Child of Destiny

…

Shin sat up from his lying position when the door of his gaming cabin opened its door. He was in a deep thought as his mind was pretty much occupied with the things that happened inside the game.

He might not have cleared his Promotion Quest, but his progress was not that bad compared to what he was originally expecting. Moreover, he had benefited a lot from it. Just the discovery of his second innate attribute was already huge enough.

He was already quite excited about this and wanted to inform Professor Henry. He even opened his contacts on his advanced watch and dialed the professor’s number. But even after a few rings, no one had answered yet.

He knitted his brows and looked at the clock. It was already 5 in the morning, and it was the usual time for the professor to wake up, so he was rather confused about it.

“Did the professor pull another all-nighter again – or did he just get in his bed to sleep? Tsk! Tsk! The old man sure is working really hard,” he mumbled.

He did not dwell much on it and chose to send a message instead, informing the old professor about his situation.

Regardless of what the old professor was doing, he was sure that Professor Henry would at least send him a reply when the message was read. From his understanding of the professor, this old man always checked his message logs due to a lot of important messages that he was getting.

Given that, Shin got up and went to do his usual daily routine. ．

…

It was Sunday and the academy was supposed to be devoid of students. But unlike the other schools, this one still had its gate bursting out with liveliness.

There were a lot of students coming in and out of the school. A couple of cars were also entering and exiting its gate, signifying that the academy was still busy even at a time like this. He could even spot some instructors, who were staying outside of the school, and a couple of old people joining the flow of the crowd.

“This place sure is different,” Shin mumbled as he entered the entrance gate with his car.

The Magic Ace Academy was not an ordinary school as even the World Research Center Headquarters was situated in it. These people were either researchers from that place or students and instructors of the school, who were attending for their respective special programs.

Shin navigated his way through the school road and parked near the personal accommodation of Pressor Henry. Despite only being here for a couple of days, he had already become familiar with it due to his senior, Benedict.

When he got out of his Black Panther, he suddenly recalled what happened earlier. He could not find Arthur or Leonard when he went to Arthur’s Room. And from the look of it, the two seemed to leave in dawn, when the sun was yet to rise.

It was quite unlike them, so he felt that there was something going on. When he tried contacting them, he was answered by a recorded message that the two had something important to do.

He was not sure, but he suspected that it might have something to do with their department.

He tilted his head and started walking toward Professor Henry’s house after locking the car doors. When he was about to enter, the door suddenly opened, and Benedict came out from inside.

“Oh! Senior Benedict! You stayed here at night?” asked Shin when he noticed that his senior wore the same clothes as yesterday.

Benedict was not surprised at Shin’s sudden appearance and replied casually. “Yeah. The professor wants me to find something from his study and also organize the books while I am at it.”

“I have lost track of time when I am organizing everything and don’t notice that it is already morning,” he added before yawning. He then patted Shin and said with sleepy eyes. “I will be going back home for now and get some sleep until tomorrow. I’m sorry.”

“Eh!? How about my training? And who is going to supervise me when I am trying to awaken my second innate attribute?” asked Shin with slight disappointment.

“Don’t worry about the training. You can just do your usual routine and read the books that Professor Henry had left in the living room. Then do the training exercise that you have been doing. There should not be any problem with that,” replied Benedict instinctively as he walked past Shin like a zombie.

It was quite clear that this senior was completely exhausted from looking for the thing that the Professor had asked. Even his mind was working quite slowly due to exhaustion.

“Wait,” but after a couple of steps, Benedict suddenly paused as he realized something. He then raised his head and looked in the air as he was finally able to process Shin’s words. “Ah!”

He then suddenly turned around and looked at Shin with eyes full of disbelief, pointing with trembling hands. “You-… you-… what did you just say? You have awakened your second innate attribute?”

Shin just became a student of Professor Henry for a couple of days, so there shouldn’t be any much progress aside from his deeper understanding of his current strengths and abilities.

He was just undergoing the special course of the professor had prepared for him for just a couple of days, so the progress should not be this fast.

Shin was supposed to be just building a solid foundation for his mentalism knowledge and learning more about willpower, concentration, and mentality. These were the current focus of his training, so he shouldn’t deviate much from them.

Even though awakening his other innate attribute was within the course, it was supposed to be scheduled next once Shin fully integrated with the knowledge that Professor Henry and Benedict had given him.

Shin still hadn’t finished everything on schedule. He was not even completely familiar with his fire-elemental innate attribute, yet he already awakened another.

This progress was like skipping several steps, thus giving Benedict a headache.

Yesterday, Shin had shown him amazing control over that fire-elemental innate attribute due to a strange breathing technique. That alone had already given Benedict quite a scare, yet this monster was here again, wanting to give him a heart attack.

Fortunately, Shin clarified it to him before Benedict lost his mind. “It is not that I have awakened another innate attribute. I just discovered what my second innate attribute is.”

But despite that being the case, Benedict still felt a little overwhelmed. “D*mn, kid! Just how many days are you staying in the academy? Not even a month, right? Yet are already progressing this fast? You are really a monster.”

Benedict then ruffled his hair quite hard, understanding that he could not leave this junior behind. “I guess I can’t go home just yet.”

He then walked back to the house and invited Shin in. “Let’s go. Tell me what happened in detail so that I can have a rough understanding of what is going on. And describe your second innate attribute clearly, so that I can arrange a simple training schedule for you until the professor comes back.”

Hearing that Professor Henry was not around, Shin could not help but ask. “What!? The professor is not in the academy!?”

Benedict waved his hand as he entered the house. “It is nothing serious. He is just invited to visit a recently discovered tomb on the outskirts of the region.”

He paused for a moment and added. “Even though the professor is a top researcher and world-class scientist, he is also quite knowledgeable when it comes to relics and other things.”

“Every time some people don’t understand something, they are calling the professor for some help. Professor Henry has a pretty good reputation when it comes to any fields related to ‘research’ and ‘experiments.’”

“Why do you think he is assigned as the head of the World Research Center by the World Government?” he continued as he slumped on the sofa.

Shin, who was following behind, also found a spot before taking a seat. “I see.”

He then tilted his head to the side and mumbled. “Too bad. I actually want the professor to give me some pointers about my new innate attribute. And I also want to ask if there is any good Breathing Technique that I can practice to perfectly match it.”

Hearing that, Benedict rolled his eyes and said. “What is the point? You still have not fully awakened it yet. You only have ‘discovered’ it.”

“Even if you want to practice that element, you still can’t do it properly since you still have not awakened it yet,” he emphasized.

Shin looked at Benedict before sighing. Then, after a couple of seconds, he started explaining his situation. “Actually, this is what happened-…”

…

Shin narrated everything to Benedict starting with how Professor Henry had asked him to train inside the game. He described all his encounters and other things, starting from when he had learned the Reality Manifestation and how he used it as a form of training.

And when he was finally done, Benedict could not help but give Shin a weird look before reaffirming to himself. “This guy is a monster. A real monster. Professor also taught it to us, but we did not pick it up right away from a single try.”

He then paused and remembered Shin’s friends. “Those guys are not normal too. How can they learn it from him just by hearing his description? These guys are monsters.”

What Benedict did not know was that Shin and the others had already met all the requirements to practice the Reality Manifestation during that time, unlike them, who just entered the game during its beta test.

Understanding a couple of things from Benedict’s words, Shin could not help but become curious. “Senior. Are you saying that you and the other seniors from the department are also playing the game that we are playing? The ?Destiny’s Fate??”

Hearing that, Benedict finally snapped out of his thoughts before nodding his head and answering absentminded. “Ah! Yeah. But we are playing in a different server compared to the rest of the players.”

Learning something new, Shin’s interest was instantly piqued and asked. “Different Server? Are you saying that there are different servers of the game?”

“Ah!” understanding that he had accidentally spilled the beans, Benedict panicked a little. But knowing that there was no turning back, he sighed helplessly and answered truthfully. “It is actually not a big secret, but it is better if you keep it from other people. Yes, that game has other servers called ‘Secret Servers’.”

“They are special servers prepared for the players, who joined the Beta Test of the game. This game will not be this successful without beta test players trying everything, am I right?”

“Usually, these contracted players, who joined the beta testing, are forbidden to join the game due to them knowing a lot of its secrets ahead of time. As you know, this game is not as simple as the others, so such a rule is implemented.”

“But this will put us at a disadvantage, so some of the top beta test players filed a complaint, putting the gaming company in an awkward position.”

“And with the lead of those players, the rest followed. And given their overwhelming number, it put the higher-ups in a tight spot.”

“In the end, Professor Henry and some of his friends suggested creating special servers for these beta test players and setting it up as an independent place compared to the main servers.”

Reaching this point, Benedict paused for a moment and knitted his brows before continuing. “To put it in simpler terms, we are currently in a special dimension or independent world compared to the one that the main server has, which is the Atlas World.”

“And we are only able to enter the main world when the progress of the main server finally catches up to us.”

“Oh~!” Shin nodded in understanding before suddenly asking. “What are those conditions?”

“Ah!” Benedict paused for a moment before shaking his head. “Ah! This-… I can’t tell you about it.”

“Then, are the races from those secret servers different races compared to us? And are their abilities different from ours?” asked Shin, continuing to press further.

“I can tell you about the races from my server, but I can disclose their abilities to you,” said Benedict before continuing. “From my server, we have Spirituals, Eternals, Barbarians, and Druids.”

“As for the others, I don’t have any ideas about them,” he added before remembering something. “Hey, wait! We are getting sidetracked. We are supposed to discuss your problem and not to look to my secrets!”

“Ah!” realizing that he had been carried away by his curiosity, Shin awkwardly laughed and scratched the back of his head.

Then he apologized with a meek tone. “I am sorry. It just carried away.”

After that, he quickly diverted the topic and redirected it to the original one. “So, what you do think about my situation, senior? How are we going to proceed.”

Benedict sighed for a moment before pointing at the pile of books on the table. “You can read these first and wait for me here. I will look for suitable materials that you can use later.”

After that, he stood up and walked upstairs, heading toward the mini library there.

……