BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

Emily was highly intrigued by Amber's new friend. She didn't know why she felt that way. It was like a sort of primal instinct that she couldn't control. Still, she was timid, and it wasn't easy for her to gather the courage. At the same time, she was too embarrassed to ask Amber to introduce them.

The party went on, but after an hour, Emily was still stuck with Scarlet, the ass-kisser. The young woman couldn't stop talking; she spent most of the time bootlicking Emily and saying how pretty she was, how lucky her father was that she was born, and so on. Emily would have strangled Scarlet if she could, but unfortunately, she had an appearance to maintain.

Clearly, Scarlet didn't really care about Emily. Instead, she wanted her influence and naively thought that if she could become her friend, she could manipulate her into asking for a favor from her father. Unfortunately, despite every attempt, Emily was like a stone wall. Scarlet knew that Emily didn't like her very much, but she didn't care; no one could say no to her. Not even the stone family.

The rest of the evening went on quickly, but people kept coming, and the party didn't seem close to stopping soon. There were many more people than when the four students arrived. Many important government members, along with other wealthy families and business leaders, had been invited. Everyone also seemed very excited because the guest list included several celebrities.

Though Emily was growing restless, something inside the young man Erik Romano deeply attracted her and she was itching to talk to him. She didn't know what this feeling was, and it was the first time she felt like this, but her wish to meet the young man face to face grew stronger as time passed.

Of course, when she was at this party, many boys tried to approach her. Some piss-drunk guys even dared to make vulgar comments about her, specifically her ample breast. In contrast, some others tried to be as gentlemanly as possible. But Emily refused everyone.

Though, as the young woman grew impatient, she decided to make her move, and having no one to ask, she turned to scarlet and asked, "Hey, Scarlet, who is that guy that Amber brought with him?"

"Who, Floyd Valdez or Erik Romano?" Scarlet asked, visibly surprised. It was the first time Emily looked interested in someone, and it was shocking since this someone was a male her own age.

"The second one," Emily said. Scarlet, being the daughter of New Alexandria's mayor, naturally knew who the young man was.

"Ah... that's the awakener!" Scarlet replied. "Didn't your father talk about him?"

"An awakener? Really? No, my father told me nothing about him..."

"Yes, he is the second awakener our nation ever had, but apparently, he didn't get a very strong power. Besides, his initial one was even more useless..." Scarlet said.

"What is his first power," Emily asked.

"Apparently, he can make the vegetation around him grow faster, or so I heard... While his second power allows him to sharpen whatever he wants... Not very useless, but not very useful too..."

"But he qualified to join the Red Palace, am I right? Caiden said it himself..." Emily said.

"Indeed, but despite being an awakener, many people expect him to not have a bright future. Besides, I doubt Becker will leave him alone. Being an awakener, he is bound to join the military and stay there for a long time. He is a weapon, or this is what my father says; I don't really care to be honest."

Emily wasn't very knowledgeable about politics since she preferred to spend her free time playing video games. Besides, most of her time was divided between training her neural links and practicing martial arts.

Not many people knew this, but even she, the stone princess, had to train since, in a world full of monsters, individual prowess was necessary for any person to survive. His father was very clear about this. He wanted her daughter to be completely independent and ready if something bad happened inside the city.

Hearing Scarlet's words, Emily's curiosity arose. Her heart was beating wildly due to the excitement, and after having managed to calm down a little, she decided to talk to the young man.

***

(ERIK'S POV)

Erik was currently talking to Minister Valdez, Floyd's father. Never in his life, the young man would have imagined talking to such an important person.

He didn't even know that Floyd was his son and simply thought that the two shared the same surname, a mere coincidence.

He wasn't the only one he talked to; he also had the pleasure of meeting Gwen's mother. Besides, many people wanted to know the rumored awakener and took their chances to be introduced to the young man.

Though the young man lacked the natural charisma that a leader should have, and many were left disappointed since Erik looked like an average teenager and was also rather shy. There wasn't anything special about him, at least based on appearance.

After having had a quite funny conversation with Floyd's father, Erik decided to sit on a chair a drink fruit juice. Unfortunately, he was alone since Floyd, Amber, and Gwen were stopped by many people and complimented non-stop. That was understandable; they were the sons and daughters of important people, and they were born in that environment, while he was just a nobody who even faked having awakened. Though, if people learned his secret, many of the people present would beg him to share it with them.

At that moment, Erik saw a young woman walk toward him. He didn't know who she was, but he could confidently say that she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life. Much more beautiful than Amber by many degrees.

She was gorgeous. As she walked, her long black hair fluttered gently to the wind and seemed in itself a source of light due to how shiny they were.

Every move she made oozed elegance, gracefulness, beauty, and charm. Looking at her walk was like watching a ballet; the way in which every step seemed to flow into another with perfect naturalness conveyed an impression of utter poise that left one breathless at its perfection.

Her skin was flawless, like a polished gem, and looked otherworldly. Her lips were red and plump with a slight tint of scarlet due to her lipstick. Her big beady eyes were the color of glistening emeralds, and her body was toned, tight and well-proportionate.

She wore a red silk dress embellished with golden thread, masterfully embroidered to represent butterflies and flowers. The skirt was short enough to reveal her thighs, which were smooth and silky, though covered with a layer of soft, white socks.

"Hi," the beauty said. Despite being mesmerized by the young woman, Erik found enough courage to reply to her shyly, "Hi..." he said.

"My name is Emily; you should be Erik, am I right?"

"You are right..." the boy answered.

"Nice to meet you, Erik," Emily said, giving him a warm smile. "I heard about you from a friend of mine. Is it true that you are an awakener?" the young woman asked. Erik didn't know this, but she mustered all her courage to talk to him and to be honest, he was doing the same.

Erik couldn't help smiling, but then realizing that he was still sitting in a chair, he stood up, hoping that the young girl didn't take any offense.

"Indeed I am..." he said while looking at his feet. It was at that moment that Amber came.

"Emily!"

"Amber!"

The young woman came just at the right moment to ruin the two's meeting. She didn't know it, but both Emily and Erik were extremely pissed by her at that moment.

"Congratulation on having won a spot inside the Red Palace!" Emily said.

"Thank you! When was the last time we met? Two months ago?" Amber asked.

"More or less, yes, you trained all day and didn't have the time to visit your friend," Emily said.

"Sorry about that! I had to prepare!"

The conversation went on, Erik tried to be polite to make a good impression with the young woman, but as Amber started talking about dresses, celebrities and the likes, he got extremely bored and left the two to their chat. The young man didn't know this side of his friend, as she was an extremely focused person and trained most of her time.

Once Erik left, though, Emily was extremely pissed. She tried to quit the conversation with Amber, but she was relentless! The amount of bullshit she spouted during this 20 minutes meeting was unbelievable, and Emily cursed internally at her friend for having interrupted her and Erik.