…

In a dark, damp cave full of moss, a young boy was crouched in a corner. He was holding the side of his arm, as it was slightly deformed. It had obviously been broken.

“Jonathan this can’t be. Why us? Why?” A girl suddenly jumped in his embrace, crying at their situation.

“It’s OK Steph, we’ll make it out, I swear.” Jonathan got up, still holding Stephanie against his chest as he picked up his broken spear.

Although he seemed heroic, he had no confidence in himself. In the direction he was looking at, there was the entrance of the cave. There, at least ten wolves could be seen, growling at Jonathan.

He knew he had no chance to survive this. He had a broken arm, broken ribs and no escape route. Furthermore, it was a 1vs10+. It didn’t matter if he suddenly became five times as strong, or if Guillaume came with his gun, his fate was sealed.

He would die.

‘There has to be a way to escape, right? Sure, if I die, I don’t care. But I can’t allow Stephanie to fall with me.” Jonathan thought to himself, seeing the grim situation.

“It’s all our fault, all our fault. We, we should have just run away from the camp of wolves. Never should be have killed all of them, stealing their babies, NEVER!” Stephanie suddenly entered a mental breakdown, shedding more tears.

After they had killed and eaten the five wolves, the rest of the pack was enraged. The river seemed to have done nothing to stop them, as they magically swam or jumped over it. Even the group’s smell didn’t dissipate in the water, as they thought it would.

While they were certain that they were in the clear, the wolves had snuck up on their camp. Unlike with other hunts, they didn’t plan anything. After all, this wasn’t an ambush, it was a bloody revenge!

The group of humans could do nothing to save themselves. Jonathan had woken up and quickly started running with Stephanie.

He had seen Guillaume and Julien get jumped on by wolves, so he was sure of their death. As for the three others? He had no idea. Perhaps they were already dead, or they were in a better situation than Jonathan and Stephanie.

“Don’t say that. It was Guillaume and my fault for deciding to attack the five wolves. If you want to blame someone, blame me. But don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here for sure.” He tightened his grip on Stephanie, although his arm was broken.

“ … yes, it’s your fault. Your fault, always YOUR FAULT!!!” As she crazily screamed, Stephanie pulled out something from her pocket.

Before could react, Jonathan felt a sharp pain in his stomach. When he looked down, he saw a knife deeply lodged in his abdomen.

“Steph … why?”

As he looked up to see his friend, whom he taught would never betray him, he saw something that shocked him.

Behind her, there was a person holding her hand with the knife, guiding it to Jonathan’s stomach.

“You … how?” As Jonathan looked at the red boy, the same one he had killed to save himself and Stephanie, questions flooded through his mind.

He had stabbed him twice, so how was he still here? Even if he was alive, how did he get here? And why didn’t Stephanie reject him guiding her hand?

“How? Hahahaha. There’s no point telling that to a dead man. Karma has been repaid. An eye for an eye, a life for a life. But I won’t cut your neck, I’ll let you get eaten by the wolves, just how you let my girlfriend get eaten by them. I’ll let you suffer, feel how it is to have your skin ripped, you flew removed and your bones crushed. Haahahahaha.”

“So that was your girlfriend…” Jonathan suddenly fell to the ground. His legs weren’t responding and he felt the hot blood leave his body.

The wolves suddenly ran at him, seeing that he was an easy target.

Before he was covered by them, he glanced at the red boy and Stephanie. He could see them leaving the cave with no wolves attacking them. Furthermore, the boy was kissing Stephanie as he shot a mocking glance at Jonathan.

Jonathan could do nothing. He felt regret, betrayal and sadness at the situation. He wouldn’t care if someone came after him, but Stephanie had betrayed him. She was more than a sister to him, so this totally shook his mind.

He wanted to cry, and he did just that. But I wasn’t because of his emotions, but because the wolves started chewing at his body.

“AAAARGHHH!!!” He felt an unimaginable pain, like torture.

But suddenly, everything turned dark as a noise entered his ears.

…

Jonathan opened his eyes wide, recognizing the ceiling of his makeshift tent. He also saw Stephanie sleeping next to him.

‘A nightmare?’ Jonathan felt cold sweat on his back, as he remembered the boy he had killed. ‘But that’s not the point right now.’ He quickly stabilized his state of mind, as he put this matter aside.

He knew it wasn’t unusual for people to dream or hallucinate about people they killed or people that were close to them and died, but he didn’t think it would happen to him.

Jonathan quickly hopped out of his bed, wanting to investigate the noise that had woken him up. Although it wasn’t a sign of danger like the wolves’ howl, he was always on guard so he immediately ran out to find the source of the nose.

Stephanie didn’t seem to have heard it, so she was still asleep.

As Jonathan ran out, he hit his head on the top of his makeshift roof. The vibration woke up Stephanie, but Jonathan paid no head to her.

As always, there was a fresh breeze of air, the far away sun seemed to have dimmed down from usual and its colour changed to an orange tone, creating the effect of a sunrise.

The light in Jonathan’s eyes was very vibrant and his vision seemed to have been opened like in a fantasy world, everything displayed to his eyes.

The fresh wind caressed his skin, as if someone wiped a wet and soft towel across his skin. It’s sounded like a soft melody, relaxing Jonathan’s state of mind and allowing him forget his bad visions.

Jonathan felt his body full of energy as he moved through the woods towards the source of the noise. In fact, he felt like he was running much faster than before because of this new energy.

‘It feels good to move in such ease. It seemed like eating our full yesterday was a great benefit for us.’ Jonathan thought to himself while running.

It truly felt blissful to wake up without having to try to actively survive. However, he knew that this feeling would only be temporary before he had to grind for food again.

‘But so what? Enjoying the moment right now only brings benefits.’ He continued running with large strides.

If someone was looking at him from the side, it would look like he was gliding above the ground, as his speed wasn’t appropriate for a nine-year-old.

‘And also, this noise … it’s loud but it seems to be from way further than I think.’ It was true. He had initially guessed that he would have to run about 75 metres, but only after running about 150 metres had he arrived at his destination.

When he got there, he Hugo hitting a tree. Although his knuckles were a bit bloody, the tree trunk was in a much worst state. Alex was standing next to him, examination his performance.

“There’s no doubt about it. Your strength augmented exponentially. In fact, it’s greater than before the time reversal. This will be extremely useful for us.”

“Yes … now I can be useful to the group.” Hugo clenched his hands.

“What’s going on?” Jonathan asked to the two guys. When Hugo saw him his eyes opened wide with anticipation.

“Jonathan! Guess what. My strength suddenly rose and now I’m even stronger than before we came here. I’m sure I can beat a wolf right now, so you won’t have to go to the frontline anymore.” Hugo answered to Jonathan from afar, seeming a bit condescending.

He walked towards Jonathan with an imposing posture, until he was almost right in front of him.

Jonathan was shocked when he saw Hugo. He clearly remembered the boy being skinny and shy. Now, his body was much more built. Although he didn’t look like a bodybuilder or anything near that. He muscles were still very defined and much larger than before.

“Oh? Sudden increase of strength? How could that happen?” Jonathan moved closer to Hugo, wanting to examine his body. He ignored Hugo’s cocky attitude since he was curious about how he got bigger. However, the latter’s attitude suddenly changed. Hugo took a step back as his face displayed an expression of shock.

“What’s wrong, did my face change?” Jonathan was genuinely curious at why Hugo’s expressing took such a 180 turn.

Alex also walked towards Jonathan as he stood next to Hugo. Although he looked shocked, he wasn’t as stunned as Hugo.

“Amazing … you gained even more muscle then Hugo! And you also got much taller. Damn, it seems like your strength right now is no joke.” Alex examined Jonathan’s body and expressed himself.

“Really?” Jonathan looked at Alex, realizing that he was now taller than him. In fact, he felt that he was as tall as before the age regression. He also touched his arms which were even bigger than when he was in the previous world.

Seeing that he at grown by almost a full foot and became even bigger than when he went to the gym, Jonathan was shocked.

“No way. What the hell happened. Did they return us to the normal world?” Jonathan looked around him just to be sure that this wasn’t Earth.

“Earth, I don’t think so. But Jonathan, try to punch me with full strength so I can test your strength.”

“OK.” Jonathan got closer to Alex, who put his arms up so he could receive the strike.

Jonathan rapidly got into motion, but surprisingly, his muscles jerked in a weird way. He had never felt this before, but this was definitely a bad thing. It gave you the same impression as when you mess up throwing a ball. You aim might be good, but it would lack power.

Pah!

Alex took a few steps back after being hit by Jonathan.

“Can I…” Before he could finish asking if he could redo his hit.

“What the hell. How are you so strong?”

“Huh?” Jonathan didn’t even properly hit him, but Alex called him super strong. If he did a proper strike, it would be at least 50% stronger.

“With this strength you can easily outpower Hugo. We must go check if the others all had some change like this. Also, we need to find why exactly so we can boost ourselves up. If we can, we’ll get out of this place without any issues.”

As he said that, someone came running at them at high speed. To be precise, the person was running towards Jonathan.

Furthermore, he did not seem to have any intention to stop his furious sprint.

“Stephanie?” Jonathan instantly recognized who was running.

“Aaaaah!” Stephanie screamed as she tripped and fell to the ground. Mud covered her clothing as she held her bloody knee. It was only a superficial injury thought, so cleaning was more than enough as a treatment.

“What’s wrong?” Jonathan had seen the way she had tripped on nothing so he asked her how it happened.

“I don’t know, I was running way faster than I usually could and then I tried to do a different stride to stop and my muscles jerked or something.” Stephanie explained as she held her knee.

Hearing that she had felt the same thing as him, Jonathan was about to speak up when someone else spoke loudly.

“So speed is your attribute. This is getting interesting.” The man who spoke was Guillaume. He had appeared like a ghost.

“Since when were you here?” Alex asked.

“I was simply taking a poop not far from here and happened to see Hugo and your performance, Jonathan also came and displayed his strength, followed by Stephanie who was so fast that she couldn’t even stop. These types of attributes weren’t there yesterday.” Guillaume slowly talked

Everyone nodded hearing his quick analysis.

Zoom!

Rana arrived even faster than Stephanie, with Julien following behind at normal speed.

“You see, even Rana got way faster. Although it seems weird for it to suddenly happen, I think everyone got augmented somewhere. Even me. Look at this.” Guillaume picket up two small rocks. He threw the first one in the air and then threw the other one at it with all his strength. Surprisingly, the two rocks hit each other.

“For me, if I want something, it’ll happen. If I want to throw the rock on the leaf of the tree a few metres away, I’ll get it for sure. I guess it could be considered some type of control over my body.” Guillaume calmly explained his condition to the other before he personally addressed Stephanie.

“Stephanie, I saw how your legs jerked before you fell. I also felt that when I woke up earlier than you guys. As such, I know that you have this ‘control’ attribute.” He quickly identified why Stephanie fell.

“Through repetitive usage of my limbs, I learnt how to use them without losing control. Do the same and you’ll get used to the new feel of your body in no time.”

Hearing this Stephanie was quite happy. This sounded like a great advantage in their situation. Being able to throw things accurately could allow her to attack wolves from afar.

“But I think that you’re special…”

“Me? Why would I be?” Stephanie didn’t understand what Guillaume meant by that.

“Obviously it’s because you’re fast. While you came here, your speed was incredible. Although it wasn’t as fast as Rana’s, probably because she’s an adult, it was out of the ordinary. As such you probably have two attributes. You have the ‘control’ and what could be called the ‘agility’ attribute.”

“Really?” Stephanie eyes opened wide. This meant that she could be super fast as well as being able to do things like perfect aim.

“And this is probably better than you thought. I can feel that the ‘control’ ability allows someone to have efficient movement, not just in aiming, but also in running. As such, after a bit of practice, no movements are wasted while running, making a ‘control’ person faster than normal. Although it might not be as fast as the ‘agility,’ it’s still a big boost from your average Joe. Now, you have both the agility and control, making so that you can move your body fast and move it efficiently. With a bit of training, you’ll be on par with Rana in terms of speed, even though she’s older than you. When you get to her age, you’ll most likely eclipse her in speed.”

Everyone in the group was pleasantly surprised by this. It seemed that Stephanie would now be an important asset, greatly augmenting their chance of survival.

Only Hugo seemed a bit jealous. He had already taken a hit from Jonathan overpowering him in strength, now this random girl has amazing luck, acquiring two attributes.

While Hugo was cursing to himself, Jonathan was secretly thinking to himself.

“As for you Julien, what attributes do you think you have? What change do you feel in your body?” Guillaume asked out loud.

“Me… I don’t think I have any. I don’t feel stronger, faster or in control…” A bit of deception could be heard in his voice. It would truly be a shame to be the only one without the surprise attributes.

“If everyone got one, why wouldn’t you? Think about something. Think about some movie superpower or anything around those lines. It doesn’t have to be physical, maybe it is something that would be weird for others, like the time moving slow.”

“Something different…” Julien paused and started thinking about what he felt that could be different to the others. He looked at everyone and seemed to notice something. “Can you guys feel the air being wet?”

“Wet?”

“Wet air?” Everyone seemed confused about this.

“Yes, I feel as if the air was being super humid. But I don’t think it is since nothing is moist. It’s probably just me seeing it that way.”

‘Could it be…’ Jonathan thought to himself that he felt this wet air while running and even right now, but he had thought it was just the humidity,

‘No, the air is too fresh for humidity to be present like this. Even the grass isn’t very wet although it is the morning.’ He seemed to have realized something and his expression turned into a mix of surprise and joy.

“Wet air? What else has to do with air that you can feel?” Guillaume continued questioning Julien.

“It would be more about the wind than the air, but the wind sounds like a melody.” Julien calmly answered. His response confirmed Jonathan’s suspicions.

“Hmmm…” Guillaume held his chin, seemingly in intense thinking. “You feel the air and you hear the wind. Can you smell something, or see things different from before?”

“Yeah. It smells a lot like nature. I can smell the trees and the grass separately. As for vision … everything looks better than yesterday, as if it turned more artistic.”

“Then there’s no doubt about it. Your senses seem to have been enhanced. Smell, hearing, vision and touch. You probably have something with taste, but you need to eat to test that. I guess we should call this attribute ‘perception.’” Guillaume calmly affirmed.

“So everyone acquired an attribute? Hahaha, we’re quite in luck. Hugo, Jonathan and I have much more strength now, while Julien has this crazy perception, Guillaume can aim like a god and Rana is super fast. Stephanie is even luckier, she’s like a mix of Guillaume and Rana. Eheheh, it seems like we won't die in here after all.” Alex was very happy of this situation and laughed loudly. This set a positive mood in the group.

However, Jonathan seemed to have different emotions then everyone else. In fact, he felt as if his situation was too good to be true.

‘I have the same feeling as Julien, I ran faster than Stephanie, I also jerked like Guillaume and I’m way stronger than Hugo…’ As he quickly did a resume of his thoughts, he could only come to one conclusion.

‘Fuck me, do I have all the attributes?’ He started shaking from joy.

If it was the case, wouldn’t he have a total advantage over everyone from now?

‘I can’t let anyone know. Exactly like Guillaume has his gun, this is my trump card. Hell, I can feel that if I train a bit, I can probably dodge a bullet.’

Quickly calming himself, Jonathan continued his interaction with his group. Everyone continued to discuss, trying to find the source of this.

Only Guillaume was looking at Jonathan, a cold glint in his eyes. They seemed to pierce through him, discovering all his secrets. Yet, Jonathan didn’t even notice Guillaume.