Chapter 6: The Calculus of Survival

Walking briskly through the dorm halls, Rachel found nearly every door open, with girls chatting with one another. Despite the campus’s size, only five students in the building, including her, had any sort of abilities.

[Strategic Mind] was working wonders as her ears cast a wide net, gathering keywords that could help her come up with a plan; yet, at the same time, logic told her this wasn’t normal. Surely she should be freaking out; her entire life had been turned on its head, but instead of going in circles like many others, she stayed focused and worked toward her goals.

The amount of information she could process after gaining [Mental Acceleration] and [Strategic Mind] was incredible and frightening at the same time. Odd things kept pulling her attention, such as Polly, a woman in her late 20s, who was chatting excitedly with her roommate and a bunch of this floor’s girls while showing off her fox summon.

Rachel now knew most of the names of the people in the dorm, and, more importantly—or alarmingly, depending on how she looked at it—she could differentiate between them by the sound of their voices.

Polly had fun dismissing and resummoning the, as she put it, ’Spirit Beast’ as he rubbed against the hands of the other girls, cooing over how cute he was. The woman was a champion who could summon spirits, and the fox she’d bonded with had fire abilities it could call upon by using her mana. They’d entered a world completely unfamiliar to her, but Rachel was learning and adapting.

The change has affected my mental state. Without a doubt, she internally reasoned. I shouldn’t be this introspective or level-headed.

She briskly moved past the door, not wanting to linger and get questioned. One of the women spotted her, though, and something she said made her slow, tail stiffening.

"Hey! Hey! I just saw a bunny-girl in the hallway—uh, she just took off—should we go talk to her?"

"Uh... I don’t know. Polly’s one thing, but do you know who it was?"

"Nu-uh. She was glowing, though, and had white hair... Maybe she was someone on the floor that just really changed."

"Umm-hmm. If they didn’t stop by to chat...what if she’s Cloe’s new roommate?"

Rachel redoubled her pace, but her locked jaw drew her attention. I’m a hare... Why am I so angry that she thought I was a bunny? It makes no sense, but... I want to correct her.

The answer came instinctively moments later, putting a bitter taste in her mouth; [Lunar Pride] was the cause, and it was affecting her actions.

Fight it! she hissed to herself, smacking her forehead with the palm of her hand and pushing forward.

Refocusing her mind to resist [Lunar Pride], she used [Strategic Mind] to reground herself. All the dots gradually started to link inside her crowded mind; at the end of the day, Rachel didn’t want to be seen as a weak, defenseless bunny.

As she turned the corner to reach the stairway further down the branching hallway, she discovered a pattern in her thought processes: it was her Feats.

[Strategic Mind] and [Mental Acceleration] gave her the means to recall and analyze the information her ears collected. In turn, her senses were enhanced by [Divine Beast Empowerment], while [Lunar Pride] was what gave her the burning drive to push herself and do something. [Bringer of Misfortune] gave her the gut feeling about what she should do next to avoid disaster, rather than throwing her passion into any random project.

It was a complicated machine of interactions that kept her calm, focused, and walking toward a specific goal. The interesting part was that she set that goal, not [Lunar Pride] or even [Bringer of Misfortune]. While the former could negatively affect her, such as with the agitation of being underestimated or called a rabbit, it also ensured she never stayed stagnant, which was critical in this kind of situation.

Everything she heard drew a grim future that she had to prepare for; her parents would be in danger if she did nothing. A whirlwind of events played out in her mind, with hundreds of people investigating this sudden transformation, giving her a plethora of puzzle pieces to fit together into an actionable plan.

Overall, the change in herself was inconsequential compared to the danger circling her, and that understanding kept her on the move. She couldn’t get caught by the National Guard until she managed to meet the only legendkin in the area; the answer as to why wasn’t clear, but her sense of misfortune told her to trust her gut.

Soon, it would be a battle to maintain order in Miami with competing interests, fears, government, conspiracy theorists, and private militias, among countless other factions, each taking this change a different way; a clash was inevitable. Everything would dissolve into utter chaos, and her parents were headed right for it.

Catching glances and whispers from those who saw her swift exit, Rachel ignored them, pulling out her phone to search the web while she still had access. She looked up several names on the school WiFi since the towers were temporarily shut down due to overuse, growling at how slow it was to pull up the results. Of course, she soon heard from the on-site military that that was an excuse for the real reason: to stop the spread of public panic.

’Lunar hare’ is too broad a term to research... Cerridwen is the Celtic goddess of rebirth, transformation, and inspiration. She’s the only one connected to my Feats, which can’t be a coincidence. Why would she bless me, if she’s even real at all? Perhaps these Feats are based around the deity?

Rachel’s ears shifted left with her eyes as she stared at a wall on her descent to the first floor. Yet with her new eyes, she could still see the screen and where she walked with complete focus. There were three prison breaks across Miami from the detention center, rehabilitation center, and Florida Department of Corrections. Things were escalating, and the police were overwhelmed in the area due to hostages and those with abilities, especially one with defensive ice powers.

The National Guard was having trouble getting through traffic, with it backed up from over four hours of panic. Luckily, Miami had a wealth of military infrastructure with Army, Navy, and Air Force recruitment centers. In addition, the Homestead Air Reserve Base was being scrambled with all available personnel as orders came from the Pentagon.

It would be a race against time, and many criminals seemed to also grasp what many of the college nerds had; their powers could grow, and it was a sprint to see how much stronger they could get before the government could fully mobilize.

Tactically, this was the prime moment for them to gain experience by killing people while authorities weren’t organized, but murder wasn’t the only means of gaining experience. Thankfully, she had learned there were dozens of methods one could use to develop, be it achieving something great, use of abilities, or meeting specific requirements, meaning she wouldn’t have to become a criminal.

Still, it would become a guerrilla war out in the streets that would likely be suppressed within the next few days, but law enforcement didn’t have enough personnel or warning to operate optimally. Many would die, and there was always the possibility that the criminals learned the other methods of gaining EXP.

I can’t be left in the dust... I have to be at the head of the pack if I don’t want to get swept under the tide.

Heart thumping with the news feeding into her ears—hearing the cries, prayers, and collision of vehicles—Rachel reached ground level. The Coast Guard was just now setting up a base of operations at the University of Miami by using the waterways and boats; the campus was huge but had areas where they could create checkpoints and funnel people into the appropriate places, with the CDC taking priority in understanding the change.

Rachel quickly scanned the data on Cerridwen’s wiki page, [Mental Acceleration] allowing her to process things at a rapid pace. Oddly enough, there was nothing about the moon. Exiting and searching further, she discovered a site that linked her to the moon, poetry, music, luck, Earth, death, and fertility. One source also connected her to the underworld and a keeper of the cauldron of knowledge.

Although some people have mentioned that gods and goddesses may be involved with this change, and while my Feat has the name of a goddess, that’s far from proof they actually exist. For all I know, this could just be modeled after the deity. And what the hell is an isekai—some kind of anime trope?

"Ugh... Japan," she grumbled, running her fingers through her hair and pausing at the base of her long ears.

Gods, sure, I have ears and a tail; maybe Cerridwen is real and made me into a hare. Shit, anything seems possible after...this. Yet...no one has mentioned any by name or empowered Feats. And great, now people are praying to something called ’System-chan,’ like saying the magic word will reveal all the answers...