Chapter 5 - Another anomaly [3]

Chapter 6: Enroll

In a spacious office room sat a handsome man with brown hair and brown eyes who showed no signs of aging as he loosened his tie.

A badge with a red and golden pattern and the letter M appeared in his shirt pocket.

He paused for a few seconds, then glanced at the seer. He hesitated before he gulped down the cup of coffee in front of him, rested his left elbow on the armrest of his chair, and supported his forehead slightly with his fingers to lessen his stress level.

"Let's keep things short." He finally spoke under the seer's kind looking eyes.

"I'm too busy to even scratch my head, but I still came here." The man complained and spread his arms.

The seer smiled and shook his head; his old friend still liked to talk as if he was doing him a favor by showing up uninvited at his place.

"Haa... Children these days are so difficult." The man relaxed back into his seat.

He had known the seer for a long time, and the gentle facade of this friend of his no longer fooled him. Though he may think of the latter as a friend, it was likely not the case for the recipient, not like he was bothered by it. It was merely a formality and a convince.

"Ahem..." He went straight to the point and said, "I want to enroll my godson in the Academy."

"Great, tell him to take the exam and do just that." The seer's eyes curved upward, acting as if he didn't see the request in his friend's words.

"I want you to help me facilitate his entry this year."

Looking at his old friend, still putting on the same usual gentle face, the seer said, "If your little guy meets the requirements, I would naturally put him in the Academy."

The man scratched his head and said, "Well, you know fully well I wouldn't be asking you because he doesn't fit the requirements."

No matter how much time he spent with the seer, his affectionate and carefree attitude was infuriating. However, coming all the way to his mansion and being treated like a boss was worth tolerating his hypocrisy for. The served food was delicious.

"Isn't he the child you always bragged about?" The seer was now surprised.

"He suddenly woke up one day and acted like a different person, and now he's adamant to enroll." Tapping his foot angrily on the floor, he was more confused than angry.

"Is that so…" The seer muttered softly to himself, as though he recalled something.

"So?" The man waited.

The seer shook his head. "The Academy is only for elites and the most talented. If your little guy doesn't meet the requirements, he would only suffer inside."

The man sighed, however, he didn't argue with him and only threw one line, "Don't give my outdated news."

He wouldn't be here begging if the child was up to academy's standard.

Frustrated, he wanted the young boy to be his successor, yet he suddenly wanted to be a hero. It was the first time he asked a favor from him, and he couldn't bring himself to refuse.

"Why would anyone want such an ungrateful and unrewarding job?" He leaned in angrily, "It's a shame. The boy has so much talent; he would fit in perfectly in the Tower of Magic."

"Why would he all of a sudden want to be in such a useless place as the Academy?" The man grumbled again.

The seer spread his right hand forward and said, "Let me see."

It wouldn't be bad to accept his request as he could easily put the man in front of him in debt, not to mention he was slightly curious about the child's identity.

"He just happens to be the son of an old friend of mine and I promised I'll take care of him." The man handed him a paper, he suddenly felt a tumultuous wave of emotion go through him, preventing him from maintaining his anger. It all but deflated like a punctured balloon.

The seer looked at the file, narrowed his eyes, and said, "If people heard the esteemed superhero say that 'Catastrophic Venom' was an old friend, people would be shocked."

"We've been friends before he became a supervillain," the man said in a sad tone.

"And it's the retired superhero now." He added.

"Elemental wind magic mastery at F-rank?" The seer muttered, his eyes scanning the man's godson qualification.

"Hmmm, his past achievements and recent health and status report don't match, but... since you are the one who asked, I'm going to help him enroll..." The seer sipped his coffee contently.

"For real?" The man got up from the sofa, flabbergasted, somewhat resentful he wasn't rejected, "Well, um... I didn't expect that, but if there's anything you want my help with, you can call me anytime. I have to go now," and just like that, he disappeared.

The seer didn't pay him any mind as he looked again at the boy's picture.

"Interesting," he mumbled something else, but no one was around to hear.

'Another anomaly.'

Chapter 7: Power

'What is that?' Ryan looked around.

-Sparkle!

In his field of vision, Ryan saw countless colorful lights dancing around.

There were so many that he started to have a splitting headache and a dizzying feeling.

He closed his eyes tightly, yet the lights didn't disappear.

It seemed like closing his eyes and opening them didn't make a difference.

As his headache grew worse, he started to remember the description in the novel.

Radiation control around oneself is a continuous, intuitive process.

Different people have different patterns of control, as two people's abilities, no matter how similar, are never the same, as it depends on the body and potential of the individual.

Trying to control it becomes harder the higher one's potential is.

For example, someone with F potential can only move a small amount, as F does not represent strength but rather the amount of radiation one can manipulate and go through their body without harming it.

There is no definitive way to manipulate radiation; it depends on one's ability, and with practice, finding a way to manipulate one's radiation around wasn't an out of pocket achievement.

While mana can be practiced depending not on your talent but on one's affinity for one of the elements, everyone can use radiation, and not everyone can manipulate or learn magic.

Nor use them both.

Ryan was sure what was around him wasn't mana, but radiation.

He tried to move the dots of light around him but failed.

He then focused on making the lights dimmer instead of moving them since the colors were bright and blinding.

The colors became cloudy, and controlling them became easier.

He was surprised to find that they had started listening to him this time. However, instead of dimming them, he merely shifted his focus toward weaker and less amount which was manageable.

Trying to move them around, Ryan realized he could only move them a little bit, but it was more straightforward than before.

No longer having to worry about headaches, he sat on his bed and relaxed his shoulder on the bedpost.

Although the lights were not as bright as before, looking at them for a long time made him feel dizzy again.

This radiation wasn't particularly harmful to the human body since it was everywhere; it could only be deadly if too much was inside one's body.

Ryan clenched his temples with his hand and tried to make them even dimmer. But this time, instead of dimming, they moved around in a pattern of lights different from before.

The dots moved along every corner of the room, scattering all over the place like spider webs.

The flashing lights disappeared, and what was left behind was a silhouette of a room with black and colored outlines.

There were also strange, dot-like seeds with roots extending outwardly in the middle of every wall.

Ryan could guess they were ability cards that operated the defense system inside the seer's mansion.

The seer was by no mean an ordinary man who couldn't afford to spend some money on his mansion's defense.

Someone like him, who took his safety as his top priority, had no way of not implementing this kind of defense ability card in every corner and wall of his mansion.

He also saw some small dots that seemed harmless, which he knew were probably the surveillance ability cards.

Getting up from his bed and wanting to search for a toilet, he saw an outline of two doors. So, he walked toward the smaller one, only to hit his leg with a hard wooden object.

BAM!

Falling on the ground, his head uncontrollably smashed itself on the hard surface as he clenched his aching leg.

Ryan touched the object that had just hit him and realized it was a table.

It seemed like his ability could only see things that contained energy.

That meant objects without any natural flow of energy were invisible to him.

Getting up, he resumed his walk toward the bathroom.

Fortunately, there were no small dots inside the bathroom. Only capturing the shape of the room, Ryan started to rely on his sense of touch to find the toilet seat.

Looking around, he saw the black silhouette of a human. He raised his hand, and the silhouette followed.

It seemed like he had captured his own reflection as he touched the cold glass surface of the mirror.

He started examining his silhouette, which was black with an enigmatic purple aura wrapping around his body and seeping through his eyes.

Radiation entered and exited the body through the Meridian toward his heart.

Memorizing the flow of radiation running through his body, Ryan resumed his search for a toilet seat.

After several minutes of searching and hitting his leg multiple times with various items, he finally found the toilet seat and relieved himself.

Going back through the same process of hitting his legs everywhere, Ryan finally lay down on his bed then curled up, hugging his knees. Looking right and left, he rested his chin on the gab between the back of his hands. For now, his demeanor shouldn't stray far from how Hiro used to act.

'Finally.' In the same posture, Ryan attempted to manipulate the radiation inside his body by replicating the flow of energy he had seen in the mirror by imagining the process.

He wanted to prevent the radiation from escaping his body and use it to manifest an ability, but he still had no idea what kind of ability world consciousness would give him.

Ryan tried to guide the energy towards his eyes, but nothing particularly happened, and he failed many times as only a small amount of radiation would follow his will.

After several attempts and what felt like hours, he eventually managed to keep the radiation from escaping, and it began to accumulate in his heart very slowly.

He guided small amounts of radiation randomly in his veins until it made sense, it eventually manifested through his eyes.

He was taken aback, as he didn't expect to succeed on the first day.

In the room, Ryan noticed a difference from the faint silhouettes he had seen before.

He could now make out faint silhouettes of objects, such as the overall shape of the room, windows, table, and chairs beside his bed, as well as the wardrobe he found himself in, etc.

On the table beside his bed, Ryan noticed a covered, plate-like object.

Upon opening the lid, the fragrant smell of food made him remember he hadn't eaten anything for two days.

"Ha…" Taking a sip, his eyes, heavy with tension and tiredness, widened. It was just a regular soup, yet it was better than anything he had ever eaten.

'Is it because the air and vegetation here are much cleaner than in my world?'

With that passing thought, he forgot about his worries and started to eat with relish, ignoring his worries about how to act properly.

Feeling content, sleepiness, and tiredness took over, and he closed his eyes slowly and heavily. His brilliant golden eyes turned magnetic purple, signaling that the soul inside the body had changed before turning back.

Waking up the next day to the sound of birds chirping, several faint silhouettes of male humans entered his field of vision.

Their aura was so faint that radiation ran slowly through their veins, their abilities were mediocre.

They helped him into the shower, brushed his teeth, combed his hair, dressed him up, and spoon-fed him.

The process was so fast and smooth that Ryan didn't realize what had happened, leaving him alone and comfortable.

Soon after, the door opened again, and another group entered with more powerful auras than the previous servants.