"It was just as I thought," Noah muttered to himself, hands rubbing his chin. It was just as he had thought. With the experience he had earlier in the morning, he was already half sure he was teetering on the edge of human limitations.
He was already at a level unattainable with simple training; practically, he could already be considered superhuman in terms of sheer reaction, but to him he was just short.
The ability was still at level one, the initial stage. But he was sure he would not have to reach level two to shatter and enter the realm of superhuman. The prospect made him smile inwardly. He opened the system interface to track his progress so far.
———————— [Name: Noah Silver] [Age: 17] [Gender: Male] [Height: 185 cm / 6'1"] ────────────── [Abilities] — Hypermotility — Lv.1 → Status: Awakened | 10% XP to Lv.2
— Telekinesis — Lv.2 → Status: Novice | 2% XP to Lv.2
— Genius Intellect — Lv.6 → Status: Master | 79% XP to Lv.7 ────────────── [System Functions] — Ability Synthesis-Fusion — Ability Upgrade — Auto-Train (1/1) — Mission ────────────── [System Data] — Daily Ability Refresh: 13h 32m — Ability Points: 0 ————————
With a quick glance at the interface, he quickly noticed the changes that occurred so far. Firstly, telekinesis had finally leveled up; the new power of his hypermotility had gone up by ten percent, and Genius Intellect had finally gone up a notch.
Noah was very curious about what his telekinetic limits were at the moment, but before that he took another glance at the Genius Intellect XP bar and then at the telekinesis that had just leveled. Noah's brows furrowed slightly but quickly settled.
He had the idea that certain abilities resonate with one another: if one progressed, the other gains from it too. But for now he couldn't be sure. "Maybe when I gain more abilities in the future," Noah thought, discarding the thought for now.
Now he focused on the telekinesis level up. The first thing he did was immediately clench his palm, and in the next moment his feet left the ground; his body now afloat, a satisfactory smile appeared on his face as he took in the feeling, allowing himself a moment of respite.
After the excitement finally faded, he unclenched his fist and his feet landed softly on the ground. With the level up he had definitely surpassed his previous limits. Before the level up he could exert force of up to 50kg with much effort.
Now he could carry his own weight without much effort. "I'll need a more effective way to measure improvement," Noah pondered, already cycling through several ideas. The crude method would be to lift a measured weight.
But the idea he had was to use force sensors. All he would need to do was push against the sensor with all he had. A simple but effective method. It wouldn't take much time to whip up since he already had something similar sitting around, something he'd made for the eventual completion of the lizard serum. It would only require a few tweaks here and there.
But before that he opened the system interface and swiftly replaced the auto-train slot with Hypermotility, taking out Telekinesis in the process, since it only gained one XP per hour. It was much better to insert level-one abilities at least until he's able to upgrade the auto-train function.
An hour passed in the blink of an eye and soon Noah was done with the required modifications. Close to the spot he had done the reaction speed test, another machine now stood, measuring 3 by 3 meters. It was basically a giant square with a large circle in the middle, which was where he would exert force onto.
Now he stood at a twenty-meter distance, posture straight and eyes focused on the target. He started without any gestures, only his gaze fixed on the target. The number display rose sharply from 0, instantly climbing to 20kg before quickly plateauing at 27kg.
He logged the info with a simple nod. With gestures this time around the number spiked to 40kg. After another log he moved closer by five meters. This time with no gestures he reached 35kg and with gestures he reached 60kg.
Another five meters closer he could achieve 45kg without gestures and with gestures a staggering 80kg; the closer he got the more the gap between the two widened, and finally at a distance of five meters he could exert a maximum force of 150 to 160kg if he pushed himself.
"The limits have increased by more than two times," Noah nodded, satisfied with the improvement. After clearing the equipment, Noah fell into his seat, already making plans. This place wouldn't cut it to practice his abilities. It was a lab, not a test site.
But he was already working on a fix: he had some storage warehouses that were not currently in use. It might be possible to renovate one into the appropriate test site. With fingers flying across the keyboard, he began placing orders on materials he would need.
Another click on the keyboard and several construction bots were already being transported from one of the storage warehouses to the renovation site.
Not many truly knew how far Noah had gone into the realm of engineering. Most would simply assume biology was his forte, which it was. His technological side was far behind; after all, Noah knew that just like biology, technology posed limitless possibilities, which was why he'd always arrived to do his best to ensure the gap between the two was not too wide.
In his search for effective methods of dealing with the Viltrumite race he had ventured into several avenues. In biology, he was researching biological agents that could be used against a Viltrumite without much success. Their biology was simply too rigid and capable of adjusting over time.
With what he managed to cook up so far, the agent might cause dizziness on contact but no more than that; on a second contact the effectiveness would sharply reduce. That avenue was a closing one.
On the technological side he delved into robotics, bionics, energy technology, even material science, and while he made a whole lot of progress against Viltrumites who could easily exert force of ten thousand to thirty thousand tons at a minimum, the robots he'd made would be no more than tin cans, not even paper in comparison.
His delve into the energy department led him to try to make weapons capable of harming Viltrumites: a weapon capable of producing weaponizable heat or one capable of damage at the atomic scale in an attempt to bypass smart atoms. But it was easier said than done.
Whilst it might not be impossible, a venture of such caliber would take decades to achieve. Bionics was much different—possible, but not within the current time limit.
A lot of technology ahead of the world by decades was produced in the process, though it was more of an aftermath: anti-aging serum as a byproduct of the Regen serum, basic artificial intelligence, artificial adaptive blood capable of adjusting what flowed where optimally, metabolic reprogramming shot capable of turning fat to sugar and vice versa, synthetic immune system preprogrammed immune cells effective against new diseases or viruses, photosynthetic skin grafts, cognitive and neural enhancer implants, smart eye lenses giving night, x-ray, zoom and infrared and UV vision, pain modulator chips, and energy weapons.
He had much tech in hand that he'd lost count of at this point. And each one of the techs was worth millions if not billions. But they were long-term plans, not short-term—maybe after he deals with Viltrum and plans to settle down and advance the human race.
Most of the tech was simply lying around except for the watch he wore. A simple energy weapon with several settings—stun, harm and kill—with how sophisticated it was could even kill a superhuman on the highest setting.
With several self-driving trucks on the move towards the warehouse that needed renovations, he began documenting tests and exercises that he would potentially do to improve and level up.
First, telekinesis. He could try pushing limits using weights or trying to increase exertable force. However the idea was crude and linear. What he truly wanted was to cultivate finesse, skill, and control — not just raw force. Power without precision was like a blade too dull to cut cleanly. Effective training methods for that kind of refinement would take time to form; he knew he would need to experiment, design exercises, and possibly even create custom tools to shape the routine
Hypermotility, on the other hand, was straightforward and direct. There was no mystery in what had to be done. He simply had to keep pushing his perception and reaction to their peak, drilling himself until response became instinct, until the line between thought and action blurred. Reaction speed, combat reflexes, movement optimization.
His abilities required effort, but effort was the one currency he had in abundance—especially when survival was at stake. No one would save him if he failed; every hour he invested was another brick in the fortress separating him from cannon fodder.