Back on Animus, night had finally fallen over the Green Family estate. In Logan's room, Logan's robotic assistant, Ash, could be seen hovering around Logan, who had fallen asleep at his desk, the black ball now complete, and cradled in his arms. Logan's head resting on the top of the sphere, as he snored. In Tsukuru's room, he was sprawled on his bed, sleeping on the side. Suddenly, a loud, electronic beep filled the room, reminiscent of the "confirmation" sound from old video games. "Ah!" Tsukuru screamed in surprise, as he fell out of bed from the sudden noise, falling onto the carpeted floor.
He let out an annoyed groan, as he slowly got up, holding his hand to his temple, as his head hurt from hitting it on the floor. As he stood there, a translucent System screen popped up in front of him, with two smaller screens slightly overlapping the larger one, the translucent screens emitted artificial blue light that made his freshly-awakened eyes ache slightly.
[Syncing process 100%.
Syncing process complete.
Congratulations, your Mutant Cells have successfully acclimatized to the Video Ability.
You have learned the Level 1 Video Ability.
MC Stat unlocked.
MC: 20/20
New System Tab Skills has been unlocked.
Ability Skill Tree has been unlocked.
Level 1 Video Skills have been unlocked.
New Skill Video Creation - Lv. 1 has been acquired.
New Skill Video Summon - Lv. 1 has been acquired
New System Tab Summons has been unlocked.
Racial Slots: 0/1
You have received 1 Summon Point ]
[Video Creation - Level 1
Active Skill
You can create any object you can think of. The amount of MC required scales proportionally to the size of the creation.
Requires MC
You can only create small to moderate-sized, simplistic objects]
[Video Summon - Level 1
Active Skill
You can create and summon intelligent, self-aware entities that can operate independently of yourself. Initially summoning these entities has no MC cost, but respawning them requires MC. The amount of MC required scales proportionally to the Grade of the Summon.
Requires No MC
You can only have 1 Video Summon]
Tsukuru looked at the screens, blinking, for a few moments before sweeping his arm in the air, dismissing the screens. He always hated looking at his phone first thing in the morning for this exact reason; the blue light made his eyes hurt until he got used to it. Looking up, Tsukuru reached over and snatched his watch off of the table next to his bed. Tapping it twice, the screen flashed on. He glanced at the digital clock in the upper-right corner of the screen, which read "4:02". Tsukuru let out an irritated groan. "Whoever designed this System should have involved something to keep these damn notifications from waking up the user at such ungodly hours!" He muttered.
Instantly, a new System screen popped up in front of him.
[Would you like to set the Do Not Disturb function?
[Yes] [No] ]
Tsukuru stared at it, his eyebrow twitching. "What?" He muttered. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yes." He said in a very annoyed tone. A new screen appeared. It had two sets of "00"'s, evenly-spaced out, with an "up" and "down" arrow on either the top or bottom of each pair. Tsukuru muttered under his breath, as he began reconfiguring the numbers, an electronic beep being heard whenever he pressed an "up" or "down" arrow. When he was finished, the number on the left showed "22", and the number on the right showed "8". He then pressed the "confirm" rectangle at
the bottom of the screen. The System's "confirmation" sound was heard.
[Do Not Disturb Mode is now in effect. You will not receive messages while unconscious between the hours of 10:00pm and 8:00am.]
Tsukuru groaned. He stomped back to the bed, and flung himself down on the mattress. He closed his eyes, and tried to go back to sleep. However, five minutes later, his eyes fluttered back open. He let out a groan. He sighed, and sat up on the side of the bed. "What the hell's the point?" He muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "The Military carrier will be here in four hours, anyways." He pushed himself off the bed, and made his way to the door. He put his watch in front of the door. On his screen, the "unlocking" animation appeared, and the door opened. Tsukuru walked out into the hallway, before making his way to the kitchen.
When he reached the fridge, he put his hand on it. After the "unlocking" animation appeared on his phone, the door swung open on its own.
Tsukuru grabbed a can of soda from the bottom shelf, flicking the tab back with his thumb, and opening the can with a small hiss. He walked over to the kitchen counter, and leaned over it. He took a long glug of the can. Tsukuru's mind wandered back to the previous night. His, as Logan put it, "snippy" attitude with his surrogate brother. Tsukuru looked down at the table. "God, I'm such an asshole." He muttered, the can still in his grasp.
"Well, at least you admit it." A voice replied from behind him. Tsukuru let out a sigh.
"What are you doing up, Logan?" Tsukuru muttered, knowing Logan was behind him without looking. Logan shrugged.
"I got up to get a sandwich." He replied, as he sat down at the kitchen table. Leaning over the counter, Tsukuru watched as Logan's robotic assistant, Ash, floated into the kitchen, and made Logan a ham-and-swiss sandwich from among the ingredients in the fridge. Tsukuru looked down at the table.
"This world is actively hostile towards people like me." He muttered. "The only way to survive is to be just as hostile back." Tsukuru replied, as he walked over to the
kitchen table, and slumped down in the seat across from Logan. "And the military
bases are going to be that hostility ramped up to eleven." He muttered, as he took another sip from the can. As he was eating, Logan slightly lowered the sandwich from his mouth and stopped for a second.
"You asked me why I was up." He said, before looking at Tsukuru. "What about you?" Tsukuru looked away, annoyed.
"A system notification woke me up." He muttered. Logan snorted.
"Nothing worse than 'a wrong number at 3am'." He joked. Tsukuru looked back at him.
"It was the notification that my Ability had finished syncing with my Mutant Cells." Tsukuru replied. Logan looked up at him, eyebrow quirked. "Yeah, apparently my System came with an Ability already pre-loaded." Tsukuru replied, seeing the look on Logan's face.
"Anything good?" Logan asked, taking a bite. Tsukuru, his soda can halfway up to his mouth, brought it down at the question. Tsukuru looked down at the can in his hand.
"Dunno." He replied, putting the can down. He looked down at his hand, and imagined something in his mind. The System's voice rang in his head.
[Skill Video Creation has been activated.]
A sound like electronic interference reverberated through the room, as translucent, hard-light, light-blue rectangular pixels began to form in his hand. The pixels emitted blue light like a screen, illuminating them both. The pixels began to cluster together, and take shape. There was a bright flash of light-blue light that temporarily blinded them both. When it faded, Tsukuru was holding an ornate white queen piece from the old board game, chess. The piece appeared to be sculpted out of marble. The System's voice rang out in his head once more.
[-1 MC. MC: 19/20]
As Tsukuru looked at it, the System's computerized vector appeared over it in his
vision. A line stretched out from the left of the vector, before shooting upwards and connecting to a square. The square depicted the queen piece. Below the square, it displayed text in a digital font.
[Name: Queen Chess Piece
Item
An ornate game piece sculpted out of marble to be used in the board game, Chess.]
Logan stared at the game piece that had appeared in Tsukuru's hand if out of thin air. "Apparently, it's a creation power." Tsukuru muttered, looking at it. He then looked up at Logan. "Although, since it's just a Level 1 Skill, I can only create small to 'moderately-sized', simplistic objects." Logan snorted, and shook his head, amused.
"And like usual, your first thought is to make something ancient." He replied, taking another bite. Tsukuru looked down at the chess piece. After a minute, he flicked his thumb sending the chess piece bouncing across the table like a skipping stone. It handed in front of Logan on its side, and began rolling back and forth, creating an arc. Logan looked down at it while it rolled.
"Hang on." Tsukuru said. "Let me try something." He imagined something else in his mind. Again, the same System message appeared in front of him.
[Skill Video Creation has been activated.]
The sound of electronic interference returned, and more pixels began to form. This time, they clustered in his hand into a circular shape. There was another flash of light. When it faded, Logan's eyes widened. Tsukuru was holding an apple of a deep, red color. Another System message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[-1 MC. MC: 18/20]
In Tsukuru's vision, the vector appeared once again. A line extended from its left before going up, connecting to a square that displayed the apple. Lines of text
appeared below the square.
[Apple
Consumable Item
A fruit grown on trees that can be eaten raw or made into various forms of food, particularly, confectional treats. Will restore 5 HP when fully consumed.]
Tsukuru rotated the apple in his hand, as he looked at it. He looked at Logan, and held it out. Logan pointed his finger out towards it. His spider-bots emerged from his sleeve and crawled up his arm. When they reached his index finger, they clustered around it and melded together, forming a laser pointer. A thin, green laser shot out. Logan swiped his hand down, using the laser to cut the apple in half. As it did, light-blue translucent pixels could be seen on the sides of each piece along the cut, which then faded a moment later. Tsukuru loosened his grip, allowing one piece to slide out onto the table.
He then flicked it over towards Logan. Logan picked it up, and brought it up to his mouth. Simultaneously, both Logan and Tsukuru took a bite out of it. Their eyes both widened, as they each felt the sweet taste of the apple's flesh entering their mouths, leaking apple juice down their throats. "'Abilities can be explained', huh?" Tsukuru asked, looking down at the apple half that now had a large bite taken out of it. Logan looked down at his own half.
"Just because we know how they work doesn't mean that there's a few that still defy explanation." He replied. He looked up at Tsukuru. "Where did this Ability even come from?" He asked.
"Dunno." Tsukuru replied, still looking at the apple. "The only person who could answer that is dead." Logan looked down at the apple for a second longer, before looking back up at him.
"Is there anything else you can do?" He asked. Tsukuru thought for a moment, as he thought about the other Skill he had acquired when his Mutant Cells fully acclimatized to the Video Ability. He flicked his index finger upwards. He heard a bell chime, and the row of translucent, clear circles reappeared. He noticed that the number of circles had increased from three to four, with a new circle appearing between the circle displaying his silhouette and the "Quests" circle. This new circle showed the image of the upper-body of a knight in the pose with its arms slightly angled out, forearms folded, and hands clamps. The knight rested his folded hands on top of the pommel of his sword, which was pointing downwards, as if the blade was piecing the ground. This pose was typically known as the "knight sentry" pose.
Behind him was a wankel shield. Tsukuru pressed it, causing it to light up, and the System's "confirmation" sound to be heard, although only audible to him. A new System screen opened up. It was a blank screen with the words "Summon Races" at the very top inside a rectangular bar. Beneath it, there was a single, moderately-sized rounded square in the upper-right hand corner of the screen directly below the rectangle. The rounded rectangle had a white line forming a border around it. Logan watched as, from his perspective, Tsukuru seemed to be touching air, with nothing in front of him. "You know I can't see what you're doing unless I'm directly touching you, right?" He asked in a bored tone. Tsukuru's gaze shot up at him.
"My other Skill seems to be like a 'Summon' Skill." he replied. "In addition to creating objects, I can also create a Summon to fight along-side me." Logan raised his eyebrow.
"You mean like how the Bree Family can tame Beasts?" He asked. "I know the Bree Family don't have as bad of a reputation as the Sunshields or the Truedreams, but you still might want to be careful." He replied, still eating. "They might feel like you're stepping on their toes." Tsukuru snorted.
"That's assuming I use it in public." He replied. "You really think I'm gonna act out as 'the nail that sticks out' in the Military Base?" Tsukuru asked, referencing the old expression "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down". He pressed the square, and a new screen appeared, overlaying the old one.
[Please create your first Summon Race.]
Tsukuru put his hand on his chin. "Hm…I think my first Summon Race should be some kind of basic footsoldier." He muttered. Logan snorted.
"Maybe you should use those old TV shows you're always watching for inspiration."
He cracked in an amused tone. Tsukuru snapped his fingers.
"That's it!" He announced. He got up from his seat, and ran back towards his room. Logan stared at him for a moment, dumbstruck.
"I was kidding!" He shouted back, before getting up himself and following after Tsukuru, both his sandwich and the two apple halves abandoned on the table.