“What?”

So they couldn’t see Aiyla but Renzo could….. Could it be that they’re too weak, or is it something specific to pioneers? Could our weapons have changed us more than the status tells…. us…. And wait…. Why haven't I checked Aiyllllllaa….

Holy shit my head hurts, what was I doing again?

Oh right, why can only Renzo see Aiyla?

Suddenly, he pulled out two pocket watches, and held one in each hand. The one in his right was a burnished gold, deeply engraved with cogs that constantly moved on the outside, along with a calligraphic D on the lid. The inside seemed worn from age but displayed the typical twelve handed clock with roman numerals as well as inscriptions along the outer edges and both the hour and minute hand. The other one seemed similar if only in design, and instead of being solidly gold like the one in his right hand, the left one was black with silver running throughout looking almost like veins. It had an entire world of cogs working all at once, making the it more decorative than practical. The lid of the pocket watch had the entire solar system in constant motion, revolving around a miniature sun, while the dial was similar to the other watches. Its inscriptions faintly glowed with an orange light, I wonder how expensive those things are….. Probably in the thousands….

“Franco, what does my watch look like?” Wait, why did he say watch? As in singular….

“Odd request sir, but if you insist. It was a family heirloom from your great great gran-”

“No Franco, what does it look like.”

“Pardon me sir, it is a burnished gold with the family crest engraved by Samuel Watson himself. Through many years it has been constantly maintained which unfortunately resulted in the original gold luster fading to a burnished gold, although it is certainly a timeless peace if you would excuse my humor. Through all of that, the dial should be the only inscribed piece other than the lid as far as I am aware. Do you wish for me to explain the intricacies of the inner cog mechanisms sir?”

“No that is enough….”

“Franco, Esme. Leave immediately.” Even while the two shuffled out of the room, Renzo never broke eye contact with me…. Creepy… This guy is setting off all of my internal alarms. I feel like Acting is going into overdrive right now. Normally in situations like these I would be pacing the room or repeatedly looking at the same boring potted plants or paintings, now however, I was able to maintain constant eye contact without flinching.

After a few more agonizingly long seconds, the sound of the door closing and locking behind me could be heard.

Renzo looked away.

MWAHAAHAH I WON! Take that fancy dude, first round goes to the one and only, me.

“So what does my watch look like to you kid.”

“I’m not a kid, and its watches, as in plural. Didn’t think an adult would struggle with basic english….” For some reason Renzo was smiling now, like the kind loan sharks gave to desperate people accepting insanely high interest rates. Did I say something I shouldn’t have?

Wait a second. Aww shit I’m am so stupid. Obviously its because the watch is like Aiyla. My realization must’ve shown as Renzo’s ridiculous smile only grew wider….

“Well, I would never of guessed that another pioneer was so close. For three to be in the same area, it must have taken obscene amounts of luck.” Damnit, yea I got played. Win the battle but still lose the war, can’t believe he got me with something so simple.

“Don’t look so down, I only figured it out myself from my daughter. People can only see our weapons if we inform them somehow. Whether that be by alerting them, fighting them, or through fighting something else.” He paused for a moment before seeming to have made up his mind, “Tell me, what is your name?”

Should I lie? Shit I can’t remember if I told anyone my name already…. I suppose it's better to be truthful, don’t want to sour relations by a small white lie.

“Its Mark. Mark Telod.”

“Well Mark, what rank were you?”

“Is that really necessary?” Too much personal info to be given right off the bat…

“If you wish to keep yours secret, it's fine with me. However I myself was ranked 58th…”

Yep I’m boned. 58th out of the thousand people selected out of the 8 billion people alive…. This guy is probably some hidden boss you would normally find at the end of a game but my luck, I skipped all the loot and fun grinding and went right for the finish. I need to be careful, if the first thousand got special weapons and the next five hundred got even better weapons, there is no telling what this guy has….

“Fine, I was ranked 479th out of all of us selected….” At this, he actually looks surprised…. Well screw you too, I can’t help being amazing. No need to act so surprised seriously, damn…

“That is quite impressive. Even my own daughter was only ranked 968th… and I had believed her to be the most talented individual in the area….”

“What has talent got to do with the rankings?”

“Is this your first time speaking to another pioneer Mark?”

Ohhh I can feel all the eggshells I’m stepping on right now. Where do I go to in order to pray for my acting skill right now?

“Don’t change the subject, and yes you’re the first I have met.”

“Understandable, most of us are scattered across the world. As far as I am aware, only China, Russia, Germany and the United Kingdom have as many as America…. In case you were wondering, potential is what catalysed our integration. The higher your rank, the more potential you held before the Gift.”

I literally just asked you the question. This guy is frustrating, he seems like the type to act like he's always on top no matter who you are. God I HATE arrogant pricks like him. I Just WAnt TO GO up to all oF THEM AND SHOW THEM A THING OR TWO ABOUT BEING FUCKING RESPECTFUL. RENZO HAS NO IDEA I COULD KILL HIM RIGHT NOW. BUT NO THAT WOULD BE TOO EASY, I WOULD NEED TO MAKE HIM BEG FOR DEATH BEFORE I COULD LET HIM DO SOMETHING SO SELFISH. DEATH IS A PRIVILEGE. DEATH IS SALVATION. DEATH IS THE ULTIMATE FORM OF ENLIGHTENMENT. FIRST I WOULD STICK HIM IN A TUB AND PAINT HIS FACE WITH HONEY. HAVING ONLY HIS HEAD STICK OUT WOULD MEAN SOON HE WOULD BE SWIMMING IN HIS OWN SHIT. FLIES, MAGGOTS, AND WORMS WOULD SLOWLY DEVOUR HIM TILL HE EITHER SUCCUMBED TO INFECTION OR FROM HAVING HIS BODY EATEN TO THE BONE….. OH THE ECSTASY I WOULD FEEL FROM WATCHING HIM WRITHE IN AGONY AS INSECTS BURROWED INSIDE OF HIS PATHETIC BODY ONLY TO RIP HIM APART FROM THE INSIDE, I WOULD RELI--

Big one. Give me a second, that was a really strong vision.

“Mark, are you alright?”

“No I am fine, continue if you wouldn’t mind.” God I am so nauseous right now… Heartburn isn’t that bad but the big ones always make me feel like I am trying to puke up the negative thoughts. It's almost like my body is trying to reject my own consciousness sometimes but easy to ignore as long as I hadn’t eaten recently….

“Very well, being among the five hundred means you must have gotten special yes? The top one hundred were given the choice of two things to imprint upon, were you still limited to weapons?” Shit, two things? Not even specifically weapons, that's not good.

“Well yes, my choice is rather obvious.” At that we both look to Aiyla like she was the elephant in the room.

“Fascinating. So was there a reason you came to me, for anything other than conversation?” He had settled his face into one I could only assume was his usual business face.

“Honestly I was just looking to help, I hadn’t heard of any other pioneers in the area until I met you…. If you could point me in the direction of any survivors in need of rescue I would gladly help.”

“Head to town square, you will see a sign that will lead you to the mall. I have personally been leading expeditions to clear paths to let the survivors congregate in this area. I assume you can handle yourself, so any additional monsters you are able to clear would be of great benefit to the community.” As I turned around to leave he continued, “and Mark. I would be very interested in introducing you to my daughter when she gets back. She is late as is so I suppose it's time for me to track her down.”

Fortunately he couldn’t see the panic that had passed even through my acting skill and infested my face.

Shit shit shit shit.

This guy is in contact with people all over the world even now. I can’t let him find out I killed his daughter. At Least not until I am strong enough to kill him and take his pioneer equipment.

In fact, I had been thinking of a plan to get rid of this whole community. I have most of the information I need from this area, so it's about time I moved on.

Guess now I just need to go and ‘save’ all of those survivors…..

That smile once again formed deep within me, barely able to restrain its terrifying contentment.

It only took around an hour to find the town square, from there I could already see the remains of those struck down. Their flesh had decomposed at an abnormal rate, even to the point that they look like they'd been dead months not days….. The smell of ash and death choked the air as I tried to find a path around the fire….

Yea thats a big problem. The fire must’ve spread farther than anticipated as it covered most of the street leading to the mall…. Worst yet, there were shapes moving in the fire…..

I got this. I have been training for like, a whole few hours. Totally capable of taking on some undead freaks.

I hear moans come from the inferno, and sure enough three flaming zombies stumble out.

They barely had enough left on their skeletons to actually function. You could see and count the majority of the blackened bones of their body as charred remains hung from the offending bones like banners. There is no doubt those things are only held together by magic. Seriously, they should be a pile of ash but instead they are still walking if only a bit awkwardly.

Fuck that, I am not getting close to them.

Looking around I spot a few chunks of loose concrete which I proceed to lift via my psychic powers. This only works for a few moments before they begin to dip back towards the ground. Shit I never actually tried lifting stuff, just using an always grounded object to move a bit…… So how do I fix this?

Ok so for the bear I would imagine what I wanted it to do then will it to happen.

…..

….

….

Maybe its because the object needs constant energy?

Maybe I gave it enough for a specific action but not enough to continue that action indefinitely so it begins to run out of power…. So that means I have to constantly feed it my will to keep it doing what I wanted….

Time to split my mind I guess, this time with three!

I feel the sickness of trying to think coherently with three separate minds before delegating them to their own tasks. I will be the one doing the control, while they try and monitor the connection and improve it.

Only focusing on a small chunk of concrete I will it to hover in the same spot…. It dipped again, ok so I need a new method. How does one constantly will something?

Focus. Focus deep inside and find what I am willing. What am I using to will something else into action.

Focus…..

Focus…………

Focus………………

For a second it's almost like time completely stops as all external sound and felling falls away.

In front of me is my ball of Psychic power, but different? I can’t see in the normal sense, instead its like I can feel everything. This…. Must be the embodiment of my will…. Somehow it simultaneously has no form while also being more solid than anything I could possible describe.

I try and replicate the feeling of lifting something with my psychic abilities….

Something shoots off from the ball at a blistering speed….. And again…. And again…

So before I was only sending pulses out…. What if I…. Concentrating as hard as possible… a thin stream of will began to flow from the ball. At first it was only a small stream, but over what felt like years…. It began to grow.

Mark continued this as long as he could, and by the time he blanked from exhaustion the stream had grown to a few feet wide. Even this was a massive accomplishment, something only capable from years of training normally.

Fortunately for Mark, he had an assistant.

Coming back to I could feel a massive migraine forming at the back of my head…

“Oh fuck that stings.” I couldn’t help but wince as the massive pounding headache made my skull feel twenty times too small for my brain…

Luckily I had a few things to distract my aching mind,

Congratulations! For being the first Pioneer to delve into their inner sanctum of will, your trait adaptive has been increased a tier!

Adaptive: (Tier II) -- Integration rate forcibly increased 75%

Meditation: (Tier III)

Gain access to your inner sanctum through intense concentration.

Boosts all pool recovery rate by 75% when in a meditative trance.

+3 Control +3 Will

Telekinesis: (Tier I) Common

The start of any true Psychic can be traced back to telekinesis. Although it may be the most basic, many can agree that this will be a lifelong partner.

Helps maintain as well as form will contracts with nearby objects. Contracts are temporary and based solely upon will and control.

Boosts Control and Will by 1%

Feels totally different when it's all in your head.

Aww hell yea! So I guess I was doing something wrong with telekinesis before…. And that stream of will is called a contract?

Lets try it! I feel like a kid in a candy store, I mean who doesn’t want to have the ability to kill everyone around them by snapping their necks with telepathic powers! Man this has been on my dream wish list for soooo long…..

Forming a contract turned out to be relatively simple… I more or less wrestled with the will of whatever I wanted to control, which being rocks, wasn’t hard. From there I made them spin until I nearly lost control. Then I let them go in direction of the shambling corpses.

Then everything was painted…..

No seriously I have no idea what happened but suddenly all of the zombies blew up…. HOLY SHIT HOW POWERFUL ARE THESE ROCKS!

As excited as I was, the green maggots crawling inside all of the zombies made me silently back away…. Those don’t look like normal bugs…. Oh shit is this like that one movie where all the zombies are just corpses controlled by fucking zombie bugs…. Well that's just great. You get one of those fuckers in your skin and you're toast. If they’re similar to those in the movie, they can more or less control anything as long as its dead and to a lesser extent some live beings as well. Yea that was beings, not just people.

Have to say my favorite character from that movie was Zombie Bear.

No one beat zombie bear.

Anyways, I can’t have these little buggers crawling around. Heh. I laugh at my own jokes too much.

The next few minutes consisted of me squashing them with telekinesis. Which believe it or not, was significantly difficult. Rocks and living being are completely different which caught me off guard as I struggled to crush even one maggot. Luckily I got the idea to compress the air around the maggot or I would’ve taken hours to kill them all.

Afterwards I stare off towards blazing inferno, ready to take the next step in my plan.