The Over-Break System

Getting up from the chair, Cynrik briskly made his way to the hidden wall, equipped one of his hidden blades, and used it to pry open the false wall. Next, he picked the lock to the door for a components box the size of his entire body and was greeted by a horrifically organized wall of cables.

“OH, FOR FUCK SAKE! Does no one on this planet fucking understand the importance of goddamn cable management?” Cynrik Griped as he swiftly untangled hundreds of cables one after another.

Meanwhile, Norik was utterly beside himself at how easily Cynrik, who should have had no knowledge pertaining to technology of this level, navigated the command console before going popping open the false wall and components box.

‘What the fuck did this kid do in his previous life? Was he a fucking Computer Engineer for NASA or something?’ Norik thought as his eyes flicked from the central computer to Cynrik.

It took Cynrik nearly an hour to get the cabling sorted. Still, with Tobs unable to locate anything out of place, Cynrik was left aimlessly scanning the entirety of the components box using all of his different magnifications. Ultimately, he came up empty and resealed the box and false wall before turning toward Norik and giving him a curt nod.

“Neither I nor my System AI has located another Dongle, so it’s safe to say the intruders never made it this far.” Straightening his back and crossing his arms over his chest, Cynrik let out a tired sigh and informed Norik of his findings.

“That makes sense. Still, it is better to be safe than sorry; if someone other than us had somehow made it to this room, an army would have been formed; we would have been attacked out of greed.” Taking one last look around the room, Norik teleported himself and Cynrik out of the room and back to floor B-22, room D-01.

Spotting the familiar stone room and the unconscious Professor Morningdale, Cynrik’s face scrunched up, and he pointed at her body before speaking.

“So, how long are they going to be out? It can’t be good for their brain if you forcefully keep them unconscious; just thinking about all that potential brain damage gives me the jitters.”

“Hm? Meh, they will be fine; all I did was put them to sleep; everyone is having a wonderful dream of their creation, completely unaware of what is going on right now.”

“I see; well then, on to more important matters, how do you want to handle this shit. Not only did they get down to the Aether Capsules meant for Stage three Evolutions, but there is also that weird hazel and gold particle that gives me the creeps every time I see it.” It wasn’t the first time Cynrik had mentioned that particle to Norik, but each time he did, the man stayed silent as if hesitant about letting Cynrik in on the big secret.

“Explosion, the Element in question is called Explosion, and as its name dictates, it does what you can imagine. I have looked over all the dongles you tagged, and I have to admit, without you pointing them out, I doubt I would have ever noticed their existence.”

“If I am being honest, I figured we just had a bunch of untalented seeds which needed two or three attempts to pass their Passing Down and Advancement. I never suspected someone had infiltrated this deep into our establishment.” Norik groaned as he thought of all the potential geniuses who wasted their time because of the dongles.

“You can’t be faulted; it boils down to my statement earlier, being smart is only one-third of what makes a genius astounding. You are missing the paranoia and caution.” Cynrik chuckled at Norik’s expense and faced the Aether Capsule.

“Regardless, the presence of that single Explosion Particle confirms my suspicions. If we tamper with one, it should, in theory, trigger all the other dongles’ self-destruction protocols. That means we have to deal with all of them simultaneously. Then there is the fallout from the blast; you have a better idea of what we are dealing with than I; how big a boom are we talking about here? Grenade, or Nuclear Explosion, because I’ve dealt with both, and one is way less fun than the other.”

Walking over to the recliner and plopping down, Cynrik released another tired sigh. Repeating the same procedure time and time may not have been physically taxing. However, mentally, Cynrik felt like he hadn’t slept in days, which was annoying because he still had to deal with the Tribulation quest and his Evolution.

“Comparing even the smallest Explosion Particle to something as small as a standard grenade is wishful thinking, CynBrat. Not only is the Explosion Affinity SEC grade, but even the smallest collection is powerful enough to level a house. In contrast, the biggest one we found would have a similar effect to a bomb that could blow up an entire metropolitan city.”

“You could probably survive the first two-particle clusters you found, but even then, when the second-sized one goes off, you’ll be lucky if you wake up from the coma in a year.” Smirking at the thought of Cynrik blowing up for some reason, humored Norik to no end.

Seeing this reaction, Cynrik scoffed loudly.

“I’ll have you know; even a nuke couldn’t keep me down; hell, I even showed up here right after. I practically have the survivability of a cockroach.”

“Yeah, I’d like to see you withstand a blast that could easily injure my son because that is what the particle found on floor B-23 can do, let alone what we found on B-24, that would vaporize Geralt in a second.”

“Fuck, ok, old man, you win,” raising his hands in defeat, Cynrik yielded and tried not to think about how close to those bombs he had ignorantly been. No wonder he felt such an ominous feeling from that otherwise appealing on the eyes hazel and golden particle.

“Luckily for you, your job here is done. I will take it from here, as you have neither the power nor the skillset to deal with a task this size.” With that said, Norik began channeling a massive amount of Mana, more than Cynrik had ever felt.

With eyes wide open, Cynrik activated [Mana Sight] and stared incredulously as over 20 different colored Mana particles swarmed around Norik’s entire body, forming a secondary body of pure Mana twice the size of the man.

‘What the fuck, is this guy a stand user,’ *HA JOJOS REFERENCE* Cynrik cried in his mind as he felt a massive amount of pressure weighing down his body.

However, unlike when Norik used his Aura and Killing Intent to weigh Cynrik down, this feeling was purely stifling and made breathing hard.

“You used Dark Mana to mark every one of the dongles, correct?” Peeking at Cynrik’s aghast expression, and feeling proud of making the kid show something on his face for once, Norik threw the question out in the open and received a slow nod from the boy in the recliner.

In response to the confirmation, Norik waved both arms slowly before grasping the air, which created a vortex of Mana half a meter in front of him.

The next moment, 32 small black holes manifested in the vortex, one for each dongle, causing Cynrik to suck in a sharp breath and bite his tongue, so he wouldn’t make a sound and accidentally startle Norik.

He quickly realized he was witnessing a man at the peak of power, just below that of the Gods. The pressure Norik was emitting didn’t necessarily lose out to the feeling he got from Yahweh and Odin either. Yet, all Cynrik could do was quietly watch in amazement as the black holes grew three times their size, followed by several small explosions in their dead center.

‘HOLY FUCK, HOLY FUCK, HOOLYYYY FUCK!’

*essential things must be said thrice*

‘TTTHIS MAD MAN IS BLOWING UP THE DONGLES HERE? IS HE FUCKING STUPID?’ Cynrik screamed in his mind as he subconsciously pushed himself as far as he could into the recliner to put an insignificant amount of distance between himself and Norik.

Fortunately, the explosions only lasted a few seconds before they were devoured by the black holes, leaving Cynrik to watch as Norik’s Mana Signature skyrocketed even higher.

‘He…he absorbed them…how is that even possible?’ The whole event lasted less than a minute. In the end, Norik had converted the power of the explosions into his own, rendering Cynrik speechless for several minutes, even after Norik bid him farewell and good luck on his Evolution.

Moving on autopilot, Cynrik picked up Professor Morningdale and placed her in the recliner before walking over and standing by the Aether Capsule, lost in thought.

It wasn’t until half an hour later, when Professor Morningdale woke up wondering how long she had been asleep, that Cynrik snapped out of his daze. Luckily for him, Norik had planted new memories in everyone who had been unconscious, making them think nothing of being asleep, so he didn’t need to devise a lackluster excuse.

—

In five locations across the nation, Cynrik called home, five individual Watcets chirped simultaneously, signifying that these five individuals had received the same notification.

These five beings dropped everything they were doing and arrived in their respective sealed rooms before opening a virtual chatroom that linked them.

“What happened? Why did we suddenly lose signal with all 32 Narvasion Chips?” Lithlen Jetlensr asked as he slammed his fist on the armrest of his throne.

“After being removed from their planted locations, the 32 chips we planted inside Vesemir School for Affinities Aether Capsules began their self-destruct protocol. I have been trying to gather information, but I know that the chips started to self-destruct at 2:57 pm.” Chester Webb, Headmaster of Quest Combat Academy, stated in a monotone voice.

“Using all the resources I could scrounge up, I have confirmed that there is no damage to VSFA, not a single one of the Narvasion Chips seems to have exploded within the campus, and none of my spies have indicated such an event has occurred.” Col. Brenden Hawthorne, the Headmaster of Renson Military Academy, chimed in with his gruff voice.

“I can confirm Col. Hawthorne’s findings; it appears that the blasts didn’t occur publicly and were somehow dealt with. For this to happen, VSFA must have a mighty existence acting as a guardian, as the blasts we left in the Stage 3 Aether Capsules are enough to kill a Tier-6 being.” The fourth person, Headmaster Naylar Kuu of Banes College, added.

“We can only surmise that someone or something was strong enough not only to locate all 32 of the Narvasion chips without notifying any of us, but they are also strong enough to deal with the aftermath. Four decades of planning and work have just gone down the drain before the Competition begins. This leaves me believing that the group known as MyrkLys has not only reached the point of using the Aether Capsules but has a knowledgeable member able to spot the fault of our device before intentionally thwarting our plans.” The last person to speak was Cynriks sworn enemy, Viktor Opurn.

“The discovery of our interference was bound to be discovered eventually; it was only a matter of time; however, we now have a new problem to deal with, and that is the potential uprising of VSFA. Between the heightened security measures they have put in place recently, and the ability to now nurture multiple Stage Two or higher beings, we have to worry about keeping our position as the top five Academies.” Headmaster Kuu stated while wearing a look of disgust.

“For years, we have consistently knocked VSFA off the ranking boards, but now…I fear things will be reversed.” Heaving a sigh, Headmaster Webb shook his head and disconnected from the call.

Soon after, Headmaster Kuu and Col. Hawthorne followed suit, leaving only Headmaster Opurn and Lithlen alone in the call.

“What do we do now, Lithlen?” Viktor asked with hesitation.

“What else but trash them in the Competition? My Grandson and your Son will be more than enough to handle them, I do not doubt they will be able to make it to the finals, and with the changes added to the Competition events, we will have our opportunity to kill them off once and for all.”

That said, Lithlen angrily left the call, leaving Viktor alone with only his thoughts as company.