Chapter 10: Chapter 10
The video soon showed the moment when Syd picked up the glass cup and made a strange gesture.
Chris's eyes filled with confusion.
The next second, he was stunned.
On the screen, Syd pointed at the glass cup, and the space around it seemed to turn into glass itself before shattering explosively! The force of the impact instantly shattered the glass, sending shards flying towards the wall at astonishing speeds.
"What?"
Chris's face was covered in shock.
Instantly, he linked this to mutant abilities.
"This kid's power is supposed to be absorbing sunlight, right? When did he get this strange and quite destructive new ability?"
The middle-aged strongman was amazed.
Though it seemed that it had to be activated at close range, it was still a significant improvement over just absorbing sunlight. It finally differentiated him from normal humans, giving him the power to easily dispatch ordinary people!
Unable to contain himself, he hurried back to the room, looking at the confused young man. He blurted out, "Kid, I thought your ability was to absorb sunlight. How come you have that move too?"
He waved his hand to demonstrate.
Syd, realizing what Chris meant, said in surprise, "How did you know?"
"Sorry, I looked at the data in your pocket earlier." Chris then took out his laptop to show him, "And this..."
"Surveillance?" Syd frowned slightly.
Chris said awkwardly, "As a mutant, you know, I have to be cautious, so I installed some cameras."
While speaking, he walked over to the monitor and turned it off, saying awkwardly, "There, now you don't have to worry about me seeing your privacy."
"But you haven't answered me about your ability..."
Syd hesitated for a moment, then vaguely replied, "You said it yourself, as a mutant, I have to be cautious, so I hid some of my abilities."
Hearing this, Chris's bearded face showed a look of realization.
So he had hidden some of his abilities?
Indeed, it made sense for a mutant to hide one of their powers if they had more than one.
He looked at Syd approvingly and said, "Indeed, you did the right thing."
Then, he commented with a smile, "Your ability to absorb sunlight is a bit weak, but this new one looks alright. It doesn't have much destructive power, but it's enough for self-defense."
Compared to the destructive powers of stronger mutants, Syd's abilities could only be considered average, but Chris refrained from saying so directly and instead offered some comfort.
After saying these things, he shook his head and walked out.
Seeing him leave, Syd breathed a sigh of relief.
Now that he was a bit calmer, he noticed changes in his own body.
"My body's energy has grown a bit more, huh..."
Feeling that he could release about sixteen black particles with the current energy in his body, a smile appeared on Syd's pale face.
Suddenly, he noticed something, and the joy in his eyes intensified.
He saw that as his body's energy increased, the lifespan number on the panel had unexpectedly jumped up by a day!
Syd was surprised, then quickly realized why.
Normally, his ability to absorb sunlight could speed up his body's recovery. Given his current dire physical state, it made sense to see such data changes.
However, this also gave Syd a glimmer of hope.
Could it be possible to live longer by increasing the light energy within his body?
With that thought, he couldn't help himself; he got up from bed despite his weakness and walked to the window to pull open the curtains fully.
The sunlight, previously just a bit, now illuminated his entire body!
[Photon Energy +1]
[Photon Energy +1]
[Photon Energy +1]
Noticing the increase in energy points, Syd felt good.
However, his happiness was short-lived as his expression suddenly changed.
He looked out the window and saw several uniformed FBI agents knocking on doors from house to house, clearly not having given up on finding him!
The brief moment of respite had almost made him forget he was still being pursued. If he were spotted, he likely wouldn't be able to escape!
Syd quickly ducked down to avoid being seen, his expression becoming serious.
With his current strength, escaping these agents would be very difficult!
"It looks like I need to increase my power quickly!"
He thought for a moment and decided to focus first on improving his Spatial Transfer ability.
"The current environment isn't suitable for practicing anything else, so I'll start with this!"
He immediately began practicing Spatial Transfer.
[Spatial Transfer Experience +1]
[Spatial Transfer Experience +1]
[Spatial Transfer Experience +1]
[Spatial Transfer Experience +1]
His figure flickered erratically around the room, appearing and disappearing in flashes that would have been frightening in the dead of night.
As he used up half of his internal light energy, he paused and noticed a problem.
If he kept practicing continuously, he would need to absorb sunlight to convert into internal energy for practice, which would slow down the collection of energy points on the panel.
After all, the sunlight would first be used to replenish his body's energy, and with his internal energy depleted, he couldn't collect any light energy.
That meant he had to choose between unlocking progress and increasing his power levels.
Biting his lip, Syd decided that increasing power levels should be the priority during crucial times, with unlocking progress to come later.
After all, he already had enough abilities for now; what was most important was increasing their levels, especially Spatial Transfer!
As he continued practicing, time flew by...
[Spatial Transfer Experience +1]
[Spatial Transfer Experience +1]
During this time, he also noticed that his internal energy was automatically recovering when he had enough food, which accelerated the speed of his ability level increase!
Soon, it was noon.
Under Syd's expectant gaze, the panel data fluctuated.
A notification sounded.
[Ability: Spatial Transfer (0/500) Level 2]
Finally, level 2!
Syd eagerly felt the changes in himself.
The most noticeable change was the increased distance of his Spatial Transfer!
After testing, he found that the distance had increased from the paltry two meters to around nine or ten meters!
"Let's just round it to ten meters!"
Syd was pleased.
This improvement significantly enhanced his ability to escape.
Despite only a few meters of difference, in this densely populated area, it would be difficult for those agents to catch him before he exhausted his energy.
He glanced at the panel, caught in a happy dilemma.
The difficulty of increasing levels had suddenly escalated; he wouldn't be able to continue improving Spatial Transfer within a day or two!
After some thought, his gaze shifted to the Black Particles ability, his only ranged attack so far.
If the level of Black Particles were increased, both the attack distance and the range of the particles would likely grow...
"I should be able to complete it by evening!"
Thinking this, Syd's gaze turned cold.
"When those people come looking, I'll show them a thing or two!"
He knew time was running short!
To think those people would take a long time to find him would be underestimating them.
And lately, he had seen them starting to enter people's homes to check.
If this continued, they would eventually find this place, and then...
Shaking his head, just as he was preparing to continue practicing, he suddenly noticed a change in his internal energy!
(End of Chapter)