He tried to activate the so-called Divine Perception. The triangular prism in Hayden's chest emitted a faint white light which gradually dimmed. "I guess this is the power source of my abilities?"

An idea popped up in Hayden's head when he thought of this. "Are there other people like me? Also, I should not let anyone know, definitely not..."

"Is there any way to hide this?" Looking at the triangular prism, he smiled wryly. "This is going to be a problem, especially during physical education."

He went on to touch the triangular prism. Suddenly, tons of information flowed inside his brain, everything related to the prism became information readily available in his mind.

It was as if the knowledge was already inside his mind ever since he was born. Now, he knew that the triangular prism was actually called an Origin Crystal, which was the core of what Hayden now was, an Ability Wielder.

"Ability Wielder?" Hayden clicked his tongue when he scanned over his mind. "That's a pretty fancy name for someone with a superpower."

Ability Wielders were people, as suggested, gained an Ability, a superpower that was exclusive to them. Abilities were triggered through the Origin Crystal's gathering of what is called essence energy from the surroundings.

Essence energy was an energy emitted by the Earth's core, the sun's rays, stars' light, comets, and other heavenly bodies, in short, it was cosmic energy, with a different name. The Origin Crystal was an a.s.similation of this essence energy and various other energy types unspecified by the information given to him. "So basically, without essence energy, I wouldn't be able to use my Ability."

From the information given to him, he inferred that his Ability was Divine Perception. Other than that information, he also now knew that he can retract his Origin Crystal.

Willing to make the Origin Crystal on his chest disappear, it slowly buried itself deeply within his skin. "The Origin Crystal is still there. It only hid within my body. Well, that's good enough concealment."

Abruptly, he remembered his dream. "Wait, didn't I dream of that… Indestructible Devil was it?"

Hayden grew a little excited of the thought of having another Ability, one that allowed him to gain physical supernatural abilities.

Willing to transform into that Indestructible Devil, the Origin Crystal didn't resurface as he wanted it to be hidden. "So I can indeed not attract people even when using Divine Perception. That's good to know."

When he looked at himself in the mirror, Hayden saw that he was quickly transforming into another being. His skin became red, his body grew almost double in size, making the towel in his waist fall off, he grew horns that was bending towards his head, akin to that of a young goat's; his fingernails became claws, and a thin, devilish-looking, tail appeared behind him. Transforming, he couldn't help but think that he looked like an enlarged vampire with a demon's features.

"So it's true…" Hayden couldn't believe that he transformed into a full-on devil. On top of that, he felt immense power welling up in his veins. He wanted to try his newfound power, but resisted the urge as it would be disastrous if he actually did.

"Now, the remaining question is, can I use its powers individually?" As he finished his sentence, he willed to return to his human form.

A few seconds later, he willed so that his tail is the only one that appears from him. A tail appeared behind him.

"This is pretty cool…" Hayden mumbled. It still felt so surreal for him. "From what I experienced in the dream, and based off its name, Indestructible Devil makes me an indestructible devil, literally. From the power I felt within me, superhuman strength, with that, I can deduce that I will also have superhuman speed. From the feeling I got from turning into a demon, superhuman toughness. Sharp claws, sharp fangs, a predator. Horns and tail represented that resembled that of a devil's, or, in the least, a demon. I truly turned into a devil."

"Well, I'm not a religious person myself anyway, so I guess using it will be fine." Hayden felt that if the church sees him in his 'devil form,' he would be hunted down by exorcists all over the world. He also worried that there were some unseen consequences from using his devil power. "I'm not going to use it to terrorize people anyways, so, on that front, we're good."

He never would've expected to gain superpowers in one night. Some would've been more ecstatic than Hayden, and some would've wanted to use it to destroy people or, in the least, plan their revenge. As for Hayden, he knew what it meant to have superpowers, and that it comes with ginormous responsibilities.

"Just like what a certain superhero said." Hayden sighed. "I don't want to be a superhero though, I only want to live for myself and protect those that are dear for me, as well as those powerless people that I encounter."

Hayden would be stupid as to not use his powers for his own benefit. The universe gave him such a power, it would be a waste to not use it, right? On the other hand, if the time comes for him to save people, he would not hesitate to use his powers for that reason. Especially for the innocent.

"There's no such thing in this world as free lunch. I wonder what's the reason me, and if they exist, other wielders to possess such power…" Hayden did a soliloquy, questioning why would the universe, or some other higher power would've given him, and possibly others, these Abilities. "If a person with a terrible nature comes to possess such power, it would be catastrophic!"

What if a murderer suddenly came to possess an ability that allowed them to kill people more efficiently? It would be indeed tragic for the world!

Hayden shrugged it off and decided to deal with matters when the time comes. For now, n.o.body knew that he was a wielder other than himself. At the end of the day, he was still a regular teenager and student.

...

Hayden was wearing a black uniform when he arrived at the gates of Makati City Scholar Academy at 7:20 AM, 20 minutes early for the morning ceremony. He already removed his gla.s.ses as n.o.body looked at him anyways, not wearing his own gla.s.ses would not be noticeable.

Entering the academy, Hayden attempted to find the line of his section. When one enters the Scholar Academy, one will enter the a.s.sembly Hall, which is where the students gather for Monday morning ceremonies and flag retreats during Fridays. The a.s.sembly Hall is also where some of the school-based activities were held, like the School Fair.

To find the line for his section, Cla.s.s 3-8, Hayden looked around. A few seconds later, he finally found the line and lined up.

Hayden was an introvert, hence no one really approached him or talked to him. In actuality, this was what Hayden wanted as he wasn't fond of socializing as well.

Getting bored, Hayden fished out his phone to read novels. 20 minutes fleetingly pa.s.sed, and the flag ceremony finally started.

…..

When the flag ceremony finished, the princ.i.p.al gave a short motivational speech, before letting the students go to their cla.s.srooms.

The Makati City Scholar Academy's main building had 10 floors in total. On the first floor was where the a.s.sembly Hall, the princ.i.p.al's office, guidance office, nurse's office, meeting hall for teachers, and many others.

On the second floor was where the computer rooms located, along with faculty rooms of various subject departments.

The third floor was dedicated for science laboratories, plus storage for laboratory apparatuses and equipment.

The entire fourth floor was entirely a school cafeteria and a kitchen. The cafeteria was devoted to serving affordable, delicious, and nutrition-rich food for students.

Fifth floor and above were the cla.s.srooms of students, the fifth being for 7th graders, and the tenth for 12th graders. There were also six elevators within the building, with stairs on both ends. The entire building had a modernistic feel to it. Whenever people come to the Makati City Scholar Academy, they think it's a private academy due to its beauty comparable to private schools.

n.o.body could be more wrong because the Makati City Scholar Academy, and other cities' Scholar Academies were supported by the government as a project for raising intellectuals. This project was the Project Intellect (1), which was proposed and commenced by President Ethan Puting-Ilaw in 2021.

This form of school system allowed the Philippines to improve at a rapid pace. Last year, the Philippines already entered the ranks of the first-world countries because of the technologies they have produced in the agricultural field.

Other than the main building, there were two more. Namely, they were the gymnasium, the Grand Hall. The gymnasium, as people know, is where sports matches were held. In Makati City, city-wide tournaments between schools were mainly done here, other than baseball, soccer, football, and other sports that required an outdoor court. There were three floors to the gymnasiums, the first floor was for matches, the second was a gym that can be used anytime by the students during weekends and after school, and the third was for storage.

The Grand Hall was a big stage theatre that can easily fit over two thousand people. The Grand Hall was where acting, dancing, singing, and many other performances were held when it is for an event. It was also used for city-wide compet.i.tions in literary performances as it was the center of Makati City, like all other Scholar Academies.

…..

Reaching their cla.s.sroom, cla.s.s 3-8 lined up to wait for their adviser. While waiting, some were talking with their friends, some were trying to make new friends, and some were playing games on their phones.

Hayden was reading and wasn't bothered by anyone as he was long termed as a quiet kid, which consequently allowed him to perfect his 'invisible presence;' allowing him to stay low, whether it was being called upon by the teacher, or having groupmates. In his school, he was only a mediocre person. Of course, as he pa.s.sed the entrance exam of a Scholar Academy, he was pretty intelligent, it was only that Hayden was surrounded by people smarter than him, making his talent in anything be clouded.

He could be called as a genius amongst the common, and mediocre amongst the exceptional. Needless to say, Hayden didn't really care, all he wanted in life was to pa.s.s this h.e.l.l of an academy and live for himself, not in trying to satisfy other people, nor changing his own personality to fit others' taste. If no one wanted him the way he was, then so be it!

This is also the reason why Hayden didn't like people who were putting up a front or were only befriending people that will benefit them. Of course, Hayden still had a few friends, it's just that, the same with Hayden, they didn't socialize or hang out as much as they hanged out in-game or during group projects.

A few minutes of waiting, their adviser finally arrived. Their adviser was a young man in his 20s wearing gla.s.ses. He was wearing a white teacher's uniform with the school's logo embedded on the left chest. The teacher had a stylish and clean man bun with a clean shaven handsome face.

He looked pretty affable, yet his man bun gives one an impression of a bad boy. Hayden's first impression of their adviser was different though, seeing him as a person who liked to express themselves instead of trying to fit in, like him.

Their teacher spoke with a deep voice. "Get in. You guys will be the one to decide your seating arrangements as you are already 15 or 14 year olds. You already have the capability to make your own decisions. Don't make me regret this choice."

The teacher's words were strict and trusting at the same time. This was pretty good considering that most advisers were the one to decided where their students would seat; some of the subject teachers even wanted them in different seating arrangements.

Hearing the teacher's words, his cla.s.smates went inside excitedly. The seats were always 0.5 meters apart, so even if they did arrange themselves, they would still, technically, not have seatmates. That's the reason why Hayden didn't particularly care where he sat, unless it was in the front row, where he would get the teacher's attention more often.

With this in mind, Hayden still rushed into the room to get a seat beside the left wall in the third row. In his opinion, this was the most inconspicuous place. The front row was often noticed because they were in the front, as for the fourth row, they were always overlooked, that's why teacher tend to try and focus on the fourth row.

As for the second row, it was too close to the front in Hayden's opinion, thus, there's no way in h.e.l.l he would sit there. The third row was the perfect row, and when beside the left wall, an even more inconspicuous place, it was the shadow to the light of his 'invisible presence;' allowing him to, well, be invisible most of the time.

The moment he put down his bag, he noticed a woman sat beside him. Hayden was stunned by this girl as she was quite beautiful. Despite that, Hayden didn't spare her a second glance, he never did like women all that much, except for one.

Yawning a little, Hayden sat. As the school doesn't accept students transferring in, or students that return when they transferred out, almost everybody knew each other, as a result, people who knew each other were mainly sitting with each other. With Hayden's memory, he also knew everyone, except for a select few which he deemed as people like him, people who didn't want attention.

For three years, Hayden didn't stand out, nor did he try. The reason being he didn't like attention. He realized this after a week studying in the academy. He liked attention during his grade school, in fact, he was an extremely 'infamous' show-off who liked befriending people and was at the top of his cla.s.s.

However, this all changed when he went into the Makati City Scholar Academy. The compet.i.tion was fierce, people were better than him, and people were so compet.i.tive that they put in so much effort. With him tiring out, Hayden became laid back, and unconfident, thinking that no matter how much effort he put or will put in, it will never be enough to be at the top.

Because of this, after spending a month in the academy, he already stopped trying hard. He only interacted with people during group activities, and when they or he needed them, otherwise, he wouldn't even look at them. Thankfully, there were no bullies inside the school, only students who acted as if they're superior or those that looked down on others.

"Okay, now that all of you have found your seats, let me introduce myself. I am Thorn Perez, your adviser and your teacher in English. You may call me Sir Perez. Good morning cla.s.s."

All of the students stood and greeted back simultaneously. "Good morning, Sir Perez."

"Good. You will now introduce yourself. Tell me who you are as this is our first time meeting." Sir Perez said with a stern face.

…..

When the introductions finished, Sir Perez gave the cla.s.s schedule. Hayden activated Divine Perception while being careful so as to not make his Origin Crystal rise.

He then scanned the cla.s.s schedule to try imprinting it on his brain. To his surprise, when he turned off Divine Perception, the cla.s.s schedule was like a picture in his brain, he can recall every single detail, every color, and even every tiny speck of dust in his vision during Divine Perception.

"So it is true that I possess eidetic memory whenever I activate that. And from the looks of it, everything I focus on during Divine Perception gets permanently ingrained in my mind." Hayden said quietly to himself. "I wonder where it's stored? The human brain, at most, can hold 2.5 petabytes. This will not be enough if I use Divine Perception all day for decades. Truly a mystery."

As Hayden jumbled, he walked back to his seat. After homeroom, their next cla.s.s was Economics. Their cla.s.ses lasted until 3:30 PM, with an hour lunch break from 11:30 AM till 12:30. Other than that, there were no other breaks.

"I wonder if I can cheat my way through school like this?" A possibility appeared in Hayden's mind. He discreetly grinned evilly to himself. "I guess school will now be a breeze with my Ability…"

"What did I even do to deserve this blessing? Was I that good a person?" He mused to himself, almost laughing at the thought of it.

….

1 World Lore Time: Project Intellect was a project launched by Philippine President Ethan Puting-Ilaw in 2021. The first part of Project Intellect was to build Scholar Academies with top of the line technology and superior teaching staff. Under this, the first batch of Scholar Academies were built in the 16 Cities of the NCR Region, putting the debt of the Philippines to become almost unpayable. When the first batch of graduates of the Scholar Academies went on to make a name for themselves in various countries, j.a.pan, USA, South Korea, and many more countries, the money started raking in by 2027, relieving the down-in-the-dumps state of the Philippine economy. With this, as results were produced, Project Intellect: Second Movement was launched, building Scholar Academies all over each city in every region in Luzon. Government funds were all invested into these Scholar Academies. In time, the Scholar Academies produced more and more graduates. Ethan became president for eighteen years already, putting Scholar Academies in every big city in Visayas, and Mindanao. Due to this, civil war in the country was put to rest and the colonialism mentality was removed from the minds of the Filipinos. The Third Movement of the Scholar Academy was then initiated, improving the facilities of the University of the Philippines all around Philippines, making them more beautiful, and a turning it into a much more suitable learning environment. On top of that, the regular schools also received some of the benefits, giving them better supplies and the teachers having better salary. As a result of eighteen years of investment in the education system, the Philippines became a first-world country without a debt to the National Bank. Many Filipinos, now known worldwide, was coming back to their countries as they were called upon by the government to launch the Rebuilding Plan. Factories all around the country were closed down as agricultural technologies were improved upon. As many outstanding scholars went back to the Philippines, helping each other hand in hand, they made myriads of farming technologies. Robot harvesters, genetically-modified crops that didn't rot for an entire month without refrigeration, and only rotted a year after refrigeration, pest sprays that doesn't kill crops, damage them, nor put poison in them, and even appliances that create water from the water vapor around. With this, the Philippines became a global hegemon in the field of agriculture, and became a first-world country with the purest air.

Of course, global improvement didn't pale in comparison to Philippines. Hover technology was created by Electro, with them inventing the true hover skateboard. True holographic technology was invented by the USA government, the j.a.panese invented a way to get biofuel from salt.w.a.ter, as well as rain inducers, and purifiers that purified water to the extent of 100% purity, gaining an increase to the world's water supply, solving the water problem and global warming. On the other hand, the South Korean's entertainment industry became even larger, K-Pop was omnipresent all over the world, shows were widely watched, and many more! In particular, CHORUS, the nation's girl group, and t.i.tANIUM, the nation's boy group, were popular even overseas; in fact, the outstanding achievements of South Korea's technological inst.i.tutes were overshadowed by the entertainment industry, people forgetting that the Phantom Communications, a revolutionary communication type the pioneer of the 7G, or the 7th generation of the cellular communication systems. The Chinese found the way to cure cancer without risks, HIV, allergies, and many other diseases, making them the top 1 in the medicinal field in the entire world. As for Australia, they have invented many new inventions, mainly in the field of bionics, creating the best prosthetic arm that acts like a regular arm, artificial eyes that allowed the blind to see, and vocal chords that allowed the mute to speak, along with many others.

Poor states in Africa started to recover from poverty with the help from the newly formed World Government, formed by all of the governments in the entire world, the new United Nations. The United Nations' goal was global peace, established by the leaders of the most successful countries of the current state of the world, USA, j.a.pan, South Korea, Philippines, Australia, UK, Luxembourg, Greenland, Nigeria, and Morocco in 2035. With the formation of the World Government, the world has entered a new era of peace, global relations have improved, and they directed their energy into finding a way to travel to distant solar systems. With this in mind, they agreed that the universal currency will be set into credits, as compared to the vastness of the galaxy, such trivial matters like currency exchange and the value of paper money is unnecessary. In addition, people are free to enter any states without a pa.s.sport or a visa, the people around the world given Ident.i.ty Numbers by birth, which is now the base of communication and banking, wireless currency, the credit, changed paper currency, the cold war ended with the efforts of the World Government, with North Korea still an independent state but anyone can freely enter now, communism was removed, with the World Government agreeing to have democratic republic in all countries, and the holding of the annual World Summit at January 5.

2054, the World Government agreed to launch the project called Traversal Plan, a technology that was proposed by Australia's greatest scientists of the Australian s.p.a.ce Agency. Approved by the World Government, all of the countries sent the best aeronautical engineers, physicists, and s.p.a.ce scientists to the site of the Traversal Plan in Australia. Three years has pa.s.sed ever since. Currently, it is June 4, 2057, Monday.