Chapter 31 - Jiang Chen

After the conversation between the mother and son ended, Randy turned around and started walking towards the gate in the distance.

However, at this moment, a young girl in her pajamas suddenly poke her head out behind Riley, yawning as she suddenly spoke when she saw that Randy was heading towards the gate leading outside of the mansion.

"Eh? Brother, where are you going?!" Lydia asked, half-sleepy and half-awake.

Randy turned around without stopping his legs from moving and replied to her, "Dia, I'm going out. I'm going to see Jiang Chen for a while, I'll be back before dark. Stay home with mom, okay?"

Lydia felt disappointed, she hesitated for a bit, but eventually she still responded with a firm nod, "Hm, okay, Brother, make sure you come back quickly; there are bad guys everywhere and my teacher said we shouldn't go out by ourselves too often!"

"Haha, alright, I'll make sure to come home quickly. I'm leaving now, see you later. Bye, bye!" Randy could not help but laugh slightly at his little sister's innocent but factual words before waving at her with a smile on his face.

He reached the gate at this moment, and then opened it by tapping his key card before walking out as it closed behind him.

"Bye, bye, Brother!" Lydia shouted her words behind him.

Watching this, Riley only chuckled slightly and shook her head while listening to their little conversation.

However, she immediately fell silent shortly after.

After thinking for a bit, she displayed a saddened expression as she can feel like her son had somehow change or perhaps returned to how he used to be when he was younger.

'Perhaps, we were being too hard on him before? …Maybe we shouldn't have rushed him like we did and made him feel so isolated in the process. Even though we thought it was the right choice— no, we felt like it was the necessary decision at the time but now that I think about it, we may have been expecting too much from him even though he was only a child.' Riley sighed and silently thought to herself as she watched her son's departing figure.

…

Randy had already walked out of the mansion through the gate, and he could still hear his little sister's voice behind him. He smiled and then proceeded to turn towards a certain direction before walking away from the mansion.

Soon, he reached a train station. The trains nowadays work on magical energy or magic crystals, so they move faster compared to the old trains.

At this moment, Randy was waiting for a certain train arrive.

Shortly after, the train arrived.

Randy took this train to his destination and then proceeded to walk for about a few minutes before arriving at a certain mansion. This mansion was not too luxurious nor was it too shabby, it was somewhere in between. This was the house of Randy's close friend, Jiang Chen and also one of the only people who never shun him despite his situation before.

Before coming here, he had already notified him. Although Randy was indeed planning to go to the forest and hunt some mutated beasts, however, at the moment he still needed an alibi in case his mom asks about his whereabouts from Jiang Chen, and he was nowhere to be found.

That will be a big blunder and thus he came to stay here for about a few minutes before finally heading out. Besides, it was only seven something in the morning right now, so it was okay to stay here for a while before setting out.

And while he is at it, he can also take this chance to spend some time with his best friend, thus two birds with one stone.

At this point, a figure suddenly approached Randy after coming out of gate of the mansion. It was young man, seemingly only 18 years old. He had a black hair and a pair of glasses on his eyes. His facial appearance itself was obscured. No one could tell his looks at a glance because he had always left his hair long and disheveled bangs almost covering his face; it seemed like he rarely trims his hair.

This was Randy's best friend, Jiang Chen.

After receiving Randy's text that he had arrived, he came to pick him up in front of the gate.

Jiang Chen showed a smile and spoke out when he approached Randy: "Bro, you've arrived."

…

Inside the mansion, in Jiang Chen's room.

A loud voice abruptly resounded in the entire room.

"Bro, you actually awakened your innate ability?!" Jiang Chen exclaimed after hearing Randy's story.

"Shhuu—— "

Randy gestured with his index finger vertically over his mouth and hurriedly said, "Keep your voice down, I haven't even told my parents yet so please keep your voice down."

"But why? From a rational standpoint, any human— no, specifically someone in your situation would normally reveal such an important event in your life to get others to recognize your existence or do you not want the recognition even after what you had been through?" Jiang Chen confusedly asked him, after hearing that he did not even tell his parents about his awakened ability.

However Randy shook his head and then replied sternly, "That is precisely the reason why I don't want to reveal it until the last minute when it was time to register for the university entrance examination. I'll show them then. I'll show them what this loser, Randy Smith that they looked down on can do. That'll be my revenge against them; After seeing my flawless display of my ability, they would all receive an infallible slap on their faces."

Jiang Chen was silent for a brief moment. He was aware of how people treated this friend of his and so he understood his sentiment to some extent.

After a while, he then opened his mouth and spoke while shaking his head, "Tsk, you really have a strange taste in getting revenge. Why would you take revenge like that? Wouldn't it be alright to tell everyone now, why wait? Also, what about your parents?"

Randy did not mind his comment and only gave a mysterious smile before replying, "If I tell them now, that'll ruin the fun, don't you think so? As for my parents, I was just going to surprise them later after I finished registering that's all."

Listening to him speak like this, Jiang Chen could only give up trying to convince him, he sighed, and then said in a defeated voice, "Whatever, but I'm glad that you have finally awakened your innate ability. So what type of ability is it? What is your class?"

Instantly, Randy displayed a troubled expression and did not know how to respond for a while and then finally sighed uncontrollably before saying, "Well, you see… that's the thing. To be honest, I don't really know what kind of ability it is either and same goes for the class."

"What?! Didn't you receive a system with your detailed information? I was certain that everyone who awakened received one though, even I received one." Jiang Chen exclaimed as he raised his eyebrow in surprise and doubtfully asked him.

"Calm down, that's not it. I did indeed received a system," Randy wondered if he should tell him about the upgrade of his system but eventually decided against it before continuing, "It's just that my class is not fully shown so I can't tell what it is; it says something like 'Blood' followed by question marks. I have no idea what the follow ups characters are, so I assumed that it's 'Blood Warrior' like my Dad's or 'Blood Mage' or simply 'Blood Master' or somethings along those lines."

Hearing these unbelievable words coming from his mouth, Jiang Chen suddenly had a pondering look on his face, then he muttered, "That's indeed very strange…" After a long pause, he continued, "I really haven't heard of such a case before. According to my current access of information, there shouldn't be such precedent unless no one had revealed such an occurrence to the public before. In any case, I think I should look into this matter myself later on… Regardless, this is a very interesting development now that I think about it. To think that there was such a possibility of awakening without the commonly known classes. Although I have heard of a few new classes but those are within the expectations according to the variation data extrapolated by the [Ability Management Association], [Awakening Center] and various other organizations…"

Randy suddenly felt a headache incoming when he heard his friend rumbling on and on and could not help but shake his head in dismay.

"Haah—" He sighed helplessly and said in a defeated tone, "I get it… I get it already and why are you thinking too much about this? I only came here to use you as a sort of alibi so I can go out and hunt some mutated beasts in the nearby forest outside of the city. Not to talk about my abilities and class."

It was at this moment, when he heard Randy's seemingly impatient words that Jiang Chen finally snapped out of his thoughts, displaying a sudden realization, and then said, "Oh right, that's right, you did mention that in the text. So that's what you really came here for? You were not kidding? Are you for real?"

Randy replied in confirmation, "That's right, I need to test out something about my abilities."

Jiang Chen appeared confused as he suddenly questioned in return, "Test out something? Abilities? Did you just say abilities? How many abilities did you awaken exactly?"