Chapter 18 Friend talk And A Potential Rival

Friend talk And A Potential Rival

The boy grunted and held out 'How To Build A Regimen To Your Own Individual Needs.' And flipped through the pages. He was used to reading magazines and the diagrams for these ones could make up for when he needed a break between texts.

It was afternoon when he started but he finished towards evening. Between his roommates stirring to show that they were healthy, Jacob had waited patiently to the side.

Tumunomi Escaver's stomach growled and he reached for what he should have eaten at breakfast. He bit into the apple and opened the plastic container with bread stuffed with different kind of greens. Thankfully, there were also responsible slices and chunks of meat Jacob called 'ham' when he asked the boy in question what he thought about it. The box of juice he found easy to finish too and the snacks also.

He, himself also thought he was done until he began going into his lunch.

It was stuffed white chicken, noodles, streaks of yam and slices of fried plantain. A smoothie had been added as well as 2 bottles of water.

Tumunomi Escaver finished it all and Jacob asked him to question .

"Before we begin, what just happened?"

Tumunomi Escaver swallowed the remainder of his food between his cheeks and burped.

What does this have to do with the chip?

"You just left the drip, you just recovered. And yet you chose to read first. In fact, you did not talk or seem distracted by your growling stomach up until now and this is evening."

Tumunomi Escaver said nothing do Jscob spoke again.

"So, let's begin. Do you remember page 1?"

"Page 1?"

"Yes."

"No."

Jacob laughed, "try harder."

"You still haven't told me why I wasted my contribution points to see Ivan and John become di-"

"Can you just try? I don't enjoy believing I brought them harm, okay?"

Tumuonmi Escaver stared at him a long while before closing his eyes and trying to recall.

Jacob waited as seconds became minutes and then Tumunomi Escaver' face darkened as he was tired. Ready to pounce on Jacob, he shouted. "I don't remember any-"

He stopped, frozen on his tracks and Jacob smiled knowingly.

Tumunomi Escaver almost stumbled as he tried to find his balance.

He then silently quoted word after word until the last full stop. He could even remember the design patterns on each page.

"Next page."

There are over five thousand pa-" he caught himself again. "No, 6400 of them exactly."

"Yes, now you have to exercise it before it becomes applicable in real life situations."

"What is the limit?"

"The human memory has no limit."

He saw the realisation dawn on Tumunomi Escaver's bewildered face and in the 5 years of knowing him, it was the first time of seeing the expression. The surprised boy looked like he had seen a ghost, he had not allowed himself to fall completely too, so his arms were outstretched and his mouth eas also open enough to fit a good sized egg.

"Now, practice, lets go; what is the next page"

5 days later, Andrew and Jake woke up to a view of stacked of papers in one corner and Tumunomi Escaver doing exercises for different stances.

Jacob had encouraged him to not only recite text but to draw out the diagrams he had seen. And Tununimi Escver did not complain because his memory seemed to have improve. His focus tpp jad a terrifying leap, up to the point where he did not even know that his roommates had woken up.

After going through various books that Jacob had brough him, he had trained in different stances; horse stance, fighting stance, side-stepping, kicking stance. He had picked up exercises explosive speed build up and flexibility, he also did cardio to build endurance.

Apart from that, he had began throwing punches each day. From simple high, low and mid punches that he had trained 5 reps each during morning, afternoon and night that he increased by a multiple of 5 every 3 days, to kicks -front side, back and round house and more – that he did the same for.

He had also used his contribution points to get a practice dummy and several mats for practice.

Tumunomi Escaver had liked the idea of using claws but Jacob advised him to have a deeper foundation as a tree with deeper roots could stretch farther and farther.

So, at this moment of going through his regimen, Andrew and Jake stirred.

Andrew woke up with a shout but clutched his head immediately. "Ivan! John! Aaaarrghhh!!!"

Jake rose up more slowly in contrast.

Between Jacob's guilt and the orders from the doctor's advices, Jacob pressed a button under each of their beds.

The Labcoats stepped into the room and went to attend to them. They shone lights in their eyes, asked them questions, and used some apparatus on them like a stethoscope, a sphygmomanometer and the likes.

Jacob waited and then prepared himself for the questions.

For the first day, they allowed their bodies to adjust to it. So, he spent that time getting books for them that they would need as they too had gotten the chips, meaning that their memories and mental faculties had been augmented.

In the end, it was until the next day when the book had been atop their beds that Andrew turned to Jacob.

"What happened to Ivan and John?"

Jacob sighed and turned to them both as Jake had swivled his head at them because of the question too.

Jacob looked at Andrew and Jake both for a while before trying to sound understanding. "There are consequences to some of these things."

None of them spoke.

"I think John and Ivan are…"

He did not explicitly say it but Andrew's face was already twisting as he remembered the disposed bodies even before Tumunomi Escaver's voice came to them.

"He is trying to say that they are disabled. I do not believe they are dead."

Andrew's face twisted before tears dropped and he fell to his knees from the bead, buckling in tears.

"But," inbetween his panting breaths he continued speaking to them. "The lady said that it was not entirely bleak for them. So, we might not have lost them."

"…yet." Jake's voice made Andrew sob harder.

Tumunomi Escaver looked at him with a frown. "Don't talk that way about your friends."

"You mean our friends?" Jake looked at him with a question.

He looked straight back at him, "your friends."

"Is Derek the only person you consider to be your friend?" Jacob interrupted Jake's question.

Timunomi Escaver turned to Jacob, "I think so."

He laughed, "well he might not be your friend but I know how decisive you can be. So it means that you care about him but you would not exactly put him as someone to die for."

"Maybe," from the way Jacob spoke sometimes Tumunomi Escaver had a guess which he voiced. "How long have you had a chip?"

"I told you before," Jacob tilted his head. "Everyone has their secrets."

Tumunomi Escaver realised that his toughest opponent might be Jacob.

"So, what is this chip thing exactly?"

By the time Jacob had turned to answer his friend, Tumunomi Escaver had another goal to beat apart from Derek.

When he had done the afternoon workout that day, he had spent time until evening thinking how he could bridge the gap between himself and his goals.

At some point Tumunomi Escaee asked Jacob to get him some books since he did not seem to care about his contribution ponts at all.

The boy then spent his time combing through each and every one ranging from anatomy to wildlife geography and more.

Jacob knew that the other boy was hiding things from him, but it was a side effect of him now having the chip as he knew that Tumunomi Escaver had purposely mixed what he needed with what he did not so that Jacob would not be able to trace his actions.

He smiled at that, silently welcoming the challenge

Tumunomi Escaver had read books until slept thinking about it and woke up doing his regimen once more.