When everyone lent a hand to rescue the pilots from the two mechs, they discovered that both of them were already unmoving.
On one side, Garen’s entire body was spasming while his eyes were tightly shut. It seemed as though his whole body was convulsing in an abnormal, terrifying manner.
Meanwhile, the other blue-haired youth’s whole body was blackened with burn wounds. He had already fallen into a coma and was unaware of his current situation.
Both of their conditions were unusually severe, prompting the bearded instructor to contact the hospital immediately when he noticed trouble. The ambulance from the hospital arrived swiftly and took both of them away.
The remaining group of students watched the ambulance leave. Only a few people and instructors got into the ambulance and rode with it while others went to inform the school authorities and leaders to record the state of the accident and injuries. Injuries like these on school grounds were common and would require people to come over and determine if there were mishaps with the mechs. However, cases involving flawed mechs were extremely rare in this school.
“I really don’t know why Nonosiva’s mech stopped moving suddenly. If that had not happened, this problem would not have happened during this test.”
“Who knows. Perhaps Nono himself had an illness that broke out unexpectedly?”
“No way. He would have undergone a full physical examination when he entered the school.”
Students from various classes discussed among themselves in hushed tones before going their separate ways and walking towards their dorms. The test instructors had left and it was obvious that the remaining tests that were supposed to be held today were canceled.
One white-haired youth furrowed his eyebrows and stood there for awhile while looking in the direction the ambulance had gone before leaving slowly.
His name was Fervale and he was one of the top three students of class C5. He was the No. 1 student in his class throughout the entire year, and almost no one could shake him from his solid position.
He could already understand the individual in second place clearly. There were still certain qualities which that person lacked, and this created a distance between them. Fervale was confident that he could keep this distance between them until graduation. However, he could not understand the student in third place, Nonosiva, properly. That person was extremely quiet, and only a few people were interested in being his friend in class. Therefore, not much information was known about him.
“But this is meaningless now. These standards don’t scare me,” he mumbled to himself softly before turning around and walking towards the simulation training area.
*********************
The ceiling was white.
When Garen opened his eyes, the first thing that he saw was a clean white stretch. There were faint dark blue fluorescent electric circuits twinkling on the ceiling that looked very high-tech.
“You’re awake?”
He heard a voice beside his left ear. The voice was not speaking in a distinct language but a strange tongue-curling type of language instead. Fortunately, he was able to understand it because he had absorbed Nono’s language memories.
He remembered that they were words from the Federation’s language.
The person was speaking in a male voice that sounded somewhat gruff.
Garen tried to turn his head towards the side determinedly to look at the speaker, but the stiff muscles and nerves throughout his whole body would not listen to his commands at all.
He finally saw a muscular man with a full faced beard stand up. A large face then appeared as the man lowered his head and stared at him. He looked to be around thirty to forty years of age, and his eyebrows were slightly furrowed.
“How do you feel? Are you alright?”
Garen tried to open his mouth determinedly. He recognized this man as Hamm, the instructor who was in charge of the class that the previous owner of his body was studying under. Although he wanted to answer, he was unfortunately unable to control the nerves on his face and could only blink and make murmuring noises at the back of his throat.
“You can’t even speak?” a disappointed look flashed in the man’s eyes. “The doctor’s diagnosis said that the nerves in your entire body suffered serious injuries while your muscles have cramped up. They could only force you to relax by injecting you with a tranquilizer.”
Garen made a few murmuring noises. He was still unable to speak and was getting impatient because of his inability to move.
“Big brother Nono, are you alright?” said a female voice beside him. The instructor quickly used his hands to turn Garen’s face towards the side slightly before he was able to see the situation on his left side instantly.
There were four male and female students sitting on his bedside currently. The one who spoke earlier was a delicate and pretty girl with a beautiful figure. This girl had short red hair and was currently gazing at him with great concern.
Fragments of memories floated up in Garen’s mind suddenly.
This girl’s name was Lisa and she was the current girlfriend of Nonosiva whose body he was currently inhabiting.
There were three other people besides Lisa; Nono’s friend Aier, his partner in crime Mina, and another person whom he did not really recognize.
The three students who were dressed in white school uniforms and blue suspenders sat beside him and looked over with concerned gazes.
“He can’t speak. He suffered nerve damage and it’s going to be extremely troublesome now,” said the instructor softly on the sidelines.
“Did the doctor mention the cause of this?” asked Lisa.
“He doesn’t know,” Instructor Hamm shook his head.
Garen listened to both of them speak on the side while he tidied Nono’s remaining memories quickly. The strong force that exploded outwards when he’d forcefully pushed Nono’s soul out to control the mech had created a sudden tear in his soul. Therefore, a large part of the fragments had either dispersed or disappeared. As Garen was only able to absorb the few remaining bits, the memories that he gained were incomplete.
From the conversation between the few students and Instructor Hamm, his current situation was extremely serious. He would need to recuperate for a year so that his injured nerves and muscles could heal after the surgery.
Garen observed the few people who had arrived carefully. Through Nonosiva’s memories, he knew that they were the only few people whom Nono considered as friends. Lisa was his girlfriend while Aier was his good friend and practice partner whom he had the best relationship with. Meanwhile, Mina was his seatmate and partner in crime whom he had always been on good terms with.
He did not have a deep impression of the last person as they probably did not have a close relationship.
When he heard them chatting, Garen gradually understood the entire situation.
Nonosiva was a quiet person who did not have many friends in class. The only people that he was on good terms with were the ones who were present here. He was usually a cold, arrogant person who would not approach strangers. In reality, he was also concealing his Moonfang secret. However, in the eyes of outsiders, he seemed icy and prideful.
Now, he had suffered severe injuries unexpectedly and had almost turned into a human vegetable. However, the instructor had mentioned that there might be a way to quicken his recovery. Unfortunately, he would then owe the academy a large sum of money for his medical fees. The opposing mech pilot that he’d wounded had also suffered serious injuries and would also require expensive medical fees.
“Inform his family then.”
Instructor Hamm made the final decision before standing up.
“I still have matters to sort out so I’ll be leaving first.”
It seemed as though he was in a bad mood as he took long strides out of the ward before the sound of a closing door could be heard around the corner quickly.
Nonosiva’s few close friends were the only ones left sitting in the room now.
Once the instructor had left, the few people who remained quickly became agitated and unsure of what to say.
“Nono, rest well. I have some things to do too so I’ll come and see you again later,” his girlfriend Lisa ground her teeth and stood up while speaking softly. Her cheeks were red and she lowered her head.
The sound of a shutting door could be heard quickly again. The student whom he was not very familiar with got up and left silently as well.
Only Aier and Mina remained in the room.
Aier had short brown hair and looked like a regular and somewhat gentle youth. He took an apple out silently and began to peel it.
“Nono, just relax and recuperate. With your standards, you’ll be able to catch up quickly when you’re better. Don’t worry.”
Garen blinked in response.
Mina sighed.
“Your parents are almost here. They’ll be at the hospital soon enough.”
Garen continued to blink.
The few of them stopped speaking at once… They could only sigh at the thought of Nono encountering an unexpected hardship like this despite being one of the elite students. However, both of them were Nono’s best friends and were extremely confident that he would recover quickly. Although he would owe the academy a large sum of money, he would be able to pay off that debt in the future.
Both of them became bored while sitting on the side before they began to talk about how this situation occurred suddenly during the test.
Garen lay on the sickbed and closed his eyes slowly while pretending to be asleep.
Soon, he could faintly hear the sound of the parents of this body rushing over. Other than the parents, the younger brothers and sisters had arrived as well before the ward was filled with the unsuppressed sobbing noises.
Nono’s family had average financial circumstances. It was already extremely difficult to provide for his university fees and they were only able to this by giving up the school fees of his younger siblings. The current need to fork out this large sum of money added more wrinkles on the faces of the two adults while their gazes began to darken as well.
“Relax, relax. Nono possesses powerful strength and he’s such an excellent student. Won’t it be a simple task for him to earn big bucks once he has passed the test to become a mech pilot?” consoled Mina frantically.
Aier agreed quickly as well and explained how mech pilots would earn their money while mentioning their yearly income that was worth millions. Coupled with their high remuneration and benefits, he would be able to clear his debts within a year. It was no big deal.
This improved the expressions the faces of Nono’s parents slightly.
Garen opened his eyes halfway and made a few murmuring noises to acknowledge his parents and younger siblings.
Since he had occupied this body, he would naturally need to accept this identity.
Next, the nurse came in and wiped down Garen’s body while the other people who were waiting inside the ward earlier went out and waited.
Garen had finally gotten an interval to check his current body.
He closed his eyes as his spirit sunk into his body. All of his blood veins, meridians, and organs within his entire body appeared inside his soul.
He checked all of them carefully and could not help but sigh.
“This difference… It is somewhat wide… On the surface, it seemed similar to the bodies that I inhabited in the two previous worlds. However, it’s actually completely different as the fine cell mechanisms are completely different.”
His soul was born from his bodies from the two previous worlds. While he was currently occupying this body, there were extremely strong reactions of incompatibility which had resulted in his inability to control his body until now.
Both of his soul seeds were constantly releasing qi to modify this body. Unfortunately, the soul seeds had undergone consumptions that were too great in the Mother Stream. They could only modify themselves slowly at an extremely prolonged pace.
Garen shifted his vision towards his own Attribute Pane. Apparently, huge changes had occurred throughout his Attribute Pane because his body had changed as well.
‘Nonosiva Lin — Strength 0.5, Agility 1.1, Vitality 0.3, Intelligence 1.3. Potential 0%. Soul Limit 40.’
“Apparently my Soul Limit has upgraded because of my soul seeds. This is the only bit of good news.”
Garen’s mind was slightly consoled and he continued looking downwards.
‘Potential — Void Pursuer’
‘Soul — Northern Trident Frost-Fire True Water Evil Technique, Holy Phoenix Demonic Book.’
‘Secret Technique — None’
When he saw that his Secret Technique Pane had returned to zero, impatient feelings immediately stirred in Garen’s mind. He already knew that condensing his soul seeds would mean that everything that he had practiced throughout his life would be condensed inside as well, leaving him with nothing. However, this still troubled him although it had already happened twice.
He began to check on the more detailed parts of his current body such as the functions of the various systems, operations, and cycles. As a martial arts master, he naturally possessed extremely impressive foresight that allowed him to reach a conclusion from the first step quickly.