Man Of Systems

Chapter 20: Entering the Arena

[Range: 1-45 Metres]

[Plasma Consumption: 5-25 Plasma/Second]

[Temperature Range: (-87)-600 Degrees Celsius]

[Force: 5956 Newton]

Needle Swirl; that was the name of this Plasma Skill. Upon seeing it, Rael was first confused before becoming excited, eventually ending up in a dilemma as he looked through its stats.

The limit of the Temperature Index for an E-Rank soldier was 540. But, this Plasma Skill had a working range of 687 Temperature Index, not to mention its Force exceeding the limit of E-Rank which was only at 5400 Newton.

But at the end of the day, this was still an E-Rank Plasma Skill for a variety of reasons.

Needle Swirl shaped the Plasma into a needle and unleashed it in the form of a long, spinning tube. And, depending on his desire, he could alter the Flux within it, allowing him to curve the needle-shaped tube as he pleased.

This created a flexible attack mode with considerable range, not to mention its versatility in that it could also be used as a whip. But, its best feature was the fact that this needle-shaped tube constantly rotated at a high rpm, causing it to drill through opponents with ease.

The video showed a student casually using it to curve around the edges of a wall as it pierced through a massive pillar, drilling through it rapidly. It was a terrifying ability, the likes of which suited his nature and allowed for versatile usage in various scenarios.

Normally, upon discovering such a powerful Plasma Skill, he would have learned it already. But, the thing that was stopping him from doing so was the Skill’s Potential. Rael gazed at it, sighing.

[Limit: E-Rank]

This Plasma Skill didn’t have a version in the D-Rank or higher. So, once he became a D-Rank soldier, it would become useless for him. After all, the temperature output he would be able to unleash then wouldn’t be supported by the Skill, since its peak temperature was only 600 degrees Celsius. And D-Rank soldiers exceeded that by a lot.

Due to his dilemma, Rael didn’t choose it, for the time being, continuing to look through other Plasma Skills. There were plenty of powerful ones, but no matter how many Plasma Skills he browsed through, his mind lingered on Needle Swirl.

It really suited him a lot.

“Screw it! I’ll just take it upon me to develop it further.” Gritting his teeth, Rael selected Needle Swirl, “Besides, I can still learn other Plasma Skills once I accumulate enough Credits. And, I feel this would allow me to do that the fastest.”

Once he selected the Plasma Skill, a message appeared on the screen, prompting him to close his eyes.

Rael then felt the Maurad strips embedded in the walls emitting a Flux that slowly seeped into him, surprising him as his Plasma was actuated by them.

Moreover, they slowly but surprisingly fused into his Flux, causing it to move in certain ways as his Plasma churned accordingly. It was a strange, unnerving feeling as he felt like his Flux belonged to him but at the same time, it wasn’t under his control.

His Plasma moved up and down, circulating throughout his body as the Flux constantly morphed, creating a set of actions. After a minute, it began to repeat from the start. As to how he knew it began to repeat, Rael was unsure.

It was just that he knew…that’s it. ‘Is this something related to our technology?’

Rael was unsure as to how this was achieved but as the Flux continued to repeat the actions, he felt more and more strange. As time passed, he could feel his fingers twitching while his hand muscles contracted and expanded minutely.

It felt like they were shivering. And as the minutes continued to tick past, the sensation continued to increase until Rael was unable to control it any longer.

Suddenly, his hand jerked, facing the screen instinctively when it shone with a blue radiance, suddenly causing a thin tube of Plasma with a pointed end to gush out like a river, spinning at rapid speeds.

It was almost a straight line, sporting mild wriggles along its centre as the Plasma tube slammed into the screen, vanishing after that.

“What the heck?” Rael was shocked, fearing that he had damaged the screen. But a second later, he was surprised to see not even a scratch on the screen. He then gazed at his palm, still reeling from the scene of him shooting out the attack, “Was that…Needle Swirl?”

He focused on his Plasma reserves, estimating that he had only consumed about five Plasma. And, once he unleashed the Needle Swirl, the Flux emitted from the walls vanished.

“Did I learn the Plasma Skill?” Rael thought about using Plasma Swirl again, sensing his Flux moving automatically in response to actuate it. He hurriedly stopped it, understanding as a result, “I see, so this is how everyone learns the Plasma Skills.”

Needle Swirl was only a single target ability. But, Rael decided that it was enough. He could still device the means to use it against multiple opponents or even turn it into a shield. So, he didn’t wish to waste his remaining two free chances to learn another attack ability.

He had already decided on what he wished to select next, “Once I accumulate more Credits, I can learn enough Plasma Skills to take care of all my weaknesses. But now, I’ll choose one Mobility and Sensory based Plasma Skills.”

After browsing through a few more hours, Rael selected and learnt the two Plasma Skills in the same way he did for Needle Swirl.

Friction Displacement; it was a sensory-based Plasma Skill that allowed him to sense any friction within a range of 100 metres. And, it worked between any surfaces, whether solid-solid, solid-fluid or fluid-fluid.

So, the moment anything moved, he would be able to sense their position based on the generated heat due to friction. It was a pretty useful Plasma Skill but also didn’t strain the user too much, since the level of detail in it wasn’t much.

There were heat signature related Plasma Skills that allowed one to fully observe others. But, the strain they put on one’s mind was also higher. That’s why Rael chose this one.

As for the final Plasma Skill, it was called Pulsor. It allowed him to unleash a gust of air from his palms or feet, generating thrust that would allow him to jump up high. It wasn’t at the peak of E-Rank, only able to unleash a maximum force of 3000 Newton.

But, Rael picked it since it was also able to also generate thrust from his Palms. He thought that it was a pretty interesting method for movement since he was able to unleash thrust from four places at the same time.

There were interesting and flexible uses to it. Whereas, the stronger Plasma Skills for mobility were more rigid.

With all three Plasma Skills learnt, Rael exited the booth, noticing a student standing at the entrance, sporting an expression of anger.

Upon seeing Rael, he snorted, shouting, “Trash, you dare make me wait?”

Rael understood that the student had directed it towards him. But, he didn’t have the patience to put up with the other party’s bullshit. After all, in this situation, no matter what he did, he would end up offending the other party.

So, he did something pretty provocative, tapping the shoulder of a rather strong student nearby as he spoke to him, pointing at the arrogant student, “This student is provoking you for some reason.”

Of course, since the both of them stood nearby, the other student too had heard the shout. But, thinking that it was for someone else, he had ignored it, busy thinking about what Plasma Skill he had to buy.

Upon Rael’s words, he immediately glared at the arrogant student, “What the fuck did you say?”

“I meant the other trash, not you.” The arrogant student snorted.

It was pretty apparent that he indirectly called him a trash too as the student became angry, stepping forward until he was before the arrogant student, “Fucker, do you have a death wish?”

“I should be asking you that. Do you seriously think you can live after glaring at me, huh?” The arrogant student smacked the student on his chest, causing him to budge away a little. It was clear that he wasn’t all talk and had considerable strength.

“I’m Fonduk, ranked 26 among the E-Rankers. If you have the balls, do you want to dance in the Arena?” The student beside Rael said in anger as the air around him turned hot.

“I had just entered the rankings recently, so it’s of no wonder that trash like you are unaware of me.” The arrogant student smirked as he turned around and began to walk away, “I’m Valliti, ranked 10. Let me put you in your rightful place. The both of you can come at me.”

“Fine,” Rael glared, itching to beat up the other party anyway. Besides, he could also take this chance to explore Arena. Valliti seemed like the typical arrogant jerk that was present everywhere.

Rael became involved in this mess from the moment Valliti had pushed him aside. But that was also why he pulled a strong student into his mess. This way, he could tide through it with greater ease.

At least, in this scenario, he wouldn’t be the one facing the brunt of the opponent’s focus. After all, a glance was enough for him to understand that Valliti was from a prominent family, someone born with a gold, if not a diamond spoon.

As the three people began to descend through the lift, sparks flickered between Fonduk and Valliti while Rael silently stood at the side. Even though he wished to appraise the Stats of the other two, he couldn’t, for he hadn’t brought the System with him today.

It was because he wasn’t sure as to what might happen while learning the Plasma Skills. That’s why, once he appraised himself in the morning, he placed it securely within the room and arrived for the class.

It was just his cautious nature in effect.

‘But, even if I cannot sense their Stats, I can still probe their Plasma Reserves and make an estimate accordingly.’ Thinking as such, Rael closed his eyes, observing through his Flux, surprised to see that he wasn’t able to see the Plasma reserves of either party.

It was like his Flux was blocked from probing them.

“Look at this trash.” Valliti noticed his actions, turning around to say condescendingly, “You don’t even know about the method to mask your Plasma reserves. As expected of a trash with barely 100 Plasma.”

The reason Valliti has been calling him trash all along was because Rael’s Plasma reserve was open for everyone to probe. And, only rookies were like that.

But, even if Rael wished to hide it, he didn’t have the means anyway.

Unwilling to instigate anything, Rael was silent, calmly observing the interaction of Fonduk and Valliti, understanding their characters to take advantage of it while in battle. After all, pain was real in Arena, even if his body wasn’t affected in reality.

Soon, they entered a nearby building within which there existed countless open cabins, with a bed in each. The bed was similar to a coffin in shape, attached with countless wires. The moment they entered, a staff directed them to the changing room nearby.

Rael was provided with a skin-tight suit that he later understood the purpose of. It was to block any and all Plasma they might unconsciously release during their immersion, preventing it from affecting the equipment.

Rael was directed to a bed. And upon lying over it, the staff bound him to it before closing the lid, “Just relax and have fun. Welcome to the Arena.”

There was darkness within as the air felt strange all of a sudden. Rael’s eyes turned heavy before he soon fell asleep.

A couple of seconds later, he arrived at a white room, noticing Fonduk and Valliti appear nearby. A screen appeared before them, asking them about the type of match they desired.

“Team match, two versus one.” Valliti said, snorting as he gazed at the other two, “You can select the landscape. Trash like you generally refuse to accept your result, after all.”

“We’ll see who the trash is in the end.” Fonduk snorted and selected a landscape, not asking Rael for any input. He didn’t have much regard for Rael too. After all, Rael was a newbie that hadn’t even finished his basic course.

So, there were many things that he was ignorant about.

[Time limit: 5 minutes. Teleporting to the Arena in 3…2…1…!]

“See you inside, trashes from a trash mother.” Valliti purposefully agitated them as his figure vanished.

The moment Rael opened his eyes, he noticed that he was in an abandoned temple of sorts, with the buildings partially in ruins.

He hadn’t even managed to gather his bearings when a pale blue light flashed towards the sky before exploding into countless particles, scattering everywhere.

Immediately after, Valliti’s cackling voice resounded, followed by Fonduk’s scream.

Alarmed, Rael hurriedly dived into a nearby structure, noticing the temperature of the place slowly heat up.