“Well, they were obviously an information gathering branch, though I don’t know if they split from the main authority or not, that’s unfortunately not included in what I could find,” wrapping up his deep scan of the network of this industrial warehouse turned Canopy branch den, Aven made sure to erase any mention of his name or his address before leaving everything behind and making a copy on his USB key.

“Let’s take them with us and go wait for the authorities,” using his energy telekinesis to pick up the five Canopy agents, their most likely identity, all things considered, he allowed Ron to open the way as they made their way towards the exit.

Opening his psy scan as wide as he could, he confirmed that all the “workers” had long since run away, but it didn’t worry him as he had all their data on hand. If they were really important or noteworthy criminals, they could be easily tracked from there.

“I would have liked it better if it was something like a production branch, I would really want to see for myself how they make their half-lethal awakening serum in such poor condition,” not expecting anyone to answer them, he blurted out his thoughts openly.

Ron knew to remain silent faced with his escortee’s strange behavior he had since become used to.

When the duo reached the open air again, the siren of police cars was already hearable and approaching at great speed, hence they only had to wait for a few more minutes before the first public forces arrived to take over the newly discovered Canopy branch den.

Peacefully handing over the 5 captive supers, Aven didn’t worry that they would be able to escape from the clutches of a prepared police force, even if they were all unawakened. This time it wouldn’t be non-lethal forces that would be used after all.

Leaving after unequipping all their gears and packing them back in their respective bags, their car reached Aven’s home after a dozen minutes of driving.

“I’m going to wait for my parents to come back and bid goodbye, after that… I don’t know, why not go to a zoo? I feel like going to one. Yeah, let's do that~” Telling Ron what he intended to do, he let him decide whether to accompany him this time or not.

“I’ll get some sleep then if you allow me,” his escort decided to remain in the car to get some sleep, he hadn’t eaten a tireless apple and acquired the tireless spirit, so he couldn’t go on for days as Aven could.

“Sleep well~” Closing the car door behind him, he familiarly moved through the process of entering his building, calling the elevator, pressing the 7th-floor button on the panel, arriving at his apartment’s door, unlocking it, and heading straight for his bedroom to turn his computer on.

“I’m only missing the sacred drink,” making a stop at the fridge, he served himself a big glass of peach iced tea, then returned to his bedroom where he sat on his cold soft chair.

Everything was as it should be, his chair’s faint creaks, the completely blank smell from a room permeated with his own scent, the automatic opening of his web browser…

Naturally opening Eland’s number one video site, he followed the entertainment instinct he had developed over his entire life and selected a few videos to watch, checking his mails on the side.

“Good habits die hard~” Finding himself relaxing in this familiar setting, all his worries about being a super with the potential to change the world, his expectations towards himself that kept pushing him, or his ambitions that always made him think of new innovative ways to revolutionize any field…

They all melted away.

He traveled back to a time when he didn’t have to really worry about anything, to a time when he was only a normal youth with no power.

In this setting, a few hours quickly passed, and even when his parents came back he ultimately decided to extend his stay here. He felt just too goddamn comfortable.

When the White was starting to set and he had to turn on the light to not be plunged into darkness, he decided that he may as well just remain here for the night and only depart tomorrow after an early sleep in the bed he had kept using for more than a decade.

It didn’t take him more than a few more thoughts to change his schedule and send a message to Ron saying he was a willful young man that couldn’t be restricted by a simple schedule.

When the time came for dinner, he decided to make good use of his cooking knowledge, even if they dated from when he was at EMATE, and exited his little haven to start cooking a majestic meal for his newly awakened parents.

“Enjoy, that’s the last meal I’ll prepare for you for a long time. Probably,” being cryptic on purpose, he opened dinnertime by serving himself a big juicy piece of chicken and a few large scoops of mashed potatoes.

“You weren’t lying when you said the paperwork was heavy as hell, I think my hands would have been ruined if I was still a normal human being,” not a family to remain or eat in silence, Aven had had to learn from someone, and this someone was his father. He was the first to instantly bring up a subject that everyone here somewhat wanted to talk about.

“And they kept staring too, what’s so extraordinary about a married couple awakening together? We aren’t naturally awakened, but so what? It’s so romantic too~” Saying her piece the moment the subject was brought up, his mother didn’t seek harmony, she was even on the opposite side and didn’t hesitate to be chaotic.

“The only complaint I had back then was that it was boring,” Aven followed suit and gave his heartfelt criticism about that time when he spent 2 hours completing papers again and again, “If everything hadn’t been so new, I’m sure I would have made a break in the middle.”

“You didn’t take a break?” Sen asked, surprised, before coming to a stupid realization, “Ah, that’s right. You were a student preparing for your exams back then, right? Of course 2 hours of writing were nothing for you.”

“What you’re saying is so logical that I think you should publish this thesis online to seek positive returns,” the recently graduated student dismissed his crazy theory without giving it any consideration.

“And preparing for my exams is a great word for what I was doing,” he avowed now that he didn’t feel concerned with that life he had left behind, “I pretty much only read over what I noted down during my courses as fast as I could to go back to entertaining myself.”

“At least you read over what you wrote, I pretty much skipped that until the last day,” his mother cut in, relating her own youth and life as a student.

“And I never went to school!” Driving in the last nail, his father unabashedly confirmed that their household wasn’t one fated with studies.

“Hehe~ I hope you don’t have a tech affinity then, did you test it by the way? You know what an affinity is, right? It was only explained to me at the crash course, so I won’t hold it against you if you’re ignorant about it,” extending a simple question into a long arrogant-sounding monologue, Aven lost himself in the details.

“We did go to the 1st floor to test our affinity,” amazingly, his mother answered positively, stunning her son who didn’t expect that answer at all.

“Try to guess~?” His father challenged him while using a teasing tone.

Observing his mom and dad carefully, Aven took half a minute to finally come to a conclusion based on concrete evidence, “I won’t.”

He didn’t and couldn’t know, that was his conclusion.

“Sigh…” Lamenting internally how similar his son was to himself, Sen gave away his affinity, “I have a pure affinity.”

“And I have a martial one,” Hana added.

“And mine is tech…” Wisely and slowly nodding his head, Aven tried to hold back the logical following words, but ultimately failed, “That’s so-”

“Nothing,” his mother sent him a mom-glare to cut him off.

“Exactly, that’s so nothing, nothing at all. Everything is nothing, hehe~” He caught himself and corrected the meaning of his observation-deduction smoothly.

Eventually, the Amias household continued to discuss over dinner for a few hours, never breaching any heavy subjects but still always finding a way to dig more opinions and ideas out of each other.

When his parents started showing signs of tiredness, Aven took the opportunity to end his participation and returned to his bedroom to continue chilling for a few more hours before forcing himself to go to sleep with a pulse of psy energy.

When he woke up at the dawn of the next day, he used a pulse of martial energy to wake himself up completely before hopping onto his computer in a way that felt so automatic that it was like he didn’t have control over his body for this part.

Fetching some breakfast in the form of supremely sugary cereal with yogurt while also claiming the 3 cultivation resources necessary to trigger the trinity effect, he spent the next 2 hours enjoying himself through normal entertainment before sending a message to Ron that it was time to depart.

Not bothering with packing anything, he just cleaned his own room and went to say goodbye to his dad and mom, “I’m going, see you in another few centuries.”

“Take care~” His mother who was already lounging on the sofa offhandedly sent him off.

“Good luck on your future projects,” his father tried to sound intelligent, it was unfortunate that he was completely off the mark.

“As if luck was a factor… And I don’t intend to start another project anytime soon…” Whispering the truth he believed in, Aven closed the door behind him with his energy telekinesis and then used the stairs to go down uncontrollably, defying normal physics without raising a brow.

Finding his escort’s car, a camouflaged armored car, he once again settled into the front passenger seat, “Let’s go to the zoo in Fairmond, I searched for it last night and it's firmly in the top 3 positions from any zoo enthusiasts.”

“Hu…” A grunt was all he got in an answer as Ron programmed the new destination into the GPS and launched the car into the morning traffic.

Soon enough, the car transformed as Aven infused it with energy efficient enough to rival grade 3 tech energy without the intervention of an energy specialization.

When they reached the highway, Ron pushed the gas pedal to the floor and took them much beyond the normal speed limit without his escortee having to remind him that the chances of their car going out of control were zero.

Thus, they sped through multiple cities’ exits with no regard for the speed limit until they arrived at Fairmond city only an hour and a half later and parked in the Fairmond Zoo’s parking lot.

There, the two joined and hid in the crowd of people who similarly wanted to visit this place that had such high ratings and good critics about it.

“Isn’t that so freaking cool?! Can you feel the summer vibe? Look at this beautiful scenery! And it's so early!” More excited than usual, and for good reasons, Aven was only missing a friend who was as good as himself at chattering endlessly to feel like this day was a perfect one.

“Yes, sir,” unfortunately, who accompanied him was an inflexible escort who was only slightly brightened by even the marvelous mood and atmosphere they found themselves bathing in.

“Haha~ Let’s go and spend some money! I need at least that before continuing to revolutionize the world!” Unaffected by his escort’s weird mood, the young man fully dissociated himself from his ambition and headed toward the zoo with only one idea in mind.

He wanted to have fun.

…

“He’s really found his vocation, hu?” Sen mused as he admired the familiar cityscape of Serenis from inside what had been his home for more than two decades now, his mind buzzing with ideas on what to do with his life now that not he but also his wife had awakened and stepped inside the world of the supers.

“It was weird anyway that he never found anything he was passionate about until now with his personality… His passion was bound to explode one day~” Talking from experience, he objectively judged his son’s recent behavior.

From a young age, long before his own very socially extrovert personality traits should have been transmitted to his toddler son, the nursery social dynamic where they had sent Aven had already displayed crystal-clear hints of Aven having some sort of… Innate talent for social interactions?

The nursery workers there had been the first impacted, easily seeing that a certain toddler had too much energy for his age and that he spent it all on interacting with other toddlers even when they weren’t really receptive.

“Sigh… I should stop reminiscing like that. 50 years old for a super is simply their youth, right?” Saying one thing but doing the exact opposite, Sen continued admiring the lively unimpacted by the tense global situation scenery of Serenis while reminiscing on his one and only son’s life.

From the apartment he had bought with Hana long ago with their more than sufficient financial resources, the view wasn’t that extraordinary, but the human mind could always find something interesting and new if you tried.

“You can never totally control the way your children develop…” He summarized his feelings and interpretation of what his life as a father had taught him.

Aven was really the embodiment of this sentence for him.

You could try to interest your children in the same hobbies as you had, but the success rate of such an operation, even if perfectly executed, fell under divine will.

And Aven only took after him in the department of loving to know what was going on everywhere in the world and how to restore it in an entertaining way… That was it.

His love for photography, field tour, nature observation, his hobbies of searching for all the juicy gossip, all the small inconsequential corruption… All that had been violently thrashed by his shameless son who never hesitated in speaking his mind out.

As for his personal development outside of his purview, he had simply become autonomous from a very early age, been intelligent without plus, tried hobbies here and there without ever dedicating himself to them, always ending up returning to the fantastic internet born out of the golden stability age of the human era.

One day he requested a bike and some money each month, and from there he never asked for help or requested anything from his parents again.

“It really was a weird time, the birth of the internet… It took off so quickly and so many people took to it so suddenly…” He continued reminiscing without even noticing that Hana had come back from wherever she had been gone off to.

Understanding the changes brought about by the creation of the internet had been hard for not only him but also all his entourage at that time, and then all sorts of innovations hit them literally every month from there.

Smartphones, nearly free electricity, ever more powerful computers, ever more detailed cameras…

And amidst all those changes was a 10-years old Aven who had acquired his full autonomy and was completely surfing on the pioneer netizen culture wave.

“Is that what it feels like to have a successful son?” Thinking about how the entire reason behind his awakening resided in his son, Sen felt some chills travel through his entire body.

“What are you being so emotional about hubby~” A voice he couldn’t confuse with any other and two arms softly arrived to hug him from behind in the middle of his emotional contemplation on his son who finally found a passion he could call his own.

“I’ve always found it weird, you know? He should have been more lively and interested in different things considering his age, right?” Leaning on his peak smooth talk he and his son had refined until they achieved a godly level, Sen seamlessly integrated Hana into his contemplation.

“Hehe~ I was more worried about him being asexual or aromantic personally~” Echoing his past worry with her own, Hana tightened her back hug as she softly whispered to one of his ears.

“Well, him not being attracted to others in a sexual or romantic manner is really the least of my worry!” Having learned that being honest to the point of being ridiculous from his son was a good way to change the subject, he used it at full power to redirect the conversation where he wanted it to go.

“He’s never had an obsession or a passion in his life, and a passion is the one thing anyone should have to feel fulfilled in life. So, even if it’s a bit unhealthy from my own old-man point of view, Aven having become passionate and obsessed with pursuing the path of being a super, energy cultivation, progress, and whatever… That fills me with happiness as his amazing father~”

“Well, from my own point of view as an old woman, I think you took after him more than he took after you in terms of shamelessness!” Planting a kiss on his cheek in a mischievous way as she released her hold of him, Hana left these words behind as she headed back to her second husband in life, the home cinema area.

Not turning his head away from the familiar view of Serenis, Sen reflected on what Hana just said, “Maybe… She’s a bit too right?”

...

A day quickly went by for the untiring grade 2 super 21 years old young man.

With no inhibition, he went through the totality of the Fairmond Zoo and didn’t hesitate to use a bit of energy telekinesis to play with all the animals and show a bit of a funny show for the lucky spectators present when he passed there.

Eating the food there anytime he found something appetizing, he didn’t care about the price or the quantity, he just did as he wanted and continued exposing his capabilities as a super all day long, which inevitably ended up attracting the attention of some staff and young teenagers.

He however dealt with the 2 in the same manner, he joked with them and showed even more of his capabilities before continuing on his tour.

When the closing time of the zoo came, he returned to the car with his escort and felt fulfilled enough and decided that he had had enough fun for the next few months.

“Let’s go back to Blackdale,” he said before taking out a laptop and starting to write at a phantasmal speed on it.

“Yes, sir,” same as ever, Ron nodded and replied respectfully before turning the ignition on and starting to drive towards Blackdale.

A few minutes later their car reached the highway and Aven infused his energy inside, allowing it to accelerate until they reached a speed multiple times beyond the speed limit.

A few hours later, they reached Blackdale, and subsequently the military base here: Blackdale Industrial Military Center.

Another few dozen minutes later, the two reached the super-restricted area and the building that had been privatized for Aven containing 28 integrated production lines all designed to produce ammunition.

“Well, I think it’s time for me to clean up a bit of the catalog,” exposing his intention as he looked at the massive halls, he approached a first integrated line and softly caressed the cold alloy covering it, “If I return to an all-in volunteering schedule… I should be able to boost my energy cultivation speed so much further.”

Bringing his status up, he looked at the state of his current grade 2 energy cultivation.

Aven Amias

Faction: Nation of Eland Military

Energy Grade: 2

Energy Cultivation: 582/1 000

Energy Affinity: Tech

Physical Talents: Basic Energy Furnace Cells

Energy Talents: Basic Tech Energy Affinity, Basic Energy Sense, Basic Natural Energy Growth, Basic Self Revolving Energy

Spiritual Talents: Inquisitive Spirit, Advanced Knowledge Integration, Basic Tireless Spirit, Basic Armored Spirit

Universal Talents: Unawakened Fairy Ancestry, Creative Instinct

“Grade 3… An energy specialization, a new facet of my innate ability, losing access to all energy systems apart from the tech and pure ones, a major increase in energy intensity,” summing up all the gains associated with reaching grade 3, Aven knew what he had to do now that he had used his knowledge to give out 2 supremely optimized projects.

“I’m sure starting a quest to vanquish the Canopy is a worthy endeavor, but why would I do that when it would only slow down my progress and I’ll be able to effortlessly do that once I reach a higher stage? What if I awaken my fairy ancestry? Only this thought is enough to make my blood pump!” Sharing his thoughts openly aloud, he once again had nothing to hide.

“I have so many talents to get, a surge is imminent, my focus should be clear,” convincing himself that he was making the right choice despite all the other options he had, he first went to the design room to empty his head that was full of project ideas he had written on his laptop.

“Let’s gather all these projects under… The Anti-Canopy Project? Not original, but it works,” he created a new digital folder where he moved the large messy documents he had written over the last few hours in, and for the rest, he just threw in the other already created folders like society, military, scientific, energy…

Once he was done, he stopped by his quarters to change into his white military uniform before stepping into the production area, determined to at least compensate for his expenses over the previous day where he didn’t have access to ways of earning FCP.

“Or maybe…?” Suddenly connecting a few dots, he claimed his background volunteering quest.

Faction Contribution Quest: 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.

Reward: 84 000 FCP

“Hahaha! 84 000! That’s the worth of finding and demolishing a branch of the Canopy nearly by myself?” Finding the compensation so ridiculous, he had a laughing fit, “Hahaha! Hoho… Ah~ Now I feel ready to dedicate my whole short-term life to producing more ammunition than the military would ever ask for.”

“Let’s hope it changes when I reach grade 3~” Re-accepting the same volunteering quest, he really hoped that his grade 3 innate ability update would solve this sub-optimized quest system, “As for now, let me do some number crunching to clean this messy shop’s catalog.”

Smiling in acceptance that there really was no better way to pursue his mind-blowing ambitions, he put his hand on the first of 28 integrated production lines and started infusing it without saying anything else.

And around 30 hours later, he accepted his reward for his first not-complete day in this new period of all-in FCP grinding.

Faction Contribution Quest: 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.

Reward: 2 894 400 FCP

Opening his status to check how his energy cultivation had advanced, he slightly nodded.

Aven Amias

Faction: Nation of Eland Military

Energy Grade: 2

Energy Cultivation: 590/1 000

Energy Affinity: Tech

Physical Talents: Basic Energy Furnace Cells

Energy Talents: Basic Tech Energy Affinity, Basic Energy Sense, Basic Natural Energy Growth, Basic Self Revolving Energy

Spiritual Talents: Inquisitive Spirit, Advanced Knowledge Integration, Basic Tireless Spirit, Basic Armored Spirit

Universal Talents: Unawakened Fairy Ancestry, Creative Instinct

There was no way he had made the wrong decision by embarking on this path.