When I came into the room G look at me and asked right away
"Everything ok?" I gave him a serious look at him and said slowly.
"Rose overused her power too, and fainted".
"He was about to leave the room and I stopped him".
"Wait, Hayley is taking care of her, her case is probably a little worse than Hope's, she has a fever and I think Hayley has some power related to ice. Since we need to lower the fever, she staying next to Rose is the for the best right now"
Taking any of them to a hospital in this situation was useless, so all I could do was pray that the use of their powers didn't have any permanent aftereffect on them.
He was reluctant, but understood the reasons.
"Overused their powers?"
"Yes". I told him the story Hayley told of how she fainted.
"Are they going to be okay?
"I wish I know".
"How did you know that Hope awakened her power?".
I explained what I forgot before about my power and then explained to him what I saw in the last fight.
"In the last second Hope was able to awaken her power, it was some kind of shield and it deflected the bullet. Probably the situation and the sudden awakening of her power were the reasons for her collapse, in the case of Rose she forced her power over the limits for a long time".
As I was finishing the story a scream came.
"Kyaaaa!"
I went running to Rose's room, followed closely by G.
"What happened?" She looked at me and I noticed that the cloth I just left there was frozen solid.
"I knew it".
When G was about to go into the room, I stopped him.
G always trusted me even in this situation when I stopped him he stopped, because he knew that if the opposite were to happen I would do the same.
"Nothing to worry, she just discovered her power"
G looked at me a second before sighing in relief.
"Can I see her?"
I thought a minute.
"Ok, but I need you to keep calm, ok?".
He entered the room and immediately was in paralyzed in fear I took Hayley away to the living room. And went to check up on G.
"Everything ok?" G was paler that usual, but after a few seconds he was breathing normally again. He went next to Rose and sat on a chair.
"Yeah, I really don't get what is that make me feel that way".
"If you need anything just yell, I'm going to be with Hayley and Hope".
I sat on the couch, I sighted Hayley was looking at me with a concerned expression when she saw my forearm
"You are hurt, where is your first aid kit?".
With all that happening I forgot that even if the bullet didn't hit me it touch me, now that I was a little more relaxed it also started to hurt.
"In the kitchen, but you don't need to worry".
I was about to stand when Hayley stopped me.
"Let me help in something, this is, the least I can do".
I was about to say to her that it was not necessary. But she interrupted me.
"Which part?".
"Near the storeroom, an orange backpack".
She went to the kitchen and after half a minute she came back with the backpack.
"Take off your shirt".
"You don't need to do this"
"Are you scared?"
"I'll just pull up my sleeves"
"Since when you became shy? You have to change that shirt anyway".
I didn't want to fight so a take the shirt off.
She sat next to me and as always, her hands were cold, she cleaned the wound and it stung burned and all the worst feeling in the world was concentrated on that wound
"Holy s**t it hurts like hell, make it stop!!!"
"Don't be a baby, I just disinfected the wound and bandaged it… is ready"
"Ready?" I saw that the wound was already cleaned and nicely covered to prevent any infection I saw it and became ashamed of my overreaction.
"Some things never change" Hayley said.
"What do you mean?"
"Back when we were dating… I think it was about the first month, something similar happens, of course it wasn't a bullet, but you got hurt something and when I helped you treat the wound… you cried like a baby too"
"I didn't cry like a baby" Hayley laugh at my reaction.
"It's good to see that certain things haven't changed"
"Yeah, thanks for treating my wound".
We fell silent.
"I'm going to check on Hope".
"Wait, when you saw the frozen cloth you said… you knew it, what did you mean".
"The colors I saw around you are different than the rest, I understood that is because the temperature around you is lower, I thought you had some cold or ice related power, when you froze the cloth it meant that I was right".
"A freezing power?"
"We will need to verify it, but it has to wait until Rose and Hope are awake, sorry to leave you alone, but I want to see Hope a little"
"Sure, I'm going to get something to eat and wait in Hope's room in the meantime".
I took a shirt from my room, G gave me a weird look while I took a new shirt.
I changed my vision and checked Rose, and she was stable, and her fever went down a little thanks to Hayley
"Her fever went down and she seems stable"
"Thanks bro, I'm going to leave her with Hayley again, but I want to stay a couple of minutes more"
"Don't worry, she is going to be in Hope's room for now". After coming to my parent's room and I'm going to tell Hayley to go to Rose
"Thanks buddy, I wish I got that clear mind thingy you got, I'm sure it makes everything easier"
I knew it wasn't being intentional, but he was right, after getting this perk is rare for me to get any stronger feelings. I still have all of them, I was scared when the handgun was pointing me and I'm worried now, but since I analyze the situation is like no one notices what I'm feeling at the moment, or I'm becoming colder? I recalled the earlier situation with Hayley 'it's good to see that certain things haven't changed' but I did I change?
I came into the room and saw Hope peacefully sleeping, while thinking. I checked again, but nothing has changed since the last time, I slowly caressed her hair.
I was worried, but not for her, because I knew that she was going to be ok, but for what this situation was doing to me, I started recalling the way I acted earlier am I becoming colder?
This though had been buried deep in my mind.
I forgave the guys that shot me, but I knew they were being controlled, was my mind that lets them go because was the correct thing to do? Or, since they were innocent the mission would fail if I killed them? I helped Hayley, but it was also system mission. How does the system decide to give me missions? It's to keep me in the right path? It's like it fears me become corrupted with the power.
What would I have done if there were no mission… would I shot them dead.
'System… are you my conscience?'
[Even if the System does have sentience he doesn't decide the user's missions by itself]
'Then how it decides how or when to give me missions?'
[There are different ways, but all have a common thing, the user]
'What do you mean?'
[All missions that the system decides to give have as an objective the user's survival, or the user's welfare]
This revelation surprised me, but the emergency mission was dangerous.
'And the emergency missions'
[The mental damage of losing someone important, or killing an innocent was against the user welfare]
'Even with cold mind?'
[As I said before:
Cold mind helps the user keep calm in any situation.]
[It doesn't eliminate the user feelings, he is just able to "ignore them" to make the correct decisions, and it's not absolute, when user got the medicine manual Cold mind wasn't able to kick in]
I think it's logic that if they need help that was the most important at that moment. I get it now, since I had the possibility to get 100 system points in that moment, maybe getting another power could have been more useful, but I decided to sacrifice a new power to be able to help my sister to the best of my abilities. I choose this moment to get the reward I had pending.
'Choose Stat points Dex +2 Agi+1'
Even if a was left with 0 system points, I feel that when my physical, stats are that low, in the long run more stat it's going to be better also a have already got system points from a couple of missions. About the other 2 physical stats, I felt that usually dodge and being able to hit my shots is better.
Also, even if the training doesn't have a stats reward they are going to improve while I train… probably
'Show me my status'.
[Str:10 End:13 Agi: 12 Dex:11 Int:17 Wis:14 Cha:15 Luk:10]
Finally, all my stats are at least average.
I could feel movement next to me, Hope was sleeping, and she took my hand while sleeping. I kissed her forehead and cover her up, carefully left her sleeping.