..KAL..

Who guessed Kal can be bad at something?

Well…

Now everyone did!

It turns out steady hands for minute detailing is Kal’s kryptonite. It won’t kill him, but the embarrassing memory can surely halt his movements or spike his emotions during a fight. And once you fight opponents at Kal’s caliber, every minute detail, oops! I meant every misstep will lead to certain death.

Earth had parts of the required tech to build what Kal envisioned. Ancient tech was easily found unguarded in their museums. For some reason, they decided to showcase them, instead of learning or using them to advance their race. Hell, some of them even worshiped, killed, and sacrificed for this crap. Well… Crap for them: gold for Kal.

Replacing items from museums was child’s play until he realized he had stolen a replica. In his defense, it had been a darn good replica, but now he had to track down the black market and make them fight each other because being involved in worldly matters was taboo. Yet stepping on flimsy lines, bending the rules, and whatnot, Kal messed up the whole underworld. All to get a simple piece of tech.

Simple tech and unnecessary work, according to Kal—was the hard part. Not that he pulled a single string to collapse their age-old system, but the time he wasted to collapse said ridiculous hierarchy. Young people working for old timers, who weren’t strong, mysterious, and cynically wise like in the anime, but bumbling fools who didn’t know pride from greed and power from lust.

Also, working from the shadows sucked!

Kal despised scout work. It wasn’t his strong suit, nor did he like following dumb humans around who couldn’t follow simple instructions.

‘Kill your boss and become the boss.’ How hard is that? That’s how the current boss got his title in the first place. Kal lost his fuse every time he convinced an underling to take on his boss. He still couldn’t understand what they were so scared of. I mean, their bosses were flesh and blood just like them and not like an omnipotent being like someone else’s boss!

Based on Void-folks’ lifespan, you might wonder if a few Earth weeks, months, or even years shouldn’t affect Kal’s patience. In any normal circumstance, you would be right. But if you lived on Earth, you would know that it is anything else but normal. For one instance, the fact that pisses Kal off the most is that for every second he wasted, Earth came up with an invention or discovery for him to re-record into the system’s interface for integration.

At first glance, they seem identical. Earthlings had a unique skill or a knack for recreating the same shit out of bullshit—every other second. These inventions or discoveries would be given a unique name, enhanced, or degraded, and published again in another country. By now, Kal memorized the many back alleyways of China and India due to his constant visits. Even these were somehow manageable, thanks to Kal’s speed. The real problem started once the counterfeits fled the market.

“ᚨːəᚨin hell.” Kal held forty-four different iPhone models in his hand. “What did they change this time?”

“It figures you are upset, but don’t go all Kal on Earth.” Aurelia [Manager] reminds Kal with a notification block.

[Ding! Time left for upgrade: T—14079M]

“Hang tight till Cyber-Sage finishes the upgrade.” The mere mention of his name calms Kal. “If he fails, you can always vaporize Earth and blame it on the dog.”

“Harriot is from the hunter race of his clan… you do know that, right?” Kal raises his eyebrow.

“A dog is a dog,” Aurelia scoffs.

“Earth is already corrupting the system, and it hasn’t even been integrated into the system yet!” Kal grunts. “I have a hunch that even getting Earth registered...” Kal spots a guy tailing him. He stops, spins, and faces his stalker. “Is a bad idea!”

Now this Old-Timer facing him would make a great anime geezer. Short, wrinkly, a walking stick umbrella that’s neither both. Good thing Kal wasn’t human. If he were, he would have already been considered dead, as he stood inside this Old-Timers kill radius. In skill, Kal knew at first glance that this human outclassed all the other Fourteen billion and counting humans he registered thus far—and not by a small margin either.

“Oblivion walk,” Kal muttered, triggering a skill. He went straight to the Old-Timer, crossed him, and kept strolling away.

Kal acknowledged his skill of disappearing within the crowd. If it wasn’t for the unique tattoo inside his earlobes, one might never detect him. Only pride born from skill made him create such a palpable weakness.

“For an assassin, you sure are cocky. I can tell why, though.” Kal smiles as he crosses the Old-Timer’s baffled face.

Old-Timer gawked, unable to believe he lost sight of his target. Lost his composure, Old-Timer changes his stance, ready to attack anything suspicious. Within a swift moment and a tight grip on his not-a-weapon umbrella, he scans his area, drawing more attention to himself.

[Skill: Oblivion walk- every step is a step not taken. Unregistered and unnoticed by anyone who loses sight or focuses on this skill-user shall never find him again. Tier- Monarch.]

“If only you had some basic sense of Mana.” Kal sighs, walking away. He catches the Old-Timer’s right ear lobe had the number six tattoo. “Trophies?” He wondered. “Hmm... makes sense. I must be seven.” He chuckled to himself.

Aurelia had been busy mumbling to herself to register or hear anything during Kal’s meet with this strange individual. Normally, her staff notices, records, and reports on every single what-if. Even they skip the last process if they have been skewed not too long ago. Like always, they notice and record their concerns for the next shift to handle. By handle, they meant get skewed for not reporting, reporting too late, or reporting at all. Getting skewered was the only constant. But this time, working alone and in the dark, Aurelia missed or didn’t care enough to register many aspects of Earth. After all, how can Earthlings or their nonsensical beliefs affect the System?

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“Bad idea...” Kal falls back to his original comment. “Integrating Earth into the system—” A notification pops into Kal’s iPhone, disrupting his analysis.

Newsletters from tech companies, scientists, news, and many other visionaries filled his memory to the brim. Kal’s energetic mood flips to a murderous one. He would have missed this inconvenient fact if it weren’t for CyberSage, who is also the human who pointed out the artificial cloud where Kal could find everything and anything being uploaded. From a boon as an easy way out, the artificial cloud turned to a curse that multiplied Kal’s workload by the second.

“Time to pay him a visit.” Kal disappeared into the crowd.

————

The best part about the encounter with CyberSage was his unearthly want for futuristic tech. CyberSage had gone bankrupt, jobless, and homeless several times while pursuing his passion. Born into wealth, he swooped down into a place the rats avoided. Until Kal found him for system stuff, he wasn’t able to afford his next meal.

In truth, Kal didn’t find him, but CyberSage had been caught following Kal, which should have been impossible with his ‘Oblivion Walk’ skill active at said time.

Anyone trying to remember or register Kal’s presence would register him as a passing cloud. In and out of their temporary memory, they would forget him once their eye or mind left his presence. Despite this, CyberSage followed Kal through alleyways, metros, and a maze made up of people.

No Mana, no raw hunter’s talent or tracking skills, and still CyberSage followed Kal like a hound.

Since Kal confronted him, CyberSage has been the single huge contributor to Kal’s cause. From tinkering over the microscopic cracks, attaching two alien techs, and imagining futuristic tech that might help him build the device Kal had envisioned. CyberSage made demands and, to his surprise, Kal found and acknowledged all of them. He didn’t find him as crazy as the others.

He would describe an item like a kid imagining a lucid dream, and Kal acknowledged every request and even named his fantasy tech with names that gave tongue twisters a whole new level. Yet said tech was out of Kal’s reach with him having strict restrictions over his system.

‘Jugaad’ was the primary term for accomplishing the task. CyberSage had almost transformed Earth’s ancient artifacts into a much-advanced tech for system integration. After the final tweaks, Kal waited for it to charge. Based on Aurelia’s calculations, she made a timer for Kal, so he wouldn’t blow up and Earth with him, until CyberSage is done. For now, with or without his knowledge, CyberSage was the sole protector of Earth.

————

Earth had drained Kal’s cool interior, his patience, and most of what Kal makes Kal, if that makes sense. Now he was impatience, quick to judge, a hypocrite, and downright becoming more human by the second.

Every time an invention hit the market, he zoomed back to CyberSage, pestering him to complete the device at that very moment. He promised him riches and status, which CyberSage cared little about nor which Kal could fulfill. Kal also offered stats he legally can’t give away, which CyberSage ignored as he didn’t know what they were nor cared for anything else except for what he was building at the moment.

Kal zaps inside CyberSage’s workshop. As usual, CyberSage didn’t register his surroundings, completely focused on his work.

One word that nails CyberSage’s description to the bone is malnourished. Wacko being the other his haters gave him. He is slim to the bone, with hair that hasn’t been combed since his birth, beaten eyes that haven’t slept since yesterday, and an IQ that cannot be measured by any Earthly standards.

At first sight, Kal assumed CyberSage was being tortured by someone. He had both his skeleton arms inside an iron barrel four times his size as he hung from the ceiling, with his toes barely touching the three-legged stool below. Stiller than the dead, CyberSage didn’t move an inch, nor wobbled over the once four-legged stool.

“Are you alright buddy?” Kal asks out of concern.

With no response, Kal takes a closer inspection.

CyberSage had a ridiculous homemade helmet covering three-fourths of his face. The right side had convex lenses stacked on top of each other, while the left side had concave lenses. With the helmet itself a threat enough to break his scrawny little neck, Kal looked past his foaming mouth.

“Wait!” Kal smacked himself for not realizing it sooner. He checked CyberSage for any external or internal wounds. Based on the state CyberSage maintained himself, any external or internal wounds would clearly stand out. Self-inflicted wounds aside, Kal couldn’t find any attempted wounds. With his usual stench, one might consider him dead from a mile away.

“Smell test is out of the question.” Kal stepped away as Old-Timer flashed into his mind. “Assassin.” Kal finds a few museum pieces missing. “Someone was here!”

“You can tell?” Aurelia chimes in and receives a gentle nod as a reply. “Someone found what they were looking for in here... They deserve to be in the scout regimen.”

“True.” Kal turns to CyberSage. “I will kill him for...” Kal taps his fist over his cheek as CyberSage freaks out!

He stumbles over his stool, pulling every lever inside the iron barrel. He built the apparatus himself to do both heavy lifting and minute detailing over alien tech. Laser beams, visible to only Kal’s trained eyes, went dancing through his apartment, dicing and toasting everything in its path.

Turns out, CyberSage foams a bit during high-intensity muse runs and as he was busy completing the final touches over Kal’s demanded artifact, he had to be dead still. Micro detailing, high-intensity laser, a theory of a theory, and homemade tech made of scraps demanded a lot. And when said lot is disturbed by sudden touch, CyberSage is dragged back to reality. Thanks to Kal and his speed, the fire and witnesses were taken care of.

No, he didn’t kill them, but he might have threatened them to the point where they might’ve lost their right to speak.

Kal takes a quick peek around. Only a black orb and the stool, crippled of yet another leg, remained. “Two lives left?” Kal lifts CyberSage up.

“No worries.” CyberSage dusts himself off and glances around his ruined apartment. “I always pack light.” He assured himself. “We have that instant healing thingy too.”

“Without Mana, that will kill you… if you’re not dead already.” Kal reminds him.

Cyber-sage halts, speculates for a second, and then lifts and tosses the black orb towards Kal. “Then rush me to a doctor. You can pay, can’t you?” He eyes Kal. “Or threaten?” He squints one eye and widens the other.

“That doesn’t make the pain any lesser!”

“Ah! A minor miscalculation.” Cyber-sage ponders out loud, scratching his head. His eyes still managing to adjust themselves without the helmet.

“Gutt wrenching pain is a minor miscalculation‽” Aurelia intrudes. “This guy is crazier than you.”

“Hope you survive the integration.” Kal gives him a wide, crazy smile.

“I will.” Cyber-sage matches Kal’s crazy smile.

Kal waves him goodbye and vanishes with the black orb. He reappears in a junkyard a hundred yards away, shrinks everything in its vicinity with a skill, and stores the entire junkyard in his spatial storage.

“Now assemble and ignite.” Aurelia tries and fails to imitate Kal’s smile. “And boom goes the Earth.”

“Earth has a bad influence on you.” Kal waves his head in disappointment. “Now stop screwing around and send me the location of a good {Scout}.”

Aurelia snaps out of her joual mode. Her horns split into tiny hair strings, spreading toward every other system screen in the empty office....