"A!"
"Sa!"
"Do!"
"A!"
"Sa—!"
"Haha! Caught you!"
Xander stood among the kids, forming an oval-shaped formation. Every time a syllable was mentioned out loud, a kid would toss their hand on the hand beside them. When it was repeated for a certain amount of times, it would abruptly stop, and the one at the end of the line would have to be punished by the one who tossed their hand if they didn't dodge the toss. It was somewhat interesting.
Of course, Xander, with his adult intelligence, felt somewhat out of tune with the kids. He was unable to feel that innocent joy. That joy where the world was filled with nothing but playing, parents and studying.
So after playing a couple of times, he excused himself.
Even if he was controlled by emotions due to the body's immature prefrontal cortex sometimes, he was essentially still an adult stuffed into the body of an infant.
Even if he wanted to pretend to be a kid, his adult intelligence would only find it disgusting. You, a grown man, were acting like some kids. What a piece of tra—
Watching the kids that 'followed' him playing amongst themselves, and the kids who did not see his epic showdown earlier innocently playing in the recreational amenities, Xander felt like an adult reminiscing about his childhood.
Although he was indeed still in his childhood phase, the adult intelligence made the experience quite complicated.
As he planted the bloody spear-shaped branch on the ground, lost in his thought, a unique breeze wafted through his nostrils, and a familiar dark-gray silhouette appeared abruptly beside him.
It was the little girl with a smudgy black mark on her face, stiffly yet stubbornly sitting beside him.
Xander lowered his head, somewhat surprised that he had to adjust his gaze in a low angle, since he was already so little, and said in greeting, "Metlhy, right?"
"Y-Ywas!" The girl answered abruptly and awkwardly. Realizing her silliness, her little face turned red in an instant. With her unblemished soft skin, it was very conspicuous.
Taking a deep breath, Metlhy, with a face full of determination, bravely continued, attempting to brush off her embarrassment.
"U-Uh, I t-thank yuuh— EEP!"
...
"Wuwu..."
Metlhy: (っ╥﹏╥ς)
Xander: („• ֊ •„)
Xander remained silent. He tightened his grip on the branch she gave him, his lips pursed, tightly locked.
Can't laugh. I really can't laugh.
If he laughs, the girl would not be able to talk to others again until she receives proper treatment from a psychiatrist. Wouldn't that be too cruel for a little girl like her?
It would be a big sin!
...
Metlhy's eyes became vacant.
It'll be better if everything goes to hell. Why hasn't the world been destroyed yet? Metlhy thought in despair.
In the end, Metlhy could only hide her head with her doll. She had already gathered her courage earlier, only to blow it all up spectacularly. It was so embarrassing she wanted to move to another solar system.
No! Not enough! She wanted to move to another universe!
"I am actually curious. Your features are very unique in this neighbourhood, very different from the kids here. Did you come from somewhere else and just moved here?" Xander decided to end the girl's misery and kindly asked.
Actually, not just her. He was also quite an anomaly here. His golden eyes stood out like a pair of stars, very conspicuous. Since they were inherited from his father, Xander suspected that it was his father who came from outside.
His mother also had some uncommon features, such as bright almond-coloured pupils and thick black hair. It was so dark that even when she was highlighted, her hair only reflected a bit of it, if not none.
However, since they didn't say anything, what else could he, a child, do?
Maybe he could ask later. Xander was also quite curious about their origin.
Metlhy nervously lowered her doll, revealing her big dark-purple eyes, tinted with embarrassment and shyness. However, as a proper child, ignoring someone else was not kind and respectful, especially since it was her savior who asked.
With a trembling breath, Metlhy closed her eyes, as if she was ready to mess up again, and replied hastily, "Y-Yes! My parents just moved in recently. I-I came from another continent!"
Xander widened his eyes. Another continent?
Just a reminder, Ressh Continent, 214th in size, was almost a million miles in diameter, which was exactly 1.609 million kilometers. And that was merely the 214th biggest continent in the world.
Yes, 'merely'.
Consequently, it could basically be inferred that someone who could travel continent to continent was not by any means an ordinary person. They had to have a carrier or a vessel that could cover at least a whole million miles of distance!
Apparently, in this world, it was common sense that ordinary people could never move out from their original continent unless they lived close to the shore that directly faced another continent or just happened to live in continents below rank 300th in size.
For some reason, starting from the 300th rank in size, the scale decreased drastically. The 300th continent was merely 50,000 miles in diameter. While it was more than three times the diameter of Planet Earth, here, it was very small when other continents were scaled directly by millions.
From rank 10th, it was scaled directly by hundreds of millions.
It was merely one of the many reasons why media and major corporates were dominated by ability users. An ordinary person was simply no different than ant in this world. It was not a metaphor, but an acknowledged truth.
Xander, shocked and flabbergasted inwardly, already had a foreboding about her origin.
He asked curiously, "So did you move here with a spaceship or something? A conventional plane wouldn't be able to cover up the distance between continents, couldn't they?"
Metlhy cutely tilted her head and answered in an airheaded manner, "Spaceships are for granduncles, grandaunts and grandpas. Me and my parents only use a small scout to move here."
A scout?
Xander paused, almost freezing. He, who likes to read anything at home, knew what Metlhy was referring to when she said 'a small scout'.
Simply, it was the plane of ability users. While ordinary people used planes as a means of transportation to reach far places, ability users used futuristic flying ships.
Arks, spaceships, interplanetary vehicles... They had long been manufactured and used by ability users. Those are things even Xander could only see in major news on TV.
And not every ability user has the right to own these flying vehicles. In analogy, owning a scout for an ability user is like owning a private jet for an ordinary person. So people who could own them are extraordinary even amongst ability users.
Immediately, his gaze towards Metlhy changed. This information, combined with the prior hypotheses regarding her excessive compatibility with Extraordinary Factors, gave grounded evidence regarding her origin.
Taking a deep breath, a year old Xander asked seriously, "Metlhy, from the books I read, those who had great compatibility with Extraordinary Factors from birth may harbour some prominent features, such as your... Dark mark. Does your condition correlate with the reason why you moved here?"
It was somewhat of a wild guess. Xander was purely just curious. After all, his parents had always been mysterious regarding this.
Heck, he doesn't even know the specific details of the power system of the ability users. He's very blank regarding this matter.
Metlhy, who heard Xander's question, widened her eyes in shock, staring at him as if she was looking at a genius, "H-How did you know, Brother Xander? Back at home, Mommy told me that due to my special condition, I had to move to Ressh Continent for a treatment."
Xander just rubbed his head, using a classic excuse he always used against adults who were shocked by his eloquence and intelligence, "Well, I read a lot of books."
"Books? How could the authors know about my condition? I didn't tell anyone about this!" Metlhy asked naively, her big dark-purple eyes naive and cute.
Metlhy: <(◕⩊◕)>
Xander's heart softened, somewhat feeling mushy by her cuteness. He was not bothered by her smudgy black mark at all. Instead, he found it somewhat charming, like a classic beauty mark everyone likes so much.
"Ehem, well, how should I put it. In books, there are texts, and these texts gave me knowledge. From the knowledge I received, I could understand your situation immediately," Xander tried to explain it in the way she could understand.
Although Xander later found out that kids in this world were very eloquent, their experience was still that of a kid. This development merely brought forward the essential skill of a human being: speech.
They were only eloquent. When it came to maturity, they were still no different than any other kids.
Metlhy's eyes sparkled, clapping her hands in excitement, "Oh! So books could do such a magical thing! So cool! I've decided, when I'm home, I'll definitely read all the books there!"
Xander smiled in a dotting manner, like a senior watching an excited junior, unaware of the suffering and the pain they will endure. He was only interested in reading because of his exceptional intelligence. The feeling of knowledge entering his head as if they were compelled to engrave themselves on his brain was simply the greatest pleasure known to man.
No wonder those geniuses could read books all day long.
"Yes, yes, reading book is good for you," Xander nodded earnestly.