I was at the auditorium looking at everyone and thinking about the plans me and Ariel had set.

We had decided that I would go ahead and meet with everyone alone first. Ariel said a familiar face would be better received so she would stay away for now, but I think the real reason was because she still had a few misgivings about coming into contact with a large crowd.

I prepared to get into the ‘cheerful, lovable and social Ben’ character which I usually used to deal with people. It’s the ‘Ben’ that is one of the most popular people in the university, so it should be able to uplift these people somewhat.

It was night but the place was lit with a few people using light manipulation to conjure up balls of light. I went closer to James and the group of people I was closest to and took a deep breathe.

Apart from James, there were eight others sitting in a circle. I went to the center and deactivated hiding presence before saying, “Hey guys! Why all the long faces?”

I looked around with a grin on my face to all the different reactions. James just had a stupid smile, while the others simply looked shocked or alarmed. Gradually those expressions started to change.

Emily was the first one to give an excited shriek and leapt up to hug me tightly. I figured she would be the most excited, she was the closest female friend I had. Michael, Adam, Paul, Selena and Jennifer soon followed in the group hug. Jake and Christina stayed behind and looked wary at first, but James assured them that it really was me and soon I was surrounded by everyone in a tight group hug.

This response was understandable. Even if the whole apocalypse scenario and mental stress is discarded, my arrival would still have this sort of response. I was one of the most popular people for a reason, and I was especially popular among these nine.

I knew I was different from a very young age, but I always kept my real self hidden from everyone around me, including my family and best friends. I always thought of myself as a bit of a coward for this, which is why I admired the people who were always themselves no matter what. The geeks, the nerds, the gays, the weirdly eccentric, the oddballs etc. I admired their courage of being themselves in a society which shunned anything ‘abnormal’.

When I got to high school I actively went against anyone and everyone who bullied these outcasts. I had a large number of friends already from middle school who had my back, and with their help I largely got rid of bullying which got me popularity for all the right reasons. It was the one good thing I have done in my life and the one thing that I am actually proud of.

Apart from James, Adam and Selena, everyone else in this group had been bullied at some point and had been ‘saved’ by me, which is probably the reason for their reaction.

I was known throughout high school and in the university as ‘the cheerful and lovable guy who was amazingly open-minded and stood up against any wrong-doings’. My popularity was especially high not just because of the anti-bullying, but because I actually took the time to get to know almost everyone I came across, including the outcasts.

The ‘Ben’ character was friends with everyone and an enemy of no one. This was largely due to the principles which I had set for myself, one of which was ‘always be friendly when in public and make as many friends as possible.’ This principle was there as one of the steps to keep me from becoming an actual sociopath, as I had read that most sociopaths turned to become murderers or criminals because they kept to themselves and were always alone. Thus I kept to myself when I was at home but socialized as much as possible when I was at school/university.

I was still a child when I made these principles and I have thought about how childish they are on more than one occasion. But I still followed them diligently as they seemed to work somehow.

Obviously, I threw most of these principles out of the window ever since this ‘apocalypse’ happened, but to the people here at the university I was still that friendly ‘Ben’ from before.

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I lost track of time as I kept getting greeted by everyone around. They all wanted to know where I had been and what I had done so I had to tell my story up to this point while omitting many things.

Jake had the ‘ability-identification’ ability so I had to reveal my ability to the group of nine. My act of being disgusted with my own ability and the dialogue of ‘I had to do whatever it took to survive’ made the revelation go much better than I had expected it to go. James was shocked and had a look of betrayal when I revealed my real ability but I convinced him that I was simply too ashamed to tell anyone my ‘disgusting, horrible, revolting ability.’ It took some time but he understood soon enough.

I asked each of them not to tell anyone else about my ability as I was too ‘disgusted and ashamed by it’ and they all agreed, and even comforted me by saying things like ‘it wasn’t your choice to get this ability after all’! Even if they do inform others about my ability, I have no problems with it. I can hold my own against anyone here after all. Besides, the Council already knows my ability so I would have had to tell these guys sooner or later if I am to ‘rescue’ them from here.

They all wanted to keep chatting away but I stopped them and started speaking.

“Look, we are all stuck here so we have all the time in the world to chat away. I need to know a few things, and the most important is where do you guys get food from?”

I asked about food first because it went along with my character which always cared for others instead of myself. I also wanted to see how they had been living so far so I could keep my own stash of food safe!

Everyone looked a bit uncomfortable before James spoke, “Have you seen those black panthers around?” He must be talking about the felines, so I nodded. “We have been eating them. They are surprisingly tasty, but they are hard to catch so it hasn’t been easy ever since Perry…”

Oh, well that should be easy then. I breathed a sigh of relief as my food stash would be safe now. I looked around the malnourished faces and decided to get some food right away. I could provide them with some food right now and when they are a bit well fed I could take a few of them to hunt with me.

“Sounds good. Wait a minute, I’ll be right back.” I said before teleporting back into the hallway.

It took less than a minute for me to kill twenty or so felines by twisting their necks through telekinesis. I grabbed as many as I could before teleporting back and dumping them, then going back to grab more. This continued on until I had collected about fifty felines in the auditorium as the faces turned from shock to amazement to delight each time I came back with more.

The crowd of people all had one expression: hunger. So I got out of the way and brushed away all the thank yous. They all set about to divide the task of cooking amongst themselves while I quietly teleported away. I telepathically told James that I was going to roam about for a bit in search of more food so they don’t get alarmed from my disappearance.

I took a deep breathe of relief after getting away from all of them. I had forgotten how taxing it was to stay ‘in character’ for so long. I wouldn’t have bothered with all of this if I didn’t think I would need their help in the future. *Sigh*

I still needed to perform the experiment with the mimic on the people who had lost their abilities. It's been a long day though, I guess I could simply do it tomorrow. I need some time to relax a bit.

I hadn’t really explored much of the university yet. So far I had only stayed in the Eastern Wing, so I decided to head over to the other buildings to see if there were any monsters with good abilities anywhere on campus.

I started wandering around the buildings aimlessly just to pass the time. I had maybe around an hour or so before the fire manipulators managed to cook enough food for everyone and I had to get back to pass around mattresses and clothes.

The East Wing had nothing new to offer. The same monsters everywhere. But, as soon as I got to the South Wing the monsters changed.

This Wing had large, black bears all over the place which had the super strength and super speed abilities. Both abilities I already had maxed out so they were useless for me, but I couldn’t help but think about how the others had crossed this Wing as the ‘entity’ was located at the West Wing. They must have crossed the North Wing when they went with Perry to fight the entity because I don’t think they could have made it across this bear-infested Wing alive.

I crossed over to the North Wing to see if I was right and as it turns out my hypothesis was correct. This Wing had Giant rats which only had enhanced strength as their ability, along with large bats which had enhanced speed. Thankfully, these weren’t the bats that chased me around on the first night the monsters arrived.

I was curious to go and see what kind of creatures the West Wing would have apart from the ‘entity’ when suddenly I froze. At the end of the hallway I was currently at I could see Perry walking towards me!

No monster seemed to attack him at all even though he wasn’t using any sort of invisibility, which means that the ‘entity’ really must have made him into his minion somehow.

I was still using hiding-presence so he hadn’t noticed me yet. I used ability-identification on him but it only revealed that he had the ability of ‘Steal’.

I decided to try and use the sleeping-powder against him while I still had the surprise factor. I could use telekinesis to snap his neck or smash his head against the wall but I was hesitant to do that as he could have some sort of healing ability that could render it ineffective. I know for a fact that rapid healing and rapid regeneration would make almost all kinds of physical attacks useless.

I used air manipulation to get the powder close to Perry and waited. A few seconds passed before he stopped his walk and looked bewildered. He then looked at the hallway… No! He looked straight at me!

“Ah Ben. Long time no see. How have you been dear friend? Oh, and just so you know, this sleeping powder won’t work on me.” He had a mocking smile as he stared straight into my eyes!

How could he see me even though I had hiding presence on?! Some kind of vision ability like my True-Sight? Shit!

“I’ve been good, and how about you?” I answered while my mind went into overdrive.

“Oh I have been well. I see you have an interesting ability. I might have to get serious.”

He has ability-identification too?!

He then suddenly vanished! I immediately reacted by teleporting a bit of distance away while I activated True-Sight and saw that he was now standing right where I had been a second ago!

I remembered that he only needed to touch me and I would start to lose my ability! I tried telekinesis but no matter what I couldn't control him despite trying as hard as I could!

“Interesting. Your ability is almost the same as mine is, a bit more on the disturbing side though. Why don’t you join me and my lord? He has provided me with so much more power than I had previously. He could show you true power too! What do you say?” He held out his hand with a gentle smile which didn’t reach his eyes.

So this ‘entity’ had provided him with some powers? Damn! He might be more troublesome than I thought. Is that why telekinesis isn’t working? Ahh… I have to get out of here!

I teleported back to the East Wing with my heart thumping loudly. I frantically looked all round me using all vision abilities I had while constantly using ability-identification in a wide range.

Five minutes passed and my heart and mind had calmed down somewhat.

How did he nullify my telekinesis? What powers had he gained from his ‘lord’? Why did he seem so much stronger than me? Was it because of his lord or was it simply because I had never faced such an opponent?

No that I think about it, I actually never did face such an opponent. I usually overpower my opponents through my strength or use telekinesis on them. Rarely do I use any of my other abilities. Perry is an opponent whom I can’t physically touch and I can’t seem to control him with telekinesis. On top of that I am sure he would have elemental manipulations too which makes them useless as well. Furthermore he must surely have healing abilities!

The biggest advantage he has though is that he only has to touch me for a few minutes and he wins!

Just what have I gotten myself into this time...?

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