Chapter 7: Sleep
Aiden, who has found out mostly everything about his talent, thinks in his mind curiously, 'If I want to find out more about my talent and physique, I have to use it myself and then learn more about it little by little.'
"Well, I can't do that now. I am pretty sure that without any mana present in the world, my talent wouldn't be able to work, so I have to wait until my world evolves, is my assumptions correct system?" Aiden said confirming his guess to the system.
As the same feminine monotonous voice sounded in Aiden's mind,
[Host, your guess is correct.]
[You cannot use your talent, but you can still use the abilities of your physique and even train your body physically to improve your stats.]
"Hmm, I have to train myself hard before the world evolves. I only have five years left." Aiden said this while thinking about his sister.
'Yes, I definitely have to train my big sister Alicia with me before the world evolves and make many more preparations for it.'
Aiden comes out of his thoughts, focuses on his surroundings, and sees the horrifying sight of a dead body covered in a layer of ice.
He had noticed it earlier, but that was when he was injured and couldn't focus much at the time. Now he looked all around him, and he had the urge to vomit, but he stopped himself from vomiting as his mother was also one of the victims so steeled his resolve and stopped him with difficulties.
With a resolute look on his face, he finds a blanket in the destroyed trash and uses it to cover his mom's body as tears threaten to leak from his extremely handsome face. He says this while holding himself back from crying.
"Mom, I will definitely bring you back to life and also protect my sister with everything I have."
He promises himself while covering her beautiful face only before giving her a long kiss on the forehead, which lasts 10 seconds.
As he stood there and began walking a few steps ahead, he finally stopped and controlled his emotions. If he was near his mom, his body wouldn't stop shaking.
Then suddenly, a red screen appeared in front of his eyes.
[WARNING!!!]
[HOST WILL BE PUT TO SLEEP FOR 3 MONTHS]
[TIME UNTIL FORCED SLEEP STARTS: 5 MINUTES]
Seeing the warning in front of him out of nowhere and reading its context, Aiden yelled from the top of his lungs.
"What the fuck is this system? Forced sleep for three fucking months? Fucking hell, might as well just kill me, you sick bastard!"
Aiden might not have cursed this much if not for his emotions, which were still slightly unstable.
After calming down while taking a deep breath, Aiden asked the system quickly for an explanation as the same feminine voice sounded in his mind,
[Host, firstly, after the crash, as your body has healed quickly while merging with the mysterious object, it has taken a toll on your mortal body.]
[And after your talent awakening, your stats have increased, but your body and soul both need rest.]
"Well, if you put it that way, it seems pretty reasonable, but my body feels better than before, and I think I can go on like this without the so-called 3-month coma,"
Aiden said in a sarcastic tone as the System replied,
[You can choose not to go into forced sleep, but it will affect your future foundation.]
"That's good. According to my calculations, polar bears will find this place in 2 to 3 days due to the strong smell of blood, and if I am asleep, how can I protect my mom's body until the rescue team finds this place?"
Because he didn't want his mom's body to get eaten by polar bears, as their keen sense of smell allows them to find their prey from kilometers away.
Aiden said while continuing.
He also wanted his sister to see her body one last time.
"I think they will find us in 2 to 5 days, mostly, and I don't want to risk sleeping and leaving everything to my shitty luck." Aiden had a grumpy face as the system's voice sounded in his mind.
[Host, you will be put to sleep to avoid any future problems in your cultivation.]
"You! Fuc–" Aiden was about to continue when the system's feminine voice sounded in his mind again.
[Host, I have a solution to your problem; you can not only save yourself but also protect your mother's body from any harm.]
"Okay, quickly tell me what that is," Aiden asked hurriedly, as the system's feminine voice continued.
[Host, I will put an illusion on you and your mother until other humans find you, and using that, I will also create some wounds on your body so that people will not get suspicious of you.]
"Okay, nothing can be better than this. I had also thought about creating some wounds on my body to avoid attracting the attention of the United Earth Federation," Aiden said with a grim face.
While thinking about the federation, Aiden said in an annoyed tone,
"Those fuckers have been pestering my mother since I was six years old to join me in their classified genius nurturing program."
His mother rejected their proposal, again and again, saying she only wanted her son to have a happy life and choose whatever he decided.
As he knew, his mom also didn't want him to join, and he also had no interest in joining it. Knowing his mom is gone, they will definitely make him join, but not forcefully.
If the world knows that they are bullying the son of one of the greatest doctors and researchers of all time, their reputation will surely take a big hit.
He knows for sure they definitely don't want that, but he also doesn't want to have a strained relationship with the world's most powerful organization.
Coming out of his thoughts, Aiden said to himself with a cheerful look on his face,
"I just have to hold out until the world's evolution begins, and after that, with all the chaos going on, they will not have the time to think about me."
Once again, the system's feminine voice sounded in his mind.
[But, host, you have to pay for using the illusion, as I will not directly interfere with your world.]
"Well, I don't have any money on me right now. How can I pay you?"
Aiden asked as the system replied,
[Host, your money has no value to me, but you can pay with your stats for the illusion.]
"Okay, how many stat points do I need for the illusion to be put on me and my mom?" Aiden asked.
[Host, you will have to pay with one stat point.]
"Well, that's pretty cheap; I thought it would take at least half of my stats," Aiden said, happy with the system's generosity.
Because he didn't know how difficult it was to earn one stat point when the world hasn't even evolved yet.
As Aiden's eyes wandered around to see all the dead people on the ground, he said to the system,
"How many stat points do I need to put an illusion on all the people here?"
[Host, you will need four stat points; I will cast an illusion in this whole area so animals will not notice any of you, and one, particularly on you, then show your wounds to people.]
[But are you sure about this, host?]
The system's question sounded in Aiden's mind as he replied with a resolute look on his face,
"Yes, I am very sure about this system. You think I don't know about the value of the stats, but I know they are more valuable than I can imagine. Still, I will pay 4 stat points to cast an illusion on all of them."
He also knew that these people had their families waiting at home, and how sad their families would be if they couldn't even find the body of their loved one.
They were all innocent people who got themselves involved in this tragedy without knowing anything.
He would not blame himself for this incident because he knows feeling guilty will not do him any good; he will just move forward.
But in the future, if he becomes powerful enough, he will definitely revive all these people if it doesn't harm him or his family, as he promises to himself because, partially, he is also the reason for their deaths.
"For now, at least I can do this for their family members," Aiden said with sadness in his captivating deep black eyes.
After that, he began to focus on the task at hand.
"I have to choose carefully which stats to remove; they will directly affect my survival in the upcoming chaos caused by the world's evolution."
Saying this, he said "status" in his mind.
A transparent blue screen appeared in front of his eyes; it showed his character information.
[Character Information]
[Name: Aiden Cross]
[Age: 11]
[Race: Human???]
[Talent: Celestial (FFF+)] (incomplete)
[Potential: No Limit]
[Mana Cultivation: Mortal Realm]
[Bloodline: None]
[Physique: @#$%@# Physique (Unranked)] (0.5%)
[Health: 75/75]
[Strength: 6.3]
[Agility: 6]
[Stamina: 8.5]
[Mana: 0]
[Vitality: 7.5]
[Intelligence: 10.7]
[Defense: 6.5]
[Skills: None]
(Stats Limit of Mortal Humans: 10)
Looking at the information in front of him, Aiden said to himself.
"Well, it definitely wouldn't be intelligence because I have no idea how to improve it, and I don't know if increasing stats after the limit of humans would be the same; intelligence is definitely a no for me."
"Next, defense and vitality are also a no-go for me. Although I have specific ideas on how to improve them, I will not choose them. I've read some novels about them. To increase defense, you have to beat yourself up until your defense increases. As for vitality, I'm not very sure about it, but I have some ideas."
"And lastly, strength, agility, and stamina. Well, the choice is pretty simple."
As he began to think about how much to remove from these three, he definitely wouldn't remove all four from a single one.
He spoke to the system after a moment, as he had decided.
"System, remove 1.5 from stamina, 1 from agility, and the remaining from the strength stat."
A feminine voice sounded in his mind,
[Host, are you sure about your choice?]
As he listened to the system's confirmation, Aiden replied, "Yes, I am sure of this system."
[Okay, host.]
A few seconds after listening to the system's voice, strength began to leave Aiden's body as he felt his legs go weak. He was definitely sure of one thing: he didn't like this feeling at all.
After a few moments, he began to feel normal again, though he could feel that he had become a little weaker.
Thanks to his stats increasing due to his physique, he is definitely stronger than before the talent awakening.
Suddenly, the transparent red screen appeared in front of his eyes again.
[WARNING: ONLY 10 SECONDS REMAINING BEFORE FORCED SLEEP]
Seeing the message in front of him, Aiden quickly lay next to his mother and closed his captivating golden-yellow-colored eyes.
He quickly fell into a deep slumber.