Chapter 28: Parasitic Egg

After receiving that notification, Jay went inside and took a quick shower before asking the system about that.

As for whether he was surprised by the notification, of course he was, but because the system liked to surprise him constantly, he was already used to it.

'Open, system, question, what is the parasitic egg?'

That way, Jay started another small question and answer session with the system.

***

After a few minutes, Jay had finished understanding what the Parasitic Egg was and what it did, and he only had one word to say about it.

"...Wow..."

Even though he was already used to the system surprising him, he still couldn't help but be shocked by the effects of Parasitic Egg.

First of all, what was the Parasitic Egg?

As the name implies, it was an egg which contained a special type of parasite. Apparently, when Jay infected a person, there was a small chance that when he recovered the last parasite, it would leave an egg in the host.

Although it might sound detrimental to the host, it was actually something that benefited them.

After all, even if the egg was only in its initial state, it still gave the host a 5% improvement in its growth!

But that was not all, the egg also reacted to the host's emotions, for example, if the host was in a good mood, then the host's current power would increase by 5%.

Furthermore, because the egg seemed to depend quite a bit on the host's emotions, it constantly made him feel a desire to improve and become stronger, which helped him to overcome difficult moments in his training.

'That explains why Carl's ability seemed stronger at the time and why he advanced in rank so quickly...' Jay thought as he reviewed the information he had gotten from the system's answers.

While those effects were good for the host, what benefited Jay was another aspect of the egg.

It turns out that the reason the egg gave these benefits to the host was because the stronger the host, the more energy they would use, and the more energy they used, the faster the egg would hatch.

And the moment the egg hatches, that's where the egg will show its true potential...which had just happened.

_____________

[Symbiont (Lowest Rank)]

Host: Carl Gaffner (Esper)

Skill: [Wind Control (D+)]

Relationship with the Host: Indifferent.

Current Bonus (Host): Growth Improvement (5%), Emotional Strengthening (10%).

Current Bonus (Carrier): 2% daily increase in [Wind Control ( D-)] (Limit: D+)

_____________

It was an incredible message for Jay.

After all, despite keeping his Wind Control active all the time, he had only been able to raise the percentage to 10%, which meant he would still have to wait a good while to reach the next range.

However, now that he had this, the process would speed up tremendously!

'Another way to strenghten myself quickly...many thanks, system,' thought Jay, feeling grateful to the system.

Although he thought he would have to wait until he could pick up his little ones until he could increase his power, a new way to strenghten himself had practically fallen from the sky.

As for the benefits Carl was receiving, Jay thought it was appropriate, after all, the more motivated Carl was, the more effort he would put into the training, then the symbiont would become stronger, which in turn would give Jay more benefits.

It was definitely a symbiotic relationship!

"Hm, this a good night~"

Then, having forgotten that he had almost no money in his bank account, Jay began to practice his Wind Control while waiting for what he ordered to arrive, the night was still young after all.

***

After training for a pair of hours, the package Jay had been waiting for arrived.

"...So small and so expensive...." Jay said as he looked the package, a bitter smile on his face.

On the kitchen table, there was a small box containing colored contact lenses and another small box that said "Magic Dye."

That's right, both were objects that would serve to change his appearance, and although it had cost him 230 credits in total, causing Jay to now only have 50 credits left, Jay believed it was a necessary expense.

While he was not afraid to confront thugs like Taylor or Colt who belonged to a gang like Metal Body, that was because his identity was a secret, so they could not retaliate against him.

Therefore, although they didn't know what he looked like and he wouldn't be discovered even if he came face to face with anyone in the South Zone, Jay preferred to take some extra measures.

"Well...then we'd better try things out now~"

After saying that, Jay took the dye and contacts lense before going upstairs to the second floor bathroom.

After about 15 minutes, a Jay with blond hair and blue eyes came down.

Although he had only recently dyed his hai, he gave an impression as if he had been born with that color because there was not a single strand of his hair that was not blond.

Jay had already looked at himself in the mirror and gave his approval that it was a quality job, satisfied with the performance of the dye.

But it was something to be expected, after all, the words "Magic Dye" weren't just the brand name, in fact, it was a special product made by a real alchemist company, so they really had some magic in them.

The reason Jay had ordered a product like this was because he didn't want the super rank (C) now guarding District 31 to know his true appearance.

Thus, he thought of changing his hair color, that's why he ordered a hair dye.

As for it being magical, he didn't know if a regular dye would leave an odor after it was applied to the hair or something like that, he also didn't want to risk testing it at a time like this.

Thus, with the product being something magical, unless the new guardian of the 31st District was a mage, he wouldn't notice anything.

As for the contact lenses, those were normal lenses, but Jay thought they wouldn't attract much attention because many people wore them.

"Now all I have to do is change my hairstyle."

Normally his hair was dishevelled since he liked it that way, but if he wanted to change his appearance he obviously needed to change that.

He then parted his hair to the sides, leaving a line in the middle and arranging his hair so that it fell to the sides.

"I guess...this will be enough." He said as he watched his blonde version in the reflection of the sliding door leading to the backyard, 'Hm, not bad...hm?'

At that moment, he noticed something in the backyard, in the midst of all the darkness that was covering the backyard right now, Jay could see what appeared to be a small black object a few feet off the ground.

'Again...?' He thought as he moved his gaze, pretending not to see the black object.

Fortunately, the black object, which was about to escape, stopped when Jay apparently didn't notice it.

'Just what does it want?' Jay asked himself, pretending to fix his hair in the reflection of the sliding door.

But even after thinking more about it, Jay couldn't come to a conclusion as to why he was being watched.

Of course, there was the possibility that it was Metal Body, who could have discovered him even though he had used a disguise when he went to the South Zone.

After all, Jay was not a master of disguise or anything like that.

But...why were they just standing there watching him...and more importantly...why were they so obvious?

It was almost as if the black object was eager to see what Jay would do the next moment.

'Well...it's very close...at this distance...I can do it.'

*BAM!*

The next moment, he quickly kicked the sliding door out of the frame and launched himself towards the black object, even using Phantom Trace to increase his speed.

Seeing this, the dark object inmediately tried to run away, but unfortunately, it was too close to the sliding door, which added to the tremendous speed at which Jay had approached, resulted in it being caught.

*Buzz*

"...A drone...?" He said, confused.

The drone still seemed to want to escape, but Jay was holding it tightly, so it was a futile attempt.

Looking closer, Jay saw that there was a logo on the side of the drone...which said "Jujusen".

"...This...is an invasion of privacy...isn't it?" Jay said as he looked directly into the drone's camera.

He was somewhat relieved that the drone was not part of Metal Body, but this created another question, just why was Jujusen watching him...?

'No, no, think about it, such a big company would not be interested in spying on me...so it has to be the operator, right?'

After reaching that conclusion, Jay turned off the drone and went upstairs to put the drone in his closet, not before taking out the memory the drone had, thinking that myabe he would be able to discover something inside.

He then connected the memory to his smart watch.

Inside the memory, there was only one folder, which had no name, so he decided to open it.

After opening the folder, Jay was surprised by its contents.

There was only one video inside...with him as the main character.