The Blue region was heavily considered a thing of fantasy... a wonderland to those who had only heard stories of the fantastic region but for those like Blake who knew better, that place was far more restricting and dangerous.
At least in the other two regions, you could avoid thugs and theives but in the Blue region, your neighbor could be your enemy.
'That was what my dad taught me as we fled that place.' His eyes darkened as he glared at Big.
The crime lord watched with ill-hidden interest in his eyes. "What? Do you want to refuse all of a sudden? Remember, my boy, you already agreed and I don't take too well with people breaking deals."
Both he and his thugs stepped closer to Blake and the latter's eyes twitched. 'Calm down. Anger will only kill you now.'
He inhaled deeply and let out the breath slowly, "Okay... I just wasn't expecting the Blue region of all places. Is that all?"
Big's smile impossibly widened. "That's my boy! Good. Very good. No, that's not all. There's still what you'll need to know regarding the logistics and how you'll infiltrate the place. I certainly didn't expect this so soon. Come back later tonight, all preparations would be done by then."
Blake nodded. It wasn't like he had a choice.
Turning his back to the criminal Lord, he walked to the door and pushed it open.
As he walked out, he heard a final warning from Big just as he closed the door: "I'd advise you not to leave your bulbs on... who knows when you might return."
There was certainly a hidden meaning behind the vague wording but at the moment, he was too pissed off at his predicament to care.
'Dad, I swear that this is all for you! Else I wouldn't have swallowed that from a no good ball of fat and greed!' He yelled in his head and kicked the ground, far too scared of either of the three in the warehouse hearing him.
After gathering himself, he back to his house while occasionally touching the raw skin on his neck.
"Lucky bastards." Nothing annoyed him more than those who actually managed to awaken a gene ability and didn't use it to help others.
'What was there to threatening the weak and trampling upon the poor?' Black wouldn't call himself righteous but there were lines that he wouldn't cross and that was one of them.
He stopped when he got to his house and opened the door.
His neighbors passed him by without so much as a wave. Could he blame them? They were all trying to ensure they didn't fall into the Red region.
'It is easier to go downhill than climb up a mountain.' Speaking from experience, Blake knew how easy it was to find oneself using hard drugs and living off the streets.
"Thankfully, my dad taught me well enough." He remarked as he walked in and locked the door.
He crashed into his bed. It was in the living room area with the rest of his possessions — the few of them that hadn't been stolen and were still of use.
"What else do I expect from being an unemployed teenager?" He managed a chuckle as he tried to rest.
Hours slowly passed yet sleep evaded him like he had killed its siblings. 'Come on! I need to sleep!' The more he tried, the more awake he seemed to be.
With nothing else to do, he tapped on his watch.
[User: Blake Hiro]
[Class: Null]
[Mutated Cell Count: 34%]
[Cell Stability: 78%]...
Blake nodded slightly. At least his cell stability hadn't started to reduce.
His eyes hovered on his [Null] class. He remembered being frightened the first time he had seen it but as he had quickly come to learn, it meant undefined.
It wasn't that he was strange or unique but that if he failed to awaken a gene ability by 20, he'll be classified as a human but if he did, he'll be an awakened.
So for now, his class merely existed as a sort of buffer between two potential classes... or three if he counted the Primals.
His eyes continued reading on:
[User: Blake Hiro]
[Class: Null]
[Mutated Cell Count: 34%]
[Cell Stability: 78%]
[Gene Ability: Empty]
[Legacy: 3rd Level]
[Gene Purity: 32%]
The final three provided very personal information about himself and was allegedly 'private' and 'unaccessible' by anyone else according to the Global Alliance.
His [Gene Ability] was as the name implied. The watch would scan his genes upon awakening and determine the likely ability he awakened.
It was usually a rough idea of what it was as opposed to specifics.
"Just like no two people's DNA are the same... abilities are often different. Similar, sure but ultimately different."
The [Legacy] only existed for people like Blake whose parents had abilities. His grandparents had, then his parents and so, he was a third generation.
"My parents..." All he knew of was his dad, having never met his mom. Yet his dad spoke of his mom as though she were an angel.
The same applied to his grandparents, he had simply never even known about their existence until he got his Genetic wrist scanner — the watch.
And lastly, [Gene Purity] dealt with the potency of ones ability. It was often mistaken with [Mutated Cell Count] which showed how much energy one could produce to use their ability.
But what use was having an idea of any of these traits when he hadn't even awakened anything.
Blake inhaled deeply, "And I'm not sure if Big will deliver on his words. He's a big snake...
joke definitely intended."
He let out a dry laugh as he remembered something, 'Always try to smile.' That was one of the lessons he had failed to learn from his dad.
"Smiling keeps your friends inspired, your enemies guessing and your face young." Despite how bizarre, remembering his dad somehow managed to calm his nerves and he drifted off to sleep.