Re-Awakening

When everyone was sitting in class one day, a small breeze picked up around Min Ye.

"Wow!" someone exclaimed.

"I can feel the movement of the air! She has so much talent!" someone else said.

Min Ye excused herself and rushed toward the school's collectors. She was going to make the most of her awakening and apply a strong seal while she was inside one of them. She would stay all night if she had to.

Teacher Heng cleared his throat.

"Everyone, pay attention. Do not mind the awakening of your peers. Although Min Ye is indeed a talent, there is a place for hard work too. If you don't keep working, you are like the hare who lost the race to the tortoise. The strong should never be beaten by the weak, so make yourselves stronger."

The students nodded, remembering the bitter lesson taught by that fairy tale.

"Here is the question for your test today. What are the three types of breaker seals? Write your answer and turn it in. More complete answers will get more points."

The students turned to their test and started writing.

'It is a trick question,' Wu Bao thought. 'There are two types of seal breakers, one that can be applied to an inanimate object and one that can be applied to a living being. The ones in living beings follow two major rules so we treat them as three types."

He wrote his answer on the paper.

'A seal breaker on an inanimate object can only break seals on other inanimate objects. Those on living beings can only be used on other living beings. Furthermore, ones on living beings can be used against seals on oneself or against seals on others exclusively, hence the distinction.'

He wrote a longer and more detailed answer, fleshing out the essay and providing appropriate jargon. Then he turned it in.

'I also need some seal breakers,' he thought. 'If someone slaps me with a seal I don't want, I will need a seal breaker to deal with it. However, seal breaking is a complex field of study with thousands of years of research and hundreds of counter seals. There's no seal breaker that is universal.'

While waiting for everyone else to finish the test, Wu Bao looked at the blueprint he had drafted. He scrunched the paper into a ball.

'My amature work is no match to a company's. I should just buy one.'

Leaving school, Wu Bao went home and turned on his computer.

He accessed an American website and began scrolling through their products. Rows upon rows of seal breakers were arrayed on the screen, displaying their image, a description, their price in USD, and their cost of spiritual energy capacity in both metric and imperial units.

Wu Bao suddenly stopped, his eyes drifting toward a seal under the 'recently released' category. It was a peculiar seal by a company called Iridescent Technologies.

As he read the description, his expression brightened.

Although the monetary price and spiritual energy capacity cost were both high, the latter factor was irrelevant to Wu Bao.

He ordered the seal.

A few days later, a package arrived in the mail.

Wu Bao opened it and brought out a metal bracer. He read the instructions carefully, verified the package's legitimacy, then placed the bracer on his arm.

He pushed a button and the electronic device booted up. It crawled up his arm and found an open patch of skin. Little needles extended from all edges, printing the new seal on his arm.

Afterwards, a spark fried the internal circuitry. It had self-destructed.

Wu Bao threw the device away and examined his new seal.

The seal solidified in his mind space. When it was complete, the tattoo on his arm vanished.

Inside his mind space, Wu Bao connected it to his dantian and watched as its basic functions activated.

It was not a true seal-breaking seal. It was also a diagnostic tool, a seal management tool, and a seal editing tool.

In addition, it came with basic defenses to enemy seal breaking and scrying. It probably wouldn't stand up to a professional, but it was already better than the defenses of most people. They simply didn't want to pay the capacity cost.

The best part of the new seal was that it was integrated with two seal breakers, allowing Wu Bao to bypass the restrictions he had written an entire paper about. He could use the same seal on himself as for other people. The tradeoff was that it could only be used against basic seals.

Thankfully, most people didn't even have basic defenses. They didn't need any.

Since seal-breaking is a slow process, most people found it easier to deal with culprits through force. Plus, the capacity cost was similar to a combat seal, so it made sense to choose combat over intelligence.

That was stupid.

If a seal breaker remained undetected, the enemy could do permanent damage, destroying the thing that gave you power in the first place.

With the new seal, Wu Bao felt like he was prepared enough to initiate the next part of his plan.

The next day at school, the results of the test came out for all to see. Wu Bao had gotten full marks again.

Scornful looks assaulted him from all directions. It seemed that Lan Zhou had publicized their arrangement. Everyone knew what was about to happen.

Even the class paragon, Min Ye, who was brandishing two new seals, stayed silent.

A familiar face cracked his knuckles, but before anyone could do anything, a breeze picked up in the room.

Wu Bao feigned surprise.

"N-no way!" someone exclaimed.

"That's almost as strong as Min Ye's awakening!"

"He's only a cripple!"

Wu Bao took advantage of their stupor and escaped toward the collectors.

When he arrived, the security officer noticed the air circulating around him and let him enter.

Wu Bao went in and locked the door.

"Excuse me, esteemed young master." The officer politely knocked on the door, not recognizing Wu Bao's face. "May I have your surname so I can contact your family about the good news."

"My name is Wu Bao."

"W-W-Wu Bao?" The officer realized with a frown. "Come out of there right now!"

"Taking a student out of the collector in the middle of their awakening is against school policy, officer. I have to refuse."

The security officer's lips wobbled silently, unable to refute.

He checked the display screen on the collector and saw that, indeed, energy was being removed by someone inside.

"Impossible!" The officer quickly picked up a cell phone and dialed the headmaster's office. "Sir, a boy by the name of Wu Bao is undergoing an awakening."

"What?!" The voice of headmaster Shu erupted from the radio. "That trash is undergoing an awakening? Pull him out when he's done and send him to me. He'll only be in there for a minute given his nonexistent talent."

The security officer agreed and hung up the phone. He stood outside Wu Bao's collector and tapped his foot.

Although the wind around Wu Bao had been pretty strong, there was no way it would keep going.

After a while, the security officer saw that Wu Bao was still absorbing spiritual energy. He dialed the headmaster again.

"What's wrong? Did that trash somehow damage the collector? We lost one a few weeks ago. It must've been faulty, resulting in an implosion. Don't tell me we lost another one."

"No, sir. It's not that. The boy has been inside the collector for ten minutes, absorbing spiritual energy at a rate of twenty deci-ethers per second. That's as fast as the collector."

"Impossible."

"Should I just take him out?"

"No. No… It's too late for that now. Just wait there until he's done."

Headmaster Shu hung up. The security officer sighed and went back to his chair.

An hour passed.

The security officer dialed the headmaster again.

"Is there a problem?"

"No, sir. I was just curious what the average time of an awakening is. Do you know?"

"About fifty-four minutes, but talented people, like that girl the other day, can absorb energy for hours."

"Alright. Then I'll call you back when that boy is done."

"He's still not done yet?"

"Maybe the heavens are making up for failing him when he was a baby."

A hysterical laugh resounded through the phone. "Nice joke! Now, don't call me back until the trash comes out."

The line went dead.

The security officer sighed, then stood around for a few more hours. He checked the display screen, but saw no change. Wu Bao was still absorbing energy like crazy.

He dialed the headmaster again.

"What? Who is this?"

"Sir, it's six o'clock and my shift ended an hour ago."

"Oh, it's you. Hi. What are you still doing at school?"

"What do you mean? You asked me to call you back when the trash was finished with his awakening. Well I'm starting to think he isn't trash anymore."

"Impossible. Are you sure the trash is still absorbing energy?"

"I believe so."

"Maybe the monitor is faulty. Move him to another collector."

"Right away, sir. Then can I go home?"

"Sure."

The headmaster hung up.

The security officer knocked on Wu Bao's collector, though, not as forcibly as before. He told him to move to another one that had just been repaired.

Sensing a trace of meekness in the man's behavior, Wu Bao obliged.

The security officer checked the collectors and found nothing wrong. He scratched his chin thoughtfully, then went home for the night.

The next day, the security officer went through his morning routine.

A few of the collectors that had been occupied yesterday were now vacant. He marked them for the cleaning department and went about his business. When he came to Wu Bao's collector, he froze in shock.

He quickly dialed the headmaster.

"Good morning! This is Headmaster Shu. How can I help you?"

"Sir. It's me! That boy is still inside the collector gathering energy for his awakening!"

"..." There was silence.

Then the phone hung up.

A few minutes later, Headmaster Shu appeared. He examined the settings on Wu Bao's collector.

"There's data for the past twelve hours, but we moved him from a different collector even before that," the security officer said.

"Didn't that talented girl spend just as long? Are you telling me this trash is just as talented?"

The security officer nodded. "I wonder how many seals he was able to fill."

The Headmaster scoffed. "I doubt he could afford any. I bet it's all being wasted."

The security officer knocked on the door of the collector. "Hey tras- uh… Wu Bao! How many seals have you applied to yourself?"

Wu Bao's proud voice resounded despite being muffled by the door. He answered truthfully.

"I was able to integrate five new seals into my mind space. They are my own custom seals that will be very useful to me."

The Headmaster frowned. "Custom seals? You created them yourself?"

"That's right, senior! Seal creation doesn't require much spiritual energy or personal strength, so I can create my own seals using tools."

"No one cares- ehem. What powers do they have?"

"The first one is a time-tracking seal. The second one guarantees a win in any simple game, like rock-paper-scissors, tic-tac-toe, or a coin toss. The third can detect macroscopic life-forms in a five meter radius. The fourth let's me see in pitch darkness and through fog. Lastly, my fifth is a dedicated memory archive, complete with searching and sorting of-"

"Shut up!" The Headmaster made a disgusted expression. "Why the heck are you wasting all your talent on such useless and trivial seals! As expected of trash. You can't even imagine power beyond your lowly status!"

The Headmaster felt the urge to kick down the collector and pull Wu Bao out, but he restrained himself.

'Next year I'll enforce a time-limit policy so this incident won't repeat itself,' he decided, then left the room out of frustration.