Book 3 Chapter 21.1 - Return
Under the motor's rumbling sounds, the speedboat passed through countless meter tall enormous waves before finally stopping at the dock. When Su and Madeline walked ashore, the giant that was forever bound to the speedboat turned around and drove the speedboat away.
The dock seemed to be completely surrounded by darkness, wind, and rain. The dusky lighting the several low-hanging streetlights released seemed to be completely useless. Parked at the dock was an off-road vehicle fully filled with fuel. This could be considered an additional present from Dark Red Castle.
When they saw this off-road vehicle, Su felt a sense of gratefulness inside. After riding in the roofless speedboat through the ocean, him and Madeline had both been completely soaked through by wind and rain. Su was already used to the freezing rain's chilliness and radiation, but Madeline couldn't handle it. Being soaked in the icy cold rain after losing all of her abilities already made her tremble slightly.
Su climbed into the off-road vehicle. After starting the vehicle, he sat inside silently half a minute. His body continuously released shocking amounts of heat, and then he removed his combat jacket that had already been dried, casually wrapping it around the body of Madeline who was sitting in the passenger seat. His movements were extremely natural. This was one of the most common things he did eight years ago. After trembling slightly, Madeline silently put on Su's clothes.
Su wasn't in a rush to start the car. Instead, he fetched a box of cigarettes from inside his shirt pocket, and then he removed a wrinkled cigarette. After lighting it, he took a deep breath. Then, he lowered the cigarette, opened the gun case, and carefully assembled and installed the electromagnetic powered rifle. Then, he laid down the windshield glass of the off-road vehicle, and then the tip of this electromagnetic rifle with shocking size and weight reached out, supporting itself on the engine's cover. Su pressed down lightly on the butt of the gun, and then the electromagnetic rifle immediately released its full powered light roar.
Su took another deep hit of the cigarette, finishing the last bit of the cigarette. Then, he reached out his hand, and following a flick with his fingers, he watched as the sparks flew out into the distance. Then, he slowly spat out the smoke that was hidden within his lungs. He started up the vehicle and said, "Let's go home!"
The off-road vehicle's engine began to rumble. The enormous vehicle trembled a few times, and then it suddenly rushed outwards, charging into the boundless rain and mist.
The wind carried fine rain as it continuously rushed towards the driving position through where the windshield position, battering against Su's face and chest, as well as a bit towards Madeline's direction. However, this bit of rain was mostly blocked by the combat uniform wrapped around Madeline's body. From time to time, some would drift to her face and hair, but it wasn't that much of a problem. Even though she lost her abilities, after her transformation, Madeline's body's various fundamental qualities were substantially improved. Due to her current physical status, she still feared cold and heat, but the radiation in her surroundings didn't affect her much.
The off-road vehicle moved quicker and quicker, speeding along through the darkness on this road that could barely be considered smooth. Su didn't turn on the vehicle's lights. Even with the wind and rain interweaving in the darkness, there was still enough lighting from radiation for Su to clearly see several kilometers ahead.
In the speeding off-road vehicle, the bit of evolutionary points that remained in Su's body poured one after another into the Perception Domain, gradually improving and perfecting the panoramic view. The panoramic view he produced due to urgency, because of a lack of evolutionary points, did not possess all of its functions. Only after Su sent in almost all of the evolutionary points he obtained from his battle with Pandora inside did the panoramic view's functions did it become revealed. The pursuit and battle with Pandora brought him a dozen or so evolutionary points, but he was able to absorb a trace of her blood. This trace of blood brought him close to 30 evolutionary points! Su originally absorbed Pandora's blood to obtain her body's seemingly indestructible defensive ability. He never expected that he didn't obtain the ability, but the genes within her blood instead resonated with Su's genes, allowing his genetic composition to become more perfect, thus allowing him to produce large amounts of evolutionary points.
Su originally didn't wish to obtain abilities through absorption. In the past, he would only make this type of decision when struggling between the border of life and death. Whenever Su used his absorption ability, Su's strength would quickly grow. Even though he couldn't compare to a freak like Persephone who possessed talent and abundant resources, he still wouldn't lose out to any ordinary higher ranked dragonrider. However, Su always felt an instinctive rejection towards absorbing abilities. After joining the Black Dragonriders and coming into contact with a large amount of information, Su understood that all innate absorption abilities possessed unavoidable shortcomings. When one absorbed genes that exceeded the scope of what the body could handle, it would similarly trigger genetic collapse. In addition, if one had the potential of reaching seven levels of ability by training, then through the absorption method, genetic collapse would already appear at six levels of ability.
Even though he didn't look at the Madeline next to him, Su could still feel her situation. Her emotions and her heart had once again been restored with the joy and peace she felt in the past. In those eight years, she was the only source of sunlight Su relied on in a world full of danger.
For the sake of this beam of sunlight, Su was willing to do anything.
At this moment, the final evolution point in Su's body entered the Perception Domain. The panoramic view suddenly grew dim, and then a speck of starlight appeared at the center of Su's consciousness. The starlight gradually brightened, illuminating the surrounding region in a fine and detailed manner. One could see that on this rough road, an off-road vehicle was currently speeding along. With the off-road vehicle as the center, the surrounding scenery began to brighten layer by layer, spreading out until it reached a range of about a thousand meters before stopping. Inside the new panoramic map, the amount of lightning was different as well. The edge was a bit darker, while everything within five hundred meters of the off-road vehicle was perfectly clear.
The amount of stamina the panoramic view exhausted also went from a tremendous amount that fluctuated violently, to a more stable and moderate level. Su could now maintain the panoramic view for several hours without any additional replenishment of energy. As long as there was a need, Su could rescale any part of the panoramic view, or switch over many of its detection modes.
Only now did an eighth level Perception Domain ability, space probing, completely take form.
When the panoramic view completely illuminated, Madeline, whose body was withdrawn in the passenger seat seemed to have sensed something. She turned around to face Su, her azure eyes bright like two blue gemstones in the darkness.
Su laughed and said, "Sit tight!"