Esper Harem in the Apocalypse

Chapter 65 - Mental Exhaustion

The criminals whose bodies were on fire started screaming in pain and ran out of the house.

The cops took the opportunity and shot the three of them dead.

Sure, it wasnʼt their say to decide to shoot them. But the three criminals were most wanted. Not only did they kill over 100 innocent people, but they also killed five police officers and escaped the prison right before their hearing in court.

Out of the five officers, one was the chiefʼs son, and it was his first day on duty.

Maybe the chiefʼs grudge was so personal that he ordered his team to shoot the criminals dead. But he was ready to receive any punishment.

The cops awarded Eric with a trophy for his bravery.

Eric had become the townʼs main attraction after that. He got himself in the newspaper that made him and the story famous.

Normally, anyone would be happy if that happened to them. But Eric was enraged.

When Aliceʼs mother died, Eric was hiding in the kitchen. He saw the criminals kill her, and he couldnʼt do anything but cower in the corner of the room before hiding in the refrigerator for a few minutes.

Sure, it wasnʼt his fault, nor could he do anything. But Eric blamed himself because he was the one who entered the house first.

If he hadnʼt gone inside the house, the doors would still be locked, and the criminals wouldnʼt be able to break in. And even if they tried to break the door, Aliceʼs mother would have gotten enough time to call the cops and hide.

Aliceʼs father went into depression, and his company shares dropped drastically, which made him more depressed. He started drinking. He came home late. He had become a mess. But he slowly recovered and brought his company back to the top.

After the incident at Aliceʼs house, a crack appeared in their friendship. They started meeting less and never went out to play.

They were still friends, and they still met each other at school, but they never spoke to each other. It took time, but slowly everything went back to normal.

Rudy and Alice were walking on the pavement when he looked at the traffic lights that were green.

It reminded him of the day he got into an accident.

ʼIf I had seen the traffic lights that day, I wouldnʼt have died…ʼ

Rudy was lost in his thoughts when he heard someone yell: ”No!”

Rudy looked to the side to see a woman in her late thirties on the other side of the street.

She yelled because her three-year-old son ran to the middle of the street to grab the ball he was playing.

The lights were green, so of course, the cars were passing back.

HONK~ HONK!

The car honked as it saw the kid in the middle of the street.

The diver hit the break, but it was already too late. So instead, he decided to steer the wheel to the side to save the kid.

However, the side he chose was the pavement where Rudy and Alice were walking with dozens of other passersby.

Rudy activated his telekinesis and stopped the car from hitting anyone.

”...”

It wasnʼt the kidʼs fault. They have no intellect to make any decisions.

It wasnʼt the diverʼs fault either since the lights were green. He had tried to stop the car, but he couldnʼt hit the brakes on time. So he decided to steer the wheel to save the kid, but that could have cost more lives.

To save one kidʼs life, the diver would have accidentally killed more people.

In such cases, who was at fault?

Rudy had the same thought, but his mind wasnʼt working properly.

Rudy stumbled on his feet and bumped into Alice.

”Are you okay?!” she asked with an anxious and concerned look on her face.

”Yeah. I just… I was scared…” Rudy muttered.

”I was too. But thank god that the car stopped at the right time,” Alice sighed in relief.

Rudy was indeed a little scared because the scene reminded him of his past life. But that also triggered his trauma. He still got nightmares whenever he slept, so Angelica mostly took turns while sleeping.

Angelica slept in the day while Rudy was awake, and Rudy slept at night after a few rounds of love sessions. That way, Angelica could keep an eye on Rudy in case he started emitting energy again.

However, that wasnʼt the case why Rudy was feeling unwell.

Rudy was awake for the past few days, and he barely got any sleep after his sessions with Angelica.

In the past few days, Rudy had constantly been using his powers to get accustomed to them.

He used his powers to do every simple task, such as turning off the lights or grabbing the pen from the desk using his telekinesis.

However, his powers came at a cost. It stressed him mentally and put a lot of strain on him.

While he could cure his physical exhaustion with his powers, he couldnʼt fix his mental exhaustion.

It was just like a scenario where a patient needed a specific group of blood. And someone suggested using the patientʼs blood on the patient.

Not only was it dumb and illogical, but it was also useless too. Rudyʼs powers came from his mental strength, so he couldnʼt use his mental strength to calm his mental stress.

The amount of mental strain depended on what power Rudy used.

Powers like flight, telepathy and see-though didnʼt affect him much— as well as all the super senses. But the powers like telekinesis, teleportation, and mind control exhausted him greatly.

The amount of mental exhaustion was the same as one would feel in physical exhaustion. For example, if one is watching television in the living room, and they suddenly want to drink water. So they would get up and drink water.

The exhaustion they felt after getting up and doing work would be the same as Rudy would feel if he used his telekinesis power to get the glass of water, but it would exhaust him mentally.

Of course, the bigger and longer telekinesis was used, the more strained Rudy would feel.

His current condition was because of stopping the car from hitting anyone.

”Are you okay?” Alice asked again.

”How much... time left before school?” Rudy asked.

Alice looked at her watch and said, ”Ten minutes.”

”Letʼs go to the park and rest for a bit.”

====

Authorʼs Note- I hope I explained Rudyʼs mental exhaustion properly. If you have doubts, you can ask in the comments.

I also wanted to explain why their friendship wasnʼt as good as it was in the past. Everything that happens in the story has a reason behind it.

Thanks, @Ok_Two, and @Exoloty, for the gift!