Zenith Online: Rebirth of the Strongest Player

Kieran had posed the idea as a joke, and his tone in spite of his expression, suggested as such. Still, Altair avoided direct confrontation like a plague.

He backed away with arms raised and fingers splayed, declaring his surrender.

"No can do. Have you seen your build? I can't think of a single person willing to take a slap, punch, or blow of any kind from someone with the physique of a trained heavyweight boxer?"

Altair vehemently refused to approach, which also made Kieran give himself a good look at the lustrous chrome beam not too far away from them. It doubled as a mirror due to its sleek exterior, reflecting and highlighting the definition and condition of Kieran's physique.

Despite his recent lack of arduous physical training, his body adapted and grew as if he placed himself under a strict training regimen. 

A consequence Kieran immediately attributed to their states as Inhumans. Of course, their growth didn't follow a set pattern. But it wasn't arbitrary at all, either. Their Classes within Xenith served as a guideline for their evolution to follow… based on the gathered information and the congruency in some details.

Kieran stared at his reflection, noticing Lillian peering in his direction. However, when their gazes touched… she averted hers, returning her attention to her work.

He remembered Lillian had asked him a question after mustering the courage to do so. It likely took a lot of heart and resolve, considering her nature and how she was beholden to her work, which Kieran could appreciate. Doing something hard despite not knowing what the outcome may be was always worthy of respect… provided said situation was positive and nothing negative. 

After all, Kieran knew the world could be a cold and dark place. Nothing about it was perfect. 

'Make the best with what you've got, I suppose.'

Kieran thought some other things to himself, and then he approached Dahlia, who remained asleep. However, Kieran couldn't tell if it was natural sleep or medically induced by Lillian. 

Of course, the answer was but a question away.

"How is she doing?"

Before answering, Lillian made a few gestures, swiping reports out of the way to bring up relevant information.

"Her overall condition is stable, but…"

Kieran looked over once Lillian had paused for too long. She wore an uneasy expression that looked both distraught and stumped. It was a look of frustration one wore when the answer couldn't be gleaned.

"What is it?"

"Well, because of her delicate situation, I can't be so irresponsible as to test potential remedies on her body directly, so I'm using her blood samples to try and arrive at an answer, and it's just not working. Her symptoms can't be solved by mundane medicine."

"…Mundane medicine." Kieran mulled over the comment before continuing, "And what about X-hancers? Are they a solution?"

"Solution? The total opposite — a death sentence."

That grim revelation didn't bode well with Kieran. X-hancers were the epitome of modern medicine, capable of reverting an illness like H-COS, which was seen as a death sentence in itself. To say X-hancers transcended medicine in all shapes and forms wasn't a stretch. 

"I assumed you've already tested it?"

Lillian nodded. "Tried and true. You must remember… X-hancers are already incredibly unsafe for normal, healthy humans to use. If you can't metabolize it… you're doomed."

Kieran remembered Lillian giving him a somewhat similar disclaimer in the beginning. The high mortality rate of the serum was perhaps a reason it wasn't disclosed to the public, but Kieran felt giving those in control the benefit of the doubt was misplaced. Not after something like Zenith Online was purposely created.

Which, to this day, Kieran still understood nothing about. 

What technology was embedded in the Virtual Gear that allowed their mind… or maybe even something much deeper to transcend the boundaries of reality and travel somewhere else?

As he thought about what would come of Dahlia and more about the X-hancers, Lillian resumed speaking.

"Kieran, come here and look at this."

Interested and intrigued by Lillian's beckon, Kieran went. Before him were three screens. In the first image, there was a large cluster of resilient cells, deep-red in color, more so than blood should ever be. In the second image, there were blue-gray cells shrouded in a dark haze. On the last screen were comparatively sparse cells with some minor decay present.

"In order, this is you, Altair, and finally, Dahlia's cells. This isn't from blood but rather complete cellular imagery. Look at the moments before your abilities manifested."

The images turned into a video, and Kieran watched intently as the abrupt changes occurred. It happened staggeringly fast, and it took Lillian slowing it down for him to grasp what she was telling him to focus on.

"Do you see it?" Lillian asked.

"I do," Kieran nodded.

Lillian crossed her arms beneath her bust, sighing softly. 

"I think I've figured out what EXP is."

Kieran gave an affirmative grunt, indicating he was all in.

"I think it's a poison. And I think even now… no one has a name or explanation for it. In this line of work, when things are unknown, we give them one of two identities: X or Y. As for E, I believe it may stand for Element. That would make EXP: Element-X Poisoning."

"Element-X?"

Kieran didn't believe this had to do with their periodic table of elements. 

The Element-X in question was either something entirely new, utterly ancient, or bafflingly abstruse. The minds of today were too great not to understand the elements on Earth unless they had accidentally created an abomination that couldn't naturally appear.

In that case, it deserved the name Element-X.

"You hold it, Altair holds it. It is what combusts in your cells before the energy generated can be extracted. I'll call it 'Element-X,' but I don't know if it's a fitting term. What if it isn't an element at all?"

Kieran shrugged. 

The feeling was alien to him. 

When activating his power, he had less than a second until he started feeling pain. Such a short window was not enough for him to glean the true nature of Element-X. But he also thought he wouldn't need any time at all to sense a presence if it was a component he was familiar with.

However, because Earth lacked any form of Mana, he ruled that out immediately. The missing vital component was a prominent factor in Kieran's inattention to the idea, but the fact Dahlia neither stepped foot in Zenith Online nor consumed an X-hancer contributed immensely, too. 

'If not Xenith… then it has to be an effect of something drastic. Like whatever the source of X-hancers truly is. Or… maybe humans are being poisoned on purpose? Tested?'

Kieran's mind raced as he frequently glanced back at Dahlia with concern-laden eyes. His suspicions had been right all along. Only his impression was far too closed-minded for the situation.

'EXP is on the rise.'

Kieran laughed to himself, regarding Lillian as a genius. Her critical eye and skeptical mind made her perfect for combing through information with a fine-tooth comb to locate deceptions or willful misinformation.

The problem had been somewhat understood, but the solution to it was something they simply couldn't grasp.

Suddenly, Lillian called out to Kieran.

"Hey, and hear me out. It might sound a little crazy given my horrific experiences with this before, but what if we… reverse engineer X-hancers?"