Chapter 03: An Idle Day
At night, the moon’s splendour compelled people to gaze at it, reminiscing about the good times in life. Ray was one of the people that did this but rather than life, he was thinking about the choker he got. Just who made the choker? What’s the Galactic Showdown!? Why was he chosen to participate in it? Too many questions were raised but nobody could answer them for him.
Ray laid motionlessly on the rooftop with excited eyes staring at the moon, “I wonder if there’s anything on it?” The word galactic meant that this showdown was held on a scale larger than what he could currently imagine. “If other life forms exist out there, then… I’ll be sure to discover them!” He raised his hands upwards and clenched it towards the moon.
“What are you doing up there!?”
“Crap.” Hearing a sudden voice shouting that’s probably aimed at him, Ray immediately gripped the roof’s edge and jumped down to his balcony. It sounded like one of the housekeepers so could only hope that the guy won’t report it to his parents.
Inside, without anything else to do, he decided to just sleep. He jumped unto his bed and covered his body with a thick blanket. Recently the nights had started becoming colder which meant their continent was about to enter the colder area.
A few hundred years ago, Earth had its first ever apocalypse. Volcanoes erupted, earthquakes appeared in quick successions without warning everywhere. Tsunamis swallowed the lands leaving only four continents. Even then, it was as if the Earth wasn’t willing to accept them as a part of itself so these continents were wedged from the Earth, leaving them floating the now water-covered Earth. Mysteriously, rather than sinking or crumbling, these four bodies of land stayed afloat and didn’t even collide with one another. To top it off, they would rotate anti-clockwise as id there’s an axis at the centre.
Now that humanity had started developing again, they’ve learned their lessons that it was because of their own doings that the Earth became so. Looking at the silver lining, the effects of pollutions such as thinning of ozone layer and the green house effect caused by the ancient earthlings mysteriously disappeared, as if they never existed in the first place. With this, people of the new generation renamed Earth to Neo-Earth, signifying their desire to start anew in hope that they would not end up like their ancestors.
The next morning, Ray woke up and was told that his parents were already off working during breakfast. He simply nodded his head in understanding. Since he had time, he was thinking of a different method to sneak into the mansion again at a later date. His old method was discovered by his parents yesterday, or could it be they already knew from when he did it as a child but simply ignored it because of his age? Now that he thought about it again, the fact that the guards did nothing to prevent his entrance was weird in itself unless they’re incompetent slacking bastards leeching off his family.
Around noon, Ray headed out towards the city. The driver wanted to drive him there but he refused with the reason that he simply want to relax during the walk. Passing through the main gate, he suddenly felt that he was being watched by a few people. These gazes didn’t seem to mean any harm as far as he could perceive with his ability. Still, he guessed that his parents set up a few bodyguards to secretly protect him because of yesterday’s matter. Though he’d prefer none of that, he can’t do anything about it now.
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While walking he wasn’t just absentmindedly going along the road. With his eyes closed, he took each step carefully yet naturally so as not to incur any suspicions from his “babysitters”. He could feel whether there’s something blocking the way or when he was about to deviate from his path. When cars drove past him, he could measure the distance between them even before the cars were in his view. It truly was an amazing ability.
Enhanced Perception was amazing in itself but its true value would only materialize when used in tandem with Enhanced Reaction. If a human only has Enhanced Perception, he might know what to expect but whether he would be able to react, especially in unexpected circumstances, would be another story. When one has these two skills honed to their finest, unless someone with strength unfathomably stronger than oneself, it’s not an exaggeration to say that on would be invincible.
This simple walk was turned into a training session by Ray. Arriving at the city, his goal was imply to memorize everything he sees. Buildings, people, signboards, everything. This was to test whether his ability Eidetic Memory was truly as it is described. He walked into alleys, entered stores and even visited an orphanage since he had never actually seen one before.
He knocked on the door and called out, “Excuse me, is anyone here?” though he could clearly hear the sound of people talking from inside the small house, he still asked to be polite. He might come from a rich family but he never once thought that people with less wealth were inferior. In fact, he even felt that some average people were worth respected rather than people with authority.
“Yes? Is there anything I could help you with?” opening the door, a woman in her mid twenties stuck her head out. Seeing a young man she doesn’t recognize visiting the orphanage perplexed her a bit. Nevertheless, she went out to properly greet him. She had a head of red hair tied into a ponytail. Her similarly red eyes were blinking in askance at Ray who stood straight in front of her. With her smooth skin, she was definitely someone who’d attract a lot of attention.
In response to her question, Ray replied, “I’m just here to look around at how things work in an orphanage, a little bit curious about them,” to which surprisingly the woman reacted with unreasonable anger. “We don’t want your kind here. Get lost!” she slammed the door, making a loud banging sound.
Ray stood there stupefied. He wondered whether he did anything wrong in their interaction but with its briefness, what could he even probably do? As he was wondering, the door opened again but instead of the person titled Red Devil earlier, it was a woman in her fifties. Her hair had started greying and the wrinkles on her face could clearly be seen.
With a slightly guilty face, she apologized to Ray, “I’m sorry about Anna earlier. She can be a bit impulsive sometimes. Many people had come here to make her their girlfriend so that’s why when seeing young people like you here; she’d assume that you’re one of them.” The woman said politely to Ray but her tone deepened a bit at her last sentence.
Ray guessed what this woman was thinking but didn’t bother to explain. He again told his reason in coming here and asked whether he could take a look inside. The woman agreed since it’s not much trouble anyway and that they rarely had guests outside people coming to adopt. She led him in touring the building and showed him the facilities inside and their purposes. Ray also saw 12 children aged ranging from 3 to 16 years old. For those who reached 18, they’d have to go out and look for work. They can lie inside the orphanage but they’d have to help support the other kids unconditionally. That’s why many chose to live outside. Of course, they’d visit from time to time and help with what they can.
At the end of the visit, Ray saw the Red Devil glaring at him with a scowl on her face. He simply smiled at her and left the orphanage. He left a 1000$ cheque in the old woman’s palm which he had prepared earlier when he was leaving which surprised the woman a bit but then thanked him afterward. 1000$ wasn’t considered much when there were a dozen kids to take care of but it’s still helpful to them since they mostly relied on charity and donations.
“Administration even at such a small place is still troublesome. As expected, I’m not going to walk that path.” Ray had asked the old woman about the management of the orphanage and just listening to it made him feel like it’d be troublesome. If he were to dabble in politics in the future, even though the benefits were amazing, it’s not something that he wanted to do. “Father is already in the VR business and I’m not planning to continue after him. Should I start my own business then?”
Ray rarely ever thought about his future but now that he had a lot of free time, it can’t be helped that his thinking went towards that direction. “As for the aliens, I could only confirm their existence when the showdown starts and even then, whether I have the ability to see them afterwards is another story.” With a heavy heart, he let out a sigh and went back home.