Chapter 34: To Feel and Hear

Seeker was whistling a happy tune. He entered the dark halls of an abandoned building on the outskirts of the city. He would shout at times to hear the echoes of the building. He moved out of the halls in into the open field of the building.

The building was one of Harker's former drug labs. As suspicions arose to the use of the building, Harker immediately abandoned it. Now all that remains are empty halls and what could only be described as a labyrinth of corridors and passages.

"Nice place. This will do for today's activity." Seeker smiled. On his waist was a pair the mountain climber's pickaxes. Seeker slowly held it.

Alean stood there with a frowning expression. With just a simple call, she had to organize a field trip that excused Seeker and his gang along with Cliff. Charles also arrived with an almost dead expression.

"Seeker. I'm at the brink of discovery in my research. Are you sure that this little exercise will help me finish this faster?" Charles frowned. He clearly hadn't slept much last night.

Meryl, Lynd, and Cliff wondered why they were included in this trip.

"Of course. If anything, it could speed the research twice as fast. For now, please gather and put all the weapons out here." Seeker smiled.

"The guns or my weapon collection?" Charles asked.

"Both of them."

Seeker then started to do several stretching movements. He grasped the mountain climbing pickaxes and began to run towards the wall of the building.

The same scaling technique was applied, and in less than a minute, Seeker reached the top of the building.

Everyone stared in shock at Seeker's fast movements. No one saw how Seeker managed to infiltrate the factory last night. And now they knew.

"What are you doing? I need you to get the weapons out now!" Seeker ordered.

The group below stood for a while and started to move as they shook their heads. They couldn't believe how easy it was for Seeker to do that.

Seeker sat down on the roof and gazed at the view of the city. There were other buildings nearby. However, as this was mainly contained industrial buildings used during the Colonist Wars, the buildings were now used mainly as storage for various companies. There was virtually no one nearby on this part of the city.

Seeker sat down and dove deep into his memories. He envisioned the past in his mind.

"Realm King." Seeker sighed.

Seeker watched his memory as if he was watching a movie.

Before Seeker stood the Realm King. He was the World Champion of which Seeker served under for the majority of his tenure as a soldier.

"50 meters with hearing and 30 with feeling, huh?" The Realm king smiled.

"This is the best I can do, General." Seeker saluted.

"It's not the best. The Inhuman stage could allow users to maximize their senses to the point that you can theoretically reach a hundred meters alone in feeling." The Realm King laughed.

Seeker grumbled. What was he compared to a monster?

"General, isn't it a bit unreasonable to set your standard on me?"

"It's not unreasonable. It's possible. What is it that the men called me these days?"

"Omnipresent within two kilometers, Sir," Seeker responded.

"What do you think I use to reach that?"

"Hearing?"

"Feeling, Seeker."

Seeker gave a shocked look.

"So you feel the presence of everyone using feeling? But how can you determine their plans and action?"

"At my stage, I can interpret sounds based on the vibrations into hearing. You see, sounds can be blocked. At some point, no matter how good you are at hearing, you will fail to comprehend the meaning of these muffled sounds."

"You mean to say that you could feel sounds?" Seeker asked in confusion.

"Yes. Didn't you listen to Charles' lecture? He called it Realm Somatotopy. The ability to feel everything within a given area."

"I know about Realm Somatotopy. Anyone in the Inhuman stage could do that at about 5 meters. But none of them can detect sounds, General. Even Ranked Heroes." Seeker gave a depressed sigh.

The Realm King laughed.

"Well, some Ranked Heroes can." The Realm King teased.

Seeker just frowned and just gave an impatient look to the Realm King.

"The trick is to master the Echolocation and master Realm Somatotopy. And then, you need to find a way to connect the echolocation map to the Somatotopic map. Once you combine these two, then you would finally have a chance at becoming like me."

Seeker continued to give an impatient look at the Realm King's teases.

"You see, in the end, sounds can be blocked, but its vibrations could still resound. Even if it strikes a wall, it vibrates. If you are sensitive enough, you could feel the vibrations and echoes of sound and interpret it."

"Interpret vibrations? So... you can understand what people are saying or doing when all that you could hear are vibrations?" Seeker asked again. Seeker then paused and quickly scrutinized the logical correctness of his statement.

"Didn't Beethoven did it? He used his sense of touch to feel the vibrations of each key, and he later managed to produce masterpieces. Imagine the possibilities if an Unlocked mind could master this. I wonder what kind of Champion Beethoven would have been if he was alive now." The Realm King laughed.

"So, I need to feel the sound and try to find a way to interpret it?" Seeker asked.

The Realm King gave a happy nod.

Seeker sighed. This task was hard to reach. They had no time to train.

"Too bad. I'm not one of those Believers. If I were, it would have been possible, and this talk would have more usefulness."

"It would. But I'm not too fond of the idea of you being a Believer. You enjoy the climb more than the peak. That is your strength, Seeker. Someday, I'm sure it will prove useful to you."

Seeker smiled once more, and his consciousness returned him to his present self-standing on the roof.

He had reached the Surmounting stage of the Ranked Hero then and had the experience to understand how echolocation works and could use Realm Somatotopy at an experienced level. But at the moment that Seeker died, as his Unlocking soared to uncharted levels, for a brief second, he managed to experience the fusion of these two.

Experience leads to understanding, and understanding to knowledge and knowledge to control.

"General, I can finally walk on your footsteps. Seeker smiled softly.

Seeker closed his eyes and focused his senses. He was subtly closing the senses of his smell, his sight, and even his touch. His hearing senses were pushed to the maximum. Using his memories as the foundation, Seeker recalled how his hearing would reach an impressive range of nearly 20 meters.

He could hear and even make a mental map of what was happening down the building. The sounds mapped out the movements of Cliff, who carried several weapons which Seeker could make out as axes and swords.

The objects that Lynd was carrying with caution was an assault rifle that was exclusively used by the military. Seeker could make out the design based on the shape of the gun.

"This is it. Echolocation." Seeker took a deep breath as he struggled to maintain this state.

Seeker stopped using Echolocation and blocked his sense of hearing.

He slowly blocked all his senses leaving the sense of touch active.

"Realm Somatotopy." Seeker started to push his sense of touch to the maximum.

Seeker could feel everything within 10 meters. Occasionally some of his friends would enter this range, and Seeker could feel their presence. He knew where they were and what they were doing. He could barely make a mental map. But with the experience of his memories, he could immediately interpret it into a clearer image.

Seeker ended his state. He gripped his fist in preparation for the merging of these two. He remembered the feeling, but now he would try to combine these two.

Seeker opened his sense of hearing and sense of touch and pushed both to the maximum.

It was chaos. Seeker convulsed at the strange sensation he felt. He felt as if he wasn't in his current position any longer. Unlike the experience of having an out-of-body experience where he could 'see' the area around him, Seeker felt as if he was everywhere within 10 meters.

His convulsion almost made Seeker faint. Seeker stopped the merging of these two, and to his horror, he was falling.

Seeker immediately took the pickaxe he held and smashed it on the wall. Seeker almost reached the ground when he was clinging to it.

"ZEEK!" Lynd and Meryl cried as they rushed to their friend.

Seeker let go of the pickaxe and fell to the ground. He lay flat on the floor and was gasping for breath. He managed to feel the sensation of the fuse, but his head was now throbbing in pain.

"What happened?" Charles ran and asked Seeker.

"Don't worry, guys." Seeker spoke as he tried to catch his breath.

"I'm alright. I just did something reckless." Seeker smiled as he tried to sit up.

His head continued to spin. He could occasionally feel the area through his hearing and his touch.

Seeker laid on his back once again. His world was spinning.

He opened his eyes and gazed tiredly at the clouds.

It was then he saw it.

"What the?" Seeker reacted. He continued to fix his eyes on the sky as if trying to find something.

Everyone around him turned and gazed at the sky at the direction that Seeker was looking for.

Seeker frowned.

"Is something wrong?" Charles asked with a worried tone.

"I can't see it. But I'm sure it's there. Alean, give me a sniper rifle." Seeker commanded angrily.

Alean was startled at Seeker's angry tone and rushed to grab the gun.

Seeker closed his eyes once more and started to breathe deeply. He relaxed his entire body. Soon he managed to stabilize his sensation.

Seeker stood up and reached for the gun that Alean carried. Seeker took the pickaxe that still hung on the floor. With one hand, he held the rifle, and with the other, he used the same scaling technique. This time, Seeker was hitting for the holes that he already made. Since he didn't have to strike hard, Seeker was able to manage the rise with only one pickaxe easily.

Seeker swiftly reached the roof of the building.

He then positioned himself far into the middle area in case he would convulse again. Seeker continued to keep his eyes open.

Seeker then aimed the gun high. It didn't look like he was aiming for anything.

"What are you doing, Zeek?" Meryl shouted.

Seeker looked around the area as if he was looking for something. Seeker was shivering. He could barely manage this state.

"Found ya!" Seeker aimed at an elevated position and fired three bullets at the sky. It was a strange sight for the group below. Seeker didn't even use the scope.

Inside a building a few blocks away from where Seeker and his team were, two men were observing Seeker through a computer.

"What's he doing?"

"I don't know. He seems to be aiming at something."

"Didn't He look directly at the drone?"

"Idiot. Look where he's aiming!"

"He's shooting! Just what is he aiming at?"

"I don't know-"

PENG! PENG! PENG!

Three bullets pierced through the slightly opened window. One bullet hit through the computer and destroyed it. Another shot through the first soldiers' left leg while the other pierced through the soldier's right arm.

"AHHH!" The first soldier cried in surprise.

The second showed his tenure as he quickly dashed for cover and grabbed a radio-like device.

"General! We are under attack! Seeker is shooting at us!" The panicked soldier reported.

Seeker reached the ground as he used his left hand to hook himself and to disrupt his free fall.

"Alean. Tell your dad I won't be so generous next time." Seeker spoke as he walked towards the weapon shack.

A crashing sound was then heard near their area.

The group turned near the south side of the building and could now see an object that would blink intermittently to reveal itself.

"It's a military-grade drone!" Alean cried in shock.