Chapter 25: Unknown Energy Detected

The next morning, Summer finally made her way to the Zone 0 Headquarters.

Fortunately, it wasn’t too far from the hotel, so she decided to walk. Besides, this was her first time in Zone 0. It would be a waste if she didn’t look around a little.

Summer took her time as she walked, her eyes moving from one thing to another. Zone 0 was clearly different from the other zones she had seen so far.

The buildings were taller, the streets were cleaner, and advanced technology seemed to be everywhere, even the public screens looked expensive.

As expected of the safest and most important zone.

Still, Summer didn’t wander around for too long because she had something much more important to do today.

By the time she arrived at the Zone 0 Headquarters, Dr. Rinko was already expecting her.

Summer didn’t even have to sit around in the lobby and wait. The staff checked her name and immediately told her to head straight to Dr. Rinko’s room.

"Miss Summer Beaumont?" A woman greeted her with a warm smile from across the room.

"Yes, that’s me." Summer stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

Unlike the examination rooms she had seen at other headquarters, Dr. Rinko’s room was easily five times larger and judging by all the equipment around her, Summer had a feeling today’s examination wasn’t going to be simple.

"I’ve read the evaluation Dr. Jojo sent to my office, and I have to say, you truly fascinate me, Miss Beaumont," Dr. Rinko said, not bothering with any small talk.

She walked toward Summer, her sharp phoenix eyes studying her from head to toe.

For some reason, Summer suddenly felt less like a patient and more like a lab rat that had willingly walked into the laboratory and that was not exactly comforting.

"Even I surprised myself," Summer replied with a lie. She already knew exactly why her abilities were different, but there was no reason to tell anyone about that. "Dr. Rinko, is there really a possibility that my rank has increased?"

Instead of answering immediately, Dr. Rinko’s smile slowly grew wider. "It’s not impossible for someone’s rank to increase," she said. "But cases like that are extremely rare. That’s exactly why they’ve always fascinated me."

Summer stared at her for a moment.

Right. Definitely a scientist.

"Since I still don’t have a clear picture of what’s happening to you, I’d like to conduct a full evaluation today." Dr. Rinko spoke quickly as her fingers moved across her terminal.

A second later, Summer’s terminal chimed.

[Ding!]

[You have received a new document.]

"Please read and sign the medical consent form."

Summer opened the file but didn’t immediately sign it. Instead, she carefully read through every single line.

Being suspicious of government documents was practically a habit for her at this point. After all, Summer had spent enough time as the government’s puppet in her previous world to know one important rule: Never sign anything from the government without reading it first.

Fortunately, there was nothing suspicious hidden between the lines. No strange clause saying that her body would belong to the government. No agreement to become someone’s lab rat. No tiny sentence casually giving Dr. Rinko permission to cut her open for research.

Good.

Most of the document simply explained the tests she would undergo and asked for her consent before they were performed.

That, Summer could accept.

"Done," Summer said the moment she signed the document.

Dr. Rinko’s eyes immediately lit up.

"Let’s begin!" Her voice came out a little louder than necessary, making Summer stare at her for a second.

This woman really wasn’t trying to hide her excitement at all.

Somehow, Summer was starting to feel like signing that consent form had only made the whole lab-rat situation worse.

Fortunately, the evaluation itself sounded simple enough.

There were three main stages she had to go through. First, several machines would scan her body and measure her Guide abilities. After that came the physical test, where they would check her strength, speed, and other basic abilities.

And finally, they would test her mental strength.

Summer glanced at all the equipment around the room before slowly rolling up her sleeves.

Well, she had already come this far. Might as well find out just how far away from F-Rank she really was.

Not long after, Dr. Rinko led Summer toward the largest machine in the room. It looked like a glass capsule, with a seat in the middle and several screens surrounding it.

"Just sit inside," Dr. Rinko explained. "The machine will scan your body and measure the energy released by your Guide ability. You won’t feel anything."

Summer reluctantly stepped inside and sat down.

When the glass door closed in front of her, a soft blue light appeared above her head before slowly moving downward, scanning her entire body.

Numbers quickly appeared on the screens outside the machine. Summer couldn’t understand most of them from where she was sitting, but judging by how Dr. Rinko’s eyes were getting brighter by the second, there was probably something interesting there.

Beep!

[Scan Complete.]

Summer was about to stand when another message suddenly appeared.

[Analyzing Guide Energy...]

[Primary Energy Source Detected.]

[Analysis in progress...]

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The calm blue light inside the machine suddenly turned red.

Summer’s eyes widened in surprise. "What? What? What? What’s happening?"

On the other side, Dr. Rinko’s smile disappeared.

[ERROR.]

[Unknown Energy Source Detected.]

[Unable to Analyze.]

[ERROR.]

Dr. Rinko immediately stepped closer to the screen. "What is this?"

Her fingers quickly moved across the control panel.

"Did I break it?" Summer asked from inside the machine.

"No." Dr. Rinko frowned. "At least, I don’t think you did."

Dr. Rinko immediately restarted the scan, and the blue light moved over Summer’s body for the second time.

[Primary Energy Source Detected.]

[Unknown Energy Source Detected.]

[Attempting Analysis...]

[ERROR.]

The same warning appeared again. But this time, Dr. Rinko didn’t say anything. She simply stared at the screen.

Summer also stared at it, but unlike Dr. Rinko, she had a guess about what was happening.

Unknown energy source?

Her eyes slowly narrowed as one possibility filled her mind: her old ability.

To be honest, she wasn’t entirely sure whether her old ability had followed her soul into this new body. But from the moment she woke up, she could feel it somewhere deep inside her.

It felt faint, but it was there.

Unfortunately, her current body probably still wasn’t an ideal vessel for her old ability.

"Miss Beaumont," Dr. Rinko finally called out to her. "Your rank is unknown. We’ll need to run more tests."

Summer let out a small sigh. Of course they would.