BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

Immediately, the barrier surrounding the room disappeared, and the healer left his room. He first did heal Alissa; after doing so, he helped her stand. He then turned to look at Erik and congratulated him.

"Well done, you are the winner," he said, shaking Erik's hand. "Of course," he continued, looking at the young woman, "he will take your rank, and you will take his."

This was good for Erik since he was going to jump to rank 3492 while she was going to rank 3543. It was a harsh system, yet it was used for many years and helped many people grow.

"Yeah, I know..." Alissa said with a dejected tone.

"Good..." the healer said, then a notification arrived on both students' phones.

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ERIK ROMANO VERSUS ALISSA KERR

WINNER OF THE MATCH: ERIK ROMANO

THE WINNER JUMPS TO RANK 3492; THE LOSER RECEDES TO RANK 3543

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Erik looked at the notification with a satisfied look which didn't go unnoticed by the healer.

"Remember, this is just the first fight. Things will become much more complicated as you progress through the ranks," the healer warned. "Don't get conceited just because of this small victory..."

"Yes, sir."

The man then spent some words in favor of Alissa, who clearly was very sad about her loss. He complimented her fighting style and the precision with which she fought. Having worked in the Red Palace for years, he could distinguish a good fighter from a bad one, and she was the first. She was just unlucky today.

Afterward, the students left the room and headed to the ground floor. Alissa quickly left the building, but Erik waited for the others to come.

He was the first one to go out of their room. Soon, the others came out; the first was Anderson, followed by Amber, Gwen, Benedict, Floyd, Martha, Mikey, and lastly, Aaron, which had the most brutal fight of the lot.

Fortunately, they all won their matches, so there wasn't any unnecessary drama.

"Hey guys, I'm going to hang out in the cafeteria a bit. I want to take something fresh to drink. Do you want to come?" Benedict said, and the others promptly agreed. All but Erik.

"Sorry, I have to go to work; I will be back soon, though," he said.

"All right then, see you later."

The young man quickly left the building and headed to the train station. Since he joined the Red Palace, he received a student discount to buy tickets and other things, considerably reducing the money he had to spend to travel back and forth to the establishment.

As he waited for the train to arrive, Erik looked at his system panel, specifically the power section, where he could read about his new power.

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-Brain Crystal power Merging

(Allows to merge two powers birthing a new one. It requires the merging of the DNA to work)

-DNA Merging

(Allows to merge two DNAs, birthing a new one. Required to accommodate merged powers.)

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This new biological supercomputer's power was self-explanatory. He could merge two powers and make a new one, but during the past week, he didn't have the time to test it. However, he asked the system about it and got some helpful information.

First, once two powers merged, a new one with similarities to the merged ones would come out.

Second, in some extreme cases, and if there was enough synergy between the two powers, an improved version of both powers could be born, but this was rare. In this case, a single power could do exactly what the merged ones could, but with some new perks.

Third, It wasn't guaranteed that the power would move up to a new rank, especially when the powers were too similar.

Fourth, the merging power needed energy to work, meaning DNA points.

Fifth, the system would have complete control over the outcome of the merging when Erik unlocked some other system's powers. However, this wasn't directly stated by the biological supercomputer, but it was what the young man assumed by what it said. Though the system at the moment could estimate the result of the merging fairly efficiently.

The train later arrived, and he boarded it. Later, Erik arrived at his destination and started walking toward the farm.

However, as the young man walked down the station's stairs, he noticed that the buildings that were under construction a couple of weeks ago had now been completed, modifying the scenery a little bit.

After ten minutes of walking, the young man finally arrived at mister Fox's farm, but as he got closer to the main gate, he found it busted open.

<Why did Mister Fox leave it open?> the young man asked himself; that was not something he usually did. However, as he went inside the property, the young man found no one. There should have been at least a dozen workers tending the fields and feeding the animals, but there was no one currently.

<This is weird...>

Erik knew that Mister Fox was alone only in one circumstance when the Crystal Cross gang members came to visit him. The young man knew about them because the old man couldn't bother to hide their relationship from a desperate 15 years-old, especially when only the two of them worked on the farm, but with the grown-up men he hired, he couldn't risk it.

The young man quickly approached the house door, only to find it busted open. He entered the building with cautious steps.

"Mister Fox?"

"Mister Fox, are you here?" Erik said, but there was no reply.

The first thing that the young man noticed was that the whole house was a mess. Open drawers, broken furniture, and all sorts of stuff scattered everywhere. "What the hell did happen here!?"

Erik searched the whole house for clues about what had happened, but once he reached the kitchen, he saw a massive trail of blood leading to the back door.

"What the...?"

Erik immediately ran toward the back door, only to find Mister Fox's body in front of it.

"Mister Fox! Mister Fox!" Erik said, but there was no reply from the old man. The fake awakener tried to see if the man was still breathing, but unfortunately, it appeared he wasn't. The old man was dead. He had a lot of cuts all over his body, as if someone had stabbed him several times. His nails were missing, and even parts of his skin. It looked like he was tortured.

"What the fuck did happen here?"

"Shit..."

The old man did miss his prosthetic mechanical arm and appeared to have crawled toward the back door. The place was a mess. The knives were all scattered over the floor; some windows were even broken. And on the table where they used to eat, there was an empty bottle of whiskey, half full. It appeared that Mister Fox was having his usual day before he got killed.

<But why? And who could have done something like this?> Immediately, Erik thought of the Crystal Cross gang. Since no people were working, and they were dangerous dudes, it was the only possible reason. Mister Fox wasn't the best person around, but he wasn't that hated for his neighbors to kill him.

Erik could do nothing but pick his phone up and call the police. After fifteen minutes, they arrived at the crime scene.

There were three cars with three agents each for a total of nine officers. An ambulance also showed there, and there was also a black VAN which Erik guessed was from the scientific department.

Erik was in front of the main door when they arrived. While the other officers went inside to see what the hell happened, one stopped to talk to Erik.

"Are you the one who called?"

"Yes, sir, indeed."

"Can you show me your ID?" the police officer asked.

"Yes, sir." Erik then picked up the ID from his backpack and handed it to the cop.

"Ok, mister... Romano, can you tell me what you were doing here?" the police officer asked while looking at his ID.

"I work here, sir," he explained.

The police officer asked many questions to the young man. When did he find the body, what was he doing, if he touched anything, and so on.

However, the police quickly found out that the young man was innocent since they conducted quick research about him and it had been easily proved that he had been at the Red Palace the whole day. Since the man died this morning, it was impossible for Erik even to be a suspect.

After a couple of hours of questions, the young man left the farm and headed back to the Red Palace. He didn't have a job anymore.