Trk* Rattle* Bump*

Inside an armored troop carrier, a team of seven strangely armored individuals who looked like agile astronauts was listening to a mission briefing.

"There has been unusual activity in Beijing City Nest. Someone has accessed our GPS satellites through a XuenMi 888 for several days. Our surveillance drones also confirmed that one active Ascended is still there, and that he hunted the mutants and looted their crystals. Our objective is reconnaissance and to make contact with the vagabond. Further action is our discretion, but we should avoid unnecessary hostile action. Also, we will encounter scavenging mutated animals, and might need to hunt some, but that is a bonus. Questions?" A male leading officer asked.

"Just one guy? Beijing City, which is a Medium-Sized Mutant Nest? How did he do that all by himself? There are seven mutant Leaders there, leading hundreds of Grunts and thousands of Slaves! Was he armed with a whole arsenal?" A female soldier half-joked.

"He would still die even with an entire arsenal. Even if he is at the Leader stage, there is no way he could take down a Medium-Sized Nest head-on. He is likely a tactical genius if he didn't have help." A male soldier shook his head.

"A tactical genius would not reveal his GPS coordinates and Crystal Signal... unless intentionally or due to overconfidence." A female voice coldly said.

"Do you think he will attack us on sight?" A timid male soldier warily asked.

"Let's hope not! I don't want to mess with the badass that single-handedly butchered the local mutant population." A male soldier joked.

"Captain, do you think he is... a Psycher?" A female voice carefully asked.

The others turned silent, as if afraid of that word.

"No. The readings only indicate he is a Leader at most. Some even indicate he is a Commoner, but that is probably an error." The officer shook his head, calming the rank-and-file troops. But then, he added, "But you might as well treat him as such. Treat him as if he could kill all of us."

The other soldiers grimly nodded, knowing the danger of facing such potent individuals. A single Psi-Warrior could kill them all.

After several minutes, they heard the driver's voice through their ICN(Internal Crystal Network) communication device built inside their powered armor.

The unfiltered crystal network had a glaring weakness. Without proper tools, it was akin to a man shouting to sell his wares in a bazaar, fully exposed to the public. Even before D-Day, Crystal Technologies developed devices that blocked the inflow and outflow of information. On this basis, they developed the ICN, which gave them an internal communication method. They also developed detection devices, which only received input without releasing a signal.

"Captain! We are reaching the city's periphery! Multiple sightings of mutated animals, but no mutants. For now, they are ignoring us." The driver reported.

"Good. What about the target?" The officer asked.

"Captain, he is just 5 miles away! He didn't even bother hiding his crystal... what the?! Captain, his crystal signal is gone!" The driver exclaimed.

"Gone?! What do you mean, gone?!" The officer frowned.

"It was just there half a minute ago! It suddenly vanished!" The driver said, confused.

"Did the mutated animals kill him?" The officer asked.

"Negative, sir. Signals indicate he had the only crystal signal within a 1km radius. The mutated animals stayed away from him, likely due to the overabundance of food." The driver replied.

"Then... did he see us and cover his crystal signal?" The officer frowned even more.

"But, sir, the GPS signal is still active and stationary. Should I attempt to connect?" The driver asked.

"Do it." The officer ordered.

Several seconds later-

"Connection established. Switching to audio speak." The driver said.

"My apologies, but the User is unavailable at the moment." The device's chatbot replied in English.

"The hell? Why in English? This is China!" The officer scowled but didn't pursue the matter. Instead, he continued speaking, "This is the emergency hotline. Check your User's status."

"Checking credentials... confirmed. The User is currently unconscious and is experiencing strange Mental Activity, but his condition is otherwise stable." XiPi replied in Mandarin.

The officer and the soldiers looked at each other, confused.

"Elaborate." The Officer demanded.

"The User seemed to consume some form of mutated crystals, causing his genes to mutate in an unknown direction. Everything was fine until he collapsed exactly 1:55 minutes ago." XiPi honestly replied.

Everyone looked at each other, a strong suspicion in their eyes.

"Report his status." The Officer, who was 90% sure of what was happening, requested.

 

"Yes."

"Genetic Enhancement: Unknown(100%)"

"Biological Activity: 60"

"Mental Activity: 60"

"Status: Unbalanced Nutrition(small), Overload(Very Early), Unconcious, Unknown Mental Activity"

 

"As expected... The crazy bastard dared to evolve in the wilderness." The officer thought.

"Stay there. We are coming to rescue." The officer replied.

"Yes, thank you for your aid." XiPi respectfully said.

The officer then muted the call and turned to look at his soldiers.

"Well... good news. Our job just became A LOT easier." The officer grinned.

The surrounding soldiers also knowingly smiled.

Arriving at the building, four soldiers rushed to the apartment. The others stayed near the car.

"Be careful of traps." The officer instructed, leading his team.

"Yes, Sir." The three that followed him nodded.

However, their caution was soon proven redundant, as the target didn't even bother placing a single trap.

"How the hell did he survive this long?" One of them muttered, confused.

"Doesn't matter. It just makes our job easier." A female soldier said.

"Is there no traps rigged to the door?" The officer asked.

"No traps detected. No alarm system, either. It isn't even locked..." A male soldier strangely said after scanning the door with a device.

"Open it." The officer ordered.

The soldier nodded, carefully opening the door, revealing a 1-room apartment. They even saw their target, lying unconscious on a sofa.

"Well... that was anticlimactic." A male soldier warily said.

"Did we overestimate him?" The female soldier asked.

"Never underestimate anyone. Secure the target." The officer ordered.

"Yes, Sir!"

Following the order, the soldiers shackled the target. And only then did they realize that their target was unexpectedly a foreigner, a White male!

Even before D-Day, the number of white people in China was abysmally low. And now, after D-Day, probably less than a handful survived. At least, they haven't encountered white people for the last decade! Coupled with his use of English, he was most likely a foreign traveler from the US or England before D-Day!

Foreign travelers were among the first to die during D-Day due to China's xenophobic tendencies toward foreigners and the lack of a common language. So seeing one after 10 years was like seeing a unicorn.

However, they found something strange about him. His crystal, which was supposed to be Red, was a colorless diamond, and his hair was a neutral platinum green. And they also couldn't sense any Crystal Signal from him, as if it had been cut off. It was the first time they saw something like this!

"Sir..." The soldiers turned to their leader in askance.

"Take him. We will interrogate him once he wakes up." The Officer grimly said.

.

.

.

Rattle* Rattle* Thump* Rattle*

"MMmm..." Asher winced as he slowly woke up to the rattling of a car.

But then, he discovered that he was blindfolded and cuffed, strapped to a hard metal wall.

"W-What the?! What the hell is happening?!" Asher was shocked.

However, he soon analyzed his situation through Spatial Perception.

"I am inside a sort of troop carrier. There are eight strangely-armored soldiers around me, five are male, three are female. Seven of them have Black Crystals, while the one who looks like the leader has a Red Crystal. If I want, I can disarm and un-armor them instantly with Spatial Swapping. At worst, I can teleport away. Okay, I am the one in control." With that thought, Asher immediately relaxed and continued assessing the situation.

"I was likely captured during the time I lost consciousness... And for some reason, I can no longer use Crystal Communication. It is likely due to my choice to become a Dreamer. It is a bit uncomfortable, but I didn't over-rely on it, and it gave my position away, so no harm done. But how did they find me, then... Right. XiPi. Of course." Asher rolled his eyes.

He was so focused on his immediate survival that he forgot that his smartwatch was connected to the GPS satellite. It wasn't surprising that they had methods to override User privileges, such as using the Emergency Hotline credentials or even administrator rights. They probably didn't even need to use the backdoor.

"They were probably attracted to the location due to clearing the mutant population and using XiPi." Asher figured.

"The User is awake." XiPi's voice suddenly sounded from his wrist in Mandarin.

Suddenly, the soldiers all looked in his direction.

"Gee, thanks, buddy." Asher rolled his eyes.

"Foreigner, who are you? Are you a Chinese national? Traveler?" The Officer spoke in English.

"I'm sorry, I have amnesia. I can barely remember that my name is Asher Wolf, but I don't know much else... I only remember waking up a few days ago in this city." Asher played the amnesia card.

He had no other choice, since he lacked information on this world.

"Do you think we are stupid?" The Officer wasn't buying it, however. "You were inside a Medium Mutant Nest. There is no way an amnesiac could have survived alone. Who helped you?"

"Nobody. I'm alone. I killed all the mutants." Asher truthfully said.

"Heh! The white dog knows how to joke." One of the male soldiers chortled in Mandarin.

"Hu Wen! Shut up!" A female soldier chastised him.

"What? I was telling the truth. He was probably a lucky scavenger who picked the discarded spoils of another group and evolved." Hu Wen said what he thought was the most plausible.

Indeed, the others in the car thought it was reasonable. Although wasteful, some advanced ascended, such as Psychers, intentionally leave the low-end Regular Crystals and Black Crystals for scavenging animals to raise higher-end prey. Only the more precious Red Crystals warrant their attention.

Of course, just because it was reasonable didn't mean they would drop their guard.

"But it doesn't work like that. He would have mutated from the infection if he consumed too many unpurified crystals at once." A male soldier pointed out.

"And he needs sufficient food and water." Another female soldier added.

"Which begs the question, how did he do that?" Another male soldier asked.

The more they asked, the more they thought the situation was weird. The man before them had a problem!

Asher, who barely understood 20% of what they were saying, only knew they strongly suspected him.

"Well, figures. I would suspect myself, too. If they believed what I said, I would be disappointed." Asher mentally shrugged.

The Officer also quietly took his soldier's input and looked at Asher, "Let's say we believe you for now. Why is your Crystal malfunctioning?"

"Ah, my evolution path disabled the crystal," Asher truthfully said.

"Hah?" The soldiers blankly looked at Asher.

"There are only seven evolutionary paths. None of them disables the crystal." The Officer frowned.

"Seven?! There are 130! All the possible Chromatic Path combinations, the three Monochromatic ones, and the Chaotic one. What, don't tell me you don't know?" Asher was genuinely surprised.

"How?!" The soldiers were shocked.

"You're lying! I have seen it myself. There are only seven paths." The Officer accused.

"Well... did you immediately choose one of these paths?" Asher tentatively asked.

"Yes! I chose the Psi-Warrior path. That is what everyone else does, choosing one of the seven paths." The Officer said.

"Ah, no wonder." Asher nodded, finally understanding what was going on.

"These guys are bumpkins," Asher thought.

"What do you mean?" The Officer frowned.

"Did you try rejecting those paths?" Asher asked, causing the soldiers to become shocked.

"Reject? You can do that?" The soldiers looked at each other, confused.

"I... didn't. I was told we only have seven paths to choose from. Only the Nobles have double or triple paths due to their privileged enhancements..." The Officer said, clenching his fists.

"Did they lie to me?" The Officer couldn't help but ask himself, a frustrated look on his face, and Asher noticed it.

"Ah, no wonder. Classic power play. But just triple? Man, they suck. Is their willpower made of jelly? Or is it because of resource constraints?" Asher mentally asked himself.

"No need to get vexed over it. It is cheaper to choose the lesser paths compared to the stronger paths. If you can't secure many Red Crystals, it might be a blessing in disguise." Asher sympathetically comforted the man.

The Officer noticeably cheered up with those words.

"I... thank you for the information. But how do you know that?" The Officer curiously asked.

"Dunno. I was unsatisfied with the seven paths, so I kept rejecting them. Before I knew it, I was forced to take the Chaotic one at the end, which disabled my Crystal Network. And I also realized I need to eat about 10,000 red crystals to evolve instead of 100." Asher revealed.

The surrounding soldiers shook, the color draining from their faces.

"10,000... Red Crystals..."

"Gulp*..."

"Tough luck with that. Even large-scale nests only have dozens of Red-Crystal Leaders, led by a Mutant Lord. You would need to monopolize the gains from several hundred such places to secure enough for your evolution..." The Officer suddenly felt pity for Asher and felt fortunate that he picked the one-color path.

"At least I can evolve in my lifetime, unlike him." The Officer comforted himself.

Even the nobles couldn't gather so many red crystals on one person, let alone vassals like them!

However, the Officer didn't expect that this common knowledge was of high value to Asher.

"Large Nests have dozens of Leaders and a so-called Lord? If I eat the Lord's crystal, would it help me evolve faster?" Asher's eyes lit up, as if seeing a solution to his problem.

"How many such so-called Lord Nests are there?" Asher expectantly asked.

Perhaps because Asher was so cooperative and revealed important information, the Officer was in a good mood and answered the trivial question, "In the entire Beijing Municipality, there is only one Lord Nest and half a dozen Medium Nests. But if you go to a larger province with a suitable climate, there might be dozens of large nests. Especially the south." 

"GREAT! My energy problem is solved!" Asher merrily thought.

"Why is he suddenly... smiling?" The Officer had a chill running down his spine. "Is this lunatic thinking he could destroy hundreds of large nests? Even with the combined power of a small settlement like ours, we would have trouble with a large nest. And you think you can hunt so many?! Keep dreaming!"

The other soldiers also thought the same, treating Asher as if someone with a few loose screws.

Of course, Asher didn't care about their opinions. Instead, he inquired, "So, can I ask where we are going?"

"Our survivor settlement. You will meet the Ruling Council, who will decide your fate." The Officer said, not having much to hide.

"Are they Nobles? Does that make them people with noble character? I can't wait to meet them!" Asher feigned ignorance, giving a silly, innocent smile, playing the fool.

"They... could be nice if you cooperate." The Officer carefully said.

"Oh, that's good! I like nice people." Asher kept his stupid facade.

"Yeah, right. Futuristic Feudal Genetic Society. They can't get a lot more grimdark than that. Note to self, don't feel sorry about killing the nobles if they try anything, they suck, and everyone probably hates them." Asher's smile broadened.

And so, they continued driving until they arrived at their destination.