***
Opening his interface, Azariah was quick to see the status option.
____________
[Status]
____________
He clicked on it, manifesting a new holographic screen in front of him.
Terminals were designed in such a way that a person could hide their interfaces from other people around them if they wanted.
Azariah wasn't too worried about Aaron seeing anything because of this.
But as his eyes went to the new status interface in front of him, they froze.
Not from surprise, but from absolute confusion.
______________
Name: Azariah Percival
Age: 21
Node Capacity: 3400/3400
Artificial Integrations:
﹂ Umbrakinesis ❉ Intermediate
Administrative Attainment:
﹂ Pixelation
_____________
'What the fuck?' Azariah blurted out in his thoughts.
Lucky that he hadn't said it out loud but he was damn close to doing so.
Because what the hell was he seeing right now?
As the creator of the game, Yuito knew well enough how the Status windows looked.
This definitely wasn't how it was supposed to be.
What the hell were Artificial Integrations?
And even more confusing, what the fuck was an adminstrative attainment?
As the creator, how was it that he had never heard about those things.
'Okay, we need to calm down.'
Azariah took an inward sigh, closing his eyes to recollect his thoughts.
From the moment he had came to this world, he kept seeing new and unusual things that he wasn't supposed to see.
Looking at the interface again, he tried to make sense of the words in front of him.
First of all, why does this body have no kinesis path?
It made no sense at all.
Closing his eyes, Azariah quickly tried to feel the synapse node in his body.
It was the place where a synapth's mana was stored.
To manipulate mana or even execute magic, you need a Synapse Gene.
It's located inside your brain from birth and the absence of it means you cannot execute magic.
But to execute magic, you need the mana to execute it as well.
Which is where the storage, Synapse Node came in.
It is also formed inside a person's body at birth and gradually spreads out in the forms of veins along with age and training.
Since you can't feel your Synapse Gene, you have to feel your Synapse Node. And if you don't have a node, then most likely you don't have a gene too.
Which means you were unable to execute magic from birth.
But as Azariah tried to feel his synapse core, he found it.
It wasn't anything special or powerful but it was there, in his body. Which meant that he did have a Synapse Gene.
Then why did he have no kinesis paths? He was completely clueless.
Well to be fair, he did have one but it was under something else called 'Artificial Integration'.
'What the hell does this mean?'
Was he a robot or something?
But the words made sense as he saw the rank of his kinesis path underneath as well.
'Intermediate'. Pathetic.
At 21 years of age, to only be an Intermediate rank was disgustingly weak. Especially, as someone from the Ten Clans.
'Am I so low-ranked in Umbrakinesis because it's artificial?'
It was possible.
Maybe his integration was an inferior version of the actual Umbrakinesis path.
Unfortunately, he could only prove his theories later with testing.
Moving on, it got even more confusing.
What was an 'Administrative Attainment'???
He was the legitimate creator of this game and he never remembered adding such things in the game.
Was this some access level given to a higher entity?
It was possible that it was given to him because he was the creator.
But then it raised the question, who was even the owner of this game?
Or this 'world' now.
'I'm thinking too much about this. I need to shut up.'
He was right.
There was no use making speculations just from the literary meanings.
But what intrigued him was the ability under the Attainment section.
'Pixelation.'
What were these game-like words that he was seeing?
What was even this place that he had gotten transmigrated into? He didn't know anymore.
Did it allow him to manipulate the pixels of the game or something?
But this was real life now.
Suddenly, a realization passed his brain and his eyes shook wide.
'Wait, pixels…'
Unfortunately, he was unable to continue his train of thoughts as he was disrupted by the sudden words of Alyssa.
"Thank you."
His eyes shot up to the stage, where he saw her leaving the podium, done with her speech.
'I missed it again…'
He was so lost in his thoughts, he didn't hear anything from Alyssa's speech again.
But why was the hall so silent?
"That's an interesting Terminal you have there. I've never seen one in this shape."
He was once again caught off guard by the words of Aaron from the side, who was now staring at his terminal.
Or his 'phone'.
Azariah replied with a slight laugh.
"Yeah, it's like a minimized TV. It's convenient for me like this."
"Hmm, interesting. It does look like a smaller TV," Aaron said at his reply.
'Thank god, at least T.Vs exist in this world.'
"Anyways, it's time for us to go."
Aaron stood up, making Azariah realize that everyone else had starting moving out as well.
As he looked at their expressions though, he saw them all seething with anger.
Not only the Div 2 students but the Div 1's as well.
'Did I miss something?'
"Well, Azariah was it? I'm glad to make such an interesting friend on my first day here." Aaron smiled.
"Yeah, me too. It's really nice to know everyone isn't an asshole here," Azariah replied, eliciting a laugh from Aaron.
"True, it was nice sitting with you. Maybe we should exchange contact information to ever meet again after classes?"
Aaron took out his terminal. It was like a thick pencil.
Intrigued by his offer, Azariah was quick to take him up on it.
"Oh yeah, of course. It's a pity I can't take Division 2 classes but we can definitely meet afterwards."
Taking out his terminal as well, the two tapped them together, automatically exchanging contact informatoin.
It was one of the many features of the terminal.
"Well, I'll catch you later Azariah. You should better go back to your job now." He winked.
'Oh fuck, I completely forgot.'
"Yeah, I'll get going too. Again, thanks alot for helping me with that seat!"
Aaron laughed it off.
"Don't worry about it, they all hate me too."
As Aaron left, Azariah stared at his back.
Well, he was glad that he at least got to know someone else asides from the main cast.
And he was a Division 2 student too.
'Something better in the day of darkness.'
Nevermind, he was getting late.
Shaking his thoughts, he quickly tried to search for Alyssa again.
The orientation was fnally over for the day.
***
"Phew, finally done man." Azariah plopped on his bed after a tiring first day of his job finally came to an end.
He was at his dorm room now.
No matter if he was a bodyguard, there were no shared dorms in the academy for a male and female together.
The most they could do was make Azariah's and Alyssa's dorm right next to each other.
Thankfully, he liked this restriction.
He wanted to have a space for himself in the future for any unique experiments or thing's he'd be doing.
He knew Alyssa wasn't the type of girl to complain about anything to her family if she saw but, he liked to be cautious.
Undoing his tie, Azariah stared at himself in the mirror.
He was undoubtedly, much more handsome than his face in his past life. Those delicate features truly showed that he was an elite offspring.
But beneath that face, he observed that he was nothing.
He had barely any muscle on him and his skin hugged his bones so much, one would think he was a walking skeleton.
And not to mention, what he saw on his terminal today.
Splashing some water on his face, Azariah looked at his reflection in the mirror.
"I need to get strong, much stronger."
Forget protecting Alyssa, he couldn't even hold his own in a fight right now.
What kind of bodyguard was he if he wasn't even qualified enough to protect his client.
If he wanted to survive in this world and stop those explusion threats in the future, he had to start today.
And the first step in this plan was to figure his powers. Especially, the new ability [Pixelation].
This would all begin from tomorrow when the official classes would finally begin.