Chapter 07: Contemplation

Inside his room, Ray laid on his bed face down with his face buried in his pillow. The pillow was damp with his saliva when he bit it to suppress his scream. When he got back earlier and was finally able to truly relax, he felt a sharp pain assaulting his body. He was barely able to walk to his bed and curled his body on it. Its intensity was so great that any tiny movement he made would cause the pain to flare up. After two hours which felt like an eternity to him, the pain finally started receding, letting him move his body with only small jolts of stinging that sometimes appeared when he made sudden movements.

Now that his mind had cleared enough to think, he thought of what could have caused the pain. He thought of the ability he had just gained, Extreme Perception. From the nature of the skill, it allows him to perceive his surroundings to the extreme. The question now was, while he could perceive things clearly, it did not mean that his body would be able to immediately react to it.

“So it’s probably when I was moving that guy away from there. My body was somehow able to force itself in moving while that ability was in effect, which was something that should be impossible to achieve.” Ray crossed his hands and muttered. “The closest thing that’s happened before was on the day I found the choker. But at that time I weren’t any pain, just soreness from the running.”

He contemplated for a few hours but wasn’t able to think of an answer. “Besides, from what I remember, my mental energy at that time actually decreased, which meant that the reason I was able to support that much strain on my body with the help of mental energy?” feeling excited with his new discovery, he tried out his hypothesis immediately but a question popped up right after.

“How do I control mental energy?”

Using Extreme Perception had depleted quite the amount of mental energy he had, meaning that mental energy would be used up each time he activated his ability. Now that he found out that he wasn’t able to control mental energy, he knew that the activation of his abilities up until now was controlled by the choker.

“No. In the first place, what is mental energy?”

It was something that he should have questioned earlier but because of his excitement, he had not noticed it. Mental and energy. Two words that are commonly used but when put together, they became a term seen usually in fiction.

When talking about the human brain, studies showed that people only use part of their brain their whole life but when someone manages to tap into the dormant part in certain circumstances, usually during extreme adrenaline rushes, they were capable of performing miraculous feats. Yet for those people, they died in mere hours after they showcased their capabilities.

Although humans were able to do these incredible actions, the price needed for it was their lives. Researches were still being done as of today on why this happened and the latest discovery was that during the time when the superhuman abilities were produced, a certain chemical was secreted from the brain, enhancing the human body. Nevertheless, once the secretion was used up, the human body was no longer able to sustain the stress imposed upon their bodies and this inevitably leads to death.

“It seems like the choker acts as a type of support, or limiter perhaps? This way, the body is able to tap into the dormant area of the brain and thus allowing access to abilities that defy common sense.” Ray kept muttering as his legs started tapping, “The secretion from the brain might or might not be what mental energy is. So if I want to actively control it, I must find its source first.” Making up his mind, Ray lid down back on his bed and was about to enter the Training area when a beeping sound came from the small table at his bedside.

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Looking at the source, it was a small box with two holes at the top. At one side, there were three buttons labelled voice and holo and the voice button was blinking following the sound. Ray spun the box to look at the other side which displayed the time. It was almost six in the morning yet he did not realise it which shocked him a bit. Looking at the blinking button back, he let out a sighed and said, “Answer.”

“Is this Ray?” a gruff voice came from the box. The speaker was on the other two sides left of the box.  Though the tone was a bit different, ray knew that it was Shark calling him. They had exchanged the contact info despite Ray not having on his Contacts. He felt them to be uncomfortable and a source of annoyance. It seemed that for him to continue what he had in mind, he had to keep them with him from now on.

Ray put his middle and index finger into the holes and two thin membranes were seen sticking to them. He carefully put those on both his eyes and blinked awkwardly before feeling a bit better despite the uncomfortableness.  “It’s me. So have you told your boss yet?” The image of Shark leaning on a wall appeared in front of him after he made sure the Contacts were put on correctly. An imperfect projection could ruin one’s eyes after all. He clicked the holo button on the box and Shark’s voice stopped coming from the speaker and was now projected directly into his mind.

The inventor of this technology was a real genius whose findings had helped increase the technology standard of Tech Continent by a few decades. The Contacts could not only send visual images when using the Internet or when contacting someone else, it could also send minute vibrations to the brain using the eye as a medium that would decode those vibrations as sound waves, letting the user “hear” when using the Contacts. Of course, it was guaranteed that no injuries would be caused by the device. This was a phenomenal invention but Ray personally dislikes using it. ‘Since I’ll be dealing with the underworld, it’s best to keep things as discreet as possible. My family isn’t the problem, but if those lurking mice happen to get this sort of information, things would get troublesome.’ He bet that his parents had already received the report of his activities yesterday by his “babysitters”.

Shark’s face on the other side was scrunched up. ‘Something’s happened,’ Ray thought. If so, a few possibilities came up in his mind. First, his gang had lost the fight and he did not know how to explain it to him. Next is that they had won but lost too many people to function properly as a gang, And lastly, their boss was dead and a gang without its head was simply a lawless mob waiting to be devoured by others. ‘Was I too hasty in offering my aid to him?’ He decided to wait for Shark to tell him why he had called him before making any other decision.

Taking a deep breath, Shark told Ray of what happened to his gang. The fact that they had lost the fight and most of the members leaving to find a better shelter to hide under. It was obvious to them that Red Demon was just a dying dog on the brink of its life. The remaining members were the ones who were loyal to their boss and the other brass. Their boss had survived but their injury was critical, though they would still be hospitalised for two months. Right now, the remaining power of Red Demon was less than a hundred people. The only good news was that their warehouse was still safe and the turncoats weren’t able to take much with them.

Ray nodded in silence hearing Shark’s report. Considering its current state, Red Demon was practically starting anew as another low-ranked gang. Another good thing was that the current members were probably ones who would throw their lives for the gang. Ray doesn’t know any other people related to the underworld other than Shark but he knew that these people had faced many hardships. If they could be faithful to something which held almost no value, it must have meant that it meant something to them.

Shark concluded his report saying that he’s not expecting Ray to give them any help but Ray proved him otherwise. “Okay then. I’ll come visit your boss this evening. Give me the hospital name and room number. I’ll come around two or so. Be sure to tell him beforehand or he might get suspicious.”

Shark was stupefied by what Ray said. He had been honest and told him of his gang’s impending doom and yet he still insisted on giving them help. He felt grateful towards Ray since, at this moment, other people would probably want to seize their gang’s properties while Ray had handed out a helping hand. Though it was still debatable that Ray too was doing it for the quick profits, Shark thought that for someone who was willing to risk his life in order to save him, the chance of him stabbing them at an unexpected moment wasn’t very high. He had seen many types of people after all. If he couldn’t read them even a little bit, what had he been doing all his life?

Their call was disconnected and Ray took a look at the time again. He would have breakfast in around two hours and until the time to go to the hospital; he would try his best to gain control of mental energy. Even if he was met with failure he’d just have to try again and again, changing methods if he felt one was unsuitable.

Touching the choker on his neck a bit, he lied down on his bed and muttered, “Training.”