Delton looked at the smiling Lucius, then shivered at the bloodthirsty intent leaking out of him. The next second, the inter dispersed, causing the surrounding crowd to shudder.

Seeing the frothing chubby man, Delton sighed, then tapped is head to call for emergency. Several others in the crowd had done the same, but some also ran away from fear, especially after feeling the intent from Lucius.

“Run away from him!”

“He’s a madman!”

Several of them had called out to Delton.

In a couple of minutes, a trio of two men and one woman, dressed in Mom Sol suits, came to the scene. All of them were average-looking and seemed to be in their forties, judging from the signs of age.

Approaching the lying chubby man, one of the men, who had slicked-back red hair, kneeled down and grabbed Chester’s wrist. Frowning slightly, he grabbed an item, which looked like an external battery, from his pocket. Gripping his hand tightly on the battery, lightning arcs coursed through his arms, tearing that portion of his suit to pieces and revealing an arm with bulging veins.

He then quickly slammed his other hand onto Chester’s chest, causing an electrical discharge, frightening the already scared crowd even more.

“Holy shit. Is that the power of a Second?”

“Has to be a Second, right?”

One of the reactions that Delton heard actually came from Lucius, “So this is the power of a Second. Tsk tsk. Still too weak.”

After several more slams to his chest, the chubby man took in a loud deep breath. Taking several more deep breaths and coughing bait, Chester opened his eyes.

He sat up and saw the red-haired man along with the other two corporates. He then squinted his eyes, and the blurry view he had became clearer, revealing the figure of Delton.

“Get away from me! Please get me away from him!” He shouted out, pointing at Delton.

The woman then made her way to Delton, “Sir, I’m afraid we’re going to have to ask you some questions.”

…

After being questioned by her, Delton retold his encounter with the chubby man. Having asked several people from the crowd, including Tekle, the trio discussed for several minutes.

Coming to an agreement, the woman spoke to Delton in a mocking tone, “Due to your Talent and from eyewitness testimonies, we will let you go. Now go back home and try to not to cause any more trouble, coward.”

Delton gritted his teeth and turned away from the woman. He then walked back home through the frightened and silent crowd, which made way for him. Tekle stared at the back of the departing Delton with an inquisitive look, but shook his head after a couple of seconds.

Having returned to his apartment, which had regained its electricity, Delton threw himself on the couch, lying on his stomach.

After taking a nap, the day had turned into evening. Looking at the time, Delton turned on the screen to watch his shows. Lucius then grabbed the dining hall chair with a wave of his finger to sit on it, raising his feet on the coffee table.

Watching the screen, Delton tapped his head, “Prepare a bottle of the strongest drink you got, please. Place it on the coffee table.”

“Remember to drink moderately. Credits have been deducted.” A voice echoed out in Delton’s head, as the top of the coffee table opened up to bring up a bottle of clear liquid and a glass.

Seeing the number decrease in his view, Delton said, “Tsk. 400 credits! Not doing this again. Hehe.” Delton poured himself a glass and drank it all in one gulp.

As the shows went on, Delton asked, “By the way, old man. What did you do to that chubby guy?”

Without breaking focus from the screen, Lucius waved his right hand in front of his face and responded, “I just revealed a bit of my power to him. Since he was resuscitated, he’ll be fine.”

“He had a heart attack…”

“Don’t worry. I’m not that cold-blooded. Even if those people in suits weren’t there, he would’ve recovered naturally in a couple of days.”

Delton had made himself another glass and was sipping from it. “Why’d you do that anyway?”

“Didn’t you want a normal life? You were about to fight that man. After that, I could see you landing in prison for a couple of days. You would then lose your job. How could you possibly live a normal life after that?”

“You don’t go to jail for starting a scuffle here.”

“Yes, but killing him would. You just reached First Grasp, and have not gotten used to your heightened sensitivity. Also, I don’t think you know how much stronger you’ve gotten from training these past two weeks. You could’ve easily killed that fat man.”

Delton looked at him, the finished another glass. After pouring himself another one, he slouched a bit while placing one of his arms behind the back of his head and bending his knees, placing one leg on top of the other. “How did you do that, anyway? I thought you were just a soul.”

“In many ways, the soul could be more powerful than the body. You’re going to have to dream a bit more to understand. However, I can make an exception if you take me on as your master,” Lucius smiled.

Delton shook his head fervently and said, “Like I said earlier, I plan on staying a First for the rest of my life.”

A couple’s voice from the screen spoke.

“There was no way I’d have left you there by yourself!”

“But you’re not even my real father!”

Delton and Lucius laughed at the scene in front of them. Delton tapped his head to message Filian about the current show.

Lucius interjected, “What are you doing over there?”

Delton looked back at him incredulously, “I’m sending a message to a friend.”

“You could do that?”

“Yeah, as long as you’re connected to the network you can message anyone else.”

“What else can you do with it?”

“You can do so many things with it. You can even look up anything anything you want.”

“Some black technology you got there,” Lucius spoke as he cupped his chin. He then asked, “Can you get me one?”

Delton shook his head, “Haha! You need a physical body to have a chip implanted in your head.” As if remembering something, he then snapped his fingers, “Hold on let me look for something real quick.”

Delton wobbly left the room for a couple of minutes, coming back with a piece of glass, the size of large hand. “Here’s a phone. It’s an ancestor to the chip in our heads. They made us manufacture a couple of these for training.”

Tossing it over, Lucius stopped the phone mid air, and inspected it carefully. “This is connected to the network you speak of?”

“Yeah, it should be able to,” Delton said as he fell on the couch.

Booting the phone up, Lucius started to play with it, “Such a weird way to input things.”

As if remembering something, Delton asked, “Hey, I remember you said that that Second guy was too weak. What did you mean by that?”

Continuing to play with the phone, Lucius responded, “Like I said, he’s too weak. You saw how strong draconians are. They’d demolish that guy. His Talent wasn’t even that good. He had to carry around an energy reserve to do such a simple thing such as resuscitating that man.”

Delton rolled his eyes at Lucius and resumed watching the show, hearing oohs and aahs from Lucius.

After two more shows ended, Delton had drank several more glasses, and his face was now flush.

Delton muttered to himself, “To think it hurts this much again.”

“Again?” Lucius asked, looking up from the phone.

Clicking his tongue, Delton responded, “Yeah. This wasn’t my first heartbreak.”

“She called you a coward, what’s so wrong about being a First?”

“My previous crush also called me a coward. You could look it up, but I can tell you what I know. I want to stay a First because I want to live a normal life. You see. Once you become a Second…you are taken out of these cities…These cities are like,” Delton burped as his speech started to slur, “These cities are like cages. They keep you from exploring the outside world, but they protect you from what’s out there. After becoming a Second, you will be tasked…in assisting the corporations in their goals…Those insanos want to explore the Beyond.”

Lucius stayed silent and stared at one of Delton’s walls. His view zoomed beyond the wall, then even further beyond the city. The civilized regions gradually transitioned into natural formations.

Going in a perimeter around the city, Lucius saw canyons, deserts, and forests as far as his view can take him. However, these were not empty. Blurry figures disturbed the serene atmosphere. As if time stopped, Lucius got a clear look of these figures. There were hundreds of green-furred wolves the size of tanks. Time resumed, and the blurred figures went out of his sight in less than a minute.

Closing his eyes, his vision returned to Delton’s wall.

“With your power, you should have been able to…tell that everyone in this town are Firsts, except for those asshole corporates. Firsts…are placed in cities focused on manufacturing, such as this because this is how they can contribute to society. Once you reach Second Awakening, you don’t have to stay here…anymore and perform grunt work. None of these corporations will let you…Something about keeping order. You can also make more meaningful contributions out there. You’ll be paid…just so much more…At least a hundred times more than I can make here. However, with those rewards comes a greater risk. Beyond there are areas hostile to human life. Even worse there are natural predators that can easily tear apart a Second in a matter of seconds.” Laughing at his pun, Delton continued, “A Second has a fifty-fifty chance of surviving out there! I want to stay a First because I don’t want to go out there and die. I’m scared. I really don’t want to die.”

"Weren't those corporates, Seconds?"

"Yeah, but they're only stationed here if they're injured. If they can recover, they're immediately sent out again."

Delton finished another glass, as he poured out another once again. A strong smell of alcohol permeating throughout the room.

“What’s out there, that they’d sacrifice so much?”

“Even I don’t know. I come from a family of Firsts. My older sister is content with being a First. However, my older brother wants to make that jump to help our family out more, but if you ask me, he doesn’t have much of a chance. By the time he makes that jump, it’s be too late.”

With tears streaming down his face now, Delton continued, “She’s right. I’m a fucking coward. Of the siblings, I had the best shot in making that jump. I actually lied to everyone when I said I can’t make that jump. I didn’t even try.”

“You like her. She likes you. Isn’t that all you need?”

“Maybe from where you come from.”

Lucius pulled out a glass from nowhere and brought the bottle towards him with a move of a finger. He gestured to make the bottle pour out a drink into his glass. He took a small whiff of the drink then downed the whole glass.

“This drink’s alright and too cheap-tasting, but perhaps appropriate for the current scenario. It’s not as simple where I come from, either,” Lucius laughed as he seemed to be remembering something.

“She already became a Second. By tomorrow, we’ll be worlds apart. I will most likely never see her again. But I could if I tried hard enough. Don’t you think that’s sad?”

As Lucius was abut to respond, Delton continued, “It was like that for my first crush, too. She’s now on a completely different level from me. She’s a fucking Third!”

“Don’t worry. I know how you feel. My beloved was much stronger than me. When we go out, she would be the one to protect me,” Lucius chuckled.

“Who’s she?” Delton’s view had grown hazier and his cheeks flushed more and more; his face the same hue as a tomato.

“She was the most beautiful woman in all of Existence,” Lucius responded, tears silently falling.

“No way she was cuter than Jade, though,” Delton interjected.

“Hah! You’ll see her later. I hope you don’t develop a crush on her,” Lucius smiled then looked at Delton.

“I’m not that capricious! It took me a couple of years to get over my first crush!”

Staring into the ceiling, he closed his eyes to see darkness. “Damn! I thought I could see through walls.” Tapping his temple, the ceiling revealed a clear starry sky.

“Such a beautiful sky. Thank you, Lucius.”

“For what?”

“For not letting me dream my own dreams. I probably would have dreamed about her…That would’ve sucked so much. Let me escape into your memories for a while,” Delton said as he relaxed his body, letting go of the glass in his hands, spilling the drink on the couch and floor.

The glass shattered into multiple pieces, and a voice echoed out,

“Credits will be deducted to compensate the breaking of the glass.”

Delton turned over and said, “Shut up.”

Lucius waved his hands, reforming the broken glass, as if brand new, and placing it on the coffee table. He also withdrew the liquid from the couch and floor, placing it into the waste can. The blanket flew out from the bedroom and covered the sleeping Delton on its own.

Lucius split himself into two exact copies, one floating into Delton’s mind, the other floating through the ceiling. Lucius brought with him the bottle and sat on the rooftop. He stared at the night sky, taking swigs from the bottle from time to time. “It is a beautiful sky, but it’s too different.”