Leyton spent a few more minutes perfecting the amount of power stored in each missile before firing it. As such, the area was covered in a lot of smoke and the sky was covered in murky clouds while the land was littered with craters from the explosions.

“Phew,” he said after finally finishing in finalising the output. “Program:- Set Missile power: 30%.”

Lexi and Veva stood beside him during his experimentation alongside his wife, who had said, “I think that’s enough.”

“Um…? How about a little more, sir? Maybe 50%, sir?” Lexi asked curiously while standing beside him.

“It shouldn’t be that big of a deal, right sir?” Viva asked hopefully.

He looked at the two angels with raised eyebrow before saying sardonically, “Yeah right. 50% is enough to destroy a city in one go! Even 30% is a bit much, but it’s better than outright destruction, so I’m going with it.”

Both Lexi and Veva’s shoulders slumped weakly as they resigned to the fact while he turned to the tank that had grass stains all over its body. It had been flipped upside-down by the strong wind created by the unexpected amount of power it contained in its missile in the initial test.

After the angels made the tank float through the air and set it upright, he complained with, “Man! I hope it’s working again.”

After casing the spell, “Program:- Command START: Start the engine and be ready for action,” he activated it with the issued command and its engine roared into life.

He became satisfied with it, but worried that it might be damaged, he cast the spell, “Repair,” which made the tank glow in green light while sounds came from inside the tank as it was mended.

When the repairing was done, he began testing out the output of the missile power, which resulted in a land nearly destroyed around them. So, once his testing was complete, he decided to move on and summon 49 tanks when his wife suggested that they should clean it.

“Clean it?” He asked, looking surprised. “Why?”

“What do you mean: why? It’ll look good. Plus, it’ll improve its performance once it’s clean.”

At her suggestion, he relented and cast the spell, “Clean,” on the tank.

The tank was covered in a dim light before the stains disappeared and made it look brand-new. When he saw that she was smiling in satisfaction, he turned back and extended his hand to an empty land and cast the spell, “Summon 49 Tanks.”

There a brilliant glow of light that lasted for several seconds before it disappeared and revealed 49 tanks neatly standing in rows with small gaps to let humans to walk in-between them.

“Wow,” said Lexi in amazement.

“Those are a lot of tanks, sir,” said Veva, equally as amazed as Lexi.

Skye stared at all the tanks in amazement and asked her husband, “A-Are you going to program them all?”

“Of course not,” he replied, and caused all three girls to look confused. “I’ll copy and paste the parameters.”

“Huh?” All three of them asked, looking confused.

Leyton turned to the first tank he summoned and pointed his left hand at it before saying, “Program Copy.” Then he aimed with his right hand at one of the 49 tanks and said, “Program Paste.”

In an instant, the first tank’s light glowed before it shot out of the tank and flew through the air before hitting the tank he was pointing at.

Before the light could dim on the new tank, Leyton shifted his right hand to point at another tank and said, “Paste.”

Once again, the light from the first tank flew over to the new tank and dimmed a few seconds. By then, he had shifted his right hand’s aim at another tank and repeated this process until all the tanks had been copied with the same parameters of the first tank.

“Easy-peasy,” he said with a smile. Then he sighed and lamented, “Maybe I should’ve tried using Paste All but oh well.”

“D-Did you just copy over the… settings of… this tank to… all those tanks?” Veva asked while Lexi appeared to be speechless from the shock of comprehending what just happened.

“Yeah,” he replied with a smile. “It’s very handy.”

“It’s cheating,” his wife grumbled.

“Oh, come on! I’m not going to waste time programming every tank! That’s too tiring!” He retorted exasperatedly. “Besides, this is a much better way of putting time to good use.”

She sighed and asked, “So, what will you summon now?”

“I think I’ve got my ground forces covered, so I need air forces.”

Skye got scared and exclaimed, “Don’t tell me you’re going to summon a fighter jet!”

“Of course not!” He replied firmly. “They’re too powerful! No. I was thinking of summoning helicopters. Military twenty to be exact.”

“Oh,” she said and sighed in relief. “I was just worried that you’re going to do something crazy.”

“Oh man,” he said and rolled his eyes to the heavens above. Turning to a spot that was empty, he extended his arm out and said, “Summon Helicopter.”

He was visioning a military helicopter in his mind, something which he had seen on the television. Sure enough, an exact replica of the helicopter appeared in front of them once the dazzling light appeared and disappeared.

Leyton smiled in satisfaction and said, “Okay. Program:-

Command LOAD: Intake energy from the area and turn it into missiles and load them;
Command RELOAD: Discard the empty shells and activate command LOAD;
Command DESCEND: Fly down, optional to specify how far to descend or land completely, alias command is LOWER;
Command ASCEND: Raise into the air, optional to specify how far to go up, alias command is RISE;

Command HOVER: Remain hovering in current spot without moving anywhere;
Command FIRE: Launch the loaded missile to my specifications, alias command is LAUNCH, optional to give the direction to fire at;
Command INTERCEPT: Engage and destroy any incoming attacks;
Command MOVE: Intake energy from the area and convert it to fuel, optional to give the distance, height and/or direction to move;
Command STOP: Stop performing current action without losing altitude, optional to specify FIRE, MOVE, DESCEND, ASCEND, HOVER, or ALL;”

Once he finished programming it, he nodded in satisfaction and said, “Okay. That should do it for the programming. Now for testing—?”

Skye became alarmed by his words and cut across his words by saying, “Leyley, before you test it out, remember to set the output to the minimum.”

He laughed and grinned at her while saying, “I know.” With his arm aimed at the helicopter, he said, “Program:- Set Missile power: 30%.”

The helicopter glowed in a dim light as the parameter was set before he began testing it out.

“Right. Helicopter, rise into the air by ten meters and hover there.”

On his command, the helicopter’s engine came to life and the wings began swinging at a wild speed, causing a strong wind to buffet against them. Then it rose into the air by the meters he specified and came to hover there.

He nodded in satisfaction and said, “Now, helicopter, fire in that direction.”

As soon as he finished giving instructions, the helicopter swung a little to face in the direction he indicated and launched two missiles. Leyton became surprised by this, but he watched as the two missiles soared through the air and into the distance before landing.

In an instant, a large explosion of power occurred, causing clouds of smoke to rise into the air while the ground shook just a little. Leyton continued testing the output by changing them between 35% to 55%. Finally, he settled on the output power of 45%.

“I could do 55% but since it’s firing two missiles with one action, 45% is preferable since they’re different from the tank’s missiles,” he said with a smile.

“You could make it fire only one missile,” Skye suggested.

“I could, but I get this feeling it’s better to keep it as is,” he admitted and smiled softly at her. Then he turned away and said, “Right. With the testing done, time to summon 19 helicopters.”

“Isn’t twenty a bit much?” She asked him, but he shook his head.

“I’d like to scare my enemies before bringing down the doom on them,” he told her with a smile.

She smiled wryly at him and said, “Sadist.”

He laughed and aimed his hand at an empty patch of land and said, “Summon 19 helicopters.”

Everyone was blinded momentarily before the light vanished and revealed 19 helicopters lined neatly beside each other in rows and columns. Once again, Leyton did what he did to the tanks by utilising the “Copy and Paste” spell to copy over the parameters from the first helicopter onto the rest of the helicopters, but this time he used “Past All” to save time and effort.

“Okay! I think we’re ready to fight this enemy of ours!” He said with a smile.

“You think?” Lexi asked, looking confused while Veva smiled in bemusement.

Just then, his wife said, “Leyley.”

“Yes?” He asked while turning to face her.

“I don’t think it’s such a good idea to go to war so soon after coming to this world and, you know, with our previous world being destroyed by bombing and everything,” she said nervously while fidgeting with her fingers.

He noticed this and sensed the anxiousness that she felt because it was the reason that the both of them died and came to this world. So, in a sense, it was a scar that latched itself in her heart and made her feel nervous now that they were finally going into action. So, he smiled and spoke kindly to her.

“I know, but we have to take the fight to our enemy now that we got the chance. I don’t want us to regret not attacking them when we had the chance now. Besides, aren’t you expressing your opinion a little too late into this?”

“I’m aware, but… if there’s a chance to back out of this, then…” she said weakly while looking sad.

Leyton looked at his wife’s sad face and wondered what he should do to cheer her up. As he contemplated, a thought suddenly struck him, and he smiled as her. He turned away from her to face an empty space and aim his hand before activating his power.

“Summon Lamborghini.”

At his summon, there was a dazzling light before it dimmed and vanished, revealing a yellow polished car that was low and looked very stylish.

“Will that cheer you up?” He asked, turning back to face her while indicating the car with his hand.

Skye froze on the spot upon discovering the Lamborghini that he had summoned and seemed to be staring at the car in shock. It took her a few seconds to react slowly to this shocking find.

“I-I-It’s… It’s a… a… a… Lam… Lambog… Lamborghini…!”

She spoke in mounting excitement that rose to a very high level, which caused her to suddenly feel dizzy and make her eyes spin wildly before fainting on the spot.

 

==== + ==== + ==== + ====

 

Closing the Book

 

“No way!” The boy exclaimed, looking shocked. “He summoned a luxury car!”

“He certainly did,” the man said with a smile.

“Fine. Even if I do accept the summoning, how the heck does he think he can drive that thing through grass without streets or road for that matter?”

The older man looked at him in surprise before smiling and saying, “We’ll have to see and find out.”

“Don’t tell me he’ll use magic to magically form the road in front or behind while the car is moving?” The boy asked skeptically, “or, is it like he’ll give some enhanced wheels to the car to make it move without the need for a road? Well?”

“Like I said, we’ll have to find out in the next chapter,” the older man said, grinning at him. Then to change the subject, he said, “Still, it’s funny that Skye fainted from becoming too shocked and excited.”

“Well, it’s obvious she liked that car very much but couldn’t afford it, so she fainted from shock,” the boy said, smiling a little and getting easily distracted. Then he shook his head and said, “Still! This is ridiculous! How can he just summon such a costly car! It almost feels like a wish fulfilment from the author!”

“Oh? Is that how you think of it?” The older man asked, eyeing him shrewdly.

“Yeah!” The boy said vehemently. “I mean, take a look at what he’s done! He summoned fifty tanks and twenty helicopters. If that wasn’t enough, he summoned a luxury car! This is seriously wish fulfilment from the author! No doubt about it!”

This made the man chuckle and ask, “Oh? So, you’re saying you wouldn’t do this if it were to happen to you?”

“Huh?”

“Imagine. If you suddenly died and reincarnated in another world with nearly limitless power, you’re saying you’ll behave like a good boy, stick by the rules, and try to act ‘normal’ even though no one knows what it truly means?”

“Um… Well…” the boy began and hesitated, looking troubled.

“Be honest,” the older man asked, looking intently at him with a small smile.

The boy hesitated for a few more seconds before he sighed and admitted, “Yes. I might consider doing all of this.” Then he looked at he older man seriously and said, “Still, it’s a bad thing if you do too much with such powers. There should be a set limit on what you could use that power for.”

“You mean like use it for good and not for bad?”

“Yes, and that’s why I don’t like this hero since he’s stealing the stuff from other worlds, from alternate realities!”

The older man chuckled and said, “That argument will not find a conclusion unless the author stated it clearly, and even then, debates will continue going on forever. Take us, for example. I’m of the opinion that he’s conjuring them from his imagination while you keep stating he’s stealing from other places.”

“My theory makes more sense because how can a vehicle, that got summoned from just imagining it, work so flawlessly like a real one?” The boy asked, looking curiously at him.

“It’s magical,” the older man said with a smile, and the boy sighed. Then he asked the boy, “Do you honestly think fantasy stories are based on realism?”

“To a certain extent, I believe so,” the boy admitted. “You have to be able to feel for the characters and the environment in which they live in at least.”

The older man nodded in understanding and asked, “In that case, what is reality?”

“Uh,” the boy said and blinked in surprise. “Reality is… what we’re facing, I think.”

“So vague,” the older man said with a grin.

“Well, it’s really hard to describe, you know?” The boy asked, looking annoyed.

“I know that,” the man said softly. “Reality can be anything that you perceive as reality. For example, a reality could be that you’re a working parent, you’re a rich kid, or that you’re from a poor family with no hope at all. Different realities have different settings, and that changes one’s perspective. That’s why, there is no right or wrong in this world; just the truth of our situation.”

The boy tried following the words that the older man said, but he could not understand it clearly and said, “Ugh. My brain hurts.”

This made the man laugh and say, “That’s why, forget about reality and enjoy the story. Life is too short, and you can’t live with regrets, so have fun with the little time you have and make fond memories before taking your leave. That’s the best approach to life if you ask me, and the author shares this same principle.”

“Yeah. I suppose so,” the boy said and nodded in agreement, looking a little baffled. “At least, he’s given us a smart MC.”

“MC?” The man asked, looking curious.

“Main character. Male character. You know what I mean,” the boy explained.

“You and your shortened words,” the man said and laughed.

“Anyway, he’s smart to use Copy and Paste spell to copy over all those parameters to the tanks and helicopters respectively.”

“Yes, and in doing so, he answered your question,” the older man said with a smile. As the boy nodded with a small smile, the man asked him curiously, “So, you aren’t going to be angry at him?”

“You’re the one who told me to enjoy the story without thinking too much about it,” the boy replied, and the man laughed and nodded in agreement. “Besides, I should’ve realised it, too, since it was kind of was obvious as I probably would’ve done the same thing.”

“Like most people would do if they had such powers,” the older man supplied with a smile.

“Yes, and now, we’re finally at the stage to see how this war plays out!” The boy said, and he started getting excited. “I wonder what’ll happen. Would they fight? Shoot some beam attacks, whip out some sword fights? Man, so much expectation.”

“You’re expecting a little too much,” the older man said, looking amazed.

The boy looked shrewdly at him and asked, “Don’t tell me none of those will happen, and they just bomb the place, and arrive to claim the enemy base? Wait! Don’t tell me that cheat code is actually a magic spell that defeats the enemy without breaking a sweat?!”

As the boy was running his mouth away with his imagination going wild, the man chuckled and said, “Calm down.” When the boy became calm and looked at him, he went on saying, “There’s no way we can learn anything by just speculating about it. Turn to the next chapter and find out.”

“On it!” The boy said firmly and gave him a thumbs up gesture, making the older man smile sweetly at him.