“So this is everything you’re capable of, uh?” Dr. Tsukishima taunted me as he fidgeted with his pen.

It had been about a month since I had arrived at the Quarantine Control Base, and after a few days of bizarre tests and relentless questioning, I had been released from my “special quarters”, after the “peculiar nature” of my connection to the System was at least partially understood. Little did I know that my newly found “freedom” would mark the start of a brand new kind of hell.

I huffed and wheezed, as the doctor of the base ordered me to start the exercise all over again. We were currently studying my power: “Hand of the Maker”, since its bizarrely low Od consumption was still a mystery, when factoring in its ability to seemingly warp both physical matter, and intangible Od effects.

I was ordered to repeatedly push away large blocks of increasing physical and magical density, until I inevitably collapsed into a quivering heap of stress and exhaustion. Despite my initial beliefs, I wasn’t much of a “cheat” character, my overall power being comparable to those of lower class soldiers.

“Wow, he is still going at it?” spoke Ms. Shijima Touko as she peeked through the gymnasium doors.

“What do you mean -still-? This is just medium exertion!” said the doctor as he raised the resistance of the block I was currently engaged with, forcing me to take a knee before finally giving up.

“See, he gave up already!” he continued, grinning playfully at me as I grunted.

“Yeah, I saw your measurements, this regime could easily tire out most of our elite. That ability of his is incredibly Od intensive, and you didn’t even give him a Relic!”

“You mean I can use Relics?!” I yelled, my eyes wide in disbelief.

Relics, were strange artifacts which began to appear around the world since 2020 (at least in so far as official records were concerned), mostly around System portals. When I told the people of the base about it, they theorized the terminal which started my bizarre situation was an extremely powerful Relic.

“Of course, a lot of people with way less fine control of their Od than you can use them, why shouldn’t y-” began Touko, before both our gazes fixed on Tsukishima. If looks could kill, mine would have annihilated any chance he had at reincarnation, for good measure.

Chuckling, he rubbed the back of his head and said: “Well, it’s the first time I’ve had such an amazing subject such as young Mr. Ori here, and I wanted to see just how far he could go. What’s wrong with a little deception, when it can increase his efficiency by 15% in three days?”.

Damn, I hated the man, but he really did take care of me after every test session, even helping me recuperate with his own healing arts. He may have had a few screws loose, and he may not have been much of a physician, considering he mostly used magic to heal, but...

“I swear to god... You even told me I was -subpar- you damned con man!” I swore.

Relics could stabilize and increase both intensity and generation of Od in anyone capable of using them, so much so that doing anything serious with magic without one was comparable to “running a marathon while barefoot”.

“You shouldn’t resent me, I just thought you’d need a little more motivation, right Touka? You’re with me on this aren’t you?”

The only answer she gave before leaving was: “You should stop wasting our resources immediately, Doctor.”

The tests were momentarily called off, and I was finally able to shower and visit the main courtyard in the base. As I had found out, general Suda was pretty lax with his discipline, when it came to the overwhelming majority of the lower class personnel, and most disputes were settled through “enhanced” sports matches. Even the lowliest here were capable of some degree of superhuman feats, and watching people go at it with paranormal powers had quickly become my favorite thing to do, especially since I was prohibited from training with others.

As usual, I sat in the furthest corner from the rings, and boosted my senses to monitor the various clashes from the side. Despite all my new power, I was still too shy to approach anyone there, especially considering that I looked younger than I had been before all that mess, and the maturity of the people in the base made me feel even younger still.

It was then Ms. Shijima put her hand on my shoulder, appearing from seemingly nowhere, and said: “Lorenzo, we need to talk, come to my office as soon as you can,” before vanishing again. I hated astral projectors.

Rising from the ground, I patted away the dust from my pants and headed where I was needed. Somehow, the therapist’s aura felt very different than usual, even considering her usual inability to completely hide it from me.

”Looks like this is goodbye for now,” she began as I sat on the exact same armchair where I sat weeks before, listening to the story of how the world had gone to hell and was now beginning to recover.

”Are you going to kill me like some sort of Bond villain?” I chuckle a little.

”Like a what? No, I’m here to inform you that we finally managed to give you the required identification papers for the transfer we talked about. You’re leaving for the academy in Fukuoka, first thing tomorrow,” she explained deadpan.

”Unfortunately, we weren’t given permission to use any instant transportation nodes, considering what little we know about your power, it wouldn’t be safe. We are going by road,” she continued.

”By road? Won’t that be dangerous?” I asked, knowing that Fukuoka was very far south, and imagining the countryside to be teeming with monstrous creatures.

”Not really. Our country is was one of the least hit in the world, since few Relics spawned here, and we will steer clear of any road that pass near a quarantined zone to be extra safe. It should take a couple of days at worst”.

Right, I had never left the military grounds there, so I barely had any idea of how bad the situation for Japan really was. Most of Tokyo was a nightmare, but it looked like the rest of the nation was pretty far ahead in the recovering efforts.

I spent the rest of the day in my room, barely going out to eat something at the cafeteria for dinner. I hadn’t made any friends in that short month, but for I time I did hope I could manage to get to know somebody interesting other than the maniacal Doctor Tsukishima.

“Oh well, I guess at least I’ll meet people my own age at the academy,” I mumbled while looking at the fluorescent light in the ceiling.

What was really my age though? My body had been remade from scratch, I had twenty years worth of memories, and I looked barely sixteen years old. That was all kinds of confusing, wasn’t it? No matter, I didn’t have time to bother with such details, I had an adventure to live.

“Delving into the Coil,” I muttered. That was my purpose as a full fledged member of the System, but I had no idea if I could manage it, or even what it really meant.

Slowly creeping down into sleep, I tried to ignore the part of me that thought of everything and everyone I had left behind, and focused on the coming trip the best I could.