Last event [1]

Chapter 48: Fire User

A few days ago--

"I never knew this place existed under the Academy." Silence followed Eddie's words.

"The second-year Battle Royale is about to begin. Are you sure you don't want to go see your brother in the tournament?" Eddie asked, following Ryan to an underground tunnel.

The maze-like tunnel routes all looked different but gave the same feeling of desolation and coldness.

Ryan denied with a subtle shake of his head. His footsteps had been steady since their arrival, but Eddie was tired. They had been roaming for an hour now, he tried multiple times to strike up a conversation with Ryan but to no avail.

"Are you lost?" Eddie asked.

He only received another head shake from Ryan, who stopped in front of a large door.

Eddie, who had been chattering non-stop to hide his nervousness, opened his mouth wide at the room's interior, forgetting to ask why Ryan had asked him to come over.

"This is where I spent the past month training with Noah," Ryan finally opened his mouth, dragging a reluctant Eddie inside. "Do you know why I called you?"

Eddie's anxiety began to manifest as he nervously fidgeted with his hands, looking fixedly at Ryan to hide his discomfort, the sole source of color in this disconcerting space, wondering how could he maintain his composure inside this disturbing white room.

'Did he bring me to a torture room?' He shook his head vigorously. 

'Geniuses are a different species.' Thinking like that, he felt a bit better.

"I promised I would help you win against Kevin and Steve, that day in the park." Ryan's eyes held traces of fatigue.

"I can't. I won't even pass the preliminary round, no matter how hard I train in the next 24 hours, nothing will change," Eddie said in defeat, scratching his head. "I appreciate the gesture, though."

"No one said anything about training," Ryan said nonchalantly. "I'm going to raise your potential."

"Huh? My potential?" Eddie answered dumbly, doubting his ears.

"Mhmm, now take off your shirt. I need direct skin contact," Ryan's tone was bland.

"My shirt?" Eddie retreated backward, panic lacing his voice. "Are you planning to do something suspicious?"

"What are you thinking? I'm not planning to do anything weird," Ryan's face didn't change. "I'm not performing surgery on you."

"My bad for causing you to panic," Ryan said, massaging his exhausted eyes. He had stayed up all night studying to acquire this ability.

[Potential Realization is the power to expand untapped potential and obliterate pre-existing limitations and boundaries... Click to see more.]

Eddie's shoulders relaxed after Ryan gave him a precise explanation of his ability, along with his intentions.

"So, you're planning to use me as an experimental subject for your new power?" Eddie confirmed, trying to ignore that Ryan's ability was too much of a cheat and that the world was unfair.

Getting an "Mhmm" confirmation from Ryan, Eddie said, "Isn't Noah pretty strong for his age? What are his potentials?" Eddie asked curiously, still in shock.

"S rank," Ryan answered shortly and paused before adding, "However, his current radiation is extremely unstable."

Eddie almost spit out blood. His eyes widened. "S-S... S Rank? Isn't that already too overpowered?"

After a pause, Eddie took a dry gulp and asked with quivering lips, "Wh... what is yours?"

"...hmmm," Ryan tilted his head and folded his hands, thinking hard.

But he still opened his mouth, delivering the final blow to Eddie's brain and ego combined. "EX Rank."

"Huh? What? Oh? So? All this time, I was jealous of a once-in-a-century genius. That leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, but I suddenly feel a lot better. Haha, ha." Eddie's mind was confused.

He laughed, sitting down awkwardly on his butt. "Hahaha, turns out you're a 'geniuses king'."

"You know, you shouldn't casually tell people your potential rank. Some may try to kill you while you are still weak," Eddie's eyes still followed Ryan's figure, trying not to get distracted by the white room.

Ryan nodded again, saying, "If you don't like it, you can refuse."

"Are you going to kill me afterward to buy my silence?" Eddie shivered at the thought.

"No, we're friends." Before Eddie could be relieved, Ryan continued half-jokingly, "I'll be sure to silence and send the twins along."

"Haha, man, that wasn't funny." Eddie laughed slightly at Ryan's non-serious expression. "You know when I was young..."

'...I don't like it when the conversation strays from the main topic. I feel like I'm about to hear something important, but I'm barely standing,' Ryan thought.

"What's wrong with that 'Not interested' on your face," Eddie grumbled at the troubled look on Ryan's face.

Ryan gave him a nonchalant look, and spoke with a deadpan expression, "This how I was born, please continue."

After a moment of silence and staring at each other, Eddie finally spoke in defeat.

"The only thing you can do is get strong, strong enough that no one will dare to touch you. No matter how weak you are in the moment, one day you'll become the greatest fire user in Marcoos," Eddie uttered in a low voice. His words echoed silently in the room.

"Mhmm?" Ryan responded, indicating that he was listening.

"My old man used to say that to me a lot when I was young," Eddie raised the corner of his mouth. "Do you believe that he said that to a C rank potential? Even five-year-old me didn't believe it."

'You did for a day, consuming an illegal drug that destroyed one's body and mind, stabbing Kevin in the heart, and successfully killing everyone along with your father, except the twins, dying later from an overdose, forever unaware of what you have done.' Ryan thought inwardly.

"You know what else? That man had this old life quote hard paper book, trying to teach me life lessons from that. I thought it was bullshit," Eddie grumbled slightly, still smiling.

"You have a great dad," Ryan said, sitting cross-legged on the ground.

"Yeah, kind of." Eddie scratched his head. "There is this thing he also told me when I said that I don't want to play with the twins."

"It may be that we are puppets controlled by the strings of society. Facts are, people always do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act, and without pangs of conscience, as long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority," Eddie spat.

The implications of those words were obvious.

"There is nothing I can do; you are on your own, my child," Eddie said in resignation re-telling his father's words. "That's when I knew that my father could not help me and that I should just surrender to my fate."

"But don't get it wrong, my dad was still great to me." Eddie's voice got choked up a bit. "He was only an E-rank, all his life."

Ryan just listened on the side and didn't interrupt him. Being a reader of the script, he was aware of all the characters' backstories.

Eddie, in his entire life, only had his father by his side until the very end.

"Sorry, got a little bit too emotional," Eddie smiled as if the one reminiscent of his past wasn't him just now. He was already taking off his shirt. "So, when are we going to start?"

"... haaaaa," Ryan sighed. "Sit properly and don't do anything. I'm going to send my radiation into your meridians, so don't reject it."

"O- Ok..." Eddie was paralyzed in place before he could finish his words.

Two hours later...

"Huu..." inhaling a breath of relief after the long process of injecting, rearranging, enhancing, and untying the flow of radiation movement from Eddie's veins to the heart, brain, and unconscious mind, where moving the radiation in a regular pattern that it's not used to will become instinctive.

Ryan's whole body was shaking. He closed his fist to lessen his shivering.

He wasn't in pain; rather, he felt a lot weaker as his body had been hollowed out.

He looked at Eddie, whose pain had knocked him out in place.

Ryan's shivering intensified with each breath he took as he uttered, "Eddie's status."

===Status===

Name: Eddie Reed

Age: 16 y/o

Rank: E+

Power: Pyrokinesis.

Description: The ability to control and produce vast amounts of fire, both for offensive attack and defense.

Fire Immunity: Passive.

Side effects: Physical fatigue after using all radiation reserves, which causes the user to fall into a state of hibernation.

Power state: Active.

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Conditions: The user can't utter a word nor take any action that can endanger the power modifier.

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Potential: A rank.

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Ryan's eyes were closing as he said, "Personal interface; status."

===Status===

Name: Ryan Cassier

Age: 16 (28 y/o)

Rank: C

Power: Superpower Manipulation

Description: …..

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That was the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness.

*****

Back to the present day--

[Good morning, everyone! Welcome to the last event.] The MC was unusually enthusiastic and louder today.

[It's great to see so many familiar faces before you all get taken back home after today's ranking matches, like all the eliminated contestants.]

[As you all know, some teams have not managed to snatch the flag within the given 30 minutes. Now, only 40 aspiring heroes managed to move up to the last event.] The MC declared with faked sadness.

[Cough... The rules are simple. It's a one-on-one fight. The one who wins will move to the next round until there is one clear winner.]

The MC was caught off guard by an even louder thundering cheer, transforming the former gloomy mood due to the non-stop heavy downpour of rain and ominous lightning strikes into applause, murmurs, whistles, and cheers.

[Without further ado, let's get started!] The MC shouted not wanting to admit defeat.