Dawn crept quietly into the room, pale light slipping through the wide window like a cautious intruder. The sky outside was still undecided half asleep, half awake,painted in soft blues and fading purples.
Pathro lay sprawled across his bed, completely exposed to the morning chill. Black boxers, a loose white T-shirt, no blanket in sight. One arm dangled over the edge of the bed, fingers still loosely wrapped around his phone. He had clearly fallen asleep mid-scroll, consciousness surrendering before common sense ever showed up
The phone vibrated once.
Then again.
A sharp notification tone followed, immediately escalating into a blaring alarm.
Pathro groaned and, without opening his eyes, lazily flung his arm. The phone slipped from his fingers and clattered somewhere across the room.
The alarm didn't stop.
Instead, it grew louder.
And louder.
And aggressively louder
"What the hell is all that noise…?" he muttered, finally cracking one eye open.
The sound was unbearable now, echoing off the sleek walls. He pushed himself upright, hair sticking up in every direction, and spotted the phone vibrating violently in the corner of the room.
"…How did you even get there?" he mumbled, genuinely confused.
Dragging himself out of bed, he picked it up and silenced the alarm. The sudden quiet felt almost unnatural. He squinted at the screen and read the notification blinking back at him.
Soldier Kitsimoyo,
You are expected to be present at Hall Number 5 by 06:30 AM.
Use Elevator Number 1 from the First Floor, stop at the Fifth Floor.
Notice: A combat suit is required.
Do not forget your phone or ID card.
Pathro stared at it for a second longer than necessary.
"…What's this about?" he muttered. "A mission already?"
He checked the time.
05:43 AM
"Damn" His eyes widened. "It's that close already?"
He rubbed his face, scratching his head as he stood up. "No time to think. Shower first."
The room itself still felt unreal to him.
Calling it a "room" didn't quite do it justice it was more like a compact apartment designed with military efficiency in mind. A private bathroom with a high-pressure shower, a spotless toilet, and even a sleek hydration unit embedded into the wall that could dispense purified water at any temperature. Closets lined one side of the room, seamlessly blending into the walls.
The only thing missing was a kitchen. Not that one was needed soldiers here didn't cook. Food came to them.
Pathro stepped into the bathroom and turned the shower on hot. Steam filled the air almost instantly, fogging the mirror as water poured down his shoulders. The warmth jolted the sleep out of his system, muscles slowly loosening as he washed up.
A few minutes later, he stepped out, towel slung around his waist. He dried himself, changed his boxers, and rubbed oil into his skin out of habit.
Then he froze.
"…Wait."
He glanced back toward the bed where his phone lay.
"The notification said combat suit," he muttered. "But we left those back at the Academy."
He frowned. "So how am I supposed to—"
He paused, then sighed. "Right. The AI."
Turning toward his phone, he spoke casually, "Hey, uh… they're telling me to wear my combat suit, but I don't have mine. What's the deal?"
The AI responded instantly, its voice calm and neutral.
"I am assuming you are referring to the combat suit issued during your academy training. That is not the combat suit required for this assignment. A new combat suit has been provided and should be located in your closet. If you are unable to locate it, please report the issue."
Pathro blinked.
"…Closet, huh."
He walked over and slid the closet door open.
Inside hung a sleek, unfamiliar suit dark, refined, and quietly intimidating. The fiber looked dense yet flexible, the surface catching the light in subtle patterns that hinted at advanced construction.
Pathro whistled softly. "Nah… this design is sick."
"Way better than the academy one. And I'm getting this for free? Crazy."
He reached out and grabbed it and the suit suddenly shifted.
The fabric dissolved into countless fine strands, breaking apart mid-air before wrapping themselves around his body with surgical precision. The fibers slid over his arms, torso, and legs, sealing together seamlessly like living nanotechnology. In seconds, the suit fully reconstructed itself, perfectly molded to his frame.
Pathro flexed his arms, twisting his shoulders.
"…Whoa."
The suit was jet black, accented with sharp blue lines that faintly glowed as he moved. It felt light, responsive almost like a second skin.
"This fits perfectly," he said, impressed. "Yeah… I could definitely get used to this."
He stepped in front of the mirror, giving himself a slow look-over.
"Well," he smirked, "guess soldiers still care about fashion."
His phone buzzed again. He checked the time.
06:22 AM
"Cutting it close," he muttered. "I wonder if the others got the same message."
As he grabbed his ID card, he remembered the conversation from the night before the specialized Soldier AI explaining how missions worked. Assignments weren't always shared. Sometimes you went alone. Sometimes in groups.
This time, though… it didn't feel like a solo thing.
He swiped his card at the door. The lock flashed green, and the door slid open.
Hall Number 5 was already alive with movement when Pathro arrived.
The first thing he noticed were familiar faces Kiligaku, Toshiro, Kaile, Kasumi, Mikari, and Isabe, all already suited up.
Kasumi glanced at him. "What took you so long?"
Pathro raised an eyebrow. "You say that like I'm late. I'm here before the time, right?"
"That's five minutes before," Kiligaku replied flatly. "Which is basically late."
Pathro laughed it off and bumped fists with a few of them.
Then his gaze shifted.
Five more soldiers stood off to the side the Omake Academy group. Kobayashi was among them.
Their eyes met briefly.
Nothing was said.
Kobayashi looked away first, returning to his quiet discussion with his teammates.
Pathro glanced at Kaile and smirked. "Damn. That suit actually makes you look better than usual."
Kaile shot him a glare. "Is that supposed to mean I look bad normally?"
"Your words," Pathro shrugged. "Not mine."
Kasumi sighed deeply. "Can we not do this? It's morning."
Pathro finally noticed the massive structures behind them twelve towering portals, each swirling with unstable energy.
"…What are those for?" he asked.
"No idea," Kiligaku replied. "They were already here when we arrived."
Before anyone could say more, the elevator chimed.
The doors slid open.
A man stepped out.
The atmosphere shifted instantly.
He wore a combat suit too but unlike theirs, his carried a sharper, more refined presence. The design was different. Older. Deadlier.
Pathro felt it immediately.
"That guy…" he murmured, eyes narrowing. "He's strong. About on par with the academy instructors."
The man had short brown hair and a solid, muscular build not bulky, but powerful in a way that spoke of experience.
"Good," the man said casually as he stepped forward. "You're all here already. Punctual. I like that."
He moved toward the front, stopping near the portals.
"My name is Hayate," he said. "I'll be leading your little squad today."
He paused, making sure he had their attention.
"We're heading to the Delay Universe. Six planets have been identified with Zunan activity mostly Rokude-class, with a few other low-tier types mixed in."
His gaze swept over them.
"This will be your first real experience there. Consider it… growth opportunity."
He gestured behind him. "Each portal leads to a different planet. You'll be going in pairs."
Hayate began pointing, pairing them off at random.
Pathro felt it coming.
"…Kitsimoyo. Kobayashi."
There it was.
Kiligaku with Toshiro.
Kaile with an Omake soldier.
Kasumi with a girl from Omake.
Mikari and Isabe paired similarly.
Six teams.
"All set," Hayate said. "Choose any portal you like. Questions?"
Toshiro raised a hand. "What will you be doing?"
"Hopefully nothing," Hayate replied. "I'll be monitoring from afar."
Silence followed.
"Good," Hayate nodded. "Best of luck."
Pathro looked at Kobayashi. "So… which one?"
"The back right," Kobayashi said calmly.
"Works for me," Pathro replied. "I don't really care."
One by one, the teams stepped into their chosen portals.
"Best of luck," Hayate said as the gateways sealed shut.
He opened a portal of his own and disappeared.
The hall fell silent.
This was it.
The first true step beyond training.
The Delay Universe awaited and with it, the cosmic predators that would test what kind of soldiers they really were.
The moment Pathro and Kobayashi emerged from the portal, the air hit them first.
It was thick. Heavy. Smoky.
Purple haze rolled endlessly across the land like a living fog, curling low over the ground and rising in slow, choking waves. Every breath tasted metallic, faintly bitter, as if the planet itself resented being inhaled.
Pathro squinted, waving a hand in front of his face. "This sure is one hell of a smoky planet."
He glanced sideways, half-expecting some kind of reaction.
Kobayashi gave him nothing.
No comment. No acknowledgment. Just a quiet scan of the terrain, eyes sharp and distant.
"…Yeah," Pathro muttered, a little disappointed. "That tracks."
He turned his attention outward instead.
The land stretched barren in every direction ashen plains broken only by jagged, colossal mountain ranges far on the horizon. The ground was a dull gray, cracked and uneven, like it had been burned and cooled too many times to remember what soil was supposed to be.
Pathro tilted his head back.
The sky was wrong.
Bands of warped color bled into one another muted reds, sickly greens, faint blues forming something like a fractured rainbow smeared across the heavens. And hanging above it all were three moons, each a different size, slowly orbiting in a silent, unsettling dance
"…This planet's weird," Pathro said. "I wonder how big it actually is."
Kobayashi knelt down, pressing two fingers into the ground. The surface resisted him dense, unyielding.
"This isn't earth," Kobayashi said calmly. "Not even close. The material composition is… unnatural."
Pathro nodded. "Yeah. Gravity too." He shifted his stance, testing the pull. "About thirty to forty times Earth's gravity, give or take."
He shrugged. "Still light work compared to the academy's training realms."
His mind flickered briefly to memory.
The Icetomb, where gravity crushed at one hundred and twenty times Earth's pull.
The Magnus Realm, where five hundred times gravity turned movement into agony.
Compared to those hellscapes, this planet barely registered.
Kobayashi stood. "We should begin immediately." He pointed in one direction. "I'll head this way. You take the opposite. The faster we clear the area, the better."
Pathro hesitated. "Fair. But if one of us runs into something like an Ichigan alone, that could get messy."
"That's why we were deployed in pairs," Kobayashi replied. "See you later, Pathro."
With that, he bent his knees and launched himself forward in a powerful leap, vanishing into the purple fog.
Pathro watched him go, exhaling slowly.
"…Yeah. He definitely doesn't want to be friends," he muttered. "Oh well. Duty first, right?"
His fist began to glow.
A deep, molten red light bled through his knuckles, heat warping the air around his hand. Pathro's lips curled into a sharp grin
"Alright," he said softly. "Time to murder some Zunans."
Zunan fighters were not born they were made.
They were beings who had awakened Life Energy and pushed it beyond its natural limit, evolving it into something far more dangerous: Meta Energy.
Life Energy merely sustained existence.
Meta Energy rewrote it.
That transformation occurred within the Noosphere, a higher realm where life energy ceased, collapsed inward, and was reborn as power. When one emerged from the Noosphere, they were no stronger than when they entered.
But now… they could grow.
At the Academy, cadets spent four brutal years training their bodies, minds, and combat instincts. Only at the start of their fifth year were they allowed into the Noosphere. One final year followed training not just skill, but power before graduation as full-fledged soldiers.
Abilities varied wildly.
A person could awaken one ability—or many.
That depended on the Conceptual Energy Channels embedded within their existence. Some were thick, others thin. Some straight, others twisted or blocked entirely. Their structure determined how many abilities one could wield, how easily they awakened, and what nature those abilities would take.
For Pathro, his first awakening had been brutally simple.
Explosive Fists.
Red-hot strikes that detonated on impact.
Pathro vanished in a blur.
The landscape folded beneath him as he crossed hundreds of kilometers in seconds, locking onto hostile presences pulsing faintly through the haze.
He descended from above.
Seven Rokude-class Zunans stood clustered below, their twisted forms barely reacting before he was already there.
After recovering from that Ichigan fight, Pathro thought, I can feel it… I'm stronger.
His eyes sharpened.
I wonder how I'd fare against one now.
He struck.
His fist crashed into the face of the nearest Rokude, obliterating its head in a single impact. The momentum carried his arm downward
and then the world exploded.
BOOM.
The detonation was catastrophic.
A violent shockwave ripped outward, vaporizing everything within five thousand kilometers. Mountains flattened. The ground collapsed inward. Purple smoke evaporated in an instant, replaced by a massive, red-hot crater glowing like a wound carved into the planet's flesh
Far away, Kobayashi paused mid-combat.
Two Rokude corpses fell at his feet, neatly sliced apart by glowing blue swords formed entirely from his meta energy. He looked toward the horizon.
The planet trembled.
An earthquake rolled beneath him.
"…That explosion," he muttered. "That was his."
He clicked his tongue. "That's absurd firepower. Against Rokude, no less."
His gaze narrowed slightly. "He didn't even need to do that. Physical stats alone would've been enough."
A beat.
"…Is he showing off?"
At the center of the crater, Pathro stood unscathed.
A transparent barrier flickered briefly around him before dissolving the automatic safeguard that always formed just before his detonations.
Red aura bled off his body like heat waves.
He looked around at the devastation, satisfied.
A slow grin spread across his face.
"…Let the hunt begin."