Spatial Manipulation System

Chapter 12 - Mutation/Awakening

"His system is Spatial Manipulation," Hei Yu eventually replied. This was not a secret, in this age of uncertainty where none could protect their lives, to cooperate, exchanging some information about one's capabilities was basic courtesy.

"Spatial Manipulation, explains the teleportation" Dave's Mom sank into thought.

But Hei Yu's expression was a little scrunched. Maybe because Suzanne was not an Awakened, she had no idea how the system worked. Logically, an awakened would only get one or two skills, and their ability was restricted to those skills.

For example, she had the Precision system, but this only gave her two skills, [Dextrous Hands] and [Aiming].

If she were to pick up a stone, she could barely aim right! But Dave was using his ability, or his system, without any skill. First was the Spatial Blade, then the Spatial Shield, and recently, teleportation.

Her skill took a lot from her endurance, logically, Dave's should have a cost as well, but he was casting teleportation carelessly without any sort of burden! The situation baffled her, but it also confirmed one of her theories.

The system did not define their abilities!

She needed to test this... but not now.

"What is this place?" she asked curiously. There were far too many people here than she'd been expecting.

Suzanne, Dave's mother, had been thinking about Dave's skills when she heard Hei Yu's question.

"Oh! It's just an old bunker from the Civil War. Old Joe found it and they have since then made it into a man cave. The other setups we brought with us after the first news of zombie sightings," she explained.

"First news?" Hei Yu squinted in doubt.

Suzanne stared blankly into the distance for a while before shaking her head slowly, her expression fell and all the excitement from seeing her son again seemed to disappear from her.

"Henry and Joe were once selected for some weapon testing. They learned about-" she paused here and hesitated to continue.

"They knew about the Zombies beforehand?" Hei Yu asked as a prompt when she got the feeling that Suzanne was unwilling to elaborate.

"Well, yes. I mean no, not really." Another sigh escaped Suzanne's lips.

"Aliens, they learned about aliens beforehand," she announced, and Hei Yu tilted her head slightly in disbelief, a small smile on her lips as her squint closed a little more.

"Aliens?" she asked.

"Yes, aliens. They set off this whole thing. They made a private announcement to world leaders. They were doing some kind of experiment, and Earth had the best ecosystem for it, so they made a deal. The experiment would cause a catastrophe, but if the leaders were prepared, the best of our race would survive it, and we would come out of it better. It wasn't really a choice, so they had to accept it. To provide a way out for the common people, they gave us systems as well. The whole thing will end in a few years, ten years at most." Suzanne paused.

"When we heard about zombies, my husband took it seriously, despite my frequent teasing and concerns for his mental health, he went on preparing this place. He wasn't hurting anyone, and he didn't seem paranoid, so I just let him. I didn't expect..." Waving her hand around the open space, she shrugged.

". . . All this"

"But why didn't they announce this news? Maybe we would have been more prepared, maybe lives could have been saved. We could have done something instead of cluelessly waiting for death." Hei Yu's tone changed, and her voice turned sharp.

"Announce what? I've been married for over thirty years, I know my husband, what he would joke about, and what he wouldn't. And I thought he was deluded. Should the government announce it? And say what? An alien race is using Earth as a test tube?" Suzanne increased her tone in response.

"Zombies, we know, from books or movies, we've always been prepared for them, and the spread is even slower than anyone anticipated. Zombies, we believe we can fight, thanks to fiction. Aliens though? Have you seen any alien movies? There is no resistance, only survival! And what's the point of announcing zombies before their appearance? Conspiracy theories, the government did this or that, anarchy, chaos. You came from the city, you know better than I do how it is out there"

Hei Yu took a moment to consider Suzanne's words. She was right, speculation would have caused chaos had the government made any announcements. Now, however, despite people running around out there, some still grouped together to form open resistance.

"But what we are facing isn't just zombies. There's also that thing Dave fought." Hei Yu let out a resigned sigh.

"And people will figure out how to fight it, too. Maybe they will learn about the aliens, but that must be much later when the possibility of a fight becomes worth considering." Suzanne placed a hand on Hei Yu's.

Hei Yu suddenly recalled something and perked up, her gaze turning quickly to Suzanne.

"You said these aliens gave us systems?" she asked.

"That was the deal as far as I'm aware," Suzanne shrugged.

"What?" she asked after she noticed Hei Yu's contemplative expression.

"Nothing, I was just wondering how they choose who to give what."

At this moment, Doctor Tim approached.

"It's time," he said to the two women who promptly rose to follow.

Doctor Tim walked across the open hangar and led them not to Dave's room but through a corridor into a small reinforced room where Dave lay in the middle. Around him, a glass wall separated his bed from the rest of the room.

"This is for all our sakes, just in the event that you are wrong," Doctor Tim explained to Hei Yu, who was wearing a frown.

Seeing that he had not restrained Dave in any way aside from the surrounding glass wall, Suzanne gently took Hei Yu's hand in hers and nodded to her.

"Alright, begin," she said to Doctor Tim, who nodded at a male nurse standing beside him.

"Introducing subject to a Level 1 Mutant Crystal"

Doctor Tim muttered as he pressed a button on a device he pulled out of nowhere. A mutant Crystal was slowly lowered from the top of the room by a mechanism onto Dave's bed.

"Are you using him as an experiment?" Suzanne asked, her tone chilly.

"What?" Doctor Tim blanked.

"We need to do this anyway, I'm just collecting information during the process," he explained quickly. Despite his stubbornness, he was well aware of how much power this woman wielded within the bunker.

Suzanne opened her mouth to speak, but Hei Yu's exclamation behind her interrupted.

"It's working! Look!" Hei Yu pointed to the crystal, which was quickly disappearing.

"But he's not conscious to allow the system to absorb crystals," Doctor Tim exclaimed, mouth agape as he watched. He had gone into this expecting a failure.

At his mention of this, Hei Yu also froze. She was a system user as well, so she knew about the system prompt needing conscious acceptance.

"How is this possible?" Hei Yu muttered in a low voice as she watched more crystals lower to Dave slowly.

"His vitals are no longer erratic, but these readings are...inhuman," Doctor Tim muttered as he observed Dave's vital signs on his tablet.

"Inhuman is not a scientific reference," Hei Yu glanced at him.

"Off the charts then?" Doctor Tim retorted as he glared at her.

The trio continued to watch as more and more crystals were lowered to Dave, and his expression turned more peaceful.

Soon, it seemed like he was only sleeping.

"You should stop," Hei Yu suddenly said.

"Why's that?" Doctor Tim asked curiously.

"Because the human body cannot safely evolve so quickly, even with the introduction of a catalyst," Hei Yu replied, her tone low and contemplative.

"You are talking about conventional biology in. world where a wave of his hands folds the very fabrics of space?" Doctor Tim asked again with raised brows.

Hei Yu opened her mouth to speak but found herself at a loss for words.

Both sides fell silent, staring at each other for a few minutes until Suzanne's voice interrupted them.

"He's waking up," she said, and they both turned to the glass partition to see Dave stirring inside.

He slowly opened his eyes and pulled himself into a cross-legged position on the bed.

"If you still have more of those crystals, please don't stop, I need a lot and I need them fast," he suddenly spoke in an urgent tone.

Doctor Tim did not hesitate. While he was often pragmatic, he prided himself on the well-being of every patient he touched, Dave was no exception.

Crystal no longer lowered slowly but tumbled into the room. A strange thing happened, though,, as they fell.

Dave stretched his hands, and the crystals vanished mid-air, only to appear beside him like they were always there. The space around him soon turned cramped, but things became even stranger.

As the trio watched, the space around Dave cracked and fragmented over and over again so that it seemed as if the crystals, though occupying the same space, were worlds apart.

The sight was too much for their brains to process, so they sharply turned away, unable to keep looking.

"My head feels foggy." Hei Yu massaged her forehead.

"There are some phenomena in outer space humans cannot look directly at unless it's printed on a 2D page. If observed in 3D space, it could send the observer into a coma. These phenomena are very rare and only a few have ever captured them. What Dave is doing seemed somewhat like that," Suzanne explained.

"You hear that, Doctor Tim? Just because we do not understand the science now does not mean science is out the window. We just haven't researched it enough." Hei Yu would not miss this chance to shoot down the doctor.

"But you were wrong, he needed more crystals, more catalysts. Science be dammed," Doctor Tim replied unbothered.

"How are you a Doctor?" Hei Yu stared incredulously at the man.

Time passed, and they soon heard the clattering of crystals as they fell to the ground. Turning around, they saw Dave rising from the bed to observe himself in the new clothes the nurses had changed him into.

Doctor Tim quickly stopped the mutant crystals from falling into the chamber, and just as he was about to let Dave out, he appeared before them.

"Okay, that's new," Doctor Tim frowned.

"So your precaution was useless," Hei Yu smiled at him.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say your friend and the doctor have been flirting since you came in at death's door." Suzanne stepped forward, her grey hair tied behind her, as she reached for Dave's cheek.

Dave turned to his mother, and his gaze softened with emotion and sentiment. She was beautiful even in old age, still fit, and still casually dressed in blue jeans and an oversized white t-shirt. Dave's eyes caught her silver bangles and earrings, and a smile spread on his face.

"Stylish even in the apocalypse. You win," he grinned.

"Stupid," Suzanne hugged him, her eyes red with tears.

After a few seconds, she pulled away, her expression serious as she looked into his eyes.

"You have more than a few explanations to give," she said.