Chapter 018 - A Player Way of Training?

[Karga]: “Now that I know how I will be training you, let’s start by using your Free Points and putting your stats at the same level, an all stats Player shines the most when all of his stats are the same after all”

[Cyan]: “Senior what about the INT stat?”

[Karga]: “We don’t know how to increase that stat yet, so it is better to leave it alone for now, and if in the future we don’t a find a way to increase it then you may use your Free Points for that, understood?”

Cyan nodded his head as he proceeded to increase all of his stats to the same level with the exception of the INT stat, then he checked his status again in the app.

[Status]

[Information]

* Type: Player

* Name: Cyan

* Status: Normal

* Location: [Training Tower]

* Level: 0

* Profession: None

* Sub-Profession: None

[Stats]

* Strength (STR): 21     Tier 0

* Dexterity (DEX): 21     Tier 0

* Endurance (END): 21     Tier 0

* Stamina (STA): 21     Tier 0

* Intelligence (INT): 12     Tier 0

* Free Points: 11

Cyan ended using 10 points of his Free Points but after doing so he felt his body becoming lighter, more flexible and stronger, and above all, more balance, he could understand now how he out of balanced he truly was before and this was the reason why all stats Players shine the most when all of his stats are the same, in the other hand he could not help but to wonder how great will he be when his INT also increase to the same level of his other stats.

After Cyan finished with his status update he put away his phone, while Karga took the chance to explain some other matters to him.

[Karga]: “Now, kid, there are two ways of gaining stats, one is throughout your own sweat and it is known as Player grow, and the other way is by [Midas] rewards that could directly increase your stats or the ones that can be used up for later on, the so-called Free Points”

Of course Cyan was already aware of this and also what each of his stats actually does, so Karga didn’t have to waste time in explaining this either, now Karga could move to ask the next simple question.

[Karga]: “Now kid let me ask you something, two Players with the same stats but one got all of his stats increased by [Midas] and the other grow them by himself, now who you think is stronger”

Cyan thought, “Chances are they equally strong, however…”, the rule that hard gains come from hard work reverberated into his brain.

[Cyan]: “The Player that has grown up his stats by himself?”

Even so, he could not help but rephrase his answer as a question.

[Karga]: “That’s correct, even though they are very similar, the Player that has grown up with his stats will have the advantage in battle, of course, that doesn’t mean the other Player will be any weaker either, I hope that you bear that in mind as you learn to control your own stats”

Cyan never had thought how he could gain strength so easily or how his stamina could be improved by so much in a day, now that he thought about it, when he arrived at the Tower his STA was only 5, and now it was 21, three times more, that progress was indeed fast, but it was all thanks to [Midas], meaning he didn’t have grown with his stats and he could not use them properly yet.

[Karga]: “Alright let me show you something interesting”

Karga then took out a knife from his inventory and made a deep cut into his left hand, all the while showing it to Cyan, and while the flowing red blood was coming out from the wound Karga had asked him another simple question.

[Karga]: “Now kid, where do you think those “stats” increase come from?”

However Cyan could not think about his answer as he was worried about Karga stranger behavior.

[Cyan]: “Senior what are you doing! I don’t know the answer, please do cut yourself like that”

[Karga]: “Keep watching kid”

Cyan flinched to the sight of blood, and while he was thinking that Karga had gone crazy, something strange started to happen in Karga hand, as the cut that was very long started to close up by itself, and the blood in his hand started to evaporate into a red mist, while the blood that was stuck into his knife and in the floor also had started to become a red mist and floated back into his hand and then it disappeared, soon nor the wound or the blood was left and Karga hand was back to normal as if nothing had happened and the bloody scene was just part of a magic trick.

[Cyan]: “What the... is this?”

Cyan could not prevent an exclamation scape his mouth.

[Karga]: “This is not a magic trip kid, and even though it is like this, the pain will remain for a while, and also it still hurts no matter how many times you do it, so I don’t recommend doing that often”

Karga let a sigh as the pain remain the same no matter how many times he does it, and then he stores his knife away into his inventory, making Cyan feel more relaxed as the possibility of being stabbed by accident was reduced.

[Cyan]: “That….”

Cyan could not help to wonder if Karga was still human, a human could not heal like that, however, he believed that Karga must be still human as his blood was still red right?.

[Karga]: “Alright kid, next question won't take a guess what would happen if stab you with the knife? Should I show it to you if your guess is wrong?”

Cyan face went pale to the thought of being stabbed by that scary looking knife if his guessed wrong, even just the sight of blood would make his legs tremble, not to mention the feel of the pain that being stabbed would bring to his mind.

[Cyan]: “No please that won’t be necessary Senior I will also bleed like that”

[Karga]: “Right, and then?”

Even though Cyan didn’t want to say it, if he did not give out his answer, Karga would probably take out that knife again and stab him with it, no doubt about it.

[Cyan]: “…it will close up the same way”

[Karga]: “Bingo, and you know why?”

Cyan was stuck now, his brain working at full speed, the fear of being stab helped him to think faster, he could only search the answer in the things he knew, [Midas] was obviously a supercomputer, a computer that was miles ahead of any computer on earth, and one that could control robots around… many many robots… that could only mean one thing… a thought came up into Cyan brain, something that could only be found in science fiction books.

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[Cyan]: “…Nanobots?”

Karga smile, this was the advantage of training smart people, he didn’t have to waste time explaining complicated things, Karga would resort to stabbing people instead, it was far simpler that way, however, the thought of stabbing a kid didn’t set well on his mind.

[Karga]: “You are pretty smart don’t you kid? Did that Alice told you before? She also looks very smart”

Cyan shook his head

[Cyan]: “I just thought it was the only option that makes sense”

[Karga]: “Well you are not wrong, your body, Alice, Karla, Boss, and mine, everyone’s here, are full of tiny machines called nanobots, or well that’s what Karla told me, they handle all of us stats increases and also they heal us up, and they consume [Energy] items are their fuel amount other things, and they… improve our bodies making us grow stronger”

[Cyan]: “that… when that happened?”

Cyan was trying to ask when their bodies were filled up with nanobots.

[Karga]: “I don’t know, but probably at some point after the teleportation to the Tower”

Cyan tried to remember his first day in the tower, the first thing that happens was that Willy offered him a bottle of water… was at that moment? Cyan could only think it was back then. Not minding Cyan status, Karga continues with his explanation into something even more shocking.

[Karga]: “Heck, you could even be a clone of yourself after the teleportation for all we know, with this level of technology making human clones shouldn’t be a hard thing to do right?”

That possibility shocked Cyan mind even more than the nanobots, it is true that during the teleportation a white light flashed in front of his eyes and in the next moment he was inside the Tower, did someone copy out his memories and then put them inside a new body? Would that make him a fake? This was the kind of things that could make a person change from being normal to start feeling paranoia in a blink.

[Cyan]: “No wait, after the person [accept] it disappears from earth, right? So that means there is only one me right?”

Karga could only shrug off his shoulders, Karla was the one that handles that kind of questions, he could only repeat what he knew.

[Karga]: “It is true that people disappeared from earth but we don’t exactly how, were they teleported or turned into dust by a cosmic beam? Well, whatever it is the case there are crazy folks out there that would love to think themselves as nor being part of the human race anymore, but that’s just only an excuse to do terrible things to other people, I can’t deny the fact that we may not be humans anymore but that doesn’t give them the right to… sigh”

Karga clenched his hand into a fist but he then released it while letting out a sigh to release his accumulated anger, he had been working for the GP for a long time and he knows how humans that think of themselves as being more than simple humans behave in the real world, and now that they were actually more than just simple humans the end result was obvious to him, but for now he could only focus his mind into training the kid in from of him the right way.

[Karga]: “My point is, Cyan I want for you to think of yourself as still being human, be that you are clone, or Player, or whatever it may be, please keep your identity and remain human until the end, I hope you understand this single point more than anything else”

Cyan could understand Karga point as Players who would think themselves as something better than a normal human start appearing bad things will also start to happen, and those that believe themselves to be more than humans would undoubtedly lose their humanity in the process because of that, however, Cyan knew something that most people didn’t, the pain of losing your humanity by abandoning someone to its dead and the regret that came out later, all of this he learned from a mere dream that was not actually a dream.

Karga didn’t give Cyan any more time to think inside his head as he went back on topic of training, bringing Cyan back to his senses.

[Karga]: “Anyway kid, right after the transfer, we followed the procedure to test our senses of pain, sight, hearing, strength, agility, and speed, and even though it is not a sense per se, we also tested that our thoughts and memories remained the same, that’s how we found about the nanobots and other things too during our test”

Cyan could not help to wonder what other things Boss faction had found out, or how they had tested that their thoughts remained the same, however asking about all of this would have been a waste of time, so, for now, it was better to ask about things that would affect his training.

[Cyan]: “What other changes to our bodies did you found?”

[Karga]: “First, our hearing and sight both have improved, second, our strength have also increased but later on we found out that the nanobots were actually stimulating our muscles so we could use all of the muscles at the same time without tearing them apart, and that… cut limps can be reattached even after 10 minutes”

Cyan mind froze as he thought how far Boss faction had taken into experimenting on themselves to see what else had changed, unlike him that didn’t do any of that stuff, and just followed instructions, a foolish way of thinking.

[Karga]: “[Midas] warm us no to do that again as it consumes resources for nothing, of course, the one testing all of this was Boss and he only cut out his finger, but man he didn’t even flinch at that time”

Cyan could only picture the unmoving face of Boss while cutting his finger off and then reattaching it back again after 10 minutes, it must require nerves of steel for doing something like that.

[Karga]: “Alright, we had been wasting enough time already, let’s see, all of your stats are the same now, but that does mean you know how to punch, dodged or even how to take a hit, as for you stamina that only means we need to keep you going until you can’t go anymore, and not to mention your body definitely looks weak, so lets us being with something light hehe”

Cyan could not help but ask something before they start.

[Cyan]: “Should I be taking the [Energy Drink] now?”

Cyan has 10 of those, so using it from the start should be the right move right?

[Karga]: “Save it for later, you will need it hehe”

Karga brushed off Cyan questions as he keeps playing with his phone.

[Karga]: “First we need to add a little bit of this, oh we definitely need this…, hey kid how high is your tolerance against fire? Well, it does matter anyway…”

Karga was laughing while manipulating his phone and talking to himself about the things they needed, in the other hand Cyan could see that Karga was manipulating something in the [Map] of the area using the app, making him start to have a bad feeling about all of this.

[Karga]: “Cyan why don’t you go and start running around the track for… warming up, I will catch you up in a bit after I am done here”

Cyan could only feel something was up as Karga keep giggling while manipulating his phone with a smile, but Cyan started to run in the track anyways, after all, it was just a normal track, however he soon understood what Karga was doing in his phone as the track #30 started to transform, the once normal tack was soon filled with obstacles and traps, however wasn’t the difficulty of the track a little bit… too high?

[Cyan]: “Senior why the track on fire!”

Cyan could not help but scream as he dodged another ball of fire coming out his way.

Karga could only laugh to himself while catching up to Cyan on the track.

[Karga]: “The best way for you to train your DEX stat is for you to dodge something repeatedly, and the best way for you to train you END stat is by being surrounded by fire, then there is you STA stat as you will be running around the track until you can’t go on, and then there are some obstacles that you can only go through them using your STR stat, so don’t you think this is the best cost-efficient way of training?, even if go through a wall of fire you would still be training your stats hehe”

Cyan lost his focus as he was hearing Karga explanation making him fail to dodge the next ball of fire that hit in him in the chest, making him lost his balance and fall to the ground, but even then the balls of fire keep coming out where he was, being on the ground would not save him from getting hit at all, and only dodging by a paper-thin margin would save him from getting hit because those balls of fire look to have a will of their own as they move through air following Cyan around.

[Karga]: “Oh right before I forget the [Energy Drink] is food for the nanobots, so when you start feeling like you are actually dying to take it out and drink it but don’t worry as long [Midas] is here you won’t die during training no matter what”.

Karga helped Cyan to stand back up again and gave him a palm in the back, and with a smile force him to keep running around the track, this was his definition of a nightmare way of training, transforming the track into an actual hell.

Cyan could not see it because the wall of flames surrounding the track was blocking out his view, not to mention the suffocating heat and the laughing Karga hitting his brain like a hammer stopping him from thinking in any other matters, but Alice was not having a field day either, as her track had transformed into something were you could lose an arm or two if you get slightly distracted.

Both Cyan and Alice had started their insane training at the same time, one tailored for their stats, and with their bodies wellbeing on the line and under the tutelage of two individuals that may have become a little crazy after expending 2 weeks inside the [Training Room], they will now grow stronger and at a faster pace than ever before.