Now that he knew how to use the abilities, the next few days were Leon's personal superpower showcase.
However, being restricted to testing only one basic ability per day really pissed him off. He had no idea how this so-called "mental fortitude" was calculated. Fortunately, on the third day of the new semester, the watch's halo finally upgraded from red to orange. This meant he could now use his superpowers three times a day. While three still wasn't a lot, it sure beat one.
"No. 108 is Telepathy, cost: one passionate kiss.
No. 107 is Echolocation, cost: drink a glass of water.
No. 106 is Superhuman Endurance, cost: thirty seconds of intense pain afterward.
No. 105 is Superhuman Reflexes, no cost;
No. 104..."
Leon leaned against his headboard, logging the known abilities one by one into a small pocket notebook. He currently had nine usable abilities. To his immense disappointment, other than Telepathy and a couple of others, the rest were incredibly mundane.
None of the ridiculously badass, world-ending powers he'd seen in movies had appeared. Sure enough, the three-digit abilities truly lived up to their "Basic" classification.
He couldn't help but wonder just how incredible the single-digit Ultimate abilities were. Leon chuckled to himself. Due to the daily limits on ability exploration, he had already tried activating a few of the top-tier powers. But after failing several times and getting nothing but errors, he'd lost the motivation to keep trying.
"I've mapped out all the three-digit ones. I think I still have one exploration attempt left for today." Leon thought about it. Might as well try to figure out the Ultimate abilities. Don't blame Leon for being a little impatient; Ultimate abilities were obviously way more tempting than Basic ones. If given a choice, who wouldn't pick the overpowered option?
Lina had warned him that abilities numbered 50 and above had over a 50% chance of being lost in transit. The higher the tier, the higher the probability. This was exactly why Leon had started verifying from the Basic tier upward. Of course, there was always a slim chance of getting lucky with the Advanced powers. Out of fifty, he was bound to luck out on a few.
But the actual RNG had left Leon speechless. At the very least, numbers 1 through 8 had all returned a "no data record" error.
Number 9 was his last shot at a single-digit Ultimate ability.
Leon squeezed his eyes shut and prayed fervently: Jesus, Buddha, Superman, Stan Lee, Brandon Sanderson, Gabe Newell... please, all you gods of fiction and reality, let Number 9 be there.
Brimming with a tiny sliver of hope, Leon nervously pressed the button.
A few seconds later, that sickly sweet voice echoed in his mind.
"Error. No data record found for SL Number 9..." It was a voice that had driven Leon to the brink of madness more than once.
Damn it, not even the last Ultimate power is here.
Leon cursed under his breath. Frustrated and annoyed, he impulsively used his final exploration attempt of the day and pressed Number 10.
Leon had absolutely zero expectations. But you know what they say: the moment you stop caring about something, it drops right into your lap.
"Loading data for SL Number 10. Ability Code: Data Manipulation successfully applied..."
Leon froze. Number 10? Wasn't that basically toeing the line of an Ultimate ability?
He was ecstatic. Finally, a super-tier ability! He got a little too visibly excited, drawing weird looks from his roommates, so Leon laughed it off and bolted to the communal bathroom.
Sitting on the toilet, Leon started pondering the utility of this power.
Data Manipulation?
He didn't think he'd ever heard of that one in comic books. After a moment of thought, he decided to just call Lina and ask.
"Are you inquiring about Supernatural Law Number 10, Data Manipulation?" Lina's voice carried a hint of genuine surprise.
Hearing that reaction, Leon figured it had to be pretty damn good. He replied smugly, "Yep. What does it do?"
"Oh..." Lina thought for a second, then smiled. "Data Manipulation allows you to manipulate any computer data through sheer willpower."
"You mean...?" As a CS major, Leon felt a breath-stealing thrill pierce his heart.
"Correct. Any mental command you issue to computers or data-driven devices will be executed flawlessly," Lina confirmed his suspicions. "While this ability might not sound as physically destructive as other Advanced powers, it ranks at Number 10 purely because its practical utility is unfathomably powerful. Given your major, Mr. Clark, I'm sure you understand its potential better than anyone."
Holy shit, that's badass. Unfathomably powerful was an understatement; this was practically world domination! Ever since Oakhaven unveiled the "Turing" supercomputer, the framework for a fully digitized society had rapidly taken shape. With Data Manipulation, didn't that mean he was effectively the god of the internet?
"This device is fully compatible with your new ability. You may use the Aegis-13 Wristwatch's built-in computer to test it out. However, a word of caution: beware of the cyber police," Lina giggled.
Leon hung up and tapped a few buttons on the watch according to Lina's instructions.
This Upper Realm tech was incredibly overpowered. After punching in a short sequence, a 3D holographic screen—the kind you only see in sci-fi blockbusters—projected right into the air in front of him.
Leon thought about it, then navigated straight to the Oakhaven Department of Defense website. He was about to do something he had only ever dreamed of: hack into the Oakhaven DOD!
"Generate ultimate administrator privileges," Leon commanded mentally. If anyone had been in the stall with him, they would have been terrified. Streams of data cascaded rapidly across the boy's pupils like a flowing river.
Privileges granted. Successfully accessed the mainframe backend!
The computer chimed softly in his mind.
Leon shook his head. That was way too easy. He had bypassed systems that top-tier hackers would spend their entire lives trying to crack with a single thought.
This ability was a literal cheat code.
Remembering that he was the sole owner of this cheat, Leon felt a deep sense of satisfaction.
The holographic screen displayed a massive, swirling double-helix of digital code—mountains of classified intelligence the Oakhaven DOD kept hidden from the world.
Leon tapped on a file at random.
A document titled Top Secret Simulation: The Future of Cyber Warfare popped up. The wall of encrypted Oakhaven military jargon instantly gave him a headache. "Translate the text into plain readable text."
A second later, the computer automatically converted the alphabet soup into his native language.
Damn, that's satisfying. Leon grinned. However, the document was over a hundred pages long, and just looking at the scroll bar made his eyes glaze over. Shaking his head, Leon activated his second ability of the day: SL Number 104, Photographic Memory.
With this ability, Leon was like a fish in water. He began wildly skimming through the DOD's classified archives.
Classified: 1035th Military Surveillance of Veridia, Largest Democratic War Game in the Eastern Hemisphere, Southern Ocean War Doctrine...
Seeing the titles made Leon curse internally: Fuck, the brass in Oakhaven spend every waking hour plotting how to screw Veridia over.
What baffled Leon was that while there was a ton of top-secret political material, the practical value was pretty low. He really just wanted to see the R&D progress on the Turing supercomputer and snag some classified technical specs.
Instead, he was met with a dizzying array of shameless, targeted operations against Veridia. God only knew what they were doing with their defense budget.
Once he had his fill of snooping, Leon didn't forget to issue a command to wipe his digital footprints. With Data Manipulation, the network's logs automatically reverted to their exact state prior to his intrusion, making it nearly impossible for anyone to realize they had been hacked.