On the field of the Hero academy’s track, two sounds of heavy thumping could be heard. The source of which were two figures affected by an unearthly amount of gravitational force acting upon them from the inside.
Robin and Denis Johns, aka Mr atlas, were jogging but both of them were covered in sweat. After adding the field effect, they adjusted their gravity to be even heavier and like that they both jogged at the limit of their capacity.
Denis was having a hard time, over a year and a half stuck as a mass of energy took a toll on his physical capabilities and even with all the food he ate he hadn’t healed to his original strength. Even now his body was starved but not nearly as much as when he came out. As they finish a fifth lap, they both crash down covered in sweat.
“This looked so much easier from inside the stone.” Denis said.
“Never was.” Robin replied and both of them huffed as steam literally came off their bodies.
“You’ve slowed down your training pace.” Denis said.
“I was desperate to figure out if I kept this power or not. Now I don't need to rush anymore. Actually I'm planning to take a moment to relax after school.” He said.
“Where?” Denis asked.
“I think I will spend some time going around a few treatment centers.” Robin said.
“How is that relaxing?” Denis said.
Robin laughed, “For me it is.”
Denis laughed at the boy and got up before heading over to the training dummy to train their punching but even at hardcore, for Robin, he was moving so much faster that he would sometimes move by instinct against the dummy and dodge. Other times he would try to run several meters and end up a few dozen.
“Wah~! Seems I need to majorly improve my level of control.” Robin said after one of these where he tripped and fell flat on his face.
With a deep sigh he asked the system the simplest method to improve his mental capacity to follow his speed?
Improve intelligence, the capacity you use your brain at one time. Even with 320 wisdom, your brain, powered by accelerated perception, changes the calculation to 1:50 from wisdom to intelligence resulting in a peak limit of 16,000 max limit. 260 tripled doesn’t get even close to that.
Robin looked and brought up his status and did the quick mental math and found that it was true. Because of his explosive leveling he currently had 900 stats that he didn’t use because he still might need some kind of traits.
“What is the minimum that I can start to follow and control my explosive strength?” he asked.
Hidden calculation revealed, 5 agi : 1 int
Robin quickly did the math and the result was 530. Basically doubling his intelligence. It reached halfway to the natural 3200 limit of his natural brain.
“Why was this kept hidden? A lot of people have been showing trouble with their rapidly growing speed.” He said.
Hidden calculations are hidden until required to reveal.
Robin shook his head and quickly raised his Intelligence to 550, 530 was the low limit so you would naturally go up to a higher limit.
260 nodes appeared and infused into his head and he felt like an explosion happened in his mind as he felt like all his memories and knowledge erupting in his mind at rapid speed yet he saw them as if in slow motion and everything on many things he might have had trouble with became crystal clear.
When he was done he sighed as he opened his eyes and felt much better. He felt like he would easily be able to remember things even from his early childhood.
With a sigh, he headed to Mr Might and informed him of the hidden calculation making the man sigh, “Damn it Admin, here I thought he had uncovered everything.” He said and shook his head but looked at his own stats for a moment and nodded. “That explains why soul power has been raising both intelligence and wisdom so much.” He muttered.
“Alright, we will inform everyone tomorrow. With the explosive leveling we should be able to easily fill this out as required.” he said. “Since you should be above your natural speed limit now, let’s have a spar.” He said.
Robin nodded and headed to the spar field, where a save node was located, where Robin saved and walked into the field.
It should be remembered, 1 agility point is the same as 1 km/h and Robin has 2,650.
He instantly broke the sound barrier and after two more steps, he had accelerated to mach 2 and arrived at his teacher already punching at his face.
His eyes were focused and he carried a casual smile as he dodged.
Robin stopped not a step further and turned to meet the incoming fist.
Dust rose from the impact as the ground cracked before Robin let his body fly back to the edge of the field before lowering his center of gravity and as soon as he stopped moving, his left leg spring launched him out.
He was literally a blur at this point as he approached mach 3 and punched but was still avoided. It was a scary level of speed to try and fight but to brave men with overall body enhancement, this was normal. People with speed based power would also easily reach this. The one Robin beat when his guard was down, if he had been actually serious, he could have reached the point of moving casually at super speed.
This went on for only a moment before Robin crashed down huffing a bit but began to activate his mental skills and finally channeled his energy. The pressure of both energies increased and spread down the vessels and secondary vessels.
After getting his mentality ready before turning to Mr Might and without using his leg springs initially he burst forward at max speed.
The next moment his blood rapidly gathered and pumped and his body began to heat up and his mind rapidly sped up as he started to use accelerated perception and enhanced vision.
Mr Might was there to test his strength this time, not to kill him in a more serious fight.
Blood gathered and pumped harder until Robin stabilized the pumping but he didn’t dare use his springs yet to speed up. He used his natural strength and already punched out.
In his eyes, everything accelerated really fast but unlike before, his eyes could see the surroundings and he felt like he was only in a speeding car.
BOOM!
Mr Might met his punch with a much more serious expression as Robin landed and ran to the side.
The next moment, sounds of pounding on the ground could be heard where Robin would be running.
Mr Might looked around really fast with a frown. “It’s like fighting a weaker speedstar.” He complained before raising his own speed and launched himself at Robin who dodged a punch at his face and in the process, put his fist next to Mr Might’s face and launched his spring and drove the teacher’s head into the ground.
He instantly burst out and completely unscathed. He was serious now but he maintained this pressure and an even harder fight to follow for roughly a minute until Robin came crashing down in the middle of the field followed by Mr Might coming down like a missile with an energy infused leg.
“UGH!” Robin exclaimed but unlike before, the ground exploded before he burned away and reformed at the save point.
Mr Might smiled as he walked over and patted his shoulder. “Good job, you are a genuine threat that could probably kill bravemen if you put your back into it even if they are serious.” he said.
“It actually felt good to move like that.” Robin said as his energies channeled to full strength that he could handle and he aimed for the next level and surprisingly the load wasn’t as heavy and it began to enter the capillaries and the thinnest nerves before finding a return flow.
“Hey?” Mr Might said, making Robin open his eyes.
“Yes?” He asked.
“You suddenly went quiet.” He said.
“I was just channeling my energies, surprisingly they began to flow through the smallest channels so maybe the boost helped my control. Anyways, I won’t be joining today in after school practice, I want to relax and do a little of my own thing.” He said.
“That’s fine, I don’t plan to push you while you're in your eating frenzy period anyways.” He said.
Robin was glad and couldn’t wait for after school.
He continued training and getting used to his explosive growth over the last weeks and after school he waved off.
He made sure he had Kevin’s authorization still to manipulate the system on command. It was a permission rarely handed out because of how dangerous it could be.
He headed to his most visited treatment center. He flew around using gravity. He was still learning to manipulate the direction of the gravity but he could put ‘weight’ to any direction and to him, he would feel like he was falling at all times.
When he got too dizzy, half way through, he stopped using that and used psychic energy the rest of the way.
When he arrived he found that there were a few worried nurses and he stopped one to ask what was going on.
“Ah! Robin, thank god you are here. Because of the improvements to the gamer system, we’ve been using less energy for more so it has allowed us to stabilize many people’s powers but shockingly, we suddenly have waves of people with regular problems.” She said.
“What kind?” Robin asked.
“Most genetic problems that keep people in bed or are a danger for their lives. Fragile X syndrome, Haemophilia, cystic fibrosis, many different genetic defects. They’ve actually been trying for a while to get medical help to do this but suddenly a lot of them gathered and brought their families here and many of them require equipment support. We even called the police because their families endangered their lives but now the patients are here and we need to mobilize a lot of medical personnel to move them back to a normal hospital.” She said.
“Alright, can you lead me to some of the serious cases.” He said.
“Please this way.” She said and pushed through and let Robin in and they headed to one of the serious case rooms. The number of power disabilities were drastically decreased and he soon found normal powerless or powered with serious health issues.
Soon he arrived at an unconscious person, “Alright, this one has cancer, and several other genetic problems.” the nurse said.
The family that was near stood up, “Nurse, who is this?” the mother asked.
“This is…” She looked at him for an answer.
“I’m Black Bullet, a student at the National Hero academy. I regularly visit this treatment center to help people with power disabilities. Since they need help, I'll try to help out with your cases if possible.” He said.
“What do you plan to do huh?” The father said.
Robin froze and frowned and the nurse was the one that got in the way of the man. “Sir, this young man is one of the primary reasons that there is even a gamer system to do what we can do. He was the one to discover the method to activate the power in his friend and over the years has helped many people. If the gamer system works then he can definitely help you.” the nurse said.
When the family finally backed down Robin snorted at the arrogant man’s attitude before starting to manipulate the system.
“System, are you capable of identifying common DNA and dividing them into a list of traits?” He asked.
In depth scan is possible, usage of this has not been seen as necessary to this point.
“Alright, do it. Traits that have multiples but don't consist of a larger system can be left out if there exists the same trait inside the structure of a larger trait.” Robin said.
After a moment, lights began to run over the patient.
“Woah… that is a strong scan, it's never been so strong.” Robin said.
Very quickly the area in front of him began to fill up with traits but many of them fused into single screens while others merged and formed the full traits they consist of and it took about ten minutes for a wall to form but his next order made his head hurt, “Color traits that are defect in red.”
It took a moment before several lit up but after a moment dozens turned red before everything did.
Robin frowned and asked what was going on.
DNA in general is producing lethal reactions that will kill in different magnitudes.
“Is something wrong?” the mother asked.
“Not yet. System, analyze the traits and their relationships before trying to find the primary problems.” He said.
The traits began to move and form lines and slowly formed a web until three webs that were interconnected before a few of the central traits turned red and the lines quickly turned red and it spread out.
“Okay stop, the first traits that had problems, please bring them forward. If they are complex traits, break them down.” He said.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The other traits moved back and the first ones came forward and broke down into basic traits.
“Identify.” He said and it took a bit until a dozen basic traits were identified as damaging.
“Are there healthy traits that can be used to replace them? It doesn’t need to be superior traits like powers need, just healthy traits.” He said.
Negative, these traits were never scanned.
“Then scan me and see if you can’t find healthy traits like these.” He said.
He instantly felt a very invasive energy and the lights ran over his body for a while before several traits began to appear next to their targets.
After a while it was done and Robin asked if it could simulate.
He replaced the original and the system tested them in the full system and soon found the ones that worked best to safely replace. They were all basically the same trait but just different genetic coding so he made sure to test it.
He found a few other traits that needed to switch and pulled those out as well and after roughly an hour he figured it out. There were almost 20 codes he had to replace.
“Are you able to add only 4 normal codes?” Robin asked.
System analysis please wait…
System is currently capable of adding 12 component traits of unhealthy human biology traits. Same stat point infusion requirement to change.
Robin nodded and picked the traits that would be added first but didn’t leave incomplete traits just because there were extra spots.
The price was low so he didn’t mind as the light shined and flew into the boy. After that Robin asked for permission from the parents. He needed to do this or the system would not permit it.
With permission he added the existing potential before taking out a 10 level exp crystal and leveled the patient and finished the last few points and accepted.
The nodes gathered and infused, they saw him physically grow stronger and healthier before Robin did it again with the remaining traits and added the other 25 points.
“Scan.” He said.
The system scanned the body and he looked at the web of traits and it kept pulsing blue as it should to the ends and he closed it all. “Good, the genetic problems should be healed, the stat points should have also had a very high capacity to cure him. His vitality, which was particularly low, has been greatly enhanced.” He said.
“How low is low?” the father asked.
“From what we noticed, 10 is the base number for things like wisdom and vitality. It is basically the default and it gets lower as you age. He was at 2 vitality but now he is 12. His vitality should have exploded and all vital signs should be at the highest point he has ever felt. If the cancer is not fully healed, it is likely to go into remission. That is what the system does, it has a very strong ability to heal when stat points are consumed.” Robin said.
The family began to cheer and cry in happiness while he looked at the nurse and nodded. They left the nurse calling some doctors to update them and set him to be moved as early as possible so that he can be examined at a normal hospital.
Robin began doing the same on the most serious cases and helped them out. Some were simpler, some were much harder. The more complications they had, the more energy was needed and the more traits involved.
Robin had the system scan healthy humans and athletes so there was more to choose from before continuing though but the speed of doing this process got much faster since he didn’t have to figure out the process. The system quickly did it after he picked the next one.
When it was already 6pm he had gone through a few dozen serious people and most of them were unconscious even now. The changes seemed to have a big impact on the body so he let them be.
Several of them were already transferred and Robin asked if they could keep him informed about the condition of those he helped. He didn’t know the reaction to changing traits like he had done so he hoped to follow up.
He returned the next day just to check on that and got the name of the hospitals that they were sent to and headed over. After filling the receptionist in on what happened, one of the head doctors was called and Robin accompanied him as he explained the cases.
“We were told you would come. In normal cases we would not do this but your process was beyond normal means. We did a battery of tests already based on their medical history. The most serious one, the first one you did who had cancer and a host of other problems, faced an amazing change. Originally, he had stage 4 cancer, he was basically at death's door and had no energy left to fight it. When we did the MRI, we still found cancer but not only is the cancer not malignant anymore, many of them decreased dramatically in size and a number of clusters remaining are actually dead and we will be removing them through surgery.” the doctor said.
“And his other problems?” He asked.
“Just like with cancer, a lot of it regressed drastically in progress. The remaining cancer we will be able to handle with a few more rounds of chemo and if you can give him another boost in vitality at the end of the treatment he will likely never have to fear it again.” He said.
“If he can heal on his own, that would be better. Forcing his level higher will make it harder for him to grow a lot. If it is truly required then I see no problems but I did that to help the treatment center that was for disabilities not medical emergencies.” He said.
“The fact that cancer can be cured like this is very big, you know.” He said.
“Yeah but the process of picking the proper traits for each person’s biology is annoying and just like with disabilities, it costs energy.” Robin said. “Compared to power disabilities, diseases can still be contained and even cured with the level of advanced medicine we have.” he said.
“Not when it's gotten that complicated.” the doctor said.
“True but at least they are able to fight it.” Robin said and they went through each patient before Robin went to the center again and this time focused on the disabilities for real. What he did, however, did make him curious about the disabilities but when he examined several, it was clearly a large chunk missing that made it work properly compared to human biology which are genetic errors.
Thankfully the traits for curing patients were barely up to 10 levels in prices so he went to strange ones. He smiled when he saw the club's LP oil on several bed side counters. Among them is one person who produced horn-like protrusions but until now had not had a concrete trait that truly fixed his problem so he never got anything.
After nearly two months already with the size of the system, Robin asked if any traits were found.
Positive.
Option 1: Biology of a blade body ability can merge with the existing distorted ability allowing the user to will the horns to sprout from his body.
Option 2: Gives the ability to produce a number of mentally controlled horns. Shape, size and density are dependent on control.
Option 3: Add Bull/human form which will focus the horn genes into a natural position but will become more like a half human. Further development can make this into a transformation ability.
Robin smiled as he presented the options that were newly discovered.
“What is this bull transformation?” He asked.
“It is a permanent animal transformation, at the moment, similar to many people who have half animal forms. In this state, your body will be something in between human and a bull but your horn patrution will be absorbed and you will just form natural horns. It is that form or rams.” Robin said.
He frowned and looked at the table and asked about option 1 and what else he would need to be safe.
Option 1: extra requirements: Improved healing factor to aid in healing the opened wounds that form when forming the horns.
Option 2: Some level of enhanced brain to allow mental energy to form and help control the horns.
Option 3: Initially doesn’t need anything, original power will be absorbed into the new one and the system will remove the overlying damaging segments when adding the new piece. To return to human you will need to obtain ‘transformation’ power to combine with the animal half allowing you to freely switch between human and half human.
When he saw that he asked how much the transformation ability was and Robin checked. “Currently it is 95 levels or a couple thousand dollars and 30 levels.” He said.
“How much is a couple?” The man asked.
“5,000.” robin said.
He sighed and asked the details of the bull hybrid form and he was happy that he would get a physically strong power but he had to call his family. He was naturally unmarried because he never got out much but soon enough he got his answer and Robin gave him the trait.
His body glowed as robin added the traits and everyone heard cracking as the bones were pulled back into his body while some features began to change. When it was done, everyone was surprised by how little of it actually got passed.
His hands and feet were still human shaped but his legs had shifted like that of a bull, his musculature looked stronger but he was still very lanky and would need a lot of work to build up. The horns, however, were growing proudly on his head. As for his face, he had just a short amount forming a muzzle and his body got a lot hairier but not nearly as much as to form a coat.
Robin quickly checked and found out why. “Ah, I see… the trait was just the basic traits of the bull form. Basically it is halfway to a full hybrid as if a human and a minotaur mated and that person had 50/50 making them look more human.” Robin said.
“How much is the other trait?” He asked.
“50 levels or 20 levels and $1,500.” Robin said.
“C-can you get it. If I'm going to get a form change I want to have the full thing.” He said.
Robin looked and sighed before doing that and after another forceful level up he underwent a large transformation and a minotaur. His foot finally changed into a hoof, brown fur covered his body and his head turned into that of a bull. His hands were still normal but he was now a half human.
“Thank you.” He said and went to look at himself.
“When you get the money, you can head to one of the Trait shop managers in the gamer district built next to the hero academy grounds. They also sell level crystals.” He said.
“Thank you again.” The cured patient said as he moved freely of the prison of horns that trapped him.
Robin went to others who were in similar condition and hadn’t found any viable traits and he spent time talking and everyone now had a few options to pick from. The curious ones were the most interesting because it gave options but it left warnings that the fusion would result in strange effects.
He still accepted what they desired because it was their choice to do it. In the end he left several families happy that they had gotten much better but they would still need to undergo tests to make sure there were no problems left.
Robin, in turn, left and looking back something nagged at his heart strangely.
He flew through the city and eventually found himself in the center area of the city as he wondered randomly.
He sat down on the ledge of a building and watched the streets and air traffic contemplating something until he heard a whoosh and turned to find a long arm snapping back and landing a distance away from him.
“Mr Springs!” Robin said.
“Oh? Bullet, so it was you, I got reports of a flier randomly using his ability.” He said.
“Oh, sorry. I was in thought when I came here. I honestly didn’t intend to.” He said.
Mr Springs looked at him and found his demeanor different so he walked over and sat down.
“Want to talk? It's almost my dinner time so I can listen. We can go for a meal.” He said.
Robin smiled and contacted his family about the arrangement and they headed to a restaurant in a private room.
Once the food was served the braveman asked what was going on.
“I don’t know. For so long I have fought against my own body and now the gamer system and even some true deities that Grace, mephesto’s daughter, can summon said I was something akin to a demi-god. The title calls me the Aspect of Preservierance, a person who has preserved even against his own body to achieve his goals but when I think of what I had once assumed of my dream and look at it now, it feels so different.” He said.
Mr Springs laughed at the boy when he heard that.
“I’ve heard of this divine power. Honestly I don't know much about it since most access to the gamer space has been restricted to the academy’s usage. Many people avoid using it without someone there to help out. Still, I have heard that you successfully bred an inheritance power with that amazing teacher of yours that was presumed dead. Really amazing honestly, that said, dreams are just that, a dream. A vision of what you want but usually reality and dreams do not always look the same.”
“Yeah but what I thought of was to eventually fund research divisions to be able to cure defective abilities or minimize their effects.” He said.
“Yes but instead you discovered a direct cure to the problem that directly attacks the root of the problem that was the lacking DNA required to control the powers. You are still young and might not have come in contact with many of the crazier scientists but there have been theories stating that every generation makes the abilities born more and more complex to the point that our bodies are failing to follow it. Bullet, realize that you discovered the method that makes sure that even the person with the weakest powers can adapt to his bizarre and quirky power. Look at yourself, you were a person with poor distribution of life force and resolved that, then you resolved your biological stretch inhibition and then learned to use your uncommon rubber form to fight. I've heard rumors that you are already at the standards of a newly appointed braveman.” He said.
Robin smiled a bit at the compliments.
“You shouldn’t cut your achievements short, even now there are abilities that are not genetically deficient that are not activated properly and this most definitely requires immense research. Even if the gamer space can give hints or even outright tell you, they might require many strange conditions depending on the ability. Don’t sell yourself short.” He said.
Robin nodded and smiled, “Thanks.” He just replied and sat in thought while eating.
As they neared the end Robin suggested something, “You said you never used your stats right?” Robin asked.
“Not really, no one in the agency has either. I think only the children have that one time we paid for the gamer space’s services but us at the top have not tapped into it.” He said.
“Want help? I'm sure that you can unlock a lot of power with it.” he said.
“What kind exactly?” He asked.
Robin smiled and explained the secret of elastic control, for him at least, and then how he focused life force and psychic energy.
Beat Springs looked interested when he heard that.
He asked to unlock the system for him and they checked his stats. As expected, he was very strong and Robin got a clear sight of what an experienced braveman was like. Only his strength breached over 3000 but besides wisdom and intelligence, everything else was over the 4k.
Robin naturally revealed the relationship of intelligence as well. Untapped as he was, his 295 lvls gave him an immense surplus of power to channel and that was simply because he hadn’t added the proper flow system.
“What is a ‘safe’ wisdom to get?” he asked.
Robin asked the system for Beat Spring’s safe benchmark.
“Hmm… for you, you need 180 to be able to produce psychic energy and store and 350 is a safe number for the time being while your intelligence has to be over 800 for your mind to fully follow your speed but it also unlocks a lot of control of your body from what I noticed and gives you a massive boost to your mental capacities.” Robin explained.
“Is 1400 points enough?” He asked.
“We will focus on getting the three system meridians first, once you’ve channeled life force and mental energy into their respective areas you will gain more potential. If you are lucky, you might be like my sister and even have a natural chi generation.” Robin said and Beat Springs took out the needed exp crystal from the many bounties he turned in for doing normal crime work.
All that power channeled into him and adding just the 25 points his body transformed and formed the three systems.
Robin asked if he had explored the trait shop and had any traits in mind but he just shook his head, “I’m fine as I am. Just the energy and control of my body is likely to rapidly strengthen me anyways.” He said.
“Alright.” Robin said as he dumped points into Beat Springs wisdom until it was at 350 before fulfilling the 800 intelligence. Luckily he already had roughly 80 wisdom and 200 intelligence from natural generation as he adapted to his own speed. It was clear that he focused on the destination and not the time in motion.
He instantly blacked out as his brain began to evolve. All his neurons were reborn until it began to multiply and finally it began to restructure and build a powerful system like the ones developing naturally in the countless students.
Once the evolution of his brain concluded, it began to enhance the brain and all his senses while his mind woke up and he underwent what felt like an epiphany of his entire life.
He witnessed his young life, his training, his hardships and so much more until his eyes shot open and he huffed.
His face was sweating hard and his hand trembled. Robin held his shoulder and put a cup of water in front of him.
“Be careful, so much stimulation at once is very shocking.” he said.
He looked slowly and nodded and drank water before taking deep breaths. “My body feels so strange.” he said.
Robin could sense the mental energy running and he could sense the life force already gathering slowly.
“It's your biological energies that are agitated.” he said.
Robin made him aware and helped him gather some life force inside the node in his chest before helping him become aware of mental energy. When he did, he took some time to adapt and learn to control it until he could finally store it and start to flow.
He followed Robin's instructions and slowly both energies were channeled following the method he knew for dual channeling but he couldn’t do it so he had to do it one at a time. This channeling allowed him to gather scattered energy while the life force drew his immense vitality and started to fill him up.
“Want Life essence? The system can help through the painful process of change?” Robin asked.
Beat Springs forced a smile and just asked how.
“Just add 20 points to vitality and it will give the system enough energy to influence it.” He said.
He swallowed hard and did it and he felt the change in his very blood.
He felt immense stores of life force come from every cell and gather in that node that channeled. Life force weaved into every fiber of the node and ran along the channels until finally the produced drops of life essence. When it did, the first drops became bottomless pits as they sucked up the unending source of life force until it began to leak out and start to replace the life force but in doing so, it forced even more life force out until it became like an aura that was swirling around him until it was all sucked back in and the process continued until his entire body was filled with life essence.
When it was done, he took a deep breath and felt his entire body.
“Amazing, this is nothing like what I could use before.” He said.
“It is an amazing power for someone already so powerful but there are some things you need to be aware of to train it.” Robin said and explained all the tricks to channeling and training it in the most efficient way.
“Is this Chasm Might’s method of training?” He asked.
“Yes, it is basically the same method he uses for making his True Qi but used through life essence and psychic energy. The best effect you can have for elastic control is to eventually learn to channel both energies together in parallel because from the very start, they work together unconsciously. It makes for a very powerful punch when done right.” he said.
Beat Springs smiles and thanks him and he will find his own technique to train since it seems any qi based technique worked.
Robin nodded and thanked him for the dinner and they split up as Robin returned home with a new determination after his self doubts were resolved by an unexpected help.