Chereads / The New Era Project / Chapter 12 - Collapse

Chapter 12 - Collapse

Feng Ye continues to rush through the rainy streets of the city. He notices that the number of blinks from his red tracker is decreasing which only makes him more anxious.

Feng Ye approaches the location quite quickly. He can see Akimichi's form in the distance.

Akimichi is still engaging in combat with the mysterious man. The number of cuts and bruises have accumulated to a terrifying degree. Akimichi staggers suddenly and the mysterious man was able to slash a deep wound on his chest. Akimichi collapses like a kite that had its string cut in the wind and pounds onto the wet ground.

The man chuckles and looks down onto Akimichi's body. "You lose. You did surprise me as an informational officer however. So, I'll tell you this before you pass. Ever since my blade had scratched the surface of your skin, you have lost. However, to guarantee that you die, it was necessary to make the poison seep deeper into the marrow of your bones and, of course, introducing more cuts. Good bye."

As his words fall, the man throws down a smoke bomb and disappears.

Feng Ye continues to run and witnesses the last slash as well as Akimichi's collapse. Tears start to flow out as he continues to rush to Akimichi's body.

Feng Ye had rushed to Akimichi and had propped up his body. He could feel the temperature decreasing. He could feel the life slowly seeping out of Akimichi. It is also quite noticeable that the color of his blood that continues to seep out start to have some change in color.

"Akimichi! Akimichi! Wake up, you will be fine! Stay with me!" Feng Ye hysterically shouts.

Akimichi's eyelids open slowly and in a gentle, weak voice he replies, "F-F..Feng-k..kun.. .. sorry…"

As the words fall, the world seems to have become quiet with the exception of the rain which continues to fall. The rain continues to fall as though the world is mourning. Tears continue to fall from Feng Ye's face. The rain continues to wash Akimichi's bloody body.

"Stay with me… you need to insist!" Feng Ye shouts.

Akimichi makes a desperate effort and struggles to grab his phone nearby. He successfully grabs his phone and urges Feng Ye to take it.

"T...t..take it. L..live on for the b..both of us." Akimichi's voice becomes quieter. His bloodied hand pushes the phone into Feng Ye's hand. When Feng Ye accepts the phone, Akimichi smiles.

"Y..you are one of my closest friends. L… live." With those last words, Akimichi's heart stops along with his breathing.

Feeling the lifeless Akimichi in front of him, Feng Ye screams, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! THIS CAN'T BE REAL!"

Grief, indignation, hate, and self resentment all are experienced by Feng Ye at this moment. He hates himself. Why is he so weak? If he was stronger, he may have been able to prevent this.

As Feng Ye was experiencing raw emotions of anger, hate and grief, he had missed a system notification.

System: High energy source located in surrounding. Extracting energy. Extraction successful. 50 EP collected.

It seems that the system had collected the dispersed energy around Akimichi's corpse.

At this time, Feng Ye didn't have the thoughts to pay attention.

"ARGGGGHHHHHHHHHH." As Feng Ye desperately wails in his anger, a fierce pain suddenly is experienced as though a dagger had pricked his brain. A similar experience of an individual who inhales concentrated chlorine in a laboratory. It is a very distinct sharp pain. The pain continues as though the dagger is being forced deeper into the depths of his mind. At this time, Feng Ye faints.

The phone in his hand lights up with a single message.

"Akimichi, all threats have been removed and the situation has stabilized. We are heading your way."

***

Feng Ye awakens and finds himself in a hospital room and in a hospital gown. He immediately is startled and sizes up his environment.

In front of him, Chu Feng and Kira who have been waiting nearby were also frightened by Feng Ye's immediate movements.

"Calm down. It's okay. You are in the hospital now." Chu Feng comforts.

Kira adds with a downcast expression, "You were brought here because the student enforcer team found you unconscious in a construction zone."

Feng Ye immediately inquiries, "Akimichi.. He…"

Before he finishes, he notes Chu Feng and Kira's sad expressions.

Kira sighs, "Yeah.. Akimichi, he is now in a better place. I should have noted him and warned him earlier. I'm a failure as a friend."

A nurse walks into the hospital room and says to Kira and Chu Feng, "Visiting hours are over now."

Kira nods. Chu Feng takes a look at Feng Ye and says, "Take care Feng Ye. Stay strong. Without Akimichi-san, there may have been many more casualties. Akimichi-san is a hero."

As he is about to leave, he remembers suddenly something. Chu Feng reaches in his pocket and takes out a damaged cell phone and hands it to Feng Ye.

"This was Akimichi-san's cell phone. The student enforcer team asked me to give this to you when you wake up."

He and Kira walks out. The nurse also adds, "Feng Ye, please stay in the hospital for one night so that we can ensure that you are recovered from shock. If you need anything, feel free to call us using this button." As the words fall, the nurse also exits.

Feng Ye is left staring at the continuous rainy weather that can be seen outside his window. It is still dark out and seems to be around 2AM. His look seems to be lifeless and unmotivated. A numbed individual with no pursue. This would be a rather normal response as Feng Ye was a normal student that had never been exposed to the death of a close one. Except for the occasional numbers of death tolls in news reports, he was unfeeling in regards to death. Feng Ye stared numbly at rain outside for a few hours.

System: Natural energy detected. Recommending host to draw. If you don't hurry up and wake up, I would slap you...

The loli in Feng Ye's mind is wandering around aimlessly and her words immediately shocks him out of his lifeless daze.

"Right… Akimichi was an emotional attachment and was like a brother in this world. He has also entrusted me with his will to live. I need to carry on and live on for him." Feng Ye thinks to himself.

Feng Ye grabs Akimichi's broken phone and turns it on. As he was Akimichi's roommate, he easily knew Akimichi's password and was able to see the texts as well as some fragments of Akimichi's discoveries.

"I will avenge you Akimichi." Feng Ye clenches his fist. The loli in his mind then interrupts his thought.

System: About time you collect yourself. You aren't even part of this world and are essentially an alien. Hurry and collect energy. By the way, when your friend had passed away, he had emitted supernatural energy around his corpse. I had collected it and it is essentially the same if you have killed him. As long as you are nearby the death of an organism, you can extract the energy. Just make sure that you catch up nearby before the energy dissipates back into the world.

"Thank you." Feng Ye whispers in his mind. Without this loli, he would have lost himself. Lost himself and his direction.

The loli snorts and doesn't pay attention.

Feng Ye recalls the shop.

(A/N: Table image: https://i.imgur.com/bjlto64.png)

System Shop (Energy Points [EP]: 50)

Point Exchange

Skill Points: (1 SP = 2 EP)

Ability Points: (1 AP = 3 EP)

Featured Items | Costs

Smoke Bomb | 2 EP

Tracker NanoBug | 5 EP

Potion of Strength (x5 STR for 15 mins) | 10 EP

Potion of Speed (x5 SPD for 15 mins) | 10 EP

Potion of Vitality (x5 VIT for 15 mins) | 10 EP

Potion of Intelligence (x5 INT for 15mins) | 10 EP

Potion of Miracle (Full Recovery) | 500 EP

Other items: Inquire System

Ability Lottery (70% Failure, 30% Success) | 50 EP per 1 draw.

He had noticed that the lottery has changed in regards to the success to failure ratio. It seems that this may be due to the life, death, desperateness, and pain that are experienced in a hospital which cause such a large accumulation of energy.

He immediately exchanges 50 EP to draw an ability.

System: Ability Lottery Activated. Successful. Obtained Halo of Recovery.

Feng Ye immediately opens his attribute panel.

Host Attributes

SP Remaining: 0 Utilize Skill Points(SP) to increase host attributes.

AP Remaining: 0 Utilize Ability Points(AP) to Strengthen abilities

STR 20

SPD 11

INT 20

VIT 10

Abilities

Hidden Wanderer (LVL 1)- The ability to disguise as another individual perfectly.

Limitations: Only applies to the everyday individuals with no peculiar abilities.

Upgrading this skill permits host to disguise as individuals who are stronger than the everyday individual. Next upgrade requires 4 AP.

Halo of Recovery (LVL 1)- The ability to slowly recover from physical and mental wounds. It also shortens the recovery time when host is under abnormal status conditions. (ie. dizziness, unconsciousness, poison). Upgrading this skill increases the rate of recovery. Next upgrade requires 10 AP

Host Inventory

Feng Ye is quite satisfied with this ability. It is a necessary safeguard to have in this world. Although, he is lacking in attack power, he should have no issues escaping should he be in danger. With the Hidden Wanderer ability, he can remain lowkey, while the Halo of Recovery would allow him to recover from wounds slowly as well as any abnormal status conditions which would mean he essentially shouldn't fear toxin if he was unknowingly poisoned. He would slowly be able to excrete the toxins out although he would experience some weakness.

Feng Ye sighs. This was the first real dangerous situation that he had been apart of. This world's danger coefficient is extremely high. He needs to strengthen as soon as possible. Relatively speaking, Akimichi had provided him this new ability with his death. Feng Ye will make the best use of it. This is a gift from his non-biological brother. After looking and assessing his new ability, Feng Ye dozes off.