I was waiting for my friends Julius, Leela, and Adelina in the factory. I had already sent them the rendezvous point, and they arrived 5 minutes later than me. They looked so different that it took me a moment to recognize them - they were all in their growth phase.
I telepathically guided them to my location in the main room. "You guys arrived late," I messaged to their brains.
"Who!" they backed off, searching for the unknown entity, in alarm.
"Your sins," I responded, trying to lighten the mood.
"Is that you, Nirmay?" Leela asked, looking around.
"You guessed right. Come on, let's head to the biggest room of the factory." They heaved a sigh of relief and followed me.
We greeted each other, and Julius gave me a big hug. "You all look so different, especially you Julius. It seems you're making progress," I commented.
"I am already a level 1 herculean," Julius revealed, looking smug.
"Congrats," I said, happy for him.
"What's with the lackluster response?" he asked.
I didn't reply, instead turning to Leela and Adelina. "And how are you two?"
"Been better with you in the group," Leela said.
"And we advanced to level 1 psychics as well," Adelina added.
"Why were you alarmed when I talked to you telepathically?" I asked.
" Seems you don't yet. Yesterday our sector was attacked by a level 8 nightmare being. It was repelled without any damage to our sector, but it's rumored to be roaming in the forest nearby, and it might have even entered our sector," Leela explained.
"Should we hunt it?" I joked. They didn't find it amusing and just stared at me.
"I'm just kidding," I clarified. "What level are you?" Julius asked me.
"I'm level 4," I replied.
"What!" All of them exclaimed in surprise.
"How did you advance so quickly?" Adelina asked.
"Talent, I guess," I said, feeling smug.
"The world is unfair," Julius lamented, sighing with his head held low.
"Wow, you can already apply for the position of district head," Leela said.
"Enough about me. Tell me what's going on with your lives," I said.
" I'm preparing for some doctorates and training my psychic powers. My parents want me to become a researcher," Leela said.
"I've decided to join the military, and my parents agreed as well," Julius said.
"I don't know. Most probably, I will work at my Father's company," Adelina said.
"What's your father's company?" I asked.
"My father is the CEO of Blythetech as well as its founder and major shareholder," Adelina revealed.
"The same company that makes the holographic watch?" I asked in surprise.
Adelina nodded. "What about you, Nirmay?" Leela asked.
"I haven't decided yet. I haven't thought about it," I admitted.
"With your talent and level, you will be successful in anything you do. Maybe you can join the government," Adelina suggested.
"Nah, that sounds boring," I said, slapping away that idea.
We continued chatting, and before they left, I said, "If you want to use your powers freely, you can come here. There are no sensors around here for some reason."
"I have my own training room," Adelina said, reminding me of her strength.
"Julius and Leela also use my training room for practice," Adelina mentioned.
"Goodbye then," I waved as they left.
"Are you not coming with us?" Leela asked.
"I want to practice my powers for a while," I replied.
"Be careful not to cause any explosions. The military is on high alert right now," Adelina warned.
After confirming that they had truly left the factory, I took something out of my pocket. It was a miniature bird that resembled a phoenix from the myths of my previous world.
The small phoenix had a large wingspan and a long tail. Its sharp talons and powerful beak were accompanied by bright, piercing blue eyes and feathers that flowed like lava. It seemed surreal, as if it was made of some illusory substance rather than cells or atoms.
Beautiful blue particles continuously emitted from its body, gradually making it smaller. Although its body was very hot, even hotter than lava, I could handle it because it looked so adorable.
It was likely a baby phoenix, and it stared at me with a dumb expression.
A while ago, when I was feeling bored, I used my third eye as a search engine to find something interesting around me. I was lucky to stumble upon this cute little creature nearly 5km away from the barrier, struggling to fly.
It pecked at my hand, and although it couldn't speak, I could understand that it was hungry and asking for food. I didn't know what to feed it, but I deduced from its decreasing size that it probably needed metamorphene to survive outside the river Nagvinashak.
I wondered if this phoenix was really the one that had attacked this sector as I watched it cutely drinking the condensing metamorphene from my hand.
Calling it 'it' felt rude, so I decided to name it. "Niril, do you like this name, little one?" I asked telepathically. Niril nodded his little flamy head in agreement.
He looked so adorable. I decided to keep him as my pet. "Do you want to live with me?" I asked him gently, tempting him with more condensed metamorphene on my hand. He shook his head while drinking the metamorphene.
"Why not?" I asked. Without words, Niril conveyed that he could not live in the outside world for long, even with the sustenance of metamorphene.
"I can solve that for you," I said, using all of my powers (existential, rule, and dream powers) to release that limitation from him. Through this, I gained a better understanding of Rule, although it was insignificant, it was still something.
"Do you feel better?" I asked. Niril nodded and hugged my hand with his long wings compared to his size.
Niril chirped with happiness. I was surprised to see a phoenix chirp. Perhaps it was a side effect of using my dream and rule powers when I had not fully comprehended them.
* Sectors are further divided into districts.*
* The truths he has discovered and is discovering is the enlightenment of himself not of the macrocosm.*
* He can create something he has knowledge about using his existential power. And he can bring something into existence he has no knowledge about, using dream power and rule power.*