With impatience, Hayden touched the Origin Crystal with the question 'Is there any way to make the date of evolution faster?' but to no avail. There was no available information.

Hayden took a deep breath, a look of contemplation plastered on his face. "What if I'm asking the wrong question?"

Saying that, Hayden touched his Origin Crystal again with a different question. 'When will I evolve? Is there any indication for this?'

Surprisingly, he felt strings of information pervading through his mind from the Origin Crystal. 'It worked?'

Closing his eyes, Hayden glossed over the information and was frustrated of the answer. Rather than the Origin Crystal specifying the time of his evolution, the answer of the Origin Crystal to his question was… "When my body is filled with essence energy? The indication of this is that my non-enhanced physical attributes reaches its maximum potential, specified as… capable of lifting 1,000 kilograms, moving 200 kilometers per hour, and withstanding 10,000 pounds per square foot of force?"

Hayden was quite sure that this was all approximately 3.33 times his physical attributes right after he evolved into a Level 2 wielder. "So this is the limits of my physical body? What kind of inhuman body do I have?"

However, what he really found odd was that the Origin Crystal didn't mention the precise time of his evolution to Level 3. That can only mean one thing, and that is… "There's a method to make it so that the schedule of my evolution is earlier!"

With that in mind, Hayden moved his hands back onto the Origin Crystal. The question in his mind? 'Is there any way to make my evolution come faster?'

Unexpectedly, there was indeed an answer, and that answer was to absorb the essence energy from Origin Crystals of wielders or cognizants. "Huh... Would you look at that? I guess digging out those Origin Crystals from the corpses of my kills aren't in vain."

Skimming through his memories further, Hayden found out the method to absorb essence energy from Origin Crystals and the restrictions of it. Apparently, the first restriction was that when you reached halfway of the limit of your Level, only then can you absorb essence energy from Origin Crystals safely, otherwise, the essence energy within your body can go erratic and a huge chance is that a wielder would die. This restriction was established by the Origin Crystal so that the body can get used to the essence energy running within one's veins.

Number two was that there's a limit to how much essence energy can be absorbed in a day as the wielder's body may be overwhelmed. If one absorbs too much essence energy from Origin Crystals, it would lead to a condition called essence energy overexposure. When a wielder experiences essence energy overexposure, the Origin Crystal would act by itself and put the wielder's body in a comatose state until the essence energy from the Origin Crystal is finished being digested by the wielder's body.

On top of this, no wielder wants to suffer from essence energy overexposure because for the next 30 days, they would not be able to use Origin Crystals to hasten their evolution and that their rate of circulation slows down due to overuse of Origin Crystals.

The reason for this is that Origin Crystals are all compacted essence energy with a sliver of an energy called source energy. This source energy is what allow wielders to activate their Abilities, in Hayden's case, Divine Perception and Indestructible Devil.

Unfortunately, the Origin Crystal didn't give Hayden anything regarding source energy, whetting Hayden's appet.i.te for information. Nevertheless, as it wasn't the time on dwelling on this matter, Hayden chose to put this in his mind and move on for now.

Third, wielders could only absorb essence energy from wielders one level above their own, the same level as them, and those that was harvested from below their level. For example, a Level 4 wielder would be able to absorb essence energy from Origin Crystals belonging from Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5 wielders.

Lastly, a wielder cannot absorb essence energy from a different Origin Crystal as long as the one a wielder is absorbing depleted. If one does this, they risk being subjected to essence energy rejection as the different source energies within the essence energy would intermingle.

This would lead to the different essence energies with different source energies to fight and rampage within the wielder's body, damaging internal organs and even risk the destruction of their own Origin Crystal. When the destruction of the wielder's Origin Crystal occurs, their organs would start to degrade, their aging accelerates, with a single day, they would age a year, and would die within 60 days.

"Oh, man, that's brutal…" Upon glossing over the last one Hayden couldn't help but rapidly blink with horror. "Now that I have these two Abilities, I can't ever imagine living without them… What more dying because of them…"

Hayden wouldn't believe if he was told that someone risked performing the last one. "Well, understanding this, let's see…"

Checking his physique, Hayden examined that his strength would allow him to go lift up to 402.3 kilograms, his speed at 83.1 kilometers per hour, and his toughness grants him the power to withstand a bear's paw swipe while suffering merely a graze, that is if it has no claws. Flesh wasn't capable of resisting sharp objects after all.

"It remains the same." Hayden nodded his head. From his earlier calculations, his physical strength grows five kilograms per day, his speed up to 1.1 kilometers per hour per day, and his toughness, well, he can't really put a measure on that, but in a month, his unenhanced toughness would doubtlessly allow him to withstand a fall at terminal velocity and walk away unscathed.

"At this rate, I'll have to wait two months until I can use these Origin Crystals." Hayden muttered to himself. "I have two options, exercise, or find another way. Wait… This is basically like a wuxia novel… Hence… Meditation?"

Hayden groaned. He dumped the idea of exercising as, well, it wouldn't be effective anymore. Especially since regular humans have no equipment that would allow him to exert his all in an exercise. "There's no way that waiting is the sole path, right…?"

Sighing, Hayden couldn't think of anything as he knows nothing of essence energy at all. "I'll ask her later… Man, I should seriously meet this Ba.n.a.l na Tagalikha asap…"

Looking at the time, simply four minutes have pa.s.sed. "Well, let's prepare for that dinner, shall we?"

Thereupon, Hayden went to the kitchen and put on an ap.r.o.n, first cutting the Apo beef into steak slabs, seasoning it to make its taste more savory, and placing it into the fridge, and worked on the other parts of the meal…

...

By 5:00, Hayden was finished with all the preparations, with everything other than the hors d'oeuvre and dessert, which was already at the fridge, ready to be cooked.

"Okay, that's finished." Hayden was satisfied. Done with the prep work, Hayden went for a quick shower. When he got out, he whipped out his phone and called Eun-ha.

"Noona, how are you?" Hayden spoke in a cheery tone.

"I'm fine, baby." Hayden blinked as he heard that. Baby? Why is it that such a plain endearment was… actually making his heart flutter…? "How about you? How are you?"

"I'm doing good… Extremely good. Don't eat, okay?" Concluding his sentence, Hayden lightly chuckled.

"Another surprise?" Eun-ha exclaimed. "Tsk, treating me like a princess… Bootlicker."

"Gonjunim, of course I would." Hayden rode along, literally calling Eun-ha princess. "You know what? I'm going to call you that from now on."

"What? No." On the other end, Eun-ha's face flushed, which was noticed by Sayuri. Making eye contact with Sayuri, Eun-ha choked she saw Sayuri's eyes with a knowing teasing look.

"Gonjunim, I ask of you not to eat as I do have a surprise." Hayden was serious when he said he'd call Eun-ha princess. "Anyhow… I just called in… Well, now that I think of it, it's pretty stupid… However, we can agree it is sweet that I called, right?"

"Yeah." Eun-ha beamed, finding Hayden's soliloquy cute. "I'll see you later, okay, baby? Love you."

"Yeah, love you too." Hayden responded, wearing a faint bright smile. Saying bye, Eun-ha cut the call.

Collapsing into his bed, Hayden stared into the ceiling. "I still can't believe that I'm her boyfriend… To think that this day would come��"

A few seconds pa.s.sed with silence, ending with Hayden standing up and going to his computer, launching a game that was not War of Honor. It was the popular FPS game Steel Storm that he hasn't played for years.

Queueing in a standard five versus five match of Capture the Flag, Hayden got in by just waiting for a few minutes.

Half an hour later, Hayden raised his hands… "G.o.ddammit… sucky teammates will be the end of my gaming career… Do not fear G.o.d-like opponents, fear the pig-like teammates."

It's not that he was bad at it, it was just that Steel Storm's community was the most toxic gaming community, as well as the most compet.i.tive. In the past, as an average player with mediocre aim, Hayden was annoyed as he can't improve his skill purely due to the teammates he was paired with, which was either toxic, or players even less skilled with him, it was always any of the two.

"Such a headache." Hayden rubbed his temples with his fingers. A second later, he took a deep breath and talked to himself. "There's a single thing left to do then."

Clicking a b.u.t.ton that says 'Character Builder,' he was put into the unique character customization of Steel Storm.

"Okay, let's do this…" Hayden muttered as his character appeared on-screen. As you can see, Steel Storm was termed as a combination of an RPG and an FPS game, where you can completely customize your character. "If we're going to do this…"

Hayden distributed all of the 200 free stat points every character has mainly into speed, with a distribution of 125 in speed that affected movement speed, 30 in dexterity that decreased reload speed, 25 in endurance that augmented stamina, 10 in physique that increased health, as well as intellect that increased energy, which is used for Active Skills.

Second, he distributed the 100 Affinity Points in three categories, with the majority of it in sniping affinity that boosted sniper rifles' attack. 70 in sniping affinity, 20 in basic affinity that increased the damage of all weapons, and 10 in explosives affinity that strengthened the power of grenades and such.

The next one was the choice of a unit type. As an RPG-esque FPS game, you get to choose a unit type for your character. Usually, Hayden picks the Juggernaut, the tank of a group, which had +10 Physique, +10 Heavy Weapon Affinity, and -5 speed, alongside the pa.s.sive skill Iron Skin that reduces all damage by 10% and damage of headshot strikes by 25%, with a starting weapon of a minigun. He picks this as he has nearly no skill in aiming in comparison to the players who grind, plus, the minigun was so cool.

There were seven unit types, the first one was the aforementioned Juggernaut. The second was the most common Rogue unit type that possessed the skillset of +10 Speed, +10 Sniping Affinity, and -5 Physique, with the pa.s.sive of Steady Hands that increased accuracy of all guns by 10%. The Rogue unit type is the go-to of many expert Steel Storm players and battle royal players. Their starting weapon was a standard rifle and was the individual unit type that didn't have their starting main affinity weapon due to sniper rifles being said to be too overpowered for early game.

The third was the Commando that holds the t.i.tle of the dirtiest unit type, and is quite prevalent to the fearless. The Commando has the skillset of +10 Stamina, +10 Shotgun Affinity, and -5 Intellect. The pa.s.sive of the Commando was Charge, granting them +20 speed when sprinting towards a target, and when in conjunction with the active skill Zigzag or Hasten, they are incredibly hard to hit even while charging directly towards you. Their starting weapon was a shotgun.

The fourth unit type was the Survivalist that is popular amongst the craftiest and is an essential part of the team in the game mode, Base Defense. The Survivalist holds +10 dexterity, +10 Trap Affinity, and -5 Speed, with the pa.s.sive Guerilla Warfare that allows them to camouflage themselves if they crouch for five seconds without moving. It was also popular in the battle royal mode amongst the stronger players for its overpowered pa.s.sive, despite it being considered terribly weak outside Base Defense. Their starting weapon was a standard rifle and seven traps that they choose plus five additional trap slots to the 10 they already possess.

The fifth was the Hunter that is the second-most well-liked unit type. The Hunter holds +10 Intellect, +10 Non-Gun Affinity, and -5 Physique. Howbeit, it was evident that its additional stats aren't the cause of its popularity, it was the pa.s.sive, which was the Ingenious Mind, giving it +30% cooldown reduction on all Active Skills, a crucial part of the game. The name Active Skill can be understood by its name alone, and as there were over 100 Active Skills in the game, 30% cooldown reduction was very much highly desired, specifically with the Blink active skill that teleported a player up to ten meters into where they're looking that had a cooldown of 100 seconds. Their starting weapon was a standard plasma bow.

The sixth unit type was the Bomber, a widespread type amongst those that loves throwing things, as well as the pyromaniacs of the game. The Bomber has +5 Dexterity, +5 Speed, +10 Explosives Affinity, and -5 Intellect. Its pa.s.sive, 'Fire in the Hole!', grants the Bomber unit type a longer throwing range in addition to stronger explosions and explosive radius. Their starting weapon is a standard rifle and seven bombs of their choosing plus five additional bomb slots to the 10 they already possess.

The seventh was the Spy, the least popular cla.s.s due to its weak build. The Spy had a +5 Speed, +5 Intellect, +10 One-hand Gun Affinity, and -5 Stamina. Obviously, its stats aren't the reason for the people's dislike, and contrary to the Hunter, the Spy's pa.s.sive was the culprit of the hate it receives.

Its pa.s.sive was Awareness, a pa.s.sive that alerts the players of the position of all players in the map. On top of Awareness, it has exclusive access to dual wielding one-handed weapons, a skill that at least redeemed it a bit. Its starting weapons are two one-handed weapons according to the player's preference, either a pistol, or submachine guns.

You may wonder what's wrong with this unit type, it seems cool, and what's wrong with this was that Awareness updates the map every five seconds. Yes, the player tracking of the map wasn't constant. A sizable amount of players has complained of this Awareness pa.s.sive being weak in comparison to other unit types' pa.s.sive and the fact that it was just a stronger version, yet managed to be much useless, of the active skill Scan.

The creator of Steel Storm's response? That it was fair considering that it has a powerful stat bonus and a second pa.s.sive of dual wielding two one-handed weapons without it needing to discover another pair, that meant that if you discover a weapon, it would automatically be doubled, doubling its rate of fire. This included the powerful hand cannons, Grand Magnums, that can devastate even Juggernauts within 10 shots, that was if a Spy was lucky enough to find it.

Moving on, Hayden chose Rogue to go with his playstyle. Subsequently, he was brought to the choosing of the Secondary Pa.s.sive and three Active Skills. The Secondary Pa.s.sive that Hayden chose was the Phantom Hands, increasing reload speed by 10% and reduces the screen shake of crosshairs when moving.

Next was the three active skills. For the first one, he chose the Accelerate that increased movement speed, not the stat 'speed,' by 20%, for 15 seconds and had a cooldown of three minutes. It used 100 points of energy.

The second one was the detested and infamous Infused Bullet that charged the player's strike for three seconds and releases a shot that deals three times the normal damage with a cooldown of five minutes when it misses, and three when the shot lands. While charging, the player is slowed down to crouching speed, which would be not as slow with Hayden's gla.s.s cannon build. It used 150 points of energy.

What makes this active skill infamous is that it can instkill even a Juggernaut when a critical strike lands as the damage is multiplied further by 2.5. Many players has fallen victim to this Infused Bullet.

Regardless, it was detested by many as it was quite a weak active skill for three reasons, one is its high-risk high-reward nature; the second is that it cannot be used with rifle weapons, heavy weapons, explosives, and traps, with it only really being useful when using a sniper rifle; third is that it leaves the player in an extraordinarily vulnerable position, easily killed.

The third skill is Healing Grace, an active skill that heals the full HP if the player has health equal to or lower than 400 health, 50% if 410-600, and 25% if 610 and above. What's good with this skill is that it had an instant activation time. What's bad with it is that it had a cooldown of 10 minutes, allowing it to be used, at most, a measly three times for a game of battle royal that lasts for 30 minutes. Moreover, any player in their right mind would put at least 40 points in their Physique no matter their cla.s.s, thus the 100% healing effect of Healing Grace isn't commonly seen and kind of useless. This used 100 points of energy.

Confirming his build, his in-game stats looked like this:

Unit Type: Rogue

Secondary Pa.s.sive: Phantom Hands

Active Skill 1: Accelerate

Active Skill 2: Infused Bullet

Active Skill 3: Healing Grace

Health: 150

Stamina (Determines how long you can sprint): 350

Energy: 200

Physique: 15

Speed: 145

Dexterity: 40

Endurance: 35

Intellect (Increased Energy): 20

Basic Affinity: 20

One-hand Gun Affinity (Increases damage of all pistols and submachine guns): 0

Rifle Affinity (Increases damage of all rifles): 0

Shotgun Affinity: 0

Heavy Weapon Affinity (Increases damage of all heavy weapons, i.e., minigun): 0

Sniping Affinity: 80

Non-Gun Affinity (Increases damage in non-gun weapons): 0

Explosives Affinity: 10

Traps Affinity: 0

It was a ridiculously absurd build that would kill his character if he was. .h.i.t by a single round of a Grand Magnum. n.o.body is insane enough to attempt such a high-speed gla.s.s cannon character build except for Hayden, who wielded the Divine Perception.

Activating his Divine Perception, Hayden queued in for a battle royal, the game mode where all experts gather. The first time he touched battle royal, Hayden was incensed as he was killed within a minute, and when he hopped inside for another round, he suffered a more tragic event: being killed within 45 seconds.

When he went online to look this up, the battle royal of Steel Storm was said to be the field for the most hardcore of the gamers, a literal battlefield. That's why Hayden never jumped into the fray as it would be stupid, and as there was no way he'd trust his luck in teammates again, he completely dropped the game altogether.

��..

Bulacan, Philippines, in some apartment duplex. Professional Steel Storm player, Lawin (1), was in his stream, in queue for a battle royal. Lawin was considered to be the epitome of the Rogue unit type when it came to Steel Storm in the Philippines.

Lawin boasted high accuracy and skill with any kind of weapon in game. Additionally, Lawin was proficient in all unit types except for the Spy. In reality, Lawin was a man in his 20s that was average no matter how you look at him, excluding his top-notch gaming skill.

He hit the jackpot when he was hired by the collective e-sports team, Liyab ng Puso (2), back in 2056. In his first appearance, he was one of the keystones of the team's victory at the 2057 Steel Storm's worldwide e-sports compet.i.tion, Bullet h.e.l.l, s.n.a.t.c.hing the first champions.h.i.+p win for the Filipinos in the FPS genre. He was a rising legend in the gaming world, many calling him 'Super Rookie,' and predicting he would go be the third to be etched into the annals of gaming history's Hall of Legends.

"Yeah, so this will be my third game for the day." Lawin spoke to the camera aimed to him. "Are you guys ready for another win?"

...

1 Lawin – Hawk in English

2 Liyab ng Puso – Flame of Heart in English

Random World Lore, Category – Gaming: Despite True Virtual Reality haven't been invented yet, there is the Semi-True Virtual Reality machine that used the Three Directional Movement Machine, or 3DMM, in 2032. It was developed by the Egyptian technological company, Pharaoh's Mind. The 3DMM is a machine that used omni-directional treadmill and body-positioning sensor suit that allows the treadmill to sense the position of the user of the 3DMM, allowing the user to not be restricted by anything in terms of movement. It hasn't really hit the market due to it being too expensive and too heavy on electricity, and with the World Government being unestablished during its release, paper currency was still in effect, capitalism at its finest. Consequently, in 2033, Pharaoh's Mind filed for bankruptcy as there were merely a little over 100,000 sales of the 3DMM, with Pharaoh's Mind unable to recoup their losses. However, with the World Government forming, 10 years later, 2043, Pharaoh's Mind founder wanted to revisit their idea and improve upon it, reopening Pharaoh's Mind and booming in success. Concurrently, Pharaoh's Mind is one of the largest gaming/technological company in the world, and with the release of 3DMM Ex, they continue to grow. With the release of the 3DMM Ex came along the Battlefields, the most popular 3DMM Ex game that was a brawling game that actually uses real-life skills. To this day, the Defense Force still uses the 3DMM Ex to train military soldiers in CQC as it is proven to be more effective.