The Possessor (6)
In the world of Cyber Psycho, there were countless ways to strengthen players and their companions. The simplest method was using items that raised stats. Some objects boosted your abilities just by owning them, while others were drugs that instantly increased stats the moment you consumed them. The mana activator I’d inhaled last time fell squarely into that second category.
So what was the hardest growth method? Well, the answer was painfully obvious.
“Training grind...”
“Did you say something?”
The secretary tilted her head, apparently having caught my mutter. I quickly shook my head.
“Nothing.”
The lump of metal she handed me was a training device designed to improve mana efficiency. Using the machine during training provided a small boost to esper attack power. Since this was still a decade before the game’s story began, the device looked different from what I remembered. But after the secretary demonstrated it, I immediately understood its purpose.
“Then let’s begin.”
At her prompting, I sat down with clear reluctance and slipped both hands into the holes on either side of the metal block. Having just watched her demonstration, I already knew the basic usage and goal. Insert both hands, grab the internal handles, and draw mana out from your body while pulling.
The trick to drawing out mana wasn’t difficult. The secretary had explained that if you removed the sensation of mana being extracted from your body during the process, what remained was the act of wrapping mana around yourself. The memory of having my mana forcibly extracted for fifteen hours a day was still fresh, so I managed it without much trouble.
That was just the preparation. The real training started now.
-Vrrrrrm...
A faint vibration began to emanate from the metal block.
“Heuugh...”
“Endure it. The training only counts if you push through.”
A raw groan slipped from my lips, but I clenched my teeth and focused. It didn’t exactly hurt. But as the mana throughout my body began to vibrate, an unbearable tickling sensation spread across my skin, and fatigue slowly crept in.
“Just as muscles grow when stimulated, the body grows in response to mana stimulation. The more you endure the vibration, the rougher and denser the mana your body can emit.”
“You already said that—heuugh...”
My body seemed to be hitting its limit. The vibration made my entire frame tremble. The feeling had gone beyond tickling and straight into dizziness. My vision began to blur and drool started trickling from the corner of my mouth. The secretary, who had been supporting my back to help me through the exercise, whispered into my ear.
“Release the handles now.”
“Haa...”
The moment I let go, the maddening vibration vanished and my spinning head slowly returned to normal. I collapsed against the metal block like a melted puddle. The secretary gently stroked my back, as if praising me for doing well on my first attempt.
“I will now apply stabilization. Training will resume in thirty seconds.”
Never mind. That gentle stroke wasn’t praise at all. It was a sinister spell meant to forcibly wipe away my fatigue. The comforting green glow looked more like the ominous green of uranium to me. Yet regardless of my feelings, the eerie light began restoring my body at random, and soon I was back in perfect condition.
“Now, we will begin the second set.”
“Hueee...”
Today, Plea endured seven full sets of training.
“Krrruu...”
After finishing training, Plea trudged back to her personal room and collapsed onto the bed. Snoring soon followed. It seemed today’s session had been especially brutal.
“Secretary, how is Plea’s training progressing?”
“It is proceeding excellently. Given how full of motivation Miss Plea is, I predict she will reach the target far sooner than expected.”
“Hmm? That impressive?”
The director sounded genuinely surprised. The secretary nodded and gave a detailed report of the day’s session.
“She trained until her consciousness grew hazy, and repeated the process seven times? What a monster… Even in my day, heroes with that kind of mental fortitude were rare.”
Having listened to the secretary’s report, the director seemed deeply impressed and reminisced about the past. During his nostalgic academy days, he too had undergone all kinds of training and watched his peers do the same. That was why he couldn’t help but give Plea’s willpower such high marks.
“Heroes who trained until their minds grew hazy were common. Heroes who repeated training were also common. But heroes who combined both? Those were rare.”
Training until consciousness blurred was easy. You simply kept going without thinking until your brain’s judgment clouded over and every nerve focused solely on the task. Repeating training was easy too. Most heroes with any persistence could mechanically repeat a set quota.
But repeating high-intensity training to the point of hazy consciousness? That was on another level. The moment you rested after pushing yourself that far, the mind—having been singularly focused—would snap back to reality and remember everything. The pain. The exhaustion. All of it.
That was why both body and brain instinctively recoiled from repeating the same ordeal. Avoiding pain was only natural. Anyone who could overcome that fear and willingly begin again possessed the true will of a hero.
‘And a mere seven-year-old has that kind of resolve?’
Even after hearing the report, the director found it hard to believe. Only the top cadets at the academy possessed such spirit. For a child who hadn’t even graduated elementary school to have it was almost impossible to accept. Of course, that willpower actually came from the adult soul inside Plea, but not knowing that, the director couldn’t help but misunderstand.
‘They say a child becomes an adult the moment they face the world alone… This is exactly that. After everything she’s been through…’
The director clicked his tongue in pity, yet inwardly he offered genuine praise for Plea’s will. After all, he had once been a hero himself.
“We should give her a special meal tomorrow evening.”
“A special meal is not scheduled for tomorrow…”
“I know. I’ll pay for it myself.”
These days could only be described as even more brutal than before. Until recently I could simply lie there while my mana was extracted, but now I also had to do esper ability training in parallel due to mana efficiency concerns. Of course, having your mana sucked out while lying still was already exhausting, but now the fatigue was doubled. Still, after quite some time had passed, I’d grown somewhat used to the esper training.
In the beginning I couldn’t last ten minutes on the lowest setting, Level 1. These days I could endure fifteen minutes on Level 8—two steps below the highest difficulty. I could actually feel my body growing slightly stronger.
When I swung my fist with a little “hoit hoit,” I could hear the wind being sliced. They were still baby fists, but my stamina had definitely improved compared to before. That was why I could swing my fists a few times before bed now—something that would have been impossible five months ago. No, even a month ago.
At this rate, once I finished the extraction I might even be able to watch some YouTube or a movie. I fell asleep imagining that pleasant future, but reality was never so gentle.
“The construction noise… is gone?”
"Have you noticed? The construction the young lady requested finished at dawn yesterday."
It had been half a year ago. Using the negotiation rights I’d obtained from the director through a Ten Commandments contract, one of my requests had been the construction of a dedicated esper training room. It had finally been completed.
“Then has the hero who will teach me how to use my abilities arrived as well?”
"That’s right. Things went smoother than expected. They were originally scheduled to arrive in about a month, but this old man pulled some strings."
“Ooh…!”
When I let out an excited exclamation, the director sounded rather pleased with himself and continued in a slightly brighter tone.
"You may look forward to it. We’ve secured an instructor so outstanding that they more than exceed expectations."
Since the director was speaking with such confidence, it seemed they had brought in someone of a higher rank than I’d imagined. Probably upper A-rank. If I stretched it, maybe even S-rank.
"Shall we head to the training room first?"
“Is that really okay?”
"Of course. I spent quite a fortune building it… so I ought to see the young lady’s surprised face at least once, shouldn’t I?"
The way he said “spent” made it clear a lot of money had gone into this. Even though we only exchanged greetings occasionally, I felt a little sorry for him. Of course, remembering how he had shouted during the negotiation rights incident quickly erased that sympathy.
Setting that aside, I was definitely going to check out the training room right away.
“Okay!”
I left my personal room with an energetic smile and opened the door to the training room the director had mentioned. The first impression was that he really had spent a fortune. The walls were made of dark silver alloy, and the training equipment scattered throughout was cutting-edge—so advanced that some of it wouldn’t appear in the game until ten years later.
While I was busy exclaiming in awe, a flustered voice came from the ceiling speaker.
"Why are you here?!"
My eyes immediately met the mysterious woman standing in the center of the facility.