The New Era Project 10 Undercurrents In The City

The next morning, Feng Ye awakens and Akimichi seems to have already headed out. Feng Ye checks his tablet to take a look at where he may be.

The red dot is located in the heart of the city of Aven in a rather large central building. "This seems to be where the main campus is located. Nothing out of the ordinary yet."

He prepares to also head out. "I'll have to monitor where he may be after school hours when I am back in the suite."

The reason Feng Ye decides to only check on the activity of Akimichi in his suite is because he doesn't want to alert the higher ups. There is a high probability that the campus is monitored, thus, not the best place to investigate. Feng Ye also had realized that he has been noticed by the higher ups already due to his reputation and achievements.

He also has to be extra cautious due to his status. Many influences are also covetously eyeing on the side to try to obtain some students with large potentials. From Feng Ye's previous research, there have been cases of missing secondary students which are related to both internal and external influences/organizations. There is quite a dark world beneath what one can see on the surface as cases such as forcibly creating an artificial awakening in secondary students is actually quite common. To ensure that no additional variables can affect his investigation, Feng Ye must be cautious. Besides the suite, he doesn't trust any other location.

Feng Ye's morning and afternoon slowly pa.s.sby. During cla.s.ses, Feng Ye ponders over his current situation. He didn't note that Yamato Aoi had noted a difference in his behaviour.

"What loopholes may I have left behind which would cause an influence to note?"

System: Dumb idiot. Obviously, you neglected all dialog. Didn't you speak with Chu Feng about this matter?

A sudden realization dawns upon Feng Ye. However, after recalling the dialog between himself and Chu Feng, although Akimichi doesn't suit, he didn't give anything away. As a roommate, isn't it normal to be concerned?

Feng Ye dismisses the dialog on the roof as a potential leak of information. Besides that event, there doesn't seem to be any other noteworthy points.

***

While Feng Ye spends his morning and afternoon at the Kami inst.i.tute, in an underground conference room away from the campus grounds, a group of individuals dressed in business attire have gathered. In this room, the atmosphere is rather gloomy and solemn. A total of three individuals can be found sitting around the table. The lighting is a little dim which is quite odd, but perhaps, it is intentional. The darkness covers the majority of their facial expressions and appearance.

"It seems that last month, our plans had a slight deviation and accident. It seems that one of our routes of transportations may have been exposed and looked up. Quite unfortunate that it has taken the six of us a month to meet up." A man in a business suit begins the discussion in a rather annoyingly tone. From the dim light, one could only notice a scar on the man's left eye. He also wears a pair of dark shades which cover his eyes.

"Inconvenient, however, no one would have thought such a minor matter would grow to be such a tumour." A woman's chilly voice resounds. Her facial expression and appearance cannot really be determined in the dark.

Another man comments, "It is due to a student from the student enforcer team from the Aven Inst.i.tute of Technology. By chance, they had discovered one of our routes in transporting the Synapt. Usually, this doesn't cause much losses, but unfortunately, they were able to grasp our driver which may potentially expose us."

The woman nods, "That student enforcer team has also increased their manpower and have been actively searching. This has caused us to temporarily halt the transportation of the Synapt. If we don't resume transportation soon, it will cause us to have larger losses and we won't be able to report back to the main organization."

The man with the scar on his left eye replies coldly, "We will need to eliminate the any potential informants and the students involved in the investigation. I was able to gather that the group is led by a student called Akimichi Yen. They seem to have advanced the investigation quite quickly. This Akimichi Yen is a rank B esper that specializes in intelligence gathering operations. By eliminating him, it would be a good demonstration of power and statement to the student council to not meddle in our business. It would also significantly reduce their investigation speed."

"Who should we send out? They have a rather annoying teleportation ability, we will need to take some underhanded means." The woman inquires.

"I will handle this personally. With this ability of mine, I'll suffice. However, I need you two to coordinate and force him to a location, alone." The man with the scar on his left eye replied.

"Alright." The woman responded.

"Sure. What do you need?" The other man coldly replied.

"Send an encrypted text message to Akimichi's mobile phone with a warning and threat. He'll come." The man with the scar replied.

***

Feng Ye arrives back from his long, boring day at the Kami Inst.i.tute. As the door closes behind him in his suite, he immediately takes a look at Akimichi's whereabouts. After noticing that it is still within the main campus, Feng Ye decides to take a shower.

As Feng Ye has some idle time, he inquired to the system. "Why does the shop only sell consumables? Why not abilities? Also, how could I gain abilities like the Hidden Wanderer?

System: Actually, the shop has a search option. The only ability related purchases you can obtain is via a lottery system. Take a look at this screen.

While these words fall from the loli's mouth, a system panel of the shop shows up in Feng Ye's mind.

(A/N: Table image- https://i.imgur.com/iTAFSMS.png)

System Shop (Energy Points [EP]: 0)

Point Exchange

Skill Points: (1 SP = 2 EP)

Ability Points: (1 AP = 3 EP)

Featured Items Costs

Smoke Bomb 2 EP

Tracker Nan.o.bug 5 EP

Potion of Strength (x5 STR for 15 mins) 10 EP

Potion of Speed (x5 SPD for 15 mins) 10 EP

Potion of Vitality (x5 VIT for 15 mins) 10 EP

Potion of Intelligence (x5 INT for 15mins) 10 EP

Potion of Miracle (Full Recovery) 500 EP

Other items: Inquire System

Ability Lottery (70% Failure, 30% Success) 50 EP per 1 draw.

The loli continues to explain.

System: It is called the Ability Lottery. It costs 50 energy points for each draw. However, it has only a 30% success rate of gaining an ability. The ability, if successfully extracted, will be determined randomly. So, hopefully, you are lucky. If not, that's a waste of 50 EP. The reason that this lottery also has a failure rate is because the energy points are used only as a catalyst to condense natural energy from surroundings and focus it entirely on the host. During the acc.u.mulation and condensation of natural energy, some may disperse causing failure. Each ability and consumable that the host utilizes that the system provides is all created by energy. Without energy, you are a normal person. Unless you can awaken your abilities as an esper which is entirely separate from the system, you will need to diligently collect energy.

In natural energy rich areas, naturally, the probability of success increases. Such rich areas can be found in areas like hospitals, graveyards, haunted houses, or even amus.e.m.e.nt parks. It is essentially the locations which contain the acc.u.mulation of life and emotions. In the examples that I had provided, they would be life, death, fear, and excitement, respectively.

"I see. So esper abilities are a separate branch and cannot be upgraded through the system. However, all system goods and abilities all require energy. But, how did the Hidden Wanderer ability appear if it requires a probability? "

System: It was given as a gift. The ability had been condensed during the binding to the host in the nihility s.p.a.ce. In that emptiness, the host had experienced a variety of strong emotions such as regret, fear, and sadness. Such emotions were utilized as a catalyst to condense into energy. Unfortunately, as it was only the host's independent emotions, the ability could only change the host's appearance and be cla.s.sified as a low ranked ability. The larger the amount of energy invested, the higher the potential rank of the ability.

Feng Ye nods. "It seems like I should locate natural energy rich locations."

System: Yes Feng. It would be most beneficial for you to do so. So, better start looking. It'll also help me idle away my boredom.

The rest of the day pa.s.ses quite quickly. Dark clouds start to form above the city while winds start to howl throughout the metropolis.

"It seems like it will rain tonight…" Feng Ye mutters.

As the sky turns dark, the sound of raindrops can be heard. Eventually, thunder and lightning also accompanies the rain.At this time, Feng Ye takes a look at the tracking program. The red dot can be seen occasionally disappearing and appearing in different locations.

"I was right, he really is handling something…" Seeing the dot occasionally blink to another location, Feng Ye ponders on how he should act. If Akimichi is handling something rather dangerous, Feng Ye realized that with his ability, he wouldn't be able to stop it. However, it is still important to get to the bottom of this and investigate.

Thus, Feng Ye decides to investigate, but do so without directly contacting with anyone. Just as he is about to leave he inquires the loli in his mind.

"Is there a way to send the information from the tablet directly into my phone, like the map and location changes?"

System: There is. Simply, enter your phone number address into the program and can relay all the information there. It also will start an auto installation of the application onto the phone.

A moment later, Feng Ye has the application on his phone as well. "Alright, now time to head out."

Naturally, as Feng Ye heads out of the suite, he brings a raincoat but not an umbrella. An umbrella is quite big, wouldn't that be too noticeable and obvious.