ตอน 5: Fresh Perspective

"...does he have a family?"

"His wife filed for a divorce just before he was admitted here. They said that the woman found another man. She probably doesn't even remember him anymore. Aside from that, nothing."

"I see." Cedric sighed sadly as he glanced at the urn where Old Bull's ashes were placed. "At the very least, please ensure that his remains are taken care of properly."

After saying that, Cedric handed 1000 Demon Souls to the warden as a form of donation. The warden looked up at him and sighed, he received the donation and said:

"Don't worry, I'll handle this personally."

"Thank you. I shall take my leave then." Cedric nodded to the warden and left the office.

Uttering one last prayer for Old Bull's peaceful departure, Cedric felt his mind cleared from guilt. This was the best he could do for the old man right now. He'd love to do more for his family but the old man doesn't have one so this is as far as he can go.

Making his way outside, he found an empty bench to sit on. There, he remained quiet and observed his surroundings.

The Blue Jewel Valley branch of the Risk Management Center looked like a massive asylum and a fortress. It is surrounded by 20-meter-tall walls that are made with high-purity materials, making it incredibly tough. Rumors say that electric currents are running through these walls. The voltage was high enough to fry someone into a charred crisp in mere seconds.

With his new pair of eyes, Cedric can confirm that these rumors were indeed true. Even though he was at least several hundred meters away from the walls, he could see it in clear detail. His vision informs him about all things about the wall; its structure, thickness, toughness, and even the very minute details about it were captured by his eyes.

Although he often referred to the Risk Management Center as a prison, it doesn't necessarily mean that it follows the stereotype. This place was incredibly large. It's cold yer but that's to be expected since it was built to contain and eliminate 'Risks' like him should they decide to not comply with the rules.

Convicts like him could roam around inside these walls. This gives them a kind of false freedom, and sometimes, that's enough to keep a man sane in a place and situation like this.

With how large this place is, he could choose any random spot to use as his training ground. There is some equipment that he could rent out to assist in this too.

There weren't a lot of people outside as he noticed. Only a handful chose to roam around and breathe fresh air. Others spend their tire indoors, wallowing in regret or throwing a pity party for themselves. Cedric himself has a couple of episodes doing exactly that too.

His eyes landed on one of the people around him. The nearest one to him was far enough to not notice him.

He then used his sight to carefully study the man. Despite being far enough, he could see the person clearly as if they were standing right in front of him.

Cedric observed his target. It's a fairly young man, probably someone of his age. The man was training with a spear, doing several stances repeatedly and trying to perfect them.

As soon as he focused on the man, Cedric's thoughts were immediately filled with information about him. He instantly learned about the man's height, weight, and features. The color of the man's eyes, his skin tone, the fairly hidden mole on his jawline, the injury he was trying to hide which was made obvious by the slight limp whenever he shuffled through his stances...the man was an open book to Cedric.

Observing even more, Cedric immediately learned about every flaw in the man's technique. He instinctively corrected them in his mind, even going as far as drawing up possible routes for improvement.

This was the might of his 『Learning』 skill. There's no doubt in Cedric's mind that if he were to pick up a spear at this very moment, he would not only catch up to the skills of this man, he would instantly overtake him.

A grin made its way to his face unknowingly. He stopped observing the man and instead focused on himself. By now, he was fairly confident that his body had fully adjusted to the skills he received from merging with the eyes.

With these newfound talents, one would think that Cedric would immediately begin doing his Mandatory Service to change his status. Unfortunately, Cedric has other ideas.

'...I already failed this month.' He mused to himself, 'Going for another Hell Dive would be pointless since it wouldn't change. I might as well master the skills I currently possess first to prepare for the next month's assessment.'

'Hell Dive' is what most people call the Mandatory Service. After all, Superhumans are forced to enter 'Purgatory' to fight Demons. To them, the 'Purgatory' is no different from Hell so they began calling it 'Hell Dive'.

The contents of Mandatory Service differ from one Superhuman to another. Some would only need to eliminate 'X' amount of demons for their monthly Hell Dive. Others are forced to endure the harsh and frankly unfriendly environment of Purgatory. Surely there are unique tasks out there but frankly, none of those are important to Cedric, after that's not his mission.

It's his task that caused endless bitterness for Cedric, turning him into the man that he is now. His Mandatory Task was cruel and it's precisely because of that, that he ended up here.

His task was to survive 'X' amount of time under the relentless assault of the Endless Undead Horde.

The Awakening Ceremony occurs for kids who reach 15 years old. And truthfully, receiving the Swordsman Class wasn't all that bad. It wasn't excellent or anything, just good enough. It's also during the Awakening Ceremony that Superhumans establish a connection to Acala and receive the System which displays their innate aptitude.

Sadly, the Mandatory Tasks also occur that early. Cedric was able to vividly remember how his life turned upside down from the moment he received this task.

At first, he only needed to survive for 5 minutes. And since he was young, the Mandatory Tasks weren't that demanding for him so he managed to complete it. But as he eventually grows older and completes the task, the demand rises exponentially until he starts failing them.

That's when he started getting desperate...

As if that wasn't enough, his family experienced a great tragedy. He was the only one from his family to survive. His grief, indignance, wrath, and so on, piled up. Yet none of these helped him clear his Mandatory Service.

Eventually, he failed enough times to turn his Monitoring Chip red, alerting the authorities and throwing him here right away. Since then, this was all he knew...an endless cycle of frustration and desperation.

He's lucky that he's still alive at this point. With how demanding his Mandatory Service turned out, it's already a miracle that he has yet to seriously consider going out the same way as Old Bull did.

Of course, the thought crossed his mind numerous times. He had lost count of how many times he had been driven to absolute desperation already. Yet for some reason, he held on 'til this very day.

If he were to tell this story to the people in this place, he'd probably gain their admiration. After all, only people like him would understand what it's like to persist for this long.

'...anyways! That's all in the past now!' Cedric mentally slapped himself awake. Fierce determination burned in his eyes as he thought: 'Things have changed now. I, now, actually stand a chance against this unfairness. I'd be a fool if I let this chance go!'

He glanced at the System Panel for a bit and thought:

'I still have enough Demon Souls to last until next month. I was originally saving them up to buy new equipment but that's gonna have to wait.'

Demon Souls are this world's form of currency. Of course, there are coins and paper bills too, but in the world of Superhumans, Demon Souls are worth a lot.

They are earned through slaying demons of course, or as a reward for clearing Mandatory Services. They can also be earned through other means but these methods are only reserved for Superhumans.

The System Shop offers all types of goods, most of which are for Superhumans to use. Cedric was originally saving up to buy a new sword and some pieces of armor but he shelved that thought now that he had gained his new skills.

Right now, he needs to train like a madman. And for that, his body will need all the nutrition he could offer. He could of course secure more funds by killing some more demons in the Purgatory but he'd only do that if his calculations were proven wrong. With the skills he received though, that's very unlikely to happen. But the possibility is still there. He's not omnipotent after all.

With plans in mind and his heart free of guilt, Cedric was determined to start as soon as possible. And the very first task on his list was...

'Learning how to Breathe properly...'