[Owen POV]
I sat cross-legged in the courtyard, eyes closed, meditating as the rest of my sect gathered around me.
Everyone here had already awakened through the esper serum.
Michael and Elena were the first. In just three months, they'd advanced their level 2 abilities to Level 3, while simultaneously stepping into the Spirit Warrior realm.
I'd refined some pills for them using the panther's balls, which helped in their ascension. Of course, they didn't know what was the thing used to make their medicine.
Michael's Magnetism now allowed him to pull iron sand toward his body, forming a natural armor that boosted his defense.
Elena's Mind Channel had evolved into Mind Realm, letting her pull someone's psyche into her mind instead of merely linking thoughts.
She also developed two new skills—Mind Scramble and Mind Shift, the latter allowing her to transfer her consciousness into others and control their bodies.
Next were Bayani and Djalu, the second batch of awakened.
Bayani's sound ability remained Tier 2. His 20-meter radius was his domain; within it, he could manipulate every vibration. He could even unleash supersonic blasts from his throat strong enough to rupture eardrums.
Djalu's restorative power also remained Tier 2, but his range had grown. He could now restore larger objects and even apply temporary restorations instead of only permanent ones.
Then came Agustin and Sandra—the lovers, our third batch.
Agustin's Calculation ability had evolved dramatically. He could now run parallel thoughts, processing information through two separate minds.
His second consciousness focused solely on cultivation, meaning he could train twenty-four hours a day. His growth rate was phenomenal—comparable to my own when I first attained enlightenment.
He quickly became the third-strongest member of the sect and would soon break into the Spirit Warrior realm.
Inspired by him, I tried applying my puppetry technique to cultivation. In a few more days, I'd reach the Golden Core realm—officially becoming superhuman.
Still, I could only cultivate while conscious, so my efficiency was capped at sixteen hours a day compared to Agustin's round-the-clock progress.
Sandra's Time Bomb ability hadn't changed much—it was already potent. She'd reached Foundation Level 4 and was now learning to merge her power with martial combat.
The fourth batch—Gael and Cahaya—showed little change.
Gael remained a Level 3 Copy esper, while Cahaya's Light Gradient ability was still Level 1.
Then came the fifth batch: fifteen-year-olds Boone and Jasper.
Jasper, a boy from Myanmar, wielded Level 3 Molding. He could create anything he imagined—but only from existing matter, not thin air. If he wanted to create a machine, he would need their raw materials.
Boone, the Egyptian boy whose leg Djalu had restored, possessed Level 2 Plant Growth.
He had become one of the most vital members of the sect, managing the greenhouses where we cultivated herbs for our pills.
Finally, the sixth and last batch—two seventeen-year-olds from Eastern Europe.
Sven awakened Level 2 Water Control, our only elemental-type esper.
Nadia awakened Level 3 Hammer, conjuring massive energy hammers to crush her enemies.
Elena once told me there would be twelve sect members, yet fourteen had stayed with me after being freed from the drug lord—fifteen if we counted Maya.
Two of them lacked cultivation roots and couldn't channel spiritual energy like the others. Even so, they didn't give up.
Kendrick and Jay. Both from Africa, but one of them has white skin.
They trained with the Knight's Aura Technique instead, and now both had the strength of Level 3 Foundation warriors.
To my surprise, both awakened abilities as well with the esper serum.
Kendrick could morph parts of his body into animal forms, while Jay developed Surge Shock, controlling the bioelectricity within his body as a weapon.
Both were Level 1 espers for now. Whether their powers could evolve further, I still didn't know.
"We will be going on our first mission." I addressed all of them.
Taking out a map, I said, "Capturing the tiger which crossed paths with me before."
"We will refine the man-eating beast into medicine for our growth. The one with the most contribution in the raid will receive his core– which would be turned into their own personal weapon."
I summoned my two spirit weapons. The marionette dagger, the one I made first. And the other one was a long sword made from the golden coloured core of the Blonde Mariotte who came after me before.
I also made another sword, but I gave that to Adrian Cross, who was already breaking into the spirit realm too. He truly was born with an extraordinary martial body.
We drove to Burbank, taking four cars. And then, hiked into the mountain where the tiger was located.
My snakes, Obsidian and Shiryu, also joined in the battle. Obsidian spat out all of the weapons she held in her stomach for the sect members to use.
I didn't use Shiryu as a weapon yet since my current sword was stronger and more durable than his transformed state.
"Elena. You're the commander. You will tell people what to do."
Her face was a bit worried, but she still nodded.
I stood in front of them and said, "I won't be joining you in the raid. I will watch over you to see that no one would die. So fight more confidently."
Everyone nodded in understanding.
I turned to the top of the hill and muttered, "There's something up there."
I sensed a peculiar energy in the air. "What is that?" My eyes sharpened.
…
We hiked deeper into the mountains, leaving the beaten path behind.
Sunlight filtered through the dense canopy, casting mottled shadows across the mossy ground. The air was cool and smelled of damp earth, moss, and fallen leaves.
A river gurgled nearby, forcing us to find a shallow crossing. Stepping stones slick with moss tested our balance, while the sound of rushing water masked our approach.
"The water feels great." Micheal said, before turning to me. "We should dive in later."
I just shrugged and said, "If you guys still have the energy for it."
Jagged cliffs rose on either side, partly shrouded in mist. I sensed the tiger's energy before we even glimpsed the den.
"We're really close." I told them. "I'll be on the tree, watching your battle."
I jumped and left Elena to take the lead.
She spread out her senses and then said, "There's 8 different beasts inside the cave. We're going to split up into teams."
"Micheal and I are going to take the Golden Core Tiger." Elena said. "Gael, you'll handle the top rank spirit beast alone."
"Alone?!" Gael was shocked.
"You can do it." Elena said with a convinced expression.
"Sandra and Agustin will be one team. Bayani, Cahaya, Sven– also one team."
"Kendrick, Djalu, Jasper. One team. Nadia, you will handle one beast. Jay will support you. Shiryu and Obsidian will handle the rest."
Everyone listened to Elena with a serious expression.
"We will not be going into the cave. That will be stupid. I will call them out here." Elena said and grabbed her bow and arrow.
It was the wooden bow I took from the SRU, and the arrows were made by Jasper with his mold powers. It was pure titanium alloy, quite light and dealt a lot of damage when it hit.
There were also runes carved on the arrow's body, which would be activated once Elena sent her energy into it.
Elena activated her mind channel and taunted the beasts inside the cave.
Then, two humongous boars that were as big as an elephant, two bald eagles with a wingspan of 3 meters each, two salamanders which were as big as a 20 feet long crocodile, and two giant tigers, both 5 meters tall, also came out from the cave.
"This is very strange." I muttered. "Why are all the animals living there in harmony? They should be very territorial with each other. Unless…"
My eyes flickered slightly. I wanted to search the cave, but I waited for the people to end their battles first.
"Change formation. I will handle the eagles. Shiryu, protect Micheal!" Elena commanded.
Micheal faced off with the Golden Core Tiger who lost his ball. Gael took the other panther, the female one.
The others lead the beasts to their own battleground. Elena immediately managed to shoot down one Eagle with her arrow as the eagles was only in the low level spirit realm.
She scrambled their mind, took the chance when they were confused to snipe them. The arrows were charged with her Wind Elemental Qi, which enhanced their speed and penetrative ability.
She was the first one to finish her battles, only needing three arrows to kill the two eagles.
"Fuck! Why do I have to go alone!" Gael cursed. He has copied Jay's esper power, Djalu's power, and Elena's power.
"Scramble!" He shouted, which stunned the female tiger.
Suddenly, electricity surged from his entire body. Using the footwork I taught him, he dashed towards the tiger and slammed his entire body into the tiger's head.
His skull cracked, his face was caved in. He managed to kill the tiger instantly, however it was suicide for him.
Then, he activated Djalu's power. His cracked skull and brain matter rejoined themselves quickly, which saved his life.
The male tiger was pissed off when he saw his partner was killed. He growled and swiped his claw at Micheal.
Micheal blocked it with his iron-coated skin, and used his gauntlet to counter attack with his Shaolin based fighting skill. He punched the tiger's hand, which cracked its bones.
The snake, Shiryu, took the chance to jump onto the broken hand, wrapped himself around it, and unleashed his spikes, which penetrated the tiger's skin.
As the tiger yelled in pain, an arrow was shot right into his left eye. Elena joined the battle immediately.
Sandra and Agustin handle a boar together.
"Honey, I feel like eating pork tonight." Agustin teased as he took out some chemicals from his bag. In just a few seconds, he made explosive nitroglycerine.
"Really? Cause I feel like beef." Sandra said, throwing metal balls to the ground.
The boar dashed towards the two, trying to ram them. As it jumped over the balls, it exploded, which threw him up in the air and injured its belly.
"This too." Agustin gave Sandra the vial he made. She charged it with her power and threw it to the boar.
BO– A loud explosion almost happened, but Bayani managed to snuff it out with his soundproof barrier.
"You want to call everyone into the area?" He scolded Agustin.
Bayani stood on top of another dead boar's body. Cahaya used her light ability to blind it. Djalu made it deaf. As Sven was preparing his water ability to suffocate it, Djalu had the idea to throw his supersonic voice into the boar's ears.
Its eardrum burst instantly, and the waves attacked its brain directly, killing it before Sven could do anything.
Kendrick used a sword to fight. He turned his hand into a chimpanzee's and slashed at the Salamander.
The Salamander's body was cut easily, but then, it regenerated.
"Attack its weak point." Djalu said, also holding a sword and stabbed it on the Salamander's head.
However, it still didn't kill it. There was no brain in its head. It was moving its important organs to everyone inside its body.
Jasper said, "If it can be rebuilt after getting cut, why don't we separate the pieces to see where it holds its organs?"
Using his molding power, he shaped the earth into a barrier immediately after cutting the salamander into two. The top half still moved but the lower one didn't.
So they cut it again, and again, and again, until they could pinpoint its brain at its right hand.
The Salamander didn't move fast, so it was easy for them to experiment.
Nadia, the esper with the hammer ability, also took out one Salamander on his own.
His hammer was even bigger than the 20 foot long Salamander, although he needed almost 5 minutes to charge it.
Jay kept cutting the Salamander and distracting it until Nadia finished charging.
Only the Golden Core tiger was left in the battlefield. Micheal, Elena and Shiryu were chipping away at their health. Obsidian covered behind the tiger, making sure it wouldn't run away.
It was a Golden Core tiger, yet in the face of the esper sect, it couldn't do anything.
Finally, Micheal punched its head and cracked its skull, effectively killing it.
It took 8 minutes for the fight to end. Against a beast with low-level intelligence, it was a pretty easy fight for them.
I applauded as I jumped down to the ground and stood facing all of them.
"Congrajulations on winning your first battle."
They beamed in smiles. "Make sure to dig out their cores. I will use their body for refinement now. Jasper, please, build the pill cauldron for me."
Jasper nodded in agreement. "El, I'm going to check the cave for a second. Something is bothering me."
"Okay Owen." Elena replied, wiping the sweat from her forehead.
As I ventured into the cave, I found several runes, and an altar.
"This is a breeding ground."
My assumption from earlier was correct. I saw bags of animal feed, some human skulls, and also an array that would increase the chances of the animal breeding.
"It seemed that I had killed someone's well-fed pet."
I jumped back down after finishing my investigation.
To refine the animals into pills, a mystical fire force was needed. It was called the Dou Qi. It was born with a combination of Qi and soul attributes.
Mine has a myriad of colours as my souls have undergone a lot of lives.
The animal bodies were huge. So Jasper made a cauldron from earth and ores he found to be able to envelop all of it.
I sent my Dou Qi fire into the cauldron, and the Pill refining began.
"It will take at least 13 hours for the pills to finish. The smell might attract more spirits beasts in the area here, so be alert." I told my sect members.
They created a perimeter around the cauldron and protected me as I refined the pills.
I added the spirit grass, the ginseng, and some spirit flowers to the pill.
The pill making went on smoothly. There were no spirit beasts around the area except for the ones in the nest.
Soon, 20 cultivation pills were finished. They have a green hue, with a smooth outer surface. I gave everyone one each, and asked them to take it right there.
I also gave two pills to my snakes.
There was 4 left, which would be given to Elena, Micheal, Gael and Bayani since they had performed really well in the fight.
As they ate the pills while sitting in a meditative state, I found several– Such as Kendrick, Jay, Sven and Nadia, to be struggling to contain the energy in the pills.
'It's only a low-grade cultivation pill. Toddlers ate it as a snack back in my wuxia world.'
I pressed their backs and inputted the puppetry program on their bodies to help them absorb the energy. Soon, black impurities began to seep out of their bodies– all of them.
Some have more, some have less.
Elena absorbed her pill quickly and ate another one. She has dark sticky fluid coming out of her skin.
"Did none of them have gone through the cleansing yet?" I was slightly surprised. I thought they had done that in the beginning.
"Or… is it impurities that were absorbed after?" I hypothesized.
We spent the entire weekend at the cliff, since the array there for the beast cultivation had thickened the heaven and earth energy around the area.
I studied the crudely written array, figured out their techniques, and also set some traps inside the nest with Jasper's help.
I added a trap door, flying poisonous needle, and also boulders dropping from the top, turning the nest into a death trap.
"Bring the skulls out." I told my sect members. "They deserved a proper burial."
We took a bath at the river and then rode our cars back to the Montecito Apartment in Pasadena.
Zoey– David's daughter, asked as she came with her dad. "Where did you guys go?"
I smiled and said, "We went camping."
"No wonder everyone looks exhausted."
She looked at everyone else who had a roughed up aura to them.
I gathered the cores of the beast, and said to everyone, "If you have a request on what type of weapon you wanted, tell me before I make it."
"Elena. Micheal. Gael. Agustin. Bayani. Sven. Djalu. Sandra."
Sandra suddenly raised her hand and said, "I don't really need a weapon."
Since they would explode anyway. It was better for her to use normal ones.
"Okay. Then, a defensive armor." I replied.
Sandra widened her eyes in surprise.
…
A few days had passed since then. It was the middle of November.
So far, The Sixth Sense had earned over $550 million at the box office. Independence Day had already surpassed it with $630 million.
Even though the theater run had slowed down, the movies were still being screened far longer than they would be in the year 2025.
The Sixth Sense was already in its fifth month in theaters, yet the exhibitors wanted to extend its screening time even after the six-month run was over.
That was actually normal in this era. I remembered that My Big Fat Greek Wedding once ran for an entire year in theaters because of repeated audience demand.
Hold On Tight, which was released in September, had already spent two months in theaters and reached $250 million worldwide. However, it slowed down significantly after Disney's 101 Dalmatians came out.
Swingers made 130 million worldwide.
Fantastical Halloween made around $35 million domestically and about $25 million internationally in just two weeks.
The film's theme was especially well received in the Asian market—particularly in Japan and Korea. They loved it more than the 101 Dalmation movie there.
So I decided to give that movie a proper theater run, adding two more months to it before it would go to the DTV market.
Finally, my action movie had finished filming. Pre-production took two weeks, while filming itself lasted eight weeks, since I allowed the actors extra time to train for their stunt scenes.
Arnold was paid $5 million for his role after I expanded it from a cameo to a supporting character. He was hesitant at first, but he'd been so pissed off by the Batman movie that he decided to do it.
He had five lines in the entire film—and was paid one million dollars for each one.
"We're really not using the DTV thing at all." Claire sighed.
As Jack Kennedy, I laughed at her and said, "It was actually a good thing the movie was successful in the theater."
"Yes." She agreed with me. "But we had invested millions into upgrading the factories' manufacturing so we can burn disk into VCD now. It felt weird not to use that."
I agreed with her and said, "Take a look at this."
I took out a CD and put it on the VCD player. Then, the menu popped out.
"Bob the Builder?" Claire was confused.
"Yeah." I nodded. "A stop motion show for kids. It has 3 episodes here on this disk. Take a look."
With Jasper, Bayani, Cahaya and Agustin's help, I managed to finish the stop motion project in just a week.
Since I didn't need to go and change the position of the stop motion model by hand, I could stay behind the camera and just took pictures of them.
Agustin edited it all into a stop motion video, with smooth rates. Bayani changed his voice into multiple voices, fitting the dialogue to the model.
"It is like Pingu?" Claire was interested.
"The sound is crisp." She added. "The lighting too, it felt natural. Like they were truly outside. The frame rate of the stop motion is smooth. This… can sell well."
"I have 10 episodes of this." I said, which shocked her. "There's 20 more coming later this year."
"Why don't you try to sell this using the DTV? Or pitch it to a TV network? See if they want to air it."
She grimaced and said, "If tv network picked it up, then we will have to wait again for the DTV."
"Oh. Right." I said flatly.
Claire sighed and said, "I guess the only way for our DTV market is to make an erotic thriller. We can buy a sequel right for a horror movie or a slightly successful movie and make that."
"Won't that be damaging for our brand? Since we're building a more mainstream one right now." I asked, biting my pen.
She said, "We'll release it under a different label. Same as what Disney does with their more adult projects — they release those under Touchstone Pictures or Hollywood Pictures instead of using the Disney name."
"The name should not be related to our Clover brand." She added.
"What about, Rizz Master Entertainment?" I suggested.
"What is Rizz?" Claire was confused.