Chapter 1: Everything I’m able to observe

Twenty years ago, people started to get superpowers as the gates to other worlds opened. Through those gates, some were friendly and sides would work together. But from some gates appeared monsters that would ravage the other realms.

For those gates that proved dangerous made it clear why some people were granted these superpowers. Together with these powers came a system that would work like a game. For each target with mana slain, the owner of a system's power grew.

For some people, their powers would be able to evolve to some degree. For example, someone who could use telekinesis would be able to use their powers from farther distances and to heavier objects.

There were people who could get multiple superpowers and each power would have a certain rarity. From most common to rare, it goes by very common, common, uncommon, rare, super rare, ultra rare, legendary, mythical and god. The higher the rarity the more powerful the power was.

There were also two powers that fall outside of the usual ranking. Those being unique and demonic. Unique was something that could resemble any of the other rarities, but they were most often acquired via circumstances and they had other qualities. Demonic as rarity is something that is acquired via illegitimate means, often associated with killing a person and stealing their power through multitude of methods.

The story starts with our main character Luke in a school. Luke is 16 years old and is often regarded as an actual nice guy by others.

At the moment, Luke's friend is getting them lunch to eat, but then two people come to say hello to him.

Oliver says "Hello Luke. Where's Mikael?" Luke answers "He is getting us food to eat. He should be here any minute now. Do you need something from him?" Thomas then says "No no. We came here to see you. You see, we want to give you a gift." Thomas then places an apple in front of Luke and says "Here, enjoy."

Luke gives a warm smile and says "Thanks. This will go well with today's menu." Oliver then says "How about you take a bite from it before Mikael comes?" Luke then hesitates for a second and then smiles, grabs the apple and takes a huge bite from it, chews and then swallows.

Thomas asks with a smirk "How does it taste?" To which Luke answers with a warm smile "It tastes great. Thank you for the gift."

After that, Oliver says "Good. Be sure to enjoy it while it lasts. It's our appreciation to you. See you around."

Oliver and Thomas then leave as Luke waves at them and says with a warm smile "Thanks. I will make sure to enjoy it."

Soon after that, Mikael comes with the trays of food on his both hands. For some reason he pauses for a moment and then asks in a mean tone "Who gave that to you?" To which Luke smiles and says "It was Oliver and Thomas. Sorry that I started before you. I couldn't help but accept their kind gift."

Mikael then puts the trays down and grabs the apple from Luke. Luke asks "What's wrong Mike?" Then Mike says "So you really did take a bite from this. I'm going to call Sera."

Luke asks "Why do you need to bring Sera into this? It's just an apple." Mike looks at Luke and says "So that's how you see it. For us, this is clearly a very rotten apple."

Luke pauses for a moment and says "Hah. So that's how it is." There is a moment of silence between the two. Then Luke says "So Sera will come here so I won't feel sick later." To which Mike says "That's right. You feel free to eat. I will send her the message."

After Mike sends the message, a girl appears next to the table where Luke is sitting. Sera then says "This won't take long." After which she says "Luke ate an ordinary apple." After which the contents of the rotten apple turn into regular apple.

Luke then says "That's our god rank ability alright. Always able to help."

Sera asks Luke "How do you see us now?" To which Luke says "You have long black hair and red eyes and Mike has back hair and violet eyes." After that, Sera puts her hand on Luke's head and says "Luke can see clearly." After which Luke sees that Sera has snow white hair and blue eyes Mike has brown hair and green eyes. Sera asks what Luke sees now and Luke says what he sees.

Luke says "Thanks again Sera. Sorry to waste your time like this." To which Sera says "Nonsense. I will happily come and fix you up when you aren't alright. Even though it may be a temporary fix, I hope that it will make you feel comfortable."

Luke gives a warm smile and says "It does, thanks. Now you should return to what you were doing before the higher ups get angry." Sera nods and says "I'll do that, but if you start to feel wrong again, then just call me and I'll come and do the fix."

Luke nods and says "I'll remember that." Then Sera is about to say the key words to get back where she came from, but decides to say instead "I swear Luke. I will raise my points high enough so that you don't have to suffer like this." Luke nods and says "As long as you don't break yourself."

Then Sera says "Return to where I was before" and she disappears, presumably to where she was before coming to the canteen. Luke then smiles and says happily "Now that that's out of the way, let's dig in." To which Mike says "Yes. Let's eat."

What Luke hadn't told Sera and Mike was that the food that Mke brought looked rotten, moldy and had multiple insects crawling on top of it. But Luke did not care, for he knew that Mike wouldn't bring food that looked like how Luke saw it.

The food tasted putrid and wrong, but Luke did not care, for he knew that Mike wouldn't bring food that tasted like how Luke tasted it.

Then Luke received a message during his lunch. He opens the phone and sees that it is from someone important and that he requests Luke's assistance. Luke quickly eats the rest and then tells Mike "Sorry Mike. I won't be attending any more classes. I'm feeling a little sick, so I'll be heading home. See you there." Luke then starts to wave as he leaves and Mike just sits there and shouts "Stay safe and go straight home, you got it?!" Luke shouts back "I got it" as he walks out of the canteen.

Luke then sends a message back to the sender and then a woman wearing a hoodie and a scarf appears next to Luke, asks "Ready?" To which Luke answers "Ready." And the two are teleported to a meeting place.

Inside that room, there is another woman named Melissa, who is in charge of handling issues regarding Luke.

Melissa starts the briefing by saying "Today's mission is to eliminate a group of terrorists holed up in this building." She shows a picture of a building that looks abandoned yet well maintained.

Melissa continues "Mantis has scanned the area and will send you the mission objective on the system shortly. As per usual, Hopper will bring you close enough to the building that you can start eliminating targets. Do you understand Ghost?"

Luke answers "Kill every person inside or close to the designated building as long as the mission says there are enemies." Melissa says "Good. And now Mantis should be…" Melissa looks at her phone and then a quest made by the person named Mantis popped up in Luke's system menu.

Melissa then says "Now then. Hopper, if you would." The woman named Hopper grabs Luke and teleports them close to the target building. Hopper then says "See ya" and teleports away. Luke then puts an earpiece on his left ear to receive commands. After which Melissa's voice can be heard saying "Mission start."

Luke activates his superpower and everything turns putrid. Unimaginable horrors are everywhere and tiny little insect-like things fill the ground together with putrid masses of flesh. The smell is awful and Luke keeps hearing whispers all around him. His skin feels like thousands of spiders and other insects and bugs are crawling around it and his mouth feels like tiny insects crawl inside it and tastes like putrid shit.

This is the side effect of Luke's power. He walks through towards the door, takes up his pistol and readies for combat.

The system says:

Quest: Kill every terrorist in the building

Progress: 0/56

When Luke enters, he sees two people that look like zombie versions of some people he knows. Nevertheless, he shoots the first person and the progress goes up.

System says:

Progress: 1/56

The other zombie looked confused and started shouting something in violent screechess, but Luke didn't mind that and just shot the person. Progress goes up again.

Luke starts to search for more people and enters each room and clears them one by one.

While Luke is proud of his accuracy, not all things that he shoots are considered targets as he shoots at things that only he sees. Most people that he sees at the moment look like zombies and mutated beings that bear resemblance to people Luke knows. Luke can't understand what the people he is killing are saying in reality, but he knows that it is along the lines "What is happening?!", "Who's killing us?!" or "It's a goddamn ghost!"

Luke enters the final room filled with seven people and the progress says that he had killed 49. These were the last people.

Before Luke entered the room, he noticed that the room seemed to be barricaded. It didn't affect Luke however, as he can pass through the things he wants with minor inconvenience.

He shoots all the people inside the room until there is only one left. Last thing that was alive was what looked like a child in Luke's eyes. The progress bar says 55/56. Luke points the gun at the child like being and pulls the trigger.

System says:

Quest: Kill every terrorist in the building (Complete)

Rewards have been sent to the owner's item box.

Rewards received:

172,00$

Can of Coca-Cola x2

Can of Coca-Cola Zero

Luke then stops using his power and looks at the thing that he saw as a child. It would appear that it was an adult, so Luke feels a little relieved. Then he hears Melissa say through the earpiece "Good job Ghost. Now Hopper will come and take you to your house. Mission will be concluded after you are home."

Hopper appears next to Luke and asks "Ready?" to which Luke says "Ready." Hopper is about to teleport, but then looks at the same person who Luke saw as a child while using his power and sees a child with part of her head blown up holding a teddy bear in her arms. Luke asks "What's wrong?" To which Hopper said "Nothing." and teleported Luke back to his house.

File #1766692

Subject name: Luke Lahti

Birthdate: 13.12.2024 (Presumed)

Country of origin: Finland (Presumed)

Current residence: USA

Height: 186 cm

Appearance: Blond hair, Heterochromic eyes: left (green) right (blue)

Superpowers: Unobservable (Unique), Unobstructed (Uncommon), Dreamer (Unique), Flight (rare)

Unobservable: Luke enters a state in which he is unable to be observed by any known method.This doesn't seem to obscure Luke's own observation abilities, but his schizophrenia seems to become much, much worse.

The person who confirmed what Luke sees during this ability used a power called "Memory sharing" after which the person confirming what Luke sees threw up profusely and lost consciousness. This seemed to cause significant trauma to the one who used this power and said, verbatim, that "I wouldn't want my worst enemy to experience what I've experienced."

Luke can also put this effect onto items, but this requires Luke himself using this ability at the same time. Even sounds created by explosives are unobservable. This means that Luke is able to use firearms effectively without causing a single sound.

It has to be noted that instead of the rank unique, Luke sees this ability rank as "Devil". This has been tested with many methods to be true that Luke indeed sees it as such. It is unknown whether or not the rank "Devil" is some sort of bug in the system or is Luke's condition that causes it to appear like that. Most seem to lean on the bug theory.

It also should be noted that this power seems to allow Luke to level up without killing beings that contain mana. This means that Luke is able to gain experience killing ordinary people. It is suspected that this is a bug in the system.

Be sure to not connect the unique leveling and the "Devil" rank with each other. Any claim that these two bugs are connected will be met by immediate expulsion from the organization. [Read: Regarding Professor Hulttis' Expulsion]

Unobstructed: A power that allows people to pass through objects without an issue. The more dense the material, the harder it is to pass through that object. It has been observed that most proficient users of this skill can pass through any wall and can even be able to avoid gunfire with ease. It has been observed however that inexperienced users of this power tend to lose their clothes, though through time, they can extend their ability to things that they touch and are able to hold them.

Luke seemed unusually adept in using this ability and mastered it quickly.

Dreamer: It is unknown what this power does, but it is theorized to be the cause of Luke's condition. No tests have been successfully able to determine what the power exactly does. Luke says that the description on the system doesn't say anything even to him. Sometimes appraisal can't describe some skills, but for the host to be unable to see what the power does is a great mystery. No further tests have been authorized to be held without a person with level 4 clearance or higher.

Flight: An ability that allows the user to fly freely without any assistance. The power itself doesn't tell the user how to fly, so it is often via the user's efforts that they are able to fly. Basic flight power isn't able to do anything about wind resistance, but as users level up their power, they may be able to gain wind resistance, which allows them to fly faster than they did before. Moving while flying seems to consume stamina where simply hovering doesn't. Moving while floating proved to cost less stamina when compared to walking at same speeds.

In a twisted turn of fate, the ability to fly seems to be more often given to people with fear of heights. It is unknown if the fear of heights has anything to do with getting the power to fly, but data seems to indicate that there is correlation.

As the superpowers appeared, people with the ability to fly became an issue. For this reason, flying in certain areas is prohibited from uncertified people. Some laws regarding airspace have been updated to take superpowers into consideration. Floating above the ground is acceptable up to 40 cm.

Luke himself doesn't seem to care much about the power itself, but he seems to use the ability to float to relax if he is tired. His top flight speed is 33 km/h or 20 mph.

About: Luke is a kindhearted boy who tries to be as kind to others as he can. He comes from an orphanage that seemed to house many children who would receive superpowers above super rare rarity. Luke doesn't have a birth certificate and thus, where he was born and where are unknown. Both BD and CO are what Luke himself seems to believe, as they are connected to the few memories he has before he was brought to the orphanage.

Luke seems to have symptoms of schizophrenia and is currently receiving medication that schizophrenics take. However, the effectiveness of these meds are abnormally ineffective. So much so, that doctors believe that the condition is most likely some form of drawback from having one of his superpowers. It is unclear whether this is truly the case, so further studies are recommended.

Luke himself seems to have gotten "used to" his condition and, according to Serah Zakon's words, "Luke wouldn't even flinch if there was a flesh-eating swarm of flies eating him alive and laying their eggs on him". This has been proven several times via multitude of tests and it is advised that Luke always has someone he can trust close by at all times since he seems to mostly ignore most sensory input. So far his hearing is the least affected by his condition, so saying basic instructions to him seems to be effective as long as he doesn't use his powers. Sadly, it is expected that Luke's condition will worsen with age, so it is expected to eventually reach a point where euthanasia is recommended.

Luke's friend Serah Zakon is currently trying to raise her power's reach to be able to fully erase Luke's condition, but as the condition is most likely caused by the power that system gave Luke, the cost of making this possible is enormous. Further details on file #1677791. [Read: File #1677791]

Luke has been admitted to an organization known as Scales. The details on Scales and the reasons why each member had been admitted are limited to people with the level 7 clearance or above only. [Read: Scales] (Access denied)