271 The Source of Traits

Hearing the number though, all three department heads became totally speechless as they stared at the CEO ugly's face in astonishment. They couldn't take their eyes off of him while they thought to themselves, "Where did so much money come from? Was our company really that rich? We had a liquid asset of more than 100,000,000,000 US dollars?" Of course, they added up the previous 23 billion dollars with the new figure of 70 billion dollars and arrived at the conclusion that the company had around 100,000,000,000 billion US dollars in liquid assets alone.

Nonetheless, without paying any heed to their dumbfounded expressions, the CEO ugly queried further, "How much time do you think this whole process will take?"

This time, it was the Purchasing Department head who started talking, "We're not clear as of yet since we need to do a lot of research in the field of mining… for example, I need to understand what tools are required in order to mine, or what technologies are essential for a mining company. While this is a part of my task, the Human Resources department needs to study and learn what kind of experts and manpower are needed for a mining company and those mining lands."

Nodding his head, he asked again, "Give me a rough time."

"A year… in around a year, the mining process will start!"

Listening to his words and realizing the duration was almost the same as he had calculated, the CEO ugly nodded his head before proceeding, "Alright, you guys go and do your job then. Meanwhile, the Legal ugly will attend to any legal paperwork that's essential for utilizing our fields as mines. You're all dismissed!"

______________

A DAY LATER WITH VIRUS AT THE HIGHEST FLOOR OF 4 TIMES SQUARE

As he was lying back on the couch, enjoying the cup of tea the golden beauty had prepared for him, the Island ugly entered the hall as he walked before him and stood there silently, waiting for his master to finish his tea.

"What is it?" Yet, Virus asked while taking a sip from his cup of tea.

"Master, as ordered, I produced and brought every tool you requested for today… I've installed all of them in the laboratory hall, so you can utilize them whenever you feel like." After a simple bow, the Island ugly began talking.

Then he proceeded, "Now that my task's finished, I'll rush back to the atoll since it's left with no supervision."

"You can go back." Voiced Virus in a relaxed tone as he continued enjoying his tea.

…

After finishing his tea, Virus walked to another big room on the highest floor. This room was simply a huge hall which he usually used as his personal laboratory space. Even his biological physical body was created in this lab.

Within this laboratory, different tools and technologies like the coffin-like WRD, MDA, etc. were placed. And now, other than his previous tools, a few new devices were also installed and present there.

One of these new tools was a rather big white cubical device with entries of different shapes and sizes.

Seeing this device, which was placed beside another new technology piece, Virus walked in front of it.

At this time, the golden beauty also spotted the cubical device as she queried, "What is this master?"

After hearing her question, while placing the three red-crystals and the bead on the counter, Virus replied, "This is a futuristic type of microscope which will be invented around a few thousand years later after a huge breakthrough… this can be considered the lowest type of microscope technology, so let's call it [Microscope 1.0]… hmm, I guess this might suffice for barely studying the red-crystals."

A shimmer of understanding passed through the golden beauty's eyes as she looked at the microscope in amazement.

Meanwhile, picking a single red-crystal, Virus began to contemplate while staring at it intently, 'Hmm, what is this red-crystal exactly?'

'What is the red flame-like gas within it? What is it made of?'

'What is the crystal itself without the red flame-like gas? What is it made of?'

'Why can the red flame-like gas strengthen Traits?'

'In what other areas can it be utilized?'

'Why can't it be taken directly without feeling great pain?'

'Where does it come from?'

'Is there any way to consume it without facing any pain or injuries?'

…

Immediately, tens of questions regarding the red-crystal popped into his mind. Questions he was greatly curious about. Questions he felt like he had to find the answer to.

The only fact Virus knew about the red-crystals at this point in time was that nothing like this had ever existed in his previous world, the future. From the start of basic civilization on Earth to the moment Virus had time-traveled to the past, the people of Earth had never come into any kind of contact with anything like the red-crystal within Virus' palm.

However, according to Virus' understanding, even with the changes and the butterfly effects he had caused, the possibility of something like this happening should've been almost close to zero since even changes happening should've taken place within an already determined and known frame.

Actually, in his previous world, the future, humanity almost couldn't discover any ways of naturally strengthening the Traits of their Abnormal citizens even after countless years of intense studying and experiments. And this was also the reason why humanity eventually discarded the utilization of their Abnormals since at some point, technology eventually progressed far beyond the scope of the power simple Abnormals with their simple Traits could muster.

Of course, some methods of temporarily strengthening and empowering those traits were also discovered and even many successful studies that utilized the technology together with Abnormal citizens bore fruit. However, all of those studies and results came with disadvantages and many detrimental points which almost made using the Abnormals impossible.

And so, since trying to temporarily enhance them or utilize them together with advanced technologies had its extremely detrimental points which almost made them suicidal for the Abnormal people, and since without them, the Abnormal people were too weak to be useful for anything, they were entirely discarded in the end as they were seen as no different than a normal citizen in society.

Nevertheless, mankind's incapability in utilizing the Abnormals wasn't totally baseless and without reason either. Because the source of Abnormals' Trait was beyond the scope of science and technology, its origin was in another aspect which always separated itself from science and technology as it thus inevitably confused humanity until the end.

This was because, after researching and doing experiments on Abnormal people and the source of their Traits for numerous years, mankind had eventually unearthed the stunning fact that Traits actually originated from the very 'soul' of a person itself. Something which didn't make much sense to them.

More specifically, they realized that Traits always began and was initiated from the 'soul' itself as they progressed and affected the body in different ways dependant on what the Trait itself was.

Some Traits would affect the brain of a person and give them different abilities related to the brain itself like telekinesis or telepathy. Some would change the entire DNA of their body, thus giving them a vast range of Traits depending on how DNA was affected and modified.

Some even didn't affect the body of the Abnormal at all as it directly affected the environment itself, from the very soul itself directly to the environment. For example, the Trait of being able to control fire in the surroundings.

In short, there were countless variations that took place as they influenced the Abnormals in a variety of ways, thus gifting them any kind of abilities and traits. But despite all of that, there was always a single fact that was the same for all Abnormals!

And that was the truth that it always originated from the 'Soul' itself. The soul was always the beginning, it was always the source, as it was always the fuel itself too.

This was the main reason behind their act of giving up on the Abnormals since they could not understand 'Soul' and as it seemed to be in a separate branch than science and technology itself.

But now, something that shouldn't be happening in the first place at all was taking place as something called the red-crystal which could permanently enhance Traits came into the picture!

This was simply too shocking even to Virus himself! Mostly because even humanity was incapable of finding a method of permanently empowering and enhancing Traits!

It had to be kept in mind that even those limited methods mankind had discovered for enhancing the Traits were all only temporary! Not Permanent!

He was also amazement at how things had changed as something that shouldn't have existed, now existed!