Enet City, Southern Border, Yellow-lake Colony, Holding No. 213
[ 24:43 ]
Seventeen minutes remained before the beginning of a new day.
The data terminal inside Mir's room was active. But instead of its regular use at this time for gaming, the terminal was being used to browse the depths of a reliable biochemistry Journals.
Mir's eyes were red and damp, an inevitable result of staring at the flickering screen for seven hours without rest.
On his desk, four different textbooks lay open. One showed the picture of a dissected Rubber Roach, one was full of complex mathematical formulae, one was a diagram to understand biomolecular mutation, and the other book appeared to be a record of statistical data, depicting the life cycle of regular arthropods as against the life cycle of mutated arthropods.
"One more article, I need to memorize one more article!" Mir's voice was somewhat hoarse.
He had been mumbling memorized data for hours now, going through different sources for every topic he came across. His homework was long completed, now set aside so that he could revise older topics again and again.
In the last seven hours, Mir had bulldozed his way through four chapters from four different subjects. If someone gave him the same quiz papers Professor Corwin had spoken of that morning, he was certain that he could score over 70 percent easily!
His breathing was beginning to grow ragged and painful. A ringing sensation occupied his head, making his body feel unnaturally light and hard to control.
Fingers ran across the screen as Mir tracked down the last article. Tap, tap, tap... The contents of the article began to flow upwards on the screen, responding to his ceaseless scrolling.
The words began to blur together in his vision. And then the pictures seemed to move. Subconsciously, Mir understood that he was beginning to lose his consciousness. But his body seemed like it was on autopilot. Almost every part of his thoughts screamed crazily at the little voice of protest in a corner of his mind.
Study!
Must study!
How did my grades fall so low? I have been negligent!
How could I get addicted to that trashy game?
Studyyyyy!!!
Every second of regret, every moment of introspection of his decade-long student life had come to taunt him, haunt him, shame him, motivating him to focus on the books like his life depended on it!
"...."
"Mir. Wake up!"
Mir was jolted awake by the banging on his locked bedroom door.
"Awake! I'm ah-cough-awake!"
"The food's gone cold and you're gonna be late!" His sister Murin's exasperated shout came from outside. "Mum's about to throw a fit. You better hurry! Don't give her a reason to get fired up."
Sounds of rapid footsteps disappeared down the hallway. Mir looked at the clock and cursed softly.
[ 06:44 ]
The red diary lay closed on his desk. Mir opened it gingerly and saw his handwriting occupying the first page, unchanged.
The maddening urge to study had disappeared. Now...all he felt was awe.
This sacred artifact actually did live up to their horrible reputation. On their first contact, it had nearly driven him insane. If someone had tried to stop him from studying last night, he might have ended up seriously hurting them. That's how intense his temporary obsession had become.
Recalling the chaotic frenzy his thoughts had fallen in last night, Mir cursed himself for being an idiot, and cursed Murray for thinking this thing was safe.
He pushed the diary inside a pile of old textbooks, in case his parents or Murin came here and found this cursed thing.
But while he was washing his face, he noticed that the red stripes on his hand and neck had disappeared fully.
"....It worked?!"
Even though he had trusted Murray's words, it still came as a shock seeing the quick eradication of the infection spots. Hope surged through him like an unstoppable tide. If the diary's usage could eliminate such highly infected areas of his body, it could also reduce the less obvious infection spots effectively. Mir wasn't hoping for a full purification, as that would do him more harm than good. As long as the extent of infection fell below 40%, he'd be satisfied.
As he put on his uniform and rushed into the dining room with his bag in hand, an odd nausea assaulted his senses.
He had skipped his dinner last night. But the breakfast seemed extremely unappealing for some reason. Maybe it was the smell.
Putting a hand over his empty stomach, Mir looked for Murray in his room and realized that he had already left for the Church. Yelling that he wasn't hungry, he ran out of the house before his mother could begin berating him.
The bus ride to his college took half an hour. The unshielded regions of the city had already become completely deserted. The journey through the sunlit areas was quicker than yesterday.
By the time he reached the college station, there was an extra red stripe on his palm. Mir couldn't help but feel a little suspicious. This had happened three times in a row. The lethal sunlight wasn't supposed to be present 25/10. Had the City Corporation neglected to mention any solar abnormalities taking place in the sky?
Unfortunately, the recruiters from yesterday were no longer camping outside the college. Mir had intended to barge into their booth and request a second examination to see the effects of the diary down to minute details, since they were conducting the tests for free. But with them gone, he was caught in a bind.
Even the most basic medical checkup wasn't something he could afford with his pocket-money. One would think the government ought to make such tests free and accessible in a situation where overly infected humans could turn into a monster and go on a rampage, but most of the surface cities didn't have the resources or the funding to provide such facilities for the entire population.
After making a round around the campus, Mir went inside, headed for the duel arena. This place was an ironic subversion of the ancient gladiator galleries. Here, the poor didn't fight, or more accurately, weren't allowed to fight. They were allowed to sit outside and watch in envy as the scions of rich families honed their newfound mutant abilities. Ordinary students like Mir didn't come to this part of the campus regularly. The fights were rarely exciting, and their egos took a hit every time the fighters made fun of them for sitting in the gallery.
Mir rarely had to face this problem, and the reason was a certain friend of his who had the same hobby of watching rookie Transcenders fight.
"What's up, twigs?" The familiar greeting reverberated through the small gallery the moment he walked past the circular, raised platform and hopped onto the stands.
If someone else had made fun of his reedy, tall physique, Mir wouldn't even have bothered to acknowledge their existence. But for this friend of his, he always made an exception. To be brutally honest, she was one of the few students in the campus who was qualified to call him 'twigs'.
"My blood pressure is up, but not as much as yours, Miss Mountain."
The young, heavyset woman snorted disdainfully at the mocking nickname. Mir hadn't been the one to come up with it, but he was the only one who could say it to her face and not get beaten up 'mysteriously' outside the campus.
She patted the seat bedside her, looking a little impatient. "Come here and help me analyze these two. I got news from a reliable junior that they're going to duel today before classes begin. Should be on their way here by now. There isn't much time."
Curious, Mir sat beside her and looked at the expensive data terminal she was holding. On the screen, a chat history was displayed. The last message there was a series of data about two mutant abilities.
Ability Name: Icehorn
Mutation Source: Northern Snow Buffaloes
Mutation Affinity: Water
Mutation Rank: Grade-1 (Primitive)
Highest SDS Score: 15 (Lethal)
Ability Name: Searing Tears
Mutation Source: Phantasmal Poison Frog
Mutation Affinity: Water
Mutation Rank: Grade-2 (Primitive)
Highest SDS Score: 19 (Lethal)