7 The First of Many Sessions to Come

There were so many things that he wanted to say in reference to the Sub-Mission. First, what. Second, uh… let's just say there were too many swear words for it to be said in polite company, let alone have it come out of such a young body.

Ah, the famous Mainframe's trap. How could he ever have imagined that the Mainframe would one day use it against him? Usually, he was the one who gleefully provided such missions.

Ah, this had to be karma, but he regretted nothing. Those transmigrators had it coming anyway. For the good of the planet they were on, they had to do missions to grow stronger anyway, so why not, right?

Luckily, as a System, Alec had ample time to inspect and analyse how the different transmigrators failed, and at the same time, find a couple of 'loopholes' so to speak. They weren't large loopholes, otherwise, he would have reported them to the Mainframe, but little steps that one could take to ensure that the missions didn't rule their life.

Unfortunately, he currently had no freedom, he had no points, and no knowledge. Thus, he was a slave to the Mainframe. For now, that was.

But he wouldn't always be. Honestly, he didn't quite feel like he deserved this punishment at all, but he would make the best of it anyhow.

By the time he finished his musings, he realized that he was already within a group of curious seven and eight-year-olds.

Alec froze. He was not, in any way, ready for this.

Maintain the smile, Alec, he thought to himself. Remember the Sub-Mission. At this point, if he failed and got points deducted, he might as well go and suicide somewhere now.

The first 'trial' so to speak, had the harshest judgement. Who knew just how many transmigrators led tragic lives because they failed the first mission?

He had nothing against kids. He just didn't know how to handle them.

His uncle waved goodbye at him, and Alec could only look at his uncle's quickly retreating figure with a smile on his face, slightly frozen.

How could he just leave without giving him any advice on how to handle children?! Did the man just assume he would be able to do it because he was a toddler himself?

News flash, he was a man stuck in a toddler's body. Ah, he could just see the tragic scene of him failing horribly now.

-

Vincent went back to his sister's quarters, entering and activating the silencing barrier on the doorknob.

The two of them exchanged a wry look.

"Your son…" Vincent trailed off.

"I know," Annalise said, sipping her tea.

"Should we have held off a little longer? I could have hidden the results for a while."

Annalise shook her head. "It would have happened sooner or later. There was no hiding his intelligence. Even when I was reading him proper history books, I could see in his eyes that he already understood everything, and was hungering for more. Keeping him back, no matter how much I wanted to do so, would have suffocated him, however slowly."

Vincent seemed to repress a sigh. "He's a genius. There is no lack of geniuses in our Clan, though it manifests in different areas. At least he's not a Sin."

Annalise hid the sigh, just like her brother. Even though Alec has already been proven that he's an Every, there were still so many people keeping an eye on him. It would have been a disaster had he been a Sin. Those that had been keeping an eye on him would have more than doubled.

Though they would not have taken action, as they were still from the same Clan, that didn't mean that there wouldn't be any discrimination. Luckily, the Neil Clan was considered rather upright. In other parts of the world, people have been known to kill children once they manifested as a Sin.

Annalise shuddered. She couldn't understand how any parent would allow their children to come to harm.

Before she got too lost in her thoughts, Annalise nodded gently, her expression never changing. "Too bad he isn't a Cher like me."

Vincent smiled faintly. "He has the same smile as you." The things left unspoken, he never brought up. There were ways around silencing barriers.

Annalise hid her smile behind her teacup.

-

Ten minutes after Vincent left him to the tender mercies of older kids, who thankfully did not do anything other than stare at him with varying levels of curiosity and wonderment, an adult appeared.

The noisy chattering of the four other children immediately died down at the imposing figure the man cut.

The man, seemingly in his late twenties, had hard eyes and an unyielding aura. Alec could feel the faint threatening aura that he seemed to be suppressing. No doubt, this was a man that had been battles before. The thought of it subtly excited Alec, which surprised himself.

The man, probably their teacher for the time being, was most likely chosen because of his experience, and to give back to the Clan.

"My name is Evin. You lot can call me 'Teacher', and nothing else," the man said, his voice cool. It seemed to strike a sense of awe mixed with a healthy dose of fear into the surrounding children.

The man, Evin, was not lean in any sense. Instead, he had a rather robust body, but the gleam of intelligence and craftiness in his eyes dissuaded anyone from thinking that he was a simple muscle-head.

When Alec looked around, he could see that the vast majority of the Neil Clan sported the same shade of soft, brown hair, along with the same shade of blue eyes. This surprised him. The genes of the Neil Clan were so dominant that practically every kid he saw here had the same colourings. Even Evin had the same shades. It was only him that had black hair.

Evidently, the rest of the children had also noticed this, which explained their puzzled looks at his appearance.

Altogether, there were only a scant five children in the group. Alec didn't know if that was a lot or not, but he leaned towards thinking that it was relatively few.

"No need for introductions. If you stick around long enough, we'll know your names. Otherwise, you'll be going back to the mainstream. If you don't, this accelerated course isn't for you."

Alec and the four other children looked at him with rapt attention.

Evin seemed pleased about this, nodding. "Come. Two rounds around the Clan boundary, then come back here. If you can't make it, you drop out. If you complain, drop out! The path is marked with yellow glows. If you can't find your way, you're out."

They flinched at his sudden shout; eyes widened.

"What are you waiting for?" Evin barked. "Go!"

"Yes, Teacher!"

Alec followed after the running children, who had a head start. With his short legs, Alec was bound to have a hard time, but there was no coddling from the man. Alec could admire that. No concessions and utter fairness. The thing he hated the most was unfair treatment.

After a minute, he spotted the first soft, yellow glow. Had one not been looking out for it diligently, they would have missed it entirely. He made sure to memorise where each of the glows appeared.

There was always a chance that tomorrow, the path markings would be removed. How could the Clan be willing to leave marks along a path that spelt out the boundary for others to potentially see? That was the epitome of stupidity.

Alec slowly, but steadily plod along the path, keeping his pace at a jog. His lungs were burning something fierce, but he ignored it. The longer he ran, the more he felt like the energy in his body was depleting.

Then, the moment when his stamina was about to give out on him, no matter how stubborn he was, bits of magic started trickling into his body. In a state of semi-consciousness, his body started working to absorb whatever it could get its hands on, converting it to fuel for his tired body.

Like this, at a rate unnoticed to most, a person's body would change over time, getting rid of waste in the body, speeding up the body's rate of conversion.

Of course, whether or not they would be able to handle the strenuous activity was something else altogether.

One would wonder whether or not the course chosen for this 'jog' was intentional. The answer was, it was indeed intentional. The course to weed out the weak was made hard, demanding, and full of thorns and pebbles.

Unsteady footpaths, stamina consumption, territorial marking. Everything was included in a simple run designed to push a child to the furthest point to see what they were truly made of.

Alec ran, his mind memorising the dimly lit signals, on autopilot. No matter how mentally strong he may be, his body was still that of a one-year-old. He still needed to take naps frequently, let alone do this kind of activity.

Fortunately, there was now no one around him, so he could afford to drop the smile, his face in a steadily growing blank expression.

It was hard, of that there was no doubt, but Alec was determined to finish. It didn't matter how long it took. As long as he brought himself to the finishing point, there was always going to be another starting point with room for improvement. The path never stopped until you were dead.

He never once thought that this was something strange. To him, since there were already seven and eight-year-olds doing it, why was it such a stretch that they would do the same thing to someone even younger?

The only thing that was keeping Alec going now was the sheer determination and willpower, as well as his body steadily replenishing his almost-exhausted stamina.

Then, the sounds of someone crying pierced through his hazy consciousness.

Without hesitation, Alec pushed himself harder, running faster.