With his new crewmates by his side, Ken ambled towards their destined location. They slowly strolled past the large infrastructure laid out in this fortress of solitude. The structure looked very parkour worthy. If one had the right skills and tools, they could easily maneuver through these large buildings. Some looked at it with wonder, some ignored it. The participants had a different route compared to the crowd of outlaws that were walking down below. Some were observing the selected participants, some cheered them on. But Ken couldn’t think of his surroundings. He felt a sense of discomfort in his heart and his chest. The red light was going maliciously. He slowly rubbed on top of it, trying to calm it down.

“Hey you good?” Dan asked Ken. Ken snapped out of his delusions and looked back at Dan.

“Umm yea. Just had this weird feeling like something bad is about to happen.” he said.

“Who wouldn’t be? Teaming up with complete strangers you know nothing about. Personally, I wanted to choose who I want as crewmates,” Dan said, while wrapping his left hand around Ken’s neck. From far, it seemed they already had a buddy-buddy feeling.

“Well, I guess being able to choose your own teammates is good too.” Ken said, feeling as if he made a friend. Dan leaned on his shoulder.

“I know, right? After all-"

He closed in on Ken's ear.

if I had to choose, I would have never picked a useless shit like you on the team”

He whispered. Ken froze just hearing that. Dan walked up front, seeing Ken’s frozen state.

“Don’t feel too bad for yourself. The weak ones are always weeded out.” he said, ambling forward.

Ken just had realized himself as well.

“none of them thinks of me as a crew member. To them, I’m nothing but disposable baggage that would be discarded out, eventually. But even thinking about that wouldn’t change anything.”

He kept on walking with an open mind.

Back in Solaris’s room, he popped open a glass of champagne and looked triumphantly at the stage. The smell of alcohol and cigar was all so present in the room. He looked at his wine bottle, which showed the mirror image of one guard behind him. He let out a small giggle .

“Mike, how is the progress going?”

This time, it didn't take that long for a response.

“Yes sir. If I may, almost all the teams have finished the second phase. The last team is entering now”

Ken and his group enter a vast room. Covered in ice with sculptures made of ice and a tall plateau at front that had nothing in it except a glowing orb in the middle. The light that was radiating from the orb was beaming towards the top out into the cold winter of Vikino. The room was empty with nothing in it but those ice sculptures, emptiness that could be felt from the echoes of their voice. As they walked forward, a small flying robot appeared in front of them. He had an enormous face that looked like a monitor and small hands with an oval-shaped body, no legs.

“Greetings outlaws. I am Me 2, the instructor of phase 2. Phase 2 is more of a test than an actual challenge. With the orb sitting in the middle of this room, we will conduct your Meto amount and assign you to your individual roles in the crews. And naturally, the forms you filled up when you entered this program also stated which role you wanted to apply in the team. We will take into consideration of that as well. Questions?"

Ken raised his hand like a kid in a classroom.

“Umm, what Meto?” he asked. Everyone else in the room let out an inner sigh just from hearing that.

“Oh, you don’t know what Meto is?” even the computer felt surprised at that. A miscalculation he did not expect.

“Umm, No. Can you explain it to me?”

“But of course. Then let me give you the summary of what Meto truly is."

Me2 said with enthusiasm. Maybe he was waiting for this moment for a long time, explaining to people the core power than resonating in all of them.

" In this world, every living being has a thing known as E waves. It's basically a vital part of the body. These E waves are everywhere, but they cannot be seen by the naked eye. There are two types of e waves, one that is made naturally from materials. These e waves are potent and could be dangerous to the body if one came in contact with it."

Ken listened with utmost attention. He even forgot to blink, to not miss anything. There was no such thing as not blinking during hearing an exposition. But as an idiot, he was well committed.

“The second type of E waves is called the inner waves. By concentrating and learning, one can manipulate these E waves into any shape or form they desire, which brings us to the three primary forms of Meto.

Elemental Meto 2. Force Meto 3. Perception Meto

Elemental Meto is the direct manipulation of the inner E waves. By changing its shape and flow, one can create elements out of thin air. Even though one can use every element, certain elements synchronize with their E wave nature far better than others. As in some people have mastery over the Fire element than others because of their synchronizing nature.

Force Meto is a meto that is conjured by the mind. Using the mind as the basis Force Meto can create not only physical pressure on a person but also mental pressure. Thios pressure could be felt by numbing of the body, not being able to think properly and pure submission towards one's might. Its range is also far superior to Elemental Meto, but it costs more E waves than it does .

And finally, Perception Meto. Perception Meto is The Meto of prediction. It enhances all the nerves of the body, making it able to predict incoming attacks and sense dangers. This Meto basically is done by sensing outer E waves. By doing so, one can sense the distortion of natural Meto in a said Government. That distortion helps an individual to know from where and how an enema is coming. That is the basic principles of meto”

Ken was spaced out. Hearing so much information hit his mind like a truck.

"Did you get it?" he asked.

“Oh, I get it…” Ken responded in a way that he totally understood everything when he actually didn’t.

“Anyway, please step up to the counter and we will see what your current E wave level is. By that, we will assign different roles to you. First step forward Ryu Tatagane.”

Ryu stepped forward and touched the small glowing ball that laid in front of him.

A holographic screen on top calculating the numbers.

“And your meto capacity is 2000 points.”

“Only 2000 pfft”

Sora let out a laugh. 2000 was the bare minimum of an average outlaw. But Ryu looked unfazed by that. As if he knew he would get that. Regardless, everyone stepped forward, one after another.

“Miku 2500 points”

“Sora 4700 points”

“Dan 4200 points”

“Akane 5000 points”

“Woah, she is a lot”, Ken thought to himself. And then Axel stepped up to the counter. His aura was already intimidating enough despite his quirky attitude. The numbers in screen shot up like a lottery prize.

“And your meto capacity is… 10,000 points”

That number felt so high for a rookie that most of them were shaken just to hear that.

“Damn you plot!”

Sora yelled while biting on his sleeve. It was now Ken’s turn. He walked towards the top. His hands were shaking, his heart beating loudly. This was the moment. It didn’t have to be much. As long as it was some amount, it would be nice. The digits flipped on screen. Ken eagerly waiting for a number to arrive. Anything would do.

“And your meto capacity is… 0”

“Eh?”