I noticed his smirk, but calmly replied. "No. Not worth the trouble."
"I think I am moving too fast to try and exploit another hacker so early, teacher. I know why I need to learn, but I don't think it is possible with my current skills."
Kid Brian lets out a strained groan, and sat up. "Yeah, he failed spectacularly. You should have seen it."
Antonio pointed towards the bathroom, while he kept his attention on me, "So, tell me Arwin. Where did you fail and what you could have done to avoid it?"
He asked me in that same questioning tone, whenever I failed and didn't properly think about my methods.
He would sometimes randomly test me with mind games, whether I could piece together information from disjointed conversation, or would manipulate me into completing a task without even asking me directly.
I had to learn, when he was doing that and give him an answer about the motives behind his actions, and even if I was right he would neither confirm nor deny my conclusions.
At first I was confused why was he doing this, but it slowly became ingrained in me to second guess my opponent's motives and moves. I noticeably became better at observing natural cues someone would give off.
The most effective way to catch these cues was by actively listening.
'What did I miss this time? Is it because I tried to complete it too fast? No, he is asking 'Why I failed?' he cared more about my failure.
'No! He is side tracking me, he knew I was not ready, but I didn't reject his proposal on trying to crack a harder level. He knew I would fail, he set me up for failure. And the only reason he could do this is to show me my limits.'
Confidence prevalent in my eyes, I answered. "You gave me the proposal to try against a harder level, knowing I would lose. You wanted me to know my own limits and shave off my overconfidence."
"You did this to keep my ego in check, while simultaneously getting an understanding of my current capacity by knowing how long I would last against another hacker."
His lips tightened into thin line, as he weighed whether he should say something or remain quiet, he decided to speak, "Yeah good guess, but it is more to do with avoiding a dangerous target."
"I have taught you, and you, yourself have told me it is better to pick an easy target who could not retaliate. So when I put a proposal to you to hack a dangerous target, you should have refused. In the real world, gangs would threaten you to hack a well-protected target, and it is your job to know when to say, No."
Surprising me that he had decided to give me an actual answer. I quietly contemplated it and found it reasonable enough.
"And when Brian is done, go take a bath as well. Today is the movie night, Noose has gone to get snacks." I nodded, as I laid on the cold floor.
"You did excellent today, kid."
"Is that a compliment or should I second guess whether you have a hidden motive?" I laughingly asked, mentally exhausted from trying to exploit that shitty AI.
"Learn to take a compliment kid. You won't get many from me."
I responded with a thumbs up. Watching him leave.
I was awoken from my nap by kid Brian, with excitement in his voice. "Arwin, go take a bath. Antonio came back and said Noose will reach in 10 minutes."
I slowly got up with a groan and entered the bathroom, warm running water filled the tub. I thought back to the time before I met my teacher and after.
And there was a vast difference in my lifestyle, before I met him. I had to constantly wait for Noose as he could only visit twice or thrice a week, just to entertain me or converse with me. He was all I had to a human connection.
After meeting our teacher, my routine had changed drastically from spending time alone in a room with an android to constantly learning new things about cars and programming, and history.
Old man Noose surprisingly had deep interest in history and stories, especially myths about gods, magical beings and magic.
I reminisced about the conversation we all had while playing a rather illegal table-top game of fantasy and dungeons.
"How do you know so many stories?" Kid Brian asked, his attention focused on the game.
Noose replied, "They are not just stories, kid. Before the year of Awakening, before 2020 happened. Stories about gods, magical creatures and magic was thought to be the colorful imagination of our ancestors, just a fantasy."
"We humans love storytelling and so did our ancestors. That paradigm changed when the Year of Awakening happened, as people started gaining supernatural powers."
Now his attention was fully focused on Noose, he asked. "Then what happened? Did they start the invasion then?"
"Well, humans being humans, wanted in on unlocking their "Hidden Potential". It started with one could have superpowers if they survived COVID, which changed to if you have COVID you could have superpowers to then, becoming just having any disease allowed one to gain superpowers."
"This caused a new wave of not only new COVID patients, but other diseases saw an immediate spike in cases as well. It became a race to have these superpowers." Noose said, his voice carrying a hint of sadness.
"Fools," he whispered. "A lot of them."
Antonio mockingly continued where Brian left off, "Yeah, it was a race to see who could go embrace Death, the fastest. Many infrastructure in Third- and even Second-world countries collapsed, their hospitals were flooded with infected patients."
"Within 2 years the death toll had surpassed One Billion. Many countries had dissolved as citizens blamed their own government for the catastrophe. While in some countries the opposite happened, the government responded by ruling with iron fist."
"But that was the least of everyone's problem. There were many people who had gained superpowers, some used their superhuman ability for good, while others did not."
"There were extremists popping up, left and right, which only caused more problems. Some of them tried to create their own small kingdoms, to others joining already existing extremist groups, to the creation of many cults, to the point every surviving country were under martial law just to survival the shit-show."
Antonio paused to take a sip, while both Kid Brian and I listened with fascination.
"It took years for countries to stabilize, but by then a new kind of arms race was already in the progress. A race to see who could have the highest number of Awakened humans."
"Although it didn't majorly change the balance of power against the countries possessing nuclear arsenal, it still had enough weight for countries to scramble for it. An arms race where it was not dependent on how technologically advanced a country was, but a virus like COVID and large enough population of human subjects."
"What kind of powers did they have? I read they only have one supernatural power." I asked, trying to appear curious.
But I also wanted to find out if there were any hidden details I may have forgotten or unknown changes that could have occurred without me knowing.
Noose replied, "Just one power? Kid, they control mana, 'The Mana'. You have played fantasy games right? So you must know mages, warriors and priests?"
"It's similar to that, but that's all we know. Except for one fact, that there are warrior who are physically superhuman."
"How strong are they? Can they run faster than a car? What about flight, can they fly?" Kid Brian asked with wonder, utterly distracted from the game.
"Well we have no idea, but there was this incident where an awakened warrior threw a bus with his strength. And they are very fast, atheist in the videos. And about flight? I don't know."
"But we do know, every awakened has the capacity to grow strong with training and practice or at least that is what we are being told."
I threw another question to keep the conversation going.
"I read that awakening has a positive effect on your lifespan? That, the people who had awakened in 2020 are still alive, I guess."
Antonio immediately responded. "That's just government propaganda."
Kid Brian hopped like a super charged bunny, filled with enthusiasm and wonder.
"How!? How can I have superpower like them?"
Antonio's expression tightened for a moment.
Noose stopped for a moment and then solemnly said, "You will eventually know."
Antonio glanced at Noose, but continued under Noose's steely gaze. "When you turn Fourteen, you can sign a contract where you accept the risks of undergoing the procedure. And before you go running thinking about signing that contract, awakening has a mortality rate of 80%. Eight out of every ten people die a death similar to drowning, with their organs shutting down."
"But I believe the mortality rate is much, much higher. The government would do everything it could to hide that fact if it meant they could produce more Awakened."
Noose added, gazing directly into Kid Brian's eyes, "So never think about it Brian, it is not worth it."
His enthusiasm froze upon hearing the cruel reality behind his dream. He whispered, "Why?"
I felt guilty for being the one responsible for these harsh restrictions, so I begrudgingly said. "If you become an awakened one, then you will be forced to fight the aliens, and its not worth it. But as an average person without superpowers we will not be forced to join the war efforts, it is better to be a normal person than to chase strength."
Except I had only spoken half-truth.
Even Antonio wore a solemn expression of neither agreeing or disagreeing, as he gave his own piece, "You already know that both me and Noose grew up in an orphanage. Back then there were more than 50 of us."
He paused for a bit, his face looked like he had swallowed a bitter pill.
"Now only handful of us are left. Most died unable to awaken. We don't particularly know who survived the procedure, but I guess those who had were whisked away by the army."
"And died gods knows where."
I shook away those thoughts. It was not my problem. I never wanted my novel to come to life.
Sigh
I continued to reminiscence as another amazing thing I had realized was.
My memories, from the time of breathing in the fumes of 'Black Death'. Were still crystal clear!
As if those memories were burned into my memories.
Everything I had studied seemed to remain with unnatural clarity. From a vast range of hardware and where each component could be found, to the basic techniques for soldering motherboards and chips.
Even the little DIY tricks I had read were still there, ready to be recalled whenever I needed them.
KnockKnock
Hm!
"Give me a minute Brian. I am almost done." I shouted.
I turned off the tap, and started drying myself. Clearing my head of any distracting thoughts.
When I exited, I saw that the whole room had been transformed into a Halloween themed room, with several different pizzas and all kind of snacks laid on the bed. All three of them were already enjoying the feast while a movie played on the TV.
'It seems Ron couldn't make it.'
"Couldn't you guys wait for me?" I asked, annoyed.
"Arwin, if you remain such a scatter brain then your future is bleak. I already told you, today is the movie night and you decide to hole up in the bathroom." Antonio said. He paused before continuing, "I... Oh! You know what? I am sorry, kid."
I looked at him with a questioning gaze and was surprised, "Why are you apologizing brother Ant?"
"I... No! We shouldn't have disturbed you during your personal time, kid." He looked genuinely apologetic.
'Why is he apologizing? I mean, yeah I needed some time to think...'
My attention was suddenly caught by kid Brian, who was trying to muffle his laughter. Slowly, the gears in my head began to turn. I replied with irritation, "Oh come on, I am not even old enough to get a reaction out of it and you guys know it."
Kid Brian immediately quipped, "But not too young to look at porn."
Both brother Ant and kid Brian burst into laughter.
I defended myself against the accusation, "I was just curious about why so many people looked at those videos." That only made them laugh even louder at my poor attempt to deflect.
In my defense, I was just interested whether I could get a boner or not.
Interestingly, I could not feel even a hint of lust when I watched porn. It was like my had body just swallowed plastic and couldn't digest it, but the plastic also couldn't do anything to me. It seemed until I hit puberty, I was safe from distracting thoughts.
Noose stopped their laughter with a stern gaze, "Curiosity is fine, Arwin but patience is a virtue. Trust me, rushing to adulthood is like skipping the trailers and complaining the movie doesn't make sense."
I nodded in agreement, then stopped as his words caught up to me. I slowly turned toward him, confused.
I could've sworn I saw the corner of his mouth twitch.
He exhaled, and awkwardly smiled. "Well the movie has already started. Ant can you go to the beginning of the movie, we also missed some scene."
I could only scowl at them for making me the butt of the joke for today.
I sat on the bed, enjoyed my pizza.
But I wouldn't forget what had happened today.
***
"No one told me we were watching a horror movie. Why didn't you tell me, Noo-Old man Brian?" I asked, the jump-scares scenes still playing vividly in my mind.
"Oh come on, if we told you then you would have bailed on us. And today's Halloween, what's the point if we don't watch a horror movie." came the reply, his eyes on the road but his attention was definitely on me.
We were driving to my home, after we had dropped off kid Brian.
"It was boring. They always rely on cheap jump scare to terrify kids-"
"And you know it was not boring, at least not to you. You are scared of horror movies Arwin, admit it."
"I am not!"
"I am just, just... Jumpy! Everyone is a bit jumpy when faced with an unexpected jump scare. Even kid Brian got scared, okay?"
"Yeah, but he also enjoyed it. You, on the other hand did not enjoy it one bit,. It felt more like you were getting punished."
He continued "Admit the fact, that you are scared of horror movies, hate the taste of black coffee and love strawberry flavored snacks. The only reason you drink black coffee is to appear mature."
"I may not be an adult yet, but Iam mature. You always say it yourself."
"And how is me liking strawberry flavor, relevant in this conversation?" I was unnerved that Noose knew so much about me, without me noticing.
He responded. "But you hide the fact you like strawberry flavor, like someone will call you out for not being man enough or something. There's nothing wrong with liking strawberry flavor or not liking the bitter taste of black coffee. Enjoy your life and don't care what others think of you, Arwin."
"You do not need to live for the approval. People will always talk shit. That's their job. You shouldn't care about them, son."
An awkward pause followed before he continued, "And its kind of like... you have a gap moe."
He hurriedly added. "Nothing wrong with that."
I felt a chill run down my spine, 'Gap moe? Me? I.. wait, how does he even know that word?'
"Wait, how do you—" halfway through I get interrupted as Brian's phone rang.
"Yes, this is Brian Noose. Who is this?"
Whatever he heard, I physically saw his expression shift from confusion to serious, and then turn to relief.
He turned to look me in the eyes, his lips pressed together.
"What happened—"
"Your mother is admitted to the hospital, she was found overdosed on drugs. For now, she seems to be in the clear."
---
AN: The old ch "12" was posted on 5/1/2026. This is part 2.
ch 17 was posted on 26/9/26 GMT.
See what I did with previous ch title?