The research facility isn't far from the building where all awakeners were gathered. It was just another building with fewer floors in the vicinity. I couldn't wrap my head around how the government was able to provide everything in just a week.
After the doctor and the vice mayor agreed with my conditions and signed the proof of agreement, I was brought to the facility the next day.
I learned from Serin that the first awakening process that happened was on the day the door appeared. Meaning, I was already awakened even before that annoying sound of a gong happened in the barn. It turns out the congratulations were just late.
Serin said that a man who has incredible strength first appeared in the City of Bradis, and was recorded as the first awakener in the history of Roan. That man was seen flinging monsters with his hands and lifting debris and rubble to save those who got trapped in the ruins.
That's how awakened people came to be known. After that, many had started receiving their awakening, and so the government took action and planned to take advantage of the phenomenon.
Still, after all that research, they didn't find anything about the system.
Dr. Eugene was just like a newborn kid discovering colors hanging on his crib for the first time, minus the drooling and the thumb-sucking of course. He refused to blink his enlarged eyes and couldn't wait to see what points and notes I had to write.
I sighed after recalling the feeling of writing down my answers while a professor was looking behind me. It was nerve-wracking and mind-blocking.
A staff wearing a lab coat approached me with a wide smile. She looked joyful receiving another subject experiment, didn't she? The female staff said warmly, "I can't wait to dissect you!"
"No dissecting, please," how warm was her welcome that I immediately broke into a sweat? I blocked my hand on her face, politely, and added, "I already explained the gist of the system to Dr. Eugene. I came here to demonstrate how it works and to discuss possible new discoveries."
The staff paused for a moment, then her face brightened after, "Oh! Your Atlas Sterne! Sorry, sorry, I thought you were another volunteer in the awakener body research."
I smiled awkwardly. Do they really dissect the volunteers? Seriously?
"Now, don't look at me like that," the female staff gave him a reassuring smile and continued, "Of course, we don't kill volunteers! We simply open them up while they're sleeping and study their organs, nerves, blood, and whatnot, then once we're done, we sew them back up!"
That's not pleasant to hear at all.
The female staff stretched out her hand, "I'm Molly Maverick, by the way, chief researcher of the R&D facility team 1. Nice to meet you, sir Atlas."
I shook her hand and returned her warm greeting, "Same here, Dr. Molly."
Dr. Eugene arrived and led me to the laboratory. The man on the stage who went hulk in the conference was inside, sitting properly on one chair. He glanced at me and gave me a simple nod which I casually returned in light.
He looked younger than me, and I was really amazed to see the difference in a closer distance. His normal body was average. I'm even more toned and muscly than him. Where the heck did those muscles come from? He'd be a perfect model for my portraits.
Dr. Eugene extended his arm toward the young man and said, "This is Ivan Ridle, he can transform into a bigger size. From the result of his examination, his muscles quadrupled at his will. His body anatomy has no difference during his skill activation, but his tendons are stretched greatly, surpassing the limits of human possibility yet attaining no injuries or tears while the muscles expand larger."
I nodded to the hyperactive explanation of the doctor. Then, to cut another conclusion I'm not too eager to know, I said, beating him to it, "Are you an awakened as well, Dr.?"
Dr. Eugene grimaced at me as if I sprinkled salt in his open wound, "Sadly, I am not."
I nodded my head slowly as if to show my sympathy for his pain of being deprived of something he wanted to learn the most, "I see. Then, you won't understand whatever I will say even if you hear it. I'll talk to Ivan instead."
Without waiting for his response, I sat across Ivan and asked, "How did you that? The muscle-bulging performance, I mean? Do you have to think, imagine, or chant a ritual, perhaps?"
Ivan Ridle leaned far away from me with wary eyes. Ah. Did I scare him? I leaned back in my seat and folded my arms above the table, my fingers tapping my elbows like an impatient detective waiting for the suspect to admit the crime.
Ivan Ridle straightened his body and relaxed. Then, he answered me calmly, "I just imagined it. My transformation happened four days after the disaster when I was protecting the baby, I was taking care of at that time."
I widened my eyes in shock, "And the baby? Did you crush it?"
"Of course not!" Ivan answered defensively. I put my hands up and waved them up and down to calm him. Ivan folded his arms on his chest, looking so pissed before he continued, "I managed to save the baby because I transformed, okay? And after that, whenever I think of my appearance that time, I grow large."
"I see. Did you receive any notification after that first happened?"
Ivan nodded, "Yes. It's congratulating me for getting awakened."
"Anything else other than that?"
"Nothing else. It disappeared after that."
I guessed it right. That damned system is too lazy to at least explained anything. I looked at Dr. Eugene and asked him curiously, "How do the guards at the front gates know about the ranks?"
Dr. Eugene fixed his glasses, "From Alexis."
"The kid?"
"Yes," the doctor's eyes glistened in excitement. If I didn't know he was madly in love with the awakening phenomenon, I'd call the cops on him for looking like that after the mention of the kid's name. Dr. Eugene continued, "He said it is something that appears above a person's head. Letters, specifically, A-F, and in your case, S. We specified them as ranks to organize the list of the awakeners. But the significance of the ranking has no basis, for now."
So, the kid has something similar to my Caster's eyes. On top of that, he can use telekinesis. My gaze landed on the corner of the room where a CCTV was. We were being recorded.
I swept my hair to the back and straightened my posture, then I began explaining how to open the system. I made it so complex with the involvement of willpower, mental strength, and whatever, when in fact, it could easily be open just by simply wishing it to be.
I grinned to myself. No one will know anyway.