Chapter 4: Genya’s Secret
An information recorded inside Cillin’s head flashed across his dreams, and a change was also happening inside his body.
It was two days later when he reopened his eyes. Cillin did not go to old Devon’s shop, but instead went to Genya’s, his master’s home.
Cillin was picked up by Genya from the woods at the west side of the town. At the time, due to the high energy radiation of an abnormal solar flare causing its neighboring planets’ food crops to fail and the price of sustenance medicine to skyrocket, it was a terrible disaster for the poor. Many people were starved to death, and the kids whom they could not afford to feed were sold to the rich people in the bustling city. Cillin was the kind who wasn’t sold off in time. On that day, a scrimmage had happened in the west woods due to a food shortage problem, and when Genya got there the only one still alive was Cillin placed inside a tree hole still wrapped within his swaddling clothes.
Genya was only an F rank genotype, and yet he lived and fought better than a D rank. Genya had taught him Cillin a set of exercises that, as compared to the ones he saw on TV, was improved upon on the many aspects of human Kinesiology. These exercises were later used by Cillin for hunting. Genya once said that this set of exercises were originally adapted from actual martial arts techniques. He had removed the killing aspect of it and added some moderation, but Cillin himself was slowly able to recover the removed parts through actual practice.
Genya passed away when Cillin was twelve years old. No one knew how old Genya was; Cillin only knew that his master was not an ordinary person. The rest was a mystery.
Every month Cillin would come over and tidy up Genya’s home. The arrangements inside the house weren’t shabby. It gave off a feeling of simplicity and peacefulness and it was just as humble and unremarkable as Genya himself. he was obviously not short of money, and yet he was willing to live his life quietly in this poverty area.
There was a huge tree over twenty meters tall at the backyard. Its canopy was big enough cover more than half the backyard. Genya once said that there might be only one such tree in the entire galaxy.
Cillin walked until he was beside the tree, and took out the crystal-like pendant hanging around his neck.
“Master, Hena and I are here to see you.”
There was only Genya and Hena in his world. Well, he supposed that old Devon barely made the count too. But Genya and Hena were already gone, and old Devon too was starting a new life of his own.
He sat down with his back against the tree. Fine beams of light shone down from above, and yet he couldn’t feel much temperature from them.
“It’s just me again.”
Cillin lifted his arm and in accordance to the information he had understood inside his brain, controlled the chip’s activation. He looked at his arms. On the outside it looked exactly the same as before, and yet he could now easily penetrate a ten centimeters thick steel plate with them, just like that crazy old man who had easily crushed his alloy dagger. He hadn’t digested much of the information stored inside his head; only the basics such as the control over his body muscles just now, or the activation and halting of his genes…
It was worth mentioning that thanks to the integration brought forth by the injected chips, Cillin’s genotype had reached the level of B rank right now. Before Genya had shut his eyes forever he once said to Cillin that, if one day Cillin managed to upgrade his genotype to rank C, then he could open that box inside his room. If he couldn’t, then he should never open it.
Getting up, Cillin walked inside the room Genya once stayed and opened the cupboard. There was a box that looked like it was wood made lying quietly inside it. There was an invisible layer of protective film surrounding the small box, and it was used to evaluate the rank of a person’s genotype. Cillin once ricocheted off it when he was just an F rank.
He placed his hand on the invisible film once more, and a thin halo slowly spread until it disappeared completely. Cillin picked up the box. The activation key was Cillin’s own genetic information; the double password inside genome and Mitochondrial DNA.
Pa –
The box opened.
Genya’s hologram appeared. Although it was only the size of a palm, it was incredibly clear.
“Cillin, since you’re able to open this box, it means that not only your genotype has reached C rank, you are also no older than fifty years old.”
Cillin’s eyebrows jumped. He didn’t know Genya had even set up an age limit.
“Cillin, if you plan to explore the universe, then continue; otherwise, you should close this box and never open it again. This is my order as your master!”
Cillin did not move.
After a while, the hologram flashed once before clearing up again.
“Since you’ve chosen to explore the universe, then please do your master a favor. Carry the ring inside the box with you, and if one day there is a reaction from the ring, then send me back home…”
It would be a lie if Cillin said that he wasn’t shocked listening to Genya’s voice. The ring was actually a subspace ring, and it was impossible for Cillin’s current planet have developed such a technology. Only the super-rich at the central downtown area could afford it, and it was practically the luxury of luxuries. But Genya definitely possessed one, and Cillin could sense that it was even more elaborate and complex than the subspace ring and necklace and so on owned by the rich!
The more Genya said, the more Cillin felt that Genya’s identity was extraordinary.
“The tree in the backyard is called a Fuji Tree. My family’s emblem is a Fuji leaf; the Elder Tree Fuji – the Gen Family. Ever since I’ve arrived at this area, I’ve never heard of it once…”
When Genya was but a child, he had flown his family’s spaceship and accidentally entered the ‘Demon’s Zone’. A wormhole had appeared out of nowhere and consumed his spacecraft, and soon he arrived at this unfamiliar universe. His spacecraft was destroyed, and after travelling from one place to another he finally arrived at Planet Brown Earth X-C362; as in this planet.
Although there were a lot of details Genya had neglected to mention, Cillin was able to guess some of it.
“Before there is a resonance from the ring, you must never easily mention either the Gen Family or the Elder Tree Fuji…”
Once finished, the hologram disappeared and left behind a wood-like ring.
The ring looked a bit big, so he wore it on his left thumb. The second he put it on, the wood-like ring suddenly turned into a curly, leap-shaped green pattern and became stuck tightly to his skin. It didn’t look like a ring anymore and was practically a tattoo; a tattoo which he could neither pull nor rub off his no matter how hard he tried.
Fudge, if I knew this earlier I would never have worn this on my thumb! Who would tattoo a curly leaf on their thumb?!
According to Genya’s instructions, Cillin was to dig out the coffin buried under the backyard’s Fuji tree. They had not electro-cremated his body that year; instead they had followed in accordance to Genya’s will and placed him inside a coffin made of the wood from the Fuji tree. Then they buried him beside it. Of course, Cillin and Hena were the only ones who knew about this.
He didn’t move the coffin around much. Cillin pointed the leaf pattern at the tip of his thumb at the coffin, and after a green flash the coffin was sucked into the ring. Cillin could feel the location of the coffin inside the ring, and Cillin also knew that there was still a large enough space in the ring; enough for him to stock up for a long travel.
After he tidied everything nicely in the backyard, Cillin kissed the pendant around his neck lightly, then looked at the leaf pattern at his thumb and smiled,
“The three of us shall go on an adventure!”