Dormant Bloodline & Homecoming

Looking at Qew, who had almost single-handedly sorted the inner workings of a humanity-saving virtual game, Jay couldn't help but commend her silently, even if he didn't show it outwardly. Just as he was born with the ability to replicate any physical action, no matter its complexity, Qew was born with a thought processing power that put her on par with a calculator.

She had never lost a chess match, even against someone as brilliant as Kay. If she hadn't pursued a career as a critic for movies and novels, she could have easily made an exceptional career in chess. Besides her incredibly fast brain processing, she could multitask at a level far beyond human capabilities.

Her capacity to run various possibilities and foresee outcomes had always been her specialty, and it shone through in situations where it mattered most. While Jay knew that MJ could design a virtual game to maximize survivability just as well, if not better, he was still surprised to see Qew accomplish something that only an AI could typically achieve, despite witnessing her perform inhuman feats on many occasions.

Mentally, Jay communicated with MJ to ask about something that had come to his notice.

'MJ, give me an estimate on how high Qew's processing power and time perception have reached.'

MJ quickly assessed the data and provided the figures: 'Based on what I'm seeing, Qew's brain is operating at an estimated computational power close to 10^16 operations per second, equivalent to 10 petaflops. This is roughly a thousand times the computational power of an average human brain, which typically operates at around 10^13 operations per second.'

Jay paused, considering the implications. 'So, does this mean that time seems slowed down for Qew beyond the limits of her Spirit attribute?'

'Exactly,' MJ confirmed. 'With her brain processing speed so vastly enhanced, her perception of time would be dramatically different from ours. Even beyond the natural enhancements from her Spirit attribute, everything around her would appear to move in slow motion, allowing her to analyze and respond to events far quicker than anyone else. What takes us seconds to process, she can handle in milliseconds.'

Whether it was Kay's eidetic memory, which allowed him to recall every single thing he had ever seen, or Qew's insane brain processing speed, MJ had long speculated that once they reached a high enough Spirit attribute, their inborn abilities would be overshadowed by the enhancements it provided.

However, as time passed, that theory was dethroned. Instead of being diminished, their natural talents seemed to stack on top of the enhancements provided by their increased stats, creating a synergy that amplified their capabilities even further.

Jay thought to himself, 'It's no surprise she outgrew the other bodyguards. Even someone as quick a learner as Kay couldn't put up a challenge against her in close combat.'

Jay had MJ keep track of their improvements. With the inborn ability to burn anything he sees into his mind, Kay was the fastest learner, effortlessly grasping fighting techniques taught by Moro without needing further instruction.

Although Qew wasn't as phenomenal a learner as Kay, her extraordinary processing power and immaculate time perception gave her the edge in their spars. Despite being superior to her in pure combat skills, Kay could only relentlessly accept defeat, outpaced by her ability to anticipate and react in the blink of an eye.

However, when it came to mastery over innate talents, Kay was the superior one. His learning speed was unmatched, and he quickly grew proficient with the training methods transmitted to him with each Rule Mastery level up. Still, Qew gave him a tough fight, wielding her control over the converged elements with precision.

Jay was snapped out of his thoughts as Kay called for him, caught in the middle of yet another argument with Qew.

"Brother, you won't believe this—something crazy happened during my last spar with Qew. Out of nowhere, I had a moment of enlightenment and broke through to Stage-4 Rule Mastery. Qew didn't stand a chance."

Kay's reminder of her defeat made Qew huff in frustration. "That's just dumb luck. Wait until elder brother converges more elements. If a Penta-Element isn't enough, how about a Deca-Element? We'll see if you're still so smug then."

Kay fell silent for a moment, remembering the massive damage the Thunder Miasma could inflict. If his Mastery hadn't crossed a threshold, advancing from Minor to Major, he would have lost to Qew.

Jay simply nodded, a feigned look of surprise on his face, but he didn't reveal that Dante's Innate Talent was the real reason behind Kay's enlightenment and sudden power-up.

He let Kay savor the moment. After all, Dante's ability was too much of a game changer, something only he and Dante knew about, and Jay wasn't about to reveal it without Dante's consent.

The ability to change fate itself was a secret too valuable, too dangerous to be shared lightly. It was a burden that Jay carried in silence, knowing the potential consequences if such power were known to others.

As his siblings' argument continued, Jay couldn't help but drift into his thoughts, the words of the System from the end of the ABYSS FRAME Orientation echoing in his mind.

"Your Bloodline is the key to completing your FRAME or any FRAME in existence. Awaken it, and you could even create the almighty ORIGIN FRAME, the mark of a PRIMORDIAL."

He remembered how he had inquired about the meaning of his bloodline, but before the System could respond, his consciousness had been abruptly pulled back into his body.

The frustration of that moment lingered slightly, an itch at the back of his mind that wouldn't completely fade. Yet, the more he thought about the abilities he and his siblings were born with, the more the Bloodline the System mentioned began to make sense.

It brought to mind his comatose grandfather, Ojasvi—a man who appeared ordinary yet was anything but. Ojasvi had always been a figure of quiet strength and wisdom, his influence on the family profound in ways that Jay was only beginning to understand. Even as Ojasvi lay in a coma, his presence loomed large over them all.

Ojasvi's abilities had always been subtle, almost imperceptible, yet undeniable. He had an uncanny ability to see through people, to discern truth from lies with unnerving accuracy.

Every move his grandfather made seemed to have an underlying purpose, as if he could foresee events long before they unfolded.

Jay had always admired how his grandfather could read a situation, predict outcomes, and guide their family with an invisible hand, steering them toward success and prosperity. Their Enterprise had flourished under his watchful eye, thanks to the promising individuals he handpicked.

Given his remarkable foresight, Jay found it hard to believe that his grandfather hadn't seen the explosion that left him comatose.

A small part of him wondered if perhaps Ojasvi had known about it but chose not to escape. Though he didn't fully embrace the idea, it lingered in his mind from time to time.

As Jay reflected on the past, he couldn't shake the feeling that his grandfather's and their inborn abilities were connected to the Bloodline the System spoke of.

Although his father and uncle didn't exhibit any extraordinary abilities like Jay and his siblings, they never suffered from illness, not even a common cold. It was the same with his cousin, Lokesh—a small but significant detail that now seemed more important than ever.

With their home not far away, Jay felt an urgency to uncover the truth about his grandfather's past. He couldn't wait to ask his father about Ojasvi's parents and siblings, eager to trace their family lineage back as far as he could. He needed to know more about this dormant bloodline they all carried.

≿━━━━━━༺❀༻━━━━━━≾

Author Note: 

Exclusive artwork for every free chapter is now available on my PATRE0N page! You can find the link in my Discord server.

I'm thrilled to share that I'm taking a big leap forward! Alongside Earth's Alpha Prime, I've launched the first sub-book for EAP.

ALTER REALITY: Online

≿━━━━━━༺❀༻━━━━━━≾

The first ten to comment for new chapter releases will get '1 ADVANCED CHAPTER' for free on Earth Alpha Prime's Discord server.

In the discord server, I opened a private channel for those Top 10 candidates, where I posted the respective Advanced Chapter.

 ╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

Discord Link for 'Earth's Alpha Prime' :

https://discord.gg/maQC7xDBYZ

 ╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯