"How am I supposed to eat this?"

Spring-Autumn stood tall with his cloak swirling around him. It was truly a mystical object. With just a thought, the cloak could morph into a shape he imagined.

His silvery gray cloak wrapped around his hand and turned into a sharp knife. He then chopped at the tentacle.

Chop!

At the location where the tentacle was cut, there were no signs of blood.

"Is this because of my Time attribute?"

It was the most reasonable a.s.sumption Spring-Autumn could make. The wound was there but the tentacle was not "damaged". The location that it was cut at seemed to be frozen in time and the tentacle continued to wiggle around as usual.

"What's the point of having you around then?"

The gray cloak swirled around Spring-Autumn faster, as if to voice its satisfaction.

"Well, at least I'm not half-naked anymore."

The cloak calmed down. It was a cloak that possessed sentience.

[Attribute Cloak:Time(Unnamed)]

A blue window hovered above the cloak when Spring-Autumn focused his gaze on it.

"I should name you,"

Rapid thoughts quickly processed itself in Spring-Autumn's mind.

[Attribute Cloak:Time(stolen goods)]

With just a thought, the cloak was named.

"Oops. I thought of that as a joke, why did you go ahead and just name it?"

Spring-Autumn laughed at the blue window and the cloak swirled around angrily to voice its dissatisfaction.

"I guess I'll call you my Time Cloak?"

[Attribute Cloak:Time(stolen goods)]

"Okay, close enough."

Paying the matter no more heed, Spring-Autumn returned his focus to his food.

"Well, it doesn't matter if it's still alive. When I usually eat octopus, it's still moving anyway so there's not much of a difference,"

With that little thought done, Spring-Autumn proceeded to cut off a little piece of the tentacle.

Nom.

[Strength +2]

[Perception +1]

[Const.i.tution +2]

[Vitality +2]

Spring-Autumn relished the taste of raw tentacle going down his throat and let out a sigh, "Have I been eating garbage the entire time before this?"

His sight returned to the tentacle which wiggled intensely. Suddenly, it straightened and slammed down to wack Spring-Autumn.

"Food shouldn't fight back,"

Spring-Autumn slurped back his leaking saliva and cut the incoming tentacle in half. With just an increase of 2 in strength, the ease of cutting became exponentially easier.

Thud!

The two large pieces of tentacle fell down and wiggled around intensely. A deep green light flickered in the eyes of Spring-Autumn.

He laughed crazily and began to barbarically feast on the raw tentacles in [Bullet Time].

It was a seafood delight. The soft, yet firm texture of the tentacle. The natural coolness that gave one a refres.h.i.+ng feeling. Every bite one took, there was a satisfying crunch. After the bite, there was a natural sweetness within the meat followed by an unbelievable aftertaste.

A single tear dropped from Spring-Autumn from experiencing such luxury.

"Burp."

[--]

t.i.tle: The First Awakened

*

Strength: 20

Perception: 18

Const.i.tution: 20

Vitality: 24

*

Attribute: Time

[--]

"Hahaha!"

Spring-Autumn laughed crazily at his power spike. He could feel unbelievable energy coursing through his body.

He had finished the entire tentacle that was almost three times the size of him in length. Every fiber of his muscle felt like it was rejuvenated with new power.

His senses became more clear. He knew that he was faster, stronger, and more resilient. It had to be noted that his original stats of ten in everything was achieved naturally through dieting and working out over several years.

Despite not being any bigger, Spring-Autumn knew that this was the optimal form for him that allowed him to keep his mobility while having the strength at his genetic limit. It was truly amazing that such strength could be achieved by just eating food.

Spring-Autumn felt smarter than ever after confirming his theory of eating food to get stronger.

However, he did not become arrogant after this power increase because he was already arrogant in the first place.

"Little octopus, I'll come back to eat the rest of you later…"

Spring-Autumn yelled at the portal as he washed his body off in the fountain, refres.h.i.+ng himself. His well-built body could finally be seen in its full glory after was.h.i.+ng it off of sweat and grime.

Spring-Autumn was now at his peak state. He was free of injuries and stronger than ever. He had gained a lot from this place by following the beacon when the world fully initialized.

It was unfortunate that he didn't memorize the location of other beacons, but his gains here were more than enough.

He was confident that he would find more treasures just like his cloak as long as he continued exploring. The world just started and he was definitely one of the most ahead.

Others that were hiding were losing out on the potential of this new world. Spring-Autumn felt more eager and antic.i.p.ated than ever to uncover the mysteries of this transformed world.

--

In an unknown place, research lab.

There were several test subjects dressed in white. They were all separated into their own cells. A certain man observed a fascinating change that was happening. He was the chief.

"So I was right." He said, looking at one particular subject through a monitor.

All these test subjects had something in common: They were all [Users] that survived the first round of testing.

The test subject the head scientist was looking at was rolling on the ground in pain. His body was heating up and his ability constantly activated without his control.

"These abilities are not gifts. There is a chance of rejection when they awaken their ability. The more powerful the ability, the higher the chance of rejection."

"If they can't survive this rejection, they'll… die,"