Parasyte System

'...Haa, I guess I'll just have to infect her first and see if it really suits me, though another problem is that she's almost certainly rank (C) as well...Oh well, I'll worry about that later.'

Coming to that conclusion, Jay let out a sigh, continuing with his cleaning task, his mind now being occupied with another question mark.

This question was, why was it that his little ones reacted so differently with Faith and the instructor?

Since acquiring the system, either at his school or in all the time he had spent in the South Zone and even when he had been roaming the streets of Kluemwood City, he had had contact with a lot of supers.

But still, his little ones never once went on a rampage as they had when the instructor showed her bloodlust or when Faith activated her ability.

It was clear that his little ones did it for a reason, but due to lack of information, Jay had to leave it at that, at least until he met Faith, which gave him a little more confidence to assume a couple of rules.

1.-For his parasites to react, Jay must be near or in direct contact with said ability or energy demonstration, being near the super in question is not the same.

2.-Rather than focusing on the amount of energy, the parasites prefered the ability and the type of energy itself.

He had thought of several more possibilities, but because he was just getting to know this characteristic of his little ones, he could only be somewhat sure of these two.

The first was easy to explain, although the parasites had an incredible ability to detect the vitality of any kind of living being, this was not the case when identifying the abilities of another super.

Therefore, they weren't able to know if a person had an ability or was capable of a display of energy that was worthy of their attention without them first having witnessed either of these.

The perfect example of this was both the instructor and Faith, supers that Jay had encountered but despite being worthy of his little ones' attention, they did not react until they both demonstrated their might.

The second was confirmed thanks to the other teachers at the academy, especially the entrance exam examiner, who was shown to be able to use an enormous amount of mana in a matter of seconds, and also the Ability Control class teacher, who fortunately also put on a great display of power.

Both of them had shown to be able to use large amounts of energy easily, but despite this, their parasites did not even flinch.

This made it clear that their little ones were not looking at the energy level, but at the skill itself.

This, however, led to another problem, which was....

'What do the instructor and Faith have in common?'

*Pin!*

The moment he finished thinking about it, a sudden message on a transparent window appeared in front of him.

_____________________

[Hidden Mission: High Value!]

Description: Thanks to the teamwork of the [Carrier] and his parasites, the system has been able to identify two specimens with possible high value for the development of the system.

Requirements: Infect said specimens and confirm the system' suspicions.

First Reward: (10) Parasites - Original.

Second Reward: (1) System Ability Fragment.

Remark: Could it be...?!

_____________________

"..."

For a short while, Jay stood still as he processed the sudden appearance of the mission that had appeared before him.

'...The mission function still works after all!'

After thinking that, he let out a sigh at the same time as his posture visibly relaxed, instead of being excited about the mission, it seemed that he was more relieved than anything else.

As for the reason for this, it was because instead of the mission content, which was something he could deduce himself without the help of the system, mission activation was something he was completely helpless in.

In all the time he had been preparing for the entrance exam, he had also thought about getting more missions with their respective juicy rewards, but unfortunately, each of his attempts to activate one had ended in just that, attempts.

Therefore, although he knew it was quite unlikely, the possibility that perhaps the system's quests function had stopped working after the upgrade had become a fear within Jay.

But as he had just seen, that was not the case at all, causing him to feel greatly relieved.

Having calmed down, Jay then went on to analyze the mission, 'Well, that just confirms my suspicions that the two have something special in common, I was already planning on infecting them, but having a mission for this doesn't hurt at all... even more so when the reward is this good.'

While having more parasites was always good, as that was basically increasing his energy reserves, giving him more leeway to perform any action, the second reward was not far behind by any means.

The system's abilities were something Jay had already come into contact with, and he only had one opinion on these.

'I must get as many as I can!'

Firstly being the system skill, [Overload], which despite consuming a huge amount of energy and leaving Jay in a weak state, was still the latter's trump card, making it possible for him, for a short time, to be able to take on enemies a rank higher than him without any problems.

Finishing with the ability to which he had only had access for one night, [Proliferation], which was able to treat infected people as incubators, allowing him to double the amount of parasites Jay had, thus drastically reducing the time it took to assimilate an ability, especially in the body of the person in which [Proliferation] was used.

Whether it was one or the other, they both had one thing in common, and that was the fact that Jay had fallen head over heels in love with their effects!

'...Ah, I'm getting overly excited, I'd better finish my daily chores so I can focus all my attention on a plan to infect them both.'

With those thoughts and a completely renewed mood, Jay gripped his broom tighter than before and began sweeping with great intensity.

*Swoosh!

"...Hm?"

Just then, however, a particularly familiar smell reached his nose, causing him for some reason to remember his time in the South Zone.

"...Blood?"

If it had to be mentioned which night of his time in the South Zone marked him the most, Jay would undoubtedly answer that it was the night he faced the unknown member of Wolf's Fang.

Whether it was when he used the [Limit Breaker] or when he was fighting the Wolf's Fang member, there was something that he, and more importantly, his body remembered very well, and that was that on both occasions, they were marked by something in common.

Blood, whether it was his own or that of the enemy, it was something that was in abundance that night.

While Jay himself had been unconscious for most of both events, that particular scent had been burned into his subconscious, making his body incredibly sensitive to the slightest sign of it.

"...Could it be that one of the students is injured?" He said with a quizzical expression on his face.

While there were extremely rigorous training sessions at the Training Center, as far as Jay knew, they didn't get to the point where the students were so injured that they bled, so he found it odd to find this scent here.

Though again, he remembered that even if the training sessions were safe, that didn't stop students from going to an extreme in order to push their limits, often failing and only managing to injure themselves, which was something that even he would do.

"Oh well, it wouldn't hurt to go take a look around, and who knows, I might even earn a bonus if I rescue someone!"

Then, leaving his broom leaning against a nearby wall, Jay headed towards the source of the scent, relying solely on his pugilist's nose.

***

At the back of the outside wall of the Training Center, several students were gathered around a single student.

The appearance of most of them was normal, with one or the other having a different body thanks to their esper skills, though even with that, there were two people who stood out among them all.

One of them was the one at the front of the group of students, acting as if he was the leader, and none of those present seemed to want to protest at that.

Although he was not particularly tall compared to the other students, his refined features along with his confident attitude and silky short blond hair made him stand out.

As for the other person, he was none other than the student who was surrounded by all of them, who was certainly no slouch compared to the blond student in terms of attracting attention.

Unlike the blond, this student was the tallest among those present, and although his body was completely covered by his baggy clothes, it was still possible to notice that his body was in great physical shape.

This young man's hair reached his shoulders and was of a dark red color, resembling wine.

His features, like those of the blond young man, were also pleasing to the eye, with the most notable difference being the fact that this young man had an expression of hostility on his face.

Though of course, the hostility was understandable, after all, he had a visible fresh cut on his right arm, a cut from which a few drops of blood were still falling.

Suddenly, the culprit of this cut, the blonde student, took a step forward, "Even in this situation, you don't seem to be afraid, that's admirable, really."

In response, the red-haired student merely glared sullenly at the blond.

"Hey, the young master is talking to you!" Said at that moment one of the students next to the blond, moving towards the redhead.

*BAM!*

Before he could approach, a kick from the redhead that made immediate contact with this student's face stopped him in his tracks.

"U-urgh."

With those words as his last, this unknown student fell to the ground with a funny sound.

"Ahh, Kevin, you idiot, you weren't supposed to throw yourself like that!" Said the blond student, criticizing his classmate.

The next moment, he snapped his fingers, to which the other students, knowing what it meant, formed an even tighter lockup than before.

"If we want to teach him a lesson, all of you have to follow my orders, otherwise even if you all attack at once, you'll only get yourselves crushed. After all, we're not dealing with someone normal, but the one who caught the Baron's attention."

With those words, it was clear that the blond not only had high self-esteem, but was even bordering on arrogance.

But as with many students at the Academy, this hubris was not unfounded.

"Now!" The young blond suddenly shouted, a magic circle appearing beneath him.

At the same time, the other students also activated everything they had before launching into an attack.

The young red-haired man did not stand still either, but also counterattacked, and although he was able to defend himself from the first couple of attacks using his body, there were simply too many enemies at the same time.

Thus, although not much time had passed since the fight began, the young red-haired man's body already showed bruises and cuts.

Even so, the red-haired youth did not give up, continuing to counterattack with as much force as his body could exert, increasing the rate at which wounds appeared on his body.

"Hm, I wonder how long you'll be able to hold out without using your ability." Said the blond.

Ignoring his words, the red-haired youth only continued to defend himself.

Seeing that his provocation had no effect, the blond then pulled his wand from his pocket and pointed it at the magic circle beneath his feet, muttering a spell under his breath.

"If you don't use it, you'll end up in the hospital!"

As he finished speaking, the magic circle began to transform, several small pillars of light shot out of it before rising into the air, stopping when they were hovering at the same height as the blond's head.

The next moment, the pillars then shot towards the young red-haired man.