Chapter 1: Great Escape

Hearing the alarm, the young boy’s eyes flashed. If he was given the slightest opportunity, he would escape. All the people that were in the holding cells had an alarmed expression on as one asked in a disbelief, “Who would dare to attack the Flagship of the 13th Special Attack Operations Fleet?” However, in a cell that was very far away from the little boy, there was a burly old man with short grey hair that was smiling. He was inside a normal cell and actually had very lax security. His hands weren’t even cuffed.

The man with grey hair had a muscular body and was currently wearing a black tank top with brown shorts and military boots. The old man closed his eyes and murmured, “Finally they come, I was starting to think that they would let the ship rendezvous with the fleet.” Hearing alarm, the guards entered the little boy’s holding cell. Four men were holding the young boy at gun point while two were aiming at the cell door and the last four had divided themselves. Two were aiming towards one end of the hallway, where a door was and the other two were aiming at the other side of the hallway. This was a tight guard that did not allow the little boy to even make one suspicious move while the doors leading to the imprisonment area were tightly monitored.

They had received an order from the Captain before, that if the ship goes into battle mode, no matter who, anyone who enters those two doors will be shot without a moments hesitation. As the sounds of explosions and firing grew fiercer and fiercer outside, soon sounds of firing and yelling were also heard from inside the ship itself. As the sounds of battle neared, everyone visibly tensed up.

It did not matter if they were the guards or prisoners, all of them tensed up and then suddenly, one of the doors at the end of the hallway opened. The moment it opened, the two guards, who had been pointing at the door, shot at the person at the door without any hesitation. After they had emptied their magazines, they were greeted by a humanoid steel golem.

The steel golem just laughed, “What are your puny Physical Rounds going to do now?” As he said so, the giant hunk of steel dashed forward and rushed towards the guards. Just as the two guards, who had been guarding the other end of the hallway, turned around to shoot at the giant hunk of steel, the other door leading to the prison area was blasted open.

*Siu*

*Siu*

Two bullets made of compressed air flew through the heads of the two guards that just turned around. Before the other two could reload their weapons the giant hunk of steel had arrived before them and as he swung his massive arm down, he directly squashed one of the guards heads. As for the other, he was smacked away like a fly and he flew out of the prison area into the hallway and as he hit the wall, only bones breaking could be heard as blood trickled down from the corners of his mouth and nose.

The guards who were aiming at the cell’s doorway, immediately shot at the sight of the steel man. However, only spark flew off of him as the bullets bounced off of him. Suddenly, one of the guard who was keeping the young boy at gun point shouted, “Use Energy Rounds! Unless it is a cannon, Physical Rounds can’t hurt him.” Seeing the peculiar scene of 4 men holding a little malnourished boy, that was chained to a wall, at gun point, the man covered in steel froze for a second.

He had no idea what the little boy had done but wasn’t this far too excessive? Suddenly, the old man with grey hair shouted form his cell, “Hey Block Head, kill those guards! We are taking that little boy with us!”

Hearing that, the man in steel woke up from his stupefaction, he saw that the guards had already loaded in Energy Bullets. Seeing this, the man’s face changed as he jumped to side yelling, “Shit, Energy Rounds!” Just before the two shot at him, he managed to dodge to the cover of the wall.

He let out a breath of relief and then looked towards the other side of the hallway, where a girl that was approximately 20 years old was cautiously walking towards the cell with the open door. She was wearing a tight combat suit that brought our her curves quite nicely. Her hair was green and extended to her waist. Her emerald green eyes were quite cold as she stopped next to the prison cell the young boy was in.

She nodded towards the man covered by steel and seeing this nod, the steel man held up six fingers indicating that there are six guards there in total. Then he showed two fingers and made the motion of holding a gun. It was a sign that two were currently aiming here. The green haired woman nodded again seriously and then stood up.

She took a deep breath and suddenly jumped. As she jumped, a gust of wind seemed to push her from the side and she quickly flew across the doorway to the other side.

When she moved across the doorway, a Siu* Siu* Siu* Siu* was heard and a few seconds after that, there were four thumping sounds made by four bodies hitting the floor. As the four bodies dropped to the floor, the steel man rushed inside the cell and quickly took care of the two guards left. After all of the guards were taken care of, the woman with green hair moved in front of the bulky old man’s cell and took a deep breath. As if spitting something out of her mouth, the cell door exploded.

The old man scratched at the back of his head and said, “Sheesh, would it kill you to wait for me to step back a bit before you blow up the door Sandra?” The young woman rolled her eyes and said, “Tinkerer, you should know very well that we do not have much time, so it was obvious that I would get you out as fast as possible. But are you certain?” As she asked the final question, she gestured towards the young boy’s cell with her eyes.

The old man also turned serious as he said in a low voice, “Yes, I will explain it later. Our first priority is getting out of here.” As he said so, he quickly went towards the young man’s cell. Since their cells were so far apart, he had no idea how he was imprisoned.

So, when he arrived at the cell door and saw the young boy chained, his mouth opened wide as he asked in disbelief, “Did you massacre their whole platoon to get this kind of treatment or what?” The young boy looked at the old man and said, “Why do you want to take me with you?” The old man put on a bitter smile and said, “Well, currently getting you out is very hard…. Your chains are all made from Adatantium, so no ESP ability will be able to break them. Getting them off would require us to pick all of the locks but we do not have the time for that.”

Hearing this the young man just looked at the old man in the eyes and asked again in a cold tone, “Why do you want to take me with you?” When the old man saw those cold eyes, his heart turned sour as he thought to himself, “What do you need to go through to transform a small child like that?”

The old man turned serious and said, “Since you seem so suspicious of us, let’s make a deal.” Hearing this, the other two’s faces changed as well. They did not know anything about the young boy but the old man had heard him say that he had escaped from the Garden of Eden, so he could not be someone simple. The young boy’s eyes flashed again as he asked in a low tone, “What deal?” The old man smiled and said, “We will get you out of here and in return you will work for us, how about it?” Hearing this, the young boy was surprised as he asked, “And who are you?”

The old man puffed out his chest with pride and said, “I am George Oil, the Head Mechanic of the Roaming Phantom Pirates fleet. And you would be working for our Roaming Phantom Pirates fleet, so you would not have to fear the Kriegrich Empire’s fleets chasing after you any more, since every authority in the Galaxy will be chasing after you.”

Hearing this, the young boy was surprised as he asked, “Are you not afraid that you will bring on the wrath of the Kriegrich Empire onto your Pirate Group if you recruit someone like me?” The steel man and the woman named Sandra both looked at the young boy oddly after that. It was a well known fact that their Pirate Group was like fire and water with Kriegrich Empire. The old man laughed loudly and said, “No need to worry about that. The Kriegrich Empire already considers us as mortal enemies, adding you into our ranks would only be beneficial for us while creating a bigger headache for them. So, do we have a deal?”

The young boy thought about the old man’s proposal but then remembered that they do not have enough time to undo the chains on his body. Just as he was about to say something, a communicator at the waist of Sandra let out a, urgent voice, “Sandra, Krieg! How long are you going to take? We have already exceeded the mission time and the reinforcements from the Enemy Fleet will arrive in 15 minutes. If we do not leave in the next 10 minutes, we are all going to die.” Just as Sandra was about to take the communicator, George took the communicator and said, “Give us 5 more minutes. I promise you, the wait will be worth it.”

As he said so, he turned the communicator off. He looked at the young man still chained to the wall and asked, “So, what is your answer? Since we have a time limit, I can’t let you think long.” The young boy said, “Okay, you have a deal.”

Hearing this, the old man was very happy as he started moving towards the panel that controlled the cell. The young man just yelled at him, “There is no time for you to hack into the system and release these chains. Only Commander Grade and up people have the permission required to undo these chains!” Hearing this, the old man froze and Krieg and Sandra looked at him in disbelief. Commanders were the people that were at the top of the food chain in a fleet. Above them would only be the Generals and the Emperor, so to try and hack into the system and try to remove the chains would be nigh impossible in the time frame they had.

“Do you have any other suggestions?” George said to him as he started walking towards the panel again. The young boy turned to Krieg, the giant steel man, and said, “Take the guards guns and shoot at the fourth link from my body, that is these chains weak spot. Although this won’t help me get these chains off immediately, at least we can get out of here.” Hearing this, George turned around and asked suspiciously, “Are you certain that this will work?” The young man nodded and said, “One hundred per cent sure. You need to use the Physical Rounds and aim at the fourth link from my body.” Hearing this, the old man decided to follow the little boy’s suggestion.

At the moment, this was the best they got any ways. After he picked up the gun, he carefully aimed at the welding spot of the fourth link and just as he shot at it, the link broke. Seeing that his was working, he eagerly shot the chains holding his legs and then finally, the one holding the arm. As the final chain got broken, the young boy fell to the ground.

Seeing his weak state, George put him on his back and started following Krieg and Sandra towards the rendezvous spot. He looked like a small koala baby that was on his mother’s back. George’s broad back was big enough for the little boy to use it as a shield.

All of the soldiers they saw during their escape were all killed off by the combination of Krieg’s shield like frame and Sandras air bullets that she shot out. After 5 minutes of running around in this maze like battlecruiser, they finally made it to their rendezvous spot. When the pirates, that were holding the fort saw the three of them come, relief was painted on their face. However, they soon looked at them in confusion when they saw the little boy being piggybacked by George.

After a moment of confusion, they sobered up and continued with their cover fire as they did not have the time to be dazed and confused. They all started going back through the bridge that was linking their two ships and Krieg, Sandra, George and the young boy would be left last. Just as they were halfway over the bridge, a wall of ice suddenly blocked them off. Seeing this, they faces fell as Krieg tried to body smash it to bits but was rebounded off the wall.

All three of them looked back with ugly faces. They saw a young man wearing officer’s clothes walking in. His hair was black and short. His blue eyes gave of a feeling like you were stuck in a blizzard. His build was slender over all and in his right hand was a military sabre. He looked at the three coldly and said, “I don’t mind if you escape George.”

George cleared his throat and just as he was about to say something, the young man released an ice cold aura as he continued, “But he is not going anywhere.” As he said so, he pointed his sword at the young boy on George’s back. George’s face fell even further and turned quite grotesque but the two at his side were even more confused about the little boy. Seeing his imprisonment method, they felt as though he was some kind of a mass murder but it seemed like George knew something about him and his importances to the Kriegrich Empire was quite big.

Hearing this, the young boy climbed down from George’s back and stood in front of the three. He smiled as he whispered in a low voice, “Back up until the wall and leave a hole between me and the wall. Also, be ready to bolt on my command.” Hearing this, Sandra raised her brows and asked, “What are you-”

The young boy cut her short with a gesture of his hand and whispered, “Trust me, I do not want to go back to that hell, so there is no way I am staying.” Just as she was about to rebuke him again, George put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head, indicating to do as the little boy said.

Seeing them back against the wall like that, the young man asked in a cold voice, “What are you planning Engineer?” The little boy just smiled at him and said, “I have no interest in going back to the Academy, so bye bye Frost.” As soon as his words ended, he turned around and smashed towards the wall of ice with his chains.

Seeing that, Frost’s face was coloured in surprise but soon grew alarmed as he realised what the little boy was going to do. The moment the chains came in contact with the ice wall, the wall burst into little snowflakes. Seeing this, the little boy yelled, “Run!” Without skipping a beat, all of them started running towards the pirate ship. Seeing all of them run, the young man shouted, “Stop right there!”

As he said so, he swept the sabre horizontally to the ground and four icicles flew towards George and company. Seeing the icicles flying towards them, Krieg’s, Sandra’s and George’s faces fell, they had no confidence what so ever in being able to take them head on. Just as they grit their teeth to take them head on, the little boy who was running at the back of the group, suddenly jumped up and swept the chains towards the icicles and as each of the chains accurately hit the icicles, they immediately evaporated.

After landing, the little boy started running like the wind again. The bridge was originally 500 meters long, 5 meters wide and 3 meters high but currently, it seemed like it was 500 kilometers long to the four. There was only 150 meters until the pirate ship and in the short distance of 350 meters, they had nearly died twice already. The chains still bound at the little boy’s hands were only 1 meter long.

Each chain was enormous and it was very heavy. To see the little boy actually being able to run and do such acrobatic movements with these chains made all of the pirates dumbfounded as one of them asked subconsciously, “Is that little guy a monster in human form?” Although no one openly agreed with him, no one rebuked him either.

When there was only 50 meters left until their goal, the young man called Frost dashed behind them and had caught up to them. All he needed to do was stretch out his hand and he would be able to catch the little boy. Seeing this, the pirate’s face changed as they all aimed their guns at him. Just as Frost caught the little boy by the collar of his shirt, the young boy borrowed the jerking force and did a backflip as the chains tied to both his feet came swinging towards Frost in a whip like manner.

Seeing the incoming chains, Frost let go of the little boy’s collar and adapted a defensive pose. However, before the chains could hit him, he felt two little feet press on the guarding arm and push off. It was only then that he realised that the hit with the chains was a feint and the little boy was actually using him as a spring board to dash forward. The three had already reached the door and had turned around just in time to see the little boy get caught.

However, their faces were painted in astonishment when they saw him fight Frost head on like that and even outsmart him. After the little boy had done a roll on the ground, he immediately continued sprinting towards the door. There were only 20 meters to go and the distance between him and Frost was 40 meters. Seeing him get away, Frost roared, “You will not escape Engineer!”

As he said so, he extended his left hand and a chain made of ice shot out from his palm. Just as the little boy crossed the doorway to the pirate ship, a chain of ice wrapped around his neck. Seeing this, George immediately smashed the button next to the door, so it would close. The door’s couldn’t fully close because of the ice chain but the little boy had recovered from the sudden loss of balance and hit the ice chain with the chains made of Adatantium.

As the chain made of ice evaporated into thin air in a split second, the doors closed and the bridge was detached as the ship immediately flew away. Since the Pirates ship was smaller, it’s flying speed and maneuverability was many times higher than a massive warships. Before the warship could even turn around, the little pirate ship had already entered Hyper Space and flown away.

On board the ship, the pirates at the door, felt as though a heavy rock has been lifted from their hearts. This kind of a risky attack on their flag ship was close to suicide to be honest, them being able to emerge with their lives intact was already something they were immensely happy for. Finally, Krieg could not take it and yelled at the little boy, “Are you some kind of a monster wearing human skin?”

Everyone’s eyes turned toward the little boy that was down on the ground panting. The little boy looked up and locked eyes with Krieg. He then said in a cold tone, “Anyone who has survived in the Academy as long as me can do at least that much.” Hearing this, everyone fell silent. George just gave a cough and asked, “You said before that you “escaped from the Garden of Eden”. Why did you need to escape from it for?” Hearing the name “Garden of Eden”, every pirate pointed their gun at the little boy.

The tension was sky high and if even a pin dropped nearby, it could startle someone into shooting. The little boy looked at George in astonishment as he asked him, “What kind of a place do you think the Academy is?” Hearing this, everyone faltered. Not much was known about the Academy, only thing that was known was that only especially selected people were able to enrol in it and the people that graduated got the position of a Captain of a ship at the very least.

In the eyes of everyone, that place was a holy ground that produced one genius after another. George also faltered but immediately answered, “It is a place where geniuses convene and when they graduate, they will be guaranteed a spot as the Captain of a ship. They are the elite of the elites of the Kriegrich Empire.” Hearing this, the young boy just laughed loudly.

He then stood up and said in a mocking tone, “That place is a living Hell. Every year, over a hundred 5 year olds are forced to enrol in that Hell hole and 10 years later only two or at maximum three people will be able to graduate. Do you know how?”

Hearing this, every single one of them were startled as their arms started to falter. The young boy walked directly in front of George and looked at him in the eyes as he said, “Each person that manages to graduate is someone that has climbed over a mountain of corpses. The number of people that survive the first year is half of the people that enrolled. The only way to graduate is to either survive for 10 years or to graduate early, you need to be that last person standing.” Hearing this, everyone’s guns started lowering because they were far too shocked about this.

Because what happened in the Garden of Eden was a complete mystery, it sparked a lot of theories on how they were taught but none of the theories came even close to the truth it seems. George also looked at the young man stupefied but before he could say anything, the little boy said, “So, that place is not as glamorous as you all think. To people that actually go there, it is a living Hell. You can trust no one because at the end, maximum of three people will be allowed to survive. So, if in your year are over a hundred people, tell me, who doesn’t want to survive?”

This made everyone deeply think about their actions just now. Also, this kind of an environment would explain why every person that graduated the Academy was so strong, cunning and indifferent to human life. One of the surrounding people asked, “Why do you not make a non killing pact amongst yourselves?” The little boy looked at the man who said that and answered, “I said, only three people would be allowed to survive at the maximum. They are the three people that have the highest kill count, if by the end of ten years, there are more than three people surviving, the three with the highest kill count will be spared, the rest will be killed.”

After hearing the explanation, everyone gulped again. In their minds however, they were screaming, “What kind of a bullshit environment is that?! Only three people are allowed to survive? Is this some kind of a joke?” George calmed down his fast beating heart and asked, “So, the reason that the flagship of an entire fleet was separated like that was because of you?”

The little boy just spread his arms out like he was giving a hug to someone and said, “Yes, I, Jack Lumi, am the first person in the history of the Academy to successfully escape from it before the Graduation. Well, five years before Graduation to be exact.”

Hearing this, everyone’s faces changed. Hearing about the true face of the “Prestigious Academy” was something that made their backs be covered in sweat. All of them had been through bloody battles and had killed more than once. However, none of them had been as young as him when they first killed. They had already been adults by the time but Jack, the little boy in front of them, had been only 5 years old at the time. Suddenly, Jack swayed as he gave a bitter smile, “Well, seems like it is time for me to go to sleep, thank you for your help.”

As he said so, his eyes lost focus as he toppled over. Seeing him fall to the floor, everyone started scrambling towards him to catch him. However, the one who caught him was the silent maiden with long green hair who said, “I will take care of him.” Hearing this, everyone backed off and George looked at her with a suspicious glance as he asked, “Sandra, you wouldn’t happen to know something about the Academy, would you now?”

Hearing this, everyone’s faces were painted in confusion. Sandra looked towards George coldly and said, “I do know and I can also tell you that everything he said was the truth. That place is a dog eats dog world.” Hearing this, everyone looked at Sandra weirdly. Not much was known about her other than that she was extremely strong and that she was an extremely cold person. She was picked up by the Captain but no one knew anything about her origins.

She never spoke about it either and every time someone asked her about it, she would either leave, give the cold shoulder or change the subject. George’s face flickered as he asked seriously, “Are you someone who graduated from the Academy?” This question tensed everyone up. Too many things had happened one after another. First of all, they had to raid a flagship by themselves with this small ship, which was akin to suicide, then they ran into Frost and then there was also Jack, and now it turned out that Sandra was also a person that had graduated from the Academy.

Finally, one of the people that had been in the surroundings, clapped with his two hands and said, “Okay, let’s stop now. This is too many things happening one after another. Lets all just calm down and go rest now that we are all out of danger, also we need to make a full report of expenditures and damages. Those that are injured will head to the infirmary. Lets go, lets go.” Everyone looked towards the slender middle aged man that said that and just started heading towards either towards their positions, quarters or the infirmary. The slender man was wearing a pink tank top, purple vest on top of it and long white, skinny pants. Also, his nails were painted light blue and his expression was quite queerish. He looked at Jack and then turned his sight towards Sandra, “What are we going to do with him? His injuries look quite bad but we don’t have enough room inside the infirmary either.”

George looked towards the queerish man in surprise and asked, “So many injured?” The queerish man just nodded his head and said seriously, “Commander Frost himself injured a lot of our guys and if others hadn’t intervened fast enough, we would be having dead bodies instead of patients. All the beds are full, the entire floor is full and the hallway is also full. We have no place to put him.” As the man slowly and helplessly shook his head, George also shook his head. It was then that Sandra said, “I will take him to my room. I am probably the only one he would not be so wary of after he finds out that I am also from the Academy.”

Hearing this George was surprised and asked suspiciously, “Wouldn’t it be better to put him in my room? He seems to trust me.” Sandra let out a rare smile as she said, “Do you honestly think that he trusts you? At best, he is wary of you but that doesn’t mean that he trust you. It just means that he doesn’t expect you to kill him when he turns his back.”

Hearing this, the two were puzzled and Sandra shook her head, “It is extremely hard to explain what you went through in the Academy, no one is able to do so. All I can say is that you have a better chance of becoming sworn brothers with the Kriegrich Emperor than have someone from the Academy trust you.” Hearing this, the two of them looked at her with a complicated face.

The queerish man said, “Okay, take him to your own room. I will send a doctor to your room to take a look at him.” Sandra nodded to him and said, “Thank you Captain.”

The queerish man just shooed her away with his hand and seeing this, Sandra smiled as she took Jack into her arms and carried him to her room.

by lilporo

Chapter 5: New home

When the little girl finished eating, she quickly said thanks and then went towards her room and changed her clothes. She took off her pyjamas and put on a white short sleeved shirt and long green pants. She then rushed past the kitchen and said, “I am going out to play.” The middle aged man nodded and said, “Have fun.”

The young woman however just shouted to her on the doorstep, “Be careful!” However, she just heard a faint answer, “I will.” After the little girl had left, the atmosphere in the room turned serious as the middle aged man asked the woman in a serious tone, “Has she said anything?” The young woman shook her head lightly and said, “Nothing. All we know is that someone will pick her up some day but where she came from or the origin of those scars, those are all a mystery.”

The middle aged man let out a deep sigh as he massages his temples. The man was wearing a simple T-shirt and pants. His build was slightly muscular and his hair was cut short. His hair was brown and his skin had a bronze hue from working outside. The young woman however had a slender build and her skin was pale. She usually wore simple dresses and her blonde hair dropped until her lower back.

Hedi had appeared out of thin air 4 months ago. The young woman had been hanging up laundry at that moment when Hedi just appeared and dropped into the clothes basket. Her clothes had been in a tattered state and there were some closed wounds on her. She lost consciousness immediately after appearing, so the young woman had brought her inside and put her on a bed. She even called a doctor that looked over her and said that there was nothing wrong with her and she just needed rest. Afterwards, they had offered her to stay there until someone came to pick her up.

About 2 weeks ago, a troop from Kriegrich Empire had come looking for someone, however, when the middle aged man had told Hedi about it, she had panicked and gone into hiding. Even an idiot could tell that she was hiding from them for some reason. Since this planet wasn’t under Kriegrich Empire’s jurisdiction, they had no power here and when they tried to forcefully search the area, the military had arrived. S

ince their Aldurin Republic had the same might that Kriegrich Empire had, the Kriegrich Empire did not dare to force the matter. Since they could do nothing, they left with a bitter feeling. After they had left, all they learned from Hedi was that “They were bad people.”

The man just sighed as he said, “Normally, she acts like a spoiled little child but when you ask her about anything regarding her, her eyes turn colder than a soldiers. Her past is in no way simple and if you couple it with the fact that the Kriegrich Empire nearly forcefully searched the area….” The young woman also seriously nodded her head and added, “However, she isn’t dangerous and is usually obedient. When that “Jack” comes, we may find out something. Before that, I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

Outside the kitchen window, squatting under the kitchen window’s sill was Hedi. Her eyes looked cold as she mumbled to herself, “Stupid Jack, when will you come and pick me up? If I truly have to wait 5 years to meet up with you under the clock tower, I will make you pay for that.” She then quietly left the spot and ran to the streets.

Her eyes flashed as she thought to herself, “To get to the Aldurin Main Planet, I need money. Time to get to work.” After that, she started wandering the streets and her hands flashed every once in a while, “borrowing” a random passerby’s wallet. The legend of “Ghost Hands” was born that day.

***

Several days had passed since Jack and the old man had their little talk. After that day, although he kept his distance, he kept talking to Jack and he agreed with Jack to buy him a little house with a big basement area to turn into a mechanical laboratory. The old man said that he would pay for everything himself but Jack promised to pay him the money back. Since Jack was exceedingly stubborn on this, the old man could do nothing but relent in the end.

However, he would not allow Jack to live alone in a huge house, so he arranged two people to also live in the house with Jack. Jack had fought back against this idea but this time, it was his turn to relent. Although it had only been several days, Jack’s wounds had healed by 70% and were of no threat to his life any more. From now on, he would only need to come for a check up every week for a period of time and if not problems arose, Jack would eventually not need to come.

Since there was no need for Jack to stay in the hospital any more, the old man brought Jack to his new home. Currently, Jack was wearing black jeans with a red T-shirt and a black jacket. He had explicitly told the old man that he disdains the colour of white and he will never wear any white clothes again because it reminds him of his previous days on the Island. The old man had then specifically picked clothes that did not even have a hint of white on them. What was the most eye catching about Jack was the red scarf around his neck.

It was used to cover up a scar he got on the Island. It was shaped like a barbed wire and ran across his entire neck, when the old man and Alex asked him about it, he maintained his silence on how he got that. He turned into a glacier as he said, “It was a bloody night when I got this scar. The person who gave this to me is probably still on the Island.” The cold aura he excluded made even the old man and Alex sweat. This same scar was actually what troubled Alex the most. Since Jack did not get proper medical treatment after getting this injury, it created permanent damage to his breathing ways.

His breath was always short and a little haggard, however, since Jack had gotten used to it, he didn’t mind it at all. As the old man, Jack and Alex walked down the street, Jack took in the scenery around him. The house he was going to live in was in the suburbs area of the city where middle class people owned houses. The neighbourhood was peaceful and the neighbours were friendly people. The reason they walked there instead of taking a car or something was so Jack could familiarize himself with the surroundings as well.

Every time they came a cross a store or a big building, Alex or the old man explained what the place was and what could be done there. As they strolled along, they got quite a few peculiar glances. Since the Four Bosses were well known figures on this planet, anyone could recognize them. Alex was the Chief Doctor of the Hospital. He had saved the lives of countless people with his amazing medical skills. It wouldn’t be weird to see the two of them have a walk but what brought the peculiar glances as the ten year old Jack. Comparing their heights with the old man and Alex, he was only a bit shorter than their rib cage.

Ignoring all the gazes, they soon arrived at the house Jack was supposed to live in from now on. Jack then turned to the old man and asked, “Gramps, will you now tell me who I am going to live together with?” The old man just smiled and said, “Don’t be impatient, they are inside the house, so you will meet them again soon enough.” Jack frowned, “Again?” Gramps let out a laugh as he said, “Yes, you are already familiar with them, so don’t worry.” After hearing that, Jack thought of a husband wife pair that might the people Gramps talked about. As they entered the house, delicious cooking aromas were spreading through the entire house. Gramps just laughed merrily, “Oi, we are here.”

Hearing that, a familiar voice came from the next door that said, “We are in dining room!” Jack followed Gramps and Alex to the dining room and there were 6 people merrily chatting there already. All of these six people were actually people that Jack was quite familiar with. There was John, Krieg, George and three others. The three others were the Boss’s of the three other Factions: Mercenary, Merchant and Government. Jack had met the three when he was hospitalized. Jack greeted everyone and then turned towards his Gramps and asked, “So the people that will be staying here are Krieg and Ellen?”

The old man let out a little laugh as he nodded his head. Krieg then added, “I am getting a bit too old to keep running around with the young ones. I had thought of retiring from active duty for quite a while already but never really had the chance to do so.” Jack took his seat and then asked, “Why?” Krieg then let out a laugh as he said, “Because I have no other skills other than raiding and smashing stuff. It is hard for me to find a job outside the ship.”

Jack then made an “Ohh!” sound as he listened to Krieg’s explanation. Krieg then turned to Jack and said, “So you have decided to settle down for now?” Jack then swung his feet on the big chair and said, “Yup, I am tired of all the fighting and bloodshed. For one lifetime, I have had enough of it. All I want to do settle down and hole up in a room with machinery.”

Everyone stayed quiet after hearing that but suddenly John laughed, “It is quite peculiar to hear such deep words from someone so small.” Jack then gave a smile filled with sadness towards John and said, “On the Island, you grow up fast or you never will.” This sentence brought the whole mood down.

Everyone were quiet as no one knew what to say but Jack, realizing he messed up, asked the Government Faction’s Boss, “Taavi, is your offer for a researcher still valid?” Taavi, then snapped out and quickly answered, “Yup, although I can’t promise work all the time, if you create something good or do a custom work for us, we will pay you quite handsomely.” Hearing this, everyone present were puzzled but seeing this, Taavi explained, “When I was visiting Jack, he asked me if we had a Research Department. Then he offered his services and since I honestly have no idea about his true skills, I can not give a definite answer.” After Taavi explained it, everyone had a face of realization.

Gramps however just pouted, “Why are you going to work already? Why not go to school for now?” This wasn’t the first time Gramps offered him a full scholarship into one of the most prestigious Academy’s in the Galaxy. Jack just said, “I first need to go and get that princess. If I truly wait five years, I have a feeling I will end up worse than a few days ago.”

Hearing this, Alex nudged him as he joked, “So the little princess is a feisty one? Interesting.” Jack frowned as he looked Alex. Alex then put on an innocent face as he said, “Don’t worry, you are not the only one with a feisty princess, isn’t that right Father?” As he finished his sentence, he looked over Jack towards his Father. Jack also looked at Gramps and he just sighed, “Jack, my grandson, take my advice. Feisty women are difficult to deal with.”

Just as he finished saying that, a voice carried over form the doorway, “Is that so, then do you want me to discipline you and show you how feisty I really am?” Everyone’s gazes turned towards the doorway in synchronisation and saw a woman with grey hair standing there with a dish of food. Jack greeted her, “Hello Grandma.” The woman’s feisty expression disappeared and was replaced with a warm smile.

She then said, “Little Jack, don’t listen to this unruly brute. I want to meet my Granddaughter-in-law even more now.” Jack then tilted his head towards the old woman and said, “What is that?” The old woman then said, “When a man and a woman love each other very much, they marry to show that they want to spend their lives together. They also sleep together, do everything together and regard each other very highly.” Hearing the explanation, Jack dropped a bombshell on everyone by saying, “Me and Hedi used to sleep together on the Island, does that mean that we are married?”

The whole room quieted down as everyone’s gazes turned to Jack. Grandma had even nearly dropped the plate of food she was putting on the table. Jack had no idea of the things between men and women. On the Island they slept in each other’s arms so that they could share their body warmth, also since they were so close to each other, Hedi could warn Jack when someone came too close. Alex then asked, “You slept together? You mean in the same bed?”

Jack looked towards him and said, “We did not have beds there, so we slept in each other’s embrace to share the body warmth and so she could warn me quickly when someone came too close.” Hearing this, everyone realized that they had misunderstood each other. They had all even pondered if kids at that age could even perform the act. Gramps then patted Jack on the head and said, “No, you two aren’t married. Well, you will understand what your Grandma meant in a few years.”

Hearing this, Jack nodded his head. He was quite confused why everyone looked at him with such a peculiar gaze before but he didn’t bother himself much with it. Soon the table was filled with food and Grandma, Ellen and Sandra came out of the kitchen. After a few toasts, they all ate. The meal was delicious so it was finished quite fast. After the meal was finished, they all chatted a bit and seeing that it was already evening Sandra, John, Taavi, George, Martin, Boss of the Merchant Faction and Ivar, the leader of the Mercenary Faction, left.

All that was left was Krieg, Ellen, Gramps, Grandma and Jack. After sending everyone off, Krieg and company showed Jack around. Krieg and Ellen’s bedroom was on the first floor but Jack had the whole second floor of the house to himself. On the second floor was Jack’s room, a bathroom, a storage and a guest bedroom. On the first floor was the living room/dining room, kitchen, bathroom, garage and Krieg’s and Ellen’s bedroom. When Jack arrived in his bedroom, he found it very spacious.

Besides the big two person bed there was a closet full of clothes and one wall was filled with bookshelves. The bookshelves held various books on machinery, scrapped inventions and materials. Besides the desk, there was also a balcony. The walls of the room were red with black flower paintings. After Jack had familiarized himself with the room, he was led down to the basement. The basement was filled with all sorts of blueprints, apparatuses and materials. Jack looked around wide eyed and then turned to the old man, “Gramps, I truly would not have expected you to work this fast.” Everyone’s faces changed as Gramps let out a bitter laugh, “This house belonged to your parents.”

Jack turned towards the old man and the old man squatted down to his eyeline. He then said, “All the things in the house were the done by you parents. Your room decoration included. Before they left, Freddy left the keys and the Deed to the house in my hands.” He then fished out a chip and the key’s and gave them to Jack, “They are yours now.” Jack accepted the keys and looked at the for quite a while. No one knew what Jack was thinking about but none of them disturbed him either. After gazing at the key’s for a bit, Jack put them away.

He then turned towards the old man and asked, “Are the materials I need here as well?” The old man nodded his head and pointed his finger towards a closed door, “That place is the storage of the Laboratory Area. All of the materials you need are there plus the ones left behind.” Jack then nodded his head and walked towards the door. The door opened as Jack neared and when Jack entered the room, he was taken a back a bit.

The storage area was even bigger than the laboratory area and it was filled with shelves. On the shelves all the materials were neatly organised and categorised. Seeing the extensive amount of materials, Jack’s eyes lit up as he quickly took all the materials he needed. When he brought all the materials he needed out and put them in the centre of the spacious room in a circular manner, with a little hole in the middle, everyone looked puzzled. Krieg asked, “Are you going to make this Tracker now?”

Jack came out with the last materials he needed and hearing the question, he looked at Krieg as he nodded, “Yup, if I take too long with this, I may end up going against Heidi instead of Hedi.” The four people’s faces showed confusion as Ellen asked, “What do you mean by that?” Jack put down the last materials and was looking over all the materials on the ground to make sure he did not forget something. Without even turning his head he answered, “Hedi usually acts like a spoiled princess but every time we fought, she started calling herself Heidi instead and her whole demeanour changed. She turned into an exceedingly cold person that did not even flinch when she killed someone.”

When Jack answered, everyone’s eyes went wide in astonishment. They all looked towards Ellen and Ellen said in a serious, quiet voice, “She probably has a Split Personality Disorder. Growing up in that kind of an environment, it is no surprise actually.” She took a breath and continued, “A person usually subconsciously creates an another personality when their mind is on the verge of breaking. 90% of people with a Personality Disorder actually developed the second personality when they were little to cope with some terrible event.”

As Ellen explained, a thought passed through all their minds, “Is this what the Kriegrich Empire is after?” However, they decided not to speak of it more at the moment and would acquire information about it afterwards. Everyone’s eyes turned to Jack again and it was right at that moment, Jack let out a deep breath and inhaled a big mouthful of breath again as he blinked his eyes three times rapidly. A blue glow came on his right eye and a red glow appeared on his left eye. He then stretched out his arms and white threads started extending from his fingers and the other side of the threads latched themselves to different materials scattered on the floor.

When the other side of the threads were attached to the materials, they were enveloped by a milky white glow as they started levitating in the air. The different materials started changing shapes rapidly as Jack’s finger’s moved like he was playing a piano. Every movement of a finger provoked a reaction from a thread attached to that finger. Soon, gears, wires and a screen were done and were floating a bit further away from the other materials that were still being formed. In another 15 minutes, there were hundreds of gears, screws, bolts and wires floating around.

Then Jack took a deep breath as his fingers started moving even more rapidly. The entire bit of machinery started assembling itself as the pieces connected to one another. When the whole interior system was done, it was gently placed inside a box. Seeing the box floating in front of him, Jack looked at it with his right eye and then nodded his head.

He then fished out a battery from nearby and put it inside the box. He then held down a button and when the screen started lighting up, Jack smiled as he said to himself, “Done, now all that is left is to insert the program to it.”

It was then that he turned his head towards four people that were standing near the door. All of their faced showed absolute astonishment, they had not come out from their shock even now that Jack was done. Usually, it would take a few days to create a little Tracker like this with specialized equipment for it’s production. That was a conservative estimate in cases that it only needed assembly as all the gears and wires and screws are already done. However, Jack only took half an hour to build one from literally raw materials. If someone told them this, they would not believe it and would laugh at the person but since it all happened right in front of their eyes, they had no other choice than to believe it.

It was also now that they understood exactly how perversely broken this [Dream Engineer] was in terms of creating machinery. Krieg mumbled in astonishment, “Did he seriously create a working piece of machinery from raw materials in less than half an hour?” Gramps blankly answered, “Yes he did. If I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I would never have believed it.” Everyone present nodded their heads as they blankly followed Jack’s movements with their eyes. They were utterly stupefied from Jack’s display of ability.

Thinking about the possibilities of the ability, they felt their minds blank even more. Jack however, did not even pay them any attention and started fiddling with the Tracker in his hands. Even though he had created the machine itself, he still needed to program it to make it work. This was a lot harder than actually creating the machine. His ability didn’t allow him to simultaneously program it while he was building it, so he could only use the extensive amount of knowledge in his head to program this tracker now.

However, programming the settings wasn’t his forte, so it would take a lot longer than creating the actual machine did. Jack soon put the Tracker on the table as he turned towards Krieg and the rest. Seeing him looking at them, Gramps snapped back to reality and asked, “You finished it already?” Jack shook his head and said, “Not yet, I still need to program it. If I had the program done already, I could just burn it onto the Tracker to make it work but since I don’t have it, I only have an empty shell.” After hearing that, everyone let out a sigh of relief.

Unknowingly, they had started to feel envious of Jack’s ability and if he could finish the programming as well in about an hour or so, they would truly feel that fate is unfair. When they heard that Jack needed more time to create the program as well, they felt relief that his ability was not completely broken and could at least not do everything.

Gramps raised a brow and asked, “You said that this Tracker works on a special frequency, right? Couldn’t you have programmed an already existing Tracker to find that frequency?” Jack turned towards the old man and said, “The ability of a Tracker is determined by two things: The materials and the program. All military grade Trackers are made from good materials that complement the program written on the Tracker. This is also the reason some Trackers find some signals but other Trackers can not find that signal no matter what.”

He then looked at the Tracker on the table and said, “This Tracker is made for the specific reason to find that signal. The materials the pendant was made from are able to discard all jammers and are untraceable through other Trackers. It is kind of hard to explain to others.” He could only put on a helpless face as he slowly shook his head.

The Tracker’s materials had special interactions that allowed it to find frequencies that were usually unfindable. Gramps thought about it for a second and asked, “Could you create communication channels using these frequencies?”

Jack nodded his head and said, “It is possible to tap into these frequencies and use them for communication. It works on the same principal as other communication channels. If you tune two or more communicators to the right frequency, they can converse on it without other’s knowing about it.” Hearing this Gramps’s eyes lit up as he asked, “If I asked you to build these types of communicators that worked on these frequencies that were usually hidden, how long would you need?” Jack thought about it for a second before saying, “Well, since I have not done these kind of communicators before, I would need a bit of time to make a working prototype. Then I need time to write the program for it as well, after that comes the testing period of whether it can ignore jammers and how long the range is to use it and so on.” Hearing this Gramps nodded seriously. He understood from Jack’s words that it would take a while to create them because there were a lot of things that needed to be tested before he could give them over. Even if he can create a working prototype in a short period of time, he still needs time to test the limits of the communicator. It would not be a short process and would need at least half a year.

Ellen then pointed towards the Tracker and asked, “How long would you need to program it?” Jack just sighed, “A couple of days are needed at least. I have to write the program from scratch and then configure it to work together with the Galactic Map. Even then I can’t be completely sure of the results before we follow the coordinates and they match up with the origin of the signal.” Jack then walked towards the door leading outside of the laboratory and said, “Well, I am going to go and sleep.” They all looked at Jack with a blank face.

Seeing that, Jack just pointed out, “I am currently tired and rushing things will make more work for me as there will most likely be more mistakes made if I push myself too much. It is more beneficial to rest up and continue in the morning. Hearing Jack’s words, they all left the laboratory. They however felt a bit awkward about having their roles switched. They had turned into eager little children while Jack had turned into the adult.

Gramps and Grandma also left for home and the three left in the house were currently all sitting in the living room. Krieg looked at Jack who was having a cup of cocoa and asked, “When do you plan to go and pick up that girl?” Jack took a sip of cocoa and said, “As soon as I can. However, before anything else, I need to pinpoint her location. If she was caught by the Kriegrich Empire, it is going to be a lot more tricky than before.”

Krieg seriously nodded his head to that. Jack then continued, “If she was caught by the Empire, then I am just going to have to resort to some drastic measures.” Hearing this Krieg felt a shudder from the cold smile on Jack’s face. His battle prowess was something he had seen first hand and now having seen the assembly of such an intricate piece of machinery like it was a child’s play, he started fearing what would happen if Jack decided to go all out. It would probably be easy for him to create weapons that no one could guard against and if he created a ship that was nigh indestructible as well then, he could create a calamity. However, there was one thing that no one knew. In Jack’s head was a very special blueprint: Nuclear Fission Bomb.

He had continuously modified this blueprint from the day he was sent to the Island. Currently, he could create the bomb to be as small as a small bouncing ball but have the explosive power to completely evaporate a 100 square kilometer asteroid. Although the materials needed to create this thing were very precious and rare, it would only be a bit of a challenge for the Merchant Faction to obtain them.

If Hedi truly was held by the Kriegrich Empire, he would first send a request to them to release her. If they ignored the request, he would use the bomb on one of the Planets under Kriegrich Empire as a warning to them. If they still ignored him, he would just drop one of these bombs directly on the Imperial Palace.

There were two types of men who the world feared: First of all, Extremely powerful people with a lot of connections and an army. The second would be Madmen.

The first kind of people were feared because they could make it so that you would lead a life worse than death with a word. However, madmen were feared because they simply did not give a shit.

It would be wrong to say that Jack’s mentality hadn’t deviated from a normal persons from his time on the Island. Although it wasn’t very obvious, he could actually be listed as one of the most dangerous madmen out there.

by lilporo