard on his chest.
As soon as he hit the dirt floor, he saw the pack of monsters charging at him, ready to kill. He tried to stand up quickly, but the beasts finally arrived upon him and started tearing him apart.
They bit off his leg first, then his arms followed, and eventually his head. His breathing stopped, and he lay still among the grasses.
One of the creatures then looked up, and the image of multiple skyscrapers appeared in its field of vision.
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"The last time I had been on the front line was two years ago. It hadn't gone well for us; we lost most of our men to the enemy before they could even reach the shore. The only thing that kept me from losing all hope of surviving that mess was the memories of my family. Those memories gave me something solid on which to rely when everything else around me seemed to be slipping away into chaos. It was an anchor point," Sergeant Raveena said.
She was tall and slender with a lean body structure similar to athletes. Her skin tone was dark, as if she was used to sunbathing often. Her hairs were dark brown, but her eyes were green like emeralds or jade stones.
She took a sip of coffee while looking out over the forest. A gentle breeze blew across her face and passed through the open window behind her. In the distance there was nothing visible except for the trees growing thickly everywhere in front of her.
She took another sip of her coffee and looked up at Roma as she remembered those sad moments. Roma was the total opposite of the young woman she was talking to; she was pallid like a ghost. Her hair was black, and she wore a pair of glasses.
"But this is different." Her eyes turned cold again as soon as she saw the look on Sergeant Roma's face. "Thaids are a bigger threat than the Hininas," she added.
Both she and Roma were stationed at the city's edge, in a military building made to deploy troops fast in case of attacks. There were several such buildings scattered across the city's perimeter. The two women stood next to each other and talked quietly about the days in which the war started.
Sergeant Raveena had just returned after spending some days off duty in town. And now that she had returned to work, she found out that her old friend Roma had also started working at the border. They spent some time talking about war, and she told her about how Thaids had attacked a nearby village three weeks prior.
There were no casualties among civilians because their defenses managed to hold against the attackers long enough for help to arrive, but five soldiers died defending the place.
The thaid situation was becoming more and more difficult since the number of attacks increased in the last months.
Most recently, a platoon of twenty-five soldiers went missing during an attack by what appeared to have been thousands of these monsters. Their bodies weren't found, leaving the militaries to wonder what had happened to them.
"Do you think we will be able to stop the thaid invasion?" Roma asked.
Her voice sounded distant as if she was thinking deeply.
"I don't know. We need better soldiers and training. But we can try." Raveena shrugged.
They both sat on the room's couch and continued drinking. After half an hour or so, a knock came on the door, followed by the sound of footsteps approaching quickly towards the area where they were sitting.
A soldier wearing full combat gear entered the room without waiting for permission. He stopped right beside his superiors' table and saluted. His helmet covered most of the side of his head, giving him the appearance of being bald.
He spoke clearly: "We got reports of a group of Thaids heading our way!" he announced.
His voice echoed inside the small quarters. Both officers stared at the man, trying hard not to show any emotion. They knew exactly what would happen if either showed anything less than absolute confidence.
"How many?" Raveena asked calmly.
"A thousand strong, sir!"
In response, she nodded slightly and ordered, "Get your squad ready and inform Colonel Tiwana immediately."
After saying that, she walked toward the door, still holding the cup of hot liquid between her hands. Roma followed suit.
The hallway outside the room was full of soldiers scurrying left and right, carrying weapons and armor. She could see a few men running past them and entering the elevator from the end of the hall.
At the same time, the doors opened, and people exited them. One of the men walking out said something loud enough for everyone around to hear.
"It looks like the Thaids are headed straight here."
As soon as he finished speaking, the soldiers reacted; they grabbed their guns and headed out of the building, going in position over the building's defensive positions.
Everyone rushed forward and began climbing the stairs. They moved like a well-oiled machine. As far as she could tell, all the troops were fully equipped with protective equipment. Considering how much damage a single thaid could cause, it seemed like a good thing.
The elevators were packed with soldiers rushing to get to the upper floors. Others climbed down the stairwell instead, taking turns until the crowd thinned.
Roma and Raveena went to the bottom floor. When they did, they noticed a couple of soldiers standing guard at the entrance to the corridor.
One of the guards stepped aside and waved them in. Soon afterward, she and Roma arrived at the colonel's office.
pAnD Roma knocked twice before receiving permission to enter. The inside of the room was neat and tidy, everything neatly arranged in its own place.
A large desk dominated the center of the space, behind which was seated Colonel Mirko Tiwana. He was tall and blond and was wearing a light gray uniform.
The man rose from his chair when she saw Raveena and Roma walk through the door. The two women made a salute and then bowed politely.
Tiwana smiled broadly and greeted them warmly. He looked at each of them carefully, then addressed the two:
"As you are probably aware, a problem arose," he said.
Both women nodded.
"Our forces reported that a group of a thousand thaids is approaching this building. I want Roma to lead a squad on the east side of the premises while Raveena the west side."
At the mention of those words, Roma felt herself tensing up. She wasn't new in commanding squads, yet fighting the thaids was never simple, and having lives depend on her decisions was a great burden. Raveena was in the same situation too.
But there was no other choice, and after hearing about the enemy numbers, the only option available was to fight.
Raveena stood straighter.
"Yes, sir! Understood!" both the women replied in unison.
Tiwana gave explained the plan to the two women. Once he was done, they turned toward the door leading outside the room after showing their respect to their superior and started walking toward the exit.
Colonel Tiwana watched the two leave the room, leaving him alone again. He sighed deeply. Then he placed one hand on the edge of his desk and leaned back into his seat.
The two women then went to the meeting room; eight people were waiting for them inside the room, standing by the walls. All of these individuals had ranks above private and most likely held higher ranks than that.
But even though they were veterans, none of them appeared worried or anxious. Instead, they were looking relaxed, almost bored.
They waited patiently for the two women to arrive, and once they entered the room, silence fell upon the gathering. The soldiers made a military salute at the two officers and waited for her to speak.
"I'm Sergeant Raveena Greene, and this is Sergeant Roma Sinclair," Raveena said. "You have been assigned to be part of our squads," she added. They stared at her silently.
"You, you, you, and you will come with me," then Roma said. "The rest will go with sergeant Greene. Is it clear?"
"Sir, Yes, Sir."
And so, the two squads were formed. Each squad consisted of four members plus an officer. All these men and women were powerful and trained; their specialty was melee fighting.
A small briefing about each other's BCP started, and after they were done, the two women had a general understanding of the soldiers' capabilities.
The teams left the building together and headed toward their respective defensive positions. On the way, Roma took note of the weapons some of the team members carried. Some of them had laser rifles, and others wielded pistols.
In addition, many of them wore armor plates over their bodies. It seemed all the equipment needed to defend themselves against the thaids' attacks was here. It was true that they mostly used their BCP to fight, but not all of them had powers that allowed them to attack from a distance, which was necessary in some situations.
The two groups were tasked to stop the thaids from approaching the building and had to fight melee, mostly since the soldiers over the roof of the building, and many other defensive positions, were already there with their weapons drawn, waiting for the enemy.
After reaching the designated location, the first thing Roma did was give orders to her squad.
"We're going to form a circle around this area. We'll keep watch on the northeastern corner of the building, where we can see what's happening out front.
It was then that the soldiers started hearing something. They couldn't discern what it was, but logically it could only be one thing. Thaids footsteps.
A few minutes later, the sound got louder and more distinct. Soon enough, the noise came closer, and soon after that. The two squads found themselves face-to-face with the enemy.
"Stand in position!" Roma said to her soldiers at the east side of the building. Raveena did the same on the opposite side. It was then that the sound of rifles started echoing through the air.
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The Densoph rushed at the squads in droves; the beasts looked like rats but were equipped with sharp fangs and claws. This resulted from their brain crystal power, which made everything they wanted sharper, and they usually applied it on the fangs and the claws.
These beasts usually lived in packs and were particularly harmful to the surroundings since they had a voracious appetite. So the militaries had to periodically kill them.
The Densoph were like an ocean tide that came crashing down from all directions—they had no pattern or order to them whatsoever as each one surged forward without a moment's delay.
The sound of guns echoed throughout the forest clearing. They were like thunders that shook every corner of the battlefield.
The soldiers fired into these creatures' heads until there wasn't even anything left behind; some just kept shooting until they ran out of energy.
Some started throwing grenades instead, while others used laser rifles for maximum effect by aiming carefully to avoid missing the target.
As soon as lasers hit something, it exploded instantly in a shower of blood and gore flying everywhere. One such blast knocked two Densoph off their feet before another shot sent both falling onto the ground dead.
In contrast, bullets did little damage against this type of creature because those weapons didn't penetrate through their hard skin.
Bullets ricocheted right off the surface of the beast's body, only causing more harm than good when they struck someone nearby.
The lasers traveled through the air at an incredible speed, and every time they did, a thaid fell.
Another laser pierced right between two Densoph heads. One of these creatures had its head blown off completely, while another only lost half his head.
These shots were very accurate, considering how many times people missed.
A soldier then threw a grenade over the heads of the other creatures who tried to run away from the lasers. It detonated under their feet, sending them tumbling backward.
"That'll teach you."
Roma and Raveena were still in front of the building, waiting for the monsters to arrive. Their job was to stop them from entering the premises, where they could do a lot of damage.
Both of them had already deployed several traps around the perimeter of the area. If any monster got too close, it would be caught up inside.
Most of the explosives were designed specifically to kill Densoph. However, some were also capable of dealing massive damage to humans, so they had to be careful.
Roma had planted mines along the road leading to the gate and a few near the entrance door itself. However, protecting the building would be easier said than done since there were thousands of those thaids rushing toward their position.
The soldiers on top of the building kept firing their laser guns at the monsters. But even so, the situation wasn't looking good. The monsters were now awfully close to Roma and Raveena's squads, who stood by the wall surrounding the facility.
"Don't let them get inside!" Roma screamed out loud; the members of her squad heard her clearly.
As soon as she finished saying that, a group of ten Densoph charged straight through the lasers traveling toward them.
Roma and her team engaged. They each channeled their brain crystal power and unleashed their power. One of the soldiers had super tough skin capable of shielding the man from many kinds of harm, and another one could Create a tight, protective lighting barrier over the body, which electrocuted any monster trying to come near him.
Another had a brain cristal power that made him insanely fast making him able to avoid being hit by the monsters and at the same time counterattacking at a moment's notice. The last one, instead, had super strength.
But it was Roma who had the most surprising power of them all; she was able to conjure a whip made of flames, which allowed her to incinerate her enemies into ashes.
All five of them moved quickly together to form a defensive line against the approaching horde of enemies. Then the thaids were on them; Roma moved her whip, sending flaming projectiles flying across the field.
Her whip glowed red hot and left trails of smoke behind it when she swung wildly back and forth. It was quite effective on the Densoph, but they didn't stop. Something pushed them to act without any regard for their life.
Roma killed three Densoph with a single move, but then more of the creatures showed themselves, and the first ones started attacking again.
Roma threw her whip left and right, paying attention not to injure her team mates. With every move, a thaid got incinerated, then one of the creatures managed to get past her defenses
It leaped high and tried biting her on the face. As it passed overhead, Roma avoided the attack. By calling back her flaming whip, she hit the creature in the abdomen, instantly incinerating it.
A second later, something else jumped at her from the side, and before she knew what had happened, it bit her arm hard enough to draw blood.
A laser then made the Densoph head explode, helping Roma get out of her predicament. She turned around to see how badly hurt the thing was and saw it lying dead on the ground.
She felt pain in the wound immediately but ignored the feeling because the Densoph was already gone.
"I'll take care of you next," Roma told herself, then she picked a weird object from her pouch. It was like bubble gum, but she placed it on the wound on her arm, and it stopped bleeding immediately.
After that, she took off running after the rest of her squad.
In the meantime, more Densophs were coming from everywhere, forcing the soldiers on top of the building to keep shooting their guns nonstop.
There must have been hundreds of the thaids still alive, and some of them were now awfully close to the building, the only way for the creature to enter the barrier protecting the city.
Roma increased her pace, and the members of her squad did the same. The woman ran toward a densoph and gracefully swung her whip, killing another four Densoph with a single move.
She looked like a demon, but at the same time, her movements were graceful and precise. Since she brought her game a step up, she started running toward the thaids, then made some acrobatic jumps, swinging her flaming whip with every move. Every time she did, a monster died.
But the Densoph ignored her. But just as soon as another one died, the remaining monsters moved forward again. In the end, they reached the building and started climbing the walls and going through the windows, and no matter how much firepower was sent toward them, nothing helped.
The beasts continued charging ahead, ignoring everything, including death itself.
"We must stop them!" Roma shouted.
The men nodded in agreement and returned to fight the monsters near the building.
A soldier yelled: "They're too many! We can't stop them from entering!"
And then suddenly, a loud noise shook the air. The sound echoed throughout the whole area, causing the soldiers to look at the noise source. One of the monsters broke the building's door down, making them all enter the premises.
"Fuck," Roma said. They had lost control of the situation. All they could do now was try to buy time until help arrived.
Raveena looked at the situation unfold in front of her eyes. She used her brain crystal power to kill the creatures she had in front of herself.
Her power allowed her to fire an exceptionally high-powered energy beam that released a powerful shockwave.
She made the motion of firing a gun with her hands to use her power, and the energy beam got out from her fingers.
She shot several Densophs in quick succession. Some of the shots missed, but most of them found their target. It didn't make any difference whether the creature was still alive when she fired the blast.
When Raveena finished using her ability, there wasn't even a single Densoph left standing of the original group she targeted.
Then she heard someone scream behind her. She spun around quickly to find two Densophs killing a squad member.
Both of them had their teeth deep into the man's jugular, and he was bleeding profusely. His legs gave in, and his knees touched the floor.
He fell onto the concrete wall, hitting it hard. Blood spilled over the surface of the material, staining it red.
One of the Densophs leaped at her while the other kept attacking the soldier who lay helpless on the ground.
Raveena managed to dodge the leap. Then she charged straight toward the beast, striking its stomach with her fist, knocking it backward.
She then used her power to destroy the creature, which exploded into bits. As the dust cleared, she saw the second Densoph approaching her, ready to strike.
Before the monster hit her, she turned sideways, throwing him aside, then blasting him down.
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Raveena then retreated back to the safety of her team ranks. "It's too much for us," said one of them. They had already lost someone from their group.
"We still have a job to do, private," Raveena said loud enough for them all to hear.
A group of Densoph ran toward their position; they were six, while the team only had four members now. Raveena charged her power and pointed her finger at one of the creatures. She aimed at the bulk of the thaids and fired.
The energy traveled through the air like a spearhead before it pierced into the center mass of two thaids. The impact sent both beasts flying backward.
Their bodies smashed against some other thaids, making them tumble down. A few seconds later, another explosion occurred, this time the result of the brain crystal power of Raveena's squad member.
The explosion illuminated the area momentarily; the light disappeared after a short second when the blast dissipated. It left behind scorched grasses on its path.
A member of the squad instead rushed toward the group of thaids with a sword in hand. The weapon was coated in a sort of electric field that caused an electrical current to travel along its blade.
This allowed the user to cut through most things easily without exerting effort and, at the same time, electrocuting whatever enemy was unlucky enough to meet the blade on the battlefield.
He slashed his way through several thaids until he reached where Raveena stood.
Though more thaids approached the four humans. One of them dashed toward Raveena, it was running at an insanely fast speed, and it became hard for the sergeant to see the creature clearly.
She went into position to fire his power again, and energy surged inside her body like electricity surging within a wire.
Then she shot the energy out, sending shockwaves throughout the air. The blasts struck three nearby thaids simultaneously, killing each instantly.
One of the monsters fell over dead, while others flew away in fright. Though, Raveena's aim failed her since she coulnd't kill the thaid charging at her.
The creature then managed to get past the fire-wielding soldier. It got past him and jumped toward Raveena with its maws opened wide. Its fangs were sharp and long enough to rip her arm off her.
"ACK!" she screamed in pain. The soldier wielding the electrical sword slashed at the creature severing the head from its body and making blood leak as if it was a fountain.
Blood dripped down onto Raveena, who became drenched in the liquid. Her team members then went toward her to protect her from the other thaids.
She took the head of the creature off the arm, picked up a small gummy bead from her pouch, and applied it to her wound, stopping the bleeding.
The pain was high, but this didn't stop her from using her power. After getting up, she looked around for another target. Another thaid appeared in front of her.
The rat-like creature dashed toward the team with ferocious looks, but Raveena charged her power more and killed the enemy.
"We must retreat," She said. But there was nowhere to go since the building which could have shielded her had been breached.
Monsters were rushing inside the corridors, searching for humans to eat. Their numbers significantly reduced, though, thanks to the effort put in by the soldiers, but it wasn't enough to stop all of them.
Inside the building, the thaids were going upstairs, where the bulk of the soldiers was. A group of humans went in front of the staircase blocking every access to the upper floors.
They kept shooting at the thaids without pause. In front of them, there was carnage; multiple Densoph bodies were littering the floor, and the stairs were painted red from the blood of the rat-like creatures.
Though, it didn't take long before the soldiers were overrun and killed. The beasts ripped off arms, chewed on legs, ate hearts, and gouged out eyes. It was a terrific scene to see.
The creatures swarmed the higher floor, and another group of soldiers came down to shoot at the creatures. Each shot sent a laser beam traveling through the air, cutting open the flesh of the thaids and burning the flesh near the wound.
Many thaids died, some immediately, while others were able to stay alive and tried to reach the soldiers until they eventually succumbed to death.
They continued doing so until the last human standing tried to fight alone against the horde of beasts. There was no escape in that building, and the beasts quickly reached him and tore his guts apart. His screams echoed across the walls. "RAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"
His cries turned into silence as the monster consumed what remained of him. Only the sound of chewing filled the hallways.
Raveena and Roma met outside the building, most of the Densoph outside the perimeter died, and only the ones inside the building remained.
Roma immediately noticed that the number of people on Raveena's team had decreased.
"What happened," the young woman asked her friend.
"I wasn't able to save him," Raveena replied.
It was heartbreaking watching how the monsters killed everyone in sight.
"This is why we can't let them live. C'mon, let's head inside and kill those beasts," Roma said.
She knew very well that killing the beast would be hard work; however, the alternative was far worse than any kind of labor. If left unchecked, these things would enter the city and multiply inside the territory, spreading terror throughout New Alexandria.
Roma and Raveena, together with their teams, went inside and followed the blood trails. Inside the corridor, dead bodies lay everywhere.
As soon as the teams saw the mess, they had problems not throwing up. Some of the corpses were torn apart, and others were missing parts of themselves.
Even after being devoured by the thaids, some of the victims still possessed organs intact. Raveena and Roma looked at each other and made a sign of understanding. They had to stop the monsters.
They ran ahead, following the trail of the beasts who moved slowly along the halls. At times, the smell of bloodied meat overwhelmed them and caused them to gag.
As they approached the stairwell, they heard a scream coming from above. When they climbed the stairs, they found one soldier fighting two thaids.
He fought valiantly, but his gun ran out of energy, so he was left fending for himself with a sword and his brain crystal power which gave him a stone-hard skin. That was the only reason why he was still alive; the sharpened teeth of the creatures couldn't pierce the man, and he was able to save himself.
The thaids were biting at the man's arm and restrained him, trying to rip the appendages out of the torso. Though, they weren't able to do so.
As Raveena and Roma went to the floor where the man was fighting, Raveena shot two beams at the two creatures, making them explode in pieces.
The men fell back and hugged the floor. The wall and the ground were covered in blood. It was a disgusting scene.
Roma rushed forward and helped the wounded soldier. He thanked the girls profusely and then told them about the situation.
There were at least fifty thaids inside the building. Roma, Raveena, and their squads rushed to the upper floors. They could hear the sound of brain crystal powers being unleashed and of guns firing.
Once they were on the top floor, they found a stalemate. Multiple soldiers were stopping the monsters from going forward, and the remaining thaids trying to get past them and kill the humans.
The soldiers saw Raveena and Roma, and their eyes lit up. Then, Raveena charged her power, and Roma summoned her flaming whip. The two then unleashed carnage over the thaids.
The soldiers watched as the women cut down every single beast. After ten minutes of constant slaughter, all the thaids were destroyed.
"Thank you!" one of the soldiers said.
Inside another room, a thaid was still alive. It was desperately trying to reach an air vent in order to escape that hell hole.
It jumped and jumped until it finally reached the vent and entered. The Densoph crawled through the air vents, trying to head outside and escape.
It took the creature at least half an hour to escape the building by following the scent of fresh grass traveling through the air. The thaid arrived at the exit, but it was barred by the air vents cover. The creature slowly destroyed it with its sharp teeth, and it finally got free.
It was on the other side of the barrier; in front of it, multiple fields stretched outwards. The thaid was ecstatic and started running around the area looking for food, and meat.
Soon enough, the thaid came across a herd of cattle. As the cows tried to flee, the thaid lunged at one of them and bit off its head slowly.
With the same pace, the creature started eating the cow until it was satisfied. Blood spilled onto the field as the thaid gulped down the fleshy mass. Though after having finished, the creature resumed its traveling. It was going northwest, where it could smell the human scent.
The creature walked until it was deep inside the wheat fields, and It was then that the beast heard a human voice.
"Mister Fox? I just finished collecting the carrots; where do I put the last ones?"
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While Erik worked in the field, he could see how much easier it had become to make the plants grow. He grew several in a single day, starting with carrots, broccoli, and tomatoes and ending with garlic.
He even managed to get some potatoes growing too. The young man was euphoric because of his renewed power. With this ability, he would really be able to make a farm prosper. Maybe his future wasn't as bleak as he thought, and his power was not so useless.
He had to thank the Biological supercomputer and his father for this opportunity.
"Erik, go collect the carrots!"
Mister Fox's voice interrupted him while he was admiring his work in one corner of the field.
"I'm going!"
Erik shouted as he ran towards the vegetables, picking up each carrot carefully. The field where the carrots were planted looked magical. The vegetables were massive and grew faster than any vegetable ever did before he got the biological supercomputer.
He was eager to try them, too, so he decided to ask Mister Fox a couple of them to see how they tasted.
Their sturdiness surprised him every time he picked one of the plants. He gathered them into his arms and then placed them in a basket. He then brought them to Mister Fox, unloading them into the old farmer' cart.
As soon as the basket was empty, he returned to the carrot field and repeated the process. He had to do it several times since the carrots were too big.
It took a lot of work, but he eventually finished gathering all the carrots.
"Mister Fox? I just finished collecting the carrots; where do I put the last ones?"
"Put them there," Mister Fox said to the young man. His voice sounded tired. He was old now, and doing all this work was not simple for him.
The young man ran to put away the carrots and then went to Mister Fox's house. His hands were dirty from doing manual labor. After washing off his sweat, he came downstairs to find Mister Fox sitting at the table.
"Here is your daily pay," Mister Fox said while handing twenty new dollars to the young man. Erik grabbed them with gratitude and then went to change.
He put on his clothes when he came here and then said goodbye to his employer. He grabbed a bag with carrots and some apples inside that Mister Fox gave him.
"Don't forget to come tomorrow. Same time."
"Yes, don't worry, Mister Fox."
The door closed behind Erik; he stood outside, looking up at the sky. The sun was already setting, painting the sky red. A few stars were already visible in the middle of the sky, and the moon was starting to shine brightly over the horizon.
This was a very romantic view that Erik hoped he could enjoy sooner or later with someone dear to him. No one had been interested in dating him until now, though he tried to attract girls occasionally, but there weren't women around who wanted to date a guy with his BCP rank.
Even if he found one, she probably wouldn't stay faithful after seeing how he lived. This wasn't a world where people could live happily together, no matter how hard they tried.
The sound of leaves rustling disturbed his thoughts. Erik turned right toward the source of the noise, Mister Fox's wheat field. Erik was distracted for a moment by the golden wheat ears waving gently in the wind, but he couldn't see anything.
"It must have been the wind," the young man said.
Then his eyes caught sight of something moving through the fields. Something small and fast. "Huh?!"
Erik then saw a small rodent head with sharp fangs pop up from the wheat field. When he saw the creature turn in his direction, Erik realized it was about to run straight toward him.
Initially, the young man couldn't recognize what that creature was, but a thought came to his mind. There are no wild animals on earth anymore. Dread filled the young man. Whatever that beast was, it had to be a thaid.
[WARNING. HOSTILE DETECTED.]
--
Emergency quest: Survival
-Rewards for completion: A hundred experience points for killing the creature; Fifty experience points for escaping the creature. Forty DNA points in either case.
-Failure Penalty: Death.
(Kill or escape the unknown creature.)
--
"FUCK!" Erik shouted back at the system.
"Analysis," the young man shouted, and then a window appeared in front of his eyes.
pAn,Da n0,v,e1 --
- Species: Unkown.
- Brain crystal power: Unkown.
-Dimension: Approximately fifty centimerers long and thirty centimeters tall.
-Description: The beast has two sharp fangs and resembles a rat. The host is advised not to be bitten by the creature since the system can feel mana surrounding the teeth of the creature.
-Approximate level: 2
-Approximate Strength: 2
-Approximate Intelligence: 1
-Approximate Dexterity: 2
-Approximate Energy: 8
...
...
--
The beast then jumped out of the field and started running in his direction. Fear bloomed inside the young man, who turned his back at the creature to flee, but the thing kept following him.
The creature was faster than Erik, and in a couple of seconds, it was on him.
"HELP!" the young man shouted. The thought of his untimely death scared him. Was it possible that now that his life was turning for the best, he would die? He cried at life's unfairness.
"Help me! Please help!!"
But no one was going to help him. All those days of loneliness and despair seemed like nothing compared to being eaten alive by a thaid. That fear alone made the young man scream louder, begging for mercy.
"Please don't eat meeeeeeee..."
His heart began racing wildly in fear. Soon enough, the thaid leaped into the air, landing atop the fence surrounding Mister Fox's property. The beast looked at the young man as if he was succulent meat. Its teeth were ready to rip open his flesh.
The creature stared at the young man for a couple of seconds, and then the thaid leaped again.
With nowhere else to do, Erik threw the bag of carrots and apples that Mister Fox gave the young man. The fruits traveled through the air as missiles, but the young man knew that it was all futile.
He was going to die. But maybe this would give the beast some distraction. At least it might buy him another second, perhaps even more.
Then, as by instinct, Erik charged mana into his brain crystal, and the usual electric sensation spread throughout his entire being, making his hairs stand up.
Then the pressure built up inside his body, and he started accumulating energy. It was then that the young man released that energy, this time without physically touching any recipient.
While the thaid was still in mid-air that the energy hit the apple, and a tree started growing at astonishing speed from the seeds.
The tree became easily and rapidly massive, though they traveled in the air as if they had been thrown by a giant. The apples had already sped, which multiplied as the tree enlarged thanks to the mana that the young man released into the air.
The tree trunk traveled like a bullet toward the thaid, who could do nothing to avoid the humungous plant from reaching it.
Then a deafening noise spread in the surroundings since the trees hit the beast which fell to the ground.
[HOSTILE CREATURE KILLED: MANA ABSORBING PROCESS STARTING.]
[0%...1%...5%...30%...70%...100%]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED, STARTING CONVERTING PROCEDURE.]
[3...2...1...0]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED INTO EXPERIENCE. THIRTY EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED TO THE HOST.]
"What?" Erik asked himself. "Thirty experience points?!"
--
Emergency quest: Survival. COMPLETE
-Rewards for completion: A hundred experience points for killing the creature; Fifty experience points for escaping the creature. Forty DNA points in either case.
-Failure Penalty: Death.
(Kill or escape the unknown creature.)
--
[HOST IS ADVISED TO COLLECT THE CREATURE'S BRAIN CRYSTAL AND A SAMPLE OF BLOOD.]
"Wait, why?" Erik asked the system.
[ANSWER: HOST UNLOCKED BRAIN CRYSTAL POWER EXTRACTION AND DNA EXTRACTION]
"WHAT THE HELL DOES IT MEANS?"
[ANSWER: HOST IS ABLE TO GAIN THE BRAIN CRYSTAL POWER OF KILLED ENEMIES AND MAKE IT HIS.]
Erik wondered if what he heard was right. Did the system just state that he could acquire multiple BCP? Was he dreaming? Was it all a joke? Erik didn't ask about this power to the system before because he had other things to think about during the past days, but he could have never expected something like this to be true.
If it was, Erik would have the possibility to steal thaids BCP and become insanely strong. The only problem would be to explain how he acquired such powers. For this reason, Erik immediately understood that he couldn't overuse the power or reveal he had multiple of them. That, if he could get them to begin with.
Even if he was stunned by the sudden revelation, Erik tried to snap out of it and ran to the beast.
"What do I have to do?"
[ANSWER: EAT THE BRAIN CRYSTAL AND DRINK THE CREATURE'S BLOOD, AND THE BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER WILL DO THE REST.]
Erik ran to the fallen beast; its's body had been crushed by the apple trees. It was disgusting to look at the creature.
It's body was mangled, and the eyes popped out from the sockets. The young man gathered his courage; he reached the creature's body and grabbed it. With the creature under his arms, he ran away from that place before anyone could see him.
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As Erik ran through the wheat field, he left a trail of blood behind that got mixed with his footprints. The scent of iron was heavy in the air and so strong that it made the young man's stomach revolt.
He could feel something inside himself, trying desperately not to vomit as his body shuddered violently repeatedly like an earthquake tremor.
He wasn't new to the taste or the smell of blood, but it was his, generally speaking, most of the time because of Logan's assault or something like that. This time it was different; he had a dead thaid in his hands, losing blood all over the ground.
He wasn't doing anything bad by killing the thaid. Still, the system told him he had to eat the brain crystal and drink the creature's blood for him to acquire its brain crystal power.
He couldn't allow people to see him doing so, and for this reason, he hid in the wheat field, where no one could see him.
His heart pounded hard against his chest. His eyes were filled with tears from fear and anxiety, but at the same time, there was anticipation.
If everything went well, he was going to get a new power, which he didn't know, but as long as he could get out of his situation, he would accept whatever power he could.
Though the fear of being found out was strong too, and it urged the young man to be fast with whatever he had to do.
Once Erik stopped in the middle of the field, he looked at the creature; its head was squished open. There was a small space in which the young man could put his finger in.
It was disgusting to see, especially because the eyes were out of their sockets. Though seeing the dead creature wasn't the worst part, it was the thought that he was going to put his fingers into the head, touching the brain and all the fluids dripping from the creature.
Then he also had to drink the blood. What if the creature had some disease that could kill him?
The thought of gaining a new power was too strong, and greed surged inside the young man's mind. Erik collected the creature's blood with his clean hand, and when his fingers were wet with the red liquid, he licked them.
It was disgusting; the taste was horrible. But, once again, he had to ignore his disgust and swallow down what came up from his mouth.
Immediately, multiple notifications appeared in Erik's field of view.
[UNKNOWN CREATURE'S BLOOD ACQUIRED. STARTING THE ANALYSIS.]
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE.]
[FIFTY DNA POINTS ARE REQUIRED TO EXTRACT THE DNA.]
[SIXTY DNA POINTS DETECTED. COMMENCING EXTRACTION?.]
"NONONO, WAIT!" Erik couldn't possibly start anything out in the open; he wanted to start whatever process the system wanted to perform at home. The young man then inquired about what was happening.
"What the hell is going on?"
[ANSWER: IN ORDER TO ACQUIRE A NEW BRAIN CRYSTAL POWER, THE HOST IS REQUIRED TO ADAPT HIS DNA TO THE POWER ITSELF; OTHERWISE, IT WON'T WORK. TO COMPLETE THE PROCEDURE, THE DNA EXTRACTION POWER IS REQUIRED, BUT THE POWER USES GENETIC MATERIAL, AKA DNA POINTS, TO WORK.]
Erik then put his fingers from both hands inside the creature's wound and started applying force, trying to open the head in two.
With a little bit of effort, he was finally able to open the head, and it was there that he saw the brain crystal. It was a small transparent bead, about half the size of a coin, embedded deep inside the brain.
He grabbed hold of it with his right hand and pulled it out quickly. Then Erik took a white tissue from his backpack and took off the blood and the rest of the brain from the crystal.
He had to eat it now, but he didn't have the courage to do it. Though the young man looked at his watch, he was going to be late to take the train, and besides, he couldn't risk losing the crystal or anyone finding out he had it. So, he swallowed a gulp of saliva and then placed the bead in his mouth.
Erik swallowed the crystal whole without even bothering to chew it first. In contrast to the blood, the bead did not have a distinctive flavor other than what the young men tasted since it still had some bits of brain attached.
"Damn!" The young man said. "I hate this."
After eating the brain crystal, Erik immediately got some notifications.
[UNKNOWN CREATURE'S BRAIN CRYSTAL ACQUIRED. STARTING THE ANALYSIS.]
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE.]
[FIFTY DNA POINTS ARE REQUIRED TO EXTRACT THE POWER.]
[SIXTY DNA POINTS DETECTED. EXTRACTION IS NOT ADVISED; THE HOST HAS INCOMPATIBLE DNA.]
[EXTRACTION ABORTED]
The notifications were similar to the previous one. Erik assumed that he needed, in total, a hundred DNA points in order to be able to get the brain crystal power that this thaid had.
Since Erik already had sixty DNA points, he only needed forty in order to extract both the DNA and the BCP, and as far as he understood, he had to first extract the DNA, and then he would be able to extract the power.
I better start going home... the young man thought.
He then went back to the road, he was as clean as he could, but some bits of blood landed on his clothes. The young man walked through the country road; the sun was almost down.
The stars were visible and were shining brightly in the sky above him. After a little bit of walking, Erik finally arrived in the city.
The atmosphere was vastly different compared to the countryside, where multiple farms and fields surrounded by forests dotted the land.
Here, the only thing he saw was concrete buildings made from gray bricks. There weren't many people around either, just a few cars flying above him here and there.
Erik was anxious, though; he dirtied his clothes with blood stains, hoping that no one looked at him long enough to spot them.
Luckily for him, most pedestrians ignored him completely. So far, nobody seemed interested in checking who the boy was or what had happened to him.
The young man arrived at the train station just in time for him to take the last train to the east district.
"Welcome aboard," announced an automated voice over the train's speaker system. "We will arrive at our destination in ten minutes."
As soon as the doors closed, the train began moving again, its engine roaring like thunder. The young man sat next to the window, watching the scenery go by.
Multiple people were seated inside, so the young man had no choice but to stand and stay turned toward the train walls to prevent people from noticing the blood.
Ten minutes of pure anxiety passed before they reached the first stop. As soon as the door opened, the passengers flooded onto the platform, leaving empty seats behind.
Luckily he was now alone inside the train. As the train approached its final stop, the landscape became more urbanized. Finally the train arrived at the station.
Erik looked outside the window, where he saw the floating tracks split into three directions, which led to the south, west, and north districts. Soon enough, the train stopped, and Erik and the passengers in the other carriages disembarked.
Once outside, Erik realized how dark it was getting already and that it would probably rain later tonight. That was good since it would wash away the blood that he left behind.
Erik walked down the streets heading home; he looked at the people around him in horror since he was scared that he could be found out.
If that happened, who knew what would happen to him. As he looked left, he saw a woman with a short haircut walking her dog in sports attire.
She noticed Erik looking at her and quickly averted her eyes. Another person was talking loudly on their phone, while another guy was whistling to himself.
All these things combined reminded Erik of how much he hated living in the city, especially when he lived right in the middle of it all.
Luckily, no one looked at him beside the woman, and no one saw the blood on him.
That dreadful walk finally ended when he reached his house. Erik entered the lobby area of the building. He proceeded to the upper floors, making his way gently up the stairs to avoid disturbing anyone.
As soon as he reached the third floor, he unlocked the door to his apartment and walked inside. After walking through the door, he turned around, leaned against it, and let out a deep sigh.
That nightmare ended. Erik dreaded what could have happened if he was questioned by the police, or worse, the blackguards, and they then found out the thaid's body without the brain crystal.
pAn,Da-n0v e1,c In any case, Erik was glad he managed to escape from the creature and was happy for the biological supercomputer system. Something that was already changing his life for the better.
Erik imagined the time when he would possess a wide array of abilities. Even though he couldn't show them all, he could do so with just one power.
Although it was somewhat uncommon, there were a few individuals who, in their latter years, obtained a new brain crystal power. Because of this, Erik felt certain that he wouldn't run into any major issues, although gaining a new power was an extremely unlikely occurrence.
However, there was no question that the armies would test this new power of his. He would be kept under supervision because, in most cases, the military desired persons with numerous powers.
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pA n,dan(-)0ve1.c0m Erik looked at the desolation inside his living room. He stared blankly at the wall for a moment, his heart pounding because of anxiety as if it would explode from within him like some kind of internal bomb.
He reflected on the events that had just transpired, including his brief confrontation with the unknown thaid, the extraction power he had obtained from the system, the opportunity to obtain yet another brain crystal power, and the requirement that he consume the blood and the brain crystal that had been taken from the mysterious creature.
Erik's head was spinning so much now; there were too many things happening in one day. It seemed impossible for anyone else but himself to have this amount of crazy happenings occurs all on the same night.
"I'm going nuts," he whispered softly into thin air while looking around again at nothingness in his almost empty house. "It can't be possible."
His mind kept thinking over and over about how strange everything has become lately—the sudden appearance of the system, the disappearance of his father, the thaid.
"My dad is the only one who could explain this system. But why didn't he come back?"
"Dad..." A tear rolled down Erik's cheek as he realized how lonely he was. After five minutes spent that way, Erik decided it was time to use his DNA point to get the unknown thaid DNA so that, in a couple of days, he could get his brain crystal power.
"System," Erik said. "Use fifty DNA points to extract the DNA from the unknown thaid I killed," he added.
[SYSTEM READY. DNA POINTS USED. COMMENCING EXTRACTION. HOST IS ADVISED TO LAY ON A BED.]
Erik didn't let the system repeat itself twice. He immediately jumped on his couch and understood why the system said to do so.
It was because of pain, excruciating pain. The sensation felt like someone was cutting an organ out of him, like he was getting pierced by countless needles and being burned alive simultaneously.
Erik suppressed his screams until they became hoarse whispers as tears streamed down his face. Then, after ten seconds passed, the next thing he knew was that his entire body started shaking violently.
His vision went and came multiple times in the span of ten minutes, and he fell from the couch. Then the pain subsided
"What...just happened? What did I just go through?" Erik asked aloud, still sitting on the floor of his living room.
[ANSWER: HOST JUST WENT THROUGH THE DNA ADJUSTING PROCESS. YOUR DNA IS NOW ABLE TO ACCOMMODATE THE UNKNOWN'S CREATURE BRAIN CRYSTAL POWER.]
[UNKNOWN CREATURE BRAIN CRYSTAL ALREADY ANALYZED.]
[INSUFFICIENT DNA POINTS TO PERFORM THE BRAIN CRYSTAL POWER EXTRACTION.]
Erik knew he couldn't extract this new power due to the lack of DNA points.
"Status," the young man said, and a blue window appeared before him.
--
[Host Information]
NAME: Erik Romano
AGE 16
LEVEL 1
EXPERIENCE 150 /200
DNA POINTS 10
HEALTH 220 /220
MANA 150 /150
[Attributes]
STRENGTH 3
INTELLIGENCE 6
DEXTERITY 4
ENERGY 6
Available Attributes point: 0
[Powers]
[Biological Super Computer Powers]
-Brain Crystal Manipulation
-Brain Crystal Power Extraction
(Allows the absorbtion of the brain crystal , making the host able to acquire the power contained within. Notice: the DNA must be changed in order to allow the body to use the power. See DNA extraction.)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- Brain Crystal Power Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the energy attribute points)
-DNA Manipulation
-DNA Extraction
(Allows the absorbtion of foreign DNA, making the host able to replicate it inside his own body. Notice: Changing the DNA is a slow process and it is required to use new brain crystal powers.)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
-DNA Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity attribute points)
- Analysis
(Gives the host information about his surroundings, plants, creatures, and ores)
-Brain Information Injector
(It allows the injection of information directly to the brain-Based on touch)
-Device Manipulation
(Allows the Host to manipulate electronic and mana-driven devices- Based on touch)
[Host's Powers]
-Rapid Growth [Plants] (ESIGMA1E-Ranked)
(Allows the host to make Plants Grow Faster)
--
Erik looked at his DNA points; they were only ten, meaning that he had to make four daily quests to unlock the new power.
The young man also looked at the number of experience points he had; they were a hundred and fifty, as he gained a hundred from the emergency quest. Then Erik recalled that he still had to complete today's training quest.
"Quests," the young man said.
--
[Quests List]
[Daily]
Eating Habits: COMPLETE
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Eat a healthy meal)
Physical training: ACCEPTED
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Train for at least an hour. The Host may choose whatever exercise to complete the quest.)
--
I can still earn ten DNA points by making today's training quest. Erik nodded to himself, and then he dismissed the quest's window.
The young man then started training in earnest. His workout consisted of pushups, squats, sit-ups, reverse lunges, squats and presses, planks, and a variety of other exercises.
He had been doing these exercises for the past several days and was already noticing some improvements in his physique. Obviously, it was still soon to see big changes, but he felt stronger and more vigorous than usual.
Then Erik went to take a shower, and after that, he prepared dinner. He rested for the time he had available and then went to bed since the following day, he still had to go to school.
Raveena and Roma were still at the military outpost that was attacked. The Densoph threat had been stopped, but multiple were the damages that the creatures had caused.
Raveena was checking over the bodies of the fallen soldiers while Roma was going writing down the name of the dead.
The situation could have all ended differently if the army had given more people to the outpost. But they didn't because such vast attacks stopped at least twenty years prior, and the threat of the thaids significantly decreased on the Mannard continent.
There had been thaid attacks in the past months, yes, but an attack of such proportion wasn't predictable.
"Are you done counting?" Roma asked Raveena.
"Yes, there are at least thirty deaths," she replied.
"The management will call their families and inform them of the death of their loved ones," Raveena added.
"How long does this process usually take?" Roma asked.
"Usually one week or so," Raveena answered.
Then, the two women and a bunch of other people started searching the outpost for surviving enemies.
They searched room after room until Roma noticed something weird: a slightly opened door. The soldiers probably forgot to close it.
It was weird for trained soldiers to make an amateurish mistake, which made the young woman grow suspicious.
She quickly walked into the room which was filled with crates full of supplies. The woman scrutinized the room and found evidence of a thaid, the beast left excrement here and there, and there were also some blood stains on the floor.
Roma followed the stains; they were leading up. The woman looked at a wall and noticed an air vent without a lid.
This seemed strange enough to the young woman who decided to check inside. At first, she thought someone might be hiding behind the duct, but when she checked further through the opening she saw nothing but blood traces.
"Damn!"
Roma immediately understood. A thaid managed to escape through the air vents. The problem suddenly magnified many times now that the civilians were going to be involved.
We need to tell the officers, Roma thought to herself They must alarm the city
But before the young woman could leave the room, she heard footsteps coming towards her. The sound grew louder, and voices echoed in the hallway outside. Raveena entered the room and looked at Roma's anxious face.
"What happened?" Raveena inquired.
"There's a thaid loose somewhere," Roma told him.
"Did you find some tracks?"Raveena asked.
"Yes, see for yourself."
Raveena then checked the room and found what her colleagues did find. She then turned to look at her and said, "Don't worry! We'll catch whatever escaped."
Then Roma went to tell the officers about the situation while Raveena went outside the building to check if the creature had actually left the building.
The outpost wasn't particularly big; it only contained three buildings: the main base where most of the soldiers lived, a medical center, and another smaller building that served as a storage area.
The latter housed mostly weapons and ammunition. When Raveena arrived outside, she circled the area until she found an opened air vent. She looked at the ground and saw fresh Densoph's footprints on the ground.
Then the young woman returned to the building and informed Colonel Tiwana, Roma had already told him what happened, but Raveena added her findings.
"I think we should send a patrol team to search for the missing thaid," Roma said.
"Do it right away!" Tiwana ordered. "Roma will be in charge of the squad. I want you to find and kill this thaid."
"Yes, sir. Don't worry, I will find the beast and kill it."
"Good luck then. You can start tomorrow morning. You are all dismissed."
The soldiers and the two sergeants then left the room and went toward their room to rest.
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Rain was falling down heavily on New Alexandria. The water fell over the buildings and the people walking down the streets, soaking them through in an instant. It seemed to fall as if there were a storm within the city that no one could escape.
The water trickled down from the windows of a grandiose building known as the Koma, situated in the middle of the western district.
It ran along the marble flooring into pools that formed on the sides of the walls and disappeared into the drainage system.
Multiple cars arrived in front of the building in a column until they stopped when a particular blue car arrived in front of the building's main entrance.
Countless men jumped off the vehicles and made a small corridor from the blue car to the entrance. They all wore dark suits with red ties, their faces hidden behind masks or visors for protection against the weather outside.
A single man emerged from a car: he had a tall stature and red hair tied up at his neckline while wearing sunglasses, a bizarre sight given the bad weather.
He walked forward slowly, followed by two bodyguards who stood close to him without showing any tint of emotion and without concern about getting wet by the rain. His face showed indifference toward anyone else around him, not even his own guards.
He walked towards the door without making any sound at all. When he finally approached the door, a man opened it to let the man enter the building.
A woman dressed in a military attire, with her hair tied back came rushing in front of the man. She put both hands together and bowed deeply, leaving the other person unimpressed. "General Becker," said the young woman with respect in her voice.
The man looked at the woman but didn't say anything. He didn't have to as he was the leader of Frant, General Armand Becker.
This man was a powerful individual for many reasons. Not only he had a mighty brain crystal power in the AIOTA2A rank that allowed him to control air, but he was also the leader of a whole militaristic nation. His power was vast enough to make others fear his presence.
The man then went forward with a slow stride. He entered the building elevator and went to the tenth floor, a giant meeting room where he usually met with other important military people to discuss national security matters. This day too, he came for that exact reason.
Once the silent elevator brought him there and the door opened, he saw multiple people waiting for him inside.
Some sat on chairs arranged around the table, while some stood in a line in front of it. One man alone stood near the window wall, looking out over the view of the city below. The man turned his head slightly to look at the general approaching the table.
There were multiple important people in that room: Zayan Calvert, New Alexandria's mayor, and Colonel Stephan Middleton tasked to manage the city's defenses. Leslie Sparks, the ministry of war, and Jena Rose, the ministry of defense.
Becker organized this meeting to discuss the war and the thaid situation in the east, which was becoming increasingly alarming. If things continued like that, New Alexandria would face a huge crisis.
"Welcome, everyone." As soon as he stepped into the room, Becker gave a quick salute before sitting down at the table.
The man looked at the people inside the room and said, "I want updates regarding the war."
Minister Spark nodded in response and smiled politely. "We've been informed that the first army has fallen to the Hininan forces," she said calmly.
"That means we are losing ground?" asked Zayan.
Minister Spark nodded. "It does mean that, yes. But don't worry. We still hold our positions well, despite the losses. That being said, Hin isn't going to be able to fight this war alone anymore."
"What do you need to defeat them?"
Minister Spark then replied, "More troops. Our current numbers aren't sufficient. There is another issue, though, I'm afraid.
So far, the enemy hasn't attacked any of our cities, but they will eventually try. And if that happens, we will be forced to call our troops back."
Becker stared at the minister for several moments after hearing those words. Finally, he sighed heavily and shook his head. Then he faced the minister and said, "I want you to prepare the best defenses, and send more troops to the Hinian shores."
"It will be done," the minister of war replied.
"Ok, now. Any news regarding the recent thaid behavior near New Alexandria? I got a report stating that a group of Densoph attacked one of the entrances to the barrier. Why did no one figure it out before it happened?"
Colonel Middleton answered immediately. "According to the reports, there must be some particularly powerful thaids driving the weaker ones west. It doesn't often happen, but there have been cases in the past."
"Why did you do nothing to stop this phenomenon?" Becker asked.
"Because we couldn't find the source of the mass migration. We need more than small squads for this task since the city's forests are full of thaids," the minister of defense, Jena Rose, said.
"So what kind of strategy should we use against these beasts?" asked the mayor. "Are we supposed to stay here and defend the city, or should we attack them?"
"Both," replied Minister Rose. "Our main priority right now is keeping the thaid threat away from the citizens. So, we can't stop supplying troops to the city's defenses. At the same time, it would be good to send a platoon to search for the source of the disturbance."
"If the beast causing their migration could be found quickly, it might help us figure out how to deal with the problem better." added the colonel.
"How long do you think it'll take?" asked Zayan.
Jena raised her hand and replied, "About a week to get a good squad ready. But the mission's outcome depends on them. So to find the beast, a minimum of three weeks are required."
"And what about the thaid that entered the city?" Mayor Zayan asked.
"We are organizing a team to go search for it. They should depart this morning." Colonel Middleton responded.
Everyone glanced at each other silently. No one knew anything else except the fact that there had been a thaid entering New Alexandria recently. They all hoped that whatever the creature was doing in the city didn't cause much harm.
"All right. But first things first. Send a platoon to search for the cause of the migration as soon as possible. Am I clear?" General Becker said.
"Yes, sir!" All the attendees agreed. They all knew that this wasn't an easy thing to accomplish. Especially when dealing with the thaids, and the meeting ended shortly after.
Roma and four other people were preparing themselves to head out in search of the creature that escaped inside the city. Luckily, there had been no reports of accidents in the surroundings, but this also meant that searching for the creature was bound to be more complicated than expected.
"Is everything set?" Roma asked. She stood next to a grey flying car, which was parked nearby. The vehicle was equipped with two guns mounted over the roof.
One gun was pointing forward while the other pointed backward. Each weapon fired laser capable of cutting through almost any material. If necessary, the lasers could even pierce thick steel plates.
"Yep! Ready to roll whenever you are," replied Private McBride. He opened the door of the vehicle and hopped in.
A few seconds later, the rest followed suit: Private Rennie climbed in through the driver's side; Private Smith took up position behind him while Private Williams sat beside the sergeant.
The sun was already high above the horizon by the time they departed.
Roma was going to follow the Thaid traces, leading toward the north of the city, meaning that the beast was directed toward some farms.
"Luckily, this creature didn't go toward the city center," Roma said. The last thing they needed was a bunch of thaids running around the streets.
"That sounds familiar..."
Roma nodded slowly, "Yeah. I remember reading about such a case once. A group of thaid went past the barrier and killed countless people."
"How were they able to enter the barrier?" Private Rennie asked.
"It has never been fully explained," Roma replied.
The group then started their search by following the trails that the beast left. As the day progressed, they encountered several dead animals along the way. Most of the victims were cattle that the farmers left roaming around. They all showed signs of Densoph bites. The densoph didn't even eat the creatures; it looked like its only aim was to kill everything on sight. Thaids were vicious creatures, after all.
After a short distance, the tracks stopped in front of a vast wheat field stretched across several kilometers.
"This isn't good," muttered the private who drove the flying car, "The traces ends here."
"Don't panic. Let's search the surroundings," Roma said. They parked the car, and the team started searching for traces on the ground.
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Erik woke up refreshed the following day. His mood was on the stars since he was bound to acquire another brain crystal power in a couple of days.
It wasn't the first time something like that happened to people; some were born with brain crystals that later on allowed the individual to develop a second power.
It was rare but possible; Erik, though, had to complete four daily quests in order to get enough DNA points to give the system the required energy to use the so-called extraction power.
So, the first thing the young man did when waking up was check his daily quests.
"Quests," the young man said.
--
[Quests List]
[Daily]
Eating Habits:
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Eat a healthy meal)
(ACCEPT QUEST) (REFUSE QUEST)
Physical training:
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Train for at least an hour. The Host may choose whatever exercise to complete the quest.)
(ACCEPT QUEST) (REFUSE QUEST)
--
He then accepted both quests and walked to the kitchen to complete the first one. He needed food anyway. As soon as he finished eating breakfast—a bowl of cereal with milk plus a banana—he returned to his room to get dressed for school.
He looked at his status quest in satisfaction since the first daily quest sported a huge COMPLETED beside the quest name and gave him ten DNA points.
A few minutes later, wearing the school's black uniform, Erik headed out to the living room and then left the building from the main door.
As usual, the young man headed to the train station, going through the full of billboards city streets until arriving there.
There he took a ticket using the terminal and entered the waiting area where many students waited before boarding their trains.
Since it was the last school month, most of the students were heading home after classes, while others would stay behind because they had exams or other extracurricular activities planned for the week.
It was important to get good result before entering the militaries since that would mean they would be much more interested in the student in question, and opening a wide array of possibilities.
Erik waited for a bit and then the train arrived. He then jumped on a carriage and sat down near the window.
In less than five minutes, the train departed, leaving the platform and speeding through the floating rails stretching inside the city as a maze.
As he went toward the west district, Erik observed the cars and the trains floating above the city streets. The trains looked like giant snakes crawling through the air.
They moved very fast along the tracks suspended between buildings and bridges, making sure not to collide with anything else.
The trains went here and there, leaving and going into the station as if they were entering their burrows, disappearing from Erik's view.
Sometimes, they floated between the clouds when they were low enough to float between the city's skyscrapers.
All this fascinated him greatly. He frequently saw this scenery, but he couldn't stop marveling at the sight every time he looked at it.
"This is incredible!" Erik exclaimed. Wondering how that was possible. He then arrived in the western district and headed to school.
Then, the young man had the usual routine of people staring at him or making fun of him because of his power, unaware that he had been subject to great changes in the last week.
Not only was he now Ranked E on the Ferebitz scale, but he also fixed the problem that prevented him from making new neural links. He was bound to develop new connections sooner or later.
Not only this, but the next day he was going to get a new power. He didn't know which one, but it would certainly help him become even stronger.
For the moment, however, Erik had to focus on what was happening, which meant dealing with his classes. Luckily, today he only had theoretical classes, so he didn't have to embarrass himself in front of his classmates.
There was more, though; since the day he shared Logan's and his friends' video, they stopped outright beating him. It was probably due the consequences would be much worse now since the school found out he set a bathroom on fire.
After taking his seat in the class, Erik stared blankly outside the classroom windows, watching everything pass by slowly.
Soon, everyone started talking about what they had done the previous day until the teacher finally arrived in class and the lessons started.
At the end of the lessons, Erik stood up and left the classroom without saying goodbye to anyone. He had to reach the farm to work. So he walked toward the train station and headed to the northern district this time.
After a while, he arrived at Mister Fox's farm and found him there using some sort of machine to drag the tree. He made it grow away from the main gate.
"Good morning, mister Fox," the young man said.
"Erik... I was wondering if you could explain this tree out here," the old man said while transporting the tree out of the way. Erik followed Mister Fox but didn't know what to say to his employer. "Was it you?" Mister Fox asked.
It was obvious it was him since he was the only person in the whole city capable of making plants grow faster. Besides, the tree wasn't there the previous day, or better, before Erik left the farm.
"Yes, sir."
"Care to explain?" Mister Fox asked.
Erik panicked; he didn't know what to say to Mister Fox. If the attack happened elsewhere, he could have at least said that he didn't have anything to do about it. Still, the tree was in front of him, so it was pretty obvious he made that apple tree grow there. In the end, he confessed.
"Yeah, it was me. Sorry Mister Fox," the young man said.
"Why did you do something like that? I had to carry this damn thing alone over there!" the man replied.
"I...I Was attacked," Erik hesitantly said.
"Attacked? By what, a thaid? Here inside the barrier?" Thaids inside the barrier were rare but not unheard of.
"Yes, sir. It was a thaid." Mister Fox didn't know what to believe.
"And I should believe that it was able to enter the barrier? Despite all the security involved?"
"Sir, this is what happened. I barely escaped with my life."
Mister Fox was unconvinced by Erik's story. Still, something did happen. Otherwise, the young man wouldn't have used his power without any reason.
"If what you say is true, you should have called the blackguards or the militaries. Why didn't you do so?" Mister Fox asked.
"Sir, I was scared, I had a train to take to go home, and I was in a panic..."
pA n,dan(-)0ve1.c0m Erik told the old man what did happen, and once he finished Mister Fox looked at him and sighed. He gave in in the end and didn't say anything else regarding the matter.
"All right, just do your job, all right?"
"Of course, Mr. Fox." The young man nodded. Then he went to the barn to change. They continued working together as usual, except Mister Fox kept staring suspiciously at Erik, who pretended not to notice.
The young man then went to work. He used his power to make plants grow faster. After that, the old man ordered Erik to go collect the potatoes and he did so while using the usual basket.
After a while, Erik stopped to eat under one of the trees on the farm. The scenery was beautiful today; the sun shone brightly above them, and the sky was clear blue.
Erik took off his jacket and shirt and lay down beneath the shade of the tree, enjoying the warmth of the sunlight against his skin.
While eating, Erik thought about the events that occurred last night. His mind drifted back to the moment when he saw the thaid coming toward him.
He remembered how terrified he felt. And how things unfolded, the quest, the blood, the corpse, and how he managed to escape death.
After his brief rest, Erik went back to work again. Soon enough, he finished harvesting the vegetables from the garden.
Erik then went to change back into his school uniform, which was stored in the barn. When he got changed, Mister Fox came into the room where Erik waited for him.
"Hey, kid! You done already?"
The young man smiled nervously.
"Yep, almost," Erik replied.
They both exited the barn and headed toward the house. Probably to give him the money he earned during the day. He was still suspicious of Erik and didn't believe what the young man said. They walked through the fields until arriving at the main gate. As soon as they reached the door, the old man handed Erik the money for his work. "Here," Mister Fox said.
Erik opened the bag and counted out the money; there were twenty new dollars. He couldn't help feeling relieved after receiving payment.
As Erik raised his head, he saw a group of men and women walking in his and Mister Fox's direction. They were militaries wearing full combat gear with their faces concealed behind a helmet. The soldiers were directly looking at the duo; there was no doubt that these people wanted to talk to them.
"I'm Sergeant Roma Sinclair. Do you mind if we ask you some questions?" the woman said.
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She was looking at Erik and Mister Fox with curious eyes. Erik and Mister Fox looked at the woman with anxiety. Erik because he feared the militaries came here because they found the thaid and traced it back on him.
They hadn't found the thaid yet, but he didn't know. Mister Fox was anxious because he knew that something important happened or was bound to happen when the militaries were around.
"Yes, sir. Ask whatever you want," the old man said.
"Did you see anything suspicious around here yesterday or this morning?" Sergeant Sinclair asked. Mister Fox immediately thought at what Erik had told him, he turned to look at the young man, but as he did, he saw Erik looking at him with pleading eye as if to ask him not to reveal anything to the militaries.
"No, ma'am." The answer was immediate and short. "I've been working here since yesterday morning and didn't see anything strange." Although Erik didn't want this matter to come out he lied.
"And you, young man?" Roma asked Erik, who was standing there with a frightened look even though, he was trying not to let his emotions transpire. "Did you see anything strange around these parts?"
Erik promptly replied to the officer. "No, ma'am. I saw nothing." His heart was racing as if it was going to jump out of his chest. He could feel it inside his throat pounding like a hammer against the walls.
Mister Fox was already suspecting that this had to do with the thaid that Erik talked about, but he couldn't be so sure.
"Why, did something bad happen?" The old man asked.
Roma had no reason to withhold information, so she told the truth.
"A thaid entered the barrier yesterday and came in this direction. If you see it, I suggest you avoid the creature at all costs."
In the meantime, Roma's team looked at their surroundings while the sergeant kept talking to the two men.
There were multiple traces left by the tree that Mister Fox dragged out of the main-gate earlier today. Small branches were scattered across the floor, dirt smeared their roots, and leaves were strewn everywhere.
Private Rennie noticed the tree that was moved from the front of the fence gate to a corner of the property.
Not only it was weird for the tree to be there, but there was also the fact that it had been completely eradicated. Its roots, in fact, were out in the open; it was like someone took the time to dig up the whole thing carefully. It was all due to Erik's power, but he didn't know that.
"We don't know where the thaid is now, but we're searching every inch of this area until we catch up to it," Roma informed the two men.
The two nodded, knowing fully that the creature had already died at Erik's hands. Mister Fox didn't know what truly happened the previous day, but it was clear that Erik didn't lie about the monster attacking him.
Private Rennie then asked, "Why is there a tree out here?"
"Oh, that? It's because of this young boy here, Erik. He has a power that makes plants grow faster."
"Oh?" Sergeant Sinclair said. "A pretty useful brain crystal power on a farm." She looked at the young man, and then asked, "What is your name, boy?"
The question caught Erik off guard, "Uh, uh...er...My name is Erik Romano," the young man answered.
Sergeant Sinclair smiled when she heard his response.
Sergeant Sinclair smiled when she heard his response.
"This doesn't answer the question. I will ask again, why is there a tree here?" Private Rennie asked again.
Mister Fox tried to come up with a valid excuse, "We needed some wood for work we have to do on the farm, and I figured out it was more convenient to make a tree grow rather than buying the wood from a merchant..."
Private Rennie was still suspicious but didn't say anything else after hearing the explanation. They both knew that the story sounded too contrived.
"I think I'll leave you guys alone now," Sergeant Sinclair announced her departure. "But please tell me immediately should you find any signs or traces of the thaid."
"Yes, ma'am!" Both men agreed.
She turned around and walked back towards the road. Then she stopped briefly and glanced behind her before turning to go. Something was odd about the look in her eyes, but they didn't get a chance to notice it.
Erik watched as the militaries disappeared down the path. Mister Fox looked at the young man who stood quietly next to him, not saying a word.
"Are you okay, kid?" Mister fox asked.
There was no reply. Erik continued to watch the soldiers going away without uttering a word.
"Erik..."
"Yes, I'm ok, Mister Fox."
They shared a brief moment of awkwardness between them. Erik started walking slowly toward the door leading outside to check on the rest of the farm.
Understanding his situation, Mister Fox grabbed Erik by the shoulder and guided him into the house. "Come along, kid."
It felt strange being in the house; the place was massive compared to the one he grew up in. The walls were covered with paintings, each depicting something different.
There was even a painting of an angel floating above a field of flowers. The furniture was new, and there were multiple pieces of technology here and there, including a very advanced maid robot waiting for orders inside the kitchen.
"These are beautiful," Erik commented while looking at the paintings.
"Yeah, these aren't mine, though," Mister Fox admitted. He then turned to look at the robot and said, "Ada, please prepare a cup of tea for Erik."
The young man was quite thirsty, so he accepted the offer. After a couple of minutes, the robot brought him a steaming cup of black tea.
"Thanks," Erik told Ada, who replied simply, "You're welcome."
Mister Fox was thoughtful enough not to ask any more questions to the young man. After all, he had already explained what happened with the thaid to him; of course, Erik refrained from telling him anything regarding the biological supercomputer, so there was nothing more he could ask.
After waiting for Erik to calm down he said, "You can go for today; make sure to get enough rest. I need you to be in full force tomorrow."
"All right, Mister Fox," Erik said.
"Don't you think there was something strange in those two?" Private Rennie said to Private Williams.
"What do you mean?"
"It was like they were hiding something," Private Rennie replied.
"Do you think they saw the thaid?" Private William asked.
"I don't know, but that tree there had me thinking that maybe something is going on in that farm."
"It doesn't make sense," Roma interjected. "What reason should they have to hide something about a thaid?" she added.
"That's true…" Private Rennie responded. "But their explanation was a little bit weird. I had trouble trusting them."
"You are talking about an old man and a kid no more than sixteen. Didn't you see how the kid started trembling once he saw us? He was frightened." Private Williams said.
"Yes, maybe because he really did hide something from us." Private Rennie said.
"Enough with the chat," Sergeant Roma said.
They arrived in front of Mister Fox's wheat field and entered it. Multiple ears of wheat stretched out toward the sky, it was like a golden carpet spread across the land. The field was well cared for, and the wheat was unnaturally high.
"Do you think this is that kid's work?" Private McBride said, referring to the unnaturally tall plants.
"Maybe," Roma, the sergeant, said.
"What do you think his rank is, sir?" Private William said.
"I don't know, but I don't think it should be high. He is a kid, after all."
The group went deeper inside the wheat field but didn't find anything.
"It's better we split up," Sergeant Sinclair said. "We will be able to cover more ground."
"Understood," The privates replied in unison. As the group of five split up, they went in different directions, searching through the fields. They searched every nook and cranny until finally, Private McBride called the others on the communicator.
"Sir, I found the thaid."
"Understood; stay there and don't engage," Sergeant Sinclair replied.
"Sir, it's already dead."
"Stay where you are, then," the officer replied.
After some time, the other four members of the squad reached him.
"Where is it?" Sergeant Sinclair said.
"There," Private McBride said while pointing at the creature. It was then that they saw the body; it was already starting to decompose. Its head was split open, its blood already dry on the ground.
"Well, at least it couldn't do any damage." Private Williams said.
"I won't be so sure about that," Sergeant Sinclair said. "Besides, there is another problem; how did it die?" she added.
"Probably a citizen. Most of them are retired soldiers, after all." Private Rennie said.
"Yeah, but why they didn't report it to us? A thaid roaming inside the forest shouldn't be a small deal." Private William said, looking at the body. Then, sergeant Sinclair crouched to look at the body better.
"Should we bring it back to the base?" Private Williams asked.
"There is no need to. It doesn't matter who killed the creature; the only good thing is that it is dead," Sergeant Sinclair replied.
quillbot-extension-portal/quillbot-extension-portal
Later that day, Erik went home as usual. Meeting the militaries in that circumstance had not been easy, but luckily, they didn't pry further.
Hopefully, they didn't find the thaid body or find out that the creature's brain crystal had been taken off. Obviously, he had no way of knowing and could only hope things went that way.
"Quests," the young man said. There was only one thought in his head: make his last daily quest and obtain ten additional DNA points. He would end up with forty points, making him just a day away from achieving his goal.
--
[Quests List]
[Daily]
Eating Habits: COMPLETE
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Eat a healthy meal)
Physical training: ACCEPTED
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Train for at least an hour. The Host may choose whatever exercise to complete the quest.)
--
Erik observed the quest list. He got up from his sofa and started working on the last quest, doing his usual workout.
He was showing signs of improvement, but it was still too early to say they were huge. But even so, he did feel like his strength was growing by leaps and bounds.
His stamina was also increasing steadily. It wasn't enough yet, but if he continued with this pace, he could start having some sick abs.
After Erik ended his training, he went to bed. The following day he had to go to school; they had the Link establishing class with mister O'Leary that day, and he couldn't wait to see if, this time, he would be able to train without hindrance.
Two days passed since Erik got his deformity fixed, and he had been busy, making it hard for him to try and see if his problem had really been fixed. Obviously, the system could be trusted, so he had faith that the problem had disappeared.
Erik fell asleep on his couch, as he did every day, watching TV until late into the night. When he woke up, the first thing he did was check his quest list and accept the quests. Then he prepared breakfast, and after eating, he completed the daily quest that would have made him obtain enough DNA points to unlock the unknown thaid's power.
"System, how much time will be required to unlock the unknown thaid's power?" Erik asked.
[ANSWER: TWO HOURS AND THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES WILL BE REQUIRED.]
"Will something happen to me if I use the power to unlock it?"
[ANSWER: THE HOST WILL BE UNCONSCIOUS FOR THE ENTIRETY OF THE PROCESS UNLESS THE HOST USES MORE DNA POINTS AND PROVIDE THE SYSTEM MORE ENERGY TO WORK. IF NOT, THE SYSTEMS WILL REQUIRE ENERGY FROM THE HOST, MAKING HIM LOSE CONSCIOUSNESS.]
It looks like I can't use the system power yet, Erik, though.
He couldn't miss school, despite wanting to do so. The young man then prepared himself to go out, he put on his uniform, and after having grabbed his backpack, he went out of his house.
The young man arrived at the train station later on and went to the western district, where his school was located. Once he arrived, he avoided everyone like the plague.
Fortunately, Logan kept a low profile, so he wasn't giving him problems besides making fun of him in front of other people.
Erik arrived in class, and later on, people started coming to the class, including professor O'Leary.
"Well, guys. This will be another training day for you," the teacher said while walking through the room.
The students all concentrated and started channeling mana, as they did every time. Erik did the same, the usual soothing and warm sensation of mana flowing inside his body, particularly in his head, spread inside of him.
Soon enough, Erik felt the familiar tingle spreading across his entire brain, which meant mana was circulating inside his brain.
Once again, Erik didn't want to miss anything important happening during this period. Not only he concentrated on the mana inside his body but on every little difference compared to the previous times he performed the technique to make neural links. Time passed, and apparently, nothing major happened.
Haha... hahaha... hahahahahahahahaha Erik started laughing inside his mind. Usually, he would have lost the connection to mana, stopping him from making neural links.
This time, nothing like that happened, meaning Erik could finally start making neural links and increase his rank. The young man was ecstatic; a huge smile appeared on his face, something Professor O'Leary didn't miss.
"Did something happen, Mister Romano?" The teacher asked. The other students turned to look at the student and looked at him as if he was a psycho.
"Nothing, professor," Erik replied without losing his smile.
"Stop smiling like an idiot and concentrate on the task!" Mister O'Leary said.
"Yes, professor," Erik replied.
The lesson went on, as usual, this time with him being able to channel mana inside his brain as it should have been. The day went on normally, with Erik following theoretical classes, math, history, and the like.
The lessons ended later on, and Erik left the school to work on the farm, as usual, after which he went back home. As he walked through the city streets at night, Erik trembled in excitement because of what was going to happen, he was going to get the power from a thaid he killed.
The stars shined brightly that night, and the sky was clear and full of light, as there were no clouds visible in sight.
Erik stood under those stars, looking at them intently, feeling their beauty. He knew that soon everything would change for good; he was curious to know what the thaid power would be.
Still, since the system didn't tell him that he could have only a limited number of powers, Erik assumed that he could have many of them.
The young man kept walking; he was almost home, and people were still outside minding their business even now. There was a man sitting alone near the sidewalk, a homeless person who probably lived around here somewhere.
On the other side of the street, two men sat together, drinking alcohol. One had a big scar on his face, and the other wore a leather jacket.
It looked like the younger of the two was trying to talk to the older man about some stuff, but Erik couldn't figure out what they were saying.
Erik always thought that the other people were better than him, even if they were drunkards or beggars; in his thoughts, they probably had a power that was stronger than his, and it was an inferiority complex that he wasn't able to erase. But that was going to end in a couple of minutes.
The young man finally arrived home; he went up the stairs, opened the door, and closed the door behind him.
"Status," Erik said.
--
[Host Information]
NAME: Erik Romano
AGE 16
LEVEL 1
EXPERIENCE 190 /200
DNA POINTS 50
HEALTH 220 /220
MANA 150 /150
[Attributes]
STRENGTH 3
INTELLIGENCE 6
DEXTERITY 4
ENERGY 6
Available Attributes point: 0
[Powers]
[Biological Super Computer Powers]
-Brain Crystal Manipulation
-Brain Crystal Power Extraction
(Allows the absorbtion of the brain crystal , making the host able to acquire the power contained within. Notice: the DNA must be changed in order to allow the body to use the power. See DNA extraction.)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- Brain Crystal Power Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the energy attribute points)
-DNA Manipulation
-DNA Extraction
(Allows the absorbtion of foreign DNA, making the host able to replicate it inside his own body. Notice: Changing the DNA is a slow process and it is required to use new brain crystal powers.)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
-DNA Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity attribute points)
- Analysis
(Gives the host information about his surroundings, plants, creatures, and ores)
-Brain Information Injector
(It allows the injection of information directly to the brain-Based on touch)
-Device Manipulation
(Allows the Host to manipulate electronic and mana-driven devices- Based on touch)
[Host's Powers]
-Rapid Growth [Plants] (ESIGMA1E-Ranked)
(Allows the host to make Plants Grow Faster)
--
Oh, I have a hundred and ninety experience points, just a daily quest, and i will level up! Erik thought. The young man then observed his DNA points; he had fifty, just enough to use the system's power. He then lay on his couch with a pillow under his head, then he said inside his head, System, I'm ready. A robotic voice echoed inside the young man's head.
[UNDERSTOOD. SYSTEM READY. DNA POINTS USED. COMMENCING EXTRACTION. HOST IS ADVISED TO LAY ON A BED.]
Mana started swirling inside Erik's body it was like a hurricane inside of him was ravaging everything. Then he started feeling a warm sensation inside his stomach.
He felt the warmth spreading from his core towards his extremities until it reached every part of his body. It spread through his whole being and into the air around him.
"I feel good," Erik murmured quietly as he lay there, but then his head started to spin dizzily until his sight darkened. His eyes closed, and his consciousness faded away.
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Erik woke up later that night with a slight migraine. Whatever the system did change his brain crystal at a level Erik couldn't even understand.
It was like having your body rebooted after too many days in bed. Still, it only took him about five minutes to get back into working order.
He got out of bed, or better, his couch, and started contemplating his changes. He could sense a vague feeling like he knew how to do something, but he couldn't quite get what it was.
"Status," Erik said out loud, and then the usual bluish window appeared in front of him.
--
[Host Information]
NAME: Erik Romano
AGE: 16
LEVEL: 1
EXPERIENCE: 190 /200
DNA POINTS: 0
HEALTH: 220 /220
MANA: 150 /150
[Attributes]
STRENGTH: 3
INTELLIGENCE: 6
DEXTERITY: 4
ENERGY: 6
Available Attributes point: 0
[Powers]
[Biological Super Computer Powers]
-Brain Crystal Manipulation
-Brain Crystal Power Extraction
(Allows the absorption of the brain crystal, making the host able to acquire the power contained within. Notice: the DNA must be changed in order to allow the body to use the power. See DNA extraction.)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- Brain Crystal Power Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the energy attribute points)
-DNA Manipulation
-DNA Extraction
(Allows the absorbtion of foreign DNA, making the host able to replicate it inside his own body. Notice: Changing the DNA is a slow process and it is required to use new brain crystal powers.)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
-DNA Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity attribute points)
- Analysis
(Gives the host information about his surroundings, plants, creatures, and ores)
-Brain Information Injector
(It allows the injection of information directly to the brain-Based on touch)
-Device Manipulation
(Allows the Host to manipulate electronic and mana-driven devices- Based on touch)
[Host's Powers]
-Rapid Growth [Plants] (ESIGMA1E-Ranked)
(Allows the host to make Plants Grow Faster)
-Sharpening (ESIGMA1D-Ranked)
(Makes Every things sharper according to the quantity of mana imbued into the item or body part)
--
Erik first noticed that he had a hundred and ninety Experience points, meaning that he only had to make his last daily quest to get to level two.
He already knew on what he wanted to spend his attribute points on, strength. It was true that by making new neural links, he would be able to improve his strength naturally. Still, he severely lacked strength now and needed the means to defend himself against bullies.
Since he released Logan's and his friends' video of them setting the bathroom on fire, he was having a little bit of peace, but he couldn't say how long that would last.
Besides, in less than three months, he had to go to the military school, where things would be much more complicated. They would actually learn how to fight there, and he couldn't risk being every student practice target. He didn't want such a life anymore.
The second thing the young man noticed was his new power: Sharpening. According to the description, it allowed him to make things sharper, meaning that he could make any item a weapon.
Though, the problem was that he didn't know how to use a weapon. Other kids usually learned martial arts or used specific weapons since they were kids, but he didn't have the money to do so, and he didn't know what to do.
Luckily he had the system, and an idea sprouted inside his mind. If he could learn training exercises by downloading videos and books, what could stop him from doing the same with sword manuals and the like?
There were multiple things that the young man had to do during a single day, go to school, work, develop the neural links, make the daily quests, and now train with weapons. His schedule was full already, so he had to find a solution at least for his job problem; he needed money.
"Better think about that later. Now, how do I use this power? The system stated that i can make things sharper, including body parts."
Erik grabbed a pencil from his backpack; the pencil was made of wood and was orange and black coloration. Erik didn't know how to use his new power yet. Usually, people knew how to innately use brain crystal powers, but this wasn't something natural, so Erik had to learn how to use it.
Though the key was imbuing mana into the object, the young man did exactly that. He focused on the mana his brain crystal power could harness, feeling it travel from his brain to his fingers, and willed it to go into the item.
The young man started feeling a tingling sensation travel through his brain and his hand. After that, he started feeling the pencil surrounded by a thin coat of mana; it was like feeling a magnetic field around the pencil.
Then, without knowing why, he thought to sharpen the pen, and suddenly the mana around the item thinned and started making a sharp edge.
"Ah, I get it now."
Erik observed the pencil as if he was observing a strange animal; he didn't use a lot of mana to coat the pencil, so he guessed it wasn't a lot sharp.
"Let's check this out." Erik then grabbed another object. It was a piece of wood he used to keep his door open during summer in order to cool down the room.
Then Erik slashed at the wood with the pencil, left a two centimeters deep gash inside the material, and smiled when he saw the result.
"Incredible; with this, I won't be bullied anymore. The only problem now is to tell the teachers about this new power. What would they do once they find out? They will definitely test the power, but I already know it has a D rank on the Jorm scale, so it is a pretty useful power."
Erik contemplated on what to do. Since he had to reveal his power, why not do so in a dramatic way? He only needed the right opportunity, and it couldn't be simpler. He only needed to provoke Logan.
Time to make my last daily quest and go to bed.
pAn,Da-n0v e1,c The young man then trained as usual and began with easy pushups, squats, sit-ups, reverse lunges, squats and presses, planks, and other exercises after pushing, jumping, and stretching for an hour. As soon as he trained enough, a new notification appeared in front of Erik's view.
[LEVEL UP.]
The young man smiled widely and raised his hands up high above his head as if he had just accomplished some great feat.
But as much as the young man wanted to celebrate, he decided to save the celebration until the end of his training; he still had to allocate his attribute points and finally start making new neural links. Erik, despite being sweaty, sat on the couch; there was only a thought in his mind.
System, show me the status.
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As Erik said those words, the status screen appeared in his vision.
--
[Host Information]
NAME: Erik Romano
AGE: 16
LEVEL: 2
EXPERIENCE: 0/250
DNA POINTS: 10
HEALTH: 220 /220
MANA: 150 /150
[Attributes]
STRENGTH: 3
INTELLIGENCE: 6
DEXTERITY: 4
ENERGY: 6
Available Attributes point: 5
[Powers]
[Biological Super Computer Powers]
-Brain Crystal Manipulation
-Brain Crystal Power Extraction
(Allows the absorbtion of the brain crystal , making the host able to acquire the power contained within. Notice: the DNA must be changed in order to allow the body to use the power. See DNA extraction.)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- Brain Crystal Power Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the energy attribute points)
-DNA Manipulation
-DNA Extraction
(Allows the absorbtion of foreign DNA, making the host able to replicate it inside his own body. Notice: Changing the DNA is a slow process and it is required to use new brain crystal powers.)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
- (LOCKED)
-DNA Strengthening
(Allows the gaining of the Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity attribute points)
- Analysis
(Gives the host information about his surroundings, plants, creatures, and ores)
-Brain Information Injector
(It allows the injection of information directly to the brain-Based on touch)
-Device Manipulation
(Allows the Host to manipulate electronic and mana-driven devices- Based on touch)
[Host's Powers]
-Rapid Growth [Plants] (ESIGMA1E-Ranked)
(Allows the host to make Plants Grow Faster)
-Sharpening (ESIGMA1D-Ranked)
(Makes Everything sharper according to the quantity of mana imbued into the item or body part)
--
"Yes!" the young man exclaimed. "Now, let's boost my strength a little bit." The young man immediately put his five attribute points inside his strength, bringing his points to eight.
Immediately, mana rushed inside the young man's body at an incredible rate, as if he were being recharged with it.
The tingling sensation spread all over him, and his muscles began to grow larger and stronger until they bulged out from under his skin.
Suddenly, there was no more room for them, then the tingling stopped. The young man took off his sweaty shirt and observed the changes in his body.
He didn't become huge, but he definitely gained mass. Since he was already skinny, the muscles underneath the skin protruded like overgrown knuckles, and the veins stood out like tree roots.
Even his legs had grown larger, almost twice their normal size. The young man felt hungry again as soon as the change started happening.
"I'm going to need some bigger clothes," he muttered. With a happy smile, Erik went to the bathroom to get a shower, and after he was done, he quickly dressed. There was one last thing to do, train to develop the neural links. He spent two hours on the task, and then he went to bed since he had to go to school the following day.
The following day Erik woke up early, he had a lot of things to do that day, and he planned on revealing his new power to the whole school, but to do so, he needed Logan.
The young man checked his daily quests, and after having accepted them, he made the first one by making breakfast.
After that, he changed and headed out toward the train station. As he arrived, he boarded the train and finally arrived in the western part of the city after a short trip. Then he walked toward the school.
The young man was sporting a huge smile on his face as he arrived at school. Erik felt as if every problem in the world had vanished after the last night.
"What are you smiling about, you trash?" asked a girl beside him who knew who he was. Actually, everyone knew who he was. Erik was used to being made fun of, but things were going to change starting today.
"Mind your damn business, bitch!" Erik replied.
The young girl grimaced at Erik's reply. She knew he was the school's trash, and she also knew that he usually didn't reply to people making fun of him. It was weird behavior.
The people in the surroundings were surprised too.
"Yo, guys. The trash just talked back!" a student suddenly shouted.
"That's right! Plant Hugger got mad!" another one added.
Then everybody burst out laughing while the young girl glared at Erik and turned away.
"Shut up, losers," Erik said to the students around him.
They laughed louder when they heard those words coming out of his mouth. As the confrontation between Erik and the other students got worse, a small number of people gathered, and soon words that the school's trash was now talking back reached the other students at school. It was then that Anderson Worthington, the school's star, intervened.
"Hey, guys. You're not allowed to talk shit about anyone here," he reprimanded them. No one wanted to confront Anderson, not because of his family's power but because of his personal one.
He had a power he called atomic Annie, a bomb name. It was rated B on the Jorm scale. Essentially he could generate explosions from his body, which didn't harm him, but that were devastatingly powerful. This, coupled with his astonishing talent, made him able to make five neural links meaning he was ranked RHO2 on the idor scale, which measured one's ability to use the brain crystal power.
"You have to respect the school rules; otherwise, I'll punish you personally," Anderson warned.
"But... But..." a student stuttered.
Anderson gave the guy a hard stare before turning toward the rest of the crowd.
He then continued: "If someone talks more shit, I will make them pay, and believe me, it will hurt like hell. So don't mess with me. Now leave this kid alone before anything happens."
This brought silence to the group of students, and that was how the situation ended.
The crowd of students dispersed, leaving behind a single person, Erik. He went straight to the main building walking amidst people that looked at him as if he was a freak.
They thought that by talking back, the young man had just signed his death warrant.
This fuckers have no idea... Erik smiled, thinking about what would happen at lunch break.
Logan and his friends went past the young man and saw him in a good mood.
"What is this fucker laughing for?" Conal said.
"I don't know but I heard a weird rumor while entering the main building," Conal said.
"Yeah? What kind of rumors?" Logan asked.
"Apparently, the little shit grew some balls overnight. He dared talk back to some people outside."
"Are you sure that happened?" Orson asked.
"I don't know, that's what people said. Should we pay him a visit?" Conal asked.
"No, we already messed up with the fire story," Logan said.
"You mean, you messed up," Conal replied.
"I told you already! It wasn't me who shared the video!" Logan said.
"Then why everyone received it from your device?" Orson asked.
"I don't know!"
"Right..."
The trio then reached their class, as Erik did. The young man then followed his classes as usual.
His day went normally, people didn't bother him during classes, but as soon as they finished, the other students started bothering the young man again.
At first, he ignored all of these taunts and jeers, but Erik couldn't stand It anymore after being mocked several times. He only had to wait until lunch break before showing the students not to mess with him anymore.
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As the time to go to lunch approached, Erik started being anxious. His plan wasn't complicated; he simply planned to provoke Logan and make an example out of him while showing his power.
He was more confident than before since he boosted his strength to eight points, but he didn't have a reference, so he didn't know how strong other people were, and for sure, he didn't know how strong Logan was.
The prick was a DSIGMA3D, with the power of making poisonous darts, the substance they injected increased in lethality the more Logan injected mana into them, so if Logan willed it, he could kill him.
Not that Erik couldn't do so with his new power, but he clearly didn't have the intention. The bell signaling lunch break rang at thirteen, and everyone went downstairs to get their share of the meal.
Unlike usual, Erik went downstairs too, walking in the sea of people rushing out from their classrooms in a disorderly manner.
But after five minutes, Erik walked into the cafeteria and noticed many people staring at him. It was the first time Erik came down; he basically never saw the place.
It was one of the biggest rooms he had ever seen—a great hall filled with tables covered by white cloths where students sat eating. People were streaming in without order or any particular direction: some going straight ahead towards the cashier's desk, others coming back from the counter to take away food.
A lot of people seemed very happy about something, laughing and talking loudly. "Hey! Hey!" someone shouted behind Erik as soon as he entered, "What are you doing here?"
Erik turned around quickly and looked at the speaker, who stood beside a table close to the wall. Three guys were standing there, all of them tall and lean. One was blond-haired, another black, and the third had curly red hair. They all wore the school's uniform.
"I'm just going to get lunch," Erik said.
The blonde laughed derisively and pointed at him with his finger. "You don't have the right to do so; go away before I make you do so."
"And how are you supposed to do so?" Erik asked. As more as he looked at the blond man, his anger increased.
"Are you tired of living? Trash!" the student said.
Erik didn't bother replying; he went to the counter, took a tray, and filled some plates with food. It was the first time he had eaten there, and he was eager to try the food.
People kept staring at him, whispering and asking themselves what the hell happened to Erik to be so bold. It was then that Logan, Orson, and Conal entered the cafeteria; Erik noticed them and grinned.
"You screwed up, Erik," The blond student said before sitting on his chair.
pA n,dan(-)0ve1.c0m Logan walked as if he owned the place, heading toward the same table where Erik was seated.
"Logan, the trash is in the cafeteria!" Orson said.
"I can see that."
"We must put him in place!" Conal added.
This time Logan agreed. Erik was overstepping his boundaries. Though Logan couldn't blatantly beat Erik in front of the cafeteria's staff, he stopped in front of the table and ceased smiling, then he sat.
Orson and Conal joined Logan and Erik at the table, each taking seats opposite Erik.
"Strange rumors are spreading about you," Logan said while looking Erik in the eyes.
"Yeah, I heard them."
"If I were you, I wouldn't be so bold. Did you forget how we beat your ass for three years?"
"How could I?" Erik replied.
"Good, now, if you know what's better for you, then get out of here, trash," Logan said.
Though, Erik did nothing and calmly stood on his chair.
"Did you hear him?" Orson repeated angrily.
"Yes," Erik answered calmly, "But I don't think I will," he replied. He smiled internally since he had to do nothing to make Logan and his friends angry.
"What did you just say?" Orson asked.
"I said fuck off."
Silence enveloped the room.
Orson got up and approached Erik menacingly. "Get lost, or else—"
Before anyone could react, Erik stood up and pushed the table against the three pricks, throwing the food everywhere.
This was the ideal place to show his new power, as many people were there watching. As faster as the rumor spread and faster, his bullying days would end.
Orson, Conal, and Logan ran toward Erik. They could act now because everyone saw Erik starting the fight, and they could play the self-defense card.
Orson was the first to approach Erik; he threw a punch toward him but missed. Then Conal came closer, hitting Erik with two punches, but the young man was used to pain and shrugged it off as if nothing had happened. Logan was the last to arrive in front of the young man but the first to be hit.
With his renewed strength, Erik charged at Logan; he was strong enough to lift him in the air, something that surprised everyone inside the room.
Erik launched the young man over a table, and he fell over some bystander who was watching the fight in awe.
Conal and Orson followed Erik and started punching him. The young man protected his head by raising his arms up, but then, as the right moment came, he gave a single punch to Orso.
Since his strength improved a lot, that punch alone was able to knock Orson out, who fell on the floor unconscious.
Everyone stared at Erik as if he was an alien, but he wasn't done yet. He turned towards Conal and rushed at him.
Erik punched the little prick with all the strength he could muster, but the young man was tougher than Orson, and he didn't fall down immediately.
Logan's friend defended himself, but Erik's punches were heavy. At the same time, Logan stood up and charged at Erik, knocking him down on the ground. He pinned him down on the floor while Conal started kicking him on the flank.
Erik had no intention of letting himself be beaten down by the two morons, though. He mustered all his strength and lifted Logan in the air again.
He rolled to the ground, avoiding Conal's last kick, and with a quick move, he stood up. Conal and Erik charged at each other, but it was clear that Erik was stronger than him.
Erik's shoulder hit Conal's abdomen, Logan's friend lost all air inside his lungs, and once he fell to the floor, he hit the head, losing consciousness.
Now, only Logan was left standing; he immediately understood that he couldn't beat Erik with great surprise and started channeling mana.
"LOGAN, STOP!" a person from the crowd shouted, but it was too late; the young man had already materialized a dart in his hands.
Erik knew that was the right moment to show his power, so he grabbed a tray and imbued mana into it. People couldn't understand what he was doing; they thought he was trying to defend himself with the tray.
Contrary to their expectations, Erik slashed at Logan, and a gash appeared on his chest. Blood trickled down the young man's body, staining his school's uniform red.
Logan didn't expect Erik's move; he left the dart falling to the ground, which vanished into thin air. Logan brought his hands on his chest and felt the blood trickling down, then looked at Erik, astonished.
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"What the?" Logan said as he saw the effect of Erik's attack.
The crowd could not understand what was happening either. Apparently, Erik was able to cut Logan's chest with a harmless tray. They knew there must have been some reason for this; they did not know what it was, or their minds refused even to think about the possible explanation.
Erik was smiling widely, seeing Logan's injuries while the latter kept his hands on the wound, trying to stop the bleeding.
"What did you do?" Logan asked.
"What do you think?" Erik said, grinning from ear to ear.
"He used a BCP!" someone from the crowd said, and then murmurs started spreading inside the cafeteria.
"A brain crystal power? He?!" Logan said.
Everyone stared at Erik, unable to understand what really happened but the rumor that Erik possessed another power started spreading.
"What couldn't have I developed a new power?" Erik said.
"But that's..."
"Impossible? No. Rare, maybe, but not impossible." Erik interjected.
Erik looked around the room full of students who seemed confused by what had just happened.
"Whatever, you will pay for what you just did!" Logan then shouted. He started conjuring another poisonous dart when someone entered the cafeteria.
"STOP THIS MADNESS!" the man said.
"Professor Mc Allister!" a student shouted.
The man made his way through the crowd and reached the two standing students who were still facing each other.
"You are both under my command! Stop your fight immediately," Professor McAllister ordered in an authoritative voice. "I don't want anyone getting hurt because of you two. If anyone does get injured, I'll be sure to punish you severely. Am I clear?"
Both men stopped fighting and turned to face the professor. The atmosphere had changed completely after hearing him speak so sternly.
"What happened?" he asked.
Erik knew how the situation was going to unfold from there on. The other students would say it was his fault for all of this mess starting. He was actually the first to resort to violence. Still, any possible explanation he would give was bound to be ignored.
"It was him!" Logan said, pointing at Erik. "He attacked my friends and me."
Professor Mc Allister turned to look at Erik. "Is it true, Mister Romano?"
pA n,dan(-)0ve1.c0m "It is not," Erik obviously said, lying.
"We will find out soon." The teacher said.
"Bring these three to the infirmary," The teacher said to the students, referring to Conal, Orson, and Logan. "As for you, we are going to the principal's office."
Erik didn't reply; he knew that whatever he said, he couldn't go against more than a hundred people's words.
After leaving the cafeteria, Professor McAllister took him to the main building where Principal Harris' office was located. When they arrived, a secretary led the group to her boss's office and told them that the principal would talk to them in an hour.
The other teachers asked for information from the students, who narrated the whole event. Professor McAllister and Erik entered the spacious room as the waiting time ended.
They found Mr.Harris sitting behind his desk, looking very serious. His office had a desk, some chairs, and bookshelves filled with many old-looking tomes and manuscripts. A large map was also hanging on the wall showing the school's grounds.
After giving the boy a quick glance, he addressed the young men.
"I heard you made quite a show in the cafeteria," he said. Erik took into account this situation when he decided to mess up with Logan. Still, he had to show the other people that they had to stop to mess with him, or there would be consequences. He needed to show them he could defend himself and that he would if provoked.
"Sir, with all due respect, Logan and his friends started the whole situation. They asked for me to leave the cafeteria; they are not new to bullying me. Whatever I did, they deserved it."
"You could have denied it." Principal Harris said.
"What would have I gained? I bet the other students are already blaming me, sir. There were like hundred guys watching it happen."
"You are not wrong," Principal harris said while standing from his chair. He went to the window and started observing the school courtyard and the students walking in and out of the school.
Then the principal went to his computer, searching for Erik's personal file.
"Here it says that you have a power that allows you to grow plants faster," the principal said. Professor Mc Allister, "If I'm not wrong, you are one of his teachers. Can you confirm it?"
"Yes, I can, principal Harris," Mc Allister replied.
"So, Erik. Care to explain how you were able to injure Mister Reid with a harmless tray?"
Erik knew what he had to say, had already prepared a speech for when this question would have been asked and spent his free time searching for other double power cases.
The young man lied and told the two how he woke up with a migraine some days ago and how he simply felt natural to do what he did, using his new power. It was the story that most of the so-called awakeners told when they discovered their new power.
He had been scrupulous with his description of the feeling, the sensations, and the pain he felt. Of how he found out he had his new power, mixing lies with truths. It wasn't difficult because most of the things he described sounded real enough since they happened to other people.
"That is an amazing thing, young man," Principal Harris said.
"Yes, sir. My headaches are gone now, and thanks to my power I've even grown stronger physically."
"Well, if what you are saying is true, we need to test your new power again, and probably a man from the military will come to talk to you." Principal Harris said.
Erik knew the implications of revealing his second BCP to the whole school. He knew that the militaries wanted such individuals, and there was a simple explanation for this. Double powers meant double neural links, which meant stronger soldiers. Something they desperately needed.
"If that happens, then yes, sir. I'll be happy to comply." Erik answered.
Principal Harris smiled. "Now, we should talk about your punishment."
Erik lowered his eyes. "Did you believe I wouldn't have punished you?"
"No, sir," Erik said.
"Now, you sent three people to the infirmary and used a BCP to injure one of them."
"He too used his power," Erik said.
"And we will take care of it once the whole incident is investigated," The principal said. "Now, you know that having injured a person, I should alert the police, right?"
"Yes, sir." Erik did expect such a thing to occur. Improper use of one brain crystal power was severely punished, leaving stains on one's record.
"But despite this being the case, I won't do so."
"What?!"
"What?!"
Erik and Professor Mc Allister said in unison.
"Why?" Professor Mc Allister asked.
"I have my reasons," The principal replied. He then looked at Erik, "This only if you accept being trained by professor Mc Allister after school ends."
"Trained?" Erik said.
"Yes."
"That's it?" Erik asked.
"Yes. That's it."
Erik left the room soon after while Professor Mc Allister and Principal Harris stayed behind to talk.
"What's the problem, professor?" Principal Harris asked.
"Can I talk freely?" the teacher asked.
"Yes."
"I think the young man should be punished," the teacher said while looking at the old man.
"That would complicate things..."Principal Harris said.
"Why, because of the militaries?"
"Exactly," the principal replied. "If the kid gets arrested, he would have to spend some time in jail. But you know very well that mandatory recruitment starts soon. Do you think the higher-ups will be pleased if we send an awakener to jail when he could have joined the militaries?"
"But, sir, he used his power to injure a student. If he doesn't learn that there are consequences to his actions he..."
"Enough. This is just a minor setback compared to what will happen if we don't send the kid to the militaries."
Professor Mc Allister didn't reply, but he looked at the older man with concern.
"You can go now, professor," Principal Harris told him.
Erik was still outside the room, waiting for his teacher to tell him he could go and look at the principal's office door.
It was made of brown wood and had two glass windows, allowing light from the hallway into the room. The boy saw the principal's wooden desk in front of one of these windows and the two teachers talking. He couldn't hear them, though; they spoke too softly.
Erik was far from the other classrooms, but multiple offices were near the principal's, including the school psychologists.
As the minutes passed by without any sign of the teacher leaving his office, however, the boy began to become impatient, but it was at that moment that the teacher came out of the office. As he did, he turned to look at the young man.
"What do you usually do before classes end?" the teacher asked.
"I go to work, sir," Erik replied.
Professor Mc Allister sighed, "You are allowed to go to work, but you must come here by eighteen o clock, come to the gym once you are here. Your training starts today."
"All right, sir. Can I go now?" Erik asked.
"Yes, you can, but don't be late. I don't like it."
"Okay, thanks, sir," Erik said; he turned back and left.
Erik then went out of the building, heading to the train station. As he did, he saw the students looking at him as if he was a kind of monster. They whispered among themselves about what had happened in the cafeteria. Some were jealous of him because he awakened another power, the rumor already spread wide.
"Why couldn't I have awakened another power since my birth one is much better than his?" That was what most of the students said.
Many people knew that Erik wasn't bound to be the school trash from that day onward. Having two brain crystal power meant he could get double the neural links.
Even if his new power was trash, he had the potential to become twice as powerful as the strongest of the soldiers, and he was probably bound to become so for people of the same rank.
Erik didn't know, but during his stay at high school, he became a sort of stress relief for the other students. In that society, the competition was high. Knowing that there was someone beneath him or her comforted most of the bottom-tier students.
Bullying wasn't something that only Erik suffered. In fact, many students faced the same problem every day, because students with better brain crystal powers or stronger crystals themselves did bully them.
Erik ignored all the students; his new problem now was to go to mister fox's farm and tell him that from that day onward, he would have to go back to school at eighteen.
The young man left the school's building, and after a short walk, he arrived at the station. He briefly waited while sitting on a bench and then boarded the train.
As he traveled to the farm, multiple thoughts spread inside Erik's mind. He really hoped that what he did at the cafeteria set an example.
He didn't want to spend the rest of the time he had to pass there bullied by Logan or made fun of by other people.
Then he thought about what he was going to do in the following days; in less than a month, high school would end, and he would be forced to go to the military school.
He couldn't be weak when he went there because he would risk people bullying him there too. The young man knew that if the competition was already so bad here at high school, it would be worse on the military school.
After all, better grades meant higher military rank, better retribution, and better living conditions. Moreover, if he stepped on the wrong person's feet, retribution was bound to be ruthless, so he needed strength. This meant he didn't have to miss any daily quests, and he had to find a way to get experience faster.
As he traveled, he saw the city landscape slowly change to that of farms and wheat fields. The golden and green colors made the scene more beautiful than ever. He always enjoyed riding the train to go to his working place since it allowed him to see such beautiful scenes.
After a while, he finally arrived at the city's edges; he took the usual route toward Mister Fox's farm, passing through the fields until he reached the old man's property.
As he arrived, Erik saw Mister fox from afar, sitting near his house window, watching the fields and probably waiting for the young man to arrive.
He wore only a pair of shorts and nothing else, and his body was lean and fit despite his age.
Erik approached the old man, who looked at him with a glare. "You are late, boy," Mister Fox said.
"I'm sorry, sir, I had a problem at school."
"It looks like you are getting in trouble a lot lately."
"Sorry for that," Erik said. He then looked at his employer with anxiousness, and after he gathered the courage to talk, he said to him, "Mister Fox, there is something I must tell you."
"What, boy?" the old man asked.
"The school asked me to get back there at eighteen from today onward. I can't work till late as usual."
"What the hell, Erik?" the old man shouted. This meant he had to do much more work alone.
"I'm sorry, sir!"
"Fuck, this means I will have to collect all the product alone!"
"I'm really sorry, sir," and he was. Erik couldn't afford to lose his job, as his financial situation was already hard. Moreover, that was the only place where he truly felt at peace with himself, and no one judged him for his power.
Tending to the crops was something that gave him peace; it allowed him to be self-sufficient and also to make money. Besides, the farm was one of the few places where he felt safe; even though Mister Fox wasn't the most pleasant person in the world, he treated him like a human being.
The old man looked at Erik; he knew that the young man didn't have any choice. So, he sighed and then said to Erik, "All right, you can go back, but I will lower your pay."
Erik looked at Mister Fox with a grateful look, "Sir, thank you, thank you really much! Don't worry about the pay."
"I don't."
As Professor Mc Allister left the room, Principal Harris went to his desk and picked up the phone. He rapidly went through his contacts and selected a specific number. There was no answer at first, but after two or three rings on the other end of the line, a voice someone said: "Luis, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Leia, you are lovely as ever, am I right?" said Principal Harris in a low tone.
"Stop wasting my time Luis. What do you want?" Leia answered irritably.
"Something happened," Principal Harris said. "What, you got hemorrhoids?" she said.
There was an instant pause before Principal Harris replied: "No." Then, more quietly, he said: "An awakener appeared at school" he paused again.
"Are you messing with me?" the old woman asked.
"Do you think I would joke about something like that?" Principal Harris asked in irritation.
She sighed wearily. "When?" she asked.
"Today, but apparently, he awoke yesterday."
A long silence ensued until, finally, Leia spoke up: "So who's this guy?"
"It is an F-ranked student, unfortunately. We have not tested his power yet, but he should have also received a boost to his brain crystal power."
"An F-ranked is still better than nothing," the woman replied.
"I agree," said the principal. "But there are some problems; it appears that the student wasn't able to progress much in establishing neural links. I put him under one of my teachers' care, but I don't know what he will be able to achieve before he comes to your school," Principal Harris said, sighing.
"Don't talk like this is my problem too, Luis. It was you who failed to notice the kid," Principal Christensen replied.
"Maybe, but it will be yours if you don't train him properly before he joins the militaries."
"Don't worry, the military school will make a man out of him. Did you already call the office to tell them about him?" Principal Christensen asked.
"I'm going to do it after our conversation ends."
"Ah, so I was the first one you told?"
"The whole school already knows about him."
There followed another momentary pause. "Good for you," she said sarcastically. "Now go ahead and get off the phone with me. I'll send someone down tomorrow morning to assess him." She hung up without waiting for a reply from her old friend.
Principal Harris frowned slightly, then shook his head. He was worried about the situation, but perhaps things might turn out all right anyway.
After that, he picked up his phone again; this time, he called another person. The phone rang, and after a while, Principal Harris said, "Good morning sir; there is news for you."
Erik ended his work at the farm at almost seventeen, and the young man had to start heading back to school if he wanted to arrive on time.
Professor Mc Allister wasn't known to be one of the most tolerant people, and he didn't want to upset him on the first day of his training.
So Erik started walking back along the same route that led him to the train station. It didn't take him a lot before reaching the place and boarding the train back to the western district. Once he arrived, he walked toward the school premises and arrived in front of the school's main gate, which was massive.
Erik never saw it closed since it was already open by the time he arrived at school; there weren't many students around either, just some of them performing extracurricular activities.
There were probably people at the gym, the library, or the garden at the back of the school, training their power and testing their limits. Not everyone was as diligent as these students, who usually were the best of the school.
Erik expected some particular people to be here at this hour, including Nathaniel Mc Connell and Anderson Worthington, the top guys at school.
They would probably be here with their clique of friends, who were in a different league compared to people like Erik, but still not at Nathaniel's and Anderson's levels.
Erik walked through the small open gate on the side of the bigger one. He was surprised to see two people coming towards him: A tall, muscular boy wearing the blue and white school uniform, which he immediately recognized as Anderson, and a girl with short red hair wearing glasses and carrying a briefcase.
How could Erik not recognize the girl? She was Amber Joyce, the school goddess. She was beautiful as hell, with a perfect body and a nice face. But unlike other girls, she looked like a real lady and behaved accordingly.
Most of the boys liked her because of her beauty, others because she was not only powerful but also smart enough to have the best grades in the whole school. These features made her very popular among the school's male population as Anderson was for the female one.
Anderson looked at Erik as if he was a bug, then turned away without saying anything, leaving the girl alone in front of the young man.
"You should be Erik Romano," The young girl said.
"Yes, I am," Erik replied.
"A pleasure to meet you, rumors about your awakening spread around the school. Should I guess this is the reason why you are here?" Amber said.
"I guess so. I'm only doing what the principal told me to do."
"Well, let's go inside; we can discuss everything later. Professor Mc Allister hates people who are late."
"All right."
Once they entered the building, the door closed behind them, and the lights came on automatically. They walked through the school's courtyard, seeing here and there people training or reading some books.
According to what Professor Mc Allister said, the trio reached the gym where Erik was supposed to come. Anderson remained silent for the whole trip. Erik suspected he didn't like him very much, but he was grateful because, during the morning, he came to his aid.
When they finally got there, several people were present besides the teacher, and the three of them all placed in a row in front of the teacher.
They were all top students at school, and they were all Amber's, Nathaniel's, and Anderson's friends. When the doors opened, Professor McAllister stepped out from his position and greeted the new student.
"Welcome, Mr. Romano. Please join the others."
Erik, Anderson, and Amber all stood in the row and waited for their teacher to start their training.
"Since there is a new member among us, I decided to make you all spar today while I start teaching the basics of hand-to-hand combat to our newest addition."
The students didn't reply, but Erik noticed they didn't take the news happily. He smiled apologetically, but the other students ignored him.
"You guys, pick a random partner and start your training. Erik, come with me," Professor McAllister said.
He brought him far from the other students where they could train without risking injuring Erik and where he couldn't bother them. Once settled down, the professor started talking again.
"As you know, each person has his own way of using power, even though some of them are similar. But before developing any power, usually, a good soldier must train his or her body. For this reason, all the top students have to learn some basic techniques to defend themselves.
This will prove beneficial as you increase your neural links because you will become a weapon capable of killing without even using your power.
From what I heard, you can now make things sharper since you were able to cut through Logan Reid's chest like butter with a tray. So, learning hand-to-hand will become particularly useful with your power."
The teacher paused for a bit and then said to the young man. "I will show you some moves, and I want you to repeat them as much as possible."
"Understood."
"Let's start," Professor McAllister said. He then proceeded to show Erik some moves. He started with some basic kicks, which Erik he had to replicate.
After his demonstration ended, Professor McAllister said, "Is everything clear?"
"Yes, professor," Erik replied.
"Good. Now start your training."
Erik did not like how the teacher seemed so unfriendly toward him. He knew that having awakened a second power was a big deal, and he hoped people would start treating him with respect once they found out, but apparently, Professor McAllister didn't care.
Erik mimicked the teacher's kicks, but it was evident that he couldn't do them correctly.
"Keep your feet firm on the ground; balance your hips well," Professor McAllister observed as Erik trained. He was trying to correct his mistakes by giving him pointers and advice. "Your left foot is too far forward for this move!"
As time passed, Erik became more aware that he was vastly behind compared to other people his age, and he had to thank his lack of money and talent for that.
It made him feel ashamed. The world seemed very cruel to him more than ever. He finally arrived at the other's same starting point only to discover that the others were at a higher level.
Though nothing good came without hard work, and thanks to the system, he was confident that he was bound to surpass them all with time.
For now, his new strength gave him confidence that he wouldn't be defeated easily against the average people—but what about against someone who got some real training?
It was then that Erik glanced at the other students' training. It wasn't Anderson Worthington who caught his eyeh, but Amber and Nathaniel.
The two were fighting against each other, and their movements were swift and noble in comparison to his.
He felt jealous of them. Why are they so much better than me?! Are they really that great? he thought.
The students weren't allowed to use their power during spar sessions, but they didn't need it. Having trained since they were young, the students under Professor McAllister's care were natural-born fighters.
Nathaniel punched Amber, who gracefully avoided it, counterattacking with a kick. She knocked away his leg and made him fall to the ground.
With agility beyond belief, Nathaniel spun himself around and tried to kick the young girl's shins. Though she backstepped and prepared for her next attack, she moved like a dancer, with fast and precise attacks aimed at Nathaniel's weak points.
The young man, instead, had a completely different style. He was aggressive and took advantage of his higher strength to land blows on his opponent. In addition, he was quick enough to evade every blow and landed one or two hits per exchange.
Amber stopped her attack mid-air and backed off from Nathaniel. She turned around to face the young man who was preparing a punch.
Amber sidestepped and kicked again, aiming low, making Nathaniel fall down again. It was clear who was better between the two. Despite having an insanely powerful brain crystal power, Nathaniel was only ranked third in terms of martial might.
Erik watched the fight, trying not to lose concentration on his training. Professor McAllister noticed Erik watching the others train.
"What are you doing here, boy?"
"Nothing; sorry, professor!" Erik answered.
"You shouldn't waste your time staring at others. Focus on yourself! You should learn to defend against the ones who will come after you."
Erik nodded and returned to his training, still looking at Amber and Nathaniel fight. He wasn't a fan of either her or his current opponent, but at least the young girl treated him well at the gate.
Nathaniel punched again, hitting the woman on her ribs. The young girl suffered the hit, but then she backstepped again. Nathaniel didn't let her recover; he rushed forward and attacked again, sending a punch toward her face. Amber jumped up into the air avoiding the strike. As soon as she landed, she kicked the young man in the face.
"Do you surrender?" Amber asked.
"To you? Never," Nathaniel replied.
He charged at her again, sending punch after punch, which the young girl evaded most of the time. However, she was unable to block all of them. One punch connected with her jaw, sending her flying backward. Her head hit the stone floor hard, and blood trickled down her forehead.
She slowly stood up, spitting out the blood. Then, she looked at the young man and said:
"I'll kill you if I get my hands on you."
"You wish," Nathaniel replied.
The fight continued, with the young man suffering hit after hit due to Amber's speed. Her attacks, though, weren't as powerful as Nathaniel's ones. Just a couple of blows from him and Amber started having problems moving. On the other side, Nathaniel was tankier than her. Still, he suffered several blows that threatened to make him unconscious, making him lose the spar.
After several exchanges of punches, kicks, and blocks, Amber landed a heavy kick on the young man, who fell on the ground unconscious, stopping moving.
"You are not so bold anymore, eh, Nathaniel?" The young girl said to the unconscious boy.
"Who are you talking to?" Gwen Lindsay, another one of Professor McAllister's top students, said to her.
Gwen was tall for a woman, standing nearly five feet ten inches, with long brown hair reaching past her shoulders.
She was muscular and strong, possessing a body type that many men would envy. Like any good fighter, however, she used techniques to complement her strength rather than overpower opponents through sheer brute force alone.
Her fighting style consisted of both offense and defense; she was able to take punishment without getting hurt before retaliating.
She also possessed excellent balance and coordination. This gave her an edge when taking down opponents who were bigger than her.
Gwen also won her spar against Floyd Valdez, who was seventh in rank among the group. They fought until the end, with neither of them giving up easily. Their match was close, even though they traded blows.
Eventually, Gwen managed to win by making Floyd surrender.
The young man shook his head, rubbing his temple.
"Damn, I don't know what happened there... I could have won this time..."
"Don't worry about it. Next time, maybe," Gwen said.
Gwen and Floyd approached Amber, and together, they looked at the new recruit, Erik, training.
"He is pretty pathetic, don't you agree?" Gwen said.
"Don't be too harsh, he just awakened a useful power after all, and as much as I know, he doesn't have the money to afford proper training," Amber said.
"Why didn't he train at school then?" Floyd asked.
"Are you serious? With Logan Reid beating him on every occasion?" Amber said.
"Why are you defending him, Amber?" Gwen asked. "Because I feel sorry," Amber replied.
The three then kept looking at Erik's pathetic display of kicks; it was so embarrassing that they had to stop looking at the young man.
After a while, Professor McAllister told the young man to stop training. He wanted to shower but was unsure if the other students would allow him to do so.
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Erik waited for the other students to finish their showers before going in. The shower room was large, with a high ceiling and many rows of stalls.
A row of urinals stood against one wall; another ran along its opposite side at waist height. At each end there were sinks on either hand, like those used by women in public washrooms.
Erik had never been in such large bathroom stalls; they were massive, easily larger than his own shower at home. He walked through the door and turned on the full water blast—at the warmest temperature it would go without burning him.
Erik relaxed for five minutes while taking a shower; he thought about nothing during that short time except how comfortable it was to have a big shower.
Erik got out of the shower and dressed, then went back to the gym, where only his teacher waited. Erik observed the man's face carefully as he entered.
He had a pointy nose, full lips, and brown eyes. He seemed fatigued; there was no expression at all on his face beyond that of intense concentration bordering upon boredom.
His black hair hung over his forehead in lank strands that brushed down his cheeks when he bent forward. There were wrinkles around the corners of his mouth, but otherwise, this middle-aged professor looked healthy enough.
As professor McAllister saw the young man, he approached him with his usual stern look. He carefully observed the young man's face and sighed.
Erik didn't know what his teacher was thinking about, but it wasn't probably anything good since he had a resigned look.
"Erik," he said, looking at Erik. "Things are going to get complicated for you."
"Why?" the young man asked.
"Because now that you have two powers, the militaries will do everything in their power to make you a killer."
Erik didn't reply; he only observed his teacher.
"It will be different from normal military training. It will be gruesome, harder than any training you have ever made. It is important that you train as much as you can during these months because if you lack skill, which you do, your training will be much harsher," the teacher said while looking Erik in the eyes.
The young man was starting to grow anxious.
"This is not the only problem; the militaries will want to make good use of you as soon as they can. They will probably send you to some dangerous mission, and you cannot go unprepared."
Professor McAllister looked into the young man's worried face and smiled sadly. Then he spoke: "Don't worry, I'll help you, but I need you to put in all the effort you can, Erik."
Erik nodded. He knew that things were going to get serious. Still, he felt confident that with Professor McAllister's help, he could handle whatever came up.
"Now go home, and don't forget to come back tomorrow morning," the teacher said.
"But, professor, tomorrow is Sunday," Erik said.
"It doesn't matter," the teacher replied.
Erik turned around and left the school building. As usual, he went toward the train station, the sun had already set, and the night was already there.
He hurried so that he wouldn't miss his train. On the way, he observed his surroundings while contemplating. Did he make a mistake by revealing his new power? Could he have kept it secret until he was older and stronger?
Would it have been better if he hadn't revealed himself? He didn't have answers for that, but he was sure of something. He didn't want to be treated like garbage anymore; whatever the case was, Erik decided to face it.
Erik arrived at the train station and then boarded the train; he arrived at the eastern district, and there he walked back home. As he arrived, Erik opened the door and left his backpack on the table. There were still many things to do.
"System, show me the quests."
--
[Quests List]
[Daily]
Eating Habits: COMPLETE
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Eat a healthy meal)
Physical training: COMPLETE
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Train for at least an hour. The Host may choose whatever exercise to complete the quest.)
--
It looks like by training with professor MC Allister I completed my second daily quest, the young man thought.
Later, Erik had dinner; while he ate alone, he thought about what professor McAllister had said to him. If it was true, then he was bound to face many risks once he got to the military academy. Erik wondered about what he could do to make things safer; his only conclusion was to train.
I must take advantage of the system, the young man thought. Erik approached his computer, and a holographic screen appeared in front of him.
[DEVICE FOUND: ERIK'S PERSONAL COMPUTER. DO YOU WANT TO CONNECT TO IT?]
"Yes," Erik said.
[CONNECTION TO THE DEVICE: ERIK'S PERSONAL COMPUTER, COMPLETE.]
Erik then searched the internet for hand-to-hand combat manuals. He chose the one taught by the militaries, the same one his teacher was trying to teach him. There were also some videos about it, so Erik downloaded them all.
I want to inject information the young man thought. Then a list of videos and books appeared on a window in front of him.
pAn,Da-n0v e1,c --
List of available information:
-Kyokar hand-to-hand manual.
- Kyokar hand-to-hand lesson 1
- Kyokar hand-to-hand lesson 2
- Kyokar hand-to-hand lesson 3
...
...
...
- Kyokar hand-to-hand lesson 20
...
...
- Kyokar hand-to-hand lesson 50
--
"System, will there be a problem if i inject all this information simultaneously?" Erik asked.
[ANSWER: THE HOST WILL LOSE CONSCIOUSNESS FOR TWO HOURS]
"If it is only that, then inject everything," Erik said.
It was the first time the young man was going to inject all this information at the same time, but luckily nothing major was going to happen.
After he had done so, he experienced a tremendous surge of energy rushing through his body and mind. It was as though he had injected steroids into his brain.
His thoughts became clearer and more focused than ever, but that lasted only for a brief moment because Erik slowly lost consciousness, and everything went dark.
Erik woke up two hours later; he felt as if his brain had been into a blender. Everything seemed foggy and vague.
After he regained control over his senses, he tried to look for any signs of damage or problems, but luckily he found no sign of anything wrong.
After his mind cleared, Erik thought about the Kyokar fighting style and immediately recalled the videos and the manual.
"Good," the young man said with a smile. "I better start making neural links too." Erik then stood from the ground and sat on the couch, where it was more comfortable; he then started focusing and trying to make neural links.
After a couple more hours, Erik went to bed. The following day, despite being Sunday, he had to go to school, probably to train with the other top students.
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