Testing out the system
'As I thought. This old fellow is up to no good.' Thought Alan. He almost got a goose that lays a golden egg. But now, he has to take forty thousand credits and shut up.
Alan was unwilling. He did face many situations like this before.
People who use their power and status to sway opinions. And now, someone like that is directly forcing him to give up something he has the right to. This was a mediocre villain in its work. Even then Alan felt Mr Johnson was cute compared to the actual bosses of mega-corporations.
On one side, It was his sister's admission fee. While on the other side, there was his chance to make more money.
If he chose to take the money and give up on his chance for promotion, he would readily get 40,000 credits which he can use for his sister's college admission now. But if he chose to reject Mr Johnson's offer, he will get a promotion and make a lot of money later. But he would lose the chance to let his sister study in a better university.
"Life is always full of hard choices. I should accept life for what it is. Thank you, Mr Johnson, for giving me this offer." With a smile, Alan chose to accept this offer. Blood is still thicker than water. I can't be selfish and destroy my sister's future. 'Besides, I now have a system.'
"Oh! That good for you then." With a smile, Mr Johnson strutted away leaving the dispersing crowd below.
Contrary to what you expected, Alan was happy now. Solving problems one at a time is always better than making more problems.
But a sudden urge for gaining power sprouted in his heart. He can't always be bullied by anyone and everyone. He needs to stand straight take on the world and his responsibilities as a man.
'I don't want to feel helpless ever again.'
"Now it's time to test my supernatural power the ENERGY SYSTEM." Now that everyone has left. He could patiently test out his theories about the system.' First, let's look at the status. The only way to find anything related to the system is through the status window.
"STATUS!" called out Alan.
[STATUS]
Human: Normal (only with the help of the system)
Strength:10
Dexterity:10
Mind: 10
Energy:10
Comment: Alive and healthy. But, a feeble life form.
Ability
• Energy assimilation: Can digest all forms of energy.
• Energy sense: Sense the energy around the host.
[0.00002/1000]
'Hm! There is an increase in the progress bar. But not by much. It must be the energy gained from passive absorption. Now I need to prepare a lighter, a bottle of energy drink and some batteries.'
Quickly Alan went into the shop to buy an energy drink. He obtained a battery from the flashlight and a lighter from the storeroom.
It has finally come to this. The calm Alan became more excited just thinking about it.
'Let's start with the easy things.' Thinking up to there Alan downed a bottle of energy drink within seconds.
Contrary to what he expected, the progress bar did not increase.
Why was that? Is glucose not considered energy by systems standards. If you really think about it, it is reasonable to not think of glucose as energy. After all, glucose is a matter. A molecule made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Although Albert Einstein explained mass-energy equivalence. The system cannot seem to convert mass directly into energy.
'As expected, or else the system would have been too overpowered.'
Next, Alan took out the batteries. He pressed his fingers on the positive and negative sides of the battery shorting the circuit.
There was slight heat forming on his fingers. Other than that, nothing happened.
He quickly checked the status screen again.
[0.000031]
It was practically an improvement of nothing. But still, Alan was satisfied to know he could absorb electricity. But then there was the question of how much electricity can he absorb and how fast can he absorb. What if a high quantity of electric current cause him to be electricuted.
Thinking about that Alan moved on to the next experiment.
Slowly lighting the lighter Alan was ready to try something extreme. Lifting the forefinger of his right hand, he thrust it into the 2cm long flame flashing above the lighter.
"Ouch!!! Owu...wu...wu." Like a wounded dog, Alan howled in pain. Why didn't it just absorb the energy, heat is also a form of energy right. Then why didn't it get absorbed?
"Status" called out Alan.
[STATUS]
Human: Normal (only with the help of system)
Strength:10
Dexterity:10
Mind: 10
Energy:10
Comment: Alive and healthy. But, a feeble life form.
Ability
• Energy assimilation: Can digest all form of energy.
• Energy sense: Sense the energy around the host.
[0.0000311/1000]
'What the heck, a pathetic increase of 0.0000001. It is so low. I think heat energy doesn't qualify as a good enough energy source. After all, it is low-level energy. Converting it into the energy of the System's level may not be possible. Or it may need different conditions to work. But I don't have a death wish. I would probably turn into a lump of roasted meat if played with fire like today.
No more playing with fire. I should also keep away from electricity. I don't want to be charred to a crisp by electricity arc.' Thought Alan.
Finally, after a little bit more experimentation, he concluded.
The system can really absorb all kinds of energy. But the efficiency of absorption is different for every kind of energy. For example, Alan can absorb one unit of energy every second. So, if he tried to absorb two-unit, the remaining will still exist. That was why he was burned while trying to absorb fire.
And only energy like heat, electricity, electromagnetic waves, and kinetic energy can be absorbed. Alan can't absorb potential energy, which meant that de can't relax a stretched spring by absorbing the energy inside it.
'Uh! Thinking about physics is killing me. But then what was the energy that the system absorbed from the pants and animals?'
For testing this, Alan helped uncle Ben to butcher some chicken. Although he didn't know what kind of energy he absorbed. But he was sure that energy from plants and animals were of higher quality than of others. He had this nagging feeling that absorbing this kind of energy should be his priority. Now, after butchering some chicken and plucking some weeds the progress level for the activating system had gone up.
Maybe this is the special feature of this world. After all, there are people with superpowers in this world. The energy he absorbed from plants and animals may be related to the so-called mana in this world. The reason for the birth of the mutants.
Now that the progress bar is at [0.1/1000]
Alan was ecstatic seeing the results. He made his next goal to butcher bigger animals or destroy some plant life.