When Jade killed the tree he noticed that the undead had not stopped moving like they did when he killed the sphere. Most of them were trying to attack him like they normally do but some of them were running away.
‘This must be the work of the Hive minds. There are heroes everywhere today’ Jade thought. He returned to where he kept his suitcase and brought a plasma cannon out from it. He then proceeded to massacre the remaining undead starting with the Hive soldiers.
After killing the remaining undead he stored the blood and corpses of the Ranked ones (Rank 1 and above) in his suitcase and went to the hospital. The hospital was a mess; Blood stains everywhere, utensils and devices on the floor and broken equipment all around.
Jade ran through the whole place until he found what he was looking for; Portable electron microscopes, various reagents, empty blood bags, etc.
When he was done looting the hospital Jade told his IP to bring him the information of the Hive Noble Minds and the Hive Noble Womb. The IP showed him a screen:
> [Hive Family: The Hive family is an apocalyptic race. They create children from the corpses of dead creatures. The mode of corpse conversion varies depending on the species of the Hive creature.
>
> Hive Noble Minds: they can create children with the special fumes that they emit, when a creature dies in an area that is saturated with their fumes the creature the fumes will congeal on the creature and restart its biological functions converting the corpse to a child of the Hive Noble Mind.
>
> If the corpse’s organs are too damaged the Hive Noble Mind cannot convert them. Hive Noble Minds can selectively control any of its children. They utilize Psychic energy to control and monitor their family members also to attack intruders.
>
> Hive Noble Minds are specialized to lead the Hive.
>
> [En-code state:
>
> Strength: 0/100
>
> Agility: 0/100
>
> Stamina: 0/100,000,000
>
> Durability: 0/100,000,000
>
> Intelligence: 0/100,000,000
>
> Senses: 0/100,000,000
>
> Energy: 0/1,000,000
>
> Unattributed: 0/401,000,200
>
> Body State:
>
> Strength: Low (low)
>
> Agility: Low (low)
>
> Stamina: Intermediate (intermediate)
>
> Durability: Low (high)
>
> Intelligence: Intermediate (low)
>
> Senses: Low (high)
>
> Energy: Low (high)]
>
> Hive Noble Womb: They are specialized in creating children for the Hive. They are capable of creating children by eating the corpses of creatures as well as from the fumes they emit.
>
> The children they create from corpses they eat are their direct children. The Hive Noble Womb has a great control over its direct children. They can create a specific set of children at each Rank from Rank 4 below that there is no point in them creating children.
>
> The Hive Noble Womb can only create children that are one Rank lower than it.
>
> [En-code state:
>
> Strength: 0/100
>
> Agility: 0/100
>
> Stamina: 0/100,000,000
>
> Durability: 0/200,000,000
>
> Intelligence: 0/100,000
>
> Senses: 0/1,000,000
>
> Energy: 0/10,000,000
>
> Unattributed: 0/311,001,200]
‘The information for the Hive Noble Mind is as expected but the information for the womb is surprising. It can spawn Rank 4s if it gets to Rank 5. That’s quite dangerous. This Psychic energy bias must be what it used to attack me, it’s worth investigating’ Jade thought.
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He brought out a spherical device from his suitcase, it was as large as a basketball, it was a space manipulating device; the Distance folding sphere: The sphere makes the distance between the coordinate of the sphere and a chosen coordinate shorter at the coordinate of the sphere, the max amount of distance it can fold is 15km, it can fold it to 2cm.
While Jade inputted the coordinate of his laboratory, he thought ‘I wonder how much improvement I can get from enhancing a space device with energy’. When he was done entering the coordinates of his lab he brought out a box from his suitcase, it was about the size of a mini fridge, it had a screen on its top where Jade made some changes.
The box was the Coordinate shuffler: the Coordinate shuffler switches the location of two selected coordinates with each other; the two target coordinates are selected from the shuffler’s space map, which allows it to sense the space around it in a certain range. (Like the 4th Hokage’s teleportation or Sasuke’s rinnegan teleportation, this is my best explanation) max targets 8, it can only switch target coordinates that are within a 300 meter radius of itself.
This was the device he used to steal people before the apocalypse. He would use the Distance folding sphere to reduce the distance between the Coordinate shuffler and the target and teleport the target to a white room filled with sleeping gas with the Coordinate shuffler.
Jade programmed the shuffler to take him to the maximum distance it could take him, in the direction of the sea. He also set it to teleport him back after 10 seconds. Jade put his hand on the shuffler and drew the energy from his body into it and pressed the icon to activate the device.
A moment later, Jade found himself some meters above the Atlantic Ocean, he fell into the water and drowned, he looked around in the quiet waters and thought ‘The sea seems calm, maybe there are no sea monsters’ Jade’s thought was quickly proven wrong as his IP said ‘You have been noticed by a Rank 28 ***’
Jade immediately saw 17 eyes looking back at him in the distance… no it was his imagination but he didn’t know that. The creature looking at him didn’t have eyes his mind was just making up a reasonable image of the monstrosity it was sensing.
Even with his enhanced senses he hadn’t noticed the only thing in the vicinity watching him. The moment he saw the eyes he felt something grip him, it didn’t grip his body, it gripped his soul, and he felt the essence of his existence fall under the control of whatever was looking at him as his IP described the situation which didn’t help him out one bit ‘You have been gripped by a Rank 28 ***. You are instinctually afraid of the Rank 28 ***. Your body has stiffened’.
The feeling of having his soul gripped filled his mind with horror, his body went stiff and he began to swallow sea water as he reflexively tried to scream in fear under water.
A moment ago he hadn’t felt this presence but now it was all he knew, the presence was so vivid that he could sense the thoughts of the being looking at him ‘You have felt the presence of the Rank 28 ***. The Rank 28 *** has never met anything like you, it wants to play with you’.
From the knowledge he was involuntarily gleaning form the creature he knew it wanted to come over, it wanted to take him, toy with him and keep him as a pet forever. It wasn’t just a desire; the being had the capacity to do anything it wanted to him.
‘The Rank 28 *** is confident in its abilities’ , It had done this before and wanted to do it again; it wanted to play with his soul, torture him beyond his imaginations ‘The Rank 28 *** has sensed you back-story, it scoffs at your suffering’, it wanted to make him relive his most painful memories, ‘it promises it can make you suffer more that you have ever suffered, it wishes to make you suffer eternally’ alter those memories and make them even more painful than they already were.
‘The Rank 28 *** is eager to play with a new toy’ It would warp his personality and make him love suffering, then it would warp it again and make him unable to bear suffering, ’it wishes to keep you forever’ it would stretch him to this breaking point but it wouldn’t let him break, it would ensure he survived any torture it put him through so that it could do it again…
‘You have sensed the intent of the Rank 28 ***’Jade jerked around without any coordination, ‘Your body and soul fear the Rank 28 *** more than death’ his organs were failing one after the other, ’Your body has started killing itself’ his blood pressure and temperature were extremely high, his teeth were gritted tight, his breathing had ceased and his senses had stopped working.
The only thing he could sense was this being and its vice like grip on his soul as his soul struggled to free itself while his body tried to kill itself, preferring death over falling into this being’s hands. Jade was filled with hopelessness, pain and despair like never before, he wanted to die; he truly wanted to die. But he realized as the creature kept holding his soul; death couldn’t save him from this monster ’You have realized that you are nothing. You have realized that you have no hope’.
It felt like decades had passed but truly it was only 7.86 seconds after he sensed the being that he was teleported back to the hospital; his body along with his soul, which he could now sense. He hit the floor of the storage room with his face, and his wet body lay on the floor shivering in fear.
He shivered in place for 8 minutes as his body began regaining its functions back. He began to weep when he gained partial control of his body, this experience had scarred him. He had felt this feeling before when the robbers killed his family, but he hadn’t felt it to this extent.
At least then he also wanted revenge but this time he was wondering what the point in living was, when that monster could just come out at any moment and make all that he lived for pointless, rendering the point of his existence null and void.
As he gained clarity of mind the IP said ‘Congratulations! You have encountered a Rank 28 Infant Ocean Master and lived…’.
Jade was silent for a while, then he screamed “AHHHHHHHH!!!!” interrupting the IP that was about to say something “IT WAS JUST A BABY? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW HUH? SHOULDN’T I JUST DIE? THAT THING IS GOING TO GROW UP?! IT’S ALREADY POWERFUL BEYOND MY IMAGINATION AND IT’S GOING TO BECOME EVEN MORE SO?! IP TELL ME, WHAT THE FUCK SHOULD I DO NOW? THE WORLD HAS GONE TO HELL!!!” Jade screamed in rage, despair and confusion.
The state of the world hadn’t really bothered him before but now that he knew there were beings like the Infant Ocean Master that could do anything to him without him being able to resist he was very worried.
The reason Jade kept torturing and killing the corrupt people with power in Nigeria was to help those that might have suffered at their hands helplessly and because he needed to keep reaffirming himself that he was strong.
During his time as the Stealer of Men he had felt complete control over his emotional state. Every time he tortured a person he always felt peace in that he was in control of his own fate and could do the things he wanted and the world couldn’t stop him.
But facing the Infant Ocean Master all he would be able to do is run. He knew that eventually such a creature with a high intelligence would crack his space manipulation technology and be able to capture him. It was the embodiment of hopelessness for him.
Jade screamed again and again, asking his IP ‘WHAT SHOULD I DO?!’ After a while he calmed down, but he was still shivering in fright; he had regained a bit of his composure.
The IP was silent for a moment before saying ‘get stronger, just get stronger, get so strong that you forget what fear is, get so strong that you only feel pity for your enemies, get so strong that living becomes a bore, get so strong that death, pain, suffering and loss become an impossibility, become strong because only the strong can hope’