Chương 2: Chapter 1.5 - A fabulous new update

I opened a browser for a simple search: kaiju suppression force Philadelphia. Results populated instantly. News articles, recruitment pages, social media posts. The KSF had been all over the media for the past year, ever since the kaiju started emerging from the ocean. Giant monsters, straight out of a Japanese movie, smashing cities before the KSF soldiers put them down. The recruitment was open, and the applications could be filed in person at any time from eight to ten.

It was eight in the evening, so I had two hours. I quickly changed into one of the many, brandless black suits, matched with a white shirt and black shoes. I grabbed my car keys, hopped into my old i30, and headed to Philly. The road wasn't bad, after I found a decent radio.

Though, that took a while because the first four stations ran sermons of a preacher out of Baltimore, who was explaining that the beasts of the sea had been written down two thousand years ago, and that everyone who laughed about it then was welcome to keep laughing now. Station five played worship rock. Station six was a call-in show where people phoned to say what kaiju they'd seen, and what they'd promised God in exchange for still being here. I found classic rock on the seventh and left it there.

A year ago, half those frequencies had been selling used cars and the rest played music. On the way, I summoned the system window. [WELCOME TO SELINEAN SYSTEM VERSION 2. 0] [YOUR LEVELS, STATS, AND SKILL POINTS HAVE ALL BEEN CONVERTED TO THE NEW VERSION] [CURRENT LEVEL: 54] [STRENGTH: 657. 5] [DEXTERITY: 65] [INTELLIGENCE: 10] [ENDURANCE: 1035] [WILLPOWER: 10] [CHARISMA: 10] [SPEED: 130] [LEGACY CLASSES: Berserker (35), Path of the Devil (25), Void mage (20)] [SKILLS: Basic Soul Manipulation, Void Gaze, Blood Magic] [SYSTEM SKILLS: Levelscanner, System Intervention (cd 112 days)] [MAJOR PASSIVES: Limitless violence (50% endurance added to strength), Infinite mastery (50% more main stat)] [OUT OF SYSTEM SKILLS: Asura, Crown of Empty Soul] Ha, an interface update. Although…

where were my unassigned skill points? I focused on the skill tree. Nothing. Yo, what do you mean, nothing? I've spent my entire life as a mage optimizing my endurance-stacking build over the bullshit skill tree the system had. Where was it? I tried twenty different ways of thinking about a skill tree. Nothing. I was floating nine unspent skill points. Where were they? Someone blew their horn at me, and I realized I had almost driven into a truck. I closed the system interface to see the road.

The skill tree better pop up on a level up, together with my saved-up skill points. I literally fought one of the goddesses of demons to get them. I stepped on the gas, annoyed the trip took so long. The recruitment center somehow managed to undershoot my expectations. I pulled over by a converted warehouse in a part of South Philly that smelled like diesel and broken dreams. A faded banner hung over the entrance, proclaiming KAIJU SUPPRESSION FORCE – DEFENDING HUMANITY'S FUTURE in letters that needed a repaint.

Somebody had spray-painted a cross over the last word. Inside, the aesthetic matched the exterior. Folding tables, plastic chairs, fluorescent lights that buzzed loud enough to give anyone a headache. A bored-looking woman sat behind the main desk, her KSF uniform rumpled, her eyes fixed on a computer screen with a small wooden cross hanging off her monitor on a bootlace, next to a photo of two kids. I walked up and waited. She didn't look up.

"Name?"

"Peter O'Connor." Her fingers clacked against the keyboard.

"Previous military experience?"

"No."

"Law enforcement?"

"No."

"Any formal combat training?" I thought about how to answer that. I fought a lot, but it didn't exactly count as training. Hell, my best fighting technique was turning off my mind, so my body could do its thing without the brain slowing it down.

"I can handle myself." She finally glanced up, taking in my appearance. Her eyes lingered on my hands for a moment. Thanks to my endurance, my hands bore no sign of combat or physical struggle. I regenerated out of all of it.

"Doesn't look like it." Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. This was the point where I probably should have said I was a mage. But I didn't want whatever that would cause.

"Don't you need people?" She frowned.

"You a mage?" Well, I wasn't going to lie about it straight.

"Yes." Her expression didn't change, but something shifted behind her eyes. Wariness, maybe. Or just the standard prejudice that came with the territory these days. Ever since the kaiju showed up, ever since the world learned that magic was real and that some mage had probably caused the whole mess, mages weren't exactly popular.

"Level?"

"Does it matter?" That got a reaction. Her eyebrows climbed toward her hairline.

"Yes, of course it does matter. Is it at least five?" Fifty-four, actually, but that was too much for this. Especially given the maximum system level was one hundred.

"A touch over twenty." She stared at me for a long moment, probably trying to figure out if I was messing with her. Then she shrugged, typed something into her computer, and slid a clipboard across the desk.

"Fill this out. Tryouts are tomorrow at oh-six-hundred. Don't be late." I took the clipboard and found a seat in the corner. Why did they have tryouts at six in the morning? It was an hour-and-a-half drive for me, and I doubted most recruits could get here much faster. I focused on the form. It was twenty pages of bureaucratic nonsense.

Emergency contacts, medical history, liability waivers, psychological assessments, questions about my relationship with my parents and whether I'd ever had thoughts of harming myself or others. I filled it all out in a way that wasn't going to make trouble. Honesty would have gotten me nowhere, even assuming my mother wasn't working for the KSF, which she most likely was at this point. When I finished, I returned the clipboard and headed for the door.

"O'Connor," the woman called after me. I stopped and turned. She was watching me with an expression I couldn't quite read.

"Word of advice? Don't mention the mage thing unless you have to. People around here aren't exactly friendly to your kind." I shrugged.

"Everyone's afraid of the unknown."

"You know what I mean." Yeah. I did. Half the people applying had found God in the last year, and the sermon they found Him in ended with a mention of a mage. Somebody summoned the monsters to the world, and it was obviously a mage. The preachers really didn't need to stretch things far to arrive at that. The annoying part was that they were right. I walked out into the Philadelphia evening, the city sprawling grey and indifferent around me.

I'd just signed up to be a grunt in an army that probably hated what I was. Yet, it felt right, somehow. Like the first real thing I'd done in months. I pulled into the recruitment center parking lot at five forty-five in the morning, because I hated myself just enough to do that. The Philadelphia pre-dawn was grey and cold, the annoying kind. A handful of other cars had already arrived, their occupants visible as silhouettes against the glow of phone screens. Most of them looked young. Most of them looked nervous.

All of them looked normal. I found a spot near the back and killed the engine. For a moment, I just sat there, watching my breath fog in the air. What the hell was I doing here? Picking a fight. That was the answer. The only answer I always ended up with, because it was the one thing I was kind of good at. I got out of the car and walked toward the warehouse. The faded KSF banner still hung over the door, looking even more pathetic in the pre-dawn gloom.

Inside, the fluorescent lights buzzed with the same headache-inducing frequency as yesterday. A woman stood at the front of the room, hands clasped behind her back, watching us file in with the kind of expression that suggested she'd already written most of us off. She was in her forties, with greying hair pulled back tight and a scar across her throat that she made no effort to hide. Former military. The way she held herself, the way her eyes tracked movement, she'd seen combat.

By the way she flinched when she saw me, she had seen the real thing, the version that never made it onto a recruitment poster. This must have sucked for her. A lifetime in the army, only to one day find out that magic exists, and that her lifetime of experience didn't matter at all. By six o'clock, about thirty people had gathered. A mix of ages, though most were in their twenties. And nobody other than me wore a suit.

"Attention," the woman said. She didn't raise her voice. She didn't need to.

"My name is Sergeant Miriam Cross. For the next twelve hours, your life belongs to me. If you have a problem with that, the door is behind you." Nobody moved.

"Good. Today's tryouts will test your physical capabilities, your combat aptitude, and your ability to follow orders. You will be pushed to your limits. Most of you will fail. The Kaiju Suppression Force does not accept mediocrity." Ah, so they weren't that short of people. She paced, her boots clicking against the concrete.

"Before we begin, you will be issued standard equipment. The Crusader armor system, provided by Lucielle Legal Corporation, will be your primary tool in the field. It responds to your physical and mental state, amplifying your capabilities to the extent your body can handle. The ability to use it is among the core qualifying criteria. Learn it. Master it. Do not bother trying to understand it." Hmph, so Lucielle made up for not having soldiers by ponying up power armors for the KSF.

That it functioned as a beta-test for the experimental tech was a fortunate accident. And also an extra reason why they wanted me on the inside. Technicians wheeled in racks of lightweight power armor. Sleek exoskeletons, with articulated joints and subtle glowing lines running through the material. I joined the fitting queue. The guy in front of me stood a bit taller than me, also blond, though with a much better color, and carried himself like he expected the world to get out of his way.

Strong jaw, clear skin, the kind of effortless confidence that came from never having been told no.

"Van Hellsing," he said when he reached the front.

"Liam van Hellsing." The technician's eyebrows rose.

"Any relation to Colonel Jonathan van Hellsing?"

"That's right. I'm here to earn my place, same as everyone else." I remembered Jonathan from the El Salvadoran airport. He tried to save me from my sister. Back then, the Kaiju Suppression Force was still called the Vampire Suppression Force. Felt like yesterday. Then it was my turn.

"Name?"

"Peter O'Connor." The technician checked his tablet, frowned, then checked again.

"You're listed as a mage." The temperature in the immediate area dropped. I could feel eyes on me.

"Something like that."

"We still need to fit you with armor. Mages aren't exempt from the standard gear."

"How fast does it move?"

"Fast enough." I sighed.

"What g-force is it tested for?" Everyone glared at me even harder now.

"It's certified for 8G," the technician replied. Yeah, never mind.

"I'll have to pass on the armor." The technician stared at me. Behind me, someone laughed. I was pretty sure it was Liam. I sighed.

"The way I use magic is to empower myself. That leads to really sharp acceleration, often at weird angles. I would tear this apart the split second I start fighting." Sergeant Cross appeared beside us.

"Problem?"

"Recruit O'Connor is refusing the Crusader system." Cross's grey eyes found mine.

"Is that so?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And why would a mage…" she said the word like it tasted bad, "…think he's above standard equipment?" I shrugged.

"Because I am." A long silence. Then Cross smiled, thin and sharp.

"Very well. You'll compete without armor. If you fail any test by the default elimination margin, you fail entirely. No appeals. Understood?"

"Yeah." She walked away. Behind me, Liam's voice carried.

"Mages. They're all the same. Think their little tricks make them special." A young woman drifted over to stand near me while everyone else got fitted. Tall, dark, with close-cropped hair and an expression that suggested she was reserving judgment.

"Nadia Okonkwo," she said, offering her hand. I shook it.

"Peter."

"So. You're either very confident or very stupid."

"I tend to be both." That got a small smile.

"My building got hit in the second wave. Kaiju came right through the lobby. Forty-three people died, including my grandmother and three of my neighbors. The only reason I'm alive is because a mage showed up and held the thing off long enough for us to evacuate. So… thanks for existing, I guess." I didn't know what to say to that, so I just nodded. She glanced toward the front.

"Word of advice? Hellsing's going to be gunning for you. His family's been fighting supernatural threats for generations. To him, mages are just another type of monster." I shrugged.

"They aren't wrong." Her smile froze. She pushed off the wall.

"Good luck, Peter."