"...I really don't feel that different..." Said Jay as he inspected his body.
Although the system had confirmed that he was not 100% human, Jay did not feel "less human" so to speak.
In addition, the changes his body had undergone were necessary in order to use the Parasyte System, so even if he had known he would stop being fully human if he agreed to be the carrier of the system, he would have done so anyway.
"Well, let's hope it's not something harmful in the long run."
Deciding that he would worry about it later if it was harmful in any way, Jay put the issue aside and focused on another of the important things he discovered.
His body had a limit of esper skills he was able to assimilate, specifically, 3 skills, not counting the ability of the system, of course.
Although this limited him, he wasn't that worried.
"Hm, at least the skills I chose aren't bad at all."
While "Wind Control" was a somewhat common esper skill, Jay was happy with it because it was a fairly versatile skill that could help him defend himself, attack or even run away.
As for "Regeneration", Jay imagined a scenario where he was fighting someone and no matter how much he was injured, his body would heal instantly, no doubt a terrifying scenario for his enemies.
For the same reason that he only could assimilate 3 skills as max, he was also glad he didn't infect Taylor, even though having "Superhuman Strength" wasn't bad, there were certainly better skills to assimilate.
'It was a good question and answer session,' thought Jay, satisfied with the information he had obtained.
And although he hadn't gotten an exact answer, he could now organize his priorities better.
Thanks to the question and answer session, Jay now knew he had to improve the system to unlock more features, but as he couldn't figure out how to do it, he decided to focus on something else.
Improve his statistics.
While his statistics were enough for now, his goal was to be strong enough to pass the Eitsirc Academy entrance exam, where the other people taking the test were supers with years of training, not just South Zone thugs.
Plus, he could not always be confident that he would be able to sneak attack his opponent with a metal bat, and what's more, there would surely be cases where not even a firearm could hurt his opponents, so there was no need to mention what a metal bat could do.
That being the case, improving his statistics was a necessity, so he had to find a pugilist as soon as possible, and the fastest way to do that was...
[Hey, Noah, you're done with the info...?* Wrote Jay on his smart watch before sending the message to Noah.
He had been talking to him since morning, explaining what had happened with Taylor, omitting the detail that he had defeated him with a surprise attack and the fact that he had infected him, obviously.
Apparently Noah had mistaken him for a new thug from the South Zone who wanted to be recognized for his strength, which was why he hadn't taken his stuff.
As to why he had given him Taylor's smart watch and money, Noah assumed that he had left them so that he wouldn't say anything.
Jay thought a little about what Noah said and agreed to the part of him being a thug; after all, it was a believable alibi.
After explaining to him what happened with Taylor and that he hadn't left him the smart watch to buy his silence, Jay had started to convince Noah to help him find strong "rivals" so he could make a name for himself.
He liked that excuse, so he decided to go along with it.
At first Noah refused because even though Jay had helped him, that didn't mean he wasn't dangerous.
However, after Jay offered him money in exchange for the information, things changed, which surprised Jay a little, who had even prepared a speech about how he wanted to become strong in order to improve the security of the South Zone.
[Not yet, but I've finished some of it...] Replied Noah before sending a file to Jay.
"Hoo..."
Jay opened the file and saw that it was a map which showed the 31 districts that made up the entire South Zone.
Each of these districts, from number 2 to 31 had a color, some were green and some were purple, making it a colorful map.
Below the map was a description of what each of the colors meant.
Metal Body (Green), is a group with numerous members, consisting mainly of espers, with some pugilists in their ranks, their leader is a (C) rank esper, the distinctive feature of this group is that they wear a metal earring in their right ear. They have a great rivalry with Wolf's Fang.
Wolf's Fang (Purple), unlike the previous group, most members of this group are pugilists, with a few espers, not much is known about their boss, except that he is a rank (C) super. Although they have fewer members than Metal Body, each one of them is stronger in comparison. Because they don't have many members, they don't have a distinctive feature among them, or at least not one that I have noticed. They get along very badly with Metal Body.
'Hmm, then, my target should be some member of Wolf's Fang...' Thought Jay after reading the information Noah had sent him.
Since Jay already suspected that there were organizations "protecting" the South Zone, he was not so surprised by that fact, the thing that did draw his attention, however, was something else.
On the map of the Southern Zone, from District 2 to 31, all of them had one color, except for one place which was in white, District 1, that was strange considering how deep it was in the South Zone and how big this district was.
[Hey, Noah, why is District 1 white?] Wrote Jay before sending the message to Noah.
After waiting for a few seconds, a reply arrived.
[That's extra information, you'll have to pay a little more to get it.]
'This guy...' Jay thought with a bitter smile on his face.
[Alright, tell me.] he said after making a small transfer to Noah.
[Thanks, and in fact, I don't know much about the place either.]
'...Have...have I just been ripped off...?'
*I only know that not only Metal Body and Wolf's Fang are very cautious with the district 1, even the Heroes Association hasn't visited that place in a really long time.*
'Uff, I didn't get ripped off, that's a relief.' He thought after reading what Noah just wrote, 'Hm, it definitely sounds dangerous, well, it's not like I had planned to go that far into the South Zone either...'
Although Jay needed to get hosts quickly, he knew his limits very well, so he quickly marked District 1 as an area not to go to...at least not now.
After looking more closely at the map, Jay realized he didn't have any information about a "worthy rival" for him, so he quickly messaged Noah to ask about it.
[And do you have the name of someone strong?]
[You could take on the bosses if you want, I don't know exactly where their bases are, but they're most likely in the 2nd or 3rd district.]
"...Hah, I would definitely die if I did that..." Jay said with a mocking smile on his face.
One should know that a rank (C) super was able to defeat 5 ranks (D) super simultaneously, so there was no need to mention what would happen to someone like Jay who barely qualified as a rank (D-) super.
[I want to save the strongest for last...and in fact, I want to face a pugilist now.]
Obviously he couldn't say "If I face any of the bosses, I'll die instantly!" so that phrase seemed appropriate to him.
[Hm, if you're looking for a pugilist...I have one in mind, I just saw him when I went to buy groceries, he's part of Metal Body, he seemed to be looking for someone, probably Taylor, they're both members of Metal Body after all.]
[Oh, really? What's his name?] asked Jay, more interested in the pugilist than in the fact that Taylor was part of Metal Body.
However, that wasn't weird, after all, Jay was already determined to get more hosts even if they had some sort of backing, as long as they weren't too strong of course.
[His name is Colt, he's younger than Taylor but he can sweep the floor with him, so you'd better not get too confident.]
Noah didn't forget to remind Jay to be careful.
While he thought Jay was strong, Colt was too, so he thought that if Jay got too confident, Noah would lose a good source of income as well as a way to give trouble to the local thugs.
[Relax, I won't, by the way, send me the places where I can find him.] He replied before closing the message application and opening an online store.
'Now then, I'll be facing a pugilist...I have to prepare...' Jay thought as he looked at the items in front of him.