Abrody's Wrath, Medical Bay Three.
This place had been transformed into Dr. Sarah's specialized Psychic Research Institute. When Reno and Claire arrived, they saw a middle-aged man with a slender figure and a thick black beard around his mouth, busily working inside.
He was Woodpecker, Ibi Faulkner, the chief scientist of the Abrody's Wrath. However, his main expertise lay in energy and engineering technology, and some related fields. He wasn't particularly adept in human biology, so it was surprising to see him here.
Seeing Reno approach, Woodpecker greeted warmly, "Johnny, you finally came. Come and take a look at this; you'll be interested."
Being dragged by Woodpecker to a device, Reno saw his own holographic image displayed on top of it, which was somewhat embarrassing because he was completely naked. Additionally, there were some scattered red dots on the holographic image.
Reno understood somewhat, "It seems that there have been some changes in my body during this period."
During the last examination conducted by Sarah, nothing was found, which had left Sarah frustrated. However, this time, she seemed to have made some discoveries.
"That's right." Sarah walked over from nearby. "After you returned from the research institute, we detected abnormal energy fluctuations in your body and eventually found this peculiar substance."
"What peculiar substance?"
"At present, it cannot be determined. It seems to be a kind of biological catalyst that can react chemically with the cells in your body, producing a kind of molecular energy." Sarah pointed to Reno's holographic image and said, "This molecular energy can form an invisible force field. Under the influence of the force field, it affects most objects. Currently, this invisible force field is what the Federal Research Institute has confirmed as the psychic field."
Woodpecker interjected, "Unfortunately, I can only prove its existence for now, but I cannot observe it."
"So, are you saying that the source of our powers comes from this little thing?" Reno asked, pointing to the small red dots on his holographic image.
"As you said, psychic power is also a science; it's just that we have never understood it. But now, you have opened a glimpse of its mystery to us," Sarah replied.
"Me?"
"Yes, you, only you," Sarah said confidently. "So far, we have only found its existence in you."
"This shouldn't be!" Claire exclaimed. "Everyone here has psychic abilities!"
"The problem lies here," Woodpecker said. "Apart from you, we have not found the psychic factor in anyone else. Oh, by the way, this is our term for this substance. Since psychic abilities exist because of it, calling it the psychic factor is the most appropriate. Actually, this wasn't my invention; the Federal Research Institute proposed this idea eighty years ago, believing that the psychic field was created by some invisible psychic factor, but they have never found concrete evidence."
"What do you think made the psychic factor appear on me but not on others?" Reno asked.
"Quantity!" Sarah replied. "Look at this."
Sarah pressed a button next to her, and a curve graph appeared next to the holographic image, filled with densely packed lines.
"This is a psychic field intensity test graph. I used a quantum field probe to create a detection wave device. Although I still cannot accurately grasp the psychic field, I can roughly sense its existence and intensity. Look, this is the intensity of your psychic field."
Woodpecker pointed to the topmost curve and then to the lower curves. "These are the others'."
Reno was stunned for a moment and finally understood. "Are you saying that my psychic field is the strongest?"
Since everyone's abilities were different, it was difficult to evaluate whose abilities were stronger or weaker because some things were completely incomparable. For example, Tekos could turn himself into bronze, but that didn't mean his abilities surpassed those of Camellia, Nava, and Little Martha.
But the psychic field was the common foundation of all psychic abilities, and its strength could directly indicate the strength of each person's abilities.
Woodpecker's psychic field intensity sensing device directly showed the level of each person's psychic abilities, and Johnny Reno was undoubtedly the top-ranked.
The second place was surprisingly Tekos, followed by Nora, Claire, Camellia, Wang Yile, Virus, Stark, and others.
With a little attention, one would notice that almost all of these people had followed Reno on dangerous missions.
Reno understood somewhat; he squinted his eyes. "Are you suggesting...?"
Sarah replied, "You once told Tekos that energy can be increased, and the best way to increase it is to challenge the limits. From this graph, your guess is correct. I have investigated the usage records of all those ranked at the top, including you, Tekos, Claire, Nora, Camellia, and nearly all of them have had situations of excessive energy use. Especially you, you have been unconscious several times due to overuse. Your recent two cases of overuse were once controlling the entire transport ship and once controlling hundreds of widowmakers. Oh, I heard that you fought with the Red Witch with all your might but held back in the end?"
Reno automatically ignored the last sentence and looked at the psychic field intensity graph. The energy curve representing himself was like a rising sun, soaring all the way up, leaving everyone far behind.
After thinking for a moment, Reno said, "So, you mean, we can only see these psychic factors when the psychic field intensity reaches a certain level?"
"More precisely, it's when a certain quantity of psychic factors manifests. The strength of the psychic field directly depends on the psychic factors," Woodpecker replied. Then he pointed to a nearby service robot. "Use your ability to flatten it."
With a casual gesture, Reno had already crushed the robot into an iron ball.
Woodpecker pointed at Reno's holographic image. "Look!"
Reno saw that a small red dot had disappeared from his holographic image.
"So, my previous actions consumed a psychic factor?" Reno began to understand.
"It will grow back soon," Sarah said.
On the holographic image, they could clearly see a new red dot gradually emerging where the red dot had disappeared, gradually strengthening.
Although they knew it would happen, Sarah and the others still felt excited when they saw this new red dot.
A speculation had finally been confirmed: abilities could indeed be enhanced through training.
Reno had become the strongest in terms of abilities not because of inherent talent but simply because he had used his abilities the most and the most aggressively during this period.
"There are a total of one hundred and twenty-four energy factors," Dr. Sarah said. "Now we can basically confirm that only when the number of psychic factors reaches one hundred will it truly manifest. It wasn't discovered before simply because... we were all too weak."
"It's like magic; only when your magic value reaches one hundred will you truly activate the blue bottle system," Woodpecker smiled.
"Wow," Reno couldn't help but whistle.
Claire sighed, "Looks like I'll have to revise my ranking system again. Psychic factors... Heh, it will become an important estimation standard for evaluating ranks. I've decided to revise the system for psychic levels. Having zero psychic factors will be level zero. Only when one reaches one hundred psychic factors, and the factors manifest, will it be considered truly level one."
As she finished, she extended her hand.
"Congratulations, Johnny Reno. You are now the first junior psychic warrior in human society."