Kill the Sun - Chapter 762

Nick repeated the experiment with a Newbie, and his ability only consumed a bit more Zephyx.

Luckily, Nick still regenerated more Zephyx than he was using.

'Works fine,' he thought before focusing on a John.

This time, his ability consumed just a slight bit more than it regenerated.

Nevertheless, Nick could probably read the John's mind for about an hour before he ran out of Zephyx.

'Also works, but the true test is the Veteran. Veterans are Extractors who are deeply involved with Manufacturers. They went through Zephosis, which symbolizes their commitment to their jobs.'n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Nick found a Veteran after a couple of minutes and tested his abilities.

His Specter Core started to hurt a bit, and the surroundings grew a bit blurry as all of his focus was pushed to the peak.

Nick's perception of the surroundings almost vanished.

'I really don't want to work with the Meander,' the Veteran thought at incredible speeds. 'Why does Matthew not want to change shifts with me?'

Nick was reading the mind of a Mid Veteran, and he was consuming a lot of Zephyx.

Within less than ten seconds, he would run out.

Luckily, his entire Zephyx storage would fill up again within five seconds.

'If I force it, I can read a Mid Veteran's mind for about 66% of the time. I guess that's where my limit is. I don't think I can even attempt to read the mind of an Expert.'

'But that proves that integrating the ability into my Specter Core works. If I just used the diagram manually, I would only be able to read the mind of a Newbie for a couple of seconds before losing focus on the calculations.'

'All in all, the test was a success. With this, information gathering will become much easier.'

'Additionally, this ability is not limited to my power but to my knowledge and experience in Zephyx Manipulation. As long as I keep learning, I can keep improving it.'

'But I have to be careful. If I push this ability too much, my perception of my surroundings gets clouded, and my Specter Core hurts.'

'This doesn't happen with normal abilities. Most likely, the abilities were created with several fail-safes that keep this from happening. I do not understand these fail-safes yet, which is why using this ability is so problematic.'

'The fact that the Sun can just make these abilities is crazy, but that makes the aliens even crazier. After all, they are advanced enough to automate this process without supervision.'

'O2, nourishment, and water. These three things create the energy of life.'

'If Star Energy is O2, Zephyx should be the nourishment and the water. Humans breathe in a ridiculous amount of O2 when compared to what they eat.'

'I think normal humans need over 500 liters of pure O2. Compared to two liters of water and about a kilo or two of food, that's gigantic.'

Nick was reminded of the Adversary's words.

'Star Energy is the meat, while Zephyx is the seasoning. An apt comparison if we use these numbers.'

'The aliens most likely use Pure Energy as their internal energy source. Getting Star Energy is not difficult since it's basically everywhere. Humans also don't need to worry about O2 for the same reason.'

'The difficult part is getting the nourishment. The Zephyx.'

Nick imagined an alien opening a container of Zephyx before consuming it.

Inside the alien, the Zephyx was broken down and combined with the vast quantities of Star Energy that were regularly absorbed.

A bit of Pure Energy was created, which settled in the alien's equivalent of a Zephyx Synchronizer or Specter Core.

'I wonder... were there lifeforms in the original version of Earth that could do something similar?'

'Or did we just never evolve the capability to create Pure Energy in our bodies?'

'It seems like I need to learn more about ancient human biology.'

'Otherwise, destroying the aliens might actually plunge us into an even worse situation.'

'Without so much Prephyx everywhere, how would the Extractors even survive?'

'As soon as the shield breaks and all the Prephyx gets replaced by Star Energy, all the Extractors will essentially asphyxiate.'

Nick narrowed his eyes as a suspicion appeared in his mind.

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