Limitless by John Gold (best e reader for android txt) 📕

Reiji continues without waiting for a response.

“When I turned twenty, they sent me to a military school. I matched up for everything they were looking for, and my parents were only too glad to ship me off. I was a liability to them and the other kids in the family. But even in the army, they were afraid of me. They called me Reiji, too, which means ‘psycho.’ Only our platoon leader was unafraid of me. He was quite the guy. When I asked him why he wasn’t afraid of me, he said that he knew I wouldn’t do him any harm until I absolutely had to. And there’s only one ‘have to’ in the army: your orders. He made sure the other privates left me alone, so I had four years of school and six years on my contract before joining Project Chrysalis. I don’t have anywhere else to go. The army was my family, but they gave up on me when I lost both legs and my left arm. My parents certainly weren’t going to hear of having a thirty-year-old freeloader. You probably know yourself about the underground clinics with refurbished med capsules for long-term immersion, and Project Chrysalis is the best world I’m going to get.”

I don’t feel any sympathy as I hear his touching story. I learned back at the orphanage never to trust anyone, and the Gray Lands practically turned me into a paranoiac. But one good turn deserves another. Reiji is the only person who knows about the secretive Aurin, and he’s living proof that the guy exists.

“Reiji, give me the best protection you’ve got, and get ready to curb your emotions. I want to show you something.”

Rage, rage, rage, more hatred for people. I’ll kill you all, bury you in your own blood!

Fourth-order resonance activated

As soon as the world descends into shades of red, Reiji bursts into a smile and then passes out.

Fourth-order resonance deactivated

Yet another weakness: my new friend loses consciousness when he’s overwhelmed by feelings he’s never experienced before.

I learned how to activate the resonance when I was still lying on the cube. It occurred to me that the portal could lead to a fourth-order world—the source of the energy it emits. I’m able to use the effect it has on me much farther away from it now. My body and mind have also changed, and with that has come an intuitive confidence that a resonance won’t kill me immediately. I’m able to turn it on now, if only for three minutes. Leaving it on any longer than that leaves me with a message about the critical state of my central nervous system. If I don’t turn it off in time, I wake up in the clinic, and not in my med capsule. It’s just a shame that I have to activate it using such a revolting method, switching all my streams of consciousness over to hatred for human beings. I’m sure a simpler way will come with practice.

My new friend and I fight constantly. He’s a simple guy, and I can see the logic in the conclusions he draws—he won’t betray me until it’s absolutely necessary. I even give him money so he can regenerate his body. That boosts the limit of our trust, and he’ll tell me first if someone else tries to buy him or if he starts to have doubts. His logic is both intricate and simple.

A month of continuous fighting goes by. In that time, he isn’t able to kill me once, and I get the experience of battling a unique opponent. He even catches a meteor and has it explode in his arms. All the clothes he’s wearing burn away, revealing his cut figure, though I hit him with a rainbow sunset the second after that. He’s a monster! Standing on the molten remains of the mountain, he’s holding an enormous bolder. It doesn’t explode, so it’s perfect for him to train with. His goal is to feel strength beyond his imagination. I demonstrate power he can’t cope with, pushing him beyond the limits of his mind. I’m not sure how much each rainbow sunset boulder weighs, but even Reiji’s strength isn’t enough to hang onto something created with divine strength to the tune of 30 million.

“I can’t contain the joy! It’s incredible! Every time! Every damn time, you just hit harder and harder. That last stone sphere was so…so…wonderful!”

“Reiji, would you like to sense how strong all the gamut of emotions can be? Believe me, you’re far from the emotionless animal you think you are. You do feel them, just weakly. But there’s a place in Project Chrysalis where you can actually immerse yourself in all the emotions. The point of the trial is to learn how to control them and turn them off, though dying just once would mean losing your unique character.”

“Lead the way…”

I have no idea what Reiji could be thinking. How could you volunteer for a trip to the Gray Lands? The chance to experience emotions is much more important to him than his character and all the achievements in the world, and talking with him makes me realize that I care more about my digital parents than all the money I’ve earned, my ships, and my streams of consciousness. Happiness for me is my family and their well-being. I’ve stopped by Nela’s several times over the past two years with presents, and I chat with Rosie even if I can’t stay for more than an hour.

“Sagie, when will you come back? Kinai from the street over doesn’t believe that I have a brother. He says I made you up.”

“Well, as you can see, here I am. Do I look like a dream or an illusion a mage cooked up? Nope. Okay, Rosie, I have to run. Father and mama will be coming back soon, and then, I’ll take you somewhere safe.”

I hear her calling after me as I’m leaving.

“Sagie! Sagie!”

“Yeah, Rosie?”

“When will you be back?”

“Really soon. Just wait a