บท 60: Chapter 60 - Return & New Journey
(I will not make excuses. I post late because I was procrastinating. I can't help it. It was raining constantly for almost a week and it's cold. I get sleepy easily. Whenever I stare at my phone to write, I fell asleep.
Anyway, enjoy.)
(Previously)
[All missions completed.]
[Completion rate: SSS Grade]
[All rewards had been distributed and stored in Inventory.]
[Test concluded, Host will be returned to his world.]
[Initiating Quantum Leap]
[3… 2… 1… 0]
———
In the next moment, Adam opened his eyes and found himself back to a familiar place. It's his base in Vale. His home.
"Nii-san?" Tina, who is the only one present during his return, saw Adam suddenly appear in the base, fully armoured and look like he just got pulled out from a very intense battle.
"Ah… I'm… home…" Adam looked around and then locked his eyes on Tina who came to greet him but Adam unfortunately succumbed to his exhaustion from fighting days straight on his continuous missions.
"Nii-san?! Nii-san!" Tina panicked when Adam suddenly collapsed on her. Thankfully Tina is very strong despite her appearance and easily lifts up Adam's body which weighs more than a quarter ton with his armour still activated.
The panicked Tina quickly dropped Adam on the couch before calling everyone and informed her of what happened. But accidentally exaggerated what happened and now half the city is in chaos as people think Adam was dying again.
Well, it's just another Tuesday in Vale. The city isn't on fire yet. So, it might just be nothing big.
Oh wait, it was on fire.
Jalter flew into a rage when she heard about the false news and it took two Servants, Siegfried and Jeanne to keep her under control and calmed down only after checking Adam is indeed not dead. She then vents her anger on Tina for spreading the fake news in the first place and now she has to fix the building she burnt down.
———
"Hmn…" Adam regained his consciousness and found himself on a hospital bed once again while feeling a deja vu.
"Oh, you are awake Master." Siegfried greeted Adam and prompted him to lift himself up and look at Siegfried peeling an apple.
"Siegfried?" Adam held his head and rubbed his brow while trying to recall what happened but then he saw the System screen still open on the corner of his vision.
"You must be confused. Then allow me to explain." Siegfried said while continuing to peel the apple and cutting out some slices before offering it to Adam. "You suddenly returned yesterday and lost consciousness. The doctor said you were simply exhausted and under a lot of stress. But it only requires a good rest."
"As for why Master is in a hospital room, Mrs Willow insisted because your adoptive daughters all wished to meet you and caused quite a chaos. This is the only way to prevent anyone from dragging you away in secret, Master." Siegfried sighed as if he was exhausted by this debacle that Adam was unaware of.
"Dragging me away? Why?" Adam asked. But Siegfried simply shook his head and sighed before telling Adam to take more rest and recover faster so this shit show can finally end.
As for dragging him away, the girls had learned something about nursing sick people and they were eager to use that knowledge on Adam. A cute father and daughter bonding moments. However, the problem is there are twenty thousand daughters but there's only one father. A bloody battle royale almost took place to decide who would have the honour of nursing Adam if not for Willow's intervention.
Anyway, Adam nods and snacks on quite a few apples which Siegfried happily peels for him before he takes more rest. An hour later, a doctor came to check up on Adam and found him to be awake and have no other complications. Thus, he can be discharged immediately but Adam opted to stay for the night under Siegfried's insistence, saying it would be for everyone's best interest that he is discharged only after he is fully recovered.
After a while, Adam got bored and opened his status tab and remembered he had new skills which he didn't get the opportunity to check out before.
"Haki… isn't this the thing from One Piece?" Adam wondered as he checked out the skills and confirmed it was indeed what he assumed.
Even though Adam never watched One Piece, he at least understood the basic things about the story like its power system. Which gets featured quite a lot in fanfictions he often reads.
He tried to get a feel of the new ability and quickly found out it's not too dissimilar from Aura. In fact, it was quite similar to Aura in that Adam grasped the basics quite easily.
While [Aura] is the raw and literal manifestations of a person's Soul through willpower, [Haki] is the technique of using willpower for an intended purpose like a martial art. [Aura] is like mana while [Haki] is like the spell that can use the mana for an intended purpose like enhancing strength, durability or senses.
Adam tested out the [Observation Haki] first. The method is much like enhancing the body with Aura. But the difference here is it focuses on specific organs only. Like right now, Adam focused on his sight. His Aura gathered in his eyes, the blood vessels around it, the nerves that connect it to the brain and the part of the brain responsible for translating these electrical signals.
As a result, when Adam looks out the window, he can see the field south of Vale which is filled with green unripe crops and is being toiled by humans and machines. Turning his eyes to another direction, he could even spy a cat dozing off on top of a pile of crates at the edge of the city. However, he had the feelings this isn't the true extent of its usage. Adam continue to test out the three different Hakis but put a stop when it get dangerous.
In conclusion, Adam can see how the Hakis will elevate his own personal power level. Considering he can enter another world that could have bullshit power like magics or abilities, Hakis will give him significant edge compared to his firearms. But it's not to say he would abandon his guns entirely. It's more like to use it alongside as Adam soon discovered how the [Observation Haki] and [Armament Haki] can enhance and benefit his firearms combat style.
———
(A few days later)
Adam was discharged from hospital yesterday and is spending time with everyone. He was thinking, should he leave this world immediately?
Adam remembers the talk he had with his System. Him staying in Remnant is actually not good. He will attract other Otherworldly beings to Remnant and put everyone in danger instead. However, to leave not long after he returned just made him feel bad, especially when he will be leaving behind a lot of people to embark on a journey that is dangerous and he didn't want to involve some people.
"What's with the frown on your face, Adam?" Winter, who sat close to Adam below a tree, asked while they watched the girls run free and play around while they were having a picnic.
"Thinking about the future." Adam sighed, not intending to keep a secret at all.
"Is it about travelling to another world?" Winter asked with a concerned expression because Adam did mention it not too long ago and stated that he wouldn't bring everyone with him because it's dangerous.
Winter is worried if Adam would leave her behind because she is technically the weakest amongst his list of companions.
"Yes. But before that, I was thinking about finishing my unfinished business first." Adam replied as he still remembers some promise he had yet to fulfil.
Adam then stood up and joined to watch what the girls were up to around the forest. The forest is quite large and no one is worried about Grimm attack considering most of the girls can ragdoll most of the Grimms that dare spawn in the forest. But there are mechs and drones keeping the look out just in case.
Following Siegfried is a group of girls sitting around a lake and the pier while holding a fishing rod. They were obviously fishing by the lake with Siegfried. But following his arrival, the seemingly peaceful and calm scene descended into chaos as each of the girls tried to flaunt who caught the bigger fish.
"Well, girls. Calm down and let's do this more orderly shall we?" Siegfried control the situation and had everyone weigh their fish to decide the winner.
Adam just played along and watched the event unfold. Of course, not everyone is going to weigh their fish. It's gonna take forever. Only those with fish that look big will get weighed and many get disqualified immediately.
To his surprise, Adam spots Amy as one of the disqualified contestants who disheartenedly walks away with her bucket and she stares at the fish quite intently. "Why can't you be a little bit bigger?" She said, blaming the fish for her defeat. Then she made a thoughtful look while staring at the fish. "Why not fatten it up and give it to Brother Adam later as a dish?" She cooked up an idea instead of continuing feeling disappointed.
Adam stops spying and walks up to Amy. It didn't take long before Amy noticed him and looked momentarily surprised.
"Brother Adam!" She drops the bucket and jumps to Adam, hugging his thighs while receiving headpats.
"Hello, Amy. I didn't know you would be interested in fishing." Adam said while taking a closer look at the fish which looked like a trout.
"I'm not. It's just something I am very used to doing. Fishing is one of the easier ways to get food in the previous world." Amy explains about the abundance of fishes in the sea and rivers because no one is fishing them as getting out of the safety of their wall is suicidal with Gastrea roaming the land.
"Hmn… So, you and Erin eat fish every day?" Adam sits down next to Amy's fishing spot and continues talking while the fish weighing contest is still going and it will not end anytime soon with literal hundreds trying to compete.
"No. Not really…" Amy joins Adam to take a seat and she resumes fishing. "Sometimes when the military delivers food. We get real food. My favourite is spaghetti with beef sausage. Erin likes curry rice instead. Those foods are way better than plain roast or boiled fish. We didn't have condiments after all. We only learned how to make salt from the sea water a few months before meeting Brother Adam."
Listening to Amy, Adam thought of the survival games he played in his past life, crafting and building things out of scratch. He wondered how fun it would be to try it out someday.
"So, you are interested in fishing? Maybe become a professional fisherman err… fisherwoman? In the future." Adam didn't know where to steer this conversation and decided to end it by asking what she aspired to do in the future.
"No. I want to cook good food for… someone. But my teacher said a good cook must know where and how to get the best ingredients. That's why I am learning how to catch fish from Teacher Siegfried." Amy corrected Adam.
"I see. Well, I would definitely like to taste the dishes you cook in the future." Adam left her a few words of encouragement before he stood up and left unaware of Amy who was hiding a blush from him.
Amy looked at the fish in the bucket and said. "Rejoice, fish. You will not die anytime soon." Amy said as she felt this fish was special. "I will let you live and grow bigger until the day I perfect my cooking skill. I will make you into a dish that will win Brother Adam's stomach." Amy grip her hand into a fist with resolve as she recites the words that her teacher imparted to her. The way to win a man's heart is through his stomach.
———
Walking away from the lake, Adam walks up to a large section of the forest where Jeanne and some girls are doing something. He approaches Jeanne and asks what they were up to.
"I am teaching them how to forage in the forest. It's a good opportunity to teach them about identifying herbs and edible foods in the forest." Jeanne replied in high spirit and then pointed somewhere to the right before saying Jalter was there teaching some girls how to pick poisonous plants.
Adam was a little surprised that Jalter was teaching such knowledge to the girls but he rationalised and assumed because some of the girls are aspiring to be Huntsmen, maybe such knowledge has its benefits and uses against the Grimms, although it is sounded like a quite a stretch since the common answer to all Grimm related problem is more firepower and Dust. Rarely anyone would resort to poisons.
"I will go check up on her." Adam said with a shaky voice before he left Jeanne who was waving at him and he slowly approached Jalter in the open area ahead.
"Now, mixing this shroom with this poisonous herb can create a hallucinogenic paralysing agent. Adding this herb can intensify the paralysing effect but shorten the duration. As for this herb, it can intensify the hallucinogenic effect and the duration of the paralysis." Jalter showing a bunch of unknown mushrooms and herbs to a group of girls diligently taking down notes on their Scrolls.
"Any questions?" Jalter asked and a girl lifted her hand up. "Yes?"
"Teacher. You promised to teach us how to make aphrodisiacs." One of the girls said.
"Yeah. Teacher promised us." The other girls nodded and said.
Adam finds his step becoming stiff and thanks himself that he's been constantly using his [Observation Haki] as training and manages to hear their conversation before any of them detect him. Adam is very concerned, worried what knowledge had they been teaching these girls to spark their curiosity to even want to learn how to make aphrodisiacs.
He unconsciously engages his armour in Cloaking mode and sneaks close to the nearby tree while perking an ear on the discussion.
"What! No. I did say I will teach but I never said when. You girls are still too young to learn how to make aphrodisiacs!" Jalter fiercely denies them, while Adam secretly gives her a thumbs up. A responsible teacher will teach their students something they are not ready for yet.
"Tch! Teacher Jalter didn't want to teach us because she was afraid we would steal father away from her." One of the girls said with an accusing tone.
"Of course I am! Even if I am not Saint, like that annoying Jeanne! I still have common sense to know it's wrong for the daughter to be loving their father romantically!" Jalter flipped and pointed angrily at them while drilling some common sense into their head.
"Father isn't our real father." Some replied.
"That's not the issue! The problem here is you all see him as a father figure but also love him as a man. That is morally wrong." Jalter explained.
"Rich coming from the witch that burns a nation when she is just a fake clone."
"Who! Who said that!" Jalter truly flipped and summoned a black spear with her purple fire like the real Dragon Witch.
"Run! The witch is angry!" Someone jeered at Jalter before screaming at everyone to run away.
"As if I'm letting any of you leave, brats!" Spears shoot out the ground and form a wall to stop the girls from running but perhaps Jalter forgot, but those girls aren't just any common girls, they all possess superhuman bodies. Some punched the spears away while some jumped and escaped through tree branches, Naruto style.
"Don't you brats dare run away! Get back here!" Jalter's clothes burned away and were replaced with her Servant outfit, showing that she is getting serious.
Adam decided to disengaged his armour and walk out to pacify his wife before she accidentally turned one of the girls into human kebab.
"A-Adam?! Wha-When did you get here?"
"Just arrived." Adam lied instantly, knowing how she would react if he answer truthfully. "Why did you get angry with the girls?" Adam feign ignorance and asked.
"Nothing." Jalter huffed and unsummoned her spears before her Servant outfit vanished, replaced with her previous clothes.
"Umu. Anyway, I will get going since you do look busy." Adam said after he saw Jalter look calm and not out for blood anymore.
Inwardly, Adam praise Jalter for being quite the role model as an adult even when compared to Jeanne. Jeanne is mature, but she sometimes isn't and will even get to unhinged level. Unlike Jalter who look and act like intimidating like a thug most of the time but the most rationale one in the group with a kind but tsundere heart.
"W-Wait! You just got here. Besides, I'm not really busy. Those brats fled away and I have no one to teach anyway." Jalter catch Adam's arm to stop him.
"Well, let's go together then. I want to check up on everyone." Adam said and offer her his hand which Jalter grab bashfully as they go on an unplanned date-ish walk.
Adam later encountered the T-Doll's group a little deeper in the forest. They were the last group and with the most girls gathered. Here they learn from how to make makeshift weapons to tracking and hunting wild games, taught by Agent, Alice and Hunter who have their respective skills they can share to the girls.
"Master, what bring you here? With Jalter too." Agent paused from observing her students hunt to greet Adam and her fellow sisters, Jalter.
"Nothing, just checking up on everyone." Adam shrug and told her to focus on her task at hand but Agent replied that she could easily multitask.
While standing on the side, he watch the hunt on the sidelines with Agent. There nothing surprising to watch. The mutation caused by the Gastrea Virus caused some animalistic traits to appear not too dissimilar to Faunus, functional animalistic parts. Some have sharper sense of smell, some have sharper sense of hearing, some have powerful sight, etc-etc. Most can hunt basically no problem at all. Some even have interesting traits like ability to produce and dispense spidersilk, echolocation, camouflage, etc.
Adam glad those girls adjusted well. They were merely the first group to be rescued from that hell they born and grew in because soon, Adam will fulfill his promise and rescue every single one of them.
"Agent, Jalter. Tomorrow we will be returning to their world. I will save the rest of the girls. The deserve much better world to live in than that hell." Adam said as memories of those girl's living conditions when he first meet them surfaced.
There are countless more of them have to suffer injustice, treated like toys, lab rats and garbage by the people around them when they are faulted with sins not their own doing. They were made scapegoat for the people's hatred, the sacrifice to keep the tattered civilization together.
They do not deserve those treatments and Adam will change that. He will put smile on all of their faces just like how he did to the 20 thousands Cursed Children he saved. He will save more of them and put down the human civilization that already past it's expiry date.
"Yes, Master." The Doll and Servant replied with a wide smile on their face, eager to bring his wish, goal and ambition into succession.
—————
(I apologize again for another late chapter. Perhaps having a schedule made me more lazy to write? Idk, not in the mood lately as I am reading up few fics in FanFiction.Net
This three is my rec, it's good.
Deceived By Belief, Blackout42
-Armored CoreXInfinite Stratos
Jaune's never-ending nightmare, herjoh
-BloodborneXRwby
Fate Azure Destiny, Polyfemus
-FGOXAzur Lane
Anyway, a little more loose knot to dealt with and we on to the next world. Fate Azure Destiny is the reason I am inspired to consider writing Azur Lane for the next world.)
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