Chapter 4 Colorful

“When I went to school, I walked 20 miles, uphill, both ways, 26 hours a day! On one foot, my other foot was starting a business.” - somebody’s dad.

It was raining blood outside as Aiden looked through his previous self’s notes.

For all his flaws, Aiden Bu did do rather comprehensive research when motivated, it was what left Aiden Lu with a wealth of notes and memories on methods to cure his sister.

People have been restored and healed back from Reality Bleed before, in some cases, doctors locate what was changed by the invading reality and fixed it. However, these were very few cases. Someone first needed to ascertain what was wrong with the patient in the first place. The most famous example was Edward Rogers, who was determined to have his myelin sheathes completely removed. Since he was rich, his doctor arranged for a healer type meta to replace them, but repairing it with science was theoretically possible.

Still, human science and this dimension’s physical law becomes… mutable when in contact with those of other dimensions. Edward Rogers was an insanely lucky case because at least the problem had an understandable and conceivable fix to it.

While he could hire a healer type meta, such services do not come easily. By virtue of existing, they are highly valued, not to mention how they heal is important. Do they rewind time of the body but not the mind or do they stimulate the body’s own natural regeneration? While Aiden could see the former being able to save his sister, the latter was more questionable. If after two years her body hasn’t made any progress to waking, then it would be safe to assume that natural regeneration was a dead end. In the vast majority of cases, a healer meta was completely unable to fix a person suffering Reality Bleed for the simple reason their power couldn’t fix what was specifically wrong with that one person.

For Jaiden’s case where they don’t even know what’s wrong with her and whether or not a certain power would even help her, such methods become both impractical and a gamble. Thus, miracle solutions were required.

Unfortunately, miracles don’t come cheap.

There has only been one thing that has been able to cure a person of Reality Bleed 100% of the time and Aiden himself has experienced it. Awakening, Triggering, Changing, Ascending, whatever the term used, the meaning was the same, get a power and become immune to the fluctuation and bleed of realities.

This was easier said than done.

For one, the only notable pattern in Awakening was experiencing some kind of stress. This was the medical definition of stress, so it wasn’t exclusively limited to negativity. It was well known some people have Awakened during their weddings, birthdays or some other impactful moment like a job promotion, along with cases of great physical and mental exertion.

Which, the Aiden of the past had noted, was nigh impossible to do for Jaiden, though she appeared sleeping, she was closer to a state of stasis. She ages normally and still required sustenance, but she doesn’t seem to change at all other than that. Her bodily signals were noted by a doctor to be almost completely inactive, meaning a stress-induced awakening would be impossible for the reason she doesn’t feel stress in her current state. The specific Gate which she was caught in also doesn’t seem to have appeared anywhere else, so there weren’t more case studies on the effect that Gate had.

Thus an alternative ‘awakening’ was required.

There existed a type of physical panacea that is capable of curing nearly all ailments that plague the body. It can instantly heal cuts, restore entire limbs, fix internal bleeding and even add years to your life. It can only be produced by the Sophist of Elixirs. It is an item simply known as a Health Potion.

It was not its healing properties that he was looking for however, but its side effects.

Health Potions were one of the few consumable commodities made using Bleed Material, that is, material originating from other dimensions or corrupted and changed when caught up in a Gate formation. Such material doesn’t tend to follow this reality’s laws to an exacting degree. The area around locations of Gates to Macrodian-Flor famously leaves behind materials that don’t obey our version of the Square Cube Law.

Since Health Potions were specifically made for the purposes of healing using Bleed Material, it bridges that line between the natural physical laws of this reality and those of alien realities, thus making a person temporarily immune to Reality Bleed along with restoring their body, which in the vast majority of cases succeed in curing a person of Reality Bleed effects.

Unfortunately, they go for a minimum of about a million dollars a pop.

It was known the ingredients include high drakoi blood, the God’s Papercut mushrooms that only grow around a Gate that opens only once every two or so years, the eggs of a wild cassowary laid on Mother’s Day, normal convenience store cheese of any variety, the fresh tears of three different unawakened children between the ages of six and twelve, thirteen tetrafoliums of the highest quality, benzoates, Rhinella marina livers that had been fermented with kimchi, the kimchi fermented with the cane toad livers (which has to be served to the liver providers’ closest kin during a family celebration), common yellow pavement chalk, three bottles of hard red wine (which the brewer consumes over the course of brewing), the concept of forgiveness ripped from the heart of a Living Impurity, a pound of troll fat, dust from the Voimyk Manuscript and strawberry extract for flavour.

However, such knowledge was still pointless trivia, since not only could the ingredient’s list be largely nonsense given the Sophist’s habit of mixing her food cravings with her ingredients list, with the nature of the Sophist’s power… the brewing process wasn’t exactly reproducible, but it does not remove the fact that the Sophist’s Health Potions had the exact effects needed to cure Jaiden. Knock-off elixirs, like Edmund Pharmaceuticals Nectar© or Guulstag Yllaine’s God Maker Extract, could also work, but were more expensive, overall inferior and did not produce the same miraculous effects as a Health Potion. Their only upside was that they were significantly more available, which brought Aiden to another point.

In his entire life, he has only heard of four batches of Health Potions ever being sold, worldwide. Even if he had the money to purchase such a thing, he might never even have a chance. There was no guarantee or pattern to the Sophist making a Health Potion other than her whims. That was why the previous Aiden determined that obtaining Nectar© was easier on paper, because in all likelihood even if, and that was a big if, he ever got the chance to buy a Health Potion, if it wasn’t straight from the Sophist then it would be inflated to hell and back.

Nectar© had to be custom ordered at the local branch of Edmund Pharmaceuticals, you simply needed a down payment of 150 million and they’ll have the Nectar© brewed and shipped to you within six months, after which you pay the rest.

Which sounded simple enough, but this was 150 million in a world where the average human only earns about a million in their lifetime. Even in Lu’s previous life, where he was an established salary man, he would still need to work over a hundred lifetimes to even make the down payment.

Even though Aiden mathematically knew this was a massive disparity, it was still difficult for a human mind to comprehend sums that large. He believed with his current abilities, he should at least be able to make a million, but whether or not he’ll be in the line to the Sophist’s shop when she decides to make Health Potions again was entirely a matter of luck, and if he wanted to try luck he might as well do the far more likely option and go win the lottery nine times in a row.

Then there was the God Maker Extract, which… was not worth the risk of consumption.

An Elixir of Skill could also work, but any time those were made, someone immediately chugs it because holding one was a recipe for disaster.

Thus the final options would be the numerous knock-offs of knock-offs, these could theoretically achieve the effects he needed, but they were risks, not gambles. Nectar© and God Maker Extract at least delivers on what it’s got in addition to their side effects, the others, however… tend to usually only have side effects.

‘So realistically,’ Aiden thought as he packed up the notes. The thunderous blood rain just beginning to let up, ‘My only option is to keep hiring healing type metas until one of them happens to have an ability which cures her.’

Instead of using the skeleton keys, try every possible key on the lock until eventually, one works.

Whatever the solution Aiden picks, he would need money. Lots of it, nigh inconceivable sums of it. But he was not helpless like he previously was. He had power and experience, he needed to leverage everything he possessed. All to make money. So long as he had money everything would be well. He won’t repeat his previous mistakes so long as he had money. Money. Money. Money. Money-

He felt a soft jabbing on his wrist as Oros gently bit into his skin.

He lifted the arm to his face, examining Oros like a watch. The snake’s face almost appeared… chiding.

Aiden blinked, remembering the last time he cared for nothing but currency before sighing. “I don’t know if I’m projecting on a snake, but thank you,” he spoke genuinely as the snake loosened its fangs. Old habits built over a lifetime died hard.

But hopefully, in this lifetime, he could do it all slightly better.

That was all.

He didn’t wish for great fame, grand works or heroic achievements.

Aiden simply wanted to do better.

The rain had let up, leaving crimson puddles in every small dent and pothole it could find. He left the apartment, making a note to purchase a new lock as he did so. Slung on his back was a bag filled with notebooks and stationery. In his hand was a pamphlet for the Meta Institute Academia along with written instructions to meet a counsellor today.

Setting off in the early morning as the sun peeked through the velvet clouds, Aiden entered his second day in a new world.

He arrived at his destination half an hour early.

Even when nearsighted, standing before the heavy wrought iron gates, he saw the utterly utilitarian design of the school behind them. Built like a fortress of concrete and brick, it jutted out like a sore thumb. Despite that, perhaps the most unique thing was that the building actually appeared old. Vines had grown over one wall, another was a mural of hundreds of scratches arrayed in lines, one had been painted over by some kind of graffiti he was too shortsighted to see.

Above the iron gates, squinting his eyes, he could just make out the words written on the steel arch.

Lest Dawn Fail.

Perhaps unintentionally, he looked to the sky, trying to see the broken corpse of the obsidian moon, but it was day and thus invisible.

“Lest Dawn Fail indeed,” he muttered as he stepped through.

Walking at a leisurely pace, he took in the sights. It was still relatively early and the few students that were here paid him no mind.

It was almost nostalgic.

Memories of childhood half-remembered, one that he only got to go through, not live. Yet his critical eye didn’t miss what appeared to be a critical design flaw.

The damn amount of bollards and outdoor benches.

For some reason, these benches of pure concrete were built thicker than a tree trunk with backrests that stood up to his shoulders, as if they were designed to block line of sight. That combined with excessive roadside bollards also removed any simple way for a vehicle to enter, severely impeding the ability of a delivery vehicle to enter campus, thus meaning they must rely on the delivery men to carry goods a solid several dozen metres before they reached an actual building.

“Not to mention their labyrinthian placement!” he thought as took another zig-zag around a bench, “What were they designed to inconvenience someone trying to enter?”

Past the weird benches were literal trenches dug into the ground and poured over with concrete. Circular in their design, he saw someone skateboard through them much like they were in a skateboard park. With only the slight caveat that it was impossible to get to the school building without going down and up at least three.

One moment he turned a corner and almost walked straight into a flagpole, the next he realised he was walking an incline and had to climb a wall to get out. After which he got to a relatively open piece of land, with three lines of flat concrete pyramids that went up to his waist, allowing him to catch his breath, which was only slightly marred by the fact there were 1 metre deep pits just strewn between the pyramids he almost fell into. He couldn’t fathom their purpose, built with walls sloping upwards and a small round stool in the middle.

It took him a good while to get through and he could’ve sworn some students were smirking at him as his foot got stuck in a random pit. All the while they managed to get around the obstacles with practised ease.

By the time he made it, he was just scratching the appointed time.

Sighing as he pushed open the revolving bullet-proof glass doors, he entered the building, soon finding the room he was needed in.

Knocking on the door labelled, Guidance Counselling, he called out, “Hello?”

“Come in!” a muffled voice answered from within.

He obliged, entering the door and taking in the small office. “I’m here for the 9:30 counsel session?”

A tall black man turned and looked at him, “You’re early.”

“Actually I’m…” he flipped open his phone, “4 minutes late.”

“Do you have a Move power or something? You made it past the school grounds way too quickly.”

Aiden shook his head, “Actually I came 30 minutes early, but I was slowed down.”

The man nodded in understanding, “Yeap that would do it I suppose.” Shrugging, he said, “Take a seat for now, I need to sort some files, we still have two others who will be joining us today.”

“Two others?”

He nodded, “Yeap, a transfer from Russland and one who recently Awakened. They should be trying to make it through the Trenches right now.”

Aiden was beginning to suspect the ‘poor’ architectural design choices were intentional, still, he found a chair and sat and waited.

It took them another half an hour to arrive.