Chương 15: Six Hundred Pages of Theory Down the Drain

Soren was already in the center of the room when he looked at Hayashi; the young analyst's performance was getting its due recognition, as he had even been assigned the task of leading a skills-based analysis—not bad for someone taking his first steps as a WID analyst. The young man firmly believed that his efforts were being rewarded. However, it wasn't all sunshine and roses. Tanaka didn't take her eyes off him, maintaining complete supervision over his every move.

Hayashi was checking something on his tablet, his face showing that he was far from finding what he was looking for. Spurred by obligation, he approached the microphone.

"Mr. Vonesdar, we have developed a specialized assessment protocol." The young man interrupted his own speech and took a deep breath.

"It was designed to measure abilities that exceed conventional parameters." Soren kept a neutral expression, saving his reservations for any intellectual surprises that might come out of the analyst's mouth.

"It's not going to work."

"But look, the theory is quite solid." He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper he had prepared earlier on the bus before getting to work.

"In this analysis, we use relative comparison instead of the absolute measurement of power." On the paper, this sentence was written at the top in larger letters, with a handwriting style that lacked the time for better legibility. Soren noticed that the boy was reading everything the paper dictated. Perhaps he had pulled that information from ChatGPT, he thought, focusing now on that cheat sheet. Hayashi didn't give up.

"By observing your interaction with controlled phenomena, we can establish behavioral reference parameters that..."

"It's still not going to work," Soren said, without taking his eyes off that crumpled paper. Hayashi finally raised his gaze from the cheat sheet; it was time to face him. It was at that moment that his enthusiasm drastically waned, because hope was the young analyst's only strategy, and he had no plan B. With his hands already trembling, he said, "But can we try it anyway?" Hayashi looked at the Director; he was failing to maintain his composure under Soren's intense gaze.

Despite centuries of existence, Soren did not have all the time in the world. He looked at Tanaka, waiting for a more serious order. The Director looked at the young analyst and shrugged; no words were needed to express what she had seen. She began to walk over to the desk where the microphone was.

"Occasionally, my duties include satisfying the whims of the younger staff. Consider it a perk of the consulting position, Mr. Vonesdar."

"All right." Tanaka was an expert when it came to maintaining a "poker face"; despite being extremely curious to see the results, she never let it show. Soren continued waiting in the center of the room. He turned his head and looked around once more; even though he didn't like speaking loudly, the distance to the monitoring booth forced him to do so:"What do you want me to do?"

"Let's move on to the first test. Controlled mana emission." Hayashi activated something on his tablet; suddenly, a concentric circle appeared on the opposite wall, gradually lighting up.

"What you have to do is simple, Mr. Vonesdar. Direct a minimal amount of mana at the target, and we will measure the intensity of your emission." Damn it, this has to be a joke. Emitting a minimal amount of mana is simple?! Soren turned to the wall. It was time to raise his right hand. Then he pointed toward the target, and whenever he looked at the thing, the damn target looked more and more like a watermelon to him.

He limited himself to doing absolutely nothing, other than enduring the discomfort of looking at that poor illustration of a target. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. The target exploded. At the monitoring panel, Dr. Kimura and Hayashi screamed, jumping in fright. In the wall where the target had been, there was a hole as if it had been struck by a hypersonic missile.

The room smelled of nothing but burnt concrete, and outside, civilians were checking their phones to see if the Japan Meteorological Agency had reported an earthquake. Despite the uproar, Soren remained in the center of the room. It was then that he decided to do something; he turned around and tried to justify himself.

"I didn't..."

"We know," Tanaka said. Despite the boom, she hadn't lost her composure, while Dr. Kimura awkwardly tried to fix her hairstyle, which had become a replica of Goku's from Dragon Ball. Hayashi, meanwhile, grabbed his phone to look up excuses on the internet, as he might need to explain why his pants in the center of his waist area had gotten warm and soaking wet. The Director didn't stop; she already had her eyes on the readings and was ready to communicate.

"We know you didn't attack the target, because the sensors detected ambient mana responding to your intention before you channeled anything." Tanaka, fighting the entire crisis scenario surrounding her, faced him.

"What happened was that reality anticipated the possibility of you doing it, and prepared itself for it."

"But that's not how mana works, Director."

"But apparently it is with you, Mr. Vonesdar," Tanaka stated. Hayashi already had a plan: one of the cups had spilled water on the floor and wet his pants; that was the ideal excuse. Now he had a notepad in his hand, furiously taking notes to write the report later. He completely expressed the disappointment of someone who had just watched his entire theoretical framework crumble in a fascinating way.

In that moment, 600-page manuals, dense readings, practical classes, and international seminars all crumbled; everything went down the drain.

"Prepare for the second test." Now the Director took over Hayashi's role. She looked at her two subordinates with a fierce glare that spoke for itself, and they quickly returned to their professional posture and composure.

"Time to activate a skill, Mr. Vonesdar. Please use your weakest ability." Soren mentally scrolled through all the powers he could use in that moment, and in truth, it was proving to be no easy task to find one accessible enough to demonstrate inside that building. In his personal interface, he turned page after page looking for a power on a smaller scale. Absolute Assessment, why not this one?! He closed his eyes, and the skill activated. It was then that the room's lighting flickered.

Upon reading that power, the sensors made the light emissions swirl around as if it were a psychedelic festival, and the room's equipment emitted signals in cinematic coordination. As for the equipment supplying power to the room, located 50 meters away from Soren, their screens displayed his name and then returned to normal operation. Somewhere on the lower floors of the building, an alarm went off, causing the employees to simultaneously look down at the floor. Absolute Assessment Target: Testing Room, 49D.

Content: Seven humans. Various threat levels. Fourteen active monitoring systems. Three hidden weapons. One emergency containment protocol. And a very worried deity observing what happened. Note: You didn't need to do all this, but the System is impressed that you activated all the security protocols simultaneously. You would make an excellent head of security. Tanaka didn't like it, and quickly went to the microphone.

"Mr. Vonesdar, you just activated the building's entire alert network with an assessment skill."

"I already know the System, Director. The System likes to be thorough."

"Look, the System just classified you as a potential structural concern, but apparently you aren't even doing anything aggressive with your skills. Can you explain that to me?"

"Hmm." Soren placed his hand on his chin.

"Maybe my existence in reality is aggressive?!"

"The data? The data, Director. Look, the data is extraordinary," said Hayashi, with the enthusiasm of a child on Christmas Eve.

"His mere presence is causing cascading measurement failures across all of WID's systems, look over there on the screen. The dimensional stabilizers are constantly reinforcing themselves."

"But Hayashi," Dr. Kimura asked, with her hair already fixed.

"Is that supposed to be good news?"

"That is merely information," the Director replied over the analyst.

"More information than we have ever gathered about an unclassified entity." The Director approached the tablet and opened a series of charts that looked more like a piece of art by Takashi Murakami.

"Look at this variance, Dr. Kimura. The equipment is adapting to something it was never designed for, without even knowing if it will survive this reading." Tanaka pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Enough! Enough of this! The tests are over!" The equipment was turned off, and at that moment the remaining technicians sat down and sighed in relief. Two seemed disappointed with the results, and the other two, perhaps having the most sensible reaction, were happy to finally be able to get out of there.

"Mr. Vonesdar, we have already realized that a conventional assessment is not going to work. Come with me, let's go to my office. We need to talk about certain matters."