Chương 25: Forced To Become A Skill User

Friday. The day our solo missions were supposed to begin. We had waited five days for this day to come, and it was finally here after what felt like a prolonged eternity. It was time for us to show Cayman and Ellie how much we had improved as both skill users and Hoppers. It was time to prove Devon wrong about us being weak skill users. It was time to show off our individual brilliance to the skill user world. Using the system, Cayman had sent a message telling us to meet in the portal room at 7PM on Friday night.

And finally, that day had come. Although I had butterflies in my stomach and my heart was beating like a large drum in an orchestra, I was excited and ready to complete my first solo mission as a Hopper. I was already living my dream of being inside my favourite novel, and my goal now was to leave a good impression on my idols. Cayman and Ellie Grace were like celebrities in my eyes. So I had to do well as a Hopper to gain their trust and to keep the friendship alive.

At 6: 50 PM, after finally managing to read a few chapters of Night Hoppers, I got out of bed, got dressed, and headed out of the door to go to the portal room under an electric substation. The sun was still out and there were still plenty of cars on the road. I had to be careful not to do anything silly, like enter the electric substation while people were watching, because it could lead to rumours about me and them finding out about the secret skill user world.

Sometimes I cursed the fact that the portal room was under an electric substation. It would definitely cause confusion and raise the suspicions of the general public if someone was seen to enter the substation and not leave the place after a few hours. When I was certain nobody was looking at me, I entered the substation, opened the hatch and descended down the ladder. Ben and Maya were already in the room when I entered.

They were deep in conversation, presumably about the solo missions we would be going on in about ten minutes' time.

"Robert!" Maya spoke in a way which made me think that she was going to bear hug me at any moment.

"Ready for your mission?" I gave Maya a wry smile.

"Not sure yet," I replied. Adrenaline was pumping around my system with no sign of stopping, giving me a source of much-needed energy. Either I face the mission head-on or I surrender and back off from completing the mission. There was no in-between. In this scenario, of course I was going to face the mission head-on.

"Are you two ready?" I asked Ben and Maya. They both nodded.

"Ready when you are," was Ben's bold and confident reply. Good. We waited for the arrival of Cayman, Ellie and Theo. Clang! Clang! Someone was descending the ladder. Soon, we saw the athletic, muscular and elegant body of Theo Parker.

"Sorry I'm late," Theo said to no one in particular.

"Wait, is Cayman not here yet?"

"Just us three." I shook my head. Theo scratched his head.

"I thought Cayman and Ellie would already be here. I thought he was going to scold me for being late, but oh well."

"Did someone say Cayman and Ellie are going to be late?" Shocked, we all turned around and saw Cayman and Ellie walking out of the training room.

"Looks like you're all here," Cayman began. I could clearly tell that he was about to start another lecture of torture.

"Let me talk to you about the risks of the solo missions, since Devon's going to worry about you guys all night if I don't." We nodded.

"Firstly, you should all be on stage 4. The purpose of the solo missions is to help you level up to the advanced level. You will all be defeating mana beasts by yourselves. You will have no help from me, Ellie, Devon or your comrades." Well, wasn't that the meaning of a solo mission?

"The planets we have selected for your missions are all comfortably at the advanced level. They will have advanced-level mana beasts, but don't worry. This is why I've trained you all to defeat advanced-level beasts even when you're at the basic level." Training was supposed to have a meaning behind it, and that was why I understood Cayman's reasoning almost instantly.

He wanted us to gain the experience of defeating advanced-level beasts early so that we would feel comfortable defeating advanced-level beasts on other planets on our own. Cayman then pulled out several weapons from his system.

"These are all advanced-level mana swords," Cayman said, dropping the swords on the floor.

"I have about ten of them. All of you should take at least two since advanced-level swords still have low durability and you might have to defeat a lot of mana beasts during your expedition." The swords that were dropped on the floor were larger compared to the basic swords we had been wielding for the past few weeks, but they also felt more lightweight. It felt like they were adjusting to the weight that the person wanted their sword to be.

Just like with any other object imbued with mana, a system message appeared showing me the details of this sword. Mana Sword Level: Advanced Description: A more advanced version of the mana sword. This sword is effective against advanced-level mana beasts. Durability: 50 (basic), 250 (advanced), 2750 (legendary), infinite (infinite) Since the advanced-level mana sword only had 250 swings in it, I could see why Cayman wanted us to have more than one on our mission. As always, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Once you've collected your swords, make your way to the portal, where you will be entering one by one. Theo, you're up first." Without any rebuttals, Theo stepped up and walked to the centre of the enormous circular portal, which had been emitting sinister purple smoke.

"Theo," Cayman said while typing something into the screen on the side.

"You will be going to Planet 502. Remember to name it that when you claim it. It is an advanced-level planet. Good luck." When Cayman entered all the required details into the portal, the smoke began to engulf Theo whole, sending him off to 'Planet 502'. After around ten seconds, the jock had fully disappeared.

"Ben, you're next." Gingerly, Ben walked up to the portal. He was going to go to a planet called Planet 503. Cayman told him that the planet he would be going to had never been explored by Hoppers in the past and that it was an advanced-level planet with three missions. As soon as Cayman wished Ben luck in his mission, Ben was gone.

"Maya, come up." Maya, who had been looking down at the ground, entered the portal. She seemed to have butterflies fluttering around wildly in her stomach. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. She was going to Planet 504, a planet that had been explored by other Hoppers before, however, every Hopper who went had failed to complete the required missions and thus they failed to claim the planet for themselves.

Cayman wished Maya luck in her mission, and soon she also vanished into the purple abyss.

"Finally, Robert. You'll be going to Planet 505." Planet 505. What a seriously mysterious name.

"You're the weakest in this group, so I want you to listen carefully. This is the hardest planet to claim out of the four I have selected. I want you to take it slowly, use your mana crystals wisely and ignore any other Hoppers wishing to claim the planet. Out of all the planets I have selected, the one you're going to has the most failed expeditions, but don't let that weigh you down. You'll be fine. All the best on your mission, Robert Ryan."

I wanted to thank Cayman for his motivational and emotional pep talk, but before I got the chance to open my mouth, the endless purple void had already sucked me in, and I was floating around in oblivion. Although I was nervous that I wasn't going to make it back in one piece, I was still taking one giant step towards levelling up and getting stronger. We were all taking a giant leap in our careers as Hoppers.

Daniel De Souza was walking home from school. There was nothing special about his journey home: every day he saw the same trees, the same houses, and sometimes even the same cars on the street. There was nothing in particular to enjoy about his walk home, so most of the time, Daniel would just listen to music or look at his phone during the walk. Both of his parents were at work somewhere, and his sister rarely walked home with him, so most of the time, he didn't have anyone to talk to.

Daniel didn't like the fact that his sister was a skill user, since that meant she would be leaving the house at extremely late hours all by herself, something a teenage girl shouldn't be doing, in his opinion. There was one time when Daniel's sister left the house at around half past six in the evening and didn't return home until midnight. She had been panting and couldn't stand up straight.

And since both of his parents had been asleep, Daniel had to carry his own sister up the stairs and into her room, where she fell asleep almost instantly in the clothes she had been wearing. And now she was going on another of her 'expeditions'. In Daniel's mind, it wasn't normal for someone to hang out with their friends late at night. He had never done that before, since his best friend, Jamie Denton, was known for going to bed extremely early and rarely hung out with him outside of school.

Daniel sighed and pulled out his phone from his pocket. His sister had sent him a text message but Daniel didn't bother to read it. Instead, he checked his social media pages. But then, seemingly out of the blue-"Argh!" Without warning, someone grabbed him from behind and put their hand on Daniel's mouth.

"Mmmmm!" Daniel had a fairly muscular athletic body, so he thought he could take this guy on and pin him to the ground, but this person was one step ahead of him and used his other hand to put Daniel's hands behind his back like he was about to get arrested. He couldn't speak and he couldn't move his hands. He could, however, move his head. Daniel wanted to turn around and see who this guy was, but then he was sent flying forwards, landing on the grass.

"Mmmmm! Mmmmm!" What the hell was going on? He couldn't get a good look at the guy who was doing this. He wanted to call the police, but the guy holding him back had snatched his phone from him and it was now on the opposite side of the street. Daniel was helpless. This had never happened before. Was he being mugged? Robbed? Was there someone in the school that had a grudge on him and desperately wanted him dead? Surely not, since he was one of the neutrals who never got involved in anything.

So why was there someone who wanted him dead so badly?

"You're coming with me," said a voice. This voice was muffled, making Daniel think that the person doing this to him was wearing a mask. The voice sounded like it belonged to a man and not a woman.

"Stay still. Don't move. This isn't what you think it is." Now the guy was talking nonsense.

"I'm going to knock you out. This won't hurt any bit." What? Slap! Before Daniel could retort and break free, there was a clean hit on the back of his head and he lost consciousness.

"W-Where am I?" Daniel opened his eyes. His vision was still quite fuzzy, and he couldn't make out where he was. The most important thing was that he had regained consciousness. He tried rubbing his eyes to improve his vision, but it made no improvement. What was going on? Who was the person that had tried to rob or mug him? Was he being kidnapped? Why were they targeting him and not someone else? I was just walking home from school, Daniel thought. I'm just an innocent schoolboy.

"Right, looks like he's awake." He could hear voices, but he didn't know where they came from. They were definitely voices, and he was certain that he wasn't hearing things. The person who had kidnapped him didn't mess with his head.

"He's awake."

"Then let's begin the procedure." Procedure? Daniel did not sign up for any procedure. He didn't have any hospital appointments scheduled for the near future, nor did he have any scheduled check-ups at the local clinic.

"W-What's going on?" Daniel asked, but his voice was extremely weak and it was unlikely that the people in the other room would be able to hear him. His vision was slowly coming back to him, and he could see that he was in a hospital room. It looked like an ordinary hospital room; he was lying down on a hospital bed, there were cupboards on one side and there was a door leading out to who knows where.

"He's definitely awake."

"He's awake? Gavin, start the procedure. We have no time to lose."

"Alright, Mr Boss." Gavin? Boss? Daniel had never heard of these people in his life before. Who in their right mind would call themselves Boss? After a while, the door to the room opened and a boy around Daniel's age walked in. He was wearing a long white lab coat with what looked like little needles protruding out from his breast pocket. He had a scrawny appearance and the same hairstyle as Daniel, and he looked like he was suffering from extreme acne or eczema.

Although the boy was wearing a jacket with long sleeves, Daniel could still see that there were scratches and scars all over his hands like they were tattooed on.

"Daniel De Souza," the boy, who was presumably Gavin, said, trying to be confident.

"Is that your name?" Daniel tried to nod whilst lying down on the hospital bed. However, all of the energy inside of him had been sucked out by an imaginary vacuum cleaner and he could barely move his head.

"My name is Gavin, and I will be the person completing your procedure today. Do you have any questions before I start?" Daniel didn't have the willpower to open his mouth and speak. He had been defeated.

"Then I'm going to start the procedure now." Gavin took out a small needle from his breast pocket and placed it at one end of a syringe. The syringe was full of a mysterious purplish-magenta substance.

"This is only going to hurt for a little while, but it won't hurt after that," Gavin said, placing the needle near Daniel's neck.

"If you want, I can get you a blindfold so that you won't be able to see what's going on." Daniel shook his head. He just wanted to get the procedure done with and go home, since he was still in his school uniform. His trousers were stained with mud. Gavin placed the needle on Daniel's neck and squeezed. The purple liquid in the syringe was being injected into Daniel's body. Daniel could feel a stinging feeling around his neck. It was like being stung by a bee, no, a wasp, no, even worse, a hornet.

The pain lingered around Daniel's neck for a while, but eventually, it eased, like Gavin said.

"Take deep breaths," Gavin instructed.

"Breathe in and breathe out." But Daniel couldn't follow those instructions. As he began to breathe in, his body began to move by itself. Daniel was flailing and his whole body was twitching wildly like he had just been electrocuted. He couldn't control it; it felt like his mother was tickling him and the flailing was a reflex action. It was like he was shivering intensely from the extreme cold. Daniel couldn't control his body movements.

After a while of intense dancing and wriggling, Daniel's body stopped moving and lay flat on the hospital bed; his eyes were wide open. He looked like the corpse of someone who had died with their eyes open. Then he began to breathe intensely, inhaling and exhaling like he had just finished ten 100 metre sprints. Gavin stared blankly at Daniel. Then he said, "It worked. I think it worked, Mr Boss!"

"It worked?" Although this person named 'Boss' was a man, he had an extremely high-pitched feminine voice. The Boss, who came rushing into the room, was wearing all black and had a ski mask on.

"It worked. It worked!" The 'Boss' began to laugh maniacally whilst Gavin continued to stare lifelessly at the struggling Daniel De Souza.

"This is amazing! This research is going so well! I can't believe that we've just forced him to become a skill user by injecting mana into his body! What have we done? This is surely going to help The Leak develop and flourish! Ahahahahahaha!!!!!" The Boss then turned to look straight into the eyes of Daniel, which made Daniel's eyes almost pop out of their sockets. Daniel, who had been lying flat on the hospital bed for the past ten minutes, was seeing things.

First, there was a blue window in front of him telling him that he was a 'skill user' and that he could use 'mana'. Then, there was a psychotic, sadistic brat who Gavin called the Boss standing in front of him laughing about the research he had just done. There was something familiar with the boss that Gavin served. No… Is he…? It can't be. Could this 'Boss' really be the guy he was thinking of? If so, he was screwed. Extremely screwed.

Daniel De Souza, one of the neutrals that never got involved in fights or debates, had been forced to become a skill user.