"I was in a coma for three months? You're joking right? I can't afford to lose three months." Hans ripped all the tubes and cables that were stuck to his body and threw them aside.
The machines went wild with all kinds of loud noises. Hans tried to stand up but his legs gave out and he fell to the floor. Slowly he stood up again but his knees were shaking. A doctor entered the room in a hurry.
"Mister Baker." The doctor said while panting heavily and turning off the machinery one by one, causing the sounds to stop. "I understand you might be feeling shocked right now but you need to take things slow."
Peter motioned at the man and the doctor to get out of the room. The man didn't question the order he was given and left, grabbing the doctor by the collar of his shirt and bringing him out alongside him.
"Why can you not afford losing three months?" Peter said, making and holding eye contact with Hans.
"I am weak. I couldn't even protect myself." Hans replied, breaking eye contact.
"I believe you protected yourself plenty. The others too."
"You don't get it Peter. I'm supposed to be strong. STRONG. If I can't do that much then what the fuck makes me better than Joe schmo?"
"You are a very capable newbie. Dare I say unparalleled. If you work hard on yourself, reaching S rank will not be a pipedream. It will be an inevitability."
"I…I…I…"
Hans tried to speak but to no avail. His heart started beating irregularly and was in extreme pain. Hans clenched his chest and fell to his knees as lightning started leaking out of his body. He tried to suppress it but it would only go wilder with each attempt.
"Kid. Are you okay?" Peter tried to grab Hans' shoulder but his hand was swatted away by Hans who had assumed a meditating position.
"Peter. Run." Hans managed to make out between groans of pain.
"Kid. I'm an awakened too. I'll be fine. Let me help you." Peter replied with an unnatural calmness.
"IF YOU DON'T RUN YOU'LL DIE" Hans screeched as his muscle started contracting uncontrollably. And Peter saw it. What Hans said was neither a lie nor a neutral statement. It was the absolute truth. And so he ran.
Lightning started erupting from every pore in Hans' body, scorching everything in the room. The smell of sweat mixed with the smell of smoke, a puddle of it having formed under Hans. He had lost enough water for him to be at the verge of passing out from dehydration.
Hans screamed in pain as the lightning became stronger and stronger by the moment. His chapped lips were forming small tears as he screamed, desperately trying to hold back the lightning but as the lightning was about to slip out of his control, everything turned white.
-
A seemingly infinite white room that makes one's steps echo. A room where the walls and ceiling look about to squeeze whoever is there yet spans an immeasurable distance. Hans was familiar with that place as he had gotten there once more. It was far back at the peak of his desperate attempts to become an S-rank awakened, the moment he thought he had reached his limits. It gave him a morsel of hope that kept him in the pursuit of power for way too long. Visiting that room had made his skill stronger.
He walked across the room yet his steps didn't make a sound. The only thing he could hear was his own breath and heartbeat. At least that was until he heard sobbing. He followed the sound and as if out of thin air, a small altar appeared, barely within view. The altar was made of white rock, meticulously chipped into a perfect shape. Hans had already encountered the altar before yet next to it there laid a sight he had not met in his previous life.
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A black haired young man was holding his knees up to his chest and sobbing loudly while an older man with silver hair and overgrown stubble was staring down on the kid. The man has broad shoulders and a clearly powerful build. Hans felt a strong sense of familiarity from the two yet he was too far away to make out their faces.
"I'm scared." The young man said in-between sobs.
"Man up already. You're a man aren't you. Act like it." The older man replied coldly.
"Aren't you scared mister?" The young man muttered, his voice cracking in the middle of the sentence.
"If I were to get scared everything would go to shit. I have too much to care about to be scared." The older man sighed in annoyance.
The young man moved his head and made eye contact with the older man but Hans was still too far to make out anything more.
"But everything is so scary. I don't know how I'm supposed to handle this. I don't know. I'm sorry. This hasn't happened before. I don't know how to deal with this. Everything is off, my world has crumbled to pieces. How do I get out of this? Can I get out of this? I don't want to die. I don't want anyone to die. I'm scared, mister." The young man's voice was trembling as he spoke.
"There are more important things than you being scared." The older man grew more infuriated by the second as the young man erupted back into tears to the point of going to slap him.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?" Hans screamed at the man. "He is allowed to be scared. Everyone is. Who are you to tell him otherwise? Why would you try to hit him?"
The older man stopped before delivering the slap yet the young man flinched and whimpered nonetheless.
"You're misunderstanding something." The older man said "I'm just doing what has to be done."
Hans had finally reached the two men. He grabbed the older man by the shoulder and tried to pull him back but the man didn't move an inch. He instead turned his head and his eyes met Hans'.
Hans stumbled back. He couldn't believe his eyes. He wasn't looking at some random man in his mid thirties. He was looking at himself the day he died. He was wearing the same clothes, had the same haircut and even the same stubble he always forgot to shave and claimed he liked.
"Who are you and why do you look like me?" Hans was staring at the man, trying to find at least one thing off about him.
Hans felt something gripping his ankle and he instinctively kicked at whatever it was. The one grabbing at his ankle was the young man who groaned in pain and tumbled back. Hans ran up to the young man who was holding his face in his hands with blood dripping through his fingers.
"Holy shit. I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" Hans kneeled down next to the young man. "I'm good at first aid. Let me take a look."
The blood filled hand on the young man grabbed Hans' arm weakly, and revealed the young man's appearance. It was also Hans but that time it was from the point in his life where Hans felt the weakest and most pathetic. It was the day of his parent's funeral. The young man was wearing that loose suit Hans had forced himself into and that ugly tie which was the only one he could find a few hours before the funeral. The messy unkempt hair and the bloodshot eyes and dark circles from crying through the night. The only difference was that the young man had lost a few teeth from Hans' kick.
"It's all your fault," the young man said.
"What?" Hans couldn't hear what the young man had said because his mind was going a mile a second trying to think of all possibilities while also keeping watch over the much more dangerous older man to spot any sudden movements.
"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! You should have just fucking died back then. Why did you have to come back? Our little girl would have been born. Olivia would have gotten remarried and our daughter would have been happier than ever. Why did you have to come back?" The young man screeched.
"I didn't choose to come back, you know." The words the young man said hit a nerve. Every single word was something that had gone through Hans' head.
"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE JUST KILLED YOURSELF WHEN YOU GOT BACK. You should have at least stopped pursuing her. Why are you so hellbent on ruining her life again? Get out of her life. Stop trying to doom her alongside you. You couldn't do it once. What makes you think you'll keep her safe this time. WHAT? TELL ME. WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN CHANGE THINGS? DIE PUBLICLY SO THE ONES LOOKING FOR YOU WILL KNOW YOURE DEAD. THEY'LL NEVER FIND HER THAT WAY. THEY'LL HAVE NO REASON TO. JUST DIE"
Hans clenched his right fist and considered punching the young man in the face but instead just sighed and turned his back to him.
"Let's see what else changed." Hans mumbled to himself.
Hans, who had been looking at the young man like a deer in headlights had changed in a moment's notice as he left the two men behind and walked up to the altar. The younger man continued screaming at Hans but he was promptly ignored. Hans looked along the altar and he saw the same odd glyphs he had seen when he encountered it the first time around. In-between the glyphs were a few readable words. Those words were universe, chaos and correct.
Not seeing a difference in the glyphs Hans simply touched the top of it and lightning surged into his body. The lightning was denser and more unruly that then the lightning he had been using yet it painlessly merged with his own.
"Huh. It's the same. Then why were those two guys here?"
-
Hans regained his consciousness and was back in the room. The lightning that was rampaging had calmed down inside his body and was being dispersed. He stood up and looked around the room, his body felt much better than before and the room hadn't sustained any additional damage after the moment he had lost his consciousness. But before he had any time to form any questions, they were already answered in the form of system notifications.
***
User [Hans Baker]'s caliber has increased 1>>2.
.
.
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Generating Possible Rewards.
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Issue Generating Rewards.
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User's [Lightning Dominion] skill is cannibalizing the user's potential. User's [Lightning Dominion] skill has increased in rank A>>A+
***
"Cannibalizing my potential? So all that work was for nothing? How fitting." Hans let out a loud hearty laugh and leisurely walked out of the room in search of Peter while whistling the tune of a song that wouldn't come out for 10 years.