Into The Portal: Monster Invasion

Chapter 21: The Cross

"Miles?"

"Yea, buddy?"

"I think the wolves are gaining their strength back. You should run away. Again." Coin warned Miles. They were sitting at the entrance of the Incest Kingdom for more than an hour, and they had gained most of their strength back.

"Nah, we are cool now. They wouldn't bite me, right." Miles said and reached out to pet the biggest wolf, but the wolf bit his arm instead. The sharp dagger-like fangs bit as hard as they could on Miles's arm, but the maroon armor protected Miles's body. Not even a dent was on the armor. On the contrary, the wolf got electrocuted. It convulsed for more than two minutes, and then it could stand on its feet again. It howled in pain and all the wolves started to pounce on Miles once again.

"C'mon, I thought we are buddies now." Miles smiled with disdain and fished out the azure orb from his pocket. The armor opened up just enough to let the orb fly out.

Coin charged the orb, and a wind sword appeared in Miles's hand.

Miles swung the sword left and right. The blade was sharp on its own. With the wind element, it got sharper. Thirty wolves attacked him left and right, but got injured with the swing of the blade. On the other hand, Miles wasn't getting any damage. Even the shock from the force of the wolves' attack got absorbed by the armor.

Miles was having so much fun. He killed one after the other. When 5 of them died, the rest of them ran away with the leader in front.

Miles looked at the five dead wolves and sighed in relief. "Luckily, I found this armor, or I would have been wolf poop by now."

Miles then carved out their brains and fished out the five orbs. "Oh, one dagger orb with ice attribute. Lucky." Miles was happy with his new loot. All the dead wolves were middle-tier, and he got 4 Ice Cores and 1 Ice Dagger Orb.

Ice Cores had many uses compared to the element-less orbs. It could be used for making cool clothes by mixing other metals and linens. Or in the cooling industry, such as refrigerators and air-conditioners. In the current age, monster cores were essential items in technology.

"Charge the dagger for me, will yah, buddy?" Miles asked Coin.

"Sure, but I am running low. You know my hardware is not enough to charge middle-tier Orbs for the long run." Coin reported.

"Then we should change your battery unit." Miles offered. Coin was his best friend, and lifetime companion. If he could, he would do everything to improve Coin.

"Not necessarily." Coin said and continued. "The armor you have can charge itself, but have you noticed how it electrocuted the wolf when it tried to bite you?"

"Yeah. Oh you mean I can make it discharge electricity to activate my orbs?" Miles asked.

"Not that easy I am afraid. Orbs are delicate items and you have to charge them with the exact amount of electricity or they will act out. The armor itself has a lightning attribute, so it can take a heavy load, but a normal orb will not react well." Coin summarized the way of Orbs.

"You know how much I should charge, so you teach me." Miles said, but he also knew it wasn't that easy.

"Can you control the electricity you release from the armor deftly? Because if you can't it is a no-no." Coin said, "But... There is a solution to that. You can just charge me through your armor. It will also be hard loaded but I can direct it to the armor and fill the batteries. Normally, it would cause batteries to explode, but with the armor as conductive, I should be able to control it."

"So now I have unlimited electricity?" Miles asked happily.

"Welp, it is not that hard to gain anyway. Those scion rich kids have wristwatches that can produce electricity through the sun. So they too have unlimited electricity. What really matters is how much load can the wristwatch unleash in one time. After all, to activate the higher tier orbs, you need stronger load. But you cannot produce and transmit the electricity at the same time. They can at most activate pinnacle-tier Orbs. But with the armor you have, I can direct the electricity it produces to any orb. With the load it can produce, it should be fine to activate any orb in Grunt-Rank." Coin made it clear for Miles.

"I see. So, that was why Merlin was looking for a stronger electric type core instead of a psychic one." Miles suddenly realized.

"Yeah. Usually experienced hunters will choose the electric type core instead of psychic. Only newbies think psychic AIs are cool. Veteran hunters and their AI's can already see through their mind and act like a team. There is no need for a word in battle." Coin's words got Miles thinking. He and Coin were already at that level. Not because he or Coin was superior but because of the bond they were sharing.

In normal cases, children get their AI wristwatches at the age of 8. But Miles got it when he was four. He was just a snotty brat and grew up with Coin. Because he was lonely, they opened up to each other after some time, and have been best friends ever since.

Miles remembered the first time he had seen Coin. It was 12 years ago. The reason why Miles got it much earlier was because of his mother, Evelyn Cross.

Evelyn Cross was the topmost scientist even before the war started. She was working on a solution that could save the world before Monsters even appeared. Because she was so young at the time, her opinions were blocked by her seniors. Her formula was thrown away to the shelves to be checked later. When monsters first appeared, her ideas on orbs were born results, giving her the opportunity to shine.

After finding the weak spots of the Monsters and creating weapons, they worked together on Orbs and discovered how to use them. When Mama Hill, the Mother AI, first appeared, she was in the team to make contact with the AI and learn science from another world. She was one of the first few people to awaken the superpower.

Her superpower was 'Data Sort.' With it, she sorted many thoughts and information like a folder of a computer in her brain. Whenever she needed any information, she could bring the needed memory of any scene.

When Miles was only four years old, a wristwatch was brought to Evelyn Cross to inspect. There were almost zero chances to have malfunctioned in those created wristwatches. They could only be manufactured using Monster Cores.

The technology of producing them came from Mama Hill, and every single AI was born from her source code. Thus malfunctioning was close to impossible. It piqued Evelyn's interests, and she got her hands on the new AI.

At the time, still, toddler Miles was very attached to his mother and was with her most of the time. Including the time she was working. Because he was a smart boy and was behaving, Evelyn didn't mind his presence and worked on the new AI.

Wristwatches were like orbs and could take two shapes. Their first shape was a ball, the size of a toddler's fist, and the second form the wristwatch. The computer screen, when it's needed, and other parts such as the keyboard, were all holograms.

The one Evelyn was working on was shining like gold. Miles knew her mother was working on something, thus didn't disturb her, but he couldn't take his eyes from that shiny metallic ball.

After working on the device for more than a week, Evelyn got tired of it. "It is useless. Even Mama Hill didn't know what was wrong with it. It piqued my curiosity, but I cannot make heads or tails of it. I should just delete the AI and send it back to the factory."

She was about to delete the AI sending foreign languages on its hologram screen. Normally, it should have been in human language, but this AI was acting strange. No one could understand the language, not even Mama Hill. So, Evelyn decided to delete it.

But before she could do so, Miles grabbed the metallic ball in his tiny palm and said sternly, "Coin, I take care of Coin."

Evelyn was surprised by his son's stern face but also amused. Her first thought was that Miles was acting spoiled and throwing tantrums, but no matter what she tried, she couldn't take it from him. With no other choice, she talked with her husband, Miles's father, Malcolm Cross.

Malcolm was a government officer when Monsters first appeared. When the Science Assembly was established, he was assigned to protect the scientists and met with Evelyn. He was also one of the earliest that had awakened powers, and it wasn't worse than his father's, Grandpa Cross, Cruel Heart!

When Superpower serum was first created, every human was injected with it to fight against monsters. At first, it was thought that everyone would still obey their status and obey the laws of the government. But people awakened strong powers rioted against authority to start a mutiny. At that time, Cruel Heart was born.

Mercer Cross, the Cruel Heart, was the general of the army. He was working as the Chief of Science Assembly and had the chance to test the Power serum. But he gave up on it and let younger people test the serum first. When riots started to appear, he gathered his soldiers and fought against people with superpowers bravely, and apprehended most of them. But got injured by one of them and lost an arm. Later, because of his bravery and thanks to his heroism, he was encouraged to take the serum. He awakened the power of 'Nullifying', which strengthened his authority.

Cruel Heart could remove any power from any person, as long as he could touch them for more than five minutes. All the rioters and criminals brought before him had lost their hopes.

Malcolm was also a great aid to him. He awakened before his father did and awakened the power of 'Area Nullifying.' Any person standing 2 meters around him couldn't use their powers, be it ally or enemy. Luckily he could cancel his powers at will.

When Malcolm and Grandpa Cross learned Miles's decision to adopt a broken AI, their reactions were vastly different. Malcolm was dejected. Grandpa Cross, on the other hand, was disgusted.

"He will take a cripple AI like himself. Let him be." Grandpa Cross said as if he wasn't talking about his grandson.

"Dad!" Evelyn defended earnestly.

"Hmph!" He snorted and left the room.

"Let him be." After some time, Malcolm said to Evelyn.

"But" Evelyn wanted to object, but she couldn't.

"He is a smart boy," Malcolm said while looking towards his son playing with a golden metallic ball in the garden lovingly. "He is much smarter than Merlin and Marcela."

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