Chapter 28: How it all Began

[Those are the results of your cultivation last night.]

[Your Strength, Agility, and Perception each increased by an additional five points, while your natural Energy also improved by ten.]

[They’re placed in brackets to show that they came from an outside source of power, in other words, from your cultivation.]

The system explained, and Arlo nodded before turning his attention back to his Attribute Points.

"It seems my Intelligence and Charm don’t increase through Mana cultivation, right?" he asked, noticing the absence of bracketed numbers beside them.

[Yes.]

"Then the only way to improve them is through my Attribute Points. I can’t let them lag behind, especially my Intelligence..." Arlo muttered before making his choice.

"Add five points to Intelligence, three points to Strength, and the remaining two points to Agility."

He gave the order.

[Points have been successfully distributed.]

[Attributes]

[Strength: 15]

[Agility: 14]

[Perception: 12]

[Intelligence: 15]

[Charm: 3]

[Attribute Points: 0]

"In just one night, most of my stats have nearly doubled!" Arlo mused aloud as he clenched his hand into a fist before releasing it.

Although he hadn’t suddenly developed bulging muscles or a ten-pack, he could clearly feel the massive increase in his strength, something that felt almost otherworldly to him.

But soon, the putrid smell reached his nose, and he turned toward the dark impurities scattered across the floor.

"And what are these?" he asked with furrowed eyebrows, instinctively shifting away from them.

[Those are the impurities that were removed from your body during last night’s cultivation.]

"I can’t let her see this..." Arlo muttered as he looked around the room.

Fortunately, he soon found what he needed and immediately got to work, cleaning the dark impurities from the floor until the tiles were once again sparkling white.

Once everything had been cleaned, he hurried to the toilet and flushed the impurities away, and only after making sure there was no trace left behind, did head to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

Just then, the sound of knocking echoed at the door.

"Wake up, sleepyhead!"

"You have thirty minutes to come out, or I’ll be coming back with a chainsaw. And don’t you dare pretend you don’t know what that means!"

Captain Ennessa’s voice rang out before the sound of her footsteps gradually faded away.

"Tsk,"

Arlo clicked before walking into the bathroom.

__________________________

The hall was fairly large, occupying the highest floor of the mini-skyscraper Captain Ennessa insisted on calling a small house.

White covered every inch of the floor and ceiling. No furniture, no decorations, nothing. Just an empty white room.

Inside stood Arlo and Ennessa.

"So, um, how does this training thing work?" Arlo asked, looking at Captain Ennessa.

She was dressed in a white coat that reached her knees, with spectacles perched on her nose, and held a large tablet.

Overall, she looked nothing like someone who had come to train him in combat.

"We start with knowledge," Captain Ennessa said, lifting her head.

A strange blue hologram flickered to life before her face, and her fingers danced across it rapidly.

’Hmm, doesn’t that look like the system’s interface?’

Arlo thought, confusion evident in his eyes.

A derisive snort rang inside his head before he could dwell on it further.

"That’s just a stupid hologram. We are not even comparable at all," the system’s disdainful voice rang out.

Arlo turned in time to witness a spectacle of transformation.

The floor behind him split open, a seat rising from the gap.

When he looked back at Captain Ennessa, she was standing on an elevated platform that had not existed seconds before.

The wall behind her rotated, revealing a wall-sized rectangular glass panel.

Blank white light pulsed across its surface, with the word XECNO flickering in different areas.

"Have a seat," Captain Ennessa said.

Arlo sat down, watching the strange technology shift its images rapidly, apparently controlled by Captain Ennessa’s small tablet.

"I spoke with a friend who works at the Xecno Military Cybertransfusion labs. They said they would have a spot for you tomorrow, so we have a lot to cover," Captain Ennessa said.

Arlo raised an eyebrow. "Um, a spot for what?"

"For your cybernetic transplantation, of course."

"What!?" Arlo jumped from his seat.

"I thought I mentioned that barely eight hours ago?" Captain Ennessa said, tapping repeatedly on her tablet.

Arlo looked at her blankly.

"Don’t tell me you weren’t listening to all I said." she asked, adjusting her glasses.

"Yes, I remember you mentioning that" he replied.

"So why do you sound so surprised?"

"I just never thought it would happen so fast. I never even said I wanted to..."

[Do not refuse so quickly simply because you possess another power source. Let her explain the concept first, and we will determine whether it is worth pursuing,] the system advised, and Arlo skillfully adjusted his words.

"I mean, I did not want to go through it so quickly," he finished.

Captain Ennessa shrugged.

"The faster, the better. Normally, an unplanned transfusion like yours would take months before the request is even considered. Getting approval in less than a day is extremely rare."

Arlo was even more surprised. If unplanned requests normally took months, how had his been approved so quickly?

"Before you undergo your fusion, I feel it is necessary to introduce the concept of cybernetic transfusion," Captain Ennessa said.

Arlo sat up straighter.

"First, what is cybernetic transfusion, and where did it come from?"

Captain Ennessa asked, rhetorically.

"It began with the arrival of the Vorrath."

"Their magic was mystifying, and their ability to transform from helpless human forms into shapes straight out of nightmares, capable of otherworldly devastation, was both amazing and alarming to us."

"We knew that although they appeared capable of reason and seemed interested only in returning to their own world, humanity would be utterly helpless should they ever turn against us."

"We could not entrust the survival of our entire race to monsters simply because, at the time, they showed no desire to harm us."

"So, an idea that had been recited and loved for thousands of years yet ignored due to its lack of necessity and perceived wastefulness, was brought up once again."

"The funny, stupid idea of turning humans into superheroes."

’Superheroes?’

Arlo wondered quietly.

"When the Vorath realized there was no way to return home, deciding to take over our world and make it their new one, humanity had no choice but to turn to that idea as its only salvation,"

A holographic image appeared before them.

Fallen structures burned beneath raging flames as strange, abominable creatures wandered through the ruined streets, stepping over the corpses of humans scattered across the ground.

"The first war, often called the First Fall, was devastating. It reminded us of our helplessness against the Vorath, a war where humans were flung from the apex of the food chain," Captain Ennessa said.

Though her expression remained blank and professorial, Arlo could sense the hatred buried deep within Captain Ennessa’s voice as she narrated those events.

"Thankfully, a small group had been working on the idea of turning humans into superheroes using technology. That group is known as the Xecno Group today."

"Their small, seemingly useless idea became humanity’s only hope. They created the first Xecno Cybernetic Transfusion, empowering humans through the fusion of technology.

"Their first thousand tests failed, with the test subjects dying. But those deaths taught them what they needed to know."

"After close to ten years of hiding behind walls, conducting intense research under the threat of racial extermination, they finally created the first cybernetic human."

"It was none other than the group’s foremost leader, who had risked death and returned to tell the tale."

"Such an act had won over the hearts of humanity, and with the world standing at the edge of extinction, almost every available resource was placed into the group’s hands."

"Since then, technologically enhanced humans have spread forth like the seas."

"Hmm. Talk about a lucky group,"

Arlo mused, thinking about the Xecno Group.

While they had been laughed at by the world for their funny, stupid idea, they now dominated Earth.

Arlo had heard the name Xecno more than ten times since arriving in this world.

"It was not luck," Captain Ennessa corrected.

"It was dedication to one’s passion, the willingness to pursue what others considered impossible, and the courage to continue no matter how the rest of the world perceived you."

Arlo gave a deep nod. She was right.

"With cybernetic transformation finally successful, humanity, which had been driven into the far corners of Earth was able to rise once more."

"Armed with a new power capable of rivaling even magic, we pushed back the Vorath and reclaimed what had been stolen from us."

"I am very curious. How can technology rival something like magic?" Arlo asked, raising an eyebrow.

Captain Ennessa smiled proudly. "A very good question, though it is not quite."

The better question is: how did technology manage to reign over magic?"

Arlo shook his head.

"Of course, the metals already present on Umbrasol and formerly used in our technology were not suitable for cybernetic transformation. That was one of the many lessons humanities learned through its earliest failures."

"Ironically, however, the very thing that made our cybernetic transformation successful was also brought to this world by the Vorath."

"Huh?" Arlo stared at her in stunned confusion.

"When the dimensional rift opened in the sky and the Vorath emerged, they were not the only things that crossed into our world."

She explained, continuing,

"Their source of energy, commonly referred to as mana, came with them."

"The Vorath paid little attention to this because they believed humanity could never cultivate it due to the limitations of our physiology,"

Captain Ennessa explained, and at that moment, failed to hide her grin.

"But they were mistaken."

"While it is true that we cannot naturally harness mana due to our physiology, we were able to..."