Chapter 33 - Awakening Center
After a moment of silence, Randy finally opened his mouth after being stunned momentarily, cleared his throat slightly and then told him, "Well, the first time was by accident, so this how it happened…"
Randy recounted his unfortunate encounter with a rift and the monsters that came out of them without mentioning anything about Jeremiah and his goons. He talked about how one of the monsters was injured badly and was being chased by a humanoid monster. Then finally concluded with how the injured monster\'s blood accidentally dripped down and entered his mouth as it suddenly flew away into the unknown.
"Holy shit! You actually ran into such monsters and still managed to survive? And you said there was a humanoid monster that might be a vampire? How do you know it\'s a vampire?"
Randy replied, "Well, it had an awfully pale skin and I think it even had glowing red eyes so I kind of assumed it was a vampire by that appearance and that creature with the white fur, the one\'s whose blood I accidentally swallowed might be a werewolf or something similar"
\'Well I know for a fact that it was a werewolf, but I can\'t let him know that?\' Randy silently thought to himself.
"For real, a werewolf and a vampire…" Jiang Chen muttered in disbelief and then he realized something, and then he spoke up again after pondering something, "Wait, is it possible… is that why you had such an appearance? The white hair and white fur werewolf… Or am I just thinking too much?"
He looked at him as he said this, and then immediately fell into a deep thought for a bit as he speculated Randy\'s transformation just now and his story about how he consumed the blood of a werewolf with a white fur which coincidentally aligns with Randy\'s transformed hair color?
After thinking for a while, he could finally connect the two pieces together and solved the mystery behind Randy\'s unusual mix of abilities.
And then a moment later, he doubtfully asked, "Don\'t tell me you can take the appearance of whatever blood you consume or maybe copy their form slightly?"
Randy was sweating as he was very shocked by his question, his facial expression suddenly froze while looking at him in disbelief.
\'Fuck! This guy is simply too good at deduction. I only gave this little detail and he had already figured it out. Although I was going to tell him anyway but to think that he had already found it out before I even finished speaking…\'
Randy exclaimed in shock but still maintained his calm, cleared his throat slightly and then confirmed his words, "Well, something like that but not entirely. Like I said, it was only an accident that I consumed that werewolf\'s blood, and it was also the factor that spurred my awakening in the place, so in a sense, it was actually a blessing in disguise that I met those monsters from the rift."
There were a few moments silence in the room. Nobody said anything to each other for a long while and all of a sudden and a loud laughter resounded.
"Ahahahaha!!"
This laugher was so loud that if some suddenly walked by the room, they would immediately assumed that the other party was probably insane or was going crazy.
Randy was also taken aback by this development and so he did not know to react or what to say.
A short while later, after calming himself down, Jiang Chen suddenly said in complete admiration, "This is amazing! Randy, do you have any idea how amazing and peculiar your situation is? With this ability of yours, you\'ll definitely triumph over those geniuses with deep rooted background, not to mention people in our academy. To think one of my friends awakened this kind of terrifying ability, Ahahahaha!!"
Immediately after speaking, he burst into laughter once again. However, Randy suddenly cut in.
"What are you laughing about? Aren\'t I your only friend? Since when did you have other friends beside me?" Randy rolled his eyes at him as he asked in a teasing tone.
Jiang Chen abruptly stopped his laughter, cleared his throat in embarrassment and then seriously said, "Don\'t sweat the details too much, in truth, I actually have online friends whom I converse with all the time, so it is not a lie when I say that I have other friends beside you."
Randy rolled his eyes at him again and then said in return, "What friends? If that is the case, then even I have those kinds of friends."
Jiang Chen appeared surprise and muttered, "What? You do?"
They all stared at each for a while and then they immediately burst into laughter uncontrollably.
"Pft— "
"Ahahahaha!!" Randy suddenly burst into laughter seeing his shocked expression.
Jiang Chen could not hold himself back as he also burst into laughter shortly after coming back to his senses.
"Ahahahahaha!!"
The two of them laughed to their hearts out while reminiscing their sad and lonely life despite them being academically smart students. They still do not have any friends that they could confide in beside themselves and so their relationship with each other was one of closeness, like the one between two brothers.
After a while, they all calmed down, Randy informed Jiang Chen once again about what he needed to do and also talked about other matters and then he left shortly after.
His destination was the Sky Rise City\'s forest; he plans on hunting mutated beasts in that forest to accumulate some knowledge points to comprehend at least one of the techniques he had acquired.
Before leaving, he obviously took Jiang Chen\'s blood with him and also casually demanded that Jiang Chen cover for him in case his mother suddenly calls him and does not reach him.
Although Randy silently stowed away Jiang Chen\'s blood, he was certain that Jiang Chen would not mind it either way, so he was not too worried about that. After all, he knew his abilities and besides there was no secrets between the two of them.
\'Except for that unknown power and my system\'s upgrade but even I am unsure of what those are so for now, I think it\'s better if he does not know until I am certain of it myself.\' Randy silently thought after pondering for a bit.
As for matters regarding his mother\'s concern, Randy was assured that everything would work out somehow. After all, Jiang Chen was sort of a geek and knows a lot about technology stuff thus can even connect their bracelets when necessary and thereby enabling him to talk to his mom in case she decides to call Jiang Chen instead of calling him to check out whether he was there or not.
With that out of the way, Randy was relaxed as he proceeded to head towards the outskirt of this city.
For some unknown reason or perhaps purposefully, their school was not that far away from the outskirt of the city as the Beast Forest, where the mutated beasts are found was right after crossing the boundary set up by the government.
Perhaps, in order to expose the students to the harshness of the current world, they built the institution next to the forest to ensure that the children were able to frequent the forest to test their abilities.
Soon, he reached the boundary between the city and the Beast Forest, there was wall between the city and the Beast Forest that outstretch upwards for a few meters to prevent beast hordes from attacking the city.
However, after reaching the gate leading outside, he was immediately stopped by a guard stationed near the gate as he tried to cross the boundary, who then demanded his identification card.
Randy did not think much of this and quickly took out his student identification card and showed it to the guard, but the other party shook his head and obstructed him from passing through.
"Student, I don\'t mean to look down on you or anything, but you need to have a hunter\'s ID or at least an awakener\'s identification to pass through here, even if you have already awakened your ability. Otherwise you can only turn around and leave. You cannot walk through this gate until you acquire a proper identification card; that is the law established by the government to ensure no reckless actions leading to pointless deaths of civilians."
Hearing this, Randy had no choice but to turn around and leave to conduct a test and then receive a proper identification to prove that he had really awakened and that he was an ability holder.
But before that, he turned around again and thanked the guard for this information.
"I understand, thank you for the advice" He said.
"No need to thank me, I am only stating the obvious; once you have a proper ID, I\'ll let you pass through then." The guard waved his hand dismissively as he urged him to leave.
Randy nodded, bowed slightly and then made his way back where he came from to get his awakener\'s identification.
With that in mind, Randy headed towards the branch of the [Awakening Center] in this city. After walking for a bit, Randy reached his school, but he did not stop there and proceeded to head towards another direction for a few minutes and then finally reached a place for taking a cab for transportation.
This Awakening Center was quite close to his school, so it was not that much distance away from his current location.
A short while later, a cab finally came, and Randy entered the car and drove towards the Awakening Center. By taking the cab, his journey did not last long thus he arrived shortly after in less than fifteen minutes, and then got off the cab and looked a certain high-rise building in the distance.
Randy hesitated for a bit while staring at this building that bring back memories.. After staring at this building with a nostalgic expression on face for a bit, he then proceeded to head towards that building with him no longer feeling any sort of hesitation.