Chapter 78

  Words formed in his mind, but as Jake was about to type them in, he realized something. He didn’t know how to write. His fingers hovered over the virtual keyboard dispyed on the s of Isra’s PDA, but he couldn’t start. It felt strange, and he wasn’t even sure what was wrong. He had no trouble pg a few more pins with empty bels on the map, but when he was ready to fill the first oh words, he found himself uo do so. The words he inteo write formed in his mind, but as he attempted to type them on the s of Isra’s PDA, his mind seemed to resist. His thoughts became so muddled and mixed up that he couldn’t even remember what he wao write at all. When he simply mulled his thoughts over in his head, they were clear, but as soon as he tried to type them out, his mind immediately began to py tricks on him. It wasn’t just a matter of struggling to find the right words; it was much more severe. His mind seemed to shut down, making him fet the meanings of words and eveters themselves. As soon as he shifted his focus away from writing, his thoughts returo crity. It was an experienlike any he had ever entered before.

  So much for Enhanced Intelligence, he thought with frustration.

  While Jake wasn’t certain about what was happening in his mind, he was fairly certain that it had something to do with his being a morphus. While his mutant mind excelled in sharp thinking, observation, memorization, and strategiing for various tasks, including bat tactics, it seemed to create difficulties for him when it came to writing. Perhaps this struggle was a trade-off for all the advahat came with the Enhanced Intelligence skill.

  “ you write?” he heard Irsra’s voice.

  He looked up from the PDA in his hands to meet Isra’s gaze, her expression clearly refleg fusion. It seemed like she was starting to doubt his writing abilities. Her panions, positioned a few yards behind her, were also him with a mix of fusion and skepticism on their faces. For some reason, this stirred a feeling of anger within him. He knew he could write; after all, he had no difficulty crafting cohereences in his mind. His Enhanced Intelligence had granted him a mental capacity far beyond that of an average human.

  He nodded vigorously at Isra and then lowered his head once more, fog on the s of the PDA.

  F his mind into overdrive, he trated with all his might, struggling to remember the letters of the English alphabet and how t them together to form words. After what felt like ay, he pleted the task. He had achieved a seemingly moal feat. It had taken nearly two full minutes of intense focus aal exertion, but he finally succeeded in f three letters to create a siraightforward word: YES.

  Feelially drained after the task, he experienced a level of exhaustion he had never known as a mutant. Sensing that he had expended a signifit amount of Mana Points, he gave a mental and to check his mana t. To his astonishment, he discovered that almost half of his mana had beeed through his intense tration on writing a single simple word. The realizatio him stunned, causing him to stare at the PDA s in disbelief for a few moments. The realization that the substantial amount of mana that could have sted him a couple of days yet was depleted in a mere two minutes due to the immense tration required to write just one word, hit him hard. It was now obvious that he could indeed write, but at a signifit cost in terms of time, effort, and mana points. This realization weighed heavily on him, serving as a crushing reminder of the challenges he faced despite his enhanced abilities.

  “Did you just write something?” Isra asked, her attentive gaze indig that she had been watg him closely all this time.

  Jake turhe PDA toward Isra and dispyed the s to her. She took a few steps closer, squinting at the s as she tried to make out the word. Once she mao read it, she shifted her gaze to Jake’s eyes, an incredulous expression crossing her face.

  “Yes? That’s all you wrote?” Isra asked, attempting to ceal her frustration io failing to do so vingly. For some reason, her disappoi in him stung a little, even though he couldn’t quite prehend why.

  “What did it write?” the leader of the group asked from behind her.

  “Just one word,” she replied, looking over her shoulder at Frank. “Yes.”

  “That’s what it wrote?” Archie said. “Yes? Just this short word, huh?”

  Jake heard Frank chuckle.

  “Now I feel bad for eaining the idea that this freak could actually be intelligent,” he ented.

  The three men made their way down the corridor to join Isra.

  “He did write a word,” Isra pointed out, casting a quice at the leader beside her.

  “It took him like 5 mio write a single word,” Frank remarked.

  “Just two minutes, or even less,” Isra corrected, though her tone unsciously reflected her agreement with the leader’s point.

  “Even for a single word, it shouldn’t have taken that long,” Frank ented. “Maybe the freak doesn’t even uand the meaning. Could have just memorized it from somewhere.”

  “But it uand our speech,” Isra said.

  “Or so it seems,” Frank said. “The freak ’t write, though.”

  “Why did it ask for a PDA to begin with then?” Archie asked without direg the question to anyone in particur. “I don’t get it.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Frank interjected, cutting off any potential argument before turning to Isra. “We’re done here. Have him return your PDA.”

  Isra shifted her focus to Jake. “ I have my device back?”

  He could see the disappoi in her eyes. She had believed him to be se, but now her belief seemed to have shifted. Strangely, it affected him. As a mutant, he seldom experienced emotions, but witnessing her dismay made him feel a sense of sadness for the first time. He wao prove to her that he was se. So he shook his head and withheld the device.

  “It’s not returning your PDA,” Rick stated the obvious.

  “The fuck?” Frank growled. “Don’t py games with us, you freak. You hear me?”

  Jake looked directly at Isra and raised his palm, signaling for her to wait a bit longer, hoping she would prehend. And she did. He could see it in her eyes. It was remarkable. His Enhanced Intelligence allowed him to read people effortlessly, yet his mutant mind posed great challenges for him in writing.

  Jake lowered his head and refocused on Isra’s PDA he held in his hands.

  “It’s toying with us,” Frank growled as he noticed Jake’s refusal to return the PDA.

  “Let’s give it a few more minutes, Frank,” Isra suggested.

  They kept arguing, but Jake no longer paid attention to their versation, fully trating on the PDA s. He now knew he wouldn’t be able to write what he had initially pnned. Still, he wao let Isra know that he was intelligent and that she had been right about him. It felt important to him, though he couldn’t expin why. He just felt the o do it.

  It reminded him of a short story from his childhood. It was about an intellige that couldn’t unicate effectively. The lead stist and her assistahe beast in a cage. She provided the beast with lettered cubes, asking him to use them to spell out his he beast overheard the lead stist telling her assistant that if the beast was intelligent, it would be able to spell its he assistant was very skeptical, doubting the beast’s abilities. The beast wao prove to the lead stist that he was intelligent. He tried pying with the cubes but struggled to form his name. Despite uanding human speech, the beast couldn’t speak or write for some unknown reason. He yearo show the lead stist his intelligence, but no matter how long he pyed with the cubes, he just couldn’t spell out his name.

  It was a sad little story. Jake had read it so long ago that he couldn’t even remember the title or the author’s name anymore. Yet it lingered in the recesses of his mind, resurfag at that moment. He felt akin to the beast in that story. He yearo write his name and present it to Isra. He believed she would reize it as his name and see his intelligence, just as she had inally believed.

  It was at that moment that he noticed a tab at the bottom edge of the s that he had never seen on his own PDA before. It was beled AskMeAnything. He instantly recalled his efforts to save up enough moo purchase the upgrade for his PDA to unlock this exact app. He was only a few credits shy of the required 100,000 credits for the upgrade when he was drawn into the Bck Void to undergo his transformation into a morphus.

  He tapped on the AskMeAnything app, and a search bar appeared on the s. Aruck him, and for the several minutes, he was engrossed in typing his name. Fortunately, he only had to input the first three letters of his name. When he successfully typed J, A, and K, the auto-fill fun activated, dispying a full list of survivors whose names began with those letters. Surprisingly, there was only one person listed as Jake Turner. It appeared that out of all the people who shared his name, he was the only one who had mao win the game of d ehe Gameverse.

  As he tapped on his name, a brief overview of his stats appeared on the s.

  Name: Jake Turner

  Level: 15

  Status: Dead

  Jake gazed at the perplexing information on the s. The System decred him dead. How could this be? The Bck Void didn’t end his life but instead altered him into a mutant. Yet acc to the System, he was now cssified as deceased. What could this mean?

  Before Jake could give the matter any more thought, he heard Frank excim, “What the hell is that? Have y’all ever seen anything like that before?”

  Jake looked up from the s. While he had been using the PDA, the other survivors seemed to have lost i in him and had begun expl the corridor they were in. They had stumbled upon the elevator shaft with the magical ptform inside. Frank and Rick had stepped inside, while Archie stood at the entrance, peering in. Isra had been standing not far from Jake, but upon hearing the leader’s cry, she couldn’t resist her curiosity and had stepped to stand beside Archie, looking into the elevator shaft. The two of them paid him little attention at the moment.

  Jake realized it was his ce. His goal was to get them into the elevator shaft by any means necessary. He knew Isra could still see him in her peripheral vision, but if he acted quickly, he could reach the elevator entrance, push Isra and Archie inside before they could react, and then quickly enter himself. With him ihe ptform would transport them all to the unfinished level of the tower.

  With that in mind, Jake rose to his feet.