The dawn was mesmerizing. Reflecting on the water of the huge lake, it was creating a flaming picture of a rising sphere, ready to charge the pathetic humans with energy to live through another day. As if trying to accompany it, the flickering glow of yellow particles slowly started to intensify under the sun's light. This attention from the firmament’s overlord seemed to infuse a dosage of adrenaline into these ethereal pieces of the long-fallen comet. Throwing themselves into the dance, they began their constant motion, twisting, flashing, and merging with others only to disperse an instant later.
Their performance above the waking city lasted until the sun rose high enough to lighten it. The ethereal dancers were almost burned out by this moment, putting all of themselves into this show, despite not having many spectators. In fact, this captivating act was seen only by Robert. Sitting on the bench near the seafront with a cup of coffee, he failed to notice anyone else, who was also absorbed in watching the sky. Rare passersby were too occupied with their thoughts, either walking from or toward their working places, while having no desire to watch the beauty around them. Or maybe, they were just used to it, failing to see it as anything spectacular. On the other hand, Rob was too different from them, enjoying the scene, despite seeing it multiple times. This dawn long ago became special for him.
His train of thought was interrupted by a young woman, who loudly sat next to him on the other side of the long bench. Putting the large bag to the side, she sighed, closing her eyes. Making a few deep exhales as if concentrating, she suddenly turned her head toward Robert before asking.
“Do you have a smoke?”
Having an average appearance with a cute pixie nose, straight black hair slightly above her shoulders, and brown eyes, she was surprisingly confident, when addressing the stranger in this time of the day. Robert rarely saw real crimes on these streets, but they were still present. Especially, the cases of missing people who disappeared without a trace. Such brazen behavior was unexpected, considering his own pale skin with no hair at all and overall rough appearance. The hood covered his face, but not entirely, leaving enough open for other eyes to notice the oddities.
“I don’t smoke… But I can offer you my coffee - haven’t touched it… And it’s still warm,” Robert replied with a light smile, slightly turning his head.
“Nah… I need something to relax and not the opposite,” The woman shook her head with disappointment. It took her another dozen seconds of silence before her curiosity won the cautions, “And why did you take it in the first place if you don’t drink it? It’s not a café, where you are meant to order anything.”
“I always loved it… The sour type with a deep taste and fragrance. It’s hard to describe when you haven’t tested it for a while… And seeing the sight I thought it was a good addition to the picture. Like a full set,” Thinking for a few moments, Robert gave his sincere answer. He still remembered how he drank the godly beverage in the bunker, and later in the trenches, looking at the night sky with flying flares. Only after losing most of his senses, Rob understood how important they were for making anyone’s life enjoyable. With time the feeling only strengthened.
From the moment when he decided to start his cycles of “superpower lottery” many restarts had passed. He lost the count long ago, not bothering to track it. At the start Rober was fully focused on the self-accepted task, abandoning everything if the serums gave something useless. It took quite an effort and at least several days to reach that point, so it was a real burden to repeat the same thing multiple times. Therefore, he tried to shorten this tiresome process. Driven by the noble goal for the first time, he focused solely on it, disregarding everything else.
However, at some point, Rob got the ability of the Sage, which suddenly changed his course of action. It was nothing special, like superhuman intelligence or anything like that. Nope, it was just a heightened comprehension ability together with a perfect memory. That led him to spend an entire loop basically locked in the library, shoving as much knowledge as he could in his head. He wasn’t sure about the effectiveness of such time spending, but having an opportunity to know more it was dumb not to use it. His assumption was partly confirmed when the nuclear explosion and following reset took away the ability, but some part of the studied information managed to stay inside his not-so-clever mind. That caused another change in his strategy.
If the restart wipes all my deeds, why do I need to waste my time? I can improve, learn new things, develop different skills… The hell, I wanted to have a normal life, and here is a real chance to do it… yep, it’s partly fucked up, but it’s much better than I ever had, or I might ever have, considering my circumstances and luck... I have a whole city as my playground to play for almost two months. If I don’t die, I can live many years like that until I’ve got the needed ability to kill Demonologist. Yeah, let’s do this, Rob! Okay, maybe it wouldn’t be a “normal” one…
Therefore, when he took the next dosage of the serums and found that he got the power to shoot the arrows with perfect precision, manipulate their trajectory, and even resummon his projectile back into his palm, Robert broke into the nearest sport shop to get the gear. The whole loop was spent in training, while Rob tried to engrave the inserted skills into his muscle memory. Once again, it partly worked out, leaving him with much more experience and knowledge than he could get from a few months of training, but nothing comparable to his previous capability to strike the flying bird from a mile distance. (1.6 km).
In similar ways more loops went, getting everything potentially helpful for this or the next realms from the acquired temporary abilities. When the power gained was absolutely useless, Robert spent his time differently. The night sessions in cinema, nightclubs, bars, gaming on the console, bowling – he methodically tried everything he imagined, treating all entertainment facilities in the city as the goals to do. There were no exceptions for him, no matter how boring or stupid the thing was. Rob learned how to drive a truck and how to use a crane. He explored the sewers and the bottom of the giant lake. Visited the local zoo and museums. Studied the different topics, depending on what Sage’s power he got. Used every possible firearm on the shooting range or in the streets if the situation demanded.
Robert jumped from the skyscrapers without a parachute. Tried to steal the military helicopters until he finally succeeded, learning to operate them. Broke into the prison to duel with every single captured villain there. Found out all the details about the top-secret projects in the Facility, their state, and potential. Started multiple bar fights only to escape the police chase. Visited the theatrical shows and operas, finishing all available in a two-months time frame. After getting the corresponding ability he got employed as a cook in one of the best underground restaurants in the city, despite not having a sense of taste. Robbed the bank just to see if the kid’s words were true and that wasn’t impossible. There were more crazy deeds he made during this time when he tried to experience different specters of life.
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Not everything proceeded smoothly, often leading to abrupt restarts. His weight and senseless body were additional obstacles that were hard to forget while trying to live a normal life. His super’s nature was an even greater one, as it was almost impossible to get fair treatment from ordinary humans if they realized who he was. Still, it never stopped him from doing more, and if everything retorted to violence, Robert simply embraced the latter before resetting the world. At first, he didn’t wish to lead this chaotic life, but quite soon the realization came to him. His metallic body was both his strength and the curse. Rob would be dead long if he wasn’t like that, but on the other hand, most normal things were unavailable to him, pushing him into this mad and twisted way of getting life experience.
“You don’t imagine how I would like to feel the taste of coffee… or any other food,” Robert spoke, looking at the paper cup in his hands with regret.
“You can’t?” Looking at him again, the woman finally noticed the absence of the hair and his pale skin, getting the wrong conclusion, “Cancer? Horrible shit… Lost my elder brother a year ago because of it… I am sorry,” she added in the end after a short pause.
“Something like that… But don’t worry – I am not dying right now. Just don’t have any senses at all,” Robert replied, accidentally gripping the cup with more strength than was needed. The cup crumpled, spilling the hot brown liquid on his hand. However, he felt nothing. Even the pain these days was dull, barely reaching his pain receptors… if Rob had one.
Several times he got superpowers that could be labeled as the Sage’s, temporarily raising his intellectual level, giving him knowledge out of nowhere, or changing his brain otherwise just to turn him into a genius for a short period of time. One such power boost gave him an intrinsic knowledge of material composition, the methods of their improvements, and an overall increase in intelligence. It took him a mere second to process how lucky he was before Robert sprinted into action.
The scientist from the laboratory under the pet shop, whose name was Paul Donovan Lakin, was quite surprised to see the same guest return in less than an hour. Precisely speaking, not only did he feel that way, but the group of bikers had a similar impression, just with a pinch of death threat. The latter quickly turned into a reality for most of the group before the lucky survivors finally listened to Robert. Therefore, forcefully “renting” the place for the next two months, Rob spent his time building the machine that could influence his metal body.
Not to cause any retaliation from the sponsors of the place, Robert accepted a few bodyguard jobs as payment for the laboratory use and some additional equipment. In the end, despite having a foundation from previous empowerments, and hundreds of scientific books in his head, the time wasn’t enough to do anything advanced. So, all he managed to develop was the method of making his base steel much lighter without influencing other properties. This was quite a crucial point in his case as at that point in time his weight was over six tones in an uncontrollable state. He could either increase or decrease it by focusing on the task, but it took energy and mental effort to keep the effect. Moreover, even ten times change wasn’t enough to make his life convenient.
The reason for such an outcome was the rodent. The very same rodent that gave him the soul, connecting with Aether and granting his adaptation ability. The more serums with omicron particles Robert took, the more his body developed the resistance to it, thus shortening the effect of already temporary powers. Not only it, but it also used the energy from these yellow otherworldly particles as the fuel to strengthen the output of his reactor. This, in turn, led to his dragon’s genes kicking in, making him grow bigger and bigger. Rob constantly had to make tempering sessions to squeeze himself back into the human’s size. Otherwise, he would easily reach the height of a few-story building long ago.
“No senses? That’s awful! Is it a chemotherapy… I am sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” the woman hastily spoke in the end, radiating guilt.
“Sometimes I feel that my body is just a shell, the robot’s hull with only human’s consciousness inside…,” Robert added. He indeed thought like that. After multiple increases in density, his body started adapting to it. Maybe his mind tried to keep the shape and appearance of the old Rob, but his inner organs were the first to abandon this idea. At this point, there was no blood flowing in his veins. He consisted of a single moving piece of metal with a reactor core inside, working like a heart, brain, and power source simultaneously. He became a moving metal golem. Insanely powerful, almost unkillable, but the cost of such might was huge.
“If you can’t sense anything, focus on something that brings pleasure to your mind. My brother made a list of the things to do before the death… It’s often suggested for similar lost cases to ease… the transition. You can try it too,” the woman once again tried to raise his mood.
“Thank you. And I indeed mean it… I appreciate your concern, but you can’t even imagine what things I’ve tried at this point… Crazy, violent, illegal… You see, those things aren’t felt real… like a substitute for real emotions… They can give me experiences I haven’t gotten in my life but can’t make me truly happy. Everything feels pointless,” Robert sighed, looking at the woman before returning his gaze to the water’s surface.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. My brother also felt lost at that moment… It was before the fear of death overwhelmed him, but after he was halfway over with his list. The only advice I can give – you need to do something, no matter what. Good rehabilitation is simple manual labor, especially in a garden with plants or trees. Or you can help the homeless in the centers – the new hands are always welcome, and you can feel useful. And if you can’t stand many people around – just travel. Don’t sit like that. Only you can pull yourself from the deep pit. Others can help, but in the end, it’s your fight.”
“To travel? Hmm… It seems strange, but while I was too focused on getting out of my particular situation, I never had a single thought to leave the city,” Robert muttered, pondering about his potential future plans.
“If you need support, I often come here at the end of my shift each even day. Feel free to join me… but don’t forget to get a pack of cigarettes next time,” the woman smiled, causing a mixture of emotions to rise inside Rob’s mind.
“Unfortunately, tomorrow will never come… until I fix it,” standing up, Robert looked at the woman with his now gray eyes under his hood for the last time. The number of changes in his body finally reached his eyes, wiping his natural dark green color. In fact, light gray took every spot in his body, including nails and pupils. It varied in shades, but otherwise, he was a concentration of this pigmentation. Rob had to use his obsidian steel to create black points just so as not to be seen as blind. Oddly, it appeared that it did not affect his sight at all, turning his armored state into a real dark mannequin without a single hole, “Thank you, and have a nice day, Joanna.”
“What? How do you know my name? Hey, stop!”