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Chapter 12 – Advancing to 2nd Phase

R/R Research Lab

A lot of noises come from a closed room on the second floor. Inside the room there are videos playing on the big screen. The screen is big enough to cover the room from left to right.

“Did you see that?” Said the young master who is wearing a black suit with a crimson colored tie.

“He actually copied a passive skill.” Said an old man who wears glasses and white lab coat.

“How is the brain reading?”

“Amazing, it shows he went into a brain burst state for 30 seconds.”

“30 seconds! Imagine what he can do with a full data bank.”

“In my opinion, we really should pick him. By far, he can adapt to an environment faster than anyone. See that scene where he found the green trail.”

The video on the left screen goes into fast forward mode and stops when the mentioned scene comes up. It is the scene where Ren uncovered the existence of Wind Tiger.

“Look at this.”

The screen zoomed on a certain part of Ren’s body.

“Let me play it on slow motion.”

The video starts playing with 0.2 play speed.

“Look at that. His body is actually twitching inside Eden. I assure you that this reaction proves how fast his body reacts to an anomaly. This kind of information feeds is not something a normal person can do.”

“I say let’s just pick him up and prepare him for the second phase.”

“But, can you really ignore this Ethan guy? Look at him, his reaction time is inhuman. If we send him, I’m sure his survival rate is higher than Ren.”

“No, what are you talking about? Faster reaction time doesn’t mean he can adapt to any situation. In this case, Ren is the one with higher survival rate if we send him.”

“No way, look at Ethan. Have you ever seen him got ambushed? No. I’m sure he is a veteran or some sort, probably a trained assassin.”

“Didn’t you already have their data? Why guess his occupation?”

“He’s plain. When we went to install the capsule, he looks very ordinary. We even scanned his body, although his body was fit and buffed, it didn’t come close to an expert.”

“How do you explain that reaction time?”

“I suppose we have to measure it directly.”

“What about Ren?”

“From the simulation, if we send Ren with our data banks, his survival rate is 11%.”

“11%! That was way too low. It’s the same as suicide.”

“We can’t help it. The simulation system can’t really simulate his adaptation rate or brain calculation ability. Even if we can read that his brain has high activity, we don’t know what is being calculated inside.”

“What about Ethan?”

“If we send Ethan, the survival rate is 18%.”

“With his reaction time, isn’t it kind of low?”

“His ability to make decision in a matter of seconds and his nature is hard to calculate. He’s probably the most random personality we ever met.”

“Random personality?”

“His decisions inside Eden didn’t fit into any personality so far. We can safely assume he did it in a spur of moment.”

“Really? The way I see it, this guy is actually very crafty.”

“What do you mean, young master?”

“If we assume that he is a hardcore gamer, his duel with Goliath should be avoided. Why take the long road to a duel ring if he can just kill him in that single moment? Why break his armor before killing him? Trained assassin? More like a childish prank.”

“But his ability to handle sword is by no mean inferior to an expert. How do you explain that?”

“Well, that is what gets me confused. No matter how you train, a peculiar habit will be formed the moment you pick up martial arts. This guy doesn’t fit any categories at all. Swordsman, assassin, grappler, street fighting, karate, or anything you can find. He’s basically a mixed style.”

“Forget about fighting arts. If he need self defense, we can teach it. It doesn’t matter whether the candidate has any experience on it or not. We need someone who is capable of applying knowledge into practical situation.”

“How about this one?” The scientist operates his terminal and a statistic bar along with picture of an avatar appears on the right screen.

It shows a young girl with a dark grey hair. Her ear looks like a wolf ear. Her body is what you call a model body; moderate bust, slim waist, curvy hip.

“Beatrix. She showed some promises during the trial gate, but after that she shows no signs of entering brain burst state.”

“Her reaction time is above average and her ability to judge people is considered top class. If you want someone to scout people, she is your guy, I meant your girl.”

“She has a good pair of eyes so to speak. But, that is not enough.”

“Omit the rest candidates; we shall proceed to second phase with Ren and Ethan. You have no complaint, right?”

“Yes sir.”

The scientist goes out of the room and starts screaming.

Beneath the room, a lot of people wearing white lab coat can be seen sitting in an orderly manner. They are waiting for the meeting to conclude.

“The young master decided to use candidate 1 and 2 for the next phase. Prepare for it immediately. You are dismissed!”

On the corner of the room, a shock look can be seen on the woman’s face. She is one of the team leaders whose avatar named Peridot.

‘ Why! Why didn’t they pick her?”

Sorrow, sadness, anger, multiple emotions passed by her face making it looks like a distorted face. She grabs her hair and looks down.

Most of the scientists already start preparing their files and equipments, but she hasn’t start doing anything yet. One of her colleagues approaches her.

“Hey Stella. What are you doing sitting there?”

Her face immediately goes back to a smiling face.

“I’m sorry, I dozed off a little.”

She gives out a wry smile and starts moving towards her desk. If only you can look inside a person’s heart, this woman’s heart will surely be colored black. Just by looking at her, you can sense her anger.

Back at Ren

The trail of green light stops in front of me. I’m already tired from fighting that Wind Tiger and now I have to face another. This trial is ridiculous.

I still focus my attention on the green light, but then I heard somebody screaming at my ear.

“BOO!!”

‘Ah!’

I was shocked. I was paying attention, but she appeared out of nowhere besides me. My legs seem to lose their strength and I am falling.

*Splaatt

Yeah, I fall face down. But this time, I hang on to her so we fall down together.

“Aha ha ha ha ha. I never thought you will react this way.” Said the young lady who fell down together with me.

“You sneaky lady. How come you appeared out of nowhere when the trail of green light stopped in front of me?”

*Snort

“And what does the green light represent?”

‘Huh?’

“The green light shows up when you use your stealth skill, doesn’t it?”

“And?”

“I followed the trail to find you.”

“Result?”

“That’s what I want to know! How did you appear from out of nowhere when the green light stays in front of me?”

“Hmm. Too bad your knowledge is still shallow.”

She muttered that sentence in a low voice and starts casting something.

‘Uh Oh!’

I remember that time when that stupid Guild Master NPC sent me here. He was also doing something like this without warning.

“Stop!”

I stretch out my hand trying to grab her, but she already done casting and pressed her palm against the earth. A shockwave emitted from her body and my vision goes black.

“…”

“…”

I don’t know how long the darkness stays. Even though I tried to blink repeatedly, there’s no light to be seen.

‘Is this an event?’

I have a feeling I can move my body, but I can’t see my hand or my leg. Noticing I don’t have any light with me, I try to cast >.

A trail of pure white light starts forming a spiral in the middle of my body, a little bit above my stomach.

‘What is this?’

It looks like the universe with multiple stars forming a galaxy.

From the spiral, a red light starts to flow towards the direction of my hand. Although the light is visible, I can’t see any silhouette of my body. The red light keeps flowing towards my palm. As soon as it reaches the end of my palm, it starts stacking and fills my palm like a river flowing into a lake.

At this point, a sparks can be seen on the edge of the lake. The red light that stacks on my palm starts pouring out in a form of a ball.

*Whooshh

A ball launched from my hand in the form of a dense red light. A splitting pain assaults me, but I keep watching the ball flies.

Suddenly everything went dark and somehow I am back at Adel Town. I blink a few times to adjust my vision. I realize I was leaning back on the tree which was used to send me through the portal.

‘I’m back.’

The splitting pain is still lingering a bit in my head. When I try to move my body, a window appeared in front of me.

Trial Completed

Reward(s): Violet Crystal Piece

A crystallization of imagination. This crystal piece is a part of seven colored tablet of authority.

‘I should inform Tatsu.’

I check my friend list, but nobody is online.

‘Weird, Tatsu and Lilith usually online 24/7. How come both of them offline at the same time.’

I wonder how much time had passed. I check my menu, the clock shows 7.55 PM.

‘What! 10 minutes?’

There’s no way I spent 10 minutes in that trial. The amount of time I used when I practice the leg sweeping probably close to 40 minutes.

Why did Tatsu pick this time to go offline? Damn him, I wish I know his phone number.

Since there’s no use pondering about it without any information, I decided to go back to town. Strangely the sky is darker than usual and I don’t meet any NPC along the way to the inn.

*Ruumble

A lightning appears in the sky. Multiple flashes of thunderbolt can be seen.

‘Oooh! What a great sound effect!’

It feels so close yet it seems so far. The sound it made was big enough to make my body tremble by reflex, but the thunderbolt visual seems to be happening on a far place.

Dear Players,

Eden Online will go into maintenance in 4 hours. Your characters will be forced to log out 30 minutes before the server shutdown. Updates will be implemented when the server goes back online. Estimated time will be posted on our official website. Thank you for your attention.

Player Celcius has unlocked the seal of Vulcan. Be ready to face the challenge of undead minions who will try to take over the city.

More information about Vulcan event will be posted on our official website.

‘A player triggered an event? Now, that’s cool! So that’s why I hadn’t met any NPC. I better log out too.’

When I push the log out button, my vision go into some kind of static for a few seconds before I can finally log out.

Waking up from the dream capsule, I take look around. The sky is dark too; it seems I log out just in time to eat dinner.

“Nee-san, have you finished cooking?” I said that as I was going down the stairs.

“…”

No response.

‘Where is she?’

I take a look at the kitchen.

*Gasp

My sister is lying on the floor. Her face is covered by her hair and there are traces of red liquid on her shirt. Her right hand is holding a knife, her left hand is placed on top of her chest.

“Nee-san!”

End of Chapter 12

1 more chapter to the end of Volume 2

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