"Who said I needed one?" Thomas was inwardly heaving a sigh of relief. He found someone who claimed to be like the person mentioned in his scroll. And he got to offer a ride to him for free.
But he felt weird for this person to know about his need for a ride.
"Come on! A piece of advice, never try to play any trick on your seniors."
"Senior?"
"You are just a new cub, and I'm a killer," the man winked, and for a reason it felt a bit creepy with his other eye's weird cover and such, "let's go. The train is about to arrive. And you don't want to miss it, right?"
Thomas didn't have any choice but to tag along. That dude moved and stood at the edge of the platform, while few other people moved like him.
"Do you want to kill villains?" as Thomas stood by this dude's side, that dude suddenly said.
"Well…" Thomas didn't know what to say. He still didn't know anything about this world. But this word was something he recalled Oliver mentioning before.
If he acted by reflex, then hearing the villain word would trigger his just sense and would instantly say he'd love to do that. As he didn't know who this dude next to him truly was, didn't know what even villains in this world even meant, he hesitated.
"They are the villains," that dude moved his cane, used it as a long stick and pointed towards the direction of the wooden board with posters on it, "they are the ones who did all these grave crimes. So, do you want to take them down?"
Thomas looked back at the posters' direction, recalled what he read. But for a reason, he felt he shouldn't say anything of what he truly thought about, "I don't have the power to do so."
"Won't you even dream about doing it?" that dude turned and gave Thomas a deep gaze.
"I just dream about doing things I can really do," Thomas shrugged, speaking with his lifelong experience from his life on Earth, "dreaming about doing the impossible is useless and childish."
"Hmm…" that dude just said that, turned towards east, where something seemed to come from far.
Thomas followed his line of sight, to see something metallic, green and silver in colour, coming towards here at a fast speed, while releasing thick bellows of black smoke.
Seeing this made Thomas imagine an old train, one who used to run on coal back on Earth, coming towards here.
"Our fat ride arrived at last," the dude next to him said, and he was really right in his words.
The thing that Thomas expected came, but it wasn't like what he thought. It was a huge metallic beast, ugly one, one that would leave Becky behind in the dust in terms of size and ugliness.
"Are people here lacking in metal to use scraps to build these things or what?" Thomas couldn't help but mutter, and that made the dude next to him give him a silent glance.
"You do know that without the help of the Great Monarch, things like these wouldn't have been invented, right?" that dude said, while that ugly train passed in slow speed in front of the platform, slowly stopping.
"As if inventions stopped by his time!" Thomas rolled his eyes, while saying what he got in mind.
"That's true," and unlike what Thomas expected, that dude added, "the brilliant minds we got are all focused on how to kill other superheroes fast, not free to think about normal people or their wellbeing. So, inventions stopped by the time of the Great Monarch, and I doubt such a golden era will come again."
Thomas swallowed what he had in mind, while wondering about what was going on in this world. As the train arrived, Thomas started to closely inspect this ugly metallic behemoth.
It was like Earth trains and had a front leading piece with an engine. But this piece was like ten Beckys added together. And the one who made this train made sure to form the ugliest thing ever.
The front piece was like a giant box, with a diamond shaped piece appearing next. This piece got a rough surface and seemed to be formed of many smaller metallic scraps added next to each other in a crude way to form the front of this train.
Unlike Earth, this thing didn't have a chamber for the driver. It dragged another piece that was slightly similar in shape, smaller in size, with the box shaped item being in the rear not the front. And this piece wasn't solid, with space inside as a team of five people were in there, seemingly lost in doing some sort of a job.
Then the train trucks passed next. They looked a bit more decent than the ugly front, looking more earth-like.
"Let's go," the man led the way first, while Thomas tagged behind. When he entered the train, he was surprised to see only enough space for just one group of seats there.
Each group of seats were on one side, with a rounded metallic table, and a view on a wide window.
On the opposite side, a long corridor existed. "I thought it'll be more spacious," Thomas muttered while following that man towards one empty group of seats.
"Is it your first time boarding a train?" The man gave Thomas a deep look, seemingly getting used to his ignorance about many things.
"I came from the villages outside the settlement," Thomas used the excuse Oliver made up before, "so it's my first time."
"Won't be your last, hopefully," the man then shifted his eyes away, looking through the window as if he didn't care about anything in the world.
"Sorry, but… I don't have a ticket…" This was Thomas' most annoying problem for the time being.
"Don't worry, I'm not that pathetic or poor," the man said without even shifting his eyes away.
And that gave Thomas lots of time to think over things again.
Everything started with him sitting next to that old beggar looking lady, to end up with him being in such a crazy world.
He got his shut door of emotions opened widely, and he had to start adapting to this torturing feeling and struggle.
As he was lost in thoughts, the train started to move. It wasn't as rough as Becky, but it wasn't as smooth as the trains he used to ride before on Earth.
He felt not vibrations, but violent shakes that came on regular intervals. With each shake, he felt like his guts would explode out of his mouth.
"What are these vibrations?" and as it seemed to keep going during the past ten minutes, Thomas had to finally ask.
"It's the effect of using the Qi balls in large numbers from time to time," that man answered. And as if he got used to how silly Thomas' questions were, he didn't show any surprised expression on his face anymore. Instead, he kept explaining.
"These balls came from the once were known Fuckers in the world. Of course, after the Great Monarch, they became an important pillar of our current civilization. They donated their Qi and formed it into balls, and we use balls literally in almost everything in our life. Be it in homes, travels, or even fight, we use these Qi balls everywhere. And this train runs on these balls. These fierce shakes come when the ones at the front throw Qi balls in the engine to let it run."
"I see…" Thomas started to get the feeling that these Qi balls were just the replacement of coal in this world, "and that black smoke?"
"It's the impurities left after burning these Qi balls," the man paused, before sighing, "I'm not an engineer to know such a thing in great detail, but it's a common knowledge that Qi balls produced by F grade superheroes are all filled with lots of impurities. That's why no superhero will try to absorb these, and they won't replace the Qi stones coming from the Isolation Zones…"
The man paused, took a deep breath, before asking, "you do know of the Isolation Zones and the Qi stones, right?"
Thomas felt like this man was acting as a babysitter to him, as a father dealing with a son. But he was a scary and cold father. And so Thomas hurriedly nodded.
Seeing this man was slightly open to speak with him, Thomas decided to ask him about other stuff.
"What's with that piece of metal," he pointed towards the metallic piece over the side of this dude's face, "does it hide anything?"
"It's something you wish to have," the man rolled his one eye, looking creepy again, "this hides the scar, one of the noblest and best things any superhero will have."
"This… If it's this great, why hide it then?" Thomas didn't get it again. He heard it first from Oliver and thought that dude was just insane or something. But now? This dangerous looking dude spoke in the same way about it.
But when he said his last piece, that man glared fiercely at him as if he just said some kind of insult or something. Thomas didn't like this look, and yet he kept speaking about what he wanted to know, "what's special about having a scar? Is it gained from battling the villains or something?"
"Oh, you literally know nothing about superheroes," the man sighed in a hopeless way, "listen, I'm going to do you a favour. Or else… God knows you'll turn in a laughingstock out there."
Thomas didn't get what this dude even meant. But he'd never want to be a laughing stalk anywhere, anytime.
As this dude was willing to help and explain things over to him, Thomas listened attentively. Unlike Oliver, the words coming from this dude were going to be more trustworthy.
"You have to know the basic information about superheroes, and that's related to their classifications. As you know, the lowest starts with F grade, going up through E, D, C, all the way up to S, SS, and SSS grades. The S grades are something that's rarely seen, so don't bother with them. As for the grading system itself, it all is based on how much Qi energy a superhero can channel and control in his body."
"So, Qi can be tested? By a metre device or something?" Thomas tried to play along with this dude, but what he said was just wrong. And he knew it from just the stern look that dude gave him.
"No, we measure it using the Qi manifestations and mysterious old antiques," that dude paused, before adding, trying to simplify this concept, "imagine a balloon, and you are pushing air into it. If the balloon is big enough, then more air will be added there. And if you can add more, the balloon will get disfigured, or even explode at the end, right?"
Thomas tried to get his point, while nodding to hear more.
"We measure how a superhero's body deals with the Qi. Each superhero is different. There are superheroes who can't tolerate even a small amount of Qi, and these are the F grade superheroes. They show nothing at all, no Qi manifestations, no scars, nothing. And then if the body starts to absorb higher concentration of Qi, then it'll show signs. Things like scars, oculus, sparkling hair, branched skin flares, and other things are considered signs of one's high grade and power. And that's why having such scars is a good thing."
Thomas looked at this dude's face, and recalled the images he saw before at the posters. And he couldn't help himself but ask, "is it painful?"
"At first? Yes. but then one gets used to them," the man paused, before pointing to his eyes, "I got my superpower activated and my eyes changed. Alongside it. Then my face showed a long scar. And that made me a C grade superhero."
"C grade…" Thomas was lost in thoughts. He felt like this dude was quite strong, and felt like he'd be at A grade or even higher when he heard about the grades. But hearing he was just a C grade superhero made him quite disappointed.
"Don't look down at me," the man laughed, "it's not that common to be a C grade superhero. Not to mention I'm this close to getting to B grade, just needing to absorb a few more Qi stones."
"You can absorb Qi stones to get stronger?" Thomas was surprised by this.
"Then why do you think there is war between superheroes and villains in the first place? Whoever controls more Qi mines, will have his forces grow stronger."
"I see…"
"Just pray you won't end up being one of the Fuckers," the man laughed, "after all, out of one thousand people with superpowers detected, almost nine hundred will fall into the F grade."
"..."
These words left Thomas all silent. He didn't know if he was going to be lucky enough to escape the F grade, or he'd end up being one of them.
Then his thoughts drifted towards something else. If the majority of superheroes lied in the F grade, then how about the percentage of the higher grades?
At this moment, he realised that the man in front of him wasn't that weak after all.
"And… I'm not hiding it," as Thomas got lost in his thoughts, thinking about his fate in this world, that dude continued, "this is a gear, made for me specifically to augment my powers."
"Augment? How so?" Thomas paused, and before he'd ask, that dude waved his finger in the air, preventing him from asking about this.
"As long as you aren't part of my inner circle, you don't get to know anything about my superpower, ok?"
Thomas knew this man was giving him another lesson, an important one, about the rules in this world.
"Gears are something extremely precious," the man pointed to his long metal piece as he added, "we used to make these from rare ores found at the Isolation Zones. It goes without saying how precious and expensive these materials are. Not to mention finding an artisan to forge one for you is really hard and expensive."
The man spoke in pride, as if he was showing off or something. Aside from his tone and attitude, Thomas got how hard it was to make such a small piece of gear.
When he thought about this point, he couldn't help but recall the images of superheroes in the comics he read before on Earth.
"Then if one wants to build a full body suit, is it possible?"
"Sure, if you are one of those monsters, S grade and higher superheroes, then yes, you can," the man laughed at Thomas' dreams. And the latter didn't mind such a laugh.
He got that in this world, similar superheroes like the ones he read about in comics did exist. "I hope I'll become an S grade or higher," he muttered, and that made that dude's laugh become higher and louder.
"I really do hope you can become one, at least I'll be a friend of someone scary, but…" he paused for a moment before laughing again, "but this is quite impossible! All the S grade and higher usually come from the older sectors, much older than the sectors in the outer and middle zones."
"Outer and middle zones?" Thomas heard another term that he didn't know about.
"It's how our world is arranged… It's something you'll learn in detail later on," that dude shifted his eyes away, seemingly lost interest in continuing lecturing Thomas.
And that left the latter to think about everything he heard about so far. It seemed that in this world, the method to assess one's grade was quite crude, depending entirely on how one's body would react to Qi energy.
That dude also mentioned some sort of ancient antiques or something that could help in doing so. But as this dude didn't mention anything about these, Thomas guessed that using such things seemed to be a privilege for a selected bunch of special superheroes.
In addition to that, there was a way to increase one's power using the Qi stones. As long as there was a way, Thomas decided he'd try his best and level up his power.
"By the way…" and as he went through everything this dude said, he suddenly had something he didn't get, "what about people?"
"What people?" The man looked in a weird way again towards Thomas. And the latter moved his eyes around, to the normal people sitting in the train. "What about them?" the man asked in confusion, and Thomas had to say it loud and clear.
"You spoke about the thing that made it brutal between superheroes and villains but didn't speak about people. Isn't it our responsibility to guard the common and weak?"
This was one of the most basic responsibilities any superhero had in Earth's comics. And that was what left Thomas a bit puzzled. This man and Oliver seemed to speak about the importance of the Isolation Zones and battles between superheroes and villains over the valuable Qi mines there.
But in Thomas' eyes, this conflict was based entirely over personal interest and greed. If normal people really mattered, then he'd at least have heard about them in the words of this dude and Oliver's.
"Oh, we got to defend them indeed," the man said as if it was something he had to say and not believe in, "or else why do you think we are struggling for resources? It's just for them! To make them live better lives, expand to new sectors, without fearing to get ruled by despicable villains."
"O… Ok…" Thomas didn't know what else to say but to simply keep his thoughts to himself. From these plain words, and when he compared them with the enthusiastic tone this dude spoke in before about Qi stones, it was clear that people didn't really matter at all for superheroes.
It seemed in this world, superheroes and villains never placed normal people in their agendas at all. And that made him quite puzzled and doubtful about the entire system of this world.
"It's a bit weird…" Thomas started to feel that something was wrong about this world. But he lacked lots of information and facts about this world and didn't have enough data to make a proper decision.
Plus, he always minded his own business. What he cared about was to just survive and find a good job here. And that made him hope that this superhero thing was something good and profitable.
*Screech!*