*Ding*

"Congrats, you have the qualifications to awaken the 'weaker' system, the more you exhaust yourself the more you will improve your stats" Mike opened his eyes while hearing those words.

"Fuck you! What did that Fucking device mean for?!" said Mike to the android in front of him, not in a loud voice but still uncomfortable with it.

"The device helps for two purposes, first, tell the metric distance you can reach as the maximum, and the average distance too; second, it trains your ability while you endure it, your ability can be trained by using it to full power, but to reach it is hard for your people in initial phases, even in mid-phases at a low stage of each phase, so the device was created with that purpose on mind at first, the guild call it, exhausting training"

"Too much explanation..."

"You asked, master"

Somehow Mike could not think about how to refute those words, but still, he felt renovated since waking up.

"What time is it? Shouldn't I have work tomorrow?"

"Master, it is 'tomorrow' already, it's almost 6 in the morning, you start working by 8 in the morning, you can take a bath while I get your breakfast ready"

"You won't win my forgiveness over food... unless it's tasty"

Mike got up and proceeded his day as a common person maybe first time as an adult, first bathroom then food, then going to work instead of going to train.

At work, only bad news will await him. As he arrived everything was nice, he got reunited with some people he works with and had a nice chat while waiting for orders.

The special bodyguards weren't simple bodyguards, it had a reason why bodyguards existed but for special bodyguards, it had a different reason, it wasn't meant to protect someone from dangerous situations or dangerous people, but from special situations, its members received training to deal against supernatural creatures, supernatural events, and PhySEC users.

But how could a normal person deal with different supernatural circumstances? They had a way. Mike didn't receive the training his coworkers received from the company, but still received more than them since he got in the training of ability user mercenary corps, which was in his curriculum, and knew how to use not only normal weapons.

"Ford and Blood, both of you follow me to receive your weapons" Said a skinny shady man with a work uniform, a worker in the building. Mike and the other man followed him.

To be admitted to the special bodyguard company, the only one in the country of Aether that actually works, one needs contact with the people inside or have a family as members of some position in the government, otherwise it was hard to get in, why? Because the weapons they use are not only common.

The man led them to a weapon storage, well protected and bulletproof from (almost) all sides... except from the rear side.

"As expected,... even without resistance, I am not surprised for this one" it wasn't hard to tell the other man was thinking the same as Mike, just none of them showed any sign of commenting about it.

On a table the man put on two weapons, pistols; both got one each and made the common procedures while receiving a weapon, lucky, that man named Ford knew how to do it, even if he was slower than Mike at least he got the training, so Mike made a sight of relieve while noticing that his co-worker had the training for it.

The shady man then placed 4 pistol magazines, 2 for each of them, and the holster for the guns, but the man placed too, another holster different from before. Ford and Mike had been expecting to get it since the start, they put on their holsters and placed the pistol in place, and then the man got 2 small boxes and opened them.

Mike and Ford got each a special pistol, its appearance was very big and probably similar to a high caliber pistol, it was commonly known as an antiPhySEC pistol. While the antiPhySEC pistol was made to fight PhySEC users, it doesn't mean it can kill them easily, but was easier to combat them with this, and its ammo, not was only special, the pistol can do nothing against the ability user, but the ammo was what its value relies on. Even if not possible to kill relying on the material and special skill of this bullet, the high caliber itself was the threat.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

After they got the pistol, each got a combat knife, the material was the same as the antiPhySEC bullets, an antiPhySEC knife. Now it was time for the real game. The objective/person to protect, given the corruption in the country, the only people to protect were high-position government employees and big bosses of the terrorists, but since they were newbies, they would be assigned to the family members of one of those two options, probably the last one.

"You are supposed to start protecting someone right now... wait" said the man while inspecting the papers in his hand "Forget it, Blood, you are specially requested by someone, since it doesn't really change anything for the new members it was already accepted"

"I have a bad feeling about it"

"You will mean your employer on floor 3, you are assigned to protect... Rose Slades" Said the man with somehow a look of envy, like if Mike were lucky. But he wasn't happy, at least he didn't show his mood in front of those people.

"Hey! I saw that look! I am not lucky, change my employer, I have a bad feeling, change IT NOW PLEASE!" of course Mike could not help it and just said his farewell to his co-worker.

...

While reaching the 3rd floor he already wanted to get back home, so he went to the place indicated by the shady man before, the more he walked, the emptier the place was, and he noticed the security was high in there -"too many security doors, I bet the walls are sturdy ones, like not wanting bullet to get out"-

When he reached the place he saw a man in front of the door, Mike presented his ID given by the company and the man informed about him, after a moment he instructed Mike to wait.

"Why the security? Forget it, I think is better if I don't know..." but just as he thought it, he could hear some kind of crying, almost screaming, or trying to scream; someone being tortured maybe? "I said I don't want to know! You fucking bastard! shut up your mouth, I HEARD NOTHING!!"

The place was quiet but it could be heard hits from inside and then nothing.

"Yes, I just heard nothing, as expected" Mike was calm, like he was an innocent man in an innocent kind of place. The man was suspicious about him, but since the orders were to let him wait, he could do nothing about it, and didn't dare to question Mike's identity.

Some minutes later the door opened and a beautiful woman got out of there, the smell in the air was strange, but Mike didn't feel like wanting to think about it, he just wanted to think that the world can sometimes be small, the woman that is supposed to be protected was her, the one he saw yesterday and blocked his path while leaving.

Well, how can he be so sarcastic? It was clearly a bad signal and he knew since he had heard the name from the shady man before, Rose Slades, her identity was everything but simple, if Adam Slades, defense minister wasn't simple, her daughter was even more complicated to talk about.

Rose got out of the room accompanied by a man a woman, her other bodyguards, why would she need a 4th bodyguard? well... another thing Mike didn't want to know about, even if he knew "Next time I won't talk about my PhySEC ability if possible"

"Mike, is good you are finally here, I requested you specially since you offered me your help, I just didn't think they would accept, new recruits are not assigned just randomly, anyway, I'm happy"

"How can they not accept your request? are you taking me by an idiot? _ I am merely doing my work, from now on I will help you with all my skills _ unless I can let you die and run away" However, the last words in his mind were not possible looking at their other bodyguards, he got the morning and afternoon shift, 12 hours, 5 days a week, but his contract specified that there would be certain circumstances, obligatory for him to extend his time.

There would be other occasions in which he can decide if want to extend his time working in exchange for more money of course, but he didn't feel like doing so with this person since he spotted some blood in the other bodyguards' clothes, of course, it wasn't their blood.

The woman saw Mike's eyes, barely catching them, and saw the blood on her clothes, then used something to clean her up and advised the other man. She had sharp senses or was a PhySEC user too.

However, he chatted for a little while with his employer, Rose told him that she would spend more days traveling around the country than in the building, so he needed to, sadly, extend his working hours sometimes, even against his will.

Rose instructed the man at the door to take care of the "trash" in the room, a room that, from the peripheral vision of Mike, looked like a torture room.

"It's a normal room, peripheral vision can sometimes be deceiving. Yeah, there's no way that a beauty is torturing people... wow, those words cannot convince anyone... but it works for me" once again in his mind he saw nothing at all, and his behavior looked quite nice, that alone made some misunderstanding on the bodyguards about Mike. They thought Mike was very calm about what was happening there, and Rose seemed happy with Mike's behavior.

Misunderstandings.

"Yes, it can't be hard to get easy work, I need to follow her and get paid, easy peasy, nothing weird"

Some time passed and, surprisingly, Mike saw nothing more out of the ordinary, Rose needed to go all around the city, working. Rose Slades was even more busy than his father or uncle, she had a very high opinion about her from the citizens of all over Aether, even all over the world, a very strong contrast to her father's fame.

The corruption in Aether wasn't a secret at all, and its situation was hard, but Rose stands in the middle of it like a saintess. Of course, he knew it wouldn't be that easy to be perfect, just... nobody has proven any strange behavior, not even Mike, after all, he saw nothing (nothing after abandoning the company building).