Chapter 2 - Unknown Man "Huh? I’m not dead?" Gustav woke up to find himself lying in the middle of the forest. He slowly picked himself up and dusted the dirt on his clothes. He was still in his school uniform. "I’m not even injured in the slightest," He noticed after checking his body out. The sun was slowly rising from the east as rays of light permeated through the spaces within the leaves on the tree ahead of him. "An entire night has passed?" Gustav’s eyes widened in shock after realizing this, but in the next second, it went back to normal. "It’s not like anyone would notice that I was gone anyways," He muttered dejectedly. He turned around to glance at the mountain where he fell from when he noticed something blinking in his line of sight positioned at the left corner. His eyes focused on the blue rectangular blinking light, and something unexpected happened. -[Welcome host!] Characters suddenly appeared in his line of sight. "Eh, What’s this?" Gustav voiced out with a look of astonishment. He turned left and right, but he still could not get the characters out of his line of sight. Thinking he was dreaming, Gustav closed his eyes, "I probably hit my head when I fell," After a few seconds, he opened his eyes back only to see more characters appear in his line of sight. -[Idiot host, you have been chosen to wield great power!] "Idiot host? Did these characters just insult me?" Gustav questioned, "Wait, host?" he asked in confusion. -[You have ten seconds to decide if you accept this power or not.] "Power? What power? What is happening? Why am I even replying to some weird characters? Am I dead? Is this retribution for committing suicide? Madness in the afterlife?" Gustav threw out a series of questions at a fast pace as he doubted his current existence and sanity. As if it was answering his question, the characters changed again, -[You may choose to decline this power, but that would spell death for you!] Gustav held his chin after seeing these characters change again, "So, I’m alive, but the price for that is this madness," he wondered out loud, "Wait, it just threatened to kill me?" -[Ten] -[Nine] "Huh? it just started counting down," Gustav noticed the characters changing every second it counted down. -[Seven] "Will I truly die if I don’t give an answer or decline?" Gustav was a bit scared of facing death again after what happened the night before. -[Six (You shall die)] The characters answered with bluntness. Gustav; "..." -[Four] -[Three] Gustav could feel his heart rate slowing down as the countdown got closer to zero. Ba... dump! Ba... dump! -[Two] -[One] "I accept!" Gustav shouted out. The countdown paused immediately after he said that. "huff! huff! huff! This thing was truly gonna kill me?" Gustav breathed heavily after the countdown stopped. He placed his right hand on his chest to feel his heartbeat. He sighed in relief after feeling his heartbreak slowly returning back to normal. -[Congratulations on accepting this power! Your fate has now been turned around!] The characters changed again. "Hmm? What power is it referring to?" he stared at the characters with a confounded look. -[Your body shall now undergo constitution examination and evolution!] Yawn! Gustav noticed that his eyes were getting heavy after seeing the last message that the characters formed. [Host shall be transported to his abode and remain unconscious for the next twenty-four hours] "What ar..." Before Gustav could complete his statement, he noticed a dark silhouette streak, moving from tree to tree about a hundred feet away on his west. zwee! zwee! zwee! The speed was fast, and it kept dashing from tree to tree surrounding Gustav. It was like a dark shadow. "Who’s there?" He recognized that it was a person immediately. As if to answer his question, a two-meter muscular-looking male clad in a black tight-fitted bodysuit appeared twenty feet away from him. He had a green mask covering half of his face. "You’re coming with me, kid!" The voice sounded a bit hoarse. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎 [Ten] "Who are you, and what do you want?" Gustav questioned with a look of fright as he took several steps backward subconsciously. [Nine] "I only need for you to come with me! no questions asked!" The unknown man stated with a commanding tone. [Eight] "What do you plan on doing with me?!" Gustav questioned as his heart started beating in a fast manner. "Just come with me willingly! Don’t try anything funny, or I will have to hurt you!" The unknown man threatened with his eyes furrowed. [Five] Badump! Badump! Badump! With every passing second, Gustav felt drowsier, but he was determined not to be caught by this unknown man. ’A kidnapper? A mixedblood trafficker? What if he sells me? Tortures me? Cuts off my organs and sell them?’ For someone who wanted to commit suicide, he was really scared of the horrors he might pass through if he was caught by this unknown person, so he didn’t notice the countdown. [Four] ’Run!’ Immediately this thought came to his mind, Gustav turned heels and ran in the opposite direction. "Fool!" The man snorted as he dashed from tree to tree, making a circular streak around Gustav, who kept running. The man suddenly dashed down from the middle of six hundred feet tall trees towards Gustav. Gustav, who already knew the man was a mixed-blood and calculated his movements decided to drop his body to the ground immediately the man dashed out In the process of his body descent, the man was also in mid-air, dashing towards him with speed. Gustav realized his calculations were not accurate as the man’s hand was only a few centimeters away from touching his shoulder as his body was in the process of descent. It was as if time had come to a stop as the unknown man’s palm was about to make contact with Gustav... [Zero] [Host shall now go into a deep sleep!] Gustav immediately felt his vision darken as the notification appeared in his line of sight. A flash of bright light suddenly appeared and surrounded Gustav, and in the next second... Zing! Gustav disappeared right into thin air as the unknown man’s hand phased through light particles. Dum! His feet landed back on the ground and slid some feet forward due to his immense speed earlier. He turned to stare left and right repeatedly. "He’s gone?" The man questioned with a disbelieving expression, "A spatial bloodline? How rare," He spoke with a low voice. "But at most, that kid will be a Zulu ranked mixblood! His abilities wouldn’t have matured yet, which means he can’t get far with that teleportation... He must still be within the vicinity of this forest," Immediately after completing those words, the man dashed out like a phantom, jumping from trees to trees with an unimaginable speed. He decided to sweep the forest from the north just in case he might come across Gustav again. However, it was futile because, at this moment, Gustav had been transported into his bedroom. The winds within the forest kept blowing mildly as if unaware of what just went down. Gustav didn’t notice that the tall mountain he wanted to commit seppuku from was now half of what it used to be earlier. ---- -Thirty minutes ago The day had started to brighten up as the sun rose, declaring the end of the previous night. The night was meant for sleeping, but it would seem like it was the opposite for a group of people gathered around a particular mountain within the forest at the edge of Plankton City. The group gathered here were suited up in medical-looking garments. A large saucer-like technological-looking device floated above the mountain. Rays of blue light shone from it, scanning the mountain inch by inch. A man sporting dark brown hair clad in an azure-colored suit stood in front of the mountain with four bodyguards clad in dark, tight-fitted bodysuits positioned on his left and right. The officials suited in medical garments kept moving to and fro. They seemed to be investigating the weird phenomenon of the mountain being halved in one night.