My Tribrid System: More than a Monster

Chapter 161

Kai, Chloe, and Ray walked into Van’s workshop in a single file.

They immediately spotted the boy seated in his worn chair in front of a flickering computer terminal.

His hands hovered expectantly over the keyboard, but his eyes remained tightly shut in a display of profound concentration.

Seeing that he was deeply immersed in his task, the others navigated the room quietly, being exceptionally careful not to disturb his focus.

"Damn. This place is like a literal junkyard," Chloe whispered under her breath as she scanned the mountain of scattered tools, dismantled tech, and miscellaneous parts strewn throughout the workspace.

Ray and Kai merely shrugged in response before moving to stand aside, their gazes fixed on Van’s back.

They weren’t entirely sure why he kept his eyes closed, but they sensed he was mentally communicating with the mechanical spiders, which in turn served as his bridge to the systems in the control room.

"Uh... is he currently meditating?" Chloe whispered, leaning in toward Ray.

She was a bit too close for comfort.

Ray stared at her face for a lingering second before shuffling a few inches away to regain his personal space.

"He isn’t meditating. He’s just utilizing his ability to interface with the machines," he explained softly.

Chloe raised an eyebrow, her curiosity piqued.

"I recall when we were inside the Gate, he didn’t possess an ability then. So where did this power come from?"

Ray offered no verbal reply.

He simply shrugged and chose to remain silent, keeping his attention pinned on Van.

Kai’s foot was silently tapping against the floor in a rapid, anxious rhythm.

He watched with an intense, calculating gaze, clearly uneasy about the potential outcome.

’I thought he was only a grade 3.5 meta. How is he capable of controlling those spiders from this vast distance?’ Shaking his head, the blonde-haired youth let out an inward sigh.

’... Ah, what do I actually know? His ability is far too unique and obscure for me to categorize it as a standard one. Honestly, he could even pass for a Legacy, as I have never seen or heard of an ability quite like his before.’

Kai paused for a moment, a slight frown marring his features.

’... And I definitely know a vast amount regarding the abilities in this world. Come to think of it,’ he mused, shifting his gaze toward Ray for several seconds.

’Didn’t I witness him using a lightning ability? Where did that one originate? I don’t think I have ever seen the lightning element nor heard of its existence, right?’

Kai scratched his head repeatedly while mentally sorting through the thousands of abilities he had read about back at his family’s estate.

The Larsons, for some specific reason, possessed an extensive library detailing every power they had ever encountered or even observed in passing.

The children were always forced to memorize them all; consequently, Kai had quite the comprehensive knowledge of abilities and was even aware of some that the general public hadn’t discovered yet.

However, for some inexplicable reason, he had never come across a record of the lightning ability.

When abilities first descended upon the world, humanity witnessed the traditional natural elements: fire, ice, wind, and earth.

But there had never been a documented record of a lightning ability before.

So how had Ray acquired his?

Where did the lightning power come from?

And if he was a true werewolf... a hybrid, then how was he capable of wielding meta-human abilities?

Did that imply that werewolves possessed specialized abilities just as humans do?

’Ugh... so many questions that I have no answers to, and apparently, neither does Ray. According to him and Van, Ray seemed to obtain this werewolf ability thingy from a strange rock creature that had fused with his body when they were escaping from Wall Rose.’

So where did that rock creature originate?

Why did it choose Ray out of the millions of humans residing in Alcatraz?

’... Also, how can Ray heal others aside from himself? I don’t believe werewolves are supposed to be capable of that, right? What exactly is going on in this world...’

While Kai was thoroughly lost in his deep thoughts, Chloe had been silently groaning with impatience.

From her perspective, whatever Van was doing was taking an eternity. She had been complaining internally, but eventually, she couldn’t restrain herself any longer.

"Ugh... how much longer will this take?" she groaned a bit louder than intended.

"We have been waiting here for ages."

Ray turned toward her with a completely blank expression.

He blinked slowly for a second before replying.

"It has only been twenty seconds. What exactly are you talking about?"

Chloe stared at him with a bewildered, slack-jawed expression.

"Huh?" she muttered, before her eyes widened in a flash of realization.

"Huhhhh?! Only twenty seconds?!"

***

Back in the control room, the smiling man waited about ten seconds while staring at the door Chloe and her ’friends’ had just exited.

Shaking his head, he turned back to the display before him and completed the keyword he had been typing.

The moment he finished entering the command, the mechanical spider plugged itself into the system, effectively connecting with Van back in his workshop.

The moment the man clicked "enter," the screen began loading continuously while he waited patiently for the data to process.

Turning away to stare at the tray Chloe had delivered, he smiled as he lifted a ham sandwich and began munching on it with relish.

Walking away from the screen for a moment, he decided to roll his chair back toward the station.

Sitting and twirling around while eating and sipping on a soda, he had a satisfied expression on his face.

’Ever since that day, she has been going out of her way to take care of me. What a lovely girl.’

__

In Van’s workshop, beads of sweat were already rolling down his face continuously as he kept his eyelids tightly pressed shut in concentration.

His meta-force was running low at an astonishing speed.

It was already difficult enough controlling the spiders from this considerable distance.

Chloe had begun pacing around the room anxiously.

The gravity of the whole situation was now weighing on her mentally.

Even though she hadn’t been part of the boys’ original escapades, she was still deeply worried for their safety.

After all, Ray had saved them all from the clutches of an Aberrant; he had even convinced Kai to help train her after classes to improve her mastery of the bow and her telekinesis ability.

The least she could do for him was assist with this, and now she was terrified that her first attempt at paying back her savior would result in a catastrophic failure.

__

Back in the control room, the smiling man lifted an eyebrow in confusion.

"Why is this taking so long?"

Twirling around to grab the ledger, he looked away from the console.

For a fraction of a second, the screen flashed a brilliant blue before returning to its normal state.

Lifting his head, he was expecting the footage to be fully prepared and buffered; instead, what he saw shocked him to his core.

"Footage non-existent?"