17 Wrapping Up A Loose End

(Rest In Piece Akira Toriyama April 5th, 1955-March 1st, 2024. May he fly high amongst the endless clouds and heavens of Otherworld.)

(Carter POV)

Sitting at my warehouse computer, I contemplate the vast amount of information I have been able to take in in such a short time. While before, I could recall information and somewhat understand a decent amount of it. Now, I could analyze it, study it, and master it in under an hour.

Since what I took was the perfected version of NZT, and not the weaker versions, my rate of learning has increased, as well as my ability to take in information.

Looking back, it felt as if I was living like a caveman. Reminiscing aside, currently, I am surfing the Internet, using the secure connection in my warehouse, in order to discover any possible methods of NZT getting out into the world.

The hacking perk that I bought from the jump document was definitely working out, as I was pretty much hacking the Internet while using my NZT-enhanced brain to recall any and all possible leaks.

Inconceivable Hacking Skills: Quentin Walker, a genius tech researcher from CRAFT, once remarked that there are only a handful of minds on the planet that can hack his projects. Well, jumper, you are now part of that handful, even without using NZT. In addition, this perk lets you just type really fast on a computer instead of having actually to hack, and almost any computer's security will crumble to your flailing fingers.

The Craft company themselves were the ones that initially invented the formula. Still, they were never able to perfect it nor create it in a form that didn't cause instant brain death. Like what Vernon's sister said during the Limitless movie, the brain is not meant to work at 100% all of the time.

Mine is, of course, an exception, as it had already been enhanced by the jump body modification document, which allowed me to improve my form already. And with I eliminate the negative perk, as well as smart immunity, allowing me to keep the NCT buff active forever. I'll never need to worry about the side effects.

Eliminate the Negative- The immunity to side effects can affect internal things. Magic that may have drawn on your emotions to fuel its power now has a separate pool. Any drawbacks your powers, biological traits, or magic systems may have held have been wiped away.

Although I do have to make sure that I keep some pills on me, or at least close by, as those withdrawal symptoms suck. It felt as if the world was spinning and my head was going to explode any second while also feeling much more lethargic than I had ever felt.

Again, don't do drugs, kids.

Thankfully, the self-replenishing supply of NZT I have comes in both syringe and pill form so that I can take either/or, but I'm going to be taking them in pill form as I wouldn't say I like needles. It's part of the reason why I never actually got a tattoo, and I never had the money for one.

Even now, I'm not actually interested in getting a tattoo unless it actually brings me some benefit. But ink-related thoughts aside, I had already managed to hack into the company mainframe after about an hour, and now I'm combing through their systems, checking for any and all possible existences of the original NZT formula.

So far, I found nothing other than a couple of interesting projects related to nanotechnology and biogenetics. Some of these projects are practically bleeding edge, with one trying to increase human reaction time to the point where they could catch bullets, and another one would induce almost immediate cellular regeneration.

I'm definitely going to take some copies for myself. Thank you very much. After copying them to a secure file, I continued my search, but I made sure to send out a couple of feelers to make sure I was not trapping myself.

But to my credit, it seems that I'm vastly overestimating their security, which makes sense as it was still the early 2010s, and cyber security hadn't made it as far as it had in the late 2010s and in the early 2020s.

In total, it took me around five hours to clear the company's mainframe, and while I did find some possible copies of the formula, which I deleted, there was nothing concrete there.

And now I'm left with the possible dilemma of being discovered, doing less than legal drug experiments. While I did not make enough progress to warrant human trials, which was what Vernon was for. The testing was not overseen, so it is still considered illegal.

The FBI is probably learning of this possible miracle drug that could increase human mental faculties to their peak. They probably wanted a slice, but they're probably not going to find anything. I took all of the research and deleted all of the digital copies from my computer at the lab.

With that done, I did some minor stretches as I had been sitting in my chair for five hours. It's probably the longest I've stayed still since the beginning of the jump chain, other than necessary sleep.

While I was tempted to start testing the limits of my new scientific knowledge, I was held back by a decent amount of hesitation over the fact that, since this was technically an alternative form, it wouldn't apply to my base form.

The only things that crossover between alternate forms are perks and skills, as well as reserves for various esoteric energies. So, if I were to inject myself with any possible super serums in one form, they wouldn't apply to the others unless I had the means to merge them.

But I'm getting ahead of myself now. I should just focus on doing what I've always done: building resources and cash. In addition to practicing my various skill sets with the inclusion of NZT, I will not need to worry about my skills rusting as much.

Walking over to an empty part of my gym, I stand next to a punching bag, and after putting on some boxing gloves, I begin to recall some of the boxing videos I had watched, and while I had done a decent amount of repetitions and gun, some of the fighting styles down, I had never actually gone more profound than that.

But after recalling it, I stroke with my right and then left quickly, going into an uppercut and then a few punches to the side. My movements, while a bit rigid, were becoming more and more fluid with each passing second.

I could essentially feel my strikes being more precise and more powerful as I learned to distribute the weight behind each and every one of my movements.

Then, after a while, I tried to use my telekinesis to enhance my strength, and soon enough, the punching bag would start flying wildly as I threw punch after punch that probably could've shattered cement walls.

Right and then a left and then another right and then another left. A rhythm began to form in my movements, so I began to vary up. My move set incorporated some tae kwon do, as well as savate.

Using my telekinesis in my right leg, I gave myself a decent amount of air and threw multiple kicks toward the punching bag, and after the third, it broke apart, causing sand to fall all across the gym.

Before I could even blink, another punching bag had taken its place, and some of the cleaner robots came out and began to suck up all of the sand. After doing so, they returned to those cubicles in the wall that just closed as soon as they opened, and after closing, it is as if they never appeared in the first place.

Maybe it was some kind of quantum tunneling? That or the warehouse has some form of sentience. But possible questions relating to various metaphysics aside, I looked at my hands and felt invincible.

I could barely feel the strain after enhancing all of those punches and kicks with telekinesis. I could feel it in my muscle memory that I could repeat all of those movements nearly instantaneously for normal humans.

I could practically break a man in two with my bare hands, with some effort that is. Now, I just need to wait for the next five years. I should definitely try to learn more about economics during this time as well because if I am going to be going to the Monopoly jump, I will need all the skills I can amass.

(Honestly, the Limitless and Aladdin jumps will be very short, which will then lead into Farmville and Monopoly, but after those jumps, we will be getting into some decent storytelling. I was going to write more for this chapter, but after hearing about what happened to the author of Dragon Ball, I just lost my motivation.)