— Some time later —
After a breakfast that nearly sent him to the grave early, Nylon passed by a bobbing spherical robot on his way out of the house. He shot this robot a sympathetic look, as literally every one of its cooking suggestions had been ignored by the stubborn 4th young miss.
"Wait, Darling!" Tessa called out, urging Nylon to turn around. In that instant, she leaned up on her tippy toes, taking his soft lips for herself—tongue and everything was inserted.
After not permitting him oxygen for a good two minutes, she disengaged the kiss. A string of shiny saliva connected the two of them. Tessa cutely chomped it in the middle before going in for a moment-long, lips-only kiss.
Then and only then did she let him leave, with a hidden message in her smiling expression that said, "You cheat, you die."
Nylon understood the message loud and clear, though he was still a bit unclear on the status of their relationship. It wasn't like they were dating or anything, but that passionate night had been more than just a simple one-night stand, such as what happened with Warden Anna.
"Am I really ready to move on…?" Nylon's thoughts turned extremely complicated, with his walk outside a rather aimless one.
A serious relationship might just be too much for him right now…
After a while of getting nowhere in his own thoughts, Nylon figured he'd go to town and scour the Martial Arts Libraries for information on the 7th Awakening Plane—Mystery. As the next—and probably the most important of the Planes in the Awakening Realm—he had to be thoroughly prepared, as it required more than just Spirit Stones.
— Outside a Martial Arts Library Pagoda in Stormrock Town —
"You said that brat is in there?" an arrogant voice cut through the air, preceding the prideful strut of a young man with a pompous appearance.
"Yes, Young Master Kevin," a Family Servant in the 8th Plane respectfully replied. "As we speak, he should still be rapidly browsing the Martial Arts Manuals, acting as if he's actually reading them."
Curious to know what his servant was talking about, Kevin strutted into the multi-story pagoda. A couple of the higher-level staff immediately recognized who he was and gave their respect, but he barely gave them a passing glance, his focus instead on the man who looked as if he'd just come out of a painting.
There he was: Nylon, sifting through the pages of a Manual at a speed faster than lightning.
"What's this fool doing?" Kevin sneered, speaking loud enough for the dozens of others in the pagoda to hear him. "This doofus actually squandered his money in order to come here and show off in front of nobody! Ha!"
Whispers started to circulate in the surroundings, supporting Kevin's stance.
"I've no idea who this guy reading is, but what Young Master Kevin said is correct. What's the point of spending dozens of Low-grade Spirit Stones just to show off??"
"What a pointless act by a gigolo braggart!"
"Gigolo?" asked a girl who fancied Nylon's appearance. "Why do you say that?"
"You don't know?? This pretty boy sometimes comes into town, and guess under whose orders!?"
"Who…?"
"The 4th daughter of the North Sea Family, Tessa Northstar!"
"THE Tessa Northstar!?" The girl's eyes widened, hand placed over her agape mouth. "Like, the one living on the hill outside town??"
"Who else?? Of course it's that Tessa Northstar!"
Hearing this, everyone threw either surprised or envious looks at Nylon. Conversely, he didn't even know they were talking and staring at him—nor would he care.
'The Technique Manuals in this world are pretty rudimentary,' he pondered, placing a book back in its original place before opening a new one. 'Even just naturally guiding my refinement process from what I remember of New Dawn is much more effective than if I were to build my foundation with this garbage.'
The "garbage" Nylon was referring to was what most mortals would never be able to glimpse in their lifetimes. The Manuals varied from the Low to Peak Mortal Rank and were inferior only to the Sky and Earth Techniques offered in the cities and Sects scattered around the country. Any normal person would kill for what Nylon was disregarding as garbage.
However, he was not like everyone else, and possessed certain "qualities" that not even the Scientists of the Facility that imprisoned him knew he had. One of those qualities was something that even Nylon didn't realize he possessed.
Its name?
ACTUALIZATION.
If you could describe it—and assuming Nylon had the energy and understanding of that concept necessary—then he could make it a reality.
In New Dawn, this illogical godsent gift of his had been categorized as a simple "Memory Enhancer" by the Evil Scientists. They were blind to the truth, but so too was Nylon.
'The concepts behind the content of these Manuals aren't the worst,' he thought. 'Unlike my Techniques and Martial Skills in New Dawn, which can't be used in the real world and are thus useless to me, these Manuals hold real-life applicable aspects. They pertain to the cultivation systems for the Energy and Body Paths, meaning that I can extract and rewrite.'
|Actualization| was put to the test in the Martial Arts Pagoda. Nylon flipped through hundreds of Manuals, absorbing all information, extracting the useful parts, and finally coalescing it all into a Cultivation Technique of his very own.
*Whoosh—*
"Huh?? Why is the wind blowing inside the pagoda??" someone questioned, his clothes wildly blowing about. "Isn't this place supposed to be protected by advanced plasma-powered barriers!?"
There were dozens of cultivators of different cultivation levels inside the Violet Garden Pagoda, and right now, they were all being affected by the strange flow of wind. They, along with the still-arrogant Kevin, found themselves looking at Nylon.
'Is this brat the source of the weirdness in here?' Kevin's eyes narrowed into thin slits. He didn't have a good feeling about this development.
Picking up the last book in the Violet Garden Pagoda, Nylon paused ever so briefly.
His eyes closed.
Then they opened.
OOOM!