Travel activities and serums

They were late by an hour, but everyone finally departed from the base. It was a big convoy that left, but once they reached the outskirts of the city, they separated. The Doomsday Ride opened the way due to the amount of abandonned vehicles, followed by the Doomtrooper, and the armored SUV towing the double trailer behind.

They stopped for the night a small distance away from the roads and any settlements, in open area. It was mostly to prevent mutant beasts and hostile people to be able to sneak close using covers. All external lights were turned off, so they were nearly invisible, and the security cameras had night vision.

"Alright people" Liushi said right after they finished their diner. "There is something that I planned to do ever since I realised an outbreak was about to happen. Something that had been pushed aside because there were more immediate concerns."

The rest of the group leaned forward, focusing on what their leader was about to reveal.

"Combat training."

"What?" said Xiaotian, but the other's faces mirrored her exclamation.

"Let's be honest here. Before the outbreak, while some of us had decent physical conditionning, noone of us was trained for combat. All enemies we encountered with any real fighting skills were Blood Wolf and White Boss, and we only won through overwhelming gun fire power. Something we won't have in an area where weapon possession is severly limited, if not downright forbidden."

"Or if the enemy has more professional fighters" Sun Kun added.

"Yes. Being paranormal may enhance your body, but it doesn't teach you fighting skills. Against another paranormal of equal power with proper training, you will lose."

"I see" said Zhuying. "If 2 level 5 warriors have a sword fight, the one with level 1 swordmanship will lose to the one with level 3 swordmanship."

"... Right, exactly" Liushi replied, surprised that his sister would use RPG mechanics as an explanation. "That's why, starting from tomorrow, part of our days will be dedicated to training in hand-to-hand combat, close-combat weapons, and shooting. Of course, for paranormals, that will include ability training."

"But, for it to be effective, don't we need proper instructors?" Xiaotian asked.

"Yes, but there aren't any trustworthy ones available. It was something I was concerned about when I was making my preparations. So I downloaded both manuals and videos, and using them, I can make a training program."

"How would that work?" Ran Xiyu asked, unconvinced.

"You already know about motion capture, don't you?" The group nodded in response. "Your movements will be captured and compared to the correct recorded ones from certified experts and masters. The differences will be displayed, and you'll see where you have to adjust your moves."

"That's... actually brilliant" Ran Xiyu replied, looking at him in awe. "It would also allow us to clearly keep track of our improvements."

"But, brother Liushi, there are a ton of martial arts" Sun Kun stated. "I doubt that you got videos and books for all of them. Which ones did you select?"

"I looked for popular and useful ones, and didn't limit myself to chinese martial arts. I selected wing chu, pigaquan and bajiquan, muai thai, taekwendo, judo, wrestling, ninjutsu, eskrimas, kobudo, kendo and gun fu. And with those as base, I intended to follow the jeet kune do philosophy."

"Wait, gun fu? It exist?" excmaimed Ran Xiyu in disbelief. "Is it not just something from movies?"

"When I say gun fu, I'm not talking about the flashy things shown in John Woo movies and the likes" Liushi replied with a laugh. "I'm talking about the real, proffesional techniques used with firearms, like tactical reload and other drills. It's about how to use the firearm instead of just shooting."

"How much time per day are we going to practice?" Xiaotian asked. "Especially while we are travelling to Shenhai Island."

"I was thinking about 1h in the morning and 2h in late afternoon. And not everyone should train with the same intensity. Xiaotian and Ran Xiyu aren't fighters, so what they'll learn will be more like emergency self-defense." He paused for a second, smiling wryly. "Thinking about it, I selected pigaquan and bajiquan for Zhuying, because she made me think of Tekken character Xiaoyu" Zjuying perked up hearing that. "And ninjutsu should suit Sun Kun well."

"Hoho" Zhuying started with a teasing grin. "Our Sun Kun is going to a ninja from Naruto. He can already crawl on walls and ceilings."

"Please stop" He replied with a disgusted face. "Don't compare me to any of this japanese sh*t. I tried it and I wanted to beat up so many characters I dropped it."

"Please don't start one of your silly arguments again" Qingping said promptly.

"Say, brother Liushi" Zhang Hai asked. "Are we going to learn every martial arts that you selected? Because that's a lot of things."

"Of course not, Haizi. Out of those 10 styles, each of us will learn the basics of 4 to 6 of them. 3-4 unarmed styles and 1-2 armed styles. And there are some you will work on more than others. It will all depend on what suit you best."

Wing chu turned out to be selected by everyone because of its efficiency as a self-defense style, and to be complemented with jiu-jutsu. The ones using close-combat weapons selected kobudo, while the others took eskrimas. The others styles were selected depending on their preferences and what suited their abilities.

Liushi added muai thai, eskrimas and gun fu. Zhuying choose pigaquan/bajiquan, taekwendo, kendo and kobudo. Qingping choose taekwendo, eskrimas and kobudo. Sun Kun choose taekwendo, gun fu and ninjutsu. Zhang Hai choose bajiquan/pigaquan, wrestling, eskrimas and gun fu. Wen Lu choose eskrimas and gun fu. Finally, Wen Xiaotian and Ran Xiyu choose taekwendo.

That night, while everyone was already asleep, Liushi was still thinking about what to do to get stronger. The training would take some time to truly show results, while a mutation was an instant power up.

[The creation of an enhancement serum for the host would not be difficult] the Starseed suddenly announced.

'What?'

[During the time that I have been bound to you, I was able to fully scan and analyse your body down to the genetic code. Thus I can design a gene serum that is 100% compatible with you.]

'Really? What about other people?'

[That would first require a constant and extensive analyse of the target body's functioning for several days. During that time, we wouldn't be able to do anything else.]

'Nice! That mean I'll be able to enhance Lu and Xiaotian later. What about other paranormals?'

[I cannot answer that question without extensively analysing living paranormals. However, it is estimated that the types of gene serums they can use will be limited by their paranormal ability.]

'Ah... Okay. So, what kind of enhancement can I get?'

[You can receive any kind of gene enhancement serum. Enhancement, transformation, manipulation, these 3 paths are completly open to you. However, the creation of the serums will require mutant beasts cores, and some mutant beasts or paranormals blood or boddy parts.]

'Ugh, I see. So it really was a good thing that I gathered samples. What kind of serum can you make with the current materials?'

[You can select 2 between these 4 serums: the limit break serum, the body enhancement serum, the neural enhancement serum, and the sight enhancement serum.]

[The first will remove the limits on your body ability to get better through training, allowing you to continuously improve your strenght, endurance, speed, flexibility and resistance. It also make the body more receptive to further gene modifications]

'Definitly a must!'

[The second will upgrade your bones and muscles, increasing your strenght and toughness. The third will improve the quality of your neural system, increasing your reaction speed, coordination and processing speed. The last one will improve your eyesight, and allow you to see in the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum.]

'I can achieve the second with the first through training. I don't need the last one since I can use your sensors. That leaves the third one, which will also be useful when I'm synchronised with you.'

[Please insert the mutant beasts cores and the sample of Blood Wolf in the microfactory, alongside the following materials...]

Thus, in the middle of the night, Liushi got up to start the production of the 2 gene serums. When he got back to the bed, he looked at his sister.

'Starseed, since I'm sleeping with her, can you analyse her during the night?'

[To make sure there won't be any defects in the creations of the serums, I need to scan the individual at every moments of the day for several days. For a woman, a month is recommanded due to their menstrual cycle.]

'... I see... It's better to leave that for later.'

The following morning, the training started. At least for everyone except Liushi. He was going to work on the cameras and softwares he intended to use for the techniques learning parts. He gave the group an hour of training, separated in 25 minutes of running, 10 minutes break, and 25 minutes of push ups, sit ups and squats.

While they were busy, he took the limit break serum. It had to be injected directly into the blood stream. The Starseed warned him that it would take around 12 hours for the serum to properly take effect. After that, he would be able to take the neural enhancement serum.

For the rest of the day, Liushi felt his whole body tingling from inside out. Sometimes, he would feel like he was too hot, and at other times he would feel cold. Making the training equipment couldn't distract him because the Starseed did the lion's share of the work. He wasn't looking forward to the night, as he would be taking the second serum.