"But before that ... my status." Ralph remembered something.
[Ralph Karman
Age: 20 (Soul) 15 (Body)
Level: 1
Talents: Infinite; Aura; ...
Situation: Healthy; Psychologically influenced by Imamoto Ralph;
Skills: Indomitable spirit (Passive); Aura sensitivity, lv5; Inner Vision, lv5; Aura Fusion, lv5;
Beast Skills: Illusion, lv5 (Mastered);
Stats:
Strenght: (Standard)
Agility: (Standard)
Intelligence: 7
Dexterity: (Standard)
Vitality: (Standard)
Resistance: (Standard)
Will Power: 8
Latent Energy: 7
Available stats points: 2]
"As I thought ..." Ralph murmured when he saw the two new points, he seemed to win a point whenever he killed an Aura Master.
Ralph decided to keep a balance and applied one point to intelligence and another to Latent Energy.
Besides, now that Ralph has paid attention, he hasn't gained any new skills lately ... Ralph isn't sure why.
-I should have gained a skill by opening my tranced sense ... Unless that is part of the 'Aura Fusion' skill already.
Ralph sighed and closed his eyes to concentrate.
Time passed quickly, and Ralph began to make great progress with controlling Aura and understanding the Art of Duality of Origin.
~ Ding Ding
Ralph's cell phone started to ring.
Ralph opened his eyes and took a deep breath. Time seems to go by really fast for him.
Ralph got up and wet the seedling on the porch before leaving the apartment.
Ralph then took a taxi to downtown Tokyo, he was wearing neither too formal nor too casual clothing. A white shirt, and long pants with sneakers.
After twenty minutes, the taxi got stuck in a traffic jam, but Ralph paid the driver and got out of the taxi. The location was close anyway.
After walking for a few minutes, Ralph arrived in front of a large building with more than forty floors. The building had a common design and was very busy.
A security guard noticed Ralph and said something on the radio, and after listening to something, went over to Ralph.
"You must be Imamoto Ralph. Please follow me." The security guard spoke and started towards the main elevator of the building.
Ralph followed the security guard as he scanned the surroundings.
He didn't dare use his tranced sense, but instinctively he knew that there were many strong people in that place, he feels something familiar emanating from several people even without using the sense.
After entering the elevator, the security guard seemed to activate a secret mechanism and pressed a button that appeared.
"We're going 500 meters underground, incredible, don't you think?" The guard smiled slightly.
"Certainly." Ralph was surprised and nodded.
"That way, even if it is a nuclear attack, QH will not be greatly affected due to the structure designed to withstand a global catastrophe." The guard then spoke.
Ralph looked at the guard in surprise and said:
"You seem to know a lot."
"The longer you live among monsters, the more you have to know about them in order to survive. Besides, there's not much to do here, so I spend time talking to various types of people." The guard spoke nonchalantly.
Ralph frowned, he noticed something wrong with the security guard's words.
"You are a monster too, your balls are giant to call your superiors monsters." Ralph spoke and laughed.
"Haha ha." The security guard also laughed.
After a few minutes, the elevator stopped and the door opened.
Outside the elevator was a large hallway that leads to a door at the end.
"For security, the elevator is some distance from the entrance. I can't go, goodbye, young man." The security guard spoke and pushed the elevator button to go up, leaving Ralph alone.
Ralph walked to the end of the hall and opened the door.
Seeing what was on the other side, Ralph couldn't help but be surprised.
There was a huge area, with a roof high enough to fit a two-story house and wide enough to accommodate a football field.
There were several people coming and going, dressed in uniform or casual clothes. There were several guts machines scattered around the area.
"You are Imamoto Ralph, the new member of the Golden Star. Welcome." A man in a military uniform spoke to Ralph, on his shoulder you could see his rank.
Ralph almost instinctively greeted the man militarily, but restrained himself by remembering that he was not at the training camp in the other world.
"Thanks for receiving me." Ralph spoke with a smile.
"Come with me, your squad members and a senior officer are waiting for you." The soldier found Ralph sympathetic for some reason and spoke with a smile.
Ralph then followed the soldier as he looked around.
Ralph noticed that some machines look like drills, others like aircraft. But what caught his attention the most were the guns hanging in one corner. There were swords, spears, axes and several other types of blades.
"Those weapons are intended for Aura Masters like you, but special permission is required to have one." The soldier explained.
"I understand..."
After walking for some time, the two arrived on the other side of the area, where there were several doors.
The soldier opened one that had an engraved star on it.
The door leads to another corridor, which leads to another door.
Upon entering that last door, Ralph arrived in what looked like a control room, with several screens scattered around the room and several people doing various things.
"Look, the rookie has arrived." A middle-aged man in uniform who was talking to a colleague shouted.
Everyone then looked at Ralph.
The soldier simply left the room without caring and left Ralph alone.
After a brief silence, Ralph sighed and said:
"Nice to meet you, my name is Ralph ... Imamoto Ralph and I will be working with you from now on."
"This boy smells like milk, is the captain really going to let him join us?" One person screamed.
"Silence! Are you doubting the captain's choice !?" Another person shouted.
Ralph was a little confused to see that no one received him properly, and then asked:
"Where's the captain?"
"He's with the 'Golden Wings' captain." A woman answered and went back to work.
The others also ignored Ralph and went back to work.
Ralph was silent for a moment, and a vein appeared on his forehead.
-But what the hell ...
After calming down, Ralph simply stayed where he was, head up and hands behind his back.
-If there is something I learned in the army, it is that superiors like patient subordinates ... Those bastards.
One minute, ten minutes ... Slowly time passed. Ralph simply stood where he was from the beginning while watching the work of others.
He noticed that there were two people who appeared to have a higher rank than the others, and appeared to be intermediate officers.
One of them was a middle-aged man with a short beard and a strong body, he was analyzing some documents on a table.
The other officer was a blonde woman who looked to be in her thirties and was giving orders to some people who appeared to be in charge of communications.
Ralph slowly understood the squad's structure. Without realizing that a person was paying attention to his behavior.
After an hour passed, Ralph basically understood most of the squadron's social and hierarchical structure, and even memorized the names and ranks of those who seemed to be most important. Everyone's names were written on their chests, and the Ranks were on their shoulders.
"How long will you be there?" Suddenly, an elderly voice came from Ralph's side.
Ralph looked to the side and saw an old man with gray hair and a beard, he was the same height as Ralph.
Seeing the rank on the old man's shoulders, Ralph instinctively paid off militarily.
"Oho? You look like a real military man." The old man smiled and then said:
"My name is Shin Tomura, I am the general responsible for supervising this squad."
"It is a pleasure to meet you, sir." Ralph returned to normal and said.
"I say the same about you, Imamoto Ralph." The old man spoke as he patted Ralph's shoulder with one hand.
"You have potential, I believe that you will be a good addition to this squad, don't disappoint me."
"Lieutenant Shizuka." The general shouted.
"Hi!" A man shouted back.
"Introduce the boy to the squad properly, and give him a vision of what the job will be like." The general spoke as he left the room.
"Yes sir!" Lieutenant Shizuka spoke.
After that, the lieutenant carefully explained everything Ralph needed to know about the squad. The area in which they acted, how they assign missions, how they act and other things ...
After an hour of explaining, the lieutenant stopped and said:
"Any questions?"
"Not." Ralph replied.
"Great, now you know what to do." The lieutenant said and left the room.
Ralph went to a mural and analyzed the listed missions.
Every Aura Master in the squad needs to be on missions whenever working hours are not allowed to waste time. At least, that's what Ralph heard from the lieutenant.
But what Ralph found interesting is that the Aura Masters can choose which mission they want to accomplish ... Of course, only difficult ones have good rewards.
Ralph saw a mission that had a thousand life stones and an artifact as a reward, but the difficulty was just too high.
There were several easy missions, but usually only give five life stones as a reward.
But Ralph finally stopped when he saw a mission, it was to investigate the disappearance of women in a district in southern Tokyo, they were all ordinary women and the criminal left no trace.
The reward is 20 life stones and a mystical fruit.
- Mystical fruit?
Ralph was interested to see the name of a fruit unknown to him.
"This mission has been around for a year now, the criminal continued to kidnap women and was never caught." A man in uniform and with glasses approached Ralph and spoke with a smile.
"You are ... Sergeant Iruka, in charge of organizing the missions." Ralph spoke.
"That's right, newbie." Iruka smiled.
"You said it was a year ago and nobody was able to catch him?"
"Yes, that's why the reward included a mystical fruit. Basically all Aura Masters Rank 5 tried to accomplish the mission but failed."
"I thought the Aura Masters were not divided into Ranks." Ralph spoke in surprise.
"Here they are ... It is useful for assigning missions. You are also a Rank 5 Aura Master. There are five Ranks, from 5 to 1, the smaller the number the stronger the Aura Master is." Iruka explained.
"... I see. What is a mystical fruit?" Ralph then asked.
"Eh !? Don't you know?" Iruka spoke surprised.
Ralph just smiled bitterly.
"How strange, this is no secret. A mystical fruit has the effect of increasing the Latent energy of an Aura Master. Although they are not very valuable, they are extremely rare." Iruka explained.
"What !? Can it increase latent energy?" Ralph asked in surprise.
"Yes, but only a little. Besides, there is no point in increasing Latent Energy in this way, since with the strengthening of Aura, the energy will naturally grow." Iruka spoke and then asked:
"Are you interested?"
"Yes ... This fruit is useful for me." Ralph nodded.
"Sigh ... The decision is yours, but don't forget what I said. It is not worth increasing the latent energy dedicatedly, it will grow alone with the strengthening of the Aura." Iruka spoke and then left.
Ralph took the mission paper and went to a girl who was sitting and organizing some documents in the corner of the room.
"Hello, Sergeant Mina, I want to accept this mission." Ralph put the paper on the table.
Mina didn't seem interested in talking and just said:
"You have a week to complete the mission, newbie."
Ralph nodded and said:
"I need more information about the mission, who were the victims, where they were ..."
Sergeant Mina then said:
"You can check this information through our virtual network, give me a valid email so that I can register."
After a few minutes, Ralph finally had access to the squad's information network.
"Thank you, Sergeant Mina." Ralph thanked him.
"Good luck." Mina spoke and went back to work.
Ralph left the control room and went to the elevator.
"Wait boy, this elevator is only used for those who come here for the first time, we have an elevator reserved for us here." An old sergeant spoke to Ralph when he saw that he was going to the elevator.
After being guided by the old man, who had dyed black hair and was almost short as a dwarf, in another elevator, Ralph thanked him sincerely.
"Good luck, newbie." The old man smiled strangely and left.
For some reason, Ralph thought the old man was quite strange.
After climbing back to the surface, Ralph found that he was in another building, next to the building he entered.
The building appeared to be closed, and only the squad members could come and go.
Ralph left the building after receiving the surprised look from the guards there, who were surprised to see a newcomer.
"Good luck, newbie." The guards spoke with a smile.
Ralph twitched the corners of his mouth and headed south for Tokyo.
After getting on one of Tokyo's mainline trains, Ralph sat down and analyzed the location of the hijackings.
There was no visible pattern, but Ralph had some experience with hidden patterns and found something interesting when using the golden law as a basis for comparison and the Fibonacci sequence.
"0; 23.6; 38.2; 50; 61.8; 100 ...;" Ralph murmured as he carefully analyzed the coordinate ratio.
"The first case was in the ratio of 0, the second in the ratio of 23.6, the third in the ratio of 38.2 ... If the pattern continues, the hijacker will act in the ratio between the last and the penultimate coordinate, 161.8 . "
"How strange, how did they not notice this before?" Ralph wondered as he determined the location of the next likely kidnapping.
"This kidnapper is really strange, following such an obvious pattern." Ralph murmured.
Upon arriving at the right station, Ralph disembarked and walked in one direction.
"The time for the kidnappings also follows the same pattern, and the next one should take place tonight." Ralph murmured and then sat on a bench in a public square.
"The victims are always women, but there is no pattern. The kidnapper kidnaps both young and old, both ugly and beautiful." Ralph muttered as he analyzed the data on his cell phone.
Ralph got up and started walking. After a dozen minutes of walking, Ralph arrived in front of a school.
Ralph tried to act naturally, so as not to alert the enemy that he might be lurking, and simply walked to the end of the street.
After entering an alley, Ralph activated his ability and returned to the front of the school, but this time invisible.
There was no one in front of the school, and there were no cars.
-The kidnapper may be inside the school, and he may not be here either.
Ralph scanned the surroundings, there were no tall buildings nearby.
-Should I just wait here?
Ralph wondered and looked at the school.
He was not taking classes, but some students were playing football on the field. Among the students were women.
Ralph sat on a bench beside the field and studied the students.
But no matter how much Ralph looked, he didn't see anything wrong.
-Strange, criminals often demonstrate suspicious behavior, even if they try to hide it. Unless the kidnapper is not one of them.
Ralph then looked at the school building, and noticed that some teachers were looking at the countryside.
-Maybe one of the teachers?
Ralph wondered and went to investigate.
"The third year students are playing well, it is not impossible for them to win the championship this year." A teacher spoke.
"I agree." A woman who appeared to be a secretary spoke with a smile
Ralph analyzed all the teachers and the secretary, but he also didn't notice anything wrong.
Slowly, the sun started to set. And the students were getting ready to leave.
-The kidnapper can target someone random, or a student, or a teacher or secretary ... Fortunately, everyone leaves the same place.
Seeing that the time was coming, Ralph used his trancing sense, which now covered an area within 17 meters, at the entrance to the school.
Ralph couldn't follow all the women, and he could only hope that he was right.
When the sky was completely dark, the last people left the school, a secretary and two teachers, one of the teachers is a woman.
"Wait, don't you want to go with me?" The secretary suddenly spoke to the female teacher, who agreed after finding no reason to deny it.
Both then started walking in one direction, with the other teacher simply leaving.
Ralph did not miss the opportunity and started following them both.
"I don't believe that the principal changed the rules without consulting the teachers, this is ridiculous." The teacher spoke to the secretary.
"True, this is irrational." The secretary sighed and spoke.
"You live close by, right? I think we're going to break paths here." The teacher spoke on arriving at a corner.
"Yes, see you later." The secretary smiled and waved her hand.
"Yes, even-" The teacher was about to speak but stopped, and then started to follow the secretary.
Ralph noticed something, the secretary only walked in places where there were no security cameras.
The secretary walked through alleys and alleys, all in order to avoid the security cameras, and, at last, seemed to arrive at her house.
"This is my home, I hope you feel comfortable" The secretary spoke with a smile to the teacher.