Transcendent Gene
Chapter 113: Recovery [3]

Chapter 113: Recovery [3]

Raymond’s state did improve with time. Within a week, there wasn’t a need to inject him with healing serum anymore. They only needed to keep him connected to machines that fed him and monitored his vitals.

Gio didn’t need to go to the medical ward for anything after the first day. His recuperation process after healing his eyes was more a matter of slowly training himself back up to his proper physical state.

However, he still made visits there at least once a day to check on Raymond. He felt partially responsible for not moving fast enough.

It took two days for Gio to wake up and another five for him to be combat-ready again. For that week, he went mostly unbothered, only exchanging slight greetings with the team members he encountered every once in a while.

That life ended only when Jax returned to the zephyr for the first time.

"Gio!"

He found Gio in the halls in the middle of the day, catching him by surprise.

"You’re back? I thought you’d be gone for a couple more weeks at least."

"I was going to stay out, but plans changed a little. Amaya talked to us."

It had been long enough by now. They had talked about everything from all perspectives so they could gather a complete timeline of events.

In the process, Amaya didn’t hide Gio’s involvement and achievements. She was very vocal, in fact, about Gio’s help. If it weren’t for him, they all would have died.

The information he gave and his decisiveness saved them. Everyone knew this now, and none of the members of this team were ungrateful people.

"We had a little talk and decided that it’s time to stop holding you back. How’s your body?"

Even if he had to lie about it, there was only one response Gio would ever give.

"It’s great. I’m ready for anything."

"Good," Jax responded with a grin.

"Then get your stuff ready. Until we start doing real missions again, we’ll take you around and help you gain experience. Since I’m the first to return, I take the first shift."

He looked much better than he did a week ago. At that time, Jax had gone so pale that it almost looked like he changed his ethnicity.

It was good to see him joking again, and the news he brought with him was good as well.

Gio did as he was told and prepared his gear.

’Fieldwork is exactly what I need right now.’

His body had just healed. Now was the time for him to convince it that its base state was somewhere higher than it originally thought. He needed to work it until it understood that its limits were meant to be broken.

Actual combat with enemies aiming for his throat was the perfect way to expedite the process.

Jax wasn’t kidding either. When he and Gio went out, they didn’t just do small missions that meant nothing.

Gio found himself facing Tier 1 and Tier 2 beasts en masse every day. He found himself fighting Sequencers of the same level as well.

The amount of human blood on his hands increased, but the amount of deaths he caused didn’t move at the same rate.

That wasn’t to say Gio didn’t kill. The Wasteland was just like that. There would always be situations where murder was one’s only redemption.

Gio also encountered those moments when he found that the enemies he faced deserved death. His mind determined them to be a burden the human race was forced to carry, and the value of their lives disappeared.

Even Jax had to be surprised by the lack of hesitation in Gio’s movements when he aimed for fatal strikes. He wasn’t the only one either.

Several days after Jax returned to the ship, Jason came and told him that he would take over. According to him:

"I didn’t get to take my turn at teaching you because of everything that happened. I’ll make up for that now."

With that, Gio gained another teacher, and then another, and then another. For the second week, he found himself traveling with a different member of the team every day.

Each of them had a unique perspective on battle. None of their fighting styles were remotely similar either.

Jax and Natalia were likely the most similar, but even they completely differed in many ways. Their approaches were completely opposite. While Jax liked to charge in and use strength and speed to overpower his enemies, Natalia was a more careful fighter who only really used close combat as a way to deal fatal or heavily damaging blows.

There was also something else about Jax’s strength, something more mysterious. Gio couldn’t put a finger on it, but he knew it was there.

Every time Jax was in a precarious situation, he somehow managed to completely avoid it like nothing. It was as if he was impossible to kill, making it so that even with Sequences without extreme power, he could still win every battle.

Was it an illusion? Gio couldn’t tell. There were plenty of Sequences out there with countless different properties. There was no way to say where the limit of human evolution was.

’In the past, there was a girl...’ Gio thought as he walked to the medical bay.

’...I learned about her when the world’s order was collapsing. Classified documents became easily accessible by anyone, including the most unsavory ones. Her report was among them.’

She was in her twenties when her information was leaked, but she’d been in captivity since she was twelve. She was found by a certain agency and kept in a hidden facility. The reason was obvious. Her Sequence was so valuable that they determined it was best for humanity if she became a battery.

She had the power to channel any and all energy through her body without limits. If she was hit by the effects of any Sequence, the energy would travel through her and be expelled back at them automatically. It was impossible to injure her through unordinary means.

Even ordinary weapons that struck her would lose all of their energy. Blunt impact meant nothing against her body, nor did penetrative force.

The sharpness of a blade could only cut her if it was moved excruciatingly slowly. Her neck could only be crushed in the same way. The most effective way to deal with her was poison.

This also meant that she wouldn’t be harmed even if she was treated unethically.

She was taken from her home by force and transferred to the facility. She was kept in a room alone and provided with food, water, and anything else she could possibly want. She watched shows and movies, played games, drew, and made music in the comfort of the small home they’d created for her.

And all the while, she was hooked up to machines that used her as a conduit to power several cities and war machines.

It was not a life of pain that she could feel.

Her mind never grew past the state it was in when she was first captured. She forgot about her parents after she was sedated enough and the only life she ever knew became the one she loved and cherished.

’When the facility was breached, she would have been a great force to help fight the invading monsters. Even with their strength, they wouldn’t have been able to kill her easily with her natural protections.’

But she didn’t know battle at all. The mind of a twelve-year-old could not adapt to the changes in the situation.

Her end was a tragic one. She was slowly crushed under the weight of a monster’s foot, laying down in the room she never learned to leave.

’She should be six or seven right now...’

If there was a way to save her, he would certainly try. If she was allowed to live an ordinary life and become a proper Sequencer, she could have been one of the best on humanity’s frontline.

’I’m getting off track.’

Gio shook his head as he waited for the medical ward doors to slide open.

’The point is, I think Jax has something like that too; a powerful ability that he hides behind the Sequences he uses all the time.’

He walked through the door with his head down as he engrossed himself in thought. This was a routine by now, so he wasn’t expecting anything. He merely came to check.

He walked to the chair where Raymond laid and raised his eyes...

...only for them to widen immediately.

"This is a great first thing to see after waking up."

The eyes that had been closed for the past 10 days finally opened wide.

Raymond was awake.