The Show Must Continue II

[Name: Brand Mercer].

[Age: 17].

[Gacha Points: 0018 -> 3120]

[Powers:]

*None

[Inventory:]

...

*Clarent Blood Arthur (Rare)

[Summons:]

*Lucy (Cyberpunk Edgerunners)

*The Black Goat of the Woods With a Thousand Young (Ane Naru Mono) - Unbound.

...

I was checking on my stats, laying on the bed in the top bedroom. Shizuka was by my side. I don't know if she's healing me or mummifying me. But since she's the expert here, I can only shut up and let her do whatever she wants.

*Cough*

This is already the third time.

"Brand-chan... t-the injury is healing quite fast" She lifted up the band that she had put down a few seconds ago and we both noticed that the gnashing injury seemed to be closing at a visible speed. This is definitely not normal but right now there is something else that has my attention. So many matter together that I can't take them out of my head.

"Why are you coughing so much Shizuka?"

"It must be the cold weather... leaving that aside, tell me how you feel? does it itch?" She evaded my question and paid attention to my healing wound with the curiosity of a scientist. I can only hope it is indeed just a cold.

"I don't know what is happening to me, Shizuka... I pulled that strength out of nowhere then I tried deliberately and couldn't... this creature injured me. Then I summoned that woman... she says I'm a monster my injuries are healing faster now and I don't have a clue what's going on"

I rubbed my temples in exasperation, perhaps what I need right now is a therapist... I need Kyoko and Arisa.

"... why don't you try to sleep for now? we can talk more about it once you wake up and we can also see if by then the injury is already healed."

"Hmn" I nodded, perhaps that's for the best... I need to rest. These things are just staying rent-free in my head and causing me stress...

"Has 'she' spoken to you?" Shizuka asked me before leaving, referring to the Black Goat.

"No... I haven't heard of Chiyo since she left".

"Good, then I'll leave you Brand-chan, get better" After giving me some delicious lip pecks, Shizuka took her gear and left the room.

With by girl gone, there were some things I needed to ask.

"Hollow, why does my list of powers says none? clearly, something is not normal with me!" Super strength and now the capacity to heal my injuries... this is no doubt a power of sorts, I just don't know how it works... why was I able to blast that creature once but then nothing happened? is it a gauge? a one-time strike? can it only be used once a day? I have no idea.

[The system shall only register items, weapons, powers and summons that are drawn through the gacha. Your powers -if any- are biologically innate to you. They have nothing to do with the system, Brand].

"Is there a way for me to know what they are?" As long as I could understand them, that would be helpful... this attack was an eye-opener. We would have been able to deal with a beta type if I hadn't thrown myself at it so brazenly hoping to test these powers. A beta is within our capacity, but delta...? bullets weren't doing shit to that thing!

[Sadly there isn't any... unless you obtain power in the future that allows you a degree of self-awareness of your own capacities, otherwise... the system that is merely connected to the flow of causality, is unable to register whatever power you may have obtained even before the system itself was installed].

I sighed and decided to discard that complex theme for now, "Nothing to do about that topic then. Tell me why is Chiyo marked in red colours, also what is the meaning of her status as unbound?"

[This entity that you summoned was strong enough to force her independence from the system. She detached herself from your flow of causality and hence I'm unable to locate or remove her from this timeline... for all intents and purposes, she's no longer your summon].

"What do you mean? she's stronger than the system?!"

[Bear in mind that cases like these are the exception, not the rule].

I couldn't believe it. Is this the extent of my luck? has my karma become negative after so much fucking that the universe thinks my life itself is unfair? because I don't understand... all possible people that could exist in the myriad words this system has access to. I had to summon the one that's bloody stronger than the system.

"Brand" A voice took me out of the outrage I was feeling, it was Lucy who entered in an awkward motion, closing the door behind her with a lock.

I see... she either wants to talk about a serious private topic... or she wants to fuck me, or both. Considering that I almost died half an hour ago, I don't think it is later.

"Lucy... what is it?"

She sat beside me on the bed and caressed my cheeks in silence, I love when she does this... but when she does this it is mostly because she's worried and anxious about something. I can't blame her...

"How are you feeling, babe?" She asked me.

"I don't know... weird. I don't feel ill, but it is strange to know something is happening to my body and yet I don't know what it is".

She smiled and leaned down, kissing my forehead. When she raised up her smile was gone and instead, a mere eerie word came out of her lips.

"Gentek".

"Why?".

"Biological experimentation is their main objective... they're related with Blackwatch, an American special operation service related to biological warfare. Both of them together could only lead to one thing: Human experimentation. Your father, Alex Mercer, was one of their lead biological scientists... he stopped working for them for reasons I'm unaware of... I tried to crack up their servers before but anything related to your father is like their most classified subject".

"What are your thoughts, Lucy? what do you think of all this?" She is smarter than me... I can draw some conclusions but hers should be more accurate than mine. Seeing my powers, my father, my mother... how I was left... Gentek, Blackwatch... and Chiyo calling me a monster.

"Brand... your father most likely did biological experiments with you... there is no other explanation. I suspected it but had no proof, these powers of yours confirm it".

"I don't remember anything like that, moreover... he was a businessman, or a lawyer... I don't know anymore... my mother too, it doesn't make sense. Did he steal Gentek's research and try to do his own?"

"The fact that you have no memories confirms it. However, I don't know what his purpose was... you told me you didn't have memories of your childhood or anything until only a few years ago. This is likely the period when their experiments ended, they fled Japan and went back to the States for some reason, and they disappeared... there is something that I didn't tell you before, Brand".

Lucy bit her lips and I gasped, why would she conceal things from me?

"You concealed something from me?"

"I did it because I didn't understand it. It didn't make sense. This information is not classified to many departments of Blackwatch. Apparently, they're hunting 'Brand Mercer'... Blackwatch is after your head, Brand..."

"What?! Why?!" I was astonished, my only conjecture was that they were hunting me because of my relations with my father. If they're after him, logically they'd be after me too.

"This leads to the reason why I didn't tell you... according to the data. You were hunted and 'found' in China... Korea, Germany, Italy... several times in the states. Ohio and Miami are included" The more Lucy spoke the more confused she looked; that confusion was infectious since I also didn't understand jack shit of what she was telling me.

"I don't get it, Lucy".

"It is better if I show you".

She showed me her phone where there was some data, and pictures... in those pictures, there was a lot of 'me' in different positions... all of them dead, killed, shot, sliced, pierced, being experimented on. All of them blondies with blue eyes just like me.

"What the fuck, Lucy?" I gasped and looked at her only to see the same clueless expression.

"T-This is why I didn't tell you... I don't understand either, Brand... are they your clones? did they clone you?"

"How am I supposed to know? what if I am a clone as well?"

Just what the hell is going on... Blackwatch, Gentek, Alex Mercer... how do these pieces fit together?

"I don't know... once I manage to connect to that armoured vehicle that we stole from them, I should manage to crack their servers further, but it will be war. They know I am coming and they will be prepared".

There is no other option, something tells me the backstory of this puzzle is related to the catastrophe. We have no option but to move forward. The show must continue.