At dawn, the golden light of the sun crept over Lumina City. Its warm and softly radiant rays brushed across the streets and cobblestone sidewalks on the periphery, catching the edges of quiet storefronts.
The city lay in the northeast of Remond Country, where modernity and natural beauty intertwined, creating a unique charm known to its people and spread throughout its boundary. It would have been truly stunning, if not for the strange plague that had haunted it for so long that made its beauty quickly faded with the arrival of nightfall.
Much had changed in the city since the eerie plague had descended so suddenly, that forcing the inhabitants to adapt their customary way of life. It became a new cultural norm for people to navigate the extreme shifts in behavior and find ways to be content with the changes, whether they welcomed them or not.
Somewhere near the heart of the city stood an unassuming building that resembled an ordinary apartment complex. Around a hundred people lived and worked there, constantly engaged in their daily tasks. Some cut logs with crude, poorly maintained tools, while other groups of men and women worked together on various activities to keep the building well-maintained and everything in order. Despite the calm and pleasant atmosphere of the morning, they all looked the same, each performing their job with dedication and utmost seriousness.
People changed out of the crucible of necessity, and that was not a bad thing. Difficult times called for a rough and hard, steadfast approach. This is what had happened in the city for the past eleven years since the strange phenomenon arrived in the city and in the far reaches of civilization. During this time, the people learned to cope with the weight of their survival and began to shine a light on this truth.
Through the lens of our experience, changes often happened gradually rather than suddenly. The people living through adversity in this area had accepted that, and their lives had changed and adapted slowly to the demands of survival and the shifting of the circumstances.
This realization struck deeply and helped them understand the scope of their shared human limitations. Though not instantly, the people attained the goals they aspired to and reaped the rewards that were earned through their consistent, tireless effort. Yet even when everything seemed achieved, change did not stop there; we always continued to evolve.
In a cozy, brightly lit room of the apartment building lay a guy, motionless and unconscious. He had been out cold in a deep sleep for about five days, offering no hint of waking up. It seemed he had driven himself too hard, wearing out his physique to such an extent that it could no longer keep up with the rigors of his harsh labor. It wasn't that he wanted to overexert himself.. rather, the situation had left him no luxury to become complacent.
Next to him, there sat a girl with a distant look, hesitant about what she was supposed to do. She had spent her time watching over him since he was passed out, lying limp and vulnerable, in stark contrast to when he demonstrated his enhanced abilities. The day he unleashed his unrestrained, true power was like a comet crashing through the horizon—so domineering that she even felt a wary awe at his raw force, even evoking jealousy in her.
But at that moment, he lay weakly here, sinking beneath the weight of his exhaustion without any hint of such overwhelming power.
She often ruminated that if this power could truly prove useful to them and in a big way, reshape their future. Instead, it only carried an immense risk for them. Even if perhaps all of them could harness that strength, she couldn't foresee what failure or twist awaited them in the dark because of this power. She even thought if they ought to forsake all of their plans after everything.
Suddenly, the mildly creaky door to the room opened, revealing Jeanne's figure as she stepped inside and halting Daisy's drifting focus.
"Hey..." Jeanne offered a soft smile as she took a step closer. "Wanna switch? I'll call someone else to stand guard over him for a while."
"No need.. You don't have to do that," Daisy looked up, while shaking her head lightly.
"You sure..?" Jeanne leaned her head against the wall, while her face tinged with mild unease. "You've been here for hours already since i left, isn't it… Don't you think it's about time to take a breather?"
"I'm fine, really, I'd rather stay a bit longer so I don't miss anything. What if the scans showed something strange or any subtle deviation we hadn't seen coming? If someone else were here, I'm afraid they might drift off and be late to alert us."
"Well fine, but you at least have to switch with me later, alright? Don't push yourself to the ground and don't make me play nurse for both of you..." She gazed between her and Ethan, with a light and teasing tone, "...I'm not volunteering for that shift."
"Stop stressing, I'm not that fragile," Daisy replied with a small smile.
"By the way, how's he been? Is there any sign he might wake up soon?"
"Not yet. At least, not that I've noticed. It's been five days already, and... I'm clueless as well… Jeanne, what if his body fails to recover?"
"We've been doing our best within the scope of what we can control, but we still can't account for everything…"
A shadow quietly crossed both their faces as the silence loomed over.
Daisy had been cautiously staying with Ethan at the infirmary to help with his treatment. Although taking turns with others, she was the one providing the most attention. As a result, at the moment no one knew his condition better than she did.
Ethan had indeed been a little bit more daring in his attempt to demonstrate his strength few days ago. As she observed the diagnostic readout from the screen, she couldn't help but wonder if she would have supported his decision, had she known what he had planned.
Still, with his decision alone, they had already gathered enough data about the unclassified strange energy, and Ethan had seemingly done his part… perhaps a little too well. In fact, his performance was so impressive that it was likely they had collected more data than they previously needed.
Regrettably, his action also led to a complication that his friends were unable to comprehend. All of his bio-electromagnetic telemetry now displayed completely different readings that threw not only their understanding, but also their previous assumptions into havoc.
It was as if Ethan had given them a solution to a cubic puzzle, only to present them with another unsolved Rubik's Cube—and they just didn't know how to proceed from there.
Before, they had some clues on the patterns and dynamics of the anomalous energy, along with the changes that occurred when someone was exposed to higher doses beyond the previous model assumed. Now, they could only hope that this wasn't a random phenomenon and that there was some underlying logic to it after all.
"Gin is probably heading to start the first round of the nano-serum test, right?" Daisy suddenly broke the silence between them with a rigid expression.
Jeanne took a brief pause before responded. "Yes. I'll be there to observe and watch over their progress. Would you like to come along too?"
Without a word, Daisy shook her head at the question, dismissing it.
"I see." A small frown tugging at Jeanne's lips as she averted her gaze aside.
She knew that Daisy was still angry about their decision, and a slight dispute had developed among them. Owen and Gin consider that the research should take priority and that delaying it was not a viable option.
While Jeanne remained neutral, inwardly she more or less shared the same opinion as Daisy. Delaying the research would allow them to focus on what was happening to Ethan. She couldn't voice it aloud, but Daisy evidently understood—after all, they had known each other for so long.
Even so, if Jeanne could implicitly throw out a guess, Ethan wouldn't mind if the research proceeded either—just as Owen and Gin, and she knew this better as well. That's why she kept her opinion to herself and remained noncommittal. After all, halting the research would make Ethan chase his tail for nothing, and Jeanne found herself too conflicted to decide anything.
"I probably should go now..." Jeanne muttered softly.
Following that, Jeanne decided to leave the infirmary room immediately since the time was ripe. She quickly flashed a wave to Daisy before hurrying off to confirm it herself whether their plan was going into full bloom or would fall apart like a sinking stone. Only time would unveil it.