Chapter 439: MY Driver flashback
*Bing-Bong*
It has come to the writer’s attention that he forgot to include a rather crucial scene explaining some events occurring in this current arc.
Namely, why the fuck our intrepid protagonist is suddenly transforming like a demonic Mister Hyde.
A slightly more demonic Mister Hyde.
Anyways, we will now be interrupting this story for a flashback explaining what the fuck the “MY Driver” is.
This flashback takes place a little after “Aranea” and “Lucille” became the new secretaries for the clan, but before the branch Zhen Clan left for Pearl Tusk with the main Zhen Clan.
Now, please enjoy this cringe-fueled anxiety driven mess of a flashback.
…
Did we really need to include this blurp for a flashback chapter?
Don’t most other stories just go right into it?
|Usually, yes, but I wanted to at least give some of the readers a heads up that shit is gonna get weird.|
Aight.
*Bing-Bong*
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“Why the fuck is my armor not working?”
“I’m not sure milord, but you look like you might pop a blood vessel out of sheer frustration at this rate. Maybe you should take a break?”
“That’s…a fair assessment…thanks for reminding me to relax, Nepherage.”
“Anytime.”
In the familiar confines of an abandoned quarry training ground, Zhen Liu had schedule two important tasks for the day.
The first task was to synchronize all of the kaijin that were not yet at the Grandmaster rank to Grandmaster rank.
Evidently, this was the easiest part of his day.
Zhen Liu only had two kaijin that weren’t Aether Grandmasters yet, who were none other than Nepherage and Hurricroak.
Frosttusk broke through on his own, Lacerage and Archanidame came out as Grandmasters right from the get-go, whilst Spring Brawler and Razor Maiden were proto-kaijin, so they couldn’t be synchronized.
That being said, he was fairly certain those two were going to become fully formed kaijin soon, he just didn’t know when, where or how.
“Ooooh, so this is what it feels like to be a Grandmaster! I can feel the power coursing through my veins!,” Hurricroak proclaimed after her synchronization, “wait, do I even have veins?”
“Rather…not…think…about…that…,” Frosttusk rumbled.
“Fair enough!”
After making sure everybody was up to the same rank as himself, Zhen Liu gave the kaijin free time to go do whatever, as long as they didn’t stray too far from the quarry.
This free time usually amounted to Nepherage, Hurricroak and Frosttusk doing their own thing, while Spring Brawler and Razor Maiden did their own thing. Granted, this time around, Nepherage decided to stick near Zhen Liu to see if she could assist him in his training.
‘Hmm. Maybe I should make a third proto-kaijin…and a third insect type kaijin now that I think about it…wait, don’t I also need to make a stealth based kaijin and an aquatic kaijin too?,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself, ‘Bah! Think about those things later, you got armor to try and make!’
The second task was to exercise the latest ability he had unlocked after breaking through to the Aether Grandmaster rank, [Aether Armor], but he wasn’t exactly having any luck with that.
For the past hour or so after syncing with the kaijin, Zhen Liu had tried and failed multiple times to condense his power into a suit of armor that he could use to enhance his combat capabilities.
“Come on, come on…”
Multiple times he had gotten close to condensing his aether into an armor, but like it was a throwback to his days before becoming a(the?) Kaijin Lord, his attempts exploded in his face.
A lot.
“Okay let’s try-BAH!”
“Whoa there, milord!”
There were actually multiple points during this practice session that Zhen Liu would end up blasting himself backwards into a wall or upwards into the air during his attempts, thankfully he had Nepherage nearby to catch him in case he was sent flying.
At this point in time, he was sent flying a dozen times or so.
He did however take a break around the thirteenth time at the request of Nepherage.
Whilst man and kaijin were sitting on the ground and relaxing, the latter decided to try and get her lord’s mind off of things with some small conversation. Namely about where his consorts were at.
“Milord, I don’t mean to be rude, but isn’t this usually something that Lady Jin Fang should be doing for you at this moment? Catching you, I mean. Is she okay?,” Nepherage asked.
“I actually did invite her tag along,” Zhen Liu answered, “Rianna too, but apparently my mom needed the both of them. I’m not entirely sure why.”
“You didn’t ask?”
“I did, they just gave me vague non-answers.”
“Ah…your mother scares me.”
“Completely understandable. Now then,” Zhen Liu said as he stood up from his seat, “let’s see if I can get it right this time.”
Spoiler alert, he didn’t.
Boom!
“Gah!”
Someone once said that the definition of “insanity” was doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.
While Zhen Liu wasn’t doing that exactly, the amount of times he was getting blown up was starting to get worrisome.
The most frustrating part about this endeavour though, was that he had no idea why this was happening in the first place.
He knew how this process should work on paper, he had seen his grandfather, father and uncles do this dozens of times at this point, so why couldn’t he do it?
Thankfully, on Zhen Liu’s fifteenth attempt, Logos and Pathos finally decided to speak up.
=Do you need our advice, milord?=
‘Oh thank gods, yes. Why didn’t you two say anything sooner and do I need to head to the Library?’
=In order, we figured you wanted to discover what to do yourself…=
‘Sure.’
Zhen Liu got up from his latest failed attempt and tried once more to concentrate his energy into the form of armor.
However, the moment he started doing so, Logos and Pathos immediately interrupted him.
‘Huh?’
=I concur, what you’re doing is reckless even by our previous lords’ standards.=
‘What the fuck are you two on about? What do you mean reckless?’
‘I am?!’
=Oh, he doesn’t know. Sending the information we have received from armor creation attempts now.=
‘Wait, hold on-BAH! TINGLES!’
As soon as this revelation came into being, Zhen Liu’s brain started to buzz as Logos sent a slew of information about why he wasn’t able to make aether armor in a rather straightforward manner.
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Simply put, most other warriors, once they reach Aether Grandmaster, are able to create their armor quickly due to being well versed in the practice of infusing their limbs and other body parts with aether for the sake of strengthening.
By regularly causing the aether in their bodies to flood certain internal channels, this causes those channels to strengthen so that they could be used to handle heavier and higher quality flows of aether.
In Zhen Liu’s case however, he didn’t have those traditional channels, instead he had to use [Chaos] to perform such activities…and he’s only been able to access [Chaos] for a time significantly less than most other Aether Grandmasters.
Making matters trickier, Zhen Liu had been unconsciously trying to use both aether and [Chaos] at the same time to make his aether armor, using [Chaos] to create artificial yet temporary channels and then having aether flood in those channels.
Unfortunately, aether and [Chaos] don’t exactly mix all too well.
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‘Ouch…,’ Zhen Liu groaned as he grabbed his head by the sides.
He could never get used to sudden information dumps directly to his skull, no matter how many times he went through it.
It was efficient sure, but it still fucking sucked.
‘So let me get this straight. I can’t make my armor because I’m using too many types of energy without even realizing it?’
*Skrit, skrit.*
=Indeed milord. If you want to make armor, you’re going to need to try and focus your mind on either using just aether or just [Chaos], which might be hard given your unfamiliarity with the aether…at least for the time being until you can get to the right ranking…=
*Skrit, skrit.*
‘What was that last part?’
=Nothing.=
‘Sure…’
*Skrit.*
‘Okay, what the fuck is that scratching sou-‘
‘OH SWEET GODS WHY!’
Immediately after this exclamation, Zhen Liu’s mind was flooded with yet even more information.
However, this time it wasn’t a detailed explanation of why he couldn’t make aether armor.
This time, he was sent a detailed schematic on how to make it so he could make it so he would only use [Chaos] or aether when making his armor, and now to alternate between the two.
It was straightforward, it was flashy and seemed to be a part of the trend where his abilities seemed to manifest as weaponized toys.
He just had one question in regards to its functions.
‘What the fuck does the MY stand for?’
