Chapter 18: The Intelligence Stat
Nui seemed to regard her sister highly. Despite knowing about her losing her right to practice medicine, she found it admirable that her older sister was able to continue living independently, even after their parents publicly disowned her.
Shia was speechless when she learned that their parents actually went on social media and made a post stating that they were no longer Miu's parents, just because she made a mistake. This was also partially what drove Nui into pursuing her own path despite her parents' disapproval, which made Miu feel somewhat responsible.
They ended up getting to know one another better as the days passed by. Perhaps the impending disaster drove them together. At least, the girls spent much of their time chatting about their lives to pass the time.
Zhan continued training of course. There were now only two days until the second wave would commence. His training reached entirely new levels, driven by the additional points he placed into stamina, and his already high vitality.
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Race: Human (Civilian)
Strength: 5.0
Defence: 3.7
Agility: 5.0
Stamina: 5.0
Vitality: 6.5
Perception: 2.8
Intelligence: 1.6
Will: 5.0
Life-points: 2.0
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These stats put him in a much better position than he had been in one month ago. His strength naturally rose by 0.5 points, reaching 5.0 points today, as he trained with extreme intensity. 0.5 points may not sound like much, but these points were obtained with no risk to his life. A month of hard training was a small price to pay compared to risking one's life. His defence even rose by another 0.1 points too, on account of the higher bone and muscle density.
It seemed that actual training had a slightly different effect compared to adding points. Adding points to his strength wouldn't grow his muscle size, but training would. Like wise, bone density could only be improved either by training, or by breaking and then healing the bones. At the end of the day, power was power though, and he wasn't sure if it really mattered.
Right now, he still had 2.0 life-points remaining. Zhan had kept these until now and planned on holding some back for an emergency. For instance, if he found himself fighting against a super fast opponent, then he would have spare points to increase his agility.
There was no point holding back 2 full points though, as he couldn't increase his stats by this much even if there was an emergency.
Zhan consider putting more into defence, but he paused. His defence did need to be boosted, but he also had some curiosity towards something else…
Intelligence.
His intelligence was his lowest stat, but that didn't mean he was stupid, rather that all his other stats were obscurely high. 1.0 was the average for an adult human man, though god knows how the system measured that.
Zhan decided to increase his intelligence by 0.4 points whilst resting. Nui was still running on the treadmill besides him, as was Miu. Miu had taken to joining her sister in their exercise, since she also thought that it would be a good idea to get as healthy and athletic as possible before the second wave.
It was only 0.4 points, but he immediately regretted it. He should have started out lower…0.1 points would be a good start.
"Nnnn…" His body became tense as his mind was filled with a burning pain. Zhan dropped to the floor, much to Miu and Nui's alarm.
"Zhan!" Nui leapt off of her treadmill and nearly fell over. Miu was more calm, but quickly crouched down besides Zhan to try and see what was wrong. After looking into his eyes, she was startled on seeing that they were completely white!
She looked at his body and saw that each and every one of his muscles was tensed. She then noticed that his body was quite hot. She placed two fingers on various parts of his body, but gasped when she touched his forehead. She quickly retracted her fingers and stared in horror as Zhan collapsed to the ground.
"Miu, what is it, what's wrong, is he ok?" Nui asked anxiously.
Miu slowly shook her head.
"I don't know. His head is hot…too hot to even touch."
"That can't be right can it?!"
"No…it shouldn't be possible."
Within Zhan's brain, a large amount of heat was being released. He felt like his entire life was flashing before his eyes multiple times every second on an unending loop. Memories from the moment he was born until now filled his psyche, thoughts were racing and everything became a confused mixture.
"Life…Zhan…food…brain…kill…blood…me….stats…system…blood…death…Zhan…death…slaughter…pain….training…school…me…slaughter…hurt…doctors…arena…young…growing…pain…blood…"
Zhan was continuously muttering under his breath as faint multicoloured lights started flashing in his eyes. This all continued on for a minute before finally coming to an end.
Zhan was left there on the floor, drooling as his mind went blank and he was unable to think. It was a full ten minutes before he blinked and sat up. He closed his mouth and stopped drooling, but his gaze was still vacant.
No matter what Miu or Nui said, he didn't reply.
An hour passed by, and some expression returned to Zhan's face. His brain seemed to restart itself and he was able to think again.
The day blurred by. The girls helped him walk to a sofa and lie down. Every now and then he would move as if he was going to do something, but then quickly gave up.
At some point, Shia returned. After being informed on what had happened, she turned slightly pale. Right now, Zhan was just acting as if he was half asleep, but what they described was quite horrifying.
The night passed by. The girls didn't get much sleep, but when they woke up…
"Gah, god damn it my head hurts…" Zhan groaned and sat up slowly. He passed out at some point and when he woke up, his mind had fully retuned to him.
"Huh…Zh-Zhan!" Nui was the first to wake. She was so happy to see that he had recovered that, when combined with her half asleep state, she didn't think and simply jumped on top of him.
"Woah~" Zhan chuckled as Nui landed on his body. His eyes shone and he made sure to catch her gently, easily grabbing the most sturdy and least vulnerable parts of her body. His mind subconsciously calculated the easiest way to reduce the force whilst placing the least strain on both of their bodies, resulting in him moving in an extremely fluid and mysterious fashion.
Nui, who herself just jumped based on her emotion, felt like she was caught by a cloud and drifted down onto his chest. She gently landed and her head landed on his chest. She was bewildered, but her happiness at Zhan's recovery took over and she just hugged him tightly.
Luckily Miu saw this entire scenario play out, so there was no misunderstanding about why the topless Zhan was embracing Nui. Shia woke up a moment later and looked at him oddly though.
Nui quickly realised that her actions were less than decent and pulled away from him shyly. She turned away to try hiding her embarrassment, but her obvious emotions were even more clear to Zhan than usual. It was as if every movement she made was telling him how she felt. He was entranced for a moment, before blinking and catching himself.
He still felt some residual pain in his mind and thinking somewhat hurt. The simple action of catching Nui just now ended up resulting in dozens of streams of thought processes occurring simultaneously. Zhan felt slightly overwhelmed by it all and his breathing became heavy for a moment. The girls noticed his strange condition and became tense, worried that he was still actually in danger.
Zhan calmed himself down and steadied his breathing. He emptied his mind of all thoughts, then felt much better than before. He gradually tried to use his brain again, but it took some practice to work with his new intelligence.
"Zhan…what's wrong, is there anything I can do to help?" Miu asked quietly. She noticed that he apparently had a headache and didn't want to make it worse.
"How long until the second wave?" He asked.
"27 hours." Nui replied.
Zhan nodded, then said:
"I'm going to meditate for a bit, I'll explain after I'm done."
After saying that, he sat down and did as he said; meditate. Meditation was a practise wherein the person completely cleared their mind of all thought. Zhan knew that this was exactly what he needed right now.
His mind became empty. He remained in this empty state, removing any thought whenever it tempted him into thinking, continuing with this for a full hour. After this time passed, he gradually started thinking again. He focussed on one thought at a time, then experimented with different numbers of thoughts running simultaneously.
He quickly discovered the problem. He was now fully recovered from the intelligence stat improvement, but this stat was related to the brain, the mind, and thus more complex than any other stat, maybe aside from will.
His intelligence had suddenly reached a new peak that it had never been at before. He was accustomed to thinking with a brain capable of 1.6 intelligence, but now his brain was running with 2.0 intelligence. He was overthinking too heavily, leading to his brain overworking, resulting in pain, confusion and disorientation.
The problem was that he wasn't used to thinking with this new, more powerful mind. He needed to learn to control it properly and adjust to it, or else a simple thought could catapult out of control and exhaust him in an instant.
As he thought of this, Zhan's eyes lit up. He remained calm, but asked the system a question for the first time in a while.
'System, how can I fix the problem with my mind being overactive and lacking control within a single day?'
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone