I'm going to be busy tomorrow, so I'm posting early.
p*treon.com/c/march_rain
--x--
Ringo smiled slightly and sighed, the madness fading a little from his eyes as he seemed to remember the past. The last time he ate duck was at his grandmother's house. She was the kind of woman who didn't tolerate any "fussiness". Whenever he was reluctant to eat something, she would start talking about the family's poverty-stricken days, where they had to eat bean soup every other day. He missed her...
Ringo looked at Anne thoughtfully. Could his ability affect others? He didn't know, but even if it did, his ability couldn't permanently heal her; at most, she could only see for a few minutes.
Ringo stopped, thoughtful, looked at Old Han, and said. - Don't move. I want to try something.
Han Xiao was confused, but didn't move. Ringo placed her hand on him, and his energy surged out, leaving Hongjun surprised. He wasn't a Super, just a normal human. He didn't know this duo was so strong. He felt fortunate to have befriended them and no one had offended them.
Han Xiao was also surprised. He glanced at the interface, but nothing changed.
It was only a few moments later that he noticed a notification pop up.
[Eye acuity has been improved by 30% for 1 minute.]
Behind Han Xiao's confused eyes, he saw Ringo open his eyes slightly in surprise and seem to nod to himself. He could modify others, but he felt it would probably be difficult if Han Xiao had resisted. Furthermore, it was extremely exhausting. If it took one energy to do something for him, it took 10 to do the same for others.
Ringo looked at Anne again and asked calmly. - If I could make you see again, but just for a few minutes, would you like it?
The glass of water Hongjun was holding fell,breaking against the ground, Anne trembled slightly.
Hongjun narrowed his eyes and spoke a little irritably. - That joke isn't funny.
Ringo didn't comment, just continued to stare at Anne. This left Hongjun confused, expectant, and fearful.
-Does this... have any side effects?- he finally asked.
Ringo finally looked at him and said. -No, it just won't last long.
Han Xiao didn't say anything. He sighed and took out a cigarette, going outside for a smoke.
Hongjun ignored him and turned to his wife. - Anne, you don't have to...
-I want to! - Anne finally raised her head with a firm gaze. - Mr. Ringo, please.
Ringo looked at the pair with mixed feelings. His head seemed to ache for a moment. He nodded calmly and placed his hand on her shoulder, keeping Hongjun's anxious and fearful eyes from falling.
Within seconds, color returned to Anne's eyes, hers was a beautiful sky blue.
Anne's eyes widened as she regained focus, tears already welling up in her eyes. Hongjun didn't look much better, even snot coming from his nose.
Anne looked at Ringo beside her and was surprised by his size, but quickly turned to her husband, tears flowing more forcefully. - I thought I'd never see you again.
-Anne... - Hongjun stood up and went to her.
Ringo sighed and left. Han Xiao was already outside with the backpacks packed, now loaded with more supplies.
Ringo said nothing, grabbed the backpack, and the pair calmly left. They had the location, so their future path was clear.
Ringo wanted to buy a car with weapons, but Han Xiao was afraid Germinal would track them and liquidate the settlement.
Ringo shrugged, and the pair began walking. But before they could leave, they heard footsteps. Anne and Hongjun ran up to them.
Ringo looked at them, Anne bowed deeply, soon followed by Hongjun.
-Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Mr. Ringo. - The woman thanked him, her eyes still red from crying.
Hongjun also thanked him. Ringo simply nodded and turned to leave, waving. He didn't look back. Han Xiao waved back before calmly following.
As they left, Anne's eyes grew blind again, while Hongjun looked sad.
-It's okay. - Anne didn't mind, she placed her hand on her husband's face tenderly, wiping away your tears. - It was a dream of mine to see your face one last time. I'm grateful for that. You don't have to feel bad.
Hongjun cried softly as he held her tightly. - Anne...
--x--
Han Xiao was silent for a long time before he couldn't take it anymore, his curiosity getting the better of him.
-What was that? - he asked curiously.
Ringo didn't pretend to be unaware, but he spoke calmly, feeling talkative for a moment. - I don't remember much of my past, but her cooking reminded me of something good. - Of course, both were true, but he remembered his previous life well. He just didn't want Han to find out. After all, he had the upper hand here with the interface. No matter how good their friendship, which they don't have much of these days, isn't enough to put his hand in the fire for him, probably never will be.
Han Xiao looked at him as if he'd grown a second head, but didn't comment. The pair continued walking forward in silence.
Ringo seemed calmer after that incident. He doesn't know if it was because his subconscious thought the madness was no longer useful, so he was returning to normal, but it didn't matter to him.
It took him three days of walking before he managed to hop on a train heading towards Stardragon.
It took three more days in the train car and by then Ringo was already starving, finishing his food on the fourth day, much to Han's irritation.
-How are we going to get in? - Ringo jumped out of the train car and brushed the hay off the body. Han Xiao still looked at him with judgment and irritation and Ringo pretending not to see.
Sighing, Han Xiao said reluctantly. -Follow me.
If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't defeat him, he would have beaten Ringo up by now.
Han Xiao took him to meet a smuggler. This time, they had many more weapons than Han Xiao had originally, but Han Xiao still wanted to get rid of them all because they could be traced.
Ringo shrugged. He didn't really care about weapons, the smuggler was quite happy with the weapons and brought them to an old truck.
While Han Xiao chatted with a man, Ringo ignored him and began to think about the future.
Staying at Stardragon was a big no-no. Thinking about this world, the best solution was to become an assassin. With his strength, he'd do well there. Plus, he could travel to extreme environments to continue evolving while earning money.
He could go to Hesla and join the blood pact through the Fabian company. Actually, he didn't even need to go that far, just look for the Fabian company. Luckily, he still remembered that name, perhaps because he enjoyed the interaction between Han Xiao and... well, he doesn't remember the man's name, but he first appeared as the head of a branch, then became Han Xiao's "personal driver."
He kind of wanted to stay at Stardragon to witness the live-action story, but he considered improving his strength more important. Hila was still waiting for him, and future catastrophes were still ahead.
His growth style was different from Han Xiao's, after all.
He was also thinking about how to become stronger. The animal traits he'd acquired could be very useful, but he needed genetic serums for that.
Not the perfect kind, far from it. The kind that would make anyone other than him die horribly. A serum designed to attack his cells bluntly and directly, easily causing mutations and tumors.
This was thousands of times easier than creating a serum with clear effects and no side effects.
Of course, a better-made serum would probably give him more rewards than simple transformation, like molding talents.
He was desperate to find Felonia, that serum would give him a good molding talent.
But thinking about Serum, he was more interested in Emerald Grass, that woman could be a molding talent producing machine for him.
He wouldn't need a perfect serum, a serum that could have extreme effects with equally extreme negative effects was enough. The positive effects would be maintained while the negative ones were purged.
It was perfect.
Aside from Emerald Grass, he needed extreme environments. It was too early for volcanoes or the deep sea, but perhaps deserts and polar climates would be a good option. He could take on missions while working on that.
He thought about radiation. He'd even been exposed to radiation while on Germinal, but it took him too long to heal and evolve for them to continue with that.
Of course, before he was only a F Grade Super, now as a D Grade, this could be useful.
He also needed combat training, which made him frown as he considered whether he should stay on Stardragon for a while to get training.
Han Xiao managed to find out the reward for them through the communicator they'd taken from the Germinal pursuers. Han Xiao removed the bug, and they discovered that Zero's bounty remained the same, 1 million, but Six's bounty was unexpected.
10 million. Furthermore, his order said "only alive." This made it clear that the leader still had hopes for him, at least in terms of pushing the limit.
He didn't learn anything about him from the poster, but that wasn't important. What mattered was that he was now a wanted man, but that was even easier for him to deal with than Han Xiao.
He can change his appearance by modifying his genes.
As long as he has the recessive gene, he can modify everything. Furthermore, changing a human appearance has minimal cost and can be maintained indefinitely, quite unlike creating animal limbs.
In the end, he gave up on staying. He could indeed improve at Stardragon, but they had C-rank supers. Even if he wasn't at the level of Leader or Bennett, they would still be dangerous to him. He would never trust human morality to guarantee his life.
So, when he and Han Xiao descended within the walls of Stardragon, he entered an alley with Han Xiao.
-Are you sure about this? -Han Xiao looked at him strangely.
Ringo laughed, the next moment, his body began to change. Ringo was shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye. His lips tightened as the pain took hold of him. Finally, an extremely long black snake emerged from Ringo's clothes. It was as thin as a pencil, but its body was dozens of meters long, leaving Han Xiao quite surprised.
Ringo ignored it and climbed onto his arm, placing its head near his wrist while its body wound around his arm several times, making Han Xiao uncomfortable.
In the end, it was hidden by his long sleeve, its color adapting to Han Xiao's skin tone.
He didn't want to be seen, so this was the solution, but he could only last a few hours like this. It was actually more out of curiosity to see if he could do it.
His mass doesn't change due to his size, which is why he'd gotten thinner when he first formed wings. Now he'd compressed his muscles to an extreme level while stretching himself to achieve the transformation. His flesh was so dense now that even a diamond-tipped saw couldn't penetrate it.
He wasn't light either, probably around 80 to 90 kilograms, but his mass was distributed throughout his arm, so even if it was cumbersome, as a Super, Han Xiao could handle it.
There are Esper genes that can actually transform energy into mass or even decrease their own mass, but your gene has nothing to do with that, it works by modifying his own DNA, not decreasing or adding anything, just modifying what already exists.
The goal was to find out where Han Xiao was going. After all, he knew nothing about this world, and Old Man Lu's workshop wasn't easy to find, it didn't even have a name!