Psychic Parasite

Chapter 225: The Sign of Feedback
Jyorta approached one end of the hall, guided by the voice occasionally. A tattered curtain appeared, with its ends covered by grease and stains accumulated over time. It sported a tear in the middle, trailing from bottom to half its height, displaying the presence of a door through the gap.

It was a steel door, its bottom rusted, with most of the stone blue paint peeling off. The doorknob creaked with an obvious grating sound upon turning, the mechanism within stuck mid-turn. Jyorta exerted more strength, soon slamming it violently.

The door parted a little, the contents within it dark. Jyorta leaned, using his body weight to completely push the door open. He noticed five trail marks on the floor, conforming to the door’s leverage. The marks were 3-4 millimetres deep. Spread around them was fine dust, mostly probably metallic.

The smell of rust intensified, the air humid. Jyorta blocked his nose with his sleeve, barely able to put up with it for the moment. Inside were two shelves, one on each side. The space in-between was narrow, only allowing a person to walk at a time.

The shelves were hangers, displaying what seemed to be suits, the type worn by people dealing with biochemicals. It was white, sporting un-washable traces of colours, giving each suit a feeling of old, used cloth.

Drops of some form of liquid dripped from three such suits, falling onto a perforated platform, and seeping through the holes, heading somewhere. There were a total of about 20 suits on each side, totalling 40 in the room.

”You are the fourth person to try today. Most students only use this facility to have a test run of their weapons. After that, they practice it on the Frenzy Beasts.” The voice continued, ”Pick a suit and follow the markings in purple.”

Each suit was of a different size, conforming to various physiques. The ones on the left were meant for girls while the ones on the right were for boys. Jyorta placed his hand on a suit, feeling the elasticity of the material. It seemed stretchable for anyone to wear.

He grabbed hold of one and exited the room, struggling a bit to close the door. There was an arrow, purple in colour, pointing along the wall to his right. It led into a narrow path, right behind a section that housed cloth type armours.

The path only allowed one to traverse at a time, also dark due to a lack of lighting. 15 seconds later, he noticed the purple arrow stop abruptly. There was neither a door nor anything out of sort in his surroundings, making him stare blankly into space.

Suddenly, before he could react, he noticed his line of sight proceeding downward. The floor beneath him had opened up, wide enough for the edges to be just beyond the reach of his arms. Since he had been facing the wall, it couldn’t grab hold of the rails on the rack behind him.

Everything happened in a fraction of a second. Before the sense of alarm had fully kicked in, Jyorta landed on a soft berth, one that had cushioned his fall. It seemed to have been puffed with air; his body made a deep impression before coming to a stop. This in turn absorbed all his momentum, making him suffer no injury from the fall.

Jyorta glanced up, noticing a hole in the ceiling, 10 metres above him. It was quite the fall, something that would have crippled him at the very least if not for the cushion. The hall was wide, shaped into a circle, possessing a radius of 20 metres.

The walls weren’t flat, the surface concave, uneven, the curvature at each position pointing to random spots around the hall’s centre. It was littered with holes, their radius varying from one centimetre to 20 centimetres, the contents unable to be discerned due to the darkness within.

The only source of lighting seemed to be from a bulb on the ceiling. Followed by a faint rumble, the bulb moved towards the right, positioning itself two metres to the edge. There also existed circular markings or traces across the walls, concentric in nature.

A lady’s mature voice resounded, slightly nasal, ”I will supervise your practice. There will also be some mild simulations to help you get used to your weapons. You can return once again after you have selected your armour.”

In the vacant hall, the figure of a Floating Spider appeared in the centre, ”It is a Line Controller. I adjusted its physique to be in line with the original.”

It was blue in colour, making Jyorta wonder about the Tier of the person operating it. Only the Unranked Skill, Marble Sonata was capable of materialising detailed objects out of nowhere. For each Tier, its colour changed, same for the maximum capabilities it could exhibit.

Based on what he had witnessed, it was magenta at Tier 6, yellow at Tier 5, and green at Tier 4. Jyorta looked around, unable to detect the presence of any individual within the hall. Based on the range of use displayed, the Esper was stronger than an Area Controller. So, the remaining option was a Wave Controller.

’So, at Tier 3, Marble Sonata is coloured blue.’ Jyorta walked towards the Floating Spider, stopping when it was within the reach of his shorter psychic arm. With a thought, a spindle hovered before him; it was the lighter one, weighing 2.5 kilograms.

The spindle began to spin, increasing in rpm, shooting forth after a second. It impacted the Floating Spider’s face, slightly off from where he had focused. It had only drilled a millimetre, facing some resistance.

The speed of his spindle had also reduced to a tenth of its original, struggling to spin faster. Jyorta lightly retracted it, firming his control before raising its rpm. A faint whirring sound was produced as a result, the speed of the spindle soon approaching limits where his mind was unable to fully concentrate upon.

With a thought, the spindle shot forth, hitting the head of the Floating Spider. He had aimed at the spot he had earlier pierced, noticing his aim was off by a centimetre.

Just because he controlled it with his mind didn’t necessitate a hundred percent accuracy, something he became aware of after numerous trials and errors. Concentration, will, focus, mental stability, and clarity of thought affected the final outcome.

With the slightest of emotional turbulence, his psychic arm might directly dissipate into psychic energy, not to mention having the aim off by a little. The spindle fared better this time, drilling into the head of the Floating Spider for almost a centimetre.

He quickly retracted it, recovered its rpm, and sent it crashing into the Floating Spider’s head, this time also carrying all the linear momentum he could pack. Due to the abrupt speed, he couldn’t perfectly control it, watching the spindle move past the Floating spider, barely missing its body.

He willed, trying to pull the spindle back, failing to put a stop to its momentum. The Floating Spider was located a little within his psychic arm’s maximum range. Now that it hadn’t made contact, Jyorta was a step late to react, watching the spindle slip out of his hold and fly past.

A cushion appeared on the floor, absorbing the spindle’s momentum, preventing its tip from being damaged. A voice echoed in his ear, ”Normally speaking, the Refined Object you control cannot slip past your control. Anything the psychic arm can move, it can also stop it without fail. The only reason it is slipping out of your control is that you still lack focus.”

”Yes, ma’am.” Jyorta nodded, walking past the Floating Spider and seeping his psychic arm into the blue cushion. Soon, his spindle drilled its way out. The moment it did so, the blue cushion dissipated into psychic energy.

Jyorta sensed the presence of a psychic arm in his surroundings, unable to pinpoint its shape, size, or power. But, it made him heave a sigh of relief. At least, the very next Tier above him wasn’t unfathomable to the current him.

He still couldn’t do anything about it but, should he face an attack at the Tier 3 level, at least, he would know. Whether he would be able to react or not was a different matter. Jyorta didn’t want to worry about it, for the time being, seeking to focus on the task at hand.

The spindle spun once again, slamming onto the head this time. Just the force alone lodged it 0.5 centimetres deep. Adding onto the spin that maintained itself through his efforts, the spindle began to drill its way into the Floating Spider’s head.

Soon, it drilled through its head, emerging on the other side. Immediately, the head of the Floating Spider recovered, ”Aim at every spot on its body. Determine its weakness yourself and etch the data in your mind.”

With a nod, Jyorta controlled his psychic arm. Making a curve around him, the spindle swerved towards the Floating Spider. Jyorta felt a slight decrease in the rpm of the spindle when it curved behind him, but was unable to determine if what he felt was right.

’I am beginning to make sense of the feedback?’ His eyes widened a little, his mood enlivened. With renewed vigour, he pierced the spindle into the Floating Spider’s abdomen, feeling the resistance offered to be relatively lower.

There was a momentary sluggishness in his psychic arm, at least, that was what he felt. Though, he didn’t know for sure. But, he began to get faint inklings, insights of a sort. It was like he still couldn’t make sense of the garbled feedback transmitted through his psychic arm but random thoughts sparked in his head, as if concluding an answer or situation.

’My accumulation is beginning to pay effort.’ He smiled, feeling genuinely happy for the first time. This was his seed of hope, the budding of his endurance and perseverance.