Rival’s uncaring attitude regarding how he affected his surroundings completely equaled Aven, and the two seemed to be in a bubble as they just continued their exchange without caring about how people were sending weird looks their way.

“And what’s this choice?” Aven held his breath at the suspense.

Both Commander and Rival looked at the other for a moment before it was surprisingly Commander that exposed the choice, “Will you work for others? Or will you work for yourself?”

This sentence was immediately complemented by Rival, “Will you take an energy specialization that helps you in pushing the limits of production quality? Or will you take an energy specialization that allows you to become a monstrously more powerful tech super?”

And Commander again added another layer after this one, “Will you create and use knowledge and long accumulation as your lever? Or will you start on a path of carnage where you can make a handgun fire all-piercing bullets or make your armor impenetrable?”

“Did you just say knowledge?” Turning his head instantly at the white-haired and physically aged Commander, Aven’s eyes started shining unnaturally.

However, he immediately denied and dashed his hope, “It doesn’t matter, I’m only embellishing reality for you. Knowledge and understanding are things any energy systems want to have, but the amount of it necessary to equal taking the fighter development path is absurd.”

“But not impossible, right? Hahaha! So why is this production path anywhere viable when you’re trashing it so much?” Happy with getting to know this piece of intel, he moved on as more answers begot more questions, that was how it had always been for him when he was interested.

“Because it is, was, and will always be, the true path that tech supers must take. All other energy specializations like atomic bond strengthening, kinetic amplification, or electricity intensification are travesties that need us to even work correctly,” his loud announcement this time gathered much more glance than before, and anyone having listened to only a bit would know who those people staring intensely were.

Plunging into silence for a bit as he ate the remains of his meal, Aven considered the matter that he had just learned about, and then at the end of it, a critical question popped into his head which he didn’t hesitate to ask, “How far can this production path be pushed?”

Looking at each other, Rival and Commander exchanged looks full of both rivalry and friendship, and in the end, they spoke at the same time in a mirror laid back answer, “How far do you think energy can take you?”

…

Following his encounter and meal with 2 of the 5 grade 3 production tech supers of Blackdale IMC, Aven decided to interrupt his tour of the super-restricted area in favor of lengthening his planning session.

It didn't change from the routine he had established as he had kept doing the same for the previous 5 days, first, he would visit, then, once he was finished he would jot down everything he had thought about that could help him make an educated guess for his future.

“The only difference this time… Is this,” muttering to himself, he brought up his quests.

Faction Contribution Quests: Nation of Eland Military

Volunteering: Contribute to the stability of your faction without asking for anything in return. The more time spent and the harder the tasks, the greater the contribution.

Securing: Investigate and resolve problems occurring inside your faction. The more problems resolved and the more difficult their resolutions, the greater the contribution.

Performing: Go above and beyond for the missions and tasks you are given. The better the missions and tasks results, the greater the contribution.

Innovating: Give your faction new ways to achieve its goals. The more impacting and practical the innovations, the greater the contribution.

“It’s like it’s been purely and simply reset. All my landmarks are gone and I need to actualize everything I learned until now… And with more challenges too, like, does volunteering mean I must forsake cultivation resources?” Exposing his thought process aloud, Aven was trying to retro-apply all his theoretical plans to his new circumstances.

And the result was more uncertainty than confidence in what he had planned.

“If I could take Commander or Rival as mentors… But before that, I need to finish my tour around the super-restricted area… I also need to check out the combat training and its worth with my own eyes… And after that…” Taking his notepad, he started revising and amending his plan with all the new information he got.

Once he was finished with doing that and his inspiration was wholly spent, he moved on to the much easier step of methodically removing the obsolete plans.

And once that step was over, he slowly started seeping into a night mood where he stopped thinking about anything complicated, focusing more on properly resting for the next day.

Of course, sometimes he got some inspiration and checked his thousands-items long faction contribution shop list or wrote some insight on his notepad, but he never dwelled much longer on them.

When the exhaustion of having lived yet another day wandering around an industrial center ultimately hit him, it didn’t take him much determination to turn off the TV and disconnect his brain as he headed to bed for the night.

…

As the super-restricted area was only as large as the number of supers inhabiting it, when Aven started touring it while ignoring the area he now knew to be controlled mostly by Commander and Rival, he was somewhat shocked by the inactivity.

So many machines were left by themselves, waiting for a tech super to have a use for them.

‘Another thing I’ll have to ask Commander or Rival… I don’t believe the military is so lacking in supers. I just don’t believe it.’

Refusing to believe what he was seeing, Aven was adamant in believing that the problem most certainly didn’t come from a lack of tech supers.

After finishing his tour of this building where he had only seen 4 people working in their own corner, with 3 of them having been too focused to even talk with him, he looked at the map and realized he had already finished the weapons industry area.

“So small…” He stated the truth he had also seen in the last few areas, “Maybe I should visit the research areas too from now on?”

Following his whim, he got his map of Blackdale IMC out and expanded his tour from every building involved in production to every building involved in production or research.

“Even that only adds a few buildings per industry area… And it’s still as chaotic,” folding the map again with a bitter smile, he found a research building belonging to the weapons industry area and started heading towards it.

Half an hour later, he exited the same building with exactly the same conclusion as for the production buildings.

‘The only difference is that the machines are smaller to allow for experimentation and that there are slightly more people.’

Riding on his bike, he headed for the next area, which was arguably the messiest one according to the map as it was an area that combined the basic materials industry with the advanced supplies industry and a bit of the electronics industry.

“If a grade 3 super isn’t involved in this mess, I’m killing myself!” Pushing his pedal in anticipation, he cut through the late morning wind of this summer-like late spring day.

With his curiosity driving him, he swiftly arrived where he wanted and was shocked to find that more than a few people were walking around in his field of vision.

Keeping this shock to himself, he entered the messiest building gathering research, administration, basic materials industry, and advanced supplies industries according to the map with the guidebook in hand, “Let’s go!”

…

“And…” Taking a step out of the last unexplored building of the super-restricted vehicles industry located just next to the industrial machinery industry, Aven took his map that was already becoming dirty and sent it flying with all his strength after infusing a bit of energy inside, “I’m finished! Finished I say!”

After 2 days of non-stop visiting the super-restricted area and all its super-adapted industries from morning to night, he had finally finished his tour of Blackdale IMC as he had wanted to do it.

“I’m now a veteran of this military center! And no one can contradict me! There’s freaking no one around after all! Hahaha!” Enjoying the end of this tour that had allowed him to get a true observation of the state of each industry, Aven climbed on top of his bike and initiated his return trip.

When he passed close to a building of the industrial machinery industry, he sent a side glance as this area was at the core of what he wanted to do tomorrow.

‘They showed themselves to be reliable enough in my book, so whether they want it or not, they’ll get to know a bit of my potential.’

Unveiling a bit of the veil surrounding his innate ability in exchange for possible massive benefits. That was the most recent summarized version of his rapid development plan.

When he arrived back at the officers’ living quarters where he lived, his mind was filled with how to best breach this sensitive subject that was his innate ability and the potential it brought to allow his plan to progress smoothly.

He perfectly knew that what he was going to do was somewhat relatively stupid, but even if the worst conclusion was for him to become a puppet, even the benefits he would get in exchange for that situation were worth it.

‘They don’t look like bad guys, we’re in the military, they’re not that high on the super ladder, and I’ll be so forthright with what I want that they’ll be able to tell I’m being honest.’

Settling down on the couch of his living room after unloading his backpack, his mind kept coming back to the plan that would eventually usher in the beginning of his professional life as an official tech super military engineer.

“Hehehe~ Am I maybe becoming a bit too egocentric?” Asking himself the question aloud, he looked at the ceiling of the room that had become completely dark save from the slight illumination from his TV, “At the same time… What else can I become if not egocentric?”

Throwing a question that others not in his position would never be able to understand, he closed his eyes and didn’t even bother cutting off the documentary about the Vow Church.

And before he knew it, as thoughts of everything, anything, and nothing flew by, his body and mind naturally fell asleep.

…

Then he woke up muddle-headed in the middle of gigantic cubical industrial machines, with a gigantic shadow overlooking him with a glint in its hazy, shadowy, and indistinct eyes, “So you really have such a mind-blowing innate ability, hehehe~ What naiveness to believe I would help you.”

Standing before this gigantic warped shadow, Aven, or at least the conscious part of him that had just awoken, looked curiously at the situation.

“Let me have a part too,” a white shadow appeared after he didn’t do anything for a while, as if trying to force his hand, “I know a psy super that will help us brainwash him, and no one will ever know it!”

‘A lucid dream?’

“Look at him, so weak but still so confident in himself. Did he believe we were really friends and that everything would go his way just because he had potential?” Trying to torment him with words, the black shadow exhibited the same impression as Rival.

“Let’s show him the reality then,” as soon as the white shadow using Commander’s voice spoke, the scene shifted like he was inside a warped mirror, and Aven suddenly felt himself being restrained while blindfolded.

At that moment, despite knowing this was a dream, a slight panic slowly appeared and spread through his mind, affecting his perception of the world.

‘It’s a dream, right?’

Then he felt something both cold and hot being injected into him from his arm, as if someone had just punctured him.

The sensation of pain appeared soon after, mixing with the hot and cold flow that was trying to make him more muddle-headed than he already was.

‘It’s not a dream?’

The sensations he was feeling were so life-like that Aven was seriously trying to doubt himself, and he began to struggle, attempting to see if he could move or do anything.

“Trying to struggle young man?” Rival’s voice reached him as he started struggling, “Don’t worry, the brainwashing operation will not take long, and you’ll be out in less than a week, hehehe!”

When he heard strange echoing steps stop before him, his panic had increased so much that despite not completely believing it wasn’t a dream due to the general weirdness of everything, his vision started swaying, as if someone was really doing something to him.

After a moment of this happening, however, Aven began to calm down as he took deep breaths after deep breaths.

‘Dreams are made to reflect what one’s subconscious thinks or what my fears of the previous days were…’

Rationalizing his situation, he stopped struggling and focused on the more fascinating aspect of what was happening.

Nothing, or no one, was talking anymore, and when he carefully started appreciating the situation he found himself in, his vision that was already dark became darker and darker, until…

A ray of light cut his whole field of vision in two as he felt himself start floating.

It wasn’t anyone or anything coming to his rescue, no, it was just the White shining on him, blinding him as he tried to open his eyes.

“Oh thank God…” His vocal cords that had stopped functioning finally worked again, but his eyes were still blinded by the light, so he moved his head slightly before opening them.

“That was horrible,” he described his experience with the traditional emotionless morning voice and face as he took in the sight of his ceiling, “Worst experience since becoming a super, 0 out of 5, not to do ever again, stupid brain with stupid senseless fears.”

Getting up from his couch, his mind still filled with all the weird torturing signals from his dream, he drank some water to quench his parched throat before eating some unhealthy sugary snacks to explosively wake up his palate and associated sense of smell.

Once that was done, he smelled himself and evaluated that he didn’t need to shower, so he started preparing himself by refilling the water inside a few empty water bottles while packing up some snacks that anyone would like, even grumpy and exhausted centenarian monsters.

“See you alive and not brainwashed!” Bidding goodbye to his apartment as if it was a person, he escaped from the officers’ living quarters as quickly as he could, leaving behind all his nonsensical fears.

‘You want me to keep my potential a secret when I’ve already exposed myself so much? What’s wrong with you, brain?’

Releasing his logic to himself, he suppressed his over-imaginative mind that was trying as much as it could to make him pick the same path he had used at EMATE, the path of endless seclusion with only himself to rely on.

Climbing on his bike, he shifted to the last gear as soon as he could as he rushed towards the super-restricted area.

Arriving at the security gate, the security agents had become used to seeing him so they took his badge and didn’t bother to check his full backpack before letting him go.

“Thanks again!” Not letting his somewhat foul mood ruin the day of others, he thanked them as he left in the direction of the industrial machinery industry area.

From what he had seen, this area was the biggest relative to others as well as the most different compared to its equivalent in the non-super-restricted area.

Lots of unique machines existed there, and they nearly all took the form of massive metallic cubes which gathered all the processes of an entire production line in the most compacted form possible.

The link with the development path explained by Commander and Rival was so obvious in hindsight that he should have known much earlier than he did why this entire area was as warped as it was.

Arriving at the building where he had first met Commander, he followed the now familiar noise of industrial activity after entering and arrived at a new unexplored area of this building he hadn’t had the chance to explore before.

There, he saw both Rival and Commander using very similar massive cubes next to each other. They were so focused on their task that they didn’t notice him approaching a messy table where they had dropped off their own gears.

Leaning on the table, Aven tried to make sense of all the equations, mechanical diagrams, and…

“Energy flow?” Reading aloud a very interestingly named diagram, where before he could understand what the numbers and drawing were about, this one was completely foreign to him. He didn’t have one iota of this type of knowledge in him no matter how hard he dug.

Using comparisons to try and make sense of this energy flow diagram, he hardly succeeded and eventually gave up as it really didn’t have a use to him other than satisfying his curiosity.

“What are you doing?” A deep voice came from behind him, prompting him to turn his head to see Rival with visible black circles under his eyes heading towards him, or most probably the table.

“I’m confronting my lack of knowledge and experience,” playing with words, Aven used a sentence that was meant to explain both what he was doing at this table and why he was here, to begin with.

“What are you doing here?” He asked again after adding a word.

“Seeking advice on how to transform my endless potential into something useful,” Aven rephrased.

“Go seek somewhere else, can’t you see we’re occupied?” He harshly responded as he took a cup of something out of the messy table, it was still hot, miraculously.

“But my endless potential is too big for other people to understand it, I need ambitious people like you or Commander to properly guide me,” not letting his senior step over him and destroy his plan like that just because he was grumpy, the young man started taking out snacks, “Here’s my offering!”

Looking at him with sharp eyes very unlike his very age-marked face, Rival refused once again, this time more reasonably, “We can’t help you, and you can’t help us, so there’s no need to discuss any further.”

“You can help me, and I’ll eventually become able to help you,” Aven stated the greatest premise of his plan with steel in his voice, “And it probably won’t even take half a year if you can help me maximize my innate ability.”

Putting down his mug of probably coffee or something similar, Rival picked a chair and sat heavily, emitting all his naturally intimidating pressure as he was doing so before looking at the cheeky brown-haired, blue-eyed, young man with tanned skin with appraising eyes, “I’m all ears then. Tell me your crap and go.”