08 / 04 / 2019 - Daito, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.
3:00 PM, Akane's Room.
Thud.
'Finally back…'
Akane closed the door behind him and let out a long breath. The constant noise of the outside world faded instantly, leaving him alone in the quiet apartment with his own thoughts.
He tossed his school bag onto the desk and looked out the window. The sun was already slanting down at a sharp angle, in a few hours, it would start getting dark.
He stretched his neck slightly and looked down at the street, where cars and pedestrians were moving along like any normal day.
"Hmmmm…"
Humming quietly, he took off his school jacket. He moved slowly and carefully, revealing the white dress shirt underneath. Fortunately, there was no fresh blood on it today.
Seeing that, he shook his head with a faint smile, placed the black jacket neatly on top of his bag, and walked over to the bed. Three days was usually enough time for his body to close up surface wounds and form scabs.
Flop.
"Haahhhh…."
Letting out a deep sigh, Akane stared up at the ceiling as he relaxed onto the mattress. While the surface injuries were healing fine, his body was still working hard to fix the deeper internal damage under his ribs.
Winter was finally over, and the early April weather struck a comfortable balance between the leftover cold and the incoming spring warmth. He really enjoyed this rare moment of quiet. The stiffness and heavy feeling in his shoulders slowly started to fade.
The room was clean and neat, smelling fresh with a faint hint of the blooming sakura trees from behind the apartment building. The timing and atmosphere were just right. For the first time all day, he could completely let his guard down and relax.
Or so he thought…
'Mmm… so it's true? Even if they managed to clean up the centre of the city, some of them still managed to slip through the net…'
He couldn't quite fall asleep. Reminded of his earlier conversation with Tsuchimikado and the others, the thought kept bothering him.
It basically confirmed that some of those creatures were still alive and active in the outskirts. He figured that over the next few days; more victims would inevitably turn up.
Then again, he had no interest in joining a little exploration or putting any real thought into it. To him, it was inherently meaningless and held no real value.
'At least I warned them…'
He had already given them an implicit reminder about the danger. If they still chose to walk straight into the maw of death anyway, that wasn't his problem.
Call it cold or cruel, but his only target for protection was his family, not random passersby in his life. He appreciated the information, but it was what it was.
Opening his eyes fully, the blurry ceiling sharpened as his mind focused. He reached up to rub his temples. What was past was past. He had another concern in mind right now, and it was far more important than the rest.
'The current status and psychological condition of Irina and Ayato…'
This was a naturally sensitive matter. Ever since Irina's recent outburst, he had to put a lot more thought into how to handle the little devil. Of course, he couldn't leave Ayato out of the equation either.
Right now, Irina was definitely trapped in a state of paranoia. Considering he had vanished into Khtonres just days ago, combined with the fact that he had previously slept like a dead man for nine months, her panic made perfect sense.
Akane groaned softly as a headache began to build. Irina must have noticed the shift in his behaviour, which was why she was hyper, focused on him. Ayato was close by and easy for her to read, but her twin brother was the one variable she couldn't fully decipher anymore.
That was exactly why she was acting a bit manic and uncontrollable. She thrived on "Rhythm," navigating life by reading others. If the person closest to you suddenly became unreadable and vanished without a trace, anyone would lose their mind.
But what bothered him most was how she had reached the conclusion that she needed to use violence to subdue him. Where on earth did she even learn that?
With a heavy heart, Akane let out a tight breath and closed his eyes. All in all, Irina was in a delicate state.
It was best for him to act obedient, or at least keep his deeper thoughts buried for a while. He needed an opportunity, some kind of turning point. If he tried to take the initiative right now, she would probably read his intentions before he could even move.
Since there was no making progress with the little gremlin for the time being, he shifted his focus to Ayato. There, the results were positive, even without Akane doing much.
Remembering his interactions with his twin over the past few days, his expression relaxed and he stopped massaging his temples.
Ayato maintained normal conversations, but there was an increasing detachment between them, and that was exactly the result Akane wanted to see.
There was no need for pretence between the two of them. Whether Ayato understood his intention or had simply drowned in his own choices and cowardice, it didn't matter either way.
He dropped his hands back to his sides, his eyes half,lidded.
Conclusion for now: zero progress with Irina, but a good result with Ayato. As for Auntie, no real issues yet, or rather, she wouldn't dare cause a problem for him anyway.
'Okay, what else do we have?'
It was his habit to sort through the day's events and sum up his gains and losses. Thoughts of the day, thoughts of his family, and finally, thoughts of himself.
'[Reader] is useless for now since I don't have anything new to explore. [Hatchling] is the one worth looking into.'
Going by the knowledge he had gained while stranded in Khtonres, his Interpretation , Reader, was nearing completion. In fact, it was almost [Saturated].
He didn't entirely understand what [Saturation] meant yet. But at the very least, these terms had appeared when he observed the "completion" of his [Page].
Since acting as a "Reader" required new materials, he couldn't do much in his current, stable environment.
Regardless, since Reader was a dead end for now, he decided to move on to Hatchling. There were still plenty of unexplored things waiting for him there.
"
As the words left his lips and the thought transmitted, he closed his eyes once again.
There was no need for a complex manual , just like a classic video game, the effect activated instantly. The user didn't need to understand the underlying mechanics to use the interface.
He had once tried to ponder how to control or deduce the activation process of his Interpretation, but the result was completely nil.
It felt like the difference between client side and server side operations , the true, backend process lay somewhere entirely unknown to him.
Back to it: as Formlessness activated, Akane began to lose his normal sense of self. He dove deep into the structure of his own body using what he called a Spiritual Sense, since it felt fundamentally different from his usual methods of probing.
Suddenly, his perception shifted into an unfamiliar, slightly uncontrollable perspective , almost like a third-person view.
He could see it all: the electrical impulses of the brain, the mechanical lift of the arm, the rotation of the shoulder, and the exact moment a hand reached out.
His mind was instantly overwhelmed by the chaotic flood of internal images. As cognitive dissonance began to set in, he forced himself to anchor his focus onto a single specific target: his right arm.
Moving from macro to micro, he looked beneath the pale skin. First came the veins and arteries.
They weren't just bulging , they had straightened out completely, pumping blood with violent rhythmic precision. It was the easiest system for him to grasp.
'Now, let's see…'
Over the past few days, he had already grasped the basic fundamentals of Formlessness. From what he could tell, there were two distinct ways to understand and manipulate his own body:
'Spiritual Senses and Willpower.'
Starting with the latter , Willpower , this was only the second time he had consciously used it.
Theoretically, the first time had happened completely unconsciously while stranded in Khtonres. It was by far the fastest and most seamless way to utilise Formlessness.
As he willed it, energy surged into his entire arm. Beneath his pale skin, his veins suddenly darkened and straightened out, pulsing violently as his blood flow spiked.
The muscle fibres in his forearm began to ripple and interlock, tightening under his skin like coiled steel cables.
The arm grew noticeably hot. The air around his hand distorted slightly as thin trails of steam began to rise from his knuckles, a clear byproduct of his cells burning through chemical energy at a monstrous rate.
His skin pulled incredibly tight, making his hand look less like a human limb and more like a sharply defined piece of polished marble.
That was the essence of it. No flashy magic, no glowing lights. Just pure, preoptimized biological efficiency.
However, in testing beyond the limits, he had also discovered the hidden weakness behind this automatic Willpower method.
It strictly refused to bypass the body's internal safety lines. The system simply would not optimise past the point of self-destruction.
'But that contradicts what I experienced back in Khtonres…'
As the thought crossed his mind, his perception remained anchored on the deep, red muscle fibres.
Then again, what he did in Khtonres was an act of pure desperation. It was highly possible that under extreme life-or-death stress, Willpower could violently override those safety limits.
Well, it was what it was. He felt like a floating camera, drifting in the undulation of cells, watching the bulging red muscles in silence. Anyway, moving on to the next option: Spiritual Senses.
Just as he suspected, if Willpower was an autopilot running in safe mode, then Spiritual Senses was manual encoding with zero safety nets.
By partially decoupling his consciousness from the physical shell, he achieved a state where he could observe his own internal biology and manipulate it directly.
This mode was undeniably dangerous, but it granted absolute creative freedom. He could shift from macro to micro at will. His flesh was like raw clay, and he could sculpt it exactly how he wanted.
'But the catch is… you either have to be a master sculptor, or you suffer the consequences.'
The human body was a fragile, high, precision instrument. If he lost control for even a split second while sculpting, his arm might devolve into a grotesque mass of mutated flesh and blood that only knew how to wriggle. A terrifying prospect.
Despite the extreme risk, he naturally chose to proceed with Spiritual Senses anyway.
Staring deadpan with an entirely calm mind, he watched through his inner sight as the newly strengthened muscle slowly began to "adapt."
This was the ultimate indicator of success. If the adaptation rate hit somewhere between 50% and 70%, this newly modified flesh would automatically stabilise and adjust itself to his frame.
'Anyway, it's done…'
His current energy supply was still limited to standard food intake, which ruled out high, output transformations , he couldn't afford to burn a week's worth of calories on a five-minute outburst.
So, his goal shifted from raw power to absolute structural efficiency.
He would use Spiritual Senses to act as the architect , manually tweaking his tendon leverage, smoothing out his neural pathways, and turning his leg tendons into high,efficiency elastic springs.
Once these minor biological modifications hit the 60% adaptation threshold, his automatic Willpower would lock them into place, handling the safe, low, level maintenance on autopilot.
It was a subtle, invisible upgrade. On the outside, he would still look like an ordinary, slightly lean junior high school student.
But internally, every ounce of chemical energy derived from a simple bowl of rice would be squeezed for maximum thermodynamic output.
'A lightweight, low, power optimisation patch,' Akane thought, monitoring his internal stabilisation process. 'This should be more than enough for the current phase ahead.'
Right now, his progress was stable and there weren't any noticeable issues. Still, this was already the third time he had to fine-tune the patch since yesterday.
Turning off Formlessness, his consciousness snapped back to his physical body. Akane opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of white, hot mist, his crimson-ashen eyes languid and lazy.
Staring deadpan at the ceiling, he couldn't help but find it mildly amusing. He wasn't even majoring in biology. What else could anyone really expect from a junior high schooler?
Amused by his own thoughts, he rolled over onto his stomach and drifted off to sleep.
,,,
One week later. 8:00 AM, Saturday, Osaka City.
"Mmmmm…"
A cold, sweet vanilla taste spread across the tip of Akane's tongue. He took another lick of the ice cream cone in his hand, leaving a faint trace of white cream on his lips.
He was currently leaning against the backrest of a roadside bench , small in his usual red tracksuit and jogging pants , taking a moment to rest and observe his surroundings.
His dark hair fluttered in the warm morning breeze. The sky above was a clear blue and white , not overly bright, but not too dim either. Directly across the sparse road sat the hollow ruins of a collapsed building.
All along the pavement, right next to the yellow police lines, baskets of white mourning flowers had been placed. A sight that repeated into the distance as far as the eye could see. Flowers and ruins.
'…'
Akane fell silent, pulling the ice cream away to lick his lips clean. The few pedestrians walking by , a businessman in a suit, a teenager in a hoodie, a woman rushing past , were all completely silent, heads lowered.
The air was heavy with mourning. It had been about twelve days since the massive crisis the government had labelled a "public outbreak."
"Huhhh…"
Exhaling a puff of chilled air, the sweet taste in his mouth refreshed his mind. He really was entirely different from the people around him. Slipping one hand into his tracksuit pocket, Akane stood up from the bench.
Shrugging his shoulders, he turned and began walking down the street with no real destination in mind, treating the walk as a casual workout.
Ironically, seeing such a peaceful, everyday scene only made him feel the raw cruelty of his experience in Khtonres much more deeply.
'Ugh, cold…'
Shivering slightly from the half-eaten vanilla cone, he continued his slow walk beneath the rows of blooming sakura trees. His mind began to connect the dots of the past, specifically recalling the cryptic words Fraiigilar had spoken back in the elevator.
'In the end, is my goal consistent with what the higher-ups want, or not?'
Without total transparency from the authorities, he could only make educated guesses.
And since completely avoiding them wasn't a realistic solution, he would just have to adapt, read between the lines, and anticipate their moves to stay ahead.
When they executed that Wild Hunt and roamed the First Seas, what were they actually trying to accomplish? He didn't know for certain , but he had a few guesses.
As he walked, his eyes constantly darted around, registering every cracked road, pile of debris, and strip of yellow caution tape.
Over the past few days, once his body had fully recovered, his first priority had been logging into the Dark Network to investigate the incident. Unfortunately, the platform operated exactly as it was programmed to.
The Dark Network wasn't a charity. It was a marketplace for information, requiring an equal exchange for anything you wanted to know. The more he interacted with it, the more he realised its underlying architecture wasn't simple at all.
'It feels less like a website and more like a system designed to force information to exist…'
He didn't have any concrete proof yet , just a baseless hunch. Regardless, by trading a calculated amount of data regarding Khtonres, his account had officially been upgraded to LEVEL,3.
The increased access was incredibly practical, allowing him to filter out useless, polluted forum posts and focus entirely on high-value data.
Without realising it, his feet had carried him across a small bridge spanning the river, leading him into a rose garden in the middle of the city centre.
Finding the sudden quiet intriguing, he turned right and leaned against the railing beneath the shade of a large tree.
To connect the dots regarding what the Association wanted, the link had to be either the Dark Network or something similar.
The extraordinary individuals being sent into the First Seas certainly had their own understanding of how the Association operated.
Akane watched the reflection of his own face in the murky green water. As a total layman in the extraordinary field, he lacked any formal channel to learn the rules of this world.
Even the Dark Network wasn't a perfect solution, posts that seemed incredibly useful on the surface could easily be deceptive traps.
His deadpan reflection stared back at him as he took another slow lick of his ice cream.
In typical web novels, the protagonist usually thrived as a lone wolf. With his level of intelligence, a fiction writer might assume he could easily navigate this environment the same way.
'But reality doesn't work like that…'
The cruel truth was that he was currently weak, or at least, weak enough that the gap still mattered.
Even with his specialised abilities, what could he really do if he accidentally caught the attention of high,level players? And as for information, if someone told you to go to hell simply because they knew more about the world than you did, how could you ever trust them?
The complete lack of formal channels, education, and reliable information was a massive barrier. Besides, he wasn't the only lone wolf out there, how many people fell into the same pattern of thought?
Perhaps the Association, Heaven Gate, and others, those who were isolated eventually banded together to form a pack based on mutual interest.
In the end, an independent figure like him was nothing more than a stray sheep in their eyes.
Just as he began to spiral into the grim reality of his situation, he quickly snapped himself out of it.
Berating himself was useless. Right now, the truly critical task was to figure out the key to what these factions actually wanted.
Pulling his gaze away from the water, he looked up at the vast blue sky, soaking in the comfortable morning warmth.
Nodding discreetly, it didn't matter if they were wolves or sheep. As long as they possessed desire, they could be manipulated.
After all, people always strived for something. The difference was whether they had the presence of mind to hold the reins of their own desire.