Chapter 4

zero know lurking and searching the area for more lurkers to fight and train with, ventured deeper into the city, looking at the wrecked buildings once again, zero carefully scanned the city for semblance of lurkers.

Zero felt he was starting gain feeling a new feeling, but he dismissed the thought immediately. After walking for seemingly hours, zero finally realized what he felt wasn't just a thought earlier, he was indeed gaining a new feeling, ' loneliness', it perfectly fit the current mood, he was a very intelligent being, quickly adapting to new things and learning as well, but it was because of that he didn't think he would get this specific emotion.

He knew he was powerful, he was made to protect the planet, to learn and adapt, and he knew he was gaining power far faster than humans could, to eventually be the most powerful, yet even after reaching this epiphany he still doesn't realize why this emotion seemed pathetic, he felt lower/weaker beings should be the only things that feel this way?, shouldn't strong being be contempt with power?, this baffled him. "Unless even such powerful beings feel this way as well", it was the only sound conclusion he came up with, all upper echelon humans seemed prideful, powerful and seemingly without worries, he observes them via his connection to the network, and they were always buying what they wanted to suit their own needs, even going far as to purchase people people.

Zero decided he needed to stop feeling this way, since it may hinder him in the possible future to come. Such thoughts he felt were too complicated for his unevolved brain.

After finding no creatures within his path he decided to leave the city and go back to the Forrest to train a but more, he felt he was close to his first evolution. His power was almost there, just a bit more and he'll make the breakthrough.

Zero walking throughout the Forrest, looked carefully to find trena fruits, which were fruits that help boosted the physicality of beings who consumed them.

After looking some more, zero realized he had already reached his destination, immediately starting his training once more, which now consisted of him swinging his sword repeatedly to work on his stamina and strength, and even technique.

Which was the other area zero wanted to work on, he had a katana like weapon, katanas were swift, sharp and deadly blades, if wielded properly could be devastating, especially if you considered how mush it weighed as well. A '600' pound blade coming at you with insane speeds would do a lot of damage, but that wasn't the case for zero, he simple swung wildly yet calculatingly at his opponents weak points, which need to be fixed, a sword style training would not only help boost technique but would also boost strength, and efficiency with the blade.

Zero then stopped his movements, to research possible sword techniques, to be able to quickly incapacitate or decapitate the opponent easily. After looking for various techniques he found three that stood out from the rest. 'The way of the wind', 'heavens draw' and 'dead man's willow', the first is one dictates the wielder to use effiecent yet extremely fast sword movements, the second is a quick draw technique which helps the wielder to draw there blades at immense speeds and the third, is a footwork technique which zero needed, since he had no coordination with his feet at all, which was why he was caught off guard the first time he fought the beast, the technique allows for quick movements around the opponent and creating even after images when perfected to have thw edge in your opponent.

After zero selected these three techniques, he ran simulations within his mind to efficiently use them even splitting his mind into three parts to simulate ways in mastering them, or to possible even achieve a breakthrough when completed.

Zero now sat down, now practicing each style respectively, implementing said information to his muscles and nervous system to slowly become second nature.

After practicing each respective style for an hour, he sat down to relax his mind.

Then he sat up, with an odd stance with his sword, now his right foot was in front of him, his left foot at the back, his right hand now holding the handle and his thumb touching the hilt of the blade, he then flexed his muscles to almost perfection, then drawing the sword, releasing a devastating blow, the three trees that were thick in front of him were perfectly cut, only fallung if someone actually moved them.

Zero now satisfied with his progress with the techniques which were at least 25% complete each, which surprised him, since he ran hundreds of simulations within the hour he started practicing each technique.

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