"W-w-who are you?” Delton eked out, as he stared at the lightly armored young man. Just from looking at him, Delton could feel that his hairs had stood up, as if warning him to ran as far way as he can from that man. Delton followed up, “How did you get in?”

The man turned back to watch the soap operas, then answered, “You let me in.”

"No. I didn’t,” Delton backed up to the dining table and, with his hands behind his back, made multiple grasping motions. Looking back quickly, he grabbed a plate and threw it at the young man’s head.

The plate flew through the young man and smashed against a wall, then a voice echoed out in Delton’s head.

"Credits will be deducted to compensate the breaking of the plate.”

"That voice. Is that a system?” The young man asked Delton while pointing towards his own temple.

"W-w-wha—Stay away from me!” Delton dashed to the door, but as his hands were about to reach for the handle , a suffocating aura engulfed his entire body. The aura stopped his body from moving another inch.

Delton peered at the young man with the corner of his eye as he could not move his head, “Did Mom Sol send you?” Letting out a sigh, he showed a somber expression, “I guess even as a First, I can’t escape death.”

“Calm down, kid. I’m not here to kill you. Just shut up for a moment until the end of this episode, then I’ll explain everything,” the young man withdrew his aura. The coffee table, which was pushed to one side of the living room, moved by itself and placed itself in its original location, allowing the young man to place his foot on it.

Delton’s body slumped to the ground, as he took several deep breaths. After kneeling on the floor for a couple of minutes, he got up to walk to the couch. He took a seat on one of the available spaces and watched the show with the young man.

Instead of watching the show, Delton from his view was frantically searching for articles relating to ghosts and demonic possession.”

When the credits started to roll, the young man chuckled, “To think I missed out on so much.”

He then turned around to look at Delton, who was staring at the credits with an empty expression. Grabbing a pipe from nowhere, the young man started smoking, but from breathing in the smoke, Delton realized that the smoke had went through him.

"Quit looking at the crap about ghosts and demons. I’m not lying to you. You truly did let me in. When you saw the meteor back, that was actually me. You were the first person to see me, and that’s how you let me in,” the young man spoke as he took in several puffs from the pipe.

Squinting his eyes, Delton responded, “How can a man become a meteor? How could just looking at a meteor do that?”

“Who cares about these technicalities? Now let’s get down to business. Do you want to become the strongest in this world?” The young man spat out the pipe, which then phased through the floor, as he slammed his foot on the table, raising himself up. A majestic aura began to emanate from his body and forced the sitting Delton to kneel down on the floor not daring to look at the young man.

This aura turned everything, except the young man, in the living room hazy, as if fading into the background. Delton’s teeth chattering echoed throughout the apartment. “I’m sorry for my earlier behavior. But I have no intention on becoming strong. Please leave my house. Take whatever you want,” Delton’s body shivered as tears started to stream down his face, staining the floor. Delton could feel his body wanting to run away, but the pressure from the aura made him stay in place willingly. “Just please don’t kill me!” Delton banged his head on the floor.

The young man frowned and looked at the groveling Delton, then withdrew the majestic aura. “The fuck is wrong with you, kid. This is not how it’s supposed to go,” the young man shook his head, then continued, “Look, kid. I’m giving you the opportunity of a lifetime.”

“I don’t want it. Please find someone else,” Delton dared not to look up even though the aura was no longer there.

"Let’s start over, then. I’m no stranger. You should actually be very familiar with me. Whose life do you think you were dreaming of every night?”

Hearing this, Delton looked up, inspected the young man, and with some hesitation answered, “Caelus?”

This caused the young man to start laughing hysterically, “Haha! I wish! You truly overestimate my power! I’m actually that little toddler, Lucius. But you could just call me old man, for now, since it sounds like you don’t plan on taking me as a master.”

"Old man, you look no older than 25,” Delton again inspected the young man in front of him carefully.

"Thank you. Even though you won’t take this opportunity, I’m afraid I cannot leave this place.”

"What do you mean?”

“I was originally a loose soul that is now housed in your body. I won’t be able to leave until you do two things for me?”

"If I do these two things, you’ll leave me alone.”

Lucius released a majestic aura again, causing Delton to look back down to the floor banging his head against it and apologizing multiple times.

"For my third decree, if you complete these two tasks for me, I will no longer be part of your life,” Lucius said and a pillar of light emanated from his body. Suddenly, a bolts of white lightning struck down from the sky and into the apartment.

As if forced, Delton stared at the bolts of lightning bearing down on Lucius. Then, one of the bolts of lightning, which had turned gold, redirected itself to his body. Time froze and the bolt of lightning formed a connection between his body to Lucius’. With tears flowing from his eyes, Delton continued to stare at the bolt of lightning that had struck him.

Gradually, the bolt of lightning morphed into a golden string that connected the two bodies. Time started again, as the bolts of lightning slowly subsided and Lucius’ body can be seen again.

A voice snapped Delton out of his daze

“A blackout occurred. Backup generators starting soon.”

After the light subsided, Lucius spoke, “Now, relax a bit won’t you.”

Raising one of his fingers, the prone Delton was carried up with an invisible force. Delton then landed on his feet. He wiped his tears and stared at the young man in front of him again, saying, “What is it you need from me, O great one?”

Lucius started to laugh again, even holding his chest, as he was trying to stifle his laughter. “You’re too funny, kid. Just call me old man. Hell, if you get stronger, I’ll let you call me Lucius. No need for these extravagant titles,” Lucius barely said between laughing fits.

Lucius wrinkled his nose then took another good look at Delton, “Actually, before we move forward, clean yourself up, you pissed yourself.”

Delton looked down his pants, and then dashed to his bedroom. While he was changing his clothes, he grew more and more embarrassed as he heard laughter from the living room.

Returning with a solemn expression, Lucius held out two fingers, “First, I need you to inherit my memories. If my memories are not inherited, my soul will cease to exist, and so will yours, since our souls were linked together from when you saw me.”

"That’s it? Just keep dreaming about your life?” Delton narrowed his eyes.

"If only it were that simple. There’s always a catch to these things. You have been taking advantage of the image of my mother and me, as well as that morning training exercise. You need to keep doing that and improve your body. You should be able to tell that my soul is incomparable to yours. Your current body won’t be able to handle my soul, which is why you’re dreaming bite-sized pieces of my memories. If you had taken all my memories in at once, I think your body would have exploded,” Lucius chortled and revealed a reminiscent expression.

After holding that expression for a couple of minutes, Delton snapped him out by saying, “That should be fine. What’s the second one?”

"Sorry I was thinking about a funny memory. I’m too used at reminiscing. You’ll see that memory in due time. The second thing is I need you to find me a body.”

"What for?”

"What do you mean what for? Did you piss yourself silly? So I can come back to the physical world!” Lucius angrily retorted, then continued, “Your body is too average, even by my standards.”

"After that, can you be out of my life for good?”

"Yes, I have decreed it after all.”

Hearing those words, Delton let out a sigh of relief. Lucius then asked, pointing at Delton’s head, “Now, tell me what’s that voice in your head?”

"Oh it’s a chip. Each of us when born is implanted in our heads. It connects to the central network and gives us easy access to information and others.”

Lucius walked over to Delton. Standing two feet taller than Delton, Lucius moved one of his hands toward Delton’s head. It phased into Delton’s head and brought out a chip the size of small key. Suddenly, Delton’s view shut down for a second and the whole world went black.

Delton, waving his hands, and exclaimed, “Hey! Hey! Put it back! That shouldn’t be removed. I can’t see without it.”

Lucius shyly placed the chip back to where he found it. “My apologies. I didn’t realize that it was connected to the eyes. That truly is an interesting piece of technology.” Another reminiscent look appeared in Lucius’ face.

Not waiting a couple of minutes like last time, Delton snapped Lucius out of his reminiscence. Lucius shook his head multiple times, “Now can you explain to me these terms, such as Firsts or Seconds. I’m not too familiar with them.”

"Are you familiar with talents?”

“I understand being talented at something, but probably not in the way you are talking about.”

“How long ago was your world? The known world has been advanced for quite a while and there have been no records of something like your area. Maybe not when, but where? Could you be from the unexplored region?”

"Slow down, kid. You’re throwing too many unknown terms again. I wish I was able to go to a library, but your damn soul’s too weak. Walk me through this talent cultivation crap.”

“‘Cultivation’? I mean if that’s what you call it. Each human is granted a Talent, when they are born. This talent is hidden within them until the day of awakening, which is usually when the human turns thirteen. These talents range from things like Kissed by Fire and Steel Body to things like Keen Eyesight or Air Stepper.

Interjecting, Lucius asked, “What’s yours?”

Lowering his voice, Delton responded, “Jack of All Trades.”

Lucius smiled and could not stop himself from letting out a chuckle, “This is truly fate. Our souls are too compatible. If I were to take a guess my talent would have been Master of None. Now how does one advance?”

As if comforted, Delton revealed a slight smile, “You reflect and practice your talent to improve it. By focusing on one aspect of your talent, you can evolve it. For example, Kissed by Fire can evolve into Blessed by Fire and your affinity towards fire can evolve into abilities to manipulate and resist fire. Each evolution corresponds to a next Awakening. Hence by evolving your talent once, you become a Second Awakened.”

"What’s the current limit?”

"We can go up to the Fifth Awakening. The amount of people who have gone through Fifth Awakenings that are still alive are no less than 100, and each of them are leaders or major players for the corporations.”

"Other than these new abilities, what else do you gain from every awakening?”

"You also gain improvements to physical and mental capabilities, as well as slight increases to longevity. Some of the Fifths, which is what we call the Fifth Awakeneds live till the ripe age of 250,” Delton, with shining eyes, clutched his fist and continued, “To hold the world in your grasp for more than two centuries is just incredible.”

Contrasting Delton’s attitude, Lucius frowned, “So that’s all there is to the cultivation system in this world, then?”

Delton’s eyes grew dimmer and he sighed, “But these things are impossible for talents like me.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Look at my talent, it sounds impossible to even think about evolving it. When I first Awakened, I knew then that I will forever be a First. Living a normal life.”

Lucius stared at Delton, who was looking at the ground now, and said, “So you’ve accepted your fate.”

“Yes. That’s why I have no need to evolve and pursue unimaginable goals that you thought I had.”

"I was like that. I should’ve truly died. But there are some things that I sill have to do. If you’ve accepted your fate, then since fate has brought us two together, let’s make the most of it. Since you don’t care for power. Then I shall aid you in fulfilling your wish for a normal life, as a gift for your help,” Lucius stretched out his right hand.

Seeing this, Delton smirked then reached out to shake his hand, but Lucius grabbed the forearm. Fumbling, Delton finally grabbed Lucius’ forearm and they stared at each other, then nodded.

After letting go, Lucius cupped his hand on his chin, “Now I still have some more questions.”

Delton glanced at the time and shouted out, “Shit! It’s almost noon!” He then tapped his temple and spoke, “Prepare a hoodie please.”

"Oh yeah! You have a date today with that cute little girl. My questions can wait.” Lucius nodded with his eyes closed.

Delton put on the hoodie and dashed out of his apartment. Placing more force than necessary, he fell forward as he opened the door. With a look of shock at the spotless entrance to his apartment, he muttered, “I should treat the cleaners to a nice meal later.”

Lucius followed after him, by floating a foot above the ground. “People won’t notice you right?” Delton asked.

"Don’t worry. Unless you give it away. Not even your ‘powerful’ Fifths would be able to know my existence,” Lucius replied with a smirk.

Delton rolled his eyes then said sarcastically, “Also can you not float? It just looks weird. If you can fly, why only fly a foot off the ground?”

“Seems like you do have a mouth on you. I thought I had scared you too much. I’ll ignore these transgressions for now. To answer your question. You place too much emphasis on your mortal shell,” Lucius responded like a sage giving advice.

Delton bit his tongue at Lucius’ words, recalling his previous interactions and cold sweat formed on his back.

As they were leaving the apartment complex, they came upon a group of young men and women in suits, brandishing the Mom Sol Corporation pin and tie. Passing by them, one of the men called out, “Hey! Stop! We got some questions for you.”

Delton sighed, then took off his hood. He turned around and was about to walk towards the group of Mom Sol corporates. A woman’s voice came from behind the group shouted out, “Oh. It’s the coward drunk! Don’t worry about him!”

The whole group busted out in laughter, causing Delton to blush and to look down. The same voice who called out to him spoke, “Buzz off, filthy manufacturer.”

Delton clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as he turned around as he quickly walked away from his apartment complex. Lucius followed him silently.

Delton made his way towards a food stall headed by a young blond man. He saw a blue-haired woman in one of the seats of the stall. Delton, then ran towards the stall, and overheard the two talking about him and laughing.

Noticing the approaching Delton, Tekle spoke in a serious tone, “I shall give you another word of advice, Delton. Never make a pretty woman wait! Not even for a minute!” After saying this, Tekle proceeded to laugh, bent over, with his hands on his hips.

Jade also let out a giggle before looking at Delton with a slight shock on her face. Tekle also stopped laughing at the sight of Delton and exclaimed, “What the fuck have you been eating, kid?! You got this buff after one week?!”

Delton ignored the questions and took the seat next to Jade, “Tekle’s right. I shouldn’t make a pretty woman wait. Sorry.”

"Smooth.” Lucius whistled out, causing a nerve in Delton’s forehead to bulge. Lucius laughed and spoke, “Ah. Young love.” After saying this, Lucius held another look of reminiscence, but this time carrying a more somber expression.

Delton ignored the silent floating figure, then turned to Jade. She was still wearing the same gray manufacturer’s clothes, but the look she was giving him, made him feel as if he could not hide anything from her.

"S-s-second?!”