Qi balls were considered trash in the eyes of superheroes, but they were pictured here as the greatest blessing for normal folks. And that was enough to express how faulted this world was in Thomas' eyes.
"Oh, one second," just before they'd go inside the villa, Mark seemed to get distracted by something. He went to the side, took out something like a small statue, closely held it in both hands while his body shone in red light.
Thomas didn't get the time to check what this statue was like, but he felt it was some sort of a communication device or something. And as he expected, Mark opened his eyes after few minutes, turned to him, as he said while storing away the statue fast as he took it out:
"I got more kids to bring, two actually. You go in there and wait for my return. When these two arrive, we'll head directly towards the test."
"Are we going to take the test early?" Mark told Thomas he got two days before the test would start.
"Well, my quota is already filled. So, there is no point in waiting," Mark waved his hand as he went towards Monica, "just stay inside and get to know others. I expect to take no more than one day to bring these two kids over. See you later."
"Wait…" just before Thomas would say what he needed, Mark moved Monica fast, vanishing with a gale of dust and wind from Thomas' eyes, "I'm hungry and thirsty! How can I find food here? I didn't get a chance to ask him."
When Thomas was on Monica, he forgot all about his hunger and thirst, only got distracted by the town he was travelling in.
Not to mention he got a bad experience before when he boarded Becky, and that made him quite wary of Monica.
"I guess I got to ask anyone inside," Thomas turned his attention towards the villa, climbed up the few steps in front of him, and reached the door.
"It's locked, as expected," Thomas felt that this door was closed, and Mark was supposed to open it for him. And as there was no bell, he clenched his fist and knocked on the door.
"Coming!" he heard a male voice, before hearing the sounds of feet coming down steps, telling Thomas he wasn't going to meet just one, but at least three people at the doorsteps.
"Oh, a new face… Who are you? Are you lost?"
And as Thomas expected, three young faces appeared when the door opened. Thomas saw two males and one female, all looking normal, without any metallic pieces or anything weird.
The girl wore a black dress that ended up with a short balloon shaped skirt, with two thin shoulder thin black threads, and many belt buckle shaped straps. She wore a fishernet long sockets, and a pair of two low levelled heels.
She had long black hair and a pair of black eyes. And next to the two dudes with red hairs and eyes, she looked a bit special.
The other two were wearing commonly seen vests in this world, without anything special about their uniforms in Thomas' eyes. with their red hairs, he thought they might be siblings. But after looking closer, he didn't find it possible. One was short, and the other one was tall. Not to mention their facial features weren't anything alike.
Compared to them, Thomas felt special and unique with his coat and shoulder holder.
When he climbed down Monica, he got to wear the shoulder holder over his coat directly. And for a reason, he liked how his coat felt closely attached to his body, without feeling any hindrance or resistance in moving around.
"You are?" the other youth asked, and the girl took a step forward, extended her hand as she said with a warm smile:
"I'm Lara, and this is Bick and John."
"Lara!" the one named Bick, the short one, shouted in surprise at her. But she shrugged as if she didn't do anything unusual.
"We are here in a sealed place, that no one except for being one of us will come here. He is one of us," she said as if she already guessed everything on her own.
"How can you tell?!" The other dude, John, seemed very naive when he said such words.
"Mark isn't here, so how can you tell?" Bick crossed his arms, as if he was having a little contest with Lara.
"We can ask him!" Lara finally returned the heat over to Thomas. And the latter cleared his throat, not getting if this was a normal situation or what.
"I'm indeed one with superpower detected," he paused, taking out the scroll he got before to end such useless debate.
"See? Told you! You owe me ten Qi balls then," Lara lightly chuckled, before extending her arms and grabbed Thomas in.
"Since when have we agreed on such a bet?" Bick shouted but he only got Lara's laugh as a response.
When Thomas entered the place, he found a really nice villa. It had a wide hall, one was filled with little furniture, one big carpet at the centre, two corridors leading to the deeper parts of this villa, and a big staircase in front of him.
Thomas knew without the need to ask that the three came descending down this staircase, and that meant they lived upstairs.
"What do you think?" Lara pointed to the ceiling, where a long chandeleur extended from the second floor all the way to half of the base floor, "it's amazing, right?"
"Indeed," Thomas saw more extravagant houses and villas than this one. But it seemed to people in this world, this was just the perfect place to live in.
"I got something like this back at my family place," Bick got over his lost Qi balls and moved to stand by Lara's side.
"Come on! Stop showing off about your family! You aren't the only one who came from a D lineage!" John approached as well, while Lara rolled her eyes and retorted back in a tired way.
"I bet he didn't," Bick motioned towards Thomas before adding, "what's up with that thing on your back? Is it your belongings?"
"It's something to remind me of home," Thomas decided to use such an excuse for now if others asked him about his tree pot.
"Nice touch," suddenly a cold female voice came from upstairs. And when Thomas raised his head, he saw a piece of beauty standing on the second floor.
She had white hair, a pair of blue eyes, and a very smooth skin that looked like the skin of babies. Thomas couldn't see her entire body, but he swore she was as hot as he could imagine.
"Wait a minute… Since when was I interested in women?!" Realising his feelings and thoughts made Thomas a bit startled. He never felt such a thing towards any girl before. And that made him not know what he should do or say.
"Show him around, and make sure he won't break anything," but the next instant, all what he felt vanished as he felt how truly cold and haughty this girl was.
She spoke like she owned this place or something. And after saying her piece, she turned around and left, with only a faint melody left behind in the minds of all the males here.
"Who is she?" Thomas couldn't help but point towards the place she was at moments ago and asked his three new friends.
"Sigh!" John shook his head helplessly while Bick patted at Thomas shoulders, "don't dream about it bro, she is out of our league, way out of it."
"Why?" Thomas didn't like anyone to touch him in such a way, so he shrugged and broke free from the arm of John.
Thomas didn't get it, but the moment this girl appeared and spoke, his face turned a bit red. It was clear to anyone seeing his face that he got deeply touched by this girl.
"It's nothing much," Lara seemed a bit annoyed, "she comes from a B lineage of superheroes, one that extends for five generations at least."
"Oh," Thomas didn't totally get her meaning. But he could tell this girl came from a special family. And yet he didn't like how she acted with him.
Especially when she was about to move away, she gave him such a look. It felt as if she was surprised by his presence or something.
"She is Lucy," a new voice came from one corridor, where a tall youth appeared. He wore nothing over his upper half, with tattoos covering his entire right arm. He had brown short hair and eyes, and spoke in the same arrogant tone that Lucy spoke in.
"And you?" Thomas turned towards the shirtless dude and asked. But as he expected, the answer that dude gave expressed how arrogant he was.
"Someone who came from a C grade family, not like these three, and definitely not like you."
He went to the stairs and started climbing up without even turning his back to Thomas or the other three.
"So cool!" and from the side, Lara seemed to get crazy or something. And her weird comment made the other two dudes next to her roll their eyes and sigh.
"He is…?" Thomas got to learn everything about this dude but not his name. He was arrogant, selfish, and didn't give Thomas any friendly impression at all.
Thomas didn't like how this dude spoke with him. And if he had to select one of these two arrogant dudes as a candidate for the mad demon, then he'd place his bids over Lucy.
"He is Jacob," Lara said with dreamy eyes, one that made Thomas know she was a hopeless case.
And just before he'd say anything else, he felt his stomach roaring in a faint little noise.
"Oh, sorry about that but… I haven't eaten anything since breakfast," Thomas felt embarrassed, a feeling that he never experienced before.
"You came straight away from the testing ground? What a hectic day you must have!" Rick laughed, before pointing towards upstairs, "the food was about to get ready in half an hour."
"This…"
"How about this," Lara seemed to return to her normal state with Jacob's absence, "why won't we go and give you a free tour around the place? Then we'll show you your room, leave this thing you carry on your shoulders there before going to eat."
"No, this will stay with me," Thomas didn't know why he responded in such a firm way. But for a reason, he felt like it was pretty bad for him and his tree to get separated.
"Ok," Lara gave Thomas a weird look, and even took a few steps away when they started to show him the place.
Thomas was taken on a big tour around the place. And as he expected, the three kept singing praises about everything here.
Be it the decorations, the paintings, the walls, the statues, even the selection of furniture, everything was a symbol for power and wealth in their eyes.
Thomas just listened and didn't really share any of their feelings and impressions towards this place. He kept his silence, and gradually the tour turned to reveal more knowledge for him.
They passed by the side of something that looked like a lawnmower, but a primitive version of it. It got a much bigger body and not just one handle, but three.
"What's that?" Thomas stopped in front of this machine, feeling more curiosity and interest towards it than anything else he saw so far.
"It's the Qi gathering tool!" Lara turned to Thomas, as if he said something unbelievable, "you are really someone who came from a common family."
"It's expected! Just look at his clothes, perfect for being a commoner," Bick said while motioning towards Thomas as if he was motioning at something disgraceful.
Thomas didn't get what they were talking about. In his eyes, he was the most elegantly dressing dude out of all dudes in this place!
"How so?" and as he didn't get it, he had to ask.
"You didn't have anything made of materials found at the Isolation Zones," John sighed, pointed at Lara, "see her buckles? All of these came from ores found at the Isolation Zones. And this? This is a vest made out from special leather, one that came from a monster in these places!"
He pointed at Lara then at himself. But even so, and to Thomas, he didn't see anything special about any of what he pointed towards.
"And this?" Thomas decided to drop such talk about clothes and speak about this machine, "what does it do? Purify Qi from the air or something?"
"No genius, it does the opposite," Lara rolled her eyes, bent over this machine, a move that showed a great deal of her legs, "see this? Mark placed a single Qi stone here. Can you believe that? You are now breathing air filled with pure Qi, more concentrated than anywhere else in the entire sector!"
"Oh," Thomas got the use of this machine. It was releasing Qi from Qi stones, not the other way around as he expected.
"You are hopeless," Bick sighed, "if you can't tell the difference of Qi presence here than the outer world, then you must have a very low affinity of Qi."
"That's bad dude," John exclaimed, "you shall pray your luck is great, so you won't end up being one of the Fuckers!"
"I hope none of us will," Thomas knew they didn't mean ill towards him. And yet he still got annoyed by what they just said.
"Well… Let's hope so," Bick seemed to be more attentive to this point as the two others. As they realised that Thomas came from a common origin, not from any family with superheroes in it like all of the rest here, all of the three became more cautious about mentioning the Fuckers again.
And Thomas could clearly tell that by how they avoided such a topic in the next twenty minutes. And he felt appreciative towards such a kind attitude of theirs.
"Come on! Let's do it!" out of the blue, John jumped, pointed towards another machine that looked like a lawnmower as if he lost it.
"No! It's not safe to do it! And who knows, we might not be able to succeed!" Lara stated reasons for something Thomas didn't get.
"What do you want to do?" and as Bick shook his head, in a way that told Thomas that they spoke about this issue many times already, he had to ask John directly.
During the past minutes, Thomas felt closer to these three. They weren't that great, but not that bad as well.
They were kind as Mark, not as bad as the mad demon.
"See this?" John knelt over the machine, knocked even on it, "it got a Qi stone! An entire Qi stones! And there are ten of these machines all over the villa! Come on, don't tell me I'm the only one thinking about taking these stones! They are The Stones! And they can change our fate at the upcoming test!"
"How so…" and before Thomas would continue what he wanted to ask; Lucy appeared from one corridor.
The group was now standing in the middle of a big hall. It wasn't as big as the one at the entrance of this villa, but it was spacious enough to accommodate ten people.
"Don't try to make out trouble," Lucy moved her eyes over John, before fixing them over Thomas as if she was speaking directly to him, "whoever does something against rules will get eliminated from the test. And elimination means the end for people like us."
She then moved away, heading towards a closed door at one side of this hall. And without Thomas feeling it, he followed her until she opened the door, and walked into what lay behind.
"Dude! Is it just me or the queen just spoke to you?" John suddenly jumped, grabbed Thomas by the arm, "come on, tell me your secret!"
"I don't have any," Thomas shrugged his arm free from this dude, while giving him a warning glance again. And the other two laughed at John.
"Don't stir up trouble," just before John would jump at Thomas for the third time, to drive him to speak about how he managed to rope in Lucy, Jacob appeared from a different direction, "food is going to be served in five. Don't be late or else…"
He also moved towards the same door Lucy just passed through. And that made Thomas look at the other three, asking for their confirmation.
"Come on, let's show you your room, it's over there," Bick motioned towards a different direction where a corridor lay, "then we'll go to eat."
"So, the dining room is there?" Thomas pointed towards the direction Lucy and Jacob just vanished into, and the other three nodded while urging him to speed up after them.
When he arrived at his room, he found an old looking bronze key in the keyhole there. "It's your room," Lara said, "any room with a key is open for anyone to grab."
She added her last line when Thomas gave her a questioning look.
"Let's go to eat then," Thomas was already hungry and thirsty. He didn't want to waste his time checking his room, and just stored the key in one of his pockets.
"Fine," Bick shrugged, as this was Thomas' room and he was free to enter and check it now or later, "let's go! The delicious and special food is going to be served!"
Thomas didn't get what she meant by this, but he could feel the weird excitement on all of their faces. He followed them towards the dining room. There he found Jacob sitting like an obedient disciple, and Lucy kept standing, looking through a window outside.
"We just arrived at the right moment, hahahaha!" John laughed in such a weird way, and Thomas couldn't help but look around.
"Where is the food?" he didn't see anything over the big oval shaped wooden table here. It was situated in the centre of this room, with a small chandeleur hanging from the ceiling.