《Thug》 Chapter 1: Born Again Thug I thought I was strong and tough before I came to prison. I was a cocky youth that grew up on a cocktail of violence and misery in the Australian Neutral Zone established after World War III. By 12 years old I was in charge of my own gang of Runners and by 20 I had fallen in with one of the toughest outfits going. My trade was the specialised application of violence. Not just violence for violence sake, but violence to serve a purpose. A shake down, a con, a revenge killing contract. Like everyone in the Neutral Zone, you made credits how you could, where you could. Of course, no one gave a fuck what happened in the Neutral Zone. Life was cheap and the World Government mostly turned a blind eye to the hotbed of Violence and poverty they had created. That was of course as long as you didn¡¯t drag outsiders into the mix. That had been my mistake. I got a little¡­¡­overzealous. Shot up a border patrol guard that got in my way when I was beating a man to death for sitting on my chair at my favourite bar. Gubba didn¡¯t take kindly to that of course. 50 year sentence to a remote Prison called the Isolation Pit for my troubles. Of course the whole Neutral Zone was basically one big prison, but the Isolation Pit was worse. They strapped you into a sensory deprivation pod. The computers kept you healthy, but you just lay there. You couldn¡¯t move an inch and you couldn¡¯t see anything. Every month they played you a little video on rehabilitation and morals that lasted for exactly an hour. That was the only stimulation and light that came to your dark little frozen world. They did this as they knew as long as their was some minor stimulation the prisoners would not go completely insane. I thought I was tough before they put me in the Pod. Thought I was the toughest cunt on the block. But that first month felt like decades as I lay their paralysed in the darkness. By the end of the first month they had already completely broken me. I cried like an old woman when the light of the rehabilitation video broke the darkness and I screamed like a newborn baby when it was taken away. Every day I begged for them to let me out, but no release ever came. It was only after they put me in the Pod that I understood time was merely an intellectual construct. A concept human beings had invented and imposed upon the world. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years. All these ways to measure and cut up our lives into these units of time. And yet they were meaningless. In the Pod it was like being trapped in some kind of cosmic black hole. Time warps around you, sometimes travelling fast and sometimes travelling real slow. By the end of the first year in the Pod I had stopped counting time. By the end of the second year I had entered a kind of Fugue state. I had tried to meditate, but that had failed me. It worked for a little while before I felt the madness begin creeping back in. Instead I tried rewind time and lose myself in forgetfulness. I let go of who I was, what had come before and what would come in the future. I became nothing and no one. A stranger to myself. I lost myself so completely that I barely noticed the monthly rehabilitation videos when they flashed on inside the Pod. There was no one to watch it because I did not exist. I don¡¯t know how much time passed when I was in this state. Could have been a couple of years or it could have been a decade. Until one day a reprieve of a sort came, but not the kind that I could ever have anticipated. One day strange disembodied voice spoke to me. I ignored it at first but it kept penetrating into my thoughts. The same thought over an over. What the fuck is that? I thought as I slowly focused on the alien voice. I laughed roughly at myself for a moment as the bold words floated in my mind.Had I gone mad?I whimpered in fear at this disturbing thought.Perhaps i had finally and truly snapped. Neither! I projected in my mind. My response seemed to aggravate the voice as it begin to repeat more loudly. Jesus Christ. I felt a strange pull on my mind as if the hand of god gripped my soul and was forcing me to choose. It occured to me then that this was not a figment of my imagination or some kind of psychotic break. It was like a God or a Devil trying to sieze my very soul.Blue or Red, Blue or Red, Blue or Red These thoughts began to obsessively swirl in my mind of their own accord. I felt like my mind was reaching out automatically to choose a team.No! I thought as I made these thoughts slip out of my mind like a sieve. I let the Fugue state flow through me and the pressure on mind lessened. Suddenly the pressure surged again and I felt a spike of pain as if someone had driven a knife into my head. My mind began to bend and bend and bend. It was like someone trying to snap a flexible bamboo reed and I knew soon it would reach its breaking point and I my mind would snap. There is only one team I am on¡­¡­.MY TEAM! I roared in mind. Something deep and primal inside me rose up and attacked the mental pressure. It was the Thug in me, the two bit punk from the streets who knew how to hurt a man in just the right places.Come get some bitch! I shouted mentally and finally I felt the pressure crack. I screamed then as my entire soul felt like it caught fire and something alien wormed its way into my mind. An alien energy thundered through me and I felt every cell in my body begin to change and vibrate at a molecular level. A sharp pained gripped my chest as I felt my heart seize. My mind expanded like I had received some kind of divine enlightenment and it was if I could see the interior of my body. I could see my heart melting under the onslaught of a thick black energy and soon it was replaced by a solid black orb. My blood went into black orb red and came out black as slowly all the blood in my body was changed into a this black liquid. Just as I began to breathe easier, knowledge began to enter my brain and I felt a power rise up in me that I have never felt before. Violence had made me feel powerful in the past. Beating another man to within an inch of his life. Having others fear me, but the taste of that power was nothing compared to what thrummed through my entire being now. My mind grew sharper and sharper until it was like a thin deadly knife filled with a fierce and uncompromising intellect. And even stronger was another feeling,The Hunger.As I concentrated I felt the knowledge that had been inserted into my mind take shape as a strange Sigil floated in my mind. I focused on it and information ran through my mind¡¯s eye as if I was reading a piece of paper. [CLASS: SYLER][CLASS TYPE: UNIQUE] [AN INTELLIGENT AND ADAPTIVE KILLER WHO PREYS ON OTHERS. A NATURAL PREDATOR OF THE STRONG]] As I stared at the information I saw two smaller shapes inside the Sigil and I tapped them lightly with my mind. [SKILL: INTUITIVE APTITUDE][SKILL: QUALITY: INNATE] [THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE STRUCTURE AND OPERATION OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS AND SKILLS. THIS ALLOWS THE PLAYER TO ACQUIRE ONE SKILL FROM EACH CLASS THAT EXISTS. RECOMMEND THAT THE PLAYER ONLY ACQUIRES ONE ADDITIONAL SKILL FORM OTHER CLASSES EVERY 10 LEVELS. IF RECOMMENDATION IS NOT FOLLOWED POSSIBILITY OF PLAYER GOING INSANE. GREAT MENTAL FORTITIDE IS REQUIRED TO WITHSTAND THE HUNGER CAUSED FOR NEW SKILLS. THIS IS AN INNATE SKILL WHICH MEANS IT CANNOT BE RANKED UP] [SKILL: TELEKINESIS I][SKILL QUALITY: BEGINNER] [ABIILITY TO MANIFEST QI. CAN FORM TELEKINETIC SHIELDS AND MANIPULATE AND MOVE EXTERNAL OBJECTS] Another announcement occured as i finished reviewing my Skills. I flinched as the countdown finished and lay there waiting for an explosion of some sort. But nothing happened. I still lay there in the Pod bathed in utter darkness. Instinctively I tried to move and for the first time in God knows how long my arm actually responded.The Pod has ceased working! I thought in joy as I squeezed my arms up inside the Pod and tried to press the lid off. Quickly the joy at being able to move wore off as I realised I had no way of opening the lid of the Pod.Fuck I could starve in here before anyone found me if this thing has malfunctioned! I pounded on the lid fruitlessly as panic began to sit in. Then out of nowhere a clinical logic spread through my mind as I felt the innate properties of [Intuitive Aptitude] manifest. I lowered my hands and my breathing calmed in an instant. My mind stilled and a series of logical options began to flow through my thoughts one after the other. I called up the Sigil for my Class in my mind and activated the smaller Sigil for [Telekinesis]. Focusing my mind I felt the Black Core in my heart jump to life as I activated the Skill. An energy I knew instinctively as Black-Qi began to circulate through my body and threaded out of my Black Core and soaked into my bloodstream. I manipulated the Black-Qi in my body for awhile as I got used to its feel and texture and then I fully activated the Skill. The Black-Qi manifested outside of my body and I pressed it up against the top of the Pod. The Black-Qi felt like an extra set of hands as I gripped the top of the Pod and began to pull. The lid resisted for a few seconds before it went flying off at an incredible speed and smashed into the ceiling of my cell.Freedom! I thought as I climbed out of the Pod for the first time in years. Stretching my body I cracked my spine as loosened up and realised I was completely naked. I didn¡¯t even spend a single second worrying about my nakedness. Instead I was telekinetically manifesting a small ball off Black-Qi in my hand. I manipulated the Black-Qi into various shapes before slowly sending it around the room.It¡¯s like an extra limb I thought as I touched it to the wall and other surfaces, it was almost like an extra set of senses providing me with tactile feedback on whatever it touched.This power. I almost felt drunk as I revelled in the feeling. But just as I was bathing in the dizzying heights of power a massive feeling of fatigue flooded through me and I dropped to my knees. ¡°Ungghhh.¡± I groaned as I vomitted on the ground and curled into a ball. The Black-Qi vanished leaving me feeling hollow and empty as the rush of power left me. I cast my mind¡¯s eye into my body and I saw that my Black Core now had a dull sheen to it. I stretched out my mind and immediately realised the problem. There was now only a tiny amount of Black Liquid left in my Core.The Liquid must be my Qi. If I use it all up it has negative effects. My Telekinesis can only last as long as the amount of Black-Qi I have stored in my Core. Instinctively I knew how to fix the problem. It was knowledge that had been imparted to me along with my Class. As I lay prone on the ground I calmed my mind and began to pulse my Black Core in a strange rhythm. It began to beat like the tide, rushing in and then flowing out. After a few moments my Black Core begin to vibrate at a particular frequency. Slowly it began to emit a suction force that drew strands of energy from the space around me. Slowly, too slowly for my liking, energy began to flow into me from outside of my body. It absorbed through my skin and into my blood before finding its way to my Black Core. As I settled into this strange rhythm something strange occurred. I naturally fell back into a Fugue State I had developed to survive the Pod. My thoughts disappeared and all that was left was the vibration of my Black Core. As I fell into the Fugue State it was like any impediment to the energy flow had been removed and energy from outside began to rush in at ten times the previous rate. What had once been a trickle now turned to a flood as a river of energy began fill my Black Core and I felt a pleasant feeling. It almost felt like I had two minds. One was in a Fugue State and was in state of ¡®no mind¡¯ while the other part of my brain was the precise logical machine that had been imbued into me by [Intuitive Aptitude]. This part of my brain was calmly analysing what was occurring. Yes. This is Power too. Draw in the energy from the outside world. Circulate it. Bring it into the Black Core. Hmmm this Black-Qi is simply energy it can probably be further condensed and made more efficient. Thoughts cascaded through my mind as countless experiments and mental models of how to improve the flow rate, usage, storage and purity of my Black-Qi were generated and examined. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Deep in my mind two new Sigils emerged. I touched upon them with the analytical part of mind and brought the information up. [SKILL: FUGUE STAT][SKILL QUALITY: INNATE] [FUGUE STATE ALLOWS THE PLAYER TO COMPLETELY ERASE THEIR THOUGHTS. THIS REMOVES ANY IMPEDIMENT TO GATHERING QI. WHEN GATHERING QI IN A FUGUE STATE THE RATE OF QI GATHERED IS INCREASED BY A FACTOR OF 10. FUGUE STATE ALSO ASSIST THE PLAYER IN RESISTING MENTAL ATTACKS. FUGUE STATE IS AN INNATE ABILITY AND CANNOT BE RANKED UP] [SKILL: SPLIT MIND][SKILL QUALITY: INNATE] [SPLIT MIND IS THE ABILITY TO FOCUS THE MIND ON TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TASKS AT ONCE BY LINKING TWO OF YOUR SKILLS. [FUGUE STATE] CAN BE USED TO PROCESS AND AUTOMATE INSTINCTIVE FUNCTIONS WHILE [INTUITIVE APITUTDE] CAN ANALYSE OTHER SETS OF INFORMATION AT THE SAME TIME. AS AN INNATE ABILITY THE SKILL CANNOT BE RANKED UP] Finally I gasped as my Black Core was full of Qi again. I snapped out of my Fugue State and it felt like only a few minutes had passed. But in reality the cold logical part of my mind had tracked the time to the second. It had been over 5 hours.Hmm 5 hours to restore all my Black-Qi at my current level I thought. At that moment a now familiar voice echoed in my mind. Well¡­¡­¡­Shit.Wasting no time I walked up to my cell door and felt it gently with my hands. It was sealed with a Cyro-Lock and would be difficult to open. Calculating the amount of Black-Qi [Telekinesis] used to open the Pod lid, I didn¡¯t feel comfortable attempting the same on the door. Doing so would leave me dramatically weakened and against the other teams. I could only assume that whatever had happened to me had happened to everyone else in the Prison. And they would either be on Red or Blue team, leaving only myself as the lone member of Black Team. This meant I had to be far more careful than anyone else. Gently I executed the mental models I had created on Qi manipulation and activated [Telekinesis]. A tiny strand of Black-Qi manifested and I sent it inside the Cyro-lock. Slowly I sensed the internal workings of the locking mechanism before flipping the right sequence of parts internally and with a loud click I felt the door unlock.Well that was easier than trying to blow it down I thought gleefully as my experiment was a success. Already my mind was racing on the possibilities of [Telekinesis]. Before I opened the door another idea occurred to me. Walking back to the wreck of the Pod lid I found the most solid part and used a fine stream Black-Qi to bend and cut dozens of small sharp pieces the size of a finger free. Then I cut a larger part out and folded and compacted the metal into a small weighted club. I swung the club in one hand a few times and smiled. It was about the size of a baseball bat with a bit more weight to it. Carrying the small metal shards in one hand and my club in the other I wedged the cell door open with my shoulder and sneaked out into the hallway. The light in the hallway was faint and came from a full moon that could be seen outside one of the windows. The power seemed to be out as all the lights were dead. The hallway was chaos. Multiple other Cell doors in the hall were caved in and blood was splattered all over the floor. A dismembered arm with its hand and fingers still attached was embedded in a broken door and poked up strangely as if asking for a high five. Strangely the blood looked like a lighter shade of red than was usual and a strange blue liquid also seemed splashed everywhere. As I thought about the Black-Qi filling my veins I made the conclusion that the red and blue liquid was what blood looked like now. No doubt if someone cut me I would bleed black. I had been wary before coming out but now I could see that I had totally underestimated the level of danger. Creeping through the wreckage I saw more bodies as I walked. A man in a guards uniform was propped up against a wall at the end of a hallway. He looked lean and muscular like an olympic athlete as his dead eyes stared at me listlessly. At first I couldn¡¯t work out what was wrong with him but then I realised a massive piece of metal had pierced through his chest right where his heart was. A thin blue liquid leaked out of his chest. ¡°He¡­..help me.¡± The man suddenly whispered.Shit! I almost jumped out of my skin when he spoke. How the fuck is this guy still alive?I crept up the guard and looked at his wound. Despite the severity of it he didn¡¯t seem like he would die anytime soon. ¡°It¡¯s right through part of my Blue Core. Please pull me off the metal and I should be able to heal. Fucking Red Team bastards.¡± The gasped. He looked up at me with pleading eyes and then suddenly he tensed. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you. I can¡¯t smell the stench of red team on you. But your not Blue Team are you? You don¡¯t smell like Blue Team.¡± ¡°It¡¯s ok friend. I¡¯m here now.¡± I said in a calm reassuring voice. I stared down at him as my innate skill [Intuitive Aptitude] flared automatically. [PLAYER IDENTIFIED][CLASS: SUPERMAN][CLASS LEVEL 1][BLUE TEAM] As his information displayed in my mind I smiled as I cocked my head slightly to the left. I couldn¡¯t help but lick my lips slightly as I stared at the man as if he was a meal. Under my intense gaze the man tried to weakly struggle as he realised something was wrong. ¡°No¡­¡­no¡­.please¡­..I have a family. Please, just don¡¯t.¡± The man whimpered as if he could sense death was near. ¡°Shhhhhh.¡± I said as I put my hand across his mouth silencing him. I locked eyes with him for a moment before the hunger surged. The mans eyes suddenly glowed red and i felt an instinctive sense of danger. I activated [Telekinesis] and exploded withBlack-Qi to form a shield in front of me. Some kind of laser beam shot out of the mans eyes and pressed against my Telekinteic shield. I grunted as i felt my shield collapse, but fortunately the laser beam had been dissapated. Seeing that the attack had come out of the mans eyes i simply turned his head to the side with the force of my hand. As long as he wasn''t looking at me directly i didn''t believe any future laser beams out of his eyes could hit me. Part of me viewed my actions as they happened and was disturbed by my lack of emotions. It was like i had entered a diassociative state, at the very elast i should be afraid. But all that thrummed through me was a hunger and a curiosity about how his laser eyes worked. It was the kind of clinical detachment a Doctor had when they conducted autopsy''s on dead bodies. ¡°Well that wasn''t very nice friend." I leaned down and whispered in the mans ear. I felt him tense in fear at my words as he weakly tried to struggle. "Let¡¯s find out what we have in here shall we?¡± I said as one of my small pieces of metal floated in the air as I activated [Telekinesis]. The metal shard floated slowly towards the man¡¯s forehead before it began to sink into it. The man screamed into my hand but I held his face firmly to limit the sound. His skin and skull demonstrated an unexpected resistance to my metal shard at first. But after exerted more strength with my [Telekinesis] his flesh and gone began to cut nicely. Fascinated I watched how much his flesh and bone resisted as i slowly cut open the top of his head. Finally the bone cut through completely and gently I lifted the top of his skull off and exposed his brain. Fine lines of Blue Qi pulsed in his brain like little lights as I stared into their complex structure. He whimpered under my hand as his life force dimmed, but I barely noticed. I was too caught up in the complex array like structure of Blue Qi that was woven into his very being. It¡¯s beautiful. So beautiful. I thought in wonder as [Intuitive Aptitude] analysed the structure at a rate faster than any super computer could possibly rival. Massive amounts of information on the Superman Class began to feed into my mind. I could see he had three Skills. [Flight], [Heat Vision] and [Solar Cultivation]. My mouth began to water as I saw the effects of Solar Cultivation. Immediately I utilised [Intuitive Aptitude] and I felt my Black-Qi surge as it flooded into the man''s brain. It separated and wrapped around the cluster of Blue-Qi that was responsible for [Solar Cultivation] and began to absorb its components. Once I felt the process was completed I withdrew the Black-Qi back into my body and I felt knowledge return with it. The Black-Qi carried an imprint that snaked up into my mind and formed the shape of a new Sigil in my mind. ¡°Fufufufu.¡± I laughed as I felt a tremendous flood of power surge through my body. My muscles began to bulge and grow as my body thickened considerably and my eyesight sharpened. An incredible sense of physical power filled me as I smiled. I lost my smile though as series of emotions began to wash over me. Pride, righteousness, an iron clad will to defeat all enemies and protect those I love. The emotions washed over me in a storm as strange thoughts began to take over my mind. It was like the personality of the [Class: Superman] beign absorbed into me along with part of the power. That was when a predatory killer rose up inside and me began to eat away at the new personality. It was like a hungry cannibal feasting on its essence as laughed at its pain. For the first time i caught sight of what my Class truly looked.And it was fucking scary. Finally the Superman personality was subdued and absorbed by the Syler personality which settled back down into my mind. I sat their half crouched for few moments as i thought. The Syler Class was now a part of me but it had some of its trace kind of will. A hunger and a the seed of a personality. For the first time i began to serious misgivings about the this so called Unique Class i had been awarded. It seemed like all the Classes came with a kind of ''spirit'', a fundamental nature. I would have to give this serious consideration when i absorbed new powers. As it currently stood my mind was far too weak.Turning my mind back to the task at hand, I hovered over the Sigil in my mind and watched as the information revealed itself. [SKILL: SOLAR CULTIVATION I(ACQUIRED)][SKILL QUALITY: BEGINNER][CLASS: SUPERMAN] [SOLAR CULTIVATION IS THE METHOD BY WHICH SUPERMAN DEVELOPED HIS TREMENDOUS PHSYICAL ABILTIIES. BY FOCUSING ON THE QI IN THE WORLD THAT IS STRONG IN SOLAR RADIATION THE PLAYER DRAWS THIS ENERGY INTO THEIR BODY AND INFUSES IT INTO THEIR CELLS CAUSING THEM TO TRANSFORM AND STRENGTHEN. EACH LEVEL OF THE SKILL PROVIDES +2 POINTS TO STRENGTH, SPEED AND DURABILITY AND +1 TO REGENERATION EACH TIME THE SKILL LEVELS] Where the hell are attributes? I wondered as I cast about in my mind. That was when I saw that near the Class Sigil was another Sigil. I cast my mind across that and saw all my details emerge in my mind. [STRENGTH: 12/210] [SPEED: 12/210] [DURABILITY: 12/210 [REGENERATION: 11/210] [PERCEPTION: 10/210] [INTELLIGENCE: 10/210] Ahh I must have started with 10 in each attribute and then the extra points are from Solar Cultivation. I thought as I looked at my stats. The extra attributes I had didn¡¯t seem to correlate with the durability of the mans bones. I shrugged as thought it through.Must be a special bonus he got from acquiring his Class to begin with. Like a +10 boost to all Attributes or something. That was when I noticed I still had my hand over the mans mouth as his breath began to fade. A deep greed rose in me as wished I could rip the other Skills right out of him as well, but unfortunately I could only take one Skill from each class. ¡°Sorry my friend. I thank you for your gift.¡± I said as pressed my hand into his chest. I reached my fingers around his Blue Core and crushed it in my hand. The mans eyes widened for a moment and then the light in his eyes finally faded away. I looked at the Blue liquid on my hands as I pulled my hand out of his chest. The Blue-Qi did not seem to have any natural corroding effect on my skin. I pulled out what remained of his Core out and held it in my hand. I don¡¯t know what made me do it but for some reason I placed a small part of the Blue Core in my mouth and tasted it. A surge of pure Qi went through me as tasted his Core. ¡°Jesus Wept.¡± I said out loud as I felt the concentration of power in the Core. I bit down on a small piece of it and began to chew. It tasted soft and fleshly like chicken.Delicious! I thought as Blue-Qi ran down my chin as I feasted on the Core. The Blue-Qi entered me and was then turned into Black-Qi when it entered my blood. From their it pumped its way into my Black Core. Soon I lost any sense of decency as I consumed his Blue Core like a starving animal. An enormous stream of pure Qi filled me that was countless times more powerful than the amount of Qi I had managed to gather even with [Fugue State]. Just as I finished eating all of his Blue Core I felt as if a critical amount of energy had been gathered in my Black Core. The Black-Qi suddenly contracted and condensed and small tiny marble formed inside my Core. <+6 ATTRIBUTES POINTS ACQUIRED FOR LEVELLING UP CLASS> <1 SKILL POINT ACQUIRED FOR LEVELLING UP CLASS> Booyah! I thought. Excitedly I pulled up my attributes again. Just by thinking of it I could assign the attribute points where I desired. Thinking carefully I decided to assign one to each attribute in order to create a generalist build. This way each time I levelled [Solar Cultivation] I would gain addiitonal points to Strength, Speed, Durability and Regernation attributes and then every time I levelled my Class I would gain an additional +1 to all attributes. Combined this should raise all my attributes quite quickly and in a uniform way. I pondered briefly on where to apply my Skill point. If you only got 1 Skill point per level then they were a precious resource indeed. [Telekinesis] had already proved very useful and seemed like a very flexible form of energetic manipulation. [Intuitive Aptitude] was of course godlike, but could not be ranked up. [Split Mind] and [Fugue State] were also Innate. I suspected depending on the persons previous life experiences they might be able to trigger the creation of all sorts of Innate Skills over time. Upon reflection the biggest synergy I had right now was in Skill that improved my attributes. This also seemed a smart way to increase my survivability if the corpses in the hallway were anything to go by. I carefully applied my Skill Point to [Solar Cultivation] and pulled up the information. [SKILL SOLAR CULTIVATION II (ACQUIRED)][SKILL QUALITY: BEGINNER][CLASS: SUPERMAN] I quickly looked over my attributes and saw they had risen again. [STRENGTH: 14/210] [SPEED: 14/210] [DURABILITY: 14/210 [REGENERATION: 12/210] [PERCEPTION: 10/210] [INTELLIGENCE: 10/210] Yes this is the money I thought as I looked at my Skill. Some deep instinct told me I was on the correct path. I would focus on raising my physical attributes as much as possible first in order to increase my survivability. After my Class levelled up I had also felt something else that was a little strange as my Black Core had reacted. I send my vision inward and examined my Core. The small little marble inside was floating in the sea of Black-Qi. Sensing its composition I discovered that it was full of a dense amount of concentrated Black-Qi as well.Ahh I understand. Each time you level you gain a greater capacity to store Qi. Previously I could only store Black-Qi in my Core. Now my Core has a marble in it that also stores even more Qi inside it. If this happens each time I level up then eventually I will have dozens of small marbles in my Core. Remembering how quickly I had run out of Qi when I ripped the lid of the Pod off I could see how important levels would be. Without an energy source most Skills would become useless very quickly except for incredible passive skills like [Solar Cultivation]. There were two other deductions that could also be made. Firstly, the Core was fairly fragile. I had crushed one with my hand alone. I would need to think of ways to protect and reinforce the area around my heart. I had no doubt if the man with the Superman Class had not been already injured he could have easily killed me. The other conclusion was that not everyone could see someone¡¯s Class like I could. This seemed to be a unique attribute of [Intuitive Apitutde] though one had to assume other players may have Skills that could also identify. How the man identified me as a foreign Team was actually through smell. Red Team and Blue Team must naturally give off a scent that is easily identifiable. This is how they know its an enemy. But as for Team Black we didn¡¯t seem to give off any scent and when I sniffed my fingers I couldn¡¯t detect any particular smell from the Blue-Qi. It appears I was odourless. Clenching my fist and feeling the new found strength in my body I looked down at the corpse at my feet. Now that my body had filled out from [Solar Cultivation] he was about the right size for me. ¡°Sorry mate. Gonna need these clothes.¡± I said as I stripped him down. Minutes later I was ready to continue my exploration. I placed themetal shards I had created into a pocket and then I hefted my metal bat and held it gently in my hand.Time to find this fucking Node. Chapter 2: Taken for a Ride I wandered around the Prison facility aimlessly for at least an hour. The Prison seemed to be quite large, but it was hard to tell the true extent of its size. I had been sedated when they have brought me here and then placed into my coffin so I had no real idea of what the facility was like except for rumours. From what I could tell I seemed to be in a wing that branched off a main area. I had spent an hour combing through the wing I had been imprisoned in, but had found nothing. No Node, no Red Team, no Blue Team. Just more bodies. It was hard to see exactly what had happened to them but someone or a group of people had clearly gone on some kind of rampage. Strangely they all still had their Core¡¯s in their chest but they were so damaged there there was no Qi left in them. Perhaps I am the only sick fuck who has worked out you can eat them I thought. I should have interrogated the dying man more before I killed him. Knowledge was clearly power in this brave new world. Carefully I slipped out into a larger area that seemed to connect the wing I was in to the rest of the Prison. A large open planned area sprawled in front of me that seemed to be split into two different levels. I cast out my [Telekinesis] like a net to see if I could sense any enemies as I strained my ears for the slightest sound. My TK spread throughout room about 10 metres in front of me before I retracted it. Going further than that seemed to cause an enormous drain on my Qi. I couldn¡¯t sense the presence of anyone so I quietly snuck into the larger area and crept along the side of the wall. In the distance I heard a soft moaning as I halted immediately and crouched down. I perked my ears up and waited until I heard the sound again. It sounded like the distant noise of someone moaning in pain. Focusing on keeping every single step perfectly silent I made my way closer and closer to the noise until it sounded like it was coming from a small room off the main hallway. Cautious, I didn¡¯t immediately move into the room and instead checked the surroundings and adjoining areas several times. Nothing I thought after I combed the area as well as I could. I managed to find a vantage point where I could peer through a window into the small room and I saw a man laying on the ground. His eyes were closed as he moaned to himself and clutched the stumps of what used to be his legs. Clearly someone had cauterised his wounds as they looked like someone had seared them with a live flame. No matter what way I looked at the scenario something didn¡¯t seem right so I quietly pushed off from my position intent on avoiding the room and finding a way into other parts of the Prison. That was when I felt a strong arm snake around my throat and a incredible paralysing force burned through my body like jet fuel. Jesus I thought as I plummeted straight to the ground as a weight pressed down on me. I tried to us my TK but my Qi only weakly responded. I felt like a frail old man as I struggled as if all the strength had been sucked right out of me. I pushed up slightly and twisted my body in order to try and throw a hard elbow but instead found myself pushed hard back down on the ground, this time on my back. I stared up into the face of my attacker and saw that is was a young brown haired woman straddling on top of my body. Her young an innocent features were at odds with the viciousness in her eyes. As I wrestled with her she smeared herself on me pressing the side of her face against me and pressing her skin against me. Skin based I thought immediately as [Intuitive Aptitude] began to analyse what was happening. ¡°Don¡¯t fight so much Sugah. I¡¯m gonna treat you real good.¡± The woman purred as she pushed my shirt up and licked the side of my face. ¡°Fuck you bitch.¡± I swore as I tried to punch her face, but my arm just stood up weakly in the air like I was giving a salute. She smiled down at me as she saw my struggling arm and wrapped it behind the back of her neck and drew me deeper into a lovers embrace. Her other hand lifted her top up and I felt her large breasts press into my skin as she began to grind her hips on mine. ¡°I¡­¡­¡± I struggled to say, but she just grasped my mouth with her hand and then began to slide her tongue into my mouth as she ground herself on me. My [Intuitive Aptitude] finally identified her Class as information was revealed in my mind. [PLAYER IDENTIFIED][LEVEL 1][CLASS: ROGUE][TEAM: BLUE TEAM] Fuck. A Rogue was my worst nightmare. Not only could she steal powers but her touch crippled and drained like a fucking a vampire. Her mutant power worked on touch which was why she tried to press her skin on me as much as possible. My brain analysed that at the earlier levels the greater the physical contact the better the transfer of energy. Just as this thought ran through my mind the woman¡¯s hand snaked down to my pants and began to pull them down. Her small hand pulled out my cock and began to massage it between her legs under her short skirt. I couldn¡¯t help but get hard as she pressed my hardening cock against her wet pussy as she groaned in my ear and sucked on the side of my face. Jesus wept I¡¯m going to get fucked to death. ¡°So tasty¡­.¡± She murmured. As she slid my hard cock inside of her and began to ride me. ¡°That¡¯s it baby, give it up your woman.¡± She groaned as she rode me and the energy was sucked out of my body at a faster and faster rate. I focused on trying to slow the rate in which my Qi was absorbed, but it didn¡¯t seem to have any effect. Suddenly I felt an intense pain as if something was being pulled out of my very soul. I yelled as loud as I could but no sound came out as if my throat was locked. ¡°Ohhhh yummy. Look at you my little Syler with all your stolen goods. Such a feast!¡± The woman said as she rode my cock. Even if I wanted to respond I couldn¡¯t as my body lay crippled and my Black-Qi drained like a water in a leaky bucket. Finally I felt the last of my Black-Qi drain away as she tried to forcibly suck the Sigil for [Intuitive Aptitude] out of my mind. That was when a a cold predator rose up in my mind and fought like a wild animal. Back and forth their struggle went until finally her absorption power began to retreat. ¡°What a fun little power you have babe. Even I can¡¯t strip your core Class ability. But it¡¯s ok I have got another idea for you.¡± She whispered in my ear. As she stopped utilising her absorption power on me a little bit of strength came back to my body, but my Qi was virtually empty. ¡°You can get fucked!¡± I hissed I tried to force my way up. But she just laughed and easily held me down with one hand as she sat back on my cock and I slid deeper inside her. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you won¡¯t hate me forever. Soon, you will love me. Hehehe, everyone will love me.¡± She whispered fervently. My eyes tightened at her words. Fucking bitch is cray cray. I had lost all my Skills but I still had [Intuitive Aptitude] as I kept a tight control on my emotions and waited for a moment, any moment to turn the tables. I would wait for my moment to strike and then I would¡­¡­¡­.My thoughts trailed off into nothing as I grew confused. What was I doing? ¡°You love me don¡¯t you Slave. You love your Goddess don¡¯t you?¡± I looked up and saw the love of my life leaning back on my hard cock and smiled. God she is beautiful I thought as I looked at her in all her glory. Her top was pushed up and rode above her big tits as she straddled me. ¡°Yes Goddess.¡± I said with big grin. ¡°Good. As your Qi recovers you will do nothing to try and disperse the foreign chemicals in your body will you? Also you will never seek to harm me and only protect me.¡± She asked as she looked down at me. ¡°Yes Goddess.¡± I intoned. I wasn¡¯t sure why she was asking me such silly questions. As if I would ever hurt her? Even as I stared at her my [Intuitive Aptitude] was sending me information on the Skill being used on me. The more it pressed into me the more I began to understand it. This was a separate ability to her power absorption and must have been one my beloved acquired. She was so resourceful! The sketchy outlines of the Sigil began to appear in my mind. ¡°This is [Purple Man] isn¡¯t it?¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯re a clever one aren¡¯t you Slave? Yes this is [Purple Man]. It allows me to exude chemical pheromones which when inhaled or absorbed through the skin allow me to mentally control you. Even though I can tell you all this its not like you can change its effects right?¡± ¡°Why would I ever want to change it?¡± I asked confused. ¡°Hah exactly Slave.¡± She said as she climbed off me.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. She stood and lifted one of her legs up slightly as she balanced it against the railing. Her short skirt hiked up as she did so and her pussy could be easily seen as she did not wear any underwear. ¡°Now get on your knees slave and lick this pussy.¡± She ordered. I eagerly crawled forward and pressed my face between her legs and began to lick her clitoris and suck on her juices. ¡°Oh god yes.¡± She moaned as I worked her with all the skills I had acquired over the years. It didn¡¯t take her long before she came and pressed my face hard into her pussy as she orgasmed. ¡°Very nice Slave. You¡¯re very good at that. It¡¯s a shame you will die soon. I think you are a little too dangerous to keep around with that predatory class of yours. I am sure you have already hypothesised the weakness of my [Purple Man] control over you.¡± ¡°Yes Goddess. [Purple Man] is a pheromone so it can bypass mental defences. However it requires reasonably close contact to initiate. It also seems like it even a reasonably small amount of Qi would be enough to fight its effects. My analysis is that the victim needs to be drained of nearly all their Qi first before applying the Skill and then a control imprint with a voice command is applied. This means even when my Qi recovers because you have commanded me not to disperse it, the chemical build up will remain and I will be under your control. I would also hypothesise that the further distance I gain from you will reduce the effects over time as you need to renew the amount of the chemical compound in my system through continued exposure.¡± The Goddess looked shocked by the extent of my analysis and her eyes tightened as if she looked a little afraid. ¡°Come, lets not waste time.¡± She said as she made me follow her. The Goddess led me back to the room with the legless man moaning to himself. The mans face grew grim as he saw us and tears began to stream down his face moaned. ¡°No please¡­..no more¡­.just let me die.¡± The man whimpered. ¡°Fascinating.¡± I said as I bent down and inspected his body. Not only had his legs been cut off and cauterised but so had all his fingers. Countless other wounds were present on his body, but somehow he was still alive. One couldn¡¯t help but marvel at the artistry of the torture. ¡°Do you like my work?¡± The Goddess asked as she looked down at me with a complicated expression. It was almost as if she feared me judging her. Which was odd. ¡°Just admiring your craftsmanship Goddess. Even I would have thought these wounds here and down here would have been enough to kill him. I am not quite sure how is still breathing let alone talking.¡± I replied. She smiled then. That dazzling beautiful smile that I adored so much. ¡°Hehehe. I fused a bit of healing power into those organs so they still function just enough for him to stay alive and [Purple Man] prevents him from trying to kill himself. You see this man and his two friends were the first to find me after the Change happened. I didn¡¯t want to hurt them at first of course, but his friend was the one with the [Purple Man] Power. After what they did to me I let my Skill loose and sucked them dry. My control with the first two was imperfect and they died, but I got to practice on the last one.¡± ¡°Goddess, can I ask are their no repercussions for you draining multiple Skills? If I drain more than 1 every 10 levels then it overwhelms my mind.¡± I asked honestly. I was worried she would overtax herself by taking on so many powers and I didn¡¯t want anything to happen to her. She cocked her head oddly at me at my words and the smile fell off her face. ¡°I guess you would know wouldn¡¯t you my little Syler. I have absorbed Twenty Skills so far. As far as I can tell each Class comes with what I call a personality. They are here in my mind, mostly sleeping and waiting for their chance to take me over. Its very possible I am more than a little crazy hahaha.¡± ¡°I thought your [Fugue State] and [Split Mind] would help. But they have your personality all over them. They smell like a stubborn Thug who wants to strangle me in my sleep. But I don¡¯t care. I don¡¯t care even if I go completely insane, as long as I have power then what does it matter? That¡¯s right, exactly. Power in the end, always the end. Hehehe. Fucking skin.¡± I didn¡¯t say anything as the Goddess just stood their for awhile muttering to herself as she made no sense. I began to realise that she was in actuality totally insane and her lucidity was held together by the thinnest strands of rationality. I didn¡¯t have the power to heal her so all I could do was watch over her and protect her when she needed it. The Goddess stood like that for around 10 minutes before her eyes seemed to regain some clarity. ¡°Why the fuck haven¡¯t you taken his power yet?¡± She demanded. I looked at the Goddess confused for a moment before I looked down at the man. ¡°Here let me help you. You piece of Trash don¡¯t you even speak when you feel this pain.¡± She hissed at the man on the floor. Then I small red laser beam extended slightly from the tip of her finger as she began to slice the top of his skull off. The mans eyes shone with the deepest of terrors as he lay their rigid, unable to even scream. Within seconds she lifted the top of his skull off and then looked at me with those vicious eyes. ¡°Are you sure Goddess? Do you not want his ability for yourself?¡± I asked politely, but the Goddess only laughed in my face. ¡°Not this particular ability! You will need it for what I have planned.¡± She said cryptically. I edged forward as I peered into the contents of the mans brain. Unlike the other man I had killed this one was from Red Team and his brain was a mess of Red-Qi twined in and out of his brain matter. [PLAYER IDENTIFIED][LEVEL 1][CLASS: BAILEY HOSKINS][TEAM: RED TEAM] As I used [Intuitive Aptitude] to learn his ability I realised why the Goddess was not interested in acquiring it. It was a Mutant Power that only had a singular self destructive Skill. As the Skill settled into my mind the Sigil formed I marvelled at how powerful it felt in equal proportion to how useless it was. [SKILL: EXPLOSION I (ACQUIRED)][SKILL QUALITY: BEGINNER][CLASS: BAILEY HOSKINS] [EXPLOSION IS THE POWER OF THE WORST MUTANT SUPERHERO TO EVER LIVE. IT IS THE POWER TO EXCITE THE FUNDAMENTAL NATURE OF QI TO CAUSE A CRITICAL CHAIN REACTION THAT INCREASES THE POWER OF YOUR QI EXPODENTIALLY. WARNING, USE OF THIS POWER IS HIGHLY LIKELY TO CAUSE THE USERS CORE TO OVERLOAD AND EXPLODE. EXTENT OF EXPLOSION IS DEPENDENT ON THE AMOUNT OF QI IN YOUR CORE] ¡°I understand now.¡± I said. ¡°You want me to be a suicide bomber.¡± ¡°Hehehe of course babe. The rest of Blue Team and Red Team are fighting over the Node in the Central part of the Prison. I need an ace in the hole to wipe out whoever survives that. Speaking of which I didn¡¯t notice at first but you aren¡¯t a part of either Red Team or Blue Team are you? You don¡¯t have the right smell.¡± ¡°No Goddess, I am the only member of Team Black.¡± I said as I explained how it worked. ¡°Oh how very interesting.¡± She giggled. ¡°Can I make a suggestion Goddess? This [Explosion] power will provide a greater effect the more Qi is in my body. If I can level up more before the final confrontation then I will have more Qi to detonate which will result in a larger area of effect.¡± I advised. ¡°You know how to level up!¡± She screamed as she grabbed me in surprise. ¡°I¡¯ve killed so many but I never got anything like EXP or any kind of notification.¡± She whispered. I smiled as I winked at her and leant down to the still shuddering man on the floor. The Goddess automatically knelt down with me as she stared at my every move. ¡°Put your hand into his chest and rip out his Core.¡± I said. Before I had even finished my sentence the Goddess had thrust her hand inside the man and ripped out his Core. The man died with a look of horror on his face but to be honest neither of us paid him much attention. ¡°What do I now?¡± She asked as she trembled in anticipation. ¡°Eat it.¡± I said simply. Her face went blank for a moment as she tried to take in what I was saying. ¡°E¡­..eat it?¡± ¡°Like this.¡± I said as I licked some of the Red-Qi that was trailing down her hand from the Red Core. I felt the pure Qi hum through me as I bit off a tiny piece of the Core she was holding and swallowed it. ¡°God¡­.You are so evil!¡± She squealed in pleasure as she watched me eat part of the Core. Slowly she began to chew on it herself and within minutes she had consumed the entire Core. Hey eyes went vacant as the Qi swarmed through her and I recognised that she was using my [Fugue State] Skill to assist in absorbing all the Qi. After some time her eyes came back to reality and I saw her flex her fist and punch the air a couple of times. ¡°+6 attribute points each level. Levelling will make an enormous difference if all the points are put into one attribute at these early levels. No one else has figured out how to level yet! This will give me a huge advantage, on stats alone without any Skill I could end up many times stronger.¡± ¡°Fufu¡­.That is the idea Goddess. What did you do with the bodies of all these others you have killed so far? They should all have Cores.¡± I said. I saw her realise the implications as her eyebrows shot up as she sped from from the room. Quickly I followed her and saw her wedge open the door to a cell that led of an adjoining room. The inside of the room looked like some kind of hell. There were over twenty bodies piled up in the shape of a small pyramid in the middle of the room. The eyes of the dead saw no more as laid in the pile as a mixture of red and blue Qi stained the floor. Many of the bodies were simply dessicated husks that had been completely drained of life, while other swere still more human looking. ¡°This is my trophy room. I am so glad I kept them all now.¡± She giggled. She looked at me then and a complex emotion flitted across her beautiful face. ¡°You may have half the Cores here. The higher your level the bigger the bang!¡± She laughed. I returned a vicious smile at her words. The thought of annihilating a whole host of her enemies as a human bomb was quite appealing. They would never know what hit them. I went to move towards the bodies to begin eating the Cores when the Goddess suddenly grabbed me and dragged me down on top of the pile of corpses. ¡°You¡¯re so fucking sexy you evil cunt.¡± She whispered as she put her hands down my pants and began playing with my cock. I smiled as I grew hard and I pressed her further down into the pile of corpses. She spun around and lifted up her skirts as she pressed her ass into me. It didn¡¯t take me long get hard as I slowly slid my cock inside her and took her from behind. ¡°Oh God harder! Harder!¡± She moaned as I thrusted into her from behind. I lost myself in the pleasure as I sunk my cock as deep into her as it could go. As I thrusted with a slow, but hard rhythm I saw the vacant eyed stare of one of the corpses looking at me as I went to work. Somewhere I knew I should feel terror and disgust, but all I could do was smile as I stared at that dead face. Such would be the fate of anyone who got in the way of my Goddess I thought with a deep satisfaction. Chapter 3: BOOM BOOM It didn¡¯t take long for the room full of bodies to become even more chaotic as the Goddess and I feasted upon the Cores. I held up one of my last Cores as I looked at it in the light. Even though the Goddesses power had completely drained their Qi the Cores seemed to hold a certain amount of pure Qi in their flesh regardless. It was only when the Core was severely damaged and ripped apart that the innate Qi in the flesh seemed to dissipate. I licked the Core before I started chewing on it. I preferred the Blue Cores the best as they tasted like chicken. The Red Cores had more of a venison type flavour and were not as pleasant to feed upon. As I had been consuming the Cores I had also tried to regain my Skill [Fugue State]. After all it was an innate Skill I had self created so I theorised it shouldn¡¯t be too difficult to simple reacquire it. Unfortunately this was not the case. The very part of me that had been able to self create the Skill seemed missing. Like there was a hole in my mind that had been deleted which contained the part of me that had the potential to make the ability in the first place. At least the Goddess has it I thought as it would have been worse if I lost to an enemy. At least this way it can still serve her cause, which when I really thought about it was actually quite an honour. As I digested the last Core I felt the now familiar process of Level Breakthrough occur as a ninth bead formed in my Back Core. A notification sounded in my mind. <+6 ATTRIBUTES POINTS ACQUIRED FOR LEVELLING UP CLASS> <1 SKILL POINT ACQUIRED FOR LEVELLING UP CLASS> I smiled as I felt my power increase yet again. Not only had I broken through to level 9 I felt extremely close to level 10. I suspected that last Core must have been a Class 2 Core. Perhaps we are not the only one who knows how to level. I suspected this particular victim had discovered the levelling process and kept it a secret from his companions. Investing my attribute points was a simple process. My role was to be a human bomb so I needed to survive long enough to be able to get close to the enemy. I had been dumping all my points into Durability which had raised this attribute dramatically. [STRENGTH: 12/210] [SPEED: 12/210] [DURABILITY: 54/210 [REGENERATION: 11/210] [PERCEPTION: 10/210] [INTELLIGENCE: 10/210] Interestingly, I had not lost the attribute points I had gained from acquiring and levelling up [Solar Cultivation]. So even though I lost the Skill, the small initial gain I had received had remained which was useful. The main gain though was the massively increased durability attribute. I had experimented as I had slowly levelled the attribute and it was clear that it made your entire body more durable. My bones and even flesh felt denser and harder and my skin was more resistant. I wouldn¡¯t go as far as saying I was bullet proof, but it felt like the entire structural integrity of my body had improved significantly. This didn¡¯t seem to effect my healing rate however. I cut myself many times as I raised attribute points and the healing rate remained the same. I assumed this is what the attribute Regeneration was for. If I had to characterise the difference I would say Durability lowered the amount of damage you received while Regeneration increased the rate you healed damage that occurred. It seemed like at very high levels your attribute points almost gained the power of a Skill, increasing your body to superhuman proportions. I imagined at high enough Durability I would become bullet proof and my very Skin would be like a suit of armour. Of course this was all speculation, the main point was that my allocation of points would serve me well in my current role as a human bomb. The question of what to do with my Skill points was also an easily resolved matter. I only had one trainable Skill and I needed to make it as powerful as possible. So I dumped my final Skill point into [Explosion] and reviewed it. [SKILL: EXPLOSION IX (ACQUIRED)][SKILL QUALITY: BEGINNER][CLASS: BAILEY HOSKINS] The description of the Skill remained the same. It was hard to understand how much more powerful the ability had become as I couldn¡¯t even test it out. To initiate the Skill would be to cause my entire Black Core to explode annihilating my body in the process. However, with each level the Sigil in my mind gave of an increasingly ominous feeling. In order to increase the potential damage I could launch I had constantly used [Intuitive Aptitude] on [Explosion]. Because of my inability to actually use the Skill for tests it was slow going in gaining a greater understanding of its function but I continued to glean small insights into its power. ¡°You ready honey?¡± A soft voice whispered in my ear. ¡°Ready to go Goddess. I have maxed out durability and [Explosion] for my current level. When I go bang, it will be a Big Bang.¡± ¡°Mmmm your good at Big Bang!¡± She said as she licked her lips. ¡°The leader of Blue Team his Class is [Icon] basically another [Superman] type. The Leader of of the group of Reds that have gathered together is a [Meng Hao].¡± ¡°What the fuck is a [Meng Hao]?¡± I asked stupified. It sounded completely obscure. ¡°I have no idea. My [Rogue] Class allows me to identify other other Classes and gain a small amount of information, but when I fought the [Meng Ho] all his details were shrouded from me. The Blue Leader I have never fought as he woke up in a different wing. I claimed this wing after the Change and killed everyone, Red or Blue I don¡¯t care they are all just food for me. The other Blues they left me alone in here and I have stayed out of their section.¡± ¡°The Reds however¡­..well they sent a small foray at the beginning. I had that [Meng Ho] pinned on the ground but he did some kind of movement with his fingers and escaped. He¡¯s like some kind of Wizard. Slippery as the Devil and after he left I had this weird feeling in my stomach like I owed him money. I have felt uneasy ever since.¡± I scratched the side of my face with my thumb as I listened. The obscure Classes with unique abilities were always going to be far harder to deal with. Though they may be weaker in many ways their unpredictable powers could prove deadly. ¡°Well ideally we can attack when they are all in one big group and hopefully I can annihilate all of them in one go. Alternatively we could capture more people for you to use [Purple Man] on.¡± ¡°No that will be difficult. I haven¡¯t put any extra Skill points into [Purple Man] and I am not confident of my ability to control more than one person at a time. But I did put a lot of points into [Livewire].¡± She smiled as she raised her hand. A ball of pure blue electricity emerged in her hand and crackled with a scary intensity. She watched the electrical orb float for awhile before she extinguished it ¡°If only we have worked out how to gain levels then your max ranked [Explosion] and my max ranked [Livewire] combined with my physical attributes and other Skills should be enough to massacre them all and claim the node. Try not to die too early. You are around in case I need a wildcard to turn the tables.¡± ¡°Yes Goddess.¡± ¡°Good boy. Now lets start with the Blues and work our way over to the Reds.¡± The Goddess seemed to know the layout of the Prison extremely well as she navigated us through the various hallways that all looked extremely similar. I realised now why the entire wing had been so quiet when I had first emerged. She had basically butchered everyone. It didn¡¯t take too long for us to make it over to the edge of the next section as we crouched down at the edges of a doorway leading into an unknown area. ¡°Ok listen up. This next wing has the same layout as the one we were just in. Then it connects to the central hub. That is where the node is. I took a peek at it earlier but there was too much constant fighting going on and no one has been able to claim it.¡± I nodded my heads at her words as I readied myself. ¡°Now just walk inside and go hang out.¡± She ordered. ¡°Huh?¡± I asked. ¡°Go be bait you fuckwad.¡± She hissed. As her orders sunk it I quickly stood and saw her fade into nothingness. Invisibility huh? No wonder I hadn¡¯t seen her when she bushwhacked me when we first met. I slowly started walking into the Blue Team¡¯s section as I whistled a slow tune. At first I didn¡¯t see anyone, but before long my whistling had drawn the attention of a three people who quickly surrounded me. A large burly man with a piggy looking face stood in front of me. ¡°And who the fuck are you? Suppose you want in on the node now the battle is in its final stages. Well let me tell you fucker, you missed your chance. Only the Bluey¡¯s who have fought will get whatever rewards come. Other blue cunts like you that hid in the corner won¡¯t get shit.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take whatever I like you fat fuck.¡± I said laughing. ¡°You piece of shit!¡± The big man said as he swung a huge punch at my face. I didn¡¯t try to dodge the blow at all and simply took it on my face. The punch snapped my head to the side from the force of it and I staggered back a step before steadying myself. I touched the side of my face with my fingers as I looked back at the man with a smile on my face. 54 points in Durability is not anything to sneeze at. ¡°Is that all you got punk?¡± I said not even bothering to hide my smile. Before the Pig man could react I moved forward and punched him in the face with all my might. But my punch just bounced off his meaty face without any effect. Maybe I should have put some points in strength I thought sadly. The two other men to my sides grabbed me and held me firmly the Pig man began to roll up his sleeves. ¡°I¡¯m going to enjoy this fucker.¡± He spat as he began to wail into me with blow after blow. I felt the full impact of his blows as they rained down on me, but they didn¡¯t seem to have any real effect. ¡°Jesus what the fuck is this cunt made of.¡± The Pig man cursed. Then his eyes went Green as he activated some kind of Skill and then struck me in the face. ¡°Ungghh.¡± I groaned as the blow hit me. I lifted my head back up and spat blood but I was still smiling as I began to calculate the level of resistance my Durability attributes seemed to offer me.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Just as the Pig man was winding his fist back up for another punch his head exploded. A brown haired shadow moved incredibly quickly and her hands snaked out to seize the other two men by the throat with each hand. I laughed as I watched their lives drain away and the bodies slowly become desiccated husks. ¡°Thank you Goddess. I was wondering when you would arrive.¡± I said. ¡°I ate the others first.¡± She said without looking back at me. Others? I thought. I glanced around and saw a dozen or so dried husks with holes in their chests around the edges of where we were standing. Some stealth Skill must have been at play disguising their true numbers. ¡°You can eat these three.¡± She said dismissively as she threw the two bodies at my feat before she continued to scan the room like a hawk. I didn¡¯t waste any time ripping their sweet Blue Cores out of their chests and eating it like fucking Big Mac. As I felt the Qi surge hit me it was just enough to tip me over the threshold into level 10. <+6 ATTRIBUTES POINTS ACQUIRED FOR LEVELLING UP CLASS> <1 SKILL POINT ACQUIRED FOR LEVELLING UP CLASS> I considered putting some points into strength but then changed my mind. My purpose was the human bomb, my Goddess would take care of the small fries. I pumped my durability up to 60 instead and put the Skill point into [Explosion] ranking it up to [Explosion X]. The Sigil glowed ominously in my brain and gave off a deadly feeling. I felt like I understood it more and more now that it had reached level 10. It was if I could see in my minds eye the chain reaction of Qi igniting and causing a critical overload. I almost felt as if the Skill was becoming something more, but the feeling was elusive. I looked at the Goddess and could tell she had levelled again as well. You could almost feel the waves of power exuding from her body. I hated to think how many different Skills she had now absorbed. Her eyes were thin slits as her gaze darted around the room looking at things I couldn¡¯t see. She had gone into full predator mode. ¡°Shall we move on Goddess?¡± I said gently. Her head whipped around and her hand grabbed my throat before she hissed with an open mouth. Sharp canine like fangs extended from her mouth as stared me down like I was a meal. I had no fear as she held me in her vice like grip. If the Goddess chose to end my life that was her will. I think it was my lack of fear more than anything that snapped her out of it as recognition slowly came back into her eyes. ¡°Sorry Slave.¡± She whispered. ¡°So many voices now¡­¡­so many. I need the Node¡­..yes the node!¡± She hurried off at a frantic pace down a hallway dragging me along with her. When she saw I couldn¡¯t move fast enough she slung me over her shoulder and powered on forward. A last couple of Bluey¡¯s rose up and got in our way as she ran but a strange blade manifested out of nowhere and decapitated them. I relaxed as she carried me over her shoulder as I let events unfold. Whatever voices were driving her I could tell she felt her salvation now lay in capping the node. Perhaps she thought some kind of reward would cure her madness. She dropped me like a sack of potatoes right in front of a larger door and stared down at me with a fierce grin. I could hear explosions and sounds of fighting coming from the other side. It sounded like all hell had broken loose. ¡°It¡¯s showtime Slave. Are you ready to fucking rock?¡± She asked then giggled. ¡°Fuck yeah.¡± I said. ¡°You have one job. Blow yourself up wherever you can take the most people with you. Preferably taking out that [Meng Ho] with you and a fuck ton of Reds. Leave the Blues to me. ¡°Yes my Goddess.¡± I intoned as she laid this sacred duty upon me. I felt at the edges of [Explosion] without activating the Skill. It crackled with a subdued power. My Core was filled to the brim with a sea Black-Qi and 10 small little beads with compressed Black-Qi floated inside it. In the blink of an eye the Goddess faded as she went into Ninja mode and the doors opened as if a ghost had passed through. I sprinted through the open doors and slid to left diving behind a barrier right as some kind of fireball exploded right where I had just been standing. I popped my head up twice and then ducked back down as my brain worked at super speed calculating the situation. There was a gigantic white crystal floating in the middle of the room. The rest of the room was a mess of burnt and twisted metal with people fighting everywhere. The smell of burnt flesh and thick stench of blood filled the room. Even with the steady logic of [Intuitive Aptitude] my mouth hung open as witnessed a sight that had probably never been seen before on Earth. There was a Red Hulk battling a Green Hulk in the corner and several people with flying abilities battling in the air. A large cat looking creature with a samurai sword eating a pizza whizzed past as it decapitated an enemy. There was even some kind of Teddy Bear flying sitting astride someone bashing their face in with its small paw. ¡°I¡¯ll get you Blue Team Nya Nya Nya.¡± A voice cackled out near me as I saw a [Skeletor] run past me with a huge two handed broadsword. ¡°This Node is ours!¡± A voice boomed and I saw man floating near the node flanked by a cluster of Reddies. He made strange gestures with his hands and each time he completed a motion something strange would happen to a Blue Team member. Fireballs and laser beams were exploding all over the place adding to the mayhem, but I saw my opportunity. Look at this fool standing right out in the open! I laughed as I sprinted from out behind my cover as I activated [Explosion] for the first and last time. An enormous surge of speed and strength surged through my body as my entire being felt invigorated. I jumped and flew through the air at a tremendous speed as I tackled [Meng Hao]. ¡°FOR THE GODDESS!¡± I screamed as I wrapped my arms around him. [Explosion] surged through my body as Qi ignited and melted into my bloodstream and my Black Core began shake as it overloaded. Even the Cells in my body began to experience decay as they quickly began to fall apart under the intense energy. I saw goodbye in my mind as I knew I was seocnds away from detonating. ¡°Blood Clone disperse!¡± A voice yelled out and the body in my hands suddenly evaporated in a sea of Red Qi. ¡°8th Demon Sealing Hex!¡± The voice cried out again and suddenly my entire body felt frozen. I fell to the floor like a rigid statue. Even my ability [Explosion] was sealed by the spell as I felt the power of my Skill slowly recede and my Qi retracted into my Black Core. I desperately fought to try continue [Explosion] to resist against the Hex, but the power of the Hex was tremendous and seemed to prevent it. Instead [Explosion] remained fully activated but only weakly circulating its effect in my body, creating a minor surge in my Qi. My mind raced at Super Speed as [Intuitive Aptitude] went into full gear. This was the first time I had actually experienced [Explosion] and this field test combined with my previous pondering coalesced into a deep analytic. As [Explosion] continuously operated [Intuitive Aptitude] drew deeper and deeper inferences as to how the ability worked. Finally my mind fell into a state of revelation as an insight bloomed in my mind of how the Skill worked. <[EXPLOSION X] HAS LEVELLED UP AND IS NOW [EXPLOSION XI][SKILL QUALITY: COMMON]> As the Skill hit the 11th level it underwent a qualitative change and I could begin to feel the nuance that existed with this highly volatile form of energetic manipulation. The Skill Quality had improved from Beginner to Common and was now at a totally new level. I lay on the ground like stunned fish completely unable to do anything as the battle raged. BOOM! CRACKLE! An enormous web of blue electricity suddenly surged out of nowhere and the Goddess floated in the middle of the room like a divine being. Her eyes were completely blue as [Livewire] bloomed. The Lightning streaked out and began incinerate person after person. It broke through reinforced bodies and special energetic shields and simply consumed people, leaving them as burnt out husks. I saw the [Meng Hao] flee in terror as a bolt hit him and slammed him against a wall. He desperately pulled out some kind of bank note and tore it up, but it only made the Goddess wince slightly before the lightning totally consumed him. Blue and Red Blood painted the walls and the floor as the lightning sizzled. As the Hex wore off me I slowly crawled so I was directly under the Node. The lightning that got near the Node seemed to ground in the Node and so my puny life was spared while the Goddess raged. Finally after what seemed like an eternity the lightning began to fade and the Goddess descended above me to stand next to the node. She stepped over my body as if she barely recognised me and placed her hand on the Node and inserted her Qi into it. Slowly I saw the white colour of the crystal begin to change as it slowly began to fill up with a deep Qi coloured blue. I stood in amazement at this Goddess as I lay their in awe of her as I watched her work. God I love her I thought as I watched her Qi dance and vibrate. As I watched her a powerful feeling of empathy rose up inside me and it was like a true connection of total love was forged. Instantly I knew this was simply another side to [Intuitive Aptitude]. I didn¡¯t necessarily have to read exposed brains if I had enough of a emotional connection with the target to emphatically mimmic their Skill. When she commanded me to love her I don¡¯t think she ever intended for this side effect. As the empathic connection grew it was a stream of understanding flowed back into me. It was if I could see a sea of Sigils inside her brain that represented the dozens of Skills she had acquired. As soon as I acquired the [Purple Man] Skill It automatically cancelled out the effects of brown haired woman¡¯s control over my mind and empathic mimicry disconnected. I gasped in shock as the mental control evaporated and my true self came roaring back like a bat out of hell. A pure instant of complete clarity passed through me as my mind processed all that had happened that had led up to this very moment. I could see the woman smiling as she saw the Node was almost completely full of Blue-Qi and her eyes glittered with the knowledge of acquiring even more power. Not today bitch I thought was my hand snaked out and grabbed her ankle. She was so caught up in converting the Node that she didn¡¯t even notice. The rain of [Livewire] electricity she had conjured combined with the amount of Qi needed to convert the Node had left her with only a small amount of Qi left. I could sense how low her reserves were which made her vulnerable to a new ability I had only recently discovered when i had reached an 11th level Skill for the first time. As I held her ankle I sent a tiny thread of Black-Qi questing into her blood and lightly touched the outside of her Core. If she had been more focused or had more Qi she would have noticed, but by the time it happened it was too late. The moment my Qi lightly touched the outside of her Core her eyes refocused and she looked down at me in surprise.We locked eyes for a moment as we stared at each other. ¡°How about one last Blow job?¡± I said as I activated [Explosion]. But not on my Core this time, instead I activated it on hers.[Explosion] sped a bolt of my Black-Qi deep into her Core and triggered a chain reaction to make her Core explode. ¡°No!¡± She screamed as she realised what was happening. She wasted a precious few moments trying prevent the chain reaction while I rolled away and began to sprint towards the nearest exit. I ran as fast as I could but it didn¡¯t take long before I saw some static appear around me and a bolt of blue lightning hit me square in the back. Fortunately the sheer force of the lightning actually blew me further away from the woman and closer to the door leading out as I hit the ground in a shoulder roll and popped up without much loss in speed. While the lightning hurt like hell my 60 points in Durability weren¡¯t for nothing as I shrugged it off ¡°Yooouuuu Cuuuunnnnnt!¡± The scream echoed out behind me before I heard the sound of an enormous explosion. I kept running as fast as I could before the shockwave hit me and slammed me into wall that bent and folded as a wave of energy passed through.I staggered to my feet then collapsed again after the wave had passed and all I could hear was a massive ringing sound in my ears. Desperately I knew now was the time to seize the prize as I slowly shuffled back into the main room. I paused in shock momentarily as i saw the vaporised landscape in front of me. Everything for some distance was simply melted. If anyone had still been alive in the room prior to the Explosion then they certainly were not alive now. I stood in front of the Node and placed both my hands on it as I fed my Qi into it as fast as I could. Slowly, too slowly for my liking, I watched Blue-Qi get driven out as it faded back to white and then started turning into that beautiful black-Qi. I felt like someone would jump me and finish me off every moment I stood there vulnerable but no one came. Finally that perfectly beautiful moment arrived when that sweet voice from heaven whispered in my ear. <3 ARCHTYPE CLASS TOKENS FOR COLONY ACQUIRED>