Warlord – Chapter 3
The scope and range of his line of sight was stretched. Leah and other items in the room were instantly narrowed as if he was standing hundreds of meters away from them. Zero was sitting in his original position but the perception has changed. He was surprised to see Leah so clearly.
Suddenly, the horizon was narrowed. Leah's figure was the only one in Zero's light of sight. It was so clear that he could see the pair of snow-white peaks under her shirt.
Zero wasn't aware but his eye also changed the moment his perception adjusted. The range of sight was much bigger when the beast like pupil was vertical. However the range of sight narrowed the moment the pupil turned round.
But the change of sight was only limited to Zero's right eye. The left one was the same as usual. Two different perspectives made him dizzy. He couldn't help but close his eyes as a voice asked in his mind: "What's wrong with me?"
Leah was able to see the change in Zero's golden eye. She was delighted: "Anything strange?"
Zero opened his eyes. The silver covering of his right pupil had disappeared and scattered to the edges of his eye. He shook his head: "Everything is normal. I've let you down."
He decided to conceal the information from everyone as he didn't know the reason why his perception had changed.
“Well, at least you got beautiful eyes.” Leah was a bit disappointed. However soon she restored her vitality. She saw that Zero had almost eating everything: "Take a break. I'm going to prepare the instruments."
She pushed the door and left. Zero understood what so-called identification instrument was. Old Jack previously said about 'ability identification' and Leah also mention 'ability' and 'evolution'. Although they were fresh terms for him and there was no such content in his memories.
But his brain worked like a super fast running computer. He was able to receive the information, analyze, classify and ultimately draw conclusion very easily.
“Did humanity go through an evolution?” Zero murmured. He heard what they talked about and the only concept he could come up with was the evolution.
The genes made tumbling changes after the so-called catastrophe. Some of the genes were severely mutated resulting in variety of monsters. But a very small part of the gene went through the phenomenon of the evolution. The people with abilities were born. So because of the new evolutionary direction the abilities should be generated. Because of the lack of information Zero couldn't analyze more into the situation.
Old Jack told Leah to identify his capacity. In other words, Old Jack suspected that he was a man who had gone through evolution too. Their suspicions should be related to his right eye.
Zero took the aluminum plate and held it next to his face.
A dark and a gold pupil. He was slightly surprised for a moment. It was no wonder the Old Jack was puzzled. Everyone would think its abnormal if they saw the colors of the pupils.
“The instrument is ready. You can come ……. Hey, what are you doing?” Leah pushed the door and saw Zero holding the plate next to his face.
Zero put down the plate and shook his head: “Nothing.”
…
The room was similar to a lab.
There were experimental tubes of varying sizes and utensils all over the room. There was even an operating table. There were blood stains over the table. He didn't know who or what the blood belonged to. In addition to everything, at the corner of the lab there was a machine which was powered by the magnetic resonance instrument from the old age. Leah didn't understand the concept behind the operation of the machine. But it was easy to see that this was the device used for the identification.
“I'm not sure where grandpa got his old identification device but its able to appraise the abilities up to third order and make a basic index of constitution. But I think its more than enough. No matter how you look at it you won't have anything more than third-order ability.” Leah was busy with typing on the console while she spoke.
Zero looked at the machine and Leah. She should be playing piano on the big stage.
“Hey, you come over.” Leah's voice brought back Zero from the illusion he had. The girl pointed towards the platform: "Come on. Lie down there."
Zero nodded and did as she instructed. Old Jack also came in and stood next to Leah. He glanced at the console but there was no expression on his face.
Leah was also quite nervous. She pressed the start button and the machine announced the beginning of the identification.
Zero close his eyes and felt the platform underneath him being pulled inside the machine. The platform slipped inside the instrument's mouth. Variety of lights were lit in the instrument. Zero knew that countless data were forming and transported to the display console.
Old Jack's eyes were wide open as he stared at the display.
A mechanical voice without feelings echoed from the computer: "Identification is completed. Identification of the object: mankind. Box index, with the standard data as the reference value. Strength 120%, Constitution 110%, Explosive force 130%. Ability: None. Evolutionary point: None."
Old Jack's face turned gloomy as he checked the series of data that passed in the monitor. The last two data turned his face ugly. He slammed the door as he went out. The sound of his roar followed after his exit.
Leah gently sighed as she listened to her grandfather's voice. Zero sat up as the platform came out from the device. He thoughtfully looked at the door: "Is he disappointed?"
Leah smiled: “Don't blame grandpa. Its been hard on him for the last few years. He has worked hard for lifetime for Parker Conglomerate. But now they want to replace grandpa with young executives that they have nurtured. Grandpa and my days will be very hard without this job. That's why grandpa wants to surround himself with ability users to enhance his influence and position within the conglomerate."
“Do the ability users have such a big role?” Zero asked curiously.
Leah nodded: “You don't know but the earth was shrouded by intense radiation after the Catastrophe. 90% of the world's population died and only 10% survived it. In orders to survive not just humans but animals and plants had gone through turbulences. In just fifty years of time the genes had gone through variation and evolution. The ability users are the people who had gone through gene evolution."
Zero complete the systematic cognition of the new world from Leah's words.
There were variety of reasons such as fighting against the mutant creatures or cruelty of harsh environments or something else that made the evolution to work. The human gene evolved at extreme speed. In the process the genes produced evolutionary points.
Evolutionary point was the new part of the gene chain. The emergence of it broke up the original genetic make up of the humanity. As a result variety of abilities were born.
The new humans who had the evolutionary points and abilities were called the ability or power users.
After half century of quarrels and debates the classification of the abilities were shaped up. All present and known abilities were divided into five domains.
They are: Element domain, Combat domain, Perception domain, Mutation domain and The Rule domain.
There different abilities of different domains are divided into twelve orders. However in theory there is 13th order. Legend has it that when an ability reaches the maximum capacity and breaks through the bottleneck of the 12th order then it will reach the 13th order. A 13th order user will reach the absolute domain. Absolute domain is similar in sense to the energy domain of material. According to the theories the user of an absolute realm could reach the realm of gods.
a 13th order ability user hasn't appeared in the world. It is considered as the realm of legends.
The abilities of the five domains are naturally different.
The element domain include the users with the ability to manipulate the energy of various elements of the nature. The known abilities include the use of earth, fire, water, wind, thunder, light and darkness. The users of the element domain are known as magicians. The world is in awe with their capabilities.
The combat domain users are elite soldiers. They can user variety of specialized weapons as well as increase their strength, defense, agility and other things related to combat.
The users of the perception domain mostly manifest their powers and abilities through the power of their minds. They have abilities such as spiritual chain, spiritual transmission, soul image and so on.
The appearance of the users of the first three domains are no different from the ordinary people. However the users of the mutation domain are different. They have the ability to rearrange their genetic codes in short time and change to another creature. The known abilities are classified into animal transformation, insect transformation, ancient transformation and the most terrifying out of all the demon transformation.
The last one is rule domain.
The users of this domain master a certain rule. According to the scholars they could control time, space, energy, material and other classes. There is no one known with the ability of rule domain up to now.
Therefore the 13th order and the rule domain are theoretical fields.
It is predicted that any power user who could master a rule domain would be living God in this world!