I looked up at the time. It was 8 pm. Late, I thought to myself as I slowly retreated my hands, the longer wooden katana touching the ground. I couldn't believe that I had been fighting against the training bot for this long. It was only when my arms started hurting that I realized that I'd fought for so long. I was so engrossed in it that I didn't see most of my notifications.

Body - 100XP

Body - 100XP

Body - 100XP

Bod...

Body level up

Body - 4

I didn't understand why Body suddenly went up. Usually, when I train or fight with blades or guns, I get Mind XP, not Body. But why is it that it gave me Body? I reflected on myself. I seemed to be mistaken somewhere and it suddenly hit me. I was thinking of it too much like a game. I thought that everything had strict rules but in reality, it was not. The fight with the training bot physically taxed me so much that I gained a Body point. I realized something at that point. So a single action is not associated with a single stat. Does that mean I can use my Ambidextrous with other weapons and stuff? I was eager to test it out. If it worked, it would open a brand new world for me. I would have to think about the overall significance the perks could have when I pick them.

I sighed and wiped the sweat with a towel I brought. After putting away the blades, I went downstairs. Lil' Betty was waiting for me there.

"That was so awesome! Since when could you use two blades at once? I don't see any new Chrome on you. So what's the secret?" She asked as she circled me, inspecting me.

I didn't know what to say so I made up an excuse, "I was born ambidextrous."

"Really? I didn't know that," she asked me with suspicion.

I nodded, "Of course, why else would I be able to use two swords at once without any training in dual wielding?"

Her eyes widened, "No way! You've never dual wielded before and this is the first time?"

"Yes. Why? Am I that good?" I asked with doubt.

She almost jumped, "What do you mean am I that good? You were amazing! Especially so if that's your first time. I've never met anyone as talented as you before."

I felt guilty. "Anyway, have you had dinner yet?"

She nodded, "Yep."

"Bummer. I guess I'll eat with you some other day I guess. I'm pretty hungry right now."

"Right. Vale. Eat something healthy."

"Vale? What does that mean?"

"It's Latin for bye."

"I see. Vale then."

----------------------------------------

When I got back home, I wanted to talk to Nova about what happened. I needed someone I could trust and I decided to trust Nova. I knocked on her room. I heard a slight buzz from the lock, something I would have never noticed before, and her voice, "Come in. The door's unlocked."

I took a deep breath and went in. She was wearing a black jacket which had a blue diamond-shaped glowing crystal on it. She flicked her arm, knives appearing in her hand. This time, I saw it clearly though, unlike before. I did not just see it, I heard it too. It seems that she had a small, concealed mechanism embedded in her cybernetic wrist. With a slight flex of her wrist, the device activated, and the knives sprang into her hand from hidden compartments. I was impressed.

Nova threw the knives at the wall, where the target was. She asked me, "What's the matter?"

I sighed, "Well, something weird happened in my last mission."

"Weird? How?" she asked, her curiosity piqued.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Well, in my last mission, I had to hunt down and assassinate someone named Aston. They didn't give me his last name but still, I managed to complete the mission. But just before he died, he injected me with some serum."

"Aston?" She suddenly froze as if she recognized his name.

I frowned, "Do you know him?"

She shook her head, "No. Sorry, go on."

"Anyway, after that, I had a pretty severe migraine. So I went to sleep or rather, I passed out. When I got back up, things started to get weird. My senses felt sharper, almost too sharp. I could hear the faintest sounds, see the tiniest details, and feel the tiniest of vibrations. And that freaked me out. I could literally hear people talking outside the window right now."

She stared at me, "So you think it was the serum?"

I shrugged, "Probably. I mean, what else could it be?"

She nodded, "That's true." Then she stared at me as she spoke very seriously, "You have to keep this a secret. This is, most likely, a product from a big corpo like Quantum Innovation or Niles. If they find out, they will probably try to kill you or capture you."

I nodded, "I figured that. So I hadn't told anyone about this but it is really weird and uncomfortable, you know? I don't even know how I will sleep tonight with all the noises going through my ear."

"Are there any other side effects?"

I thought for a second, "Yes. I feel that my mind is noticeably working faster than usual and I can process and think really fast. And I also get hungry a lot more."

She started walking around the room. I felt a sense of anxiety from her. I also felt that she was deeply complementing something. "You should be careful, Raven. It's dangerous and we don't know what this 'serum' does to you."

"I know but there's nothing I can do about it." I sighed and complained, "I don't want this. Why does this happen to me?"

"Hmm. You should probably rest, Raven."

I nodded and got up, "Thank you, Nova. This really takes the weight off of my chest."

After that, I went to sleep. Or tried to. It didn't succeed. I ended up spending my entire night working on my Wonderland in bed. By then, I'd already established a library for my memories. Each book was a day in my life. I've lived for about 27 years so I had around 9500 books, give or take. So it required a very large room. The way it worked was by associating a certain book in a certain bookshelf in a certain row with the memory. For example, Book 1 in Shelf 1 of Row 21 was the memory of my 21st birthday. It didn't have a whole lot of significance to it.

As I couldn't sleep, I was working on another portion of Wonderland. I decided to expand my mental library further, creating sections for skills, knowledge, and experiences. Each section was organized meticulously, with shelves dedicated to various topics and abilities I had acquired over the years. This included all of my knowledge and skills I got from the 'System' as I leveled up skills and unlocked perks. I felt different as I continued working on it. I couldn't put a finger on it. And then, I noticed. Everything was noticeably easier. Normally, when I recorded things in my mental library before, it was quite hard. I had to focus a lot and I would get some kind of headache if I did it for too long without a break. But I didn't get tired nor did I have to focus hard. I tried to relax for a bit. It worked!

I first learned about Mind Palaces and mental spaces when I was searching through the internet about something I found interesting. It was a subject called Tulpa. It was quite fascinating to learn about. It was a Tibetan Buddhist concept that managed to interest me. Tulpa was a thoughtform or if you want to be more general about it, it was a 'willed imaginary friend' that was independent and able to think for themselves. And people who... 'force' a tulpa called themselves tulpamancers. And tulpas were friends that would be there for you for the rest of your life. It was a lifelong commitment so in the end, I didn't end up doing it. But there were people who did it.

Anyway, in tulpamancy, they call this place a wonderland. It is a place where your tulpa usually resides in your mind. These wonderlands are mental spaces that the tulpamancers usually create to better communicate with their tulpas. I didn't think much of it when I read about wonderlands. But then, I watched and read some Sherlock Holmes and I got the inspiration to combine the two mental spaces of wonderlands and mind palaces. That's how mine was born.

But I always thought I was doing something wrong because mine required a lot more effort and focus to get into that mental space. When I read about Mind Palaces or Wonderlands, people reported that it didn't require much effort to get into their mental space. But what I also noticed was that mine was a lot more vivid than how it should be. I also figured that it was the reason mine required a lot more focus as my subconscious was making it a lot harder by trying to make it more vivid and lucid.

I confirmed that it was the case when I could relax. Because I've already noticed that the serum allowed me to learn things a lot faster and more efficiently, which meant that it enhanced my brain and mind. It probably also included my focus amongst many other things that were being... uhh, evolved. I continued working on it. It gave me a lot of peace and quiet since I had something that was distracting me. I continued until morning.

----------------------------------------

Primis Station, Orbit of Mercury

Blaring red alarms sounded as Edward Winters stared at the holographic video in front of him. There were plenty of spaceships headed toward Earth. They were about to enter the solar system in about a few months and would arrive on Earth in just a year. He was just glad that those damn bastards couldn't use their warp travel all the time. If they could, he probably wouldn't even have a chance to prepare.

"Things are about to get hectic. In just a few months, civilians will find numerous new dots of lights near Neptune if they look through a telescope. That time, things will get really nasty really fast. Make sure to ready the ground troops to prepare for chaos."

"You got it." A holographic sliver man wearing a toga disappeared from his side.

"Is there any progress in copying their warp tech?"

"No, they're using exotic materials that are not available to us."

"Got it." Edward frowns, "And where's godman Project Psyker? Haven't they recovered it yet?!"

"No, they haven't."

He sighed, "If we can't find it in time, we will have to make new ones. Although it won't be as good, we'll have to rely on quantity instead of quality then." He then remembered something, "Also, ask Alex if he have anything new for us. Tell him it's the same deal as usual if he has something."

"Alright. Stay well, Edward."

He shook his head, "I will. For now, call Thoth. He and I will have to optimize the targeting system a bit more."

"Roger, Edward."

Edward whispered, "Please, don't fail me. I don't want to lose everything again."