(A Few Days Later)
Somewhere unknown, a figure was seen standing inside a room full of futuristic tech watching a group of people fighting inside a set of arenas in front of him as the competitors wielded gigantic swords along with spewing elemental attacks at each other.
"Good good, their progress has been astounding," said the person as he walked out of the gigantic white room and onto a door just beside him and was greeted by the site of a room full of monitors.
He then went to type out on a holographic keyboard in mid-air as he browsed through tons of files and stopped on a certain one.
"Sigh, still no luck on who the looper is," said the figure as he went to open a text file and listed out tons of words that seems to be orders to a certain person, and after that, the figure disappeared from the room and inside Aki's room.
"School will start tomorrow already, and with that, either I will find the looper or not, they've been constantly looping throughout the month due to unknown reasons but they're staying lowkey, I haven't found any suspicious incidents like a super lucky trader or any of that stuff," I said while scratching my head in annoyance and sat down on my bed in a lotus position, and with that, I opened my status which has drastically grown over the month.
[Akihiko Tanaka] [Title: ]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Hunter]
[Gift: Blessed Light Manipulation(Mythical) Weapon Creation(Legendary) Shadow Manipulation(Legendary) Flame Manipulation(Legendary) Water Manipulation(Legendary) Ice Manipulation(Legendary) …]
[Body: B]
[Mind: A]
[Energy: S]
[Skills: Martial Arts(A) Danger Sense(A) Precision(A) Stealth(A) …]
"Sigh, skills are a bit useless right now with the lack of monsters to hunt. The only useful one is Danger Sense but that would be useless once I find one at the Epic level. There should be more to skills than just that… I do have the ability to have multiple Gifts so I'm far from the norm here, but what are skills? An ability of a being, so how does it transform into a skill book? And how do I use this Energy that I'm going to call mana for now? Can I even manipulate mana on its own?" I muttered as I remembered my past attempts trying to understand mana but no progress has been made.
"But I did achieve many of my objectives already. My own company which is making waves, many spies all around the world so I can expand my roots without the people knowing, but those presidents are just too hard to get under my control right now with the number of people protecting them. But many companies are already under my control and soon I could merge most of them to make my mega-corporation and exploit the rifts to become the first hunter association" I said with a grin as my networth is already passed 10 billion and it was due to the looper's constant looping which I exploited to the fullest.
As I remembered what some of my plans would be depending on how this world would develop, I would probably have to juggle tons of stuff at the same time.
With a sigh at how hectic it would be in the future, I looked outside the window to see that the moon was already high in the sky and decided to finally go to sleep to rest my exhausted mind and prepare it for the chance of meeting the looper tomorrow at school.
(The Next Morning)
Outside our house, I was preparing to get inside the car as many things have changed in the past month.
My parents now know I have Blessed Light Manipulation, I didn't play New World at all in the past month which made Shiroa a bit upset but he got over it and instead spend time with me on other stuff instead.
From my spying on Gtech, Ai seems to be hidden somewhere unknown which is still a secret to me as only the top of that company knows where it is and they are constantly being protected which makes my chance of successfully getting the secret zero, so with a sigh, I knew that Ai will die once again today which further confuses me on why Ai will die?
Could Ai be perhaps made into the system? But I currently have the system and Ai's not dead, so there must be something going on that I don't know which further irritates me at how much is kept secret from me.
I'm like a blind kid right now with no guide, I have no way of knowing which way is right or left and I could only try to make the road a bit lighter.
"Let's go!" shouted Shiro which broke me out from my deep thoughts as my father entered the car while we followed along from the back and just like last time, we drove out of the house towards the streets.
We first stopped by Shiro's school and now it would be my turn as my father laughed at me from profusely sweating, then my mother reassured me as I nodded and got out of the car.
"Goodbye!" I shouted towards them as they wave goodbye and said "Take Care!" and drove away towards their workplace while a shadow trailed along with them from behind.
As I watched them go into the distance, I took a deep breath and looked at Hope Academy beside me, and sighed.
I then entered the large open gates and took my time with the walk trying to find any suspicious person that would indicate that they were the looper, but with the number of students here, my chances of finding them might as well be zero.
With a reluctant sigh, I went towards the building where my classroom is and nothing seems to have changed that drastic, except for the extra chair…
An extra chair!
The moment I saw that extra chair that was beside where Zoran would sit, I instantly knew my guess was right and the looper does plan to join Hope Academy.
With rapid breaths, I calmed myself down and nonchalantly took my seat, and awaited the next set of events that will happen.
With a blank stare, I glanced all around the room preparing for the fated meeting with the looper as I closed my eyes and visualized tons of theoretical outcomes on what our interaction would be like.
I really need to think about this and what would be my plans from a future timeline, if what I did was according to what I have previously planned, I probably became a hero and perhaps even a saint, but the rifts have probably destroyed my plans so either an S tier Hunter from what would happen with the appearance of hunters or a respected rift caretaker.
And like clockwork, Sora walked through the entrance, sat down beside me, and went to greet him like last time that is already starting to become natural to me as this is the third time this happened.
Then Zoran walked through, sat down beside us, we made the joke about the vibrating stick and waited for the mysterious looper with bated breaths.
And just a few minutes before the rifts start appearing, the looper finally appeared in front of me.
With black hair, crimson eyes, wearing the Hope Academy uniform, he looked so… average, but there was something about him that brought a sense of charm of sorts.
He looked around the room with a confident smile as if nothing worries him and the moment he looked at us, his eyes glowed and I instantly knew he doesn't hate me, instead, it seems like he wants to be friends with me, he wants to be allies with me.
The moment I saw that I breathed a sigh of relief in my brain as it seems like we were not enemies in the future and instead he seems to even be awed by us three.
As I saw him looking at us, he waved hello to me and sat down beside Zoran as we looked at him with a smile.
"What's up, the name's Tanaka Akihiko, family name is Tanaka," I said to the boy with a casual smile.
"The name's Kamiya Sora, family name is Kamiya," Sora said with a smile.
"And I'm Zoran Ambrose," said Zoran as the boy nodded.
"I'm Kim Jong-ga, family name is Kim. It's nice to meet you three" said Jongga as he shook hands with us with a smile.
"It's nice to meet you, what's your Gift by the way? I can heal people" I said with a smile.
"Oh, I can-" but before he could say what his Gift was, the time has struck, and with that, a floating window appeared in front of everyone, and I sighed in my mind at how unfortunate the timing was.
"What!?" said Jongga in shock as I chuckled in my mind at how convincing his act was and wondered how would everything change from now on.
AN: This is 1518 words, you're welcome
So because I'm too lazy to put a '-' between Jong and ga, just remember to mentally put a - between those two, and its pronounce Jong Ga by the way.
The Sword of Damocles hangs above each and everyone one of you with its ever present threat of despair, so send me some power stones with your power of friendship and save the thousands perhaps even millions to come who will read this masterpiece immortalized in the tunnels of time.
(April 1, 2022 – 128th day of writing)