Ability Wielders

With only three days of exercising, Hayden can already lift the 40-kilogram barbell he had at his home with extreme ease, do 100 pull-ups in one breath, perform 100 crunches without feeling pain on his abdomen whatsoever, perform 100 tiptoe squats without breaking a sweat, as well as do 150 push-ups as if he was drinking water.

"The rate of the increase of my physical ability is too stunning," Hayden examined his body. "Within three days of exercise, my muscles are already dense enough, and my abs are being slowly sculpted."

He thought he needed to buy a much heavier barbell if he wanted to increase his physical abilities more. "Until then, I guess I"ll do one-hand pull-ups, push-ups, pistol squats, and cross crunches…"

"I need money," Hayden sighed. "I shouldn"t have to depend on my parents to buy things anymore… perhaps I should start a Streamlink channel?"

An idea popped up in his head, which was to start a Streamlink channel so that he could earn money without going out of the house.

…..

With the construction of the World Government, credit cards and debit cards became redundant as credits were hailed as the universal currency in all countries without exception.

With this, the World Government promoted online banking and online currencies, turning phones into banks. Now, all phones have built-in connections to the existing wireless currency provided by the World Government. This made it susceptible from hacking, and to prevent that, the World Government created an entire team of absolutely skilled hackers, the Cyber Guards.

At the start of this, the people didn"t support it, and there was chaos all around the world. Fast forward a few years later, many admitted that it was worth it switching to this form of currency as it was convenient.

Paying with phones was not a new concept, however, it was an innovative and practical concept. On top of that, without needing anything else, once a person gets into high school, they will have their own bank accounts named under their Ident.i.ty Numbers, protected by the Cyber Guards and the Phantom Defense System, whom the Cyber Guards created.

…..

"Yeah, I simply need to link my bank account, and once I make it big…" Suddenly, Hayden found a hole in his plan. "This will take a long time… Unless I actually make such good plays. Right now, I"m only a D-Rank (1) in War of Honor, not a good starting point for streaming, especially since this is my main account… I need to grind more trophies…"

He sighed. He couldn"t think of any other way for a high school student like him to earn money. He didn"t want to do part-time work as it will be a waste of time in his opinion, baby-sitting wasn"t an option as Hayden didn"t like kids all that much, especially unruly ones, and lawn mowing was definitely not a good thing. Meanwhile, he wouldn"t be able to make use of the talents he"s practicing except as a hobby and pastime.

"I guess I have to bitterly rank up…" The way to ranking up to an Rank commander in War of Honor was filled with harsh struggles, what more, going into S-Rank, Supreme General, and Apex Rank. "It really is the only way I can think of…"

Deciding that this would be the only way, he spent 30 minutes to play one ranked game for War of Honor. "I can also join tournaments if the time comes…. Perhaps the Pro a.s.sembly even!"

He set his sights high up there in the air, desiring to go to the Pro a.s.sembly while being a D-Rank player. If anybody heard this silly dream of Hayden"s, they would laugh their a.s.s off.

…..

Going inside his cla.s.sroom, Hayden sat. The past three days, he always arrived at 7:05, this day was not any different. Remembering what happened yesterday, he was a little distraught.

"I hope she"s fine…" Hayden mumbled to himself. Just because he was an introvert and disliked socializing to the point of abhorring it, doesn"t mean he can"t feel emotion or sympathize with other people. "Well, n.o.body can recover that f"

Before he can finish his sentence, the door to their cla.s.sroom opened, and in came the person he least expected to come, Faye.

Hayden didn"t drop his phone, still silently reading. Regardless, he activated Divine Perception and observed Faye.

Her pretty face had hints of obvious exhaustion. Her eyes were red from crying, and her always cheerful expression was nowhere to be seen. Hayden empathized as he knew he would also be in a state like this if any of his parents died, more so a gruesome murder.

If that happened to him, he"d, without a doubt, go crazy and hunt down all murderers around the world, serving just deserts. What"s wrong with that is he"d kill them all, not imprison them, using his Abilities to hunt down murderers.

At that second, Faye saw Hayden, yet, she wasn"t excited at all. She was still aggrieved of the events that transpired the night her father was murdered by that G.o.dd.a.m.n Asw.a.n.g.

Sitting on her chair beside Hayden, she stared towards the board listlessly, her eyes devoid of her soul. At that moment, she couldn"t take it anymore and tapped Hayden"s shoulders.

Hayden, as someone who couldn"t stand the sight of innocent lives suffering in the hands of the oppressors and malevolent, removed his earphones and asked Faye the question that made her break down. "You want to talk about it?"

Faye"s eyes became visibly wet in an instant. Nodding her head, Hayden patted it, and said something she didn"t expect. "Don"t worry, I"m here. I"ll listen."

She broke down and recounted everything she experienced that night. She had no outlet whatsoever, her mom was more heartbroken than her, all her family members never really cared about her dad, and all her friends consoled her, but she never did get to release all of the emotion. Today, with Hayden"s words, the final straw snapped inside of her and she told Hayden of what she has seen.

…..

June 5, 2057, Tuesday, 8:00 PM, Makati City, the day Hayden showed off at school.

Faye was getting ready for bed, chatting with her friends on Chatbox, a messaging platform widely used by people around the world. They were talking about school, how Hayden was so cool when he did all those stunts and maneuvers during physical education time, and other typical girl stuff.

For an hour, she was only lying down. 9:00 PM, she was able to sleep tightly. Despite that, she was awoken by a sound in their house, a sound that terrified her. A bad feeling went through her head, proceeding to not check the sound out as it was too horrifying.

The sound stopped, and unknowingly, Faye was drifted to sleep. Waking up at 5:00 AM, she walked out of her room, brushed her teeth, and took a bath.

Feeling something was wrong, when she got out of bath, she put on her clothes. When she went out of her room once more, she noticed the b.l.o.o.d.y door handle to the room of her parents. As she was too sleepy earlier, she didn"t notice it.

Pushing the door open, what she witnessed gave her an immense shock, disgust, sadness, and trauma. She threw up while crying as she knew who that was. It was her father, who else would be in their house? Fortunately, her mom was out of town at that time, having a business trip. When her mom caught wind of what happened, without delay, she booked a flight to Makati City from Visayas.

…..

"The guts, intestines, liver… That scene…" Faye gagged, forcefully swallowing the vomit that rose. "I knew that coping up within my house would be worse than actually going to school, hence, here I am…"

Hearing this, Hayden pitied her, albeit, didn"t express it. Asw.a.n.g caused her so much suffering, will he really let Asw.a.n.g be? Hayden was in a dilemma because of this situation. On top of that, he didn"t know what to say to console Faye.

"Don"t worry," Faye said while wiping her tears. "I already know you don"t talk much. This gesture alone is enough. Thank you for listening. You can go back to reading now."

"Don"t worry, everything"s going to be fine." Hayden acted as if he was okay. Internally, he was enraged for a few reasons. First, how dare Asw.a.n.g kill people. Hayden wouldn"t have been this livid if it was simply a house break-in, or a robbery, but killing people was such a s.h.i.tty thing to do! Especially when it"s innocent people. Losing one"s property is still way better than losing their lives.

Second, thinking up to here, Hayden heard of the descriptions of Asw.a.n.g"s killings and how there was no evidence at all, not a fingerprint, not a sound, no witnesses. With this, Hayden was partly sure that Asw.a.n.g is a Wielder! If his conjecture was correct, it endangers the existence of wielders!

He knew there were other wielders in the entire world, he was also certain that there were wielders that were older than him, who awakened much earlier than him. He can"t possibly be the only one who has an Ability, right? And to think that being able to go this far without the government finding out regarding their existence, Asw.a.n.g, if he ever was a wielder, was risking the entire wielder community"s existence!

If Asw.a.n.g was caught by non-wielders, it would be a huge catastrophe, more so if it was the Triple A that caught him. Lastly, look at what the effects of the murder brought Faye! If Asw.a.n.g was doing it for his own enjoyment and satisfaction, then Hayden has to stop him! Such a dangerous figure shouldn"t be left out.

"Alas, it is not my duty to do this." Hayden thought hard before coming to a decision. "There"s too much risk at stake. If I ever get embroiled into this case and I fail, who"ll protect my family? I"m sorry, but I have to protect my own. I am powerless as of now, I"m sorry I would not be able to avenge your father, Faye… It"s not my responsibility."

Hayden was no saint. He would not play the hero who killed the villain. He would only be risking his life and the lives of his parents if he plays the role of the hero. "I cannot let such a thing happen…"

Pushing this matter to the back of his mind, he spent the day focused on his studies. He decisively chose to not get involved in any of this, with him acting the part as the guardian of his family.

…..

Arriving at his house, Hayden quickly changed clothes, did his a.s.signments, learned Korean for two hours, and wanted to set up a channel for Streamlink.

"First off, if I want to upload videos in Streamlink, I need an editing software…" Hayden browsed through a list of good editing software. As his computer was up to date with the latest computer software, it already had a built-in screen recorder.

a.s.sessing tens of editing software, he saw that the best one with the best reviews was the Video Director. Looking at its price, and looking at the amount of credits he had, he heaved a sigh of relief.

"It"s a good thing I resisted spending this money on games…" He was lucky that he let his frugality get the best of him when he was playing War of Honor, G.o.ds Awaken, and many more games. "I have 5,600 credits in my account as my parents give me 100 credits to spend per week. As I only spent, at most, half of it most times, sometimes even only as little as 20 credits, I have gotten here in three years of painstakingly saving money."

100 credits were not a big or a small sum. 100 credits were enough for a single average working person to live for a week in terms of food expenses, provided that they had knowledge about budgeting. The average spending per month of a regular white-collar worker was 2,231 credits, thus, 5,600 credits was indeed a huge sum, for a student like Hayden that is.

Video Director"s license price per year was only 100 credits, a paltry sum compared to Hayden"s 5,600 credits. Buying it, he opened it, activated Divine Perception, and looked through the list of functions and tools included in the Video Director"s guide.

Hayden wanted to test the absolute limits of Divine Perception, whether scanning the list without actually reading would allow him to "take a picture" the words, or would it not,

Closing the tab of the list of functions, Hayden tried to remember everything. To his surprise, he remembered every single word with only looking at it all, without focus, and not trying to read whatsoever.

"I"m like a human camera now." Hayden thought that this was perhaps the most useful aspect of Divine Perception. "It seems that the eidetic memory power of Divine Perception isn"t simple eidetic, there"s much more to it!"

Now, all he needed to do was buy a camera and a mic set so that he would have a beginner"s recording set up. Looking for a 4k camera, he saw that the prices were too astronomical for him, at least for his sense of what was "astronomical."

"600 credits for the one with the highest price-quality ratio?" It was too big of a price in Hayden"s opinion. "Well, if I want to make quality videos off the bat, then, I would need it…"

With great pain in his heart, he bought the 4k camera. Next, he browsed for a condenser microphone, the best quality one being 150 credits. This 150 credits were well-spent as it was considered the best, whether it be recording quality, reviews, or star rating, it even came with a free pop filter!

On top of that, he bought green and black clothing, along with stands, so that he can either use a black backdrop or a green screen. These three items combined were merely 100 credits. His orders would arrive tomorrow at the exact same time that he ordered the items, meaning, 7:00 PM.

"Now, all I need to do is climb the ranks!" Hayden said to himself, satisfied. This sense of satisfaction went away instantly when he looked at his account balance. "I only have a measly 4,700 credits left in my account. All those credits, gone in an instant…"

Thinking up to here, he consoled himself that it will be a worthwhile investment. He didn"t need to buy gaming gear anymore as his parents gifted him a gaming set when he pa.s.sed the Makati City Scholar Academy entrance exam.

If any student were to hear of Hayden"s thoughts, they would, without a doubt, smack him in the head. "You think 4,750 credits are small? Small your a.s.s!"

"Wait, why did I buy a 4k resolution camera if I wasn"t planning to reveal my face yet…?" Hayden suddenly realized of a great blunder. "I forgot that I will only record my hands as I would not want any of my cla.s.smates to reveal that I am a great celebrity or any of the sort…"

Slapping his forehead, he was disappointed in letting his urges run amok. "Well, if this takes off, I"ll become successful anyways…"

Consoling himself, he played ranked games until 10:00 PM, allowing him to finally stepped in the C-Rank in War of Honor. "Finally… I got hard-stuck on D-Rank because of pig-like teammates, now, I have the capabilities to solo carry as a top laner!"

He almost shouted from joy of getting out of D-Rank general status. Not just that, he wanted to shout even more due to playing champions that he sucked prior to dropping War of Honor and he still carried those games!

"It"s such a fortune that I actually came to possess such a power…" Hayden was grateful for the Origin Crystal"s Abilities. Needless to say, he still didn"t know the origin of the Origin Crystal, which made him distrust it a little.

Tossing this matter out of the window, he said to himself. "I guess the only way I can actually record now is to do a Rank Climbing series…"

A Rank Climbing Series in War of Honor meant that a player would climb ranks using an alternate account, or if a person was low enough in rank, in their main account. Streamers often did this to troll low-ranked players, or a way to gain money, while those who were low in rank did this for making money and grinding out their accounts.

Generally, low-rank players referred to players in the F-Rank E-Rank, and D-Rank. These players usually had low skill, too unlucky to be paired with good teammates in ranked games, putting them in the so-called low-rank h.e.l.l, or casual players who played the game only once in a while, resulting in a sharp drop in skill, eventually leading to dropping the game completely.

Hayden can be considered a mid-rank player as he is currently a C-Rank General. He wanted to use this to his advantage by doing a Rank Climbing series, from C-Rank General, to Apex Rank General.

"This will be fun…" Hayden grinned as he lay down on his bed, visualizing of various scenarios. While letting his imagination run wild, he was finally able to sleep.

…..

1 As said, there are a total of 8 ranks in War of Honor, that is, starting from the lowest, F-Rank, E-Rank, D-Rank, C-Rank, B-Rank, Rank, S-Rank, and Apex Rank. F-Rank through D-Rank are considered low-ranks, and in our modern MOBA games, they are called Low Elo. The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players, such as in chess and MOBA games, created by Arpad Elo. In League of Legends, Low Elo referred to the ranks of Iron, Bronze, and Silver, the Mid Elo ranks were Gold and Platinum, while the High Elo ones are Diamond, Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger. In order to partic.i.p.ate in e-sports, you have to at least have Diamond-rank.

In War of Honor the low-rank is the Low Elo, meaning, F-Rank, E-Rank, and D-Ranks are all low-rank players. C-Rank and B-Rank is mid-rank, or Mid Elo, and Rank, S-Rank, Supreme General, and Apex Ranks were all high-rank, or High Elo. Also, in each rank, with the exception of S-Rank Supreme General, and Apex Rank, all have 5 sub-ranks, 1-star, 2-star, 3-star, 4-star, and 5-star, much like League of Legend"s Grandmaster and Challenger.

Players of War of Honor are called Generals, and to rank up, one must collect trophies by winning games. Ranking up from 1-star F-Rank to 2-star F-Rank needed 10 trophies, which meant 10 wins without losing for two games in a row, i.e., Win, Lose, Win; Win-Lose-Lose would result in a loss of a trophy. In mid-rank however, if one loses, they would lose a trophy immediately. When one loses their last trophy and loses for two times in a row, they would be demoted.

After acquiring the 10 trophies, one must finish their Advancement Trials, which were three games for low-ranks, two of which one must win in order to move up. The Advancement Trials for mid-ranks consisted of five games instead, three of which one must win. The ranking up from Rank onwards were more strenuous, with the move from Rank to S-Rank needing 10 games for the Advancement Trials, needing to win at least six games.

Once one reaches S-Rank, one would have to devote all of their time to the game as the Top 1000 S-Rank players of the server are the only ones who get to rank up to the next rank, the Supreme General. Meanwhile, the move from Supreme General to Apex Rank General was even harder as one must be in the Top 100 of the Supreme Generals of the server.